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Cho Chang was reserved as she boarded the red steam engine on the way to her sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The summer had been quiet instead of the joyous, ful-filled time it normally was.
Her fifth year had ended in tragedy. The school had played host to the TriWizard Tournament, an auspicious event that hadn’t been allowed in centuries due to the deaths of those who participated.
Cho had worried when Cedric Diggory, her boyfriend of two years, had put his name in to be a champion. As a Ravenclaw, though, she’d run the odds and realized just how unlikely it was that his name was pulled, especially once any possible participants from two other schools were added.
Her stomach had dropped, the minute his name was called. It twisted further moments later.
She should have known that something was going to be horribly wrong as soon as Harry Potter’s name had been pulled from the goblet. As a Ravenclaw, she held little faith in the divining arts. Cho was well aware that others put their stock in them, but she’d always preferred to use her brain over any suppositions based on the tea she drank.
That didn’t change the fact that whatever Harry Potter was involved in undoubtedly turned dangerous by the end of the school year. Even things as normal (and relatively safe, ignoring the subject matter and propensity for explosions) as classes turned deadly.
What could the infamous Potter luck do when entwined with a tournament that started perilous?
After the celebratory party, she’d begged Cedric to withdraw his name. There were only supposed to be three champions in the first place. Surely it would be allowed. Instead, Cedric had sat her down and tried to alleviate her fears.
He was a 17 year old Wizard and could take care of himself.
He had help, having been taught during the summers by his father, Amos Diggory. The older man was employed by the Ministry at the Department for the Regulation and Control of Dangerous Magical Creatures. Much of his job was spent as a paper-pusher, but he’d also had some training by Aurors. It wouldn’t do, after all, for a Ministry worker to be caught off guard.
His nomination had pushed Hufflepuff firmly into the limelight. He had the loyalty of his House at his back. An entire house of badgers to help should he need it with any research or learning new spells.
There was no way he could back out and damage the reputation of those who the Sorting Hat had decided exemplified Helga Hufflepuff and her ideals.
(That Harry Potter, a fourth year, had managed to enter the tournament and hadn’t been withdrawn was a moot point.)
The first task had been dragons. Actual, fire-breathing dragons from a reserve in Romania. They were one of the most dangerous creatures in the Wizarding World. Cho had held her breath the entire time.
The second had been confronting the Merfolk in their own element. Cho had been magically unconscious for much of it, though she wasn’t sure that being a student was agreeing to having such a spell cast on her. She had woken up as her head broke the surface, sopping wet, with Cedric pulling her into the rickety rowboat.
The third had seemed the most simple: a maze. They had been growing it on the quidditch pitch all year and she had watched as crates that made guttural noises had been pulled inside.
As Cho sat on the bleachers and looked down at the greenery - wondering just why they were spending hours watching an unmoving maze (truly, not even a single projection to show the action?) - she breathed deeply. This was it, the last task.
Once this was completed, come win, lose or draw, then the tournament was over. Cho would honestly consider it a win regardless of Cedric walking away with a trophy. Just him walking away would be enough for the Ravenclaw.
In the end, he hadn’t.
Instead, the promising Seventh Year had been murdered by Peter Pettigrew in an effort to bring back You Know Who.
(At least, that was what happened if you choose to believe Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived. The Ministry, on the other hand, had decided to vilify the underage teenager through articles in the Daily Prophet.)
(As far as Cho knew, Harry had never been a liar. More to the point, there was no way he had entered the tournament of his own will; not with the panic she saw on his face and his magical abilities. That Dumbledore’s friend Moody had been discovered locked in a trunk at the end of the year had only solidified this belief.)
Instead of spending the summer with her boyfriend, possibly taking the next step to betrothal, and a myriad of friends, Cho had instead been locked in the Chang household by her own choice. Those she had become close to throughout her years in Hogwarts were nowhere around.
She didn’t blame them, really. She wasn’t in much of a mood for company. In fact, she had rebuffed the very few attempts that had happened immediately post-school.
Knowing they cared enough to try still would have helped. Instead, Cho had felt beyond alone, surrounded by nothing except the books that helped ward off well-meaning talkative parents.
It would have felt good, she mused as she was surrounded by a swarm of magical students. She pushed her way through and settled herself in the compartment she and her friends had selected as ‘theirs’ in their first year.
It was much later, as Hogwarts Express was just about to pull away from the station, that the door opened to admit Marietta Edgecombe, a fellow Ravenclaw. Marietta flashed a small, nervous smile as she took her seat and the girls were quickly joined by one of the Patil twins and Lavender Brown.
“How was your summer?” asked Marietta.
“Quiet,” Cho answered, glancing at her best friend.
“I’m… sorry I didn’t come around more. “ She pouted slightly, twisting her curls in her fingers in a show of nerves.
Cho nodded and said nothing. What could she say, really? Tell Marietta how much the silence had hurt her, when she was already hurting from losing Cedric? She couldn’t hurt her like that.
Even though she didn’t really feel like it, Cho smiled at her best friend. “Did you do anything over the summer?” she asked, changing the subject once and for all.