Work Text:
Ginny had never regretted having History of Magic class with the Ravenclaws. To the Slytherins they may seem snobby, their slightly rigid tendencies often marked them as ‘stuck-up’ to the Gryffindors, and the gentler Hufflepuffs often found them ‘a little stand-offish’. Though they often garnered criticism from the other houses, Ginny had always admired their hard-working studiousness, their respect for achievement, and their dignity.
Above all, she admired their determination. A Ravenclaw never half-assed a task. Quality was everything – if they had not finished something to an A+ standard, it hadn’t been worth any of their time and effort.
These were the sorts of thoughts that raced through Ginny’s mind in her History lessons. She never paid any attention at all to Professor Binns as he drawled on (not that he noticed or cared when his students so often ignored his words), nor did her pen ever touch paper in those lessons. Ginny spent each and every lesson intently studying, not for any class she took, but studying the Ravenclaw girl that sat beside her.
She drank in every detail about the girl; this girl with the soft-spoken demeanour that dropped completely at the mention of history or quidditch or charms to be replaced with a slightly over-dramatised passion; this girl with the shining, black hair that fell in cascades over her slim shoulders; this girl with the dark, straight eyelashes that Ginny thought were more beautiful than any she’d seen curled; this girl who had dated and turned down even Harry Potter, the ‘Chosen One’ for Merlin’s sake, and would surely, surely never settle for anyone as plain, uninteresting and unadorned as Ginny.
If Harry Potter did not meet that A+ standard, how low on Cho’s priorities must Ginny lie?
If Cho were not enthusiastically engrossed in Binn’s lecture as she was every class, she would have notice how Ginny’s eyes darted over her neat, evenly space handwriting, watching the way her pen moved with a fixed rhythm as if Cho were composing rather than compiling study notes. Cho would have noticed how Ginny’s eyes lit up as she watched the corner of Cho’s mouth lift into a smile whenever she recognised a figure of fact or personality from a previous class.
Every class, Ginny would wonder what it was like to kiss those soft lips, and through every single class Ginny held herself back. She retreated back to her silent study of hair and eyes and breath until the class was dismissed. After every class, they would exit side by side; Ginny silently in awe of her friend, and Cho excitedly detailing everything she knew about whatever event in magical history Binns had taught that day, in a way that left Ginny strangely breathless as she clung to every word.
-
Ginny led the way as both girls followed their well-known routine to the staircase where they would go their separate ways. Cho would take the precarious stairway to the North Tower for a Divination class, and Ginny would be on her way outside for a Care of Magical Creatures lesson and some much-cherished fresh air.
“Oh, I really loved how Professor Binns mentioned Urg the Unclean when he was discussing 20th Century Goblin rights. It just doesn’t feel quite right to ignore one of the most monumental goblin activists in history. It’s so unbalanced to look at it from just the perspective of the Wizarding community, you know? Of course, the 18th Century Goblin riots were hardly the epitome of the Rights movement, and it would have been helpful to perhaps mention Brodrig the Boss-Eyed…”
With every step, Cho animatedly spilled every enthusiasm she held for History, and Ginny found herself immersed in it more deeply than any History textbook or lecture given by Binns. Ginny learnt the most about History, not in those classes, but from Cho. Cho, who she spent so much time with. Cho, with whom she had always felt comfortable. Cho, who managed to make even the most unappealing fact exciting to Ginny, as if her own enthusiasm and passion seeped through her words and fell upon Ginny.
Cho always found herself caught up in the beauty of events and people and ideas, and the way they all interconnected and influenced each other. She loved to understand the events of the past, the historians who recorded them and the reasons behind the histories. But even Cho had trouble keeping her mind from wandering to the events and people and ideas that surrounded her in her own life, her friendship with Ginny especially. (Cho wondered if that’s what their connection truly was; platonic. The word didn’t fit right, but Cho knew she didn’t have to worry about labelling what they were. She simply knew that she would not leave Ginny’s side for anything, and she felt safe in the complete trust that Ginny felt the same.