Second Door to the Right

Chapter Ten: The Third Task Untwisted

Something rustled above her...what could it be? The Snitch, of course! She waved a hand wildly, knowing if she caught it Davies would be pleased...and she wouldn't have to listen to another lecture...

"Put that hand down, Miss Chang! You're going to blind someone!"

Cho tried to rub her eyes but her arms wouldn't move at all. She wrenched her eyes open and saw the sunlight streaming in through the high windows off to the side. Am I in heaven, she thought vaguely. She was aware of someone - or something - bustling around her. An angel? But she recognized the plump figure as Madam Pomfrey.

"Don't know what she's been doing to herself," the nurse muttered to herself. "Completely emaciated...and from what I've heard from Flitwick, she's a good student. Huh, anyone as smart as her would have come here earlier...it's amazing she didn't die...her heart could have just stopped working at any moment."

"What have I been doing?" Cho said softly, now quite awake but still feeling very cold and shaky.

"You have been starving yourself, haven't you?"

"I - I haven't," she said slowly, trying to remember what Madam Pomfrey was talking about. "I'm...just fine, really."

" 'Just fine', eh? So I suppose, to you, falling onto the floor - nearly killing yourself - is a 'fine' thing."

" 'Falling on the floor' - ? OH MY GOD!"

Images flickered through her head, a jumble of color and darkness...the Easter Ball...she knew Professor McGonagall and everyone else had been right - she needed help - banging on the door, wondering why no one was coming...was she really that lost? She needed help, and no one was there. Then the door opened, and...

Cho's head whipped around, surveying the room, and only realized at that moment she was in the hospital wing.

I am saved.

She tried to get out of the bed, but her ankle got twisted in the sheets, causing her to fall to the floor, moaning with pain. Madam Pomfrey bustled over, a disapproving look upon her stern face.

"You will not be leaving this bed without permission, understand?" she said, dragging Cho back onto the bed.

"But why? What's wrong with me then?"

"I'll tell you after you have your breakfast."

She laid a tray of food in front of Cho, who cringed at the sight and smell of it. Not that, she thought bitterly, not that. It's poison, it is. It'll ruin everything. You can't let a little fainting spell put you off track.

"I will not eat that," she insisted. "You can stuff it down my throat, if it'll make you happy, but the next time you'll let me go to the bathroom, I'll just throw it all up. I won't eat that."

"Yes, you will, or the next thing for you is a coffin and a pretty headstone. Now eat."

"I won't."

"Eat it - now."

"I WON'T!" she screamed.

Why can't anyone understand me? I can't eat this! Drawing another breath to continue pressing her point, however, she found that she could not utter a word and was panting heavily.

"Why - the - hell?" she gasped, clutching her chest.

"Why you can't do anything physically vigorous anymore? Or even scream?"

"Yeah, why?"

A wave of sadness and pity passed over Madam Pomfrey's face, as she seemed to search for the right words.

"You were on a diet, weren't you?"

"Who told you that?"

"Your best friend, dear. Celeste, isn't that her name? Well, you've let an innocent-looking diet run its own course, and it's brought you to where you are now." Which is on the road to perfection, you idiot, Cho thought. "My dear, you have anorexia nervosa."

"Ana - what's that?"

"Well, anorexia is as much a mental disorder as well as a physical one. No one can just say, 'Oh, I want to have anorexia' and will get it. It starts simply as a diet. If you have this disease, first, you're unaware of it and you're somehow convinced food is evil and will ruin everything. The diet sort of takes over your mind, in a sense, and even if you know it's wrong, you'll keep dieting to the point where nothing might be eaten at all! And the results of this can be catastrophic.

"What's happening is, because your body isn't getting any nutrition or not getting enough of it, it'll begin to eat away at itself so it can remain as healthy as it possibly can, and the first thing it eats away at is your muscles. That's why you've been feeling weak, and I'm guessing you found climbing all those staircases tiring.

"Other symptoms include just passing out, dizziness, and, if the disease has a very strong hold over you, your heart could simply stop beating and, yes, you could die. In other words, you just grow weaker and weaker. Now eat up. I know a lot of people would be terribly sad if you died."

Cho found nothing she could possibly say, and Madame Pomfrey left the room.

Is that what's been happening then? My body's been consuming itself? How come I couldn't feel it? Is there supposed to be some sort of gnawing feeling inside me?

But as she denied what Madame Pomfrey had just told her, part of her - just a little sliver of her mind - knew that the gnawing feeling had always been there. It was the hunger that had stolen everything she once had. She had once been strong and athletic, the star of the Quidditch team, and now, only a scarecrow. She had once been beautiful, the desire of so many in the school, and now, almost shadow and vapor. She had once been a good friend, Celeste's best friend, but she had alienated everyone as she fell deeper and deeper into her own world where the only thing that mattered was not eating. And she knew that she had almost reached the sign that said, "No U-Turn."

She had been wondering all of these months where It had gone, that internal conflict that had possessed her for as long as she could remember. Now she knew. She had become It. Her mind had been a slave to this unknown force inside of her, doing its every bidding. It had overpowered her and she had been willing to submit to its will.

You're incredibly weak, you know that?

Tears rolled down her cheeks as she watched a couple students outside frolicking on the grounds, soaking in the splendor of the grass and the sky, away in their own world, a world of perpetual sunshine and happiness, a world that she had, a very long time ago, once been a part of.

* * *

Stepping onto the scale later that week, Cho wondered how much she weighed. She had given up watching her weight, feeling that she would know when she had reached her ultimate goal.

"Hmm, not as bad as what I originally thought," Madam Pomfrey mused aloud.

"Then what did you think?" Cho muttered, not bothering to conceal her frustration.

"Maybe fifty, sixty pounds..."

"And - how much do I weigh?" she said slowly, drawing a slow breath in anticipation.

"Seventy-seven. You'll still need a lot of work though. That's entirely too light for someone as athletic and active as you are."

Had someone told her she was seventy-seven pounds a week ago, Cho would have jumped as high as the Astronomy Tower in elation. But now, the number rang dully upon her ears. Numbers didn't matter. She didn't feel perfect. She felt more flawed than ever.

"So, what do I have to do then?"

"I thought someone as smart as you would find that obvious. You have to eat, of course," Madam Pomfrey said, smiling at Cho's horrified face, "but what I think is more important is convincing you that it's okay to eat. It's the mental part we need to work on, because once we've got that taken care of, trust me, you will be dying to eat. Plus, there's no point in stuffing you with food if, once you leave the hospital, you won't eat a crumb. Then we would have made no progress."

So I'm going to have to reverse all of it, Cho thought desperately. All of the progress I've made, it's all going to disappear, and I'll be right back to where I started with Harry thinking I'm not good enough. Like I ever was.

"Well, who's going to be my therapist-like person? There isn't a professional one in Hogwarts, is there?"

"There isn't, but I do know someone who's just as good as one..."

* * *

April came and went, as Celeste sat by Cho's bed in early May, trying again - unsuccessfully - to make her talk about what might have led to anorexia. Cho was obstinately looking down at her Charms book, scribbling away at the essay she was writing. Not even hospitalization could keep her away from her schoolwork, and as the N.E.W.T.s would be coming down upon her in a little over a year and it was the only thing that kept her going and focused. Her appetite had improved only a little - Cho was at least eating lunch - but she, so far, had gained only about five pounds since Madam Pomfrey had weighed her.

"When did you start dieting?" Celeste asked, holding her quill to a Muggle clipboard with a piece of parchment on it.

"I can't remember. October-ish, maybe?" Cho muttered, flipping to the back of her Charms book.

"Why?" This had been the very word Cho had been trying to evade for weeks, explaining her entire rationale behind the insanity. "To feel better about yourself? To impress someone?" Cho refused to say a word. "Um, because you felt like you had absolutely nothing to do so you just decided one day to starve yourself? No, didn't think so." Celeste yawned, it still being rather early in the morning. "Okay, that's it. I give up. We'll try again next time, shall we?"

"Fine," Cho said tonelessly, putting her name at the top of the essay and rolling up the parchment.

As Celeste opened the door, she turned around and faced Cho with a rather sly grin on her face.

"Oh, its' Harry. He's come to visit, Cho."

Her heart raced wildly, her breath coming in short and sharp gasps. Not Harry! I can't let him see me like this! Oh, this is not perfection! Perfection isn't lying on a damn hospital bed doing homework! But he entered, regardless of Cho's jumbled thoughts, a look of pity and concern on his face.

"Hi," he said softly, lingering by the door, his eyes flickering over her thin frame.

"Are you just going to stand there and look at me like I'm in a freak show?" Cho said, her eyes welling up with tears.

"No, I - there's something I need to tell you, something I've been needing to tell you since the beginning of the year," he said, sitting down where Celeste was just a moment ago. "Look, remember, on the Hogwarts Express, when I told you what happened to Cedric?"

"Yes," she replied, wondering why Harry would be talking about Cedric. After all, he had always steered away from the topic.

"Well, I think that you, well - okay, if I'm wrong, no offense - but if you never found out what really happened to him, like how he died, you wouldn't have gone out with me in the first place. Er, am I right in saying that?"

Cho had never really considered that though. Was it really the revelation about Cedric's death that allowed her to be freed of his memory and shadow? What would it have been like if she had never learned what really happened? Cho could see herself weeping uncontrollably on her bed, the darkness enveloping her, crushing her.

"Yeah, I guess."

Harry looked extremely uncomfortable.

"Well, the thing is, you never should have gone out with me."

Cho almost laughed.

"Don't tell me you're denying our love now, even though I'm wasting away in the hospital wing. Darling, I'll always love you," she said, the first real smile appearing on her face in days. She reached out for his hand, but he pulled back. "Harry?" she asked quietly, the smile now gone. "What's wrong?"

"It's not your fault, I swear!" he said, standing up and pacing around the room. "It's all my fault! I never should've - I never - never should have, well - " He took a deep breath and said very quickly, "I never should have lied to you."

"Pardon?"

"I lied to you, okay?"

"But - lied about what?" Cho said, hopelessness holding her in its strangling grip.

"About Cedric! He didn't die the way I told you, he just snuffed it right there! He didn't get to duel Voldemort, he was killed before he could do anything! And I'm really, really sorry for telling you what obviously isn't right and I know I shouldn't have done it - "

"Then why did you?" she said, cutting him short. She wasn't sure how she was supposed to feel.

"You just - you just seemed like you wanted him to be portrayed as some hero and - I really, I've always cared for you Cho, and I wanted you to be happy."

"But you know the only thing I would ever be happy with is the truth," she said, amazed she could remain so calm.

Harry wanted to say more, to elaborate how horrible he had been feeling, how his stomach would churn ever so slightly whenever he lay eyes on Cho, knowing she was only his because of the lie he told. But the ethereally impassive look on her face told him she wished to hear no more.

It was only until she heard the door click did she allow herself to throw her Charms book across the room in anger and self-hatred for believing a lie and letting herself being so carried away with it, to let the tears come, burning her face, to think that she had dishonored Cedric the entire year all because of one lie, that she had gone through all of these ordeals to please Harry under the cover of a lie.

Celeste immediately hurried in, holding her best friend close and telling her everything would turn out fine.

After the storm of tears had subsided, Cho slumped back onto the pillows, staring glumly out of the window, occasionally sniffing.

"What did Harry tell you?" Celeste asked, hoping she wasn't being too demanding on a person who had obviously just suffered a terrible blow.

"Why did you stay outside the door?" she asked in reply.

"Because I saw Harry didn't look too happy. I stayed outside, you know, just in case anything bad happened."

"Thanks," Cho muttered, absentmindedly playing around with the edge of her sheets.

"So, what did he tell you? Or is that private and confidential stuff I'll never get out of you?"

Cho turned around to face Celeste, and for a split second, she considered not telling. But then she remembered Harry was now gone and her friend was the only person left in maybe the entire world who still cared enough to spend hours by her bedside.

"Well, remember on the Hogwarts Express, I went to Harry to ask him what had happened to Cedric during the Third Task?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, did I ever tell you what Harry told me?"

"You might have. At that point in time, I really didn't care about Harry, to be frank."

"Well, me either, but anyway, he told me - " Cho took a deep breath, remembering too vividly the moment Harry had told her what she thought was the truth " - well, he told me that Cedric had tried to save him and then was killed by You-Know-Who."

"That's great! Cedric's my new hero!"

"Yeah, he would be had that actually happened," Cho spat resentfully. The smile on Celeste's face faded. "But he lied. What really happened was...he just died. He didn't duel You-Know-Who, didn't try and save Harry, he just died before he could do anything."

"And did Harry tell you why he lied?"

"Because he probably thought I was looking all pathetic and tried to make me feel better - "

" - which he succeeded wonderfully at. You realize that, even if Harry did lie - and I'm not saying lying is a good thing - if he hadn't told you this bullshit story, you would have never gotten over Cedric. And from where I'm standing, putting up with a lie is a small price to pay for something like getting over your dead boyfriend. Honestly, I didn't think you'd ever do that, but Harry managed to get you over that obstacle."

"But the point still exists that he lied!" she yelled. Would no one listen to her?

"Ah, can't get over that, can you? Well, take this example, will you? The two of us go shopping at Gladrags, and I find this shirt I totally love. I try it on and ask you what you think of it. However, you think I look absolutely horrid, but you would never say that to me, right? You would never say, 'Celeste, I think you look absolutely horrid.' You'd put it in gentler terms, right? Either, 'It looks good' or maybe, 'Try something else on.'"

"But saying 'try something else' is telling the truth, isn't it?"

"Yes, but look at it this way. Had Cedric not have died when he did, and someone did attack Harry, do you think Cedric would have just stood there? No, I think - and I'm almost positive you think this too - he would have tried to save Harry, even if he had to risk his own life. So, really, Harry was probably only half-lying. And when you would say, 'Try something else,' that's half-lying as well. Yes, you are telling the truth, but you're not saying it's a bad shirt. You're instead saying that there might be something better to wear. In essence, you're not explicitly stating I look horrible."

"Oh, I'm confused!"

"Then let me boil all of it down for you. Harry lied to you not so he could hurt you, but because he had your self-interest in mind. He wanted to make you feel better. And I daresay he succeeded."

"No, he hasn't. It's because of him I'm in this hellhole."

A sudden scratching of the quill coming from Celeste's direction told Cho that she shouldn't have said that.

"Well, I won't pursue that last point you made about being in all this mess because of your boyfriend. You've told me quite a bit already. I'll be back tomorrow, then, and I hope I'll be able to dig up more gossip-worthy material. Don't worry, whatever is discussed between us will stay between us, okay? That is, unless you'd like me to report all of this to Teen Witch. Take care!"

Celeste left the room with Cho trying to sort through her very confused thoughts.

* * *

"Is Ron ever going to talk to me again?" Hermione whimpered as she and Harry finished their Astronomy essay.

"At this rate, I'd say give it ten years," Harry said, Cho's too-calm-to-be-plausible face still etched in his mind.

"Oh, I've been such an idiot this year!"

"And that's why you've been going out with Malfoy and acting like slut?"

Hermione turned a bright pink.

"Is that what you and Ron have been thinking?"

"To be perfectly honest, yes. We were more than fed up with you at one point."

"Well, at more than one point, I was very fed up with myself," she retorted.

"Then why did you do it? If you were so angry with yourself, why didn't you just stop doing whatever it was you were doing?"

"Because - oh! The story's way too long and you wouldn't get it either. I think it's just a girl thing."

"Is that what you didn't want Malfoy to tell anyone? This 'way too long' story?"

"How d'you know about that?"

"Eavesdropping," he remarked casually.

"With Celeste?"

"Oh, so now you're acquainted with Ron's so-called girlfriend?"

"Yes, and she's really nice too.

"Does she know your story?"

"Actually, she does. I told her during the Easter Ball, after I broke up with Malfoy. She understood everything, not like that Cho. She's been acting funny lately, hasn't she?" Harry looked very hurt indeed, and Hermione caught sight of that. "Oh, sorry, I forgot you were going out with her. Are you two still together?"

"Yeah."

"I hear she's been in the hospital wing and she'll have to go to St. Mungo's soon. Is that true? All of these Hogwarts rumors get crazier and crazier."

"No, she's doing better," he said hoarsely, wondering if Cho would ever arrive at the point where she would actually have to leave Hogwarts to get help. Hermione opened her mouth to say more, but froze at the sight of Ron climbing through the portrait hole. "Don't do anything stupid again," Harry muttered off to the side.

"Oh, I won't, believe me," she said hastily, looking flushed. "Ron!" But he continued to walk as if he could not hear her. "Ron! Come here! Oh, honestly!" She marched up to him and grabbed him roughly by the shoulders.

"Don't do anything stupid!" she heard Harry hiss from the corner.

"Ron, are you ever going to talk to me?"

"Why should I? It's doing so much good!" he yelled.

"Ron, Celeste didn't come up with a brilliant plan for you just to treat me like rubbish. You're lucky to have someone who cares about you that much, by the way. She came up with that plan so you could have what you wanted...which is me, right?"

"Never one to bother with modesty, were you?" he spat.

"But what I'm saying is correct, isn't it?" she persisted, determined to get her point through. "She wanted you and I to be together because that was the whole point, wasn't it? You're wasting a tremendous gift, Ron. You have, right now, the opportunity to ask me out if you want to, and if you're just going to throw it away, well, you're throwing away what Celeste went through so much to give you. Trust me, I know what it's like to kiss someone you don't really fancy."

"Yeah, how would you know that?"

"Because I never liked Malfoy. It was an, well, an agreement we reached, and going out with him was part of my side of the deal."

"You made an agreement with him?" he yelled angrily, and Hermione hoped that anger was directed at Malfoy and not her.

"Well, yes, I did. And you know what? I would tell you all of the details, but I can't while you're about to explode," she said pompously, turning around and marching up to the girls' dormitory.

"She - missed - misses the point completely - I'm not going to explode - I haven't exploded - ever - " he sputtered, while Harry quickly changed a laugh into a cough. "So, er, mate, how did your meeting with Cho go?"

"Well, I think we've might have unofficially broken up."

* * *

Celeste was sitting by Cho's bed again the next day, but Cho did not have any schoolbooks out. She was ready to tell her best friend what she should have told her months ago.

"So, when did all of this start, this pleasing Harry?" she asked, completely serious.

"Well, you know my childhood, right? Trying to make my parents happy? Well, I guess everything just stems from there because I love them with all my heart, but they don't care one bit about me. So, I've always had doubts as to whether people really like me, except when it came to you. And I've always been a little jealous of Hermione, right?"

"Okay, but I already knew that."

"I know, I know, don't rush me. So, during that first Hogsmeade trip, when Harry and I were in the Three Broomsticks, Hermione and her little group came in, and I was just struck by the fact that even though she completely disgusts me, she is Harry's friend and very well-liked by a lot of people, not to mention super intelligent. And I realized, for the first time, what kind of company Harry keeps. I mean, first there's himself, the boy who lived. He's done all these great things I'd never do in a lifetime. Then Ron, and even though some people see him as subordinate to Harry, he's a hero in his own right. And Hermione, well, she's smart and pretty and all. And I suddenly felt like I wasn't good enough for him and he was only going with me because he felt sorry for me - you know, Cedric and all.

"Then that coupled with the fact I've always been a perfectionist, and I was convinced that Harry would only like me if I were perfect. And that's generally it. Does that sound stupid to you?"

"Not remotely, but I have to say, there has to be more to it."

"Fine. Well, I knew I had to be perfect in everything, but that'd be too big to take on at once, so I decided to be perfect academically first, but that didn't last very long. And I remember I went to the bathroom to cry. Then I realized I could still be perfect on the outside - my appearance."

"And what triggered this change of heart, going from academia to what shade of lipstick you're going to wear?"

"Well, it's hard to explain. A lot of times, it felt like there was some force telling me what to do, and it was that force that dictated what I would do. I thought that even if I couldn't be perfect in school, I could at least look great."

"But you already do. An informal poll show that most of the guys in the school find you highly attractive."

"What? Where did you get that from?"

"Never mind, it was from last year when I asked people whether or not they'd go to the Yule Ball with you if they got the chance. But like I said, people do think you're beautiful."

"It wasn't my facial features I was worried about. It was...my weight."

"Ah, so I thought..."

"And, it started out okay. Harry seemed to like me better, so I thought: Well, if he likes me at this weight, then imagine what it'd be like if I weighed even less. And that just sort of drove me to the point where, well, you saw what happened during the Easter Ball. Along the way, I sometimes thought that what I was doing wasn't right and that I should stop, but in the end, I was always able to convince myself that the hunger and pain was all worth it, and that Harry would love me.

"So, what happened to that 'outside force' that was driving you to do all if that?"

"I guess, I'm not sure exactly what happened, but I think that near the end, it just sort of took over my mind and I didn't really know who I was anymore. All that mattered was staying thin and losing pounds. I - I ignored everyone, what they say, even - even you. McGonagall told me once, after class, that I should go to the hospital wing, but I didn't go. In retrospect, I think I should have listened to her."

"What did you really want out of all of this though? It's not all about appearance, is it? I know you're not that shallow."

"Just to hear Harry tell me I mean everything to him, regardless of my mistakes, because he means everything to me. Well, and you too, but in a different sense. But I know he could never say anything like that, especially now that I look like a skeleton."

"Going to start eating then?"

Cho paused. She knew that was what she needed to do, what everyone wanted her to do, an important step on the path of recovery, but thinking of chicken still caused chills to run through her. Something was still pulling at her.

"I - I suppose I am," she said quietly. "But then, after I'm out of this bloody hospital at last, I'll have to try something different..."

"WHAT? 'SOMETHING DIFFERENT'?"

Celeste jumped to her feet, and the clipboard that was resting in her lap clattered against the floor.

"Hey, calm down, or Madam Pomfrey'll probably have you kicked out. Well, academics didn't work, appearance didn't work, there's got to be something left. Manners?"

"Yes, there is," Celeste said in a much softer tone (finally sitting down, as well). "You can stop this entire thing right now. And if you don't, then whatever progress you made will be nullified."

"But Harry - he'll never like me!"

"I know he does, okay? If you don't believe him, I'll just ask him tomorrow if he could come and visit you."

"But I just have to, Celeste."

"It's impossible to be perfect. No one's perfect. Get that through your head, because once you do that, once you get yourself back to where you were before this whole thing started, you'll be completely cured. That may take a while, so you better start now."

"But Harry - "

"I have a question for you Cho," interrupted Celeste. "If Harry came in here right now, and told you that he loved you with all of his heart, that he'd do anything and everything for you, in a completely sincere manner, would that help? You said that all you wanted was for him to tell you that."

Cho didn't - and couldn't - reply.

* * *

"Hey, Celeste!" Hermione said brightly, waving her hand.

"Hi, do you know where Harry is?" Celeste said briskly.

"Oh, he's not here yet. Why?"

"I really need to talk to him."

"There he is!" Ron said through a mouthful of toast, accidentally spraying crumbs in Paravati's direction.

"He's been kind of depressed since he talked to Cho. I don't know what's happening," Hermione said, looking worried. "D'you think you could help him?"

"That's why I want to talk to him in the first place!" she called out as she began walking towards Harry.

"Hey, Celeste, what are you doing here?"

"Where were you?" she asked impatiently.

"I went down to the hospital wing to try and visit Cho, you know, to clear up a few things, but Madam Pomfrey wouldn't let me in."

"Oh, that's perfect! Go back!"

"I just said she didn't let me in."

"Tell her you're there on my order, okay? She always lets me in."

"But I'm hungry!"

"JUST GO!"

Harry stumbled back to the hospital wing, and a very disgruntled Madam Pomfrey let him in.

* * *

Oh, goodness, it's Harry!

Cho quickly looked at the mirror propped up on her nightstand. Her hair was a mess, having not yet brushed it, but it looked thicker and her face was much fuller, almost free of its haunted look.

"Hi," he said, closing the door behind him. "I need to talk to you."

"Well, so do I," she said. It was never this awkward talking to Harry.

"But what I have to say is really important - "

"Harry, I beg to differ," she interrupted, and before he could say another word, she launched into the story behind her madness.

* * *

Harry didn't think he had ever heard anything so shocking. Cho had put herself through all of this just for him? Not, not even for him, but a stupid lie he told when he should have just told the truth. Did she really care that much for him? How could he not have seen that everything she had done this year was for him, because she loved him and needed him with every fiber in her body?

Cho continued with her story, but the only heard his selfishness, shame, and guilt echoing through him.

* * *

"So, yeah, that's it, I guess," she said, concluding her tale. "I just wanted to be accepted by you, by everyone. That's all I've wanted my whole life, really, just to be a part of something and to be liked without having to act all snobbish."

"Cho, I'm - I'm really sorry. I wish I knew all of that...but, oh God, it's all my fault," Harry said, shaking his head and bringing Cho into his embrace.

And as she gently drifted into his arms and felt them close around her, her body softened, melting into Harry, a swirl of love and forgiveness, of a couple so horrendously torn apart but floating back, rejoining as one. And suddenly, to Cho, something that had always obstructed her road in life dispersed, leaving nothing but the cleanest of air, the brightest of lights, and as Cho inhaled, sweet air filled her, spreading warmth to the very tips of her fingers, bringing peace to her rattled life. When she opened her eyes, the world seemed different, its colors startlingly glorious, a brilliant autumn day brought to her, the ceiling arching towards the sky, never-ending, stretching for as high as she could see, the sunbeams dancing around her, bathing her and Harry in a luminous glow.

"Cho?"

"Hmm?" she murmured softly, still savoring the radiance of her new world.

"I love you. I have always, always loved you, exactly as you are, and even if you were perfect, I couldn't love you more than I do now."

For the very first time in her life, Cho was fine with the tears rolling down her face.