Til The End

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`Til The End

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Despite the increasing chaos of the outside world, life at Hogwarts was more or less the same as ever. Cho´s life was still fairly routine, going through Advanced classes and Quidditch and Head Girl duties with a set face. It was only at nighttimes, when she was writing to Roger, that she would allow the worries to show.

Roger´s letters, though honest, were still somewhat diluted retellings of what was going on out there in the real world. Although they were a more reliable source of information than the now blatantly hush-hush reportings of the Daily Prophet, Cho knew that he pruned the worst of everything from his correspondence with her, both to try to prevent her from undue distress, and to protect the both of them. Too much information could be dangerous; as a Ravenclaw, this she knew all too well.

From his letters, it seemed that the mysterious informant that he and the other Aurors were getting their information from was quite competent. Due to the reports of "Insider", the Aurors had been able to prevent the murders of several families of Muggleborn witches and wizards, among them those of current students Dean Thomas, Una Markham, Hermione Granger and Justin Finch-Fletchley, and alumna Penelope Clearwater. However, the fact remained that the Death Eaters were becoming more and more audacious, and several times, he and others would have to salvage, heal and memory-charm the unfortunate ones. Cho, after reading about a particularly gruesome incident in which an elderly Muggle woman had been within inches of being force-fed a poisonous draught of bitter almonds for sport before the Death Eater rally had been broken up by Aurors, wished fervently that something... anything... would happen as a distraction. Something that would occupy her mind... and hopefully something humorous so that she could tell it to Roger, and perhaps, just perhaps, induce a smile on his face.

Perhaps those with veela blood could read minds and desires, for a distraction of exactly that type would happen sooner than she thought.

* * *

One day about a week before the Quidditch Final between Ravenclaw and Slytherin was to take place, Gabrielle Delacour stomped over to the Ravenclaw table in high dudgeon. Several students edged back; despite her small size and very young age, Gabrielle was not a quarter-veela for nothing, and, with the livid wrath blazing in her eyes, she looked every bit a dangerous force to be reckoned with.

Cho, concerned, walked over to the first-year girl, and bravely laid a hand on her shoulder. "Are you all right, Gabrielle? What happened, did someone pick on you?"

"Oui!" Gabrielle raged. "Ze `ateful, `aughty..." she hissed something very irate-sounding in French.

Cho patted her shoulder and said in a soothing voice, "There, there. Tell me who it is, and what he or she did. I´m Head Girl, you know. I can make them have a detention with Filch."

This did nothing to cheer up the younger girl. "No, zat won´t `elp any. It is not a student."

"Then, who is it?"

"Ze professor zat is popularly known as ze overgrown bat...´e is jealous zat my seester `as ze Defense post, and zerefore, decided to take it out on me today. Quel merde! It is not like I am responsible for ze fact zat `e can´t get ze job `e wants! Besides, `e `ad no right to call Fleur and myself flashy bits of robe wis no brains `oo only managed to succeed in anysing because we entranced ze ones around us! Maudit batârd! Just because I added `alf an ounce extra of crushed cattail to ze potion today... it didn´t even `ave any adverse effects! Zat stupid Slyzerin shrew, Peony Parkinson, `er potion blew up and splattered all over ze floor, and `e said nosing!" Suddenly, Gabrielle´s eyes took on a diabolical gleam, "´E will pay..."

Cho´s eyes widened in alarm, "Now, Gabrielle, don´t do anything that your brothers-in-law Fred and George might do..."

Gabrielle smiled adorably, "Oh, don´t worry... of course I won´t. I am just going to prove to Professor Snape zat I can brew a flawless potion." Saying so, the little blonde girl turned to her lunch, looking every bit like a little angel. Cho sighed to herself.

"Why do I have a really, really bad feeling about this?"

* * *

Nothing unusual happened to either Gabrielle or Professor Snape for the next few days, and Cho calmed down somewhat. She noticed a besotted Wallace Carstairs begging Professor Sprout for a red rose from the hothouse for Gabrielle, but chalked it up to the second-year Ravenclaw boy´s infatuation with the pretty quarter-veela child. The Ravenclaw/Slytherin Quidditch Final loomed up ahead, and Cho was more concerned about that than about the behavior of several love-struck younger boys. Although, to be sure, seeing a usually-surly but now similarly smitten Slytherin second-year by the name of Morris Fenton handing the small blonde girl a small vial of what looked suspiciously like pigeon´s blood filched from Snape´s private stores caused her to be slightly worried.

However, when Professor Snape showed up seemingly quite healthy and normal on the day of the Quidditch game, sitting with the Slytherin supporters and wearing green like the rest of them, holding a cup of what looked like coffee, she left her worries and went to have a last word with her team.

After she had made sure that everyone was clear on the planned tactics and that Una had indeed gotten the Hawkshead Attacking Formation down pat, Cho landed in the middle of the field to shake hands with Draco Malfoy. This year, now that Lee Jordan had left, the commentary was made by a Hufflepuff third year by the name of Owen Caulfield, who was far more subdued than his predecessor. Professor McGonagall, who had seemingly had enough of Lee´s antics, had combed through the lists of students until lighting upon the mild-mannered Owen. He was fairly good, as far as commentators went, with a good knowledge of Quidditch terminology and so on, although far less interesting than Lee had been.

Soon, the game began, and Cho was quite gratified to see Una capture the Quaffle immediately, and zoom off towards the Slytherin goal posts with the red ball in tow. Usually, it was the Seeker who was the smallest player on a team, but here, Una used her tiny size to great advantage, as she swerved gracefully and cleanly around the Slytherin players to reach the goals. Anthony Weston, crouched in front of the center hoop, watched her approach, a challenge clearly seen within his narrowed blue eyes. Una matched his glare with one of her own, and shifted from side to side on her broomstick, as if uncertain which goal to fire the Quaffle in. Just as it seemed that Malcolm Baddock, the new Slytherin Chaser, might grab the Quaffle from her hands, she fired, and scored. The Ravenclaw supporters cheered, and Anthony scowled darkly at Una, who stuck her tongue out at him before whizzing off again.

However, despite that first goal, it was quite apparent that the new Slytherin Keeper would be far harder to bypass than Nott had been. Cho speculated that Anthony must have done quite a lot of flying in his youth, for his skills were quite remarkable for someone so young. About two hours into the game, the score stood at 90/70, in favor of Slytherin, when all of the sudden, Owen´s commentary was cut off abruptly in mid-sentence, and everyone, startled, looked over abruptly towards the commentator stand.

The Hufflepuff third year looked petrified, as Professor Snape, a rather peculiar look upon his face, grabbed the magical megaphone from his hands, and put it up to his mouth. And all of the sudden, he bellowed out, in a voice that was very loud and very different from his usual lethally soft hiss, a Shakespearean sonnet, of all things!

The forward violet thus did I chide,

Sweet thief, whence didst thou steal thy sweet that smells,

If not from my love´s breath? The purple pride

Which on thy soft cheek for complexion dwells,

In my love´s veins thou hast too grossly dyed.

The lily I condemned for thy hand;

And buds of marjoram had stol´n thy hair.

The roses fearfully on thorns did stand

One blushing shame, another white despair;

A third, nor red nor white, had stol´n of both,

And to his robbery had annext thy breath;

But, for his theft, in pride of all his growth

A vengeful canker eat him up to death.

More flowers I noted, yet I none could see

But sweet or color it had stol´n from thee.

As this most extraordinary pronouncement was being made, the potions master was walking towards the Quidditch pitch, running down anyone who was standing in his path. By the time he was finished with the poem, he was standing in front of a bewildered but wildly amused Madam Hooch, the magical megaphone still in hand.

"Imogene Hooch, you are a goddess of beauty, love and all that is good on this forlorn planet! Say that you love me, give me some hope that you return a measure of the adoration that I bear towards you!"

Hooch covered her ears from the strident, magnified voice coming from the megaphone. The Slytherin players, up in the air, blushed twenty different shades of crimson in abject mortification as the game came to a dead standstill. The other staff members seemed to be torn between shock, mortification and guilty amusement. Dumbledore quietly took out his wand, and cast a muting charm upon Snape, before summoning the magical megaphone and handing it back to a red-faced Owen Caulfield, who was about to choke from suppressed laughter.

And at that moment, Cho Chang chanced to look downward, and saw a glimmer of gold close to the ground by where Snape, who had snapped out of his little trance and very bewildered as to what he was doing there in front of Madam Hooch, who was practically rolling on the ground with mirth, and also why he had no voice to ask what had happened, was standing. Pushing forward, she dove for the Snitch. Draco Malfoy, still holding his head in his hands at the highly humiliating situation that his Head of House had somehow gotten himself into, did not see the Snitch nor the rival Seeker in hot pursuit of it until Cho was about halfway there. And then, despite his best efforts, Cho was too far ahead to catch up with. Ravenclaw won 220/90, and the game ended in an uproar.

Cho, doing a victory lap around the pitch, still giggling over the highly unorthodox but highly entertaining interruption in the middle of the game, chanced to fly by the Gryffindor stands, and saw the angelically smiling Gabrielle waving at her as she sat in Harry Potter´s lap. The Gryffindor Seeker, Ginny and Ron were all convulsing with laughter, and even Hermione was biting her lip in an effort not to laugh. And all through it, Gabrielle, the lone Ravenclaw amongst her Gryffindor friends, smiled beatifically to herself. Her words about showing Snape that she could brew a flawless potion played themselves over again in Cho´s head.

"Oh dear..."

* * *

The next few days, understandably, Professor Snape was in so foul a mood that no one, even the Slytherins, dared to put one toe out of line in his classes. Hermione was late to the next Prefect meeting.

"Snape forced Harry, Ron and I to drink Veritaserum to see if we were the ones responsible somehow for that showing at the Quidditch game. Of course, we were not, but Ron happened to say `No, I didn´t do it, and I don´t know who did it, but serves you right for being such a biased, greasy git´." The sixth year Prefect sighed, and everyone else laughed, "Honestly..."

However, life went on, and Cho continued in the cycle of classes, preparing for N.E.W.T.s, Prefect duties, her correspondence with Roger and Charisse, and her Animagus project. The last took up quite a chunk of her evenings, but she was so... so very close. The meditation required to make the initial transformation was taxing, but she kept at it, hoping that perhaps soon, she would be able to master it.

Finally, one night an hour after dinner, she felt the onset of change, a rush of heat, as she sat alone in her Head Girl quarters. Sweat beaded her brow, and a surge of power rushed through her limbs. The room started to swirl... Cho gritted her teeth. Something was happening... something dizzying... Finally, the spinning stopped, and Cho´s eyes snapped open. Her vision... it was... different. Sharper. She could see the room and all it contained in sharp relief despite the darkness. She glanced down, and saw, instead of her hands, two dainty black paws. She sprang forward, on all fours, until she reached her dresser, and somehow, leapt nimbly onto the top to gaze into the mirror. A small, furry cat´s face with a pair of dark but fiery eyes gazed back at her. She had succeeded! At long last! Exultant, she bounded down from the top of the dresser, and transformed back to her human form mid-bound.

"In the words of Ron Weasley, this is bloody brilliant!"

Samuel McKinnon, when he got back to the Head Boy/Head Girl quarters from Quidditch practice, did not see any sign of Cho Chang anywhere. Her room was empty, although her things were all still there. Shrugging, he assumed that she was off on Prefect rounds, and shut the door of his room, pulling out his homework.

"Too bad Cho´s not here, this Transfiguration is bloody impossible."

* * *

Cho was, in fact, not doing any Prefect duties of any sort. A small black cat was scampering gaily down the halls of Hogwarts, springing swiftly from stairwell to statuary, basking in her newfound power and agility. The cat hopped down a staircase, frolicked in the halls... this was glorious! Something so very useful and difficult, but so much fun as well!

She was having such a time cavorting down the hallway, that she did not see an enormous ginger cat until it was almost directly in her face. Alarmed, she stopped mid-leap, and stared at the cat, which she recalled as being Hermione´s.

`So you must be the Head Girl who my mistress´s best friend used to be so infatuated with.´

"WHAT?!" Cho was sure that, had she been in human form, she would have shouted and summoned Filch in an instant. The ginger cat looked at her in amusement.

`Oh, you know exactly of whom it is I speak. The boy with the green eyes and the lightning shaped scar on his forehead, whose godfather I tried to help. Ah well... perhaps in time, you will be able to help him. He is like you, with the same skill.´

"Harry? He has a godfather?" Cho thought in surprise. The ginger cat must have understood, for it purred.

`Yes, nice enough, if a bit impetuous. But then, my mistress´s love is much worse. Oh well, at least his current pet is not a traitor in disguise. You will probably understand some day, Head Girl. But you had better go, the footsteps approaching and the smell... that is the caretaker you all hate so much, and his cat. Now... nothing wrong with that cat, she´s like my mistress. Neat, clean, and doesn´t like to break the rules. Quite attractive, too. But she will recognize you for what you are, and you do want to keep that Head Girl badge. Best make a run for it.´

Cho, bewildered, scampered off. Did she just have a telepathic conversation with a CAT? Then, she recalled her research... Animagi, while transformed, could communicate with other animals. She ran back towards the Head Boy/Head Girl quarters, transformed back into her human form, and grinned widely as she uttered the password to the portrait and walked in.

Samuel McKinnon heard her entrance and walked out of his room. "´Lo there, Cho. Say, d´you think you could help me out with this Transfiguration assignment? It´s so bloody complicated!" the Head Boy sighed, "Wish we didn´t have to take this class..."

"Whatever are you talking about?! Transfiguration rules!"

* * *

The rest of the year passed fairly quickly, and Cho graduated in a haze of glory. Head Girl, top-grade N.E.W.T.s with a perfect score in Transfiguration, a Quidditch cup under her belt. As she, Certificate of Graduation in hand, walked off the stage to greet her family and friends, she saw, in the audience, sitting next to her mother, a face whom she had not expected to see, but whose presence just made her day that much brighter.

Running forward, dark hair flying behind her like a banner of black silk, she threw herself into his waiting arms. He hugged her warmly, a deep chuckle reverberating in his throat. "Congratulations, Cho."

"Roger! How in the world did you get here?!"

"Well, let´s see... I Apparated to the gates just like everyone else, then walked in," he deadpanned, "Just in time to find your mother, who was nice enough to save me a seat." He pulled away from her, holding her at arm´s length, and looked down at her, blue eyes meeting brown, "You´ve certainly done well, how have you been?"

"Splendid! We won the Quidditch cup this year! Although..." Cho laughed slightly, "It was under rather... interesting circumstances..."

Roger chuckled, "Yes, I remember. Gabrielle seems to be quite the feisty one, doesn´t she?"

"Oh, yes. Snape was furious, but he never did figure out who did it. Fleur didn´t know what to think; I think she took off five points for Gabrielle´s impertinent behavior, but if I recall correctly, Ginny Weasley gave Gabrielle ten points on the sly for `creativity in potion-brewing´."

Cho´s mother caught up with the rapidly reminiscing friends, and beamed down at her daughter, "Congratulations, Cho."

Cho turned and embraced her mother as well, "Thank you, Mother."

Mrs. Chang looked from her daughter, to Roger Davies, and back. "Cho, your father and I have much shopping to do; we are having a feast with the family tonight to celebrate. Now, if you would like, you can have lunch at the Leaky Cauldron with your friend, and floo back home in the afternoon from Diagon Alley. Would you like that?"

"Oh, yes! That would be great! Don´t you agree, Roger? We have so much catching up to do! I haven´t seen you since the Ravenclaw/Slytherin game my sixth year!"

Roger nodded in agreement, and Mrs. Chang handed Cho a handful of Galleons. "Do not be too late, we will be making Peking roast duck tonight. Have an enjoyable afternoon!" Saying so, the older witch Disapparated, leaving Roger and Cho standing by the Hogwarts gates.

Roger turned to Cho, grinning, "All right, are you ready to go, milady?" he offered her his hand. Cho took it and smiled.

"Of course."

A moment later, he had Disapparated them both away.

* * *

They appeared in Diagon Alley a moment later, still hand-in-hand. For once, Roger set aside his worries about work, and just enjoyed walking with Cho, enjoying her company and the balmy June weather. She had not changed much since the last time he had seen her. An inch taller, perhaps, her hair still longer, the long plait now nearly to her thighs. Silken wisps of it escaped the loose braid and fluttered about as she walked, occasionally brushing against his hand, which still held hers gently. She was a beautiful, talented girl, and she would have a happy life. Yes, he would make sure of it.

They reached the Leaky Cauldron and ordered a booth close to the back. As they waited for their lunch to arrive, Roger asked Cho if she knew what she would do now that she had graduated.

"Well, of course, I have to get my Apparition License. I´m scheduled for the test in July. Beyond that... well," Cho suddenly lowered her voice, "I have received two job offers."

"Oh?"

"The first one... that´s the one that almost everyone has been encouraging me to take," Cho said confidentially, "the Montrose Magpies´ Seeker is retiring, and they´re looking for a replacement. They actually offered to give me, not a Reserve position, but the real position, right off, with an extremely high pay."

"That´s great!" Roger said more brightly than he felt. True, he knew better than anyone else just how brilliant a Seeker Cho was. But... to become a Quidditch player for a few seasons, earn a load of money, then live a life of indolence? That just didn´t seem to... fit. It seemed like a waste somehow...

"The other... well, The Department of Mysteries... they contacted me." Cho lowered her voice to a very soft whisper, and he had to lean forward to catch her words, "You know that I´ve successfully completed my Animagus transformation. They want me to become an Unspeakable."

Roger froze. Cho continued, "It´s top-secret, really. They would not even register me. I would be an agent. An informant. Because it would be easier for me to get information in my other form, than as a human."

"And?" Roger didn´t know what to think. On the one hand, the first job seemed like... a waste of sorts. On the other, the second job was so incredibly dangerous... "Which one are you thinking of choosing?"

Cho rolled her eyes, "Come on, this is me we´re talking about. What do you think?" Suddenly, she grew serious, and said softly, "I chose the second one, of course."

"Oh." Roger frowned slightly, "You do know that the risks involved are..."

"Of course I know!" Cho said, a slight note of exasperation in her voice, "It´s almost bloody suicide, come to think of it, but... we all need to do what´s right." She reached across the table, and took his sun-browned, callused palm in her small ones, "You´re very brave to do what you do, Roger. I want to be brave with you."

It was a few moments before Roger spoke. "I see.... but... you do know that it´s dangerous. I´ll worry. So will your parents."

Cho merely smiled wryly at him, "How do you think I felt for the past two years every time you owled?"

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w00t! A LONG chapter!! More to come soon! Review!!!