Cho Chang

He fell numb at her words. “Cho - shit.” Harry sighed and looked at her, a million questions running through his mind. But he didn’t ask her any of them. There was a time and place to be Head Auror, and right now, this wasn’t it. Instead, Harry dropped her hand and pulled her into his arms. “Cho, I’m so sorry.”

Harry let out a breath, “You should have told me, at least. I could have been out there looking for…” He shook his head and went silent, resting his head on top of hers a little. “You not reporting it had nothing to do with me being attacked if that’s what you’re thinking. I have a target on my back always.” He paused for a moment. “What can I do?” Harry asked, in a softer voice. “Tell me what you need me to do and I’ll do it. You know for sure it was Death Eaters?”

Cho collapsed in his arms, letting herself finally cry, just like old times. After a minute or so of silence, she gathered herself. She pulled out of Harry’s arms, going back to her position curled up on the chair.  “I didn’t know what to do, Harry. I didn’t want to admit it. I told my kids a lie and they believed it. Why would Death Eaters want to kill a muggle?” Cho explained, picking at the small balls of lint on her pants. 

“And who’s fault is that for going into the Centaur Liaison office? Should have picked a better branch.”

“Like being a member of the Wizengamot?” Cho let out a laugh. “Imagine me in the Wizengamot. Wearing those stupid robes and pretending like I can decide what is and isn’t just.”

For the few seconds that she spoke, Harry was fourteen again, standing outside that stupid maze, with the Cup in his hand and Cedric lifeless at his feet. Harry let out a breath and looked over at her, surprised when she said that it wasn’t about Cedric. He didn’t miss the way her hands started shaking so, without thinking about it, he got up from where he was sitting on the edge of his desk and took the seat beside her. “Well, that may be, but you’re here now.”

Harry reached out to take one of her hands, giving it a comforting squeeze as he looked up, meeting her gaze. After a moment, he asked, softly, “What is it?”

“My husband is dead, Harry.” Her voice was a whisper. Cho grabbed onto Harry’s hands, clinging to it like it was the only thing keeping her here. “He was murdered a year ago. I...I didn’t want to admit it. I didn’t want to believe that he was the victim of death eater activity. But you were attacked.”

“I’m actually not drunk.” Harry gave her a look, before rolling his eyes. “Okay, I had like…three drinks, but I’m not that drunk.” He led Cho down the hall to his office, because if they weren’t going to go with her first plan to scare children, they might as well go escape the party they didn’t want to be at - with wine and cupcakes. He unlocked the door and went inside, shutting it behind him. But he froze in his tracks when she brought up Cedric. To be honest, Harry should’ve expected it. They’d never talked about it, not really. Even though he didn’t want to talk about it, he didn’t miss seeing her wedding drink when she took a sip of her drink. He didn’t want to talk about it, no. But he owed it to her. She’d been too much. “Yeah, we were.”

He sat up on the edge of his desk and looked over at her. “Cho…anything you want to ask me, you can. I should have talked to you about it after it happened, but I didn’t.” Harry met her gaze and, after a moment, continued, “Unless that’s not what you wanted to talk about?”

“He died. And then Voldemort came back.” She stated, sitting down in one of the chairs in Harry’s office. “And that sucked, and it sucked that everyone lost Cedric and it was a huge deal because...because it meant that everything was getting fucked up.” Cho took a drink of the wine, waiting a few seconds after finishing to speak again. “But this isn’t about Cedric. I don’t want to talk about Cedric. I’ve cried enough over him.” The woman’s hands were shaking as she kept speaking, her voice softer than it was before. “It’s about the fact that evil is rising again, and you were attacked at a press conference, and I think I fucked up. I...I shouldn’t have waited so long to tell anyone-- to tell you.”

“You know, I never did take you for a homewrecker, Chang,” Harry teased. “So that’s good to know.”

He turned at her voice and shrugged, pretending to really think over what she just said, before nodding. “Well. You have cupcakes and I have wine. Guess we could just ditch. It’d be a shame for it to go to waste after all, yeah? And we both know that I’m notorious for showing my face at Ministry functions for all of like five minutes before making my way out. I’ve stayed at this party for ten. It’s ridiculous. I can’t stand for it.”

“You really are drunk, aren’t you Potter? We left the party a bit ago.” Cho laughed. “Maybe I should take the wine and you should take the cupcakes.” She balanced the cupcakes on one arm carefully before taking the bottle from Harry.

“Oh, shut up. That was your own damn mistake, not mine. After what - almost thirty years of knowing me - you should expect crap like that to come out of my mouth by now. And I still take offense to the fact that you’re standing here saying to my face, no less, that this horse man is more attractive than me.”

She might put that smile back on her face, but Harry didn’t miss the way that it faltered. He walked over to her and nudged her shoulder, gently. “Well, I’m glad you came out of it. I missed you like this.” Harry met her gaze and smiled, before reaching over to take one of the cupcakes. Licking the frosting off the top as he walked down the hall, he called back to her, “But, Chang. You’re slacking in your scaring, though. You really suck at this.”

“You aren’t hard to look at, Potter. But I don’t have a thing for married men.” She shrugged.

Harry stopped walking and turned around to look at her, a feigned look of hurt on his face as he placed a hand over his heart. “I’m sorry, are you trying to tell me that a human-horse-hybrid is hotter than this?” He pointed at himself. “Cho.”

He crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head, “You need to stop living in denial. It’s not good for you.”

Not expecting the sudden halt, Cho stopped clumsily, the cupcakes shaking on the tray. “Dammit, Potter, you almost made me drop the cupcakes. That automatically makes any sort of hybrid hotter than that.” Cho said, wiggling her free hand in the direction of Harry.

“And not a very funny one. You might want to keep your day job.”

“That’s probably where I get my humor from. Centaurs are boring and only talk about the stars.”

“Drunk?”

“Ok, shit, you’re right, but I meant my costume” Cho said, lifting the arm that wasn’t holding her drink to show off standard robes.

Harry opened his mouth to respond to what she said about Cedric, but decided against it almost immediately and shut his mouth. Instead, he raised an eyebrow and looked at her, “Uh, do I look like I venture into Centaur Liaison Office on the daily, Chang? Firenze used to freak me the fuck out, no offense. Since centaurs seem to be your…thing,” he smirked. Harry raised a hand in defense and walked past her, “I get it. Breaking up with me caused you confusion. I mean, you broke up with me. That’s enough to cause anyone inner turmoil and feelings of regret.”

Cho rolled her eyes, a laugh escaping her lips at the centaur comment. “You’re right, that’s exactly it. I have a thing for centaurs.” She jokingly glared at him. “But you gotta admit, even though he acted all weird and shit, and they all do, Firenze was at least a little hot.” 

Harry snorted at her declaration and followed after her. “Why weren’t you this fun in school? Maybe we might have lasted longer than a failed Valentine’s Date at that bloody tea shop.”

He stopped and made a face. “Wait, we have security ghouls? Since when?”

“I was depressed, Potter. My boyfriend had just been murdered by Death Eaters, and back then I didn’t understand that death happens and the only way to get over it is to just get over it.” Cho said, rather defensively. Cho smiled,  realizing how boringly deep and personal the conversation was getting.

“What do you mean supposed to be? I’m Hercules, duh.”

“Riight, yeah, okay now I can see it.” Cho said awkwardly, taking another sip of her drink.

“I don’t know what’s more sad, Chang. The fact that you held onto that for so long or the fact that you held on to that for so long and it wasn’t even that insulting.”

"Good thing I don’t give a damn.” Cho said with a smile, raising her glass. “Oh, lighten up, Malfoy. It was a joke.”

Draco rolled his eyes. “Good one. How long have you been waiting to use that little quip?”

“Since Buckbeak fucked you up in your third year.” 

“What the… no? That’s rude.”

“Huh. Then I guess that was an accident.” Cho paused, looking at Albus’ outfit one more time. “What are you supposed to be?”