Til The End

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`Til The End

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Cho sat somewhat nervously in the black leather-covered chair in Cecilia Bode´s office, as the latter finished writing up some correspondence. Today would be the day that she would find out who it was that she would stay with.

Cecilia Bode sealed her letter, and looked up at Cho, "So, down to business. I hope that you have not decided to reject your mission after all."

"Oh, I´m doing it," Cho said firmly. After several months of sorting and sifting through the information gathered by the Department´s various Unspeakables, she had become rather... accustomed to seeing horrifying things. Idly, she wondered if Roger and Charisse were similarly desensitized. It seemed rather surreal somehow...

"Good," Bode looked at her approvingly, "We´ve decided that for your sake, it would probably be best to give you to a student not too young, but not too old. Someone too young could possibly be too influenced by... outside sources, whereas someone too old might be... decided upon which path in life he or she would choose."

"I understand," Cho said softly, "So, who shall it be?"

"Miss Weston had offered to give you to her brother. Would that be all right with you?"

Cho blinked. Anthony Weston, the pureblood-supremacist third year Slytherin Keeper? The one who called his own sister a bint, who picked on Muggleborn students from her own house... And Charisse wanted to give her to the boy...

Bode seemed to read her thoughts, "Miss Weston has vouched that you shall be well-taken-care of. But if you´re afraid..."

"I´ll do it." If Roger could duel Death Eaters and Charisse could put on a convincing act of poisoning a Muggle child, she, Cho Chang, could certainly act as a scout amongst the Slytherin students. Besides, she could, if all else failed, transform back, even though she would be blowing her cover, and get herself out of there if things came to too dire straits.

Cecilia Bode nodded crisply, "Excellent. You shall have a week off to prepare, and then, report here at nine o´clock sharp in the morning. You shall transform, and Miss Weston shall present you to her brother." After she had finished giving Cho her instructions, Bode smiled somewhat, "We have the utmost faith in you, Miss Chang. Good luck!"

* * *

Sure enough, a week later, Cho found herself placed in a white wicker basket tied with green ribbon and placed under an imposing and magnificent though not very friendly-looking Christmas tree in the large, castle-like building that was the Weston home. Charisse had covered her with a warm, fleecy blanket, and though it had taken a while to get used to her form and position, she had managed to fall asleep for a little while during the night.

The next morning, at dawn, she awoke to the sound of quick footsteps coming down the stairs. Anthony Weston, dressed in a rich-looking green dressing gown, was making a beeline towards the Christmas tree. Following him at a more sedate pace was Charisse, similarly gowned, except in white. Anthony picked up a long, thin package that was from his father, and tore open the wrappings.

"A Firebolt!" His face lit up, then sneered, "Bloody Ravenclaw chit won´t stand a chance, will she?"

"Anthony!" Charisse chided. Anthony looked at her, confused.

"She´s a Muggleborn and a bothersome bint besides, aren´t you supposed to understand?"

Charisse sighed, "Still, you will only make enemies by saying such things. Believe them if you will, but if you say them at school, you know that all of the Prefects and teachers would just take points off." Cho, still in cat form, was impressed with her logic.

Anthony shrugged, "Whatever..."

"Besides, you forget, I was in Ravenclaw," Charisse´s tone lightened slightly. "Don´t insult my house, kid."

"Yeah, yeah okay. What did you get me, `Risse?"

"Over there," Charisse pointed at the basket, and Cho froze for a moment as the boy turned and pulled it, and her with it, towards him. "I thought that you might like to have a familiar with you at school, and if I remember correctly, you always liked cats. Plus, this cat is quite a beauty, isn´t she?"

"´S okay," Anthony looked at Cho´s face quizzically, "What´s her name?"

"Ch -- Choose one yourself."

Anthony lifted the cat out of the basket and set her on his lap. He absently stroked her, and she purred. Then, a moment later, he had tweaked her tail, and she immediately hissed at him in warning. He gave a light chuckle.

"Belladonna."

Charisse raised an eyebrow in amusement, "Beautiful lady?"

The boy rolled his eyes, "No, don´t be daft. The potion. Snape taught us... beauty and death joined together in a single cup. Eternal youth not by drinking from the fountain of life, but from the water of the dead." All of the sudden, his hand stilled over Cho´s back and he smirked again, "Markham´s Belladonna brew turned out atrociously. It turned orange instead of blue."

Now it was Charisse´s turn to roll her eyes. Cho seethed for a moment in indignation for her former housemate and teammate, before she was tumbled rather ungraciously from the boy´s lap as he stood up hastily. At that moment, Mordred Weston stalked into the room and looked coldly at the occupants.

"And what did you get him, Charisse?"

"A cat, sir. I thought that it would be nice if he were to have his own familiar at school."

Mr. Weston looked unfeelingly at the cat on the floor, and Cho looked back at him. "It doesn´t seem like a pure pedigree. An owl would have been much more useful." Cho seethed. The man actually was concerned about pure-bloodedness even in CATS?! She arched her back at him and hissed.

Mr. Weston drew back in surprise. Was that worthless dumb beast... glaring at him?

Charisse stifled a laugh, "I think you hurt its feelings, father." Mordred Weston sniffed.

"Owls are better, more useful."

Anthony, to Cho´s surprise, spoke up in her defense, "But father, everyone has a bloody owl. The only one who has a cat familiar is the mudblood Head Girl Granger, and she´s really stuck-up about the ugly beast. Keeps on telling our Head Boy Malfoy that the animal is special. Well, at least this cat is nicer-looking than her unsightly ginger fiend. Maybe now she won´t be so uppity any more."

Mr. Weston didn´t say anything, but he nodded curtly, and walked out of the room. No more disparaging things were said about the cat. Anthony smirked to himself and picked up the cat again. Setting it in his lap, he addressed it in a smug voice, "Works every time... "

Charisse gave a little snort and rolled her eyes, "Ruddy Slytherin... "

"Hey, don´t insult my house!"

* * *

Gradually, Cho became somewhat accustomed to the Slytherin dorms. They were rather draftier than she was used to, but they were elegant in their own aloof way. The common room, unsurprisingly, was decorated with a serpent motif, and the stone walls entirely covered with forest green tapestries. The common room had wrought-iron lanterns, once again in a serpentine motif, for light. Anthony, in the evenings after dinner, usually liked to sit in a green velvet armchair by the fire.

Within a week, Cho had discovered that Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle would be amongst the first students to receive the Dark Mark after graduation. They would be initiated into the circle exactly a week after the end of the term. Rumors were that Draco Malfoy would be initiated at that time as well, but seeing as to how the Head Boy stayed in his own dormitory rather than with the other Slytherins, Cho could not verify this fact.

Nevertheless, she reported her findings to Bode at first opportunity, and, at periodic intervals, she would leave Hogwarts to report anything of significance. It became a routine-of-sorts, and Cho grew accustomed to both her job and the complex Slytherin students that she saw every day. Anthony himself was something of a puzzle. He was an intelligent boy, and at times, glimpses of kindness and humanity, in his behavior towards her, could be visible through the rude, conniving veneer.

But then, there were times... like that one time she had been wandering about the school after everyone had gone to bed, she had ascended to the Astronomy Tower, to find, not snogging couples, but a solitary Una Markham sitting against the wall by the large telescope, crying bitter, angry tears.

Cho, concerned for her former housemate and teammate, had padded up to the girl and mewed, nudging her shoe with a black paw. Una had sniffled slightly, then picked her up and held her close, like she might a favorite teddy bear. "You´re his cat, aren´t you?"

Cho remained silent and looked at her, willing her to continue. Una sighed heavily, "Is he mean to you, too? Today in Potions he dropped a spoonful of that erumpent fluid that he had bought at the Apothecary into my cauldron, and the entire bloody Pepper-up potion shot up out of the cauldron." Cho looked more closely at the girl, and saw that her cheeks had slight red streaks and speckles where the hot potion must have splattered on her. "He just does things like that for no reason! Bloody Weston, what did I ever do to him?"

Cho made a mental note to talk to Charisse later on about giving her brother a word or two about malicious pranks on Muggleborn students. Una sighed and stroked the warm black fur a little bit longer, and Cho purred. The girl looked at the cat and spoke, half to herself.

"How could someone like him have such a nice, friendly animal? You´d think that he would be the type to own a nest of poisonous snakes. Nasty, evil Slytherin git!"

No, I think that both of you need to be a little less judgmental, Cho thought to herself. But she did not say anything, just stayed in the girl´s lap and purred until Una calmed down. The third year stood up at last, and looked down at the cat.

"I should probably go to bed soon," she said, "Let´s hope that Orla´s gone to bed by now, although... who knows? Does so much extra credit for Defense Against the Dark Arts that she´s up all night oftener than not. Daft... wants to be an Auror just like what´s-his-name... that bloke who was Quidditch captain before Cho. That handsome one who came and sat with Cho in the hospital... if I didn´t know better, I´d say that Orla fancies him," she said confidentially to the cat, then her sad face broke out at last in a small grin, "Too bad he´s in love with Cho."

Cho almost blew her cover and transformed into human form to vehemently deny the fact, but caught herself at the last moment. Una bent down and patted her on the head one last time, then walked out of the Astronomy Tower.

* * *

Cho did not have much more news to report in terms of new Death Eaters after ascertaining the date of Crabbe and Goyle´s initiation. She spent a good bit of her time walking with Hermione´s cat, the "unsightly ginger fiend" Crookshanks. Hermione´s boyfriend, the youngest Weasley boy, tended to look askance upon it, and muttered things about Crookshanks´ bad taste in choosing a Slytherin cat, and Cho would be hard-pressed not to jump up in human form and say that she was a Ravenclaw, blast it. Hermione would roll her eyes and retort that at least Crookshanks did not walk about with Mrs. Norris.

"She doesn´t know that,"Crookshanks would say impishly to Cho, who would laugh to herself.

One day in the middle of May, however, the ginger cat actually walked all the way from the Head Student quarters to the Slytherin dorms, and mewed at the portrait until Cho, sitting inside, heard and walked outside to see what was going on.

"I need your help, Miss Spy."

"What´s going on?" Cho asked, curious. The ginger cat started to talk rapidly.

"You were a Ravenclaw, I´m sure that you know the whole story of Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew."

"Of course, what about them? The former escaped from Azkaban and the latter is dead."

"No, that is where you are wrong. Sirius Black was the best friend of James Potter when they were in school. Those two, that former Professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts who was unfortunately a werewolf, and Peter Pettigrew were close chums as students. Of course, when James and Lily Potter married, Sirius was the best man and then, when Harry Potter was born, he was the godfather. Also, when word got out that the Dark Lord that you humans fear to name were after the Potters, they were going to perform a Fidelius Charm with Sirius as the Secret-Keeper. You know how the charm works?"

"Of course, go on."

"They switched the Secret-Keeper to Pettigrew at the last minute, and Pettigrew betrayed them. Joined the Dark Lord. He was the one who killed the boy whom you danced with the year that Tournament took place." Cho inhaled sharply, but the other cat simply continued, hurriedly giving her an account of Sirius, Wormtail and the like.

"All right..." Cho finally said weakly, "Let me see if I understand you clearly... This Wormtail character is an animagus like myself. A rat. With a silver hand... er... paw, and is a Death Eater. And he betrayed the Potters, framed Sirius Black, who is another animagus in the form of a dog. And he killed Cedric. And... you say that you´ve sighted him within Hogwarts grounds?!"

"Right you are, smart Ravenclaw."

"And... how exactly am I to help you here?"

Crookshanks pawed the ground impatiently, "Look, you and Professor McGonagall are the only ones who could possibly help me. And... I will not ask her. If the dastardly rodent would just remain in rat form, I would have caught him in a pinch, but I can do nothing about him if he transforms. But you can defeat him in both animagus and human forms. Besides, you´re a Slytherin familiar. Someone in that wretched house must know what he and the Death Eaters are up to. Then, you can catch him. As long as you manage to stun him or something and hold him until I get my mistress, everything will be all right. Will you do it?"

Cho´s mind went back to that fateful day all those years ago, when a white-faced Harry Potter had emerged from the maze of the Final Task, the Triwizard cup in one hand, the arm of the murdered Cedric in the other. "Yes, I will."

* * *

Search though she might, Cho did not find any sign of Wormtail at all. On the last day of the school year, she sought out Crookshanks once more as the latter was skulking around Hagrid´s hut. "I´ve heard some things about Death Eaters kidnapping Harry before he can graduate and join the Aurors´ Guild. But nothing has happened so far."

"Exactly," the ginger cat hissed rather ominously, "It will probably be today."

"We can split up and search the grounds," Cho offered.

"We´d better."

The two cats separated. Cho strode towards the direction of the Forbidden Forest, a path that she had come to know quite well from her excursions outside of the school on the way to the Ministry for reporting, while Crookshanks walked opposite, in the direction of the Quidditch pitch.

An hour later, there was still no sign of Wormtail. Students would be on their way home. Cho started back towards the castle, when all of the sudden, a beam of sunlight hit a mossy stone nearby, and something sparkled. She halted, and pounced.

A squeak, and a gray, bedraggled rat emerged from behind the rock. Cho took in its appearance, and her eyes riveted to one of its front paws. It was silver. She pounced again, and missed by a hairbreadth. The rat shot forward, taking off for the direction of the forest. Cho saw, in her mind´s eye, the image of Harry and dead Cedric emerging from the Final Task again, and with a sound half cat´s yowl, half woman´s scream, she leapt forward once again. She was unaware the she had transformed into a human again mid-bound, until she heard a scream of "Petrificus Totalus!" and the rat froze on the ground. She landed on her feet, eyes wide, and saw that she had her wand drawn. That scream had been hers.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a gingery blur running towards her, and she transformed back into cat form, firmly holding both her front paws over Wormtail´s frozen form.

"Get Hermione!" she screamed. The ginger cat picked up the immobile rat in his mouth, and tore off towards the castle. Cho was about to follow and return to Anthony when a thought struck her.

Anthony´s father was a Death Eater. Wormtail was a Death Eater. Once the latter was put in custody, he would be administered a truth potion and then tell the world that a black cat animagus, actually a Chinese witch, had been the one to capture him. And... unless he was a fool, Mordred Weston would certainly put two and two together, and she, Cho, would likely be put into a sack with an unbreakable charm on it as soon as she and Anthony had gotten out of the train, and taken to the nearest lake and drowned. Well, she would not go back to her own death, not now. She had finally been able to accomplish something useful.

She ran out of Hogwarts grounds and Disapparated. A moment later, she appeared in Charisse´s office at the Ministry. The blonde woman looked up in surprise. "Cho? What are you doing here? My brother will miss you."

"Your brother will need a new pet."

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w00t! And the cat has caught the rat! REVIEW!!