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Cho hadn’t noticed Luna Lovegood until a week ago. She supposed she had always been there, reading the Quibbler upside down and wearing those weird glasses of hers, but she’d never done anything to attract Cho’s undivided attention, until last week.
It had been an average day (as far as Cho was concerned). She spent most of it in the bathroom, crying over the loss of her lover, Cedric. Ever since he had been murdered, her world had turned a depressing grey and she could do nothing but sit and mourn.
At the time, Cho had been headed up to the Ravenclaw common room, Marietta on her side, chatting away about some dress she’d seen or some handbag she longed to own.
Marietta had stopped to flirt with some Gryffindor boy in the year above and that was when it happened.
Luna Lovegood and the youngest (and feistiest) Weasley, Ginny, were passing by. Luna was talking avidly about the latest article in the Quibbler, one about a pensive that supposedly had the powers to take the memory you poured into it and travel you to that exact place and location in time.
The Gryffindor boy had sniggered, mocking her. “Been reading too many Tales of Beedle the Bard, have we? That’s just some stupid myth they’ve made up to get somebody to read their magazine.”
Luna fought her ground, Ginny turning the fight physical, and Cho decided to get out of there before Professor McGonagall turned up and dished out detention to anyone nearby.
Cho didn’t forget what Luna had said, though. Next Hogsmeade trip she bought a copy of the article and read it eagerly.
It was exactly as Luna had recounted. If this was a real story, Cho could bring Cedric back. She could hold him in her arms again, knowing that she’d saved him from something no human should ever have to face.
The problem was that Luna was rarely alone. If Cho had looked for her a couple of months ago, she would have found cornering her an easy task, but now Ginny Weasley rarely left her side. One had to wonder if there was anything between them.
The summer was quickly approaching, and Cho was losing her chance.
“Hello, Cho Chang.”
Cho looked up from the armchair in the common room in which she had been daydreaming, and it took all she had not to lose her shit. “Luna? Hi! Hi. This is perfect, I have something need to ask you.”
The other girl examined her strangely, and then swatted at her head. “Nargles.”
Cho swallowed. “Right.”
“Very interesting article,” she observed, peering over Cho’s shoulder at the open Quibbler page on the mystical pensive. “Daddy wrote it himself.”
“Yes, yes, it is,” Cho’s heart was racing. “Is it, um, real, this pensive?”
“Of course.”
“And would you know where I could find it?”
Luna hesitated, her hand hovering over the article, before flouncing out of the portrait hole.
“Luna!” Folding the article between her arms, she raced out of the room after her. She stopped at the library, and Luna seemed unaware that she had followed. She was reviewing a map of some kind, muttering to herself as she did so. “What are you doing?”
She looked up, smiling. “Here.”
Cho walked closer despite her anger at Luna running off like that, reading the label on the map. “The Pensive of Little Hangleton. Isn’t that—?”
Luna turned to face her, her cool eyes somewhat sympathetic. “Where Cedric died.” She tilted her head. “Is that why you want to go to the pensive? To bring him back?”
“Yes.” Cho’s voice hardened. “And I’m going to do it, because I have the power to change what should never have occurred, and I can’t just stand by and do nothing about it.”
“Alright then. We leave at first light.”
—
“And then he fell into the lake!” Ginny was talking animatedly, gesturing with her hands and grinning widely. “Anyway, we’re throwing a party in the common room to celebrate. You’ll come? I’ll tell Fred and George to let you in.”
Luna considered it. She’d never been to a proper party before, but she promised Cho that tomorrow morning she’d take her to the lake, and she couldn’t guarantee to return in time for the Gryffindor party. “I’m otherwise engaged, I’m afraid.”
Ginny frowned. “Oh. Is there a Ravenclaw event I haven’t been invited to?”
Luna shook her head. She’d never lied to Ginny before, and she didn’t want to start now. “I have to go somewhere.”
The redhead’s eyes widened. “You’re sneaking out?”
“To find the pensive,” Luna shrugged. “I want to help a friend.”
“Who?” Ginny demanded.
“Cho Chang.”
“Since when is she your friend?” She must have heard how insensitive her words were, as she softened her tone. “Look, just be careful, okay? She’s mourning, and I don’t want your life to be the cost of her pain.”
—
“Luna?” Cho called out quietly. She’d crept out of her dormitory and was standing at the end of the staircase, peering up to look for Luna.
The portrait swung inwards, and Luna was standing in the open doorway.
Cho laughed: she was dressed like someone in the jungle about to go on an expedition, and here Luna was, wearing her school uniform with a thick green cardigan and no shoes, clutching an empty potions vial.
They made their way out of the castle (it took a Disillusionment Charm and Cho removing her shoes, but they managed it), and eventually Cho began to realise uneasily where they were headed.
“Why are we walking into the Forbidden Forest?”
Luna’s eyes widened, as if this was already clear. “We’re leaving Hogwarts.”
“Well, isn’t there another way?” Cho bit her lip. If this was Luna’s way of getting her back for laughing at her outfit, she wasn’t impressed. “It’s called the Forbidden Forest for a reason, you know.”
Luna blinked. “Is it?” She continued on through the trees, and as much as Cho hated where they were headed, she needed to get to that pensive.
“Is there some train station in the Forbidden Forest I don’t know about? W-what's that smell?” she sniffed, gagging when she realised there was a bloody carcass on the floor.
Luna reached her hand out into the thin air and stroked something. “He won’t bite.”
It took Cho a moment to realise what the creature was. Attracted by fresh meat, invisible to the naked eye... a thestral. She never known they were at Hogwarts. “Are we going to ride him?”
Luna took Cho’s hand. Her palm was warm and familiar to the touch. “If he lets us.”
In one swift motion she mounted him, pulling Cho up behind her. It was very surreal, sitting on something that you could feel but you could not see. Cho hadn’t done anything this daring in her life, and when the thestral kicked off the ground and they were flying with the sunrise, she felt so free she almost forgot why she was doing this. Then she remembered him. Her arms dropped from around Luna, and she exhaled sharply. Everything would be okay. She’d have him back very soon.
“How does it know where we’re going?” Cho asked, trying to distract her mind.
Luna responded matter-of-factly. “I told him.”
“Will he wait for us before he leaves?”
“Perhaps.”
Cho didn’t like that answer.
They stopped shortly after, Luna dismounting and Cho falling off in a very ungraceful manner. When she stood up, all she saw was a town sign and a massive lake, no pensive in sight.
Luna stood over her, unscrewing the lid of the vial she’d been holding earlier. “You have to draw out the memory you wish to travel to and place it in here.”
Cho gulped. “Okay.”
She placed her wand to her head and thought of her last moment alone with Cedric before the final task, where she’d told him she loved him and that he had to come back. He told her he would. He didn’t.
She didn’t know she was crying until she felt Luna gently take the wand from her and drop the memory into the vial. Breathing in and out, she wiped her eyes and took the swirling silver memory from Luna.
“Place that in the pensive,” Luna instructed.
Cho nodded firmly. She could do this. “Where is it then?”
“Where is what?”
“The Pensive. We’re here, outside Little Hangleton. Where is it?”
“This is where the thestral thinks it is.”
Cho felt the anger inside her brewing. “Did you bring the map with you so we can check?”
“No. It was an antique, Madame Pince wouldn’t let me—” Luna tried to explain.
“IT’S AN ANTIQUE?” Cho shouted.
“Only an antique could lead us to—”
“DON’T YOU UNDERSTAND? IF IT’S AN ANTIQUE THE PENSIVE HASN’T BEEN HERE FOR EONS!” she cried out. “I’M NEVER GOING TO SEE CEDRIC AGAIN! AS FOR THIS MEMORY—”
Cho threw it into the lake, sobbing.
“Cho,” Luna began, but Cho shook her head.
The memory vial hit a rock and shattered, pouring the silver thread into the lake. Promptly, the lake exploded.
Luna stumbled, landing in the water.
“LUNA?” God, it was her fault. Cho didn’t even think about it: she just jumped after her.
—
They were back in the halls of Hogwarts, and Cedric was just up ahead. He was laughing and smiling, but when he saw Cho, he would step away from his friends and kiss her, tell her not to worry, and smile even brighter than he had before.
Except this wasn’t right. Luna Lovegood didn’t belong in this memory, and Cho shouldn’t be here either, because there was another Cho, who was just about to come around the corner, and Cedric was going to kiss her. He didn’t know this Cho; she was unrecognisable in her baggy clothes and red eyes.
His eyes registered the new figures in the hall, so she turned and ran, squatting behind the nearest pillar. Luna followed her wordlessly, mimicking her position. “How did we get here?”
Luna narrowed her eyes in thought. “Don’t you see, Cho? There wasn’t a pensive at all, it was the lake. It’s called the Pensive of Little Hangleton.”
“So, it worked,” Cho breathed. “Cedric’s still alive.”
“He is still on course to die.”
“Not if we can help it,” Cho stood up, marching down the corridor. When she reached him, he was in the arms of the Cho of this time, and when she saw this Cho, she screamed.
“Cho, get back,” Cedric ordered, pulling out his wand.
“Cedric,” Cho brought her hand to her mouth. “It’s you.”
“Ced, she’s me,” Past Cho exclaimed, horrified. “Is she... a boggart?”
“No, no! I’m not here to hurt you, I—”
Cedric gripped his wand even tighter. “Prove it.”
Cho froze. “You know me. You love me.”
“He’s never told me he loves me,” Past Cho whispered.
That was right. He was going to, then she interrupted them.
Cedric turned to Past Cho. “I do love you.”
“I love you too, Ced,” Past Cho smiled, before turning to the other Cho. “Please, if you aren’t a boggart, flee this place. If somebody finds out you breached Hogwarts you could suffer Azkaban.”
Tears in her eyes, she shook her head. “No.”
Then Mad Eye Moody approached, somewhat oblivious to what was going on. “Diggory, It’s time for the third task.”
The memory ended there.
—
They were back in the halls of Hogwarts, and Cedric was just up ahead. He was laughing and smiling, but when he saw Cho, he would step away from his friends and kiss her, tell her not to worry, and smile even brighter than he had before.
But wait. Why was she getting déjà vu?
“Why has it started again?” Luna was next to her once more.
“I... don’t know,” Cho said slowly. “Cedric’s alive. He sees me. Oh no. He’s seen us. He’s coming this way. He—”
Luna pulled Cho against the pillar, kissing her passionately.
Cedric stopped short, embarrassed. They pulled apart, Cho bright red. “I’m so sorry, I thought you were Cho Chang. My mistake. You do look an awful lot like her, though.”
“Cedric!” Past Cho came up behind him, kissing his cheek. “Who’s this?”
“I don’t know. I thought she was you; can you believe that?” he laughed awkwardly.
“If you don’t mind, my girlfriend and I are going to go back to, uh, snogging, now,” Cho chipped in, turning back to Luna so Past Cho couldn’t examine her any closer, and so Cedric wouldn’t see her tears.
The other two left, and Luna whispered in her ear. “Well handled, Cho Chang.”
“Thanks. Bit awkward though.”
“Kissing you was all I could think to do.”
“It’s fine.” If she hadn’t been so hung up on Cedric, she would have told her the kiss had been good.
—
It took Cho and Luna fifteen more loops of the memory to realise that no matter how they did it, they couldn’t get Cedric to believe them. It seemed that they were stuck here, endlessly reliving it.
“Let me try and go up to him once more,” Cho begged, “Maybe if I try and tell him the truth this time, it’ll work.”
Luna nodded, and Cho raced down the corridor before she could hear her warning. “Ced!”
“Cho?” he hugged her. “Did you get changed? I thought you were going to wear something yellow to support me.”
“Listen, Cedric,” she began, “If you enter the maze, you’ll die.”
He laughed. “What’s your reason this time? Tell me and we can find a workaround, I’m sure.”
“I’m from the future, that’s why I look so different,” she tried to explain. “I know you die because I’ve lived through it. Please don’t enter the maze, please. I can’t live without you.”
“Okay.”
“Okay?”
“Yeah,” he grinned.
“Good,” she wiped away her tears. “I have to go before the real me comes.”
“Sure. We can laugh about this later, when you stop being so paranoid and admit to me it was just you, not some version of you from the future.”
“Wh—”
“Cedric?” Past Cho came down the corridor, walking past his friends and towards them. “Who’s this?”
He seemed to register that she was real, and he opened his mouth before closing it again, glossing over this with an excuse. “Some poor Beauxbatons student who got lost. Will you take her to their carriage?”
“Of course!”
Then Mad Eye Moody approached. “Diggory, It’s time for the third task.”
—
“Why are we here again?” Cho asked, looking around the corridor in dismay. “I told him! I did what I was supposed to do!”
Luna looked down.
“What?”
“I thought about it, while I waited for you.” Luna looked up at her again. “A pensive works because you change nothing about the memory you enter. Maybe... to leave, we need to leave this memory exactly as it is supposed to be.”
Cho shook her head. She was crying again, but she didn’t care. “That means leaving him to die! Without him, I have no-one!”
Luna took her hands, and leaned close to Cho, their lips nearly touching. “It’s okay. You’ll have me.”
—
They were back in the halls of Hogwarts, and Cedric was just up ahead. He was laughing and smiling, but when he saw Cho, he would step away from his friends and kiss her, tell her not to worry, and smile even brighter than he had before.
But he wasn’t waiting for this Cho, and she knew that. So, when she stepped up to him, kissed his cheek and told him she loved him, holding him in her arms, she knew it would be for the last time. And she had to be okay with that, because at least she got to say goodbye.
—
When Cho opened her eyes, she was drenched in water. Luna was pulling her up, helping her onto her feet.
“Why did you help me?” Cho would ask later.
“I don’t know,” Luna would reply, shrugging and fiddling with her butterbeer cork necklace. “Perhaps it was because I wanted to be needed by someone.”
“I need you, Luna Lovegood.”
Then they would kiss, and for the first time in a long time, Cho would feel content. She would miss Cedric, but she knew now that she needed to live her life, not pretend to be a ghost to honour his.
When they eventually break apart, Luna would ask her if she was okay, and in that moment, Cho would be able to finally say yes.