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Cho Chang lay wide awake in her four-poster bed in the Ravenclaw girls' dormitory. There was no hope of sleeping; too many anxious thoughts were swirling around in her head for her to doze off. For now, she stared up at the ceiling and pondered on her feelings.
Harry Potter was the main thing that she was thinking about. Cho was starting to get over the depression of the loss of her previous love, Cedric Digory. Now she was left alone and was starting to consider Harry again. After all, he was smart, sensitive, funny, talented, and good-looking.
Cho stared around the room. All of the other girls were fast asleep, their breathing deep and slow. The only other sound was the rustle of the trees outside, blowing in the soft breeze. She sat there in the silence of the night, thinking.
She missed Harry terribly, but she knew he wouldn’t get back together with her. Besides, he already had a girlfriend (Cho gritted her teeth resentfully as she was reminded.) But maybe she could just become good friends with Harry. He and Ginny Weasley wouldn’t last forever. If Cho could become close to Harry as a good friend, if he and the Weasley girl ever broke up, Cho would have a clear road to him. She decided to find Harry the very next day, apologize about everything that had happened between them the last time they were dating, and ask if he'd like to go to Hogsmead together or just hang out as friends.
It sounded like a decent plan. Why wouldn't he want to be friends with her? She was smart, extremely popular, and very pretty.
_____________________________________________________________________
Harry was scooping up the last bit of scrambled egg on his golden plate in the Great Hall one morning, chatting merrily with Ron, Hermione, and Ginny. He laid his fork down on his plate and wiped his mouth with his napkin. A quick glance at his watch told him that they still had a couple more minutes until Charms.
His eyes started to wander around the beautiful Great Hall filled with chattering students, all in black robes. Candles floated in mid-air above them, bright and buoyant-looking. The light of their flames reflected off of the many golden plates that held mounds of breakfast food, creating a glittering effect throughout the hall. Up at the staff table, Dumbledore was having an inaudible conversation with Professor Sprout. Snape, the Potions master, sat quietly with a scowl on his face, his greasy hair in his eyes. Harry scanned the four house tables and happened to catch a quick glance at the beautiful, black-haired Cho Chang at the Ravenclaw table, staring right at him. He quickly looked away, hoping that she hadn't noticed. He focused instead on Ron, who was shoveling hashed browns into his mouth as if he hadn’t eaten in days. But in his peripheral vision, Harry saw movement coming from the Ravenclaw table. He turned his head to get a better look and saw that Cho had stood up from her seat. She inhaled deeply, and swept gracefully over to the Gryffindor table. Harry quickly looked down at his plate and pretended to suddenly become interested in his leftover bacon. To Harry's surprise, she cautiously approached him and cleared her throat.
"Um, Harry? Could…er…could I talk to you for a minute?"
Cho glanced at Ron, Hermione, and Ginny, who were all staring at her curiously.
"Alone?" she added.
Harry was slightly taken aback. What did Cho want from him? For the past year they couldn't even look at each other let alone talk to each other.
“Erm, yeah, sure,” Harry muttered despite his surprise
He quickly got up, very aware of pairs of eyes following him, and followed her off to the side of the Gryffindor table. Cho swerved around to face Harry, her beautiful silky black hair lying gracefully on her shoulder, her face rather pink. Harry was glad that her penetrating eyes didn’t make his insides knot like they used to.
"Look, Harry," she started, slowly and cautiously. She looked nervous and fidgety, as though she were having second thoughts. "I know that you thought I was kind of a jerk to you the year before last," she looked at the ground, embarrassed, " and I know that I was obsessed with talking to you about Cedric, and that I cried a bit too much…"
Harry silently agreed with her.
"But I'm over that, now. I've decided that I need to move on from what happened to him--and that I can't just use you to know how he died."
Harry looked around self-consciously. The subject of Cedric was very uncomfortable to him, and he was not in the mood to chat with Cho Chang, of all people. He did not know what she wanted but didn’t exactly care. When he said nothing, Cho continued.
"And I was wondering if you'd--if you'd want to hang out sometime…" she trailed off.
Harry was completely taken aback. At the look on his face, Cho hastily added, "Well, I mean," her face went extremely ruddy, “I just really want to be friends with you again, and I think that it would be fun if we could hang out sometime…"
Harry had to hold in a laugh. He and Cho Chang? Become friends? After not even looking at each other since their split?
"Oh, er…uh, yeah…yeah, I guess we could hang out sometime or something…" Harry stammered awkwardly, not really meaning it.
"Harry!" Ginny suddenly called him. Her fiery-red hair tossed about as she approached them. "Almost time for Charms. You coming or what?" she asked. She took a curious glance at Cho but quickly turned back to Harry, looking at him with brilliant eyes, her pink lips curled naturally into a small smile.
"Yeah, I'll be right there," Harry replied. Ginny nodded and spun around to join Hermione and Ron. Her hair almost whipped him in the face as she turned, fanning a sweet scent of strawberries towards him.
Harry took one last look at Cho, whose expression was somewhere in between bitter and jealous. Her pink cheeks suddenly burned red and her expression angered as she glared at Ginny, who was innocently walking out of the Great Hall. Harry took one last glance at Cho and then turned away from her and ran to catch up with the others.
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The conversation at breakfast played with his mind on the way to Charms. Why would Cho want to be friends with him again? Harry didn't like the idea at all. They didn't exactly make the perfect pals. Harry did not know why Cho was so sudden on "hanging out" after such a long period of silence between them.
Harry had just entered the Charms classroom when he spotted Cho Chang enclosed in her large circle of friends. Cho then looked up and their eyes made contact. He looked away quickly, turning instead to Ron, who was going on about the mounds of homework he was bound to have by the end of the week. Harry then took a seat by Hermione and Ron. Harry noticed (with discomfort) that Cho Chang kept throwing random glances at the four friends, as though trying to make a decision. Suddenly, she abandoned her crowd of giggly friends and approached Harry and the others for the second time in one day. Harry suppressed a groan.
"Harry," she said cheerfully, "come and sit with us?" She indicated the group of girls sitting a couple of seats down.
"Er…no thanks, I'm fine," Harry said quickly.
Cho gave him a look that said plainly “Come on, don’t be shy!” When Cho insisted again that he sit by her, Harry politely refused. She opened her mouth in protest, but luckily, Professor Flitwick stood up (which made barely a difference to his height) and hushed the class down by tapping his wand firmly on the desk in front of him. Cho heaved a defeated sigh and plopped herself down on the empty seat next to Harry.
They began class with a demonstration of the Duplicating Charm by the small professor, and then began practicing the spell themselves. Throughout the entire class, Harry noticed that Cho was always trying to strike up a conversation with him. He replied to most of her comments with "yeah" and "mmhm." It felt very strange, sitting by her, and he couldn’t imagine what others thought of the sight of Harry Potter’s ex-girlfriend sitting by him and chatting enthusiastically. While they were practicing the Duplicating Charm, Cho would also listen intently into Harry, Ron, and Hermione’s conversations and laugh along if Harry ever said anything remotely funny.
Harry, attempting to ignore Cho, turned away from her as far as he possibly could to talk to Ron and Hermione. He found Cho to be very persistent, however. She seemed to refuse to leave him alone. Both irritated and annoyed, Harry gave in and took to listening to her long stories and chatter.
Harry found his mind drifting away from Cho’s talk. He was beginning to wish that Ginny was in their year. That way, they would have all their classes together, and he would get to see her more. Unlike Cho, it was very easy to carry a conversation around Ginny. She made him feel so comfortable, where as Cho made him feel awkward and uncomfortable. It was hard, only getting to spend time with Ginny at meals and after class. He thought of her achingly when they were apart, missing her even when they had only just parted for class. He loved everything about her; her fun, spirited personality, the dazzling smile that made his insides melt, and those deep, dimond-like eyes that always bore deeply into his at the most perfect moments…
Harry was relieved to get away from Cho when Charms finally ended. Cho's bizarre behavior was almost starting to scare him, now.
He collected his things and was almost sure he saw Cho open her mouth to say something, but Harry hurried towards the door to catch up with Ron and Hermione.
Harry exhaled heavily when Cho was out of sight. He ran his hand through his black hair and tried to forget the girl. Then he saw Ginny come around the corner and greet them with a smile. Harry suddenly felt lighter, and he returned the smile.
They walked down the halls together, and, unfortunately, the topic of conversation turned to Cho’s strange behavior.
“She’s been acting strange lately,” Hermione noted.
“Yeah, I mean, first she wants to talk to Harry ‘alone’ and then she sits with us in Charms…wonder what’s gotten into her?" Ron questioned.
Ginny laughed. "She sat by you guys? Merlin, that must have been annoying."
“Tell me about it,” Harry muttered.
A puzzled look came onto Hermione’s face, as though she were trying to remember something. "By the way, Harry, what did Cho want this morning?”
Harry glanced at her nervously. He hadn’t yet bothered to tell his friends about what Cho had said during breakfast. Nor was he prepared to. They turned the corner, heading down the stairway to the dungeons. Harry hesitated before answering.
"Oh, well, she---she just asked about some homework in---"
But he was cut off by the bell that told them they were late for Potions.
Ron cursed and they all sprinted down the dungeons, trying to get into the Potions classroom before Snape could notice they were late. When they got to the door, they carefully and quietly opened the door and tried to slip in without being noticed. Snape, however, spotted them immediately.
“Well, Potter, Weasley, Granger,” said Snape, with a smug expression, (which gave Harry the horrible feeling that they were in trouble) “Since you all have decided to traipse into class late, you have delayed my very important lecture and have therefore wasted precious minutes of my time. Ten points from Gryffindor. Each.”
“Ten each?!” Harry gasped out in astonishment. “But we were hardly even late!”
“But unfortunately, Potter, you were late. So I take ten points from each of you. You’re lucky it isn’t more. Now sit down before I put you in detention.”
Harry grudgingly threw himself down on his seat and took to glaring murderously at the hook-nosed Potions master.
Potions drifted slowly on, starting with a lecture from Snape, then a tediously long chapter on the Essence of Bonedrene.
Harry, a twinge of annoyance for Snape still twitching within him, was relieved when the bell finally rang at the end of class. Wanting to get far away from the dungeons as quickly as possible, he scooped up his books and headed out the door, not even pausing to wait for Ron and Hermione.
Harry hadn’t gone ten paces when he caught a glimpse of Cho Chang coming around the corner of the stairway. He turned his head in the other direction, as if that would stop her from noticing him. Behind him he could hear Hermione and Ron finally catching up to him. But to Harry’s dismay, Cho excitedly came over to him and began walking right by his side, at the same time that Hermione and Ron approached him, too.
"Hi, Harry!" Cho said, her dark eyes twinkling.
“Uh…hi.” Harry said, trying to look anywhere but at her.
“How was class?” Cho asked cheerily.
“Erm, good, I guess.” Harry wondered why in the world she cared about how his class went. Ron and Hermione stared at her for a moment, and then looked at Harry as if to say since when have you two been friends? Harry knew Cho was trying to enforce this “friend” thing, but it just wasn’t going to work out with him. He simply did not want to be friends with Cho Chang. He looked past her shoulder, shifting uncomfortably as though planning an escape.
Just then, they spotted Ginny walking down the stairs. Harry tensed up. The idea of Ginny and Cho both walking together with him didn’t exactly thrill him. Ginny called for them to wait up and ran down the stairs to meet them.
“Oh,” said Ginny, surprised to see Cho standing there, “hello, Cho.”
“Hi,” Cho said, forcing a smile that she hoped looked sweet.
An irritating twinge of annoyance prodded at Cho when Harry put his arm around Ginny’s waist. Their contact burned at Cho. She longed to rip that arm away from that tiny waist; she yearned to gently rest it around her own.
Cho shook herself. She needed to stop wishing. Her goal now was to befriend Harry. To gain his trust. By whatever means.
They began walking again, and Harry tried to make it obvious that he was purposefully ignoring Cho. He hoped she would get the hint that he wanted her to go away. Cho Chang, however, persisted to make small talk with him. Harry caught Ginny giving Cho an odd glance and then looking at Harry questioningly. Harry shrugged unknowingly, wishing he could say something to Ginny to assure her that he was certainly not walking and talking with Cho by his own free will.
Ginny, however, wondered what in the world Cho was up to. Ginny wasn’t quite fond of that twinkling look in Cho’s eye. The way she brushed her long, veil of silky hair on her shoulder and then began combing it with her fingers bugged Ginny for some reason. Who does she think she is? Ginny thought. Just because Cho was pretty didn’t mean she had to act all big-headed and toss her shiny hair all over the place. Why did she have to be such an annoying little flirt? Ginny guessed it was just habit, for Cho was always trying to show off to boys and to her little friends.
They both exhaled a long breath. This was going to be a very long week.
* * *
For the next two days, things continued as they had the previous day. Cho Chang took every chance she could to find the trio, whether it was sitting with them in every class she had with Harry or walking with them in the halls. Ginny usually accompanied them, too, which made it harder and more uncomfortable for all of them. Ginny, however, pretended to be amused by Cho’s sudden friendliness. She joked and laughed about the matter, brushing it off as if nothing were really going on, as did Ron. Hermione found it interesting and suspicious that Cho would all of a sudden want to be a part of the group. Harry just found it downright annoying. He knew she was trying desperately to be their friend, but all she was accomplishing so far was bugging him. Which is why, two days after Cho had first decided to befriend them, everyone groaned eternally when they spotted her leaving the Ravenclaw table and coming towards them.
“Hi!” she greeted cheerily to the foursome. Ron and Ginny merely grunted, and Hermione uttered a small, “Hey.”
There was a short pause of silence until Cho, whose face was bright and enthusiastic, commented, “The people at my table are being really stupid this morning, so I thought I’d come and eat with you guys!” As she said this, she pushed her way between Harry and Ginny, the red-head throwing her a quick glare.
“Oh, wonderful!” Ginny said, a sarcastic twist entering her voice as she gave Cho an extremely forced smile, then turned her head the other way and rolled her eyes. Once Cho got situated (or rather, slopped cauldron-sized mounds of food on her plate) she began to chatter non-stop and, as it seemed, all in one breath.
“See they are always being immature and it kinda started to bother me because they are always so childish at meal times it just makes me feel stupid sometimes and I mean I love my house and everything but even though Ravenclaws are supposed to be smart and everything sometimes they can be really silly so that’s why I’m glad I make friends with the more mature people but they were sitting on the other end today so I thought that you guys would be cool to sit by because you are always just hanging around----” And the buzz of never-ending prattle continued.
Harry was imagining himself knocking his head against the table grudgingly, but resisted the temptation to save him the embarrassment. Ron took to slurping his soup loudly and obnoxiously, attempting to drown out the pointless babble of the dark-haired girl. The only thing he succeeded in, however, was causing muffled snickers from Ginny and earning an annoyed smack on the arm from Hermione. When she did this, however, there was a small choking noise that came from Ron, who had accidentally inhaled a portion of the soup. He spluttered and coughed, causing Ginny to snicker even harder. Ron seemed to think it was funny, too, and chimed in. His face was already red from coughing, but it turned even more scarlet as he attempted to cover his mouth. It made them laugh even harder to see that Cho did not even notice their fits of laughter, but just continued on with her meaningless story. Ginny and Ron both tried to muffle their now uncontrollable laughter, but to little avail. Ron’s face turned red, and Ginny had her face down in her arms on the table, her whole being shaking with hilarity. Harry couldn’t help but grin at the two siblings. He was so glad they could both keep their sense of humor even in an awkward situation. Hermione tried to get them to be quiet, but she had a hard time keeping her own face straight as well. Finally, Cho noticed that the Weasleys were red in the face and holding their stomachs.
“It wasn’t funny!” she exclaimed, referring to her story that nobody had been paying the slightest bit of attention to. “It was quite embarrassing, actually!”
This remark did nothing but cause tears of laughter to stream down the Weasley siblings’ cheeks. Cho seemed to take this offensively.
“Serious! Stop it!” Her ears turned red, and she suddenly stood up. “Well, fine! I won’t sit here, then!” And with that, she walked off in a huff.
When Ron and Ginny could finally breath, Ron commented (still through chuckles), “What’s got her knickers in a knot?”
Ginny added, “Who’s brought her monthly gift today?”
With that, she and Hermione burst into laughter. Ron’s chuckles stopped abruptly as his and Harry’s face contorted with disgust.
* * *
When Cho did not desert her attempts to befriend Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny over the next few days, Harry had no idea what to do. Ginny and Ron seemed to think this whole thing was laughable, but Harry just found it more and more annoying each day. Whenever they had a class together, there was Cho, right on his side; and whenever they didn't have a class together, Cho would be out in the hall seconds after the bell rang, waiting for him.
Harry found it hard to avoid her. It was almost like she was tracking him down; she seemed to know every class he had every day and where he was at every second.
“Serious, what are we going to do about her? She’s driving me mad!” Harry vented to his friends while walking out of the Gryffindor common room.
“She’ll get over it. She’ll start thinking about Cedric again”you mark my words”she’ll be crying all the way back to her little stall in the lavatory again,” Ron commented.
“Ron!” Hermione scolded him, “Cho was very sensitive about that! How would you like it if you had a girlfriend that died unexpectedly?”
“Well, it’s not that, but the fact that she used Harry after that! Just to find out what happened to Cedric,” Ron defended.
They turned the corner and went down the moving stairway to the fourth floor. As they made their way down to Transfigurations, Harry recalled the night of his and Cho’s first date very clearly. She had wanted to know about Cedric’s death, but Harry, being too uncomfortable with the subject, avoided it. She had then gotten upset and left the pub.
“Speak of the devil…” Ginny muttered. Sure enough, Cho Chang came dashing down the corridor, waving frantically.
“Quick! Hide! Before she finds us and we all suffer death by boredom!” Ron exclaimed, attempting to hide his tall lanky form behind Hermione. Ginny and Harry grinned, and Hermione began to hit Ron to make him stop making a fool of himself.
When Cho at last approached them, Hermione quickly stopped and attempted to look natural. Ron, too, stood up straight and suppressed a grin.
Cho smiled cheerily at all of them and began walking beside Harry. She gently pulled him so that they were both in front of Ginny, Ron, and Hermione. She looked back at the three to make sure they weren’t listening, and then whispered to Harry, "Hey, you know the Hogsmeade trip this weekend?"
Harry nodded, dreading where this was going.
"Well, would you like to come with me and a couple of my friends?"
Harry knew that "a couple of my friends" meant the large gang of giggly girls that usually followed her around.
"Well…I was already planning on going with Ginny and Ron and Hermione…" Harry trailed off, hoping the excuse would work.
Cho was about to offer to come with them when she caught herself. She didn’t want to sound too persistent. She ought to hold back on inviting herself into Harry’s plans or else she would seem too pushy. So she decided against it and let out a sigh.
"It's alright, Harry, I understand," and she left gloomily.
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Again, burning anger boiled inside Cho as she walked away from Harry and down the corridor. That Weasley girl seemed to always get in the way of her and Harry. Cho was trying her best to be nice to Harry and make him like her again, but it was useless. The more she tried, the more Harry avoided her. It seemed she was just going to have to be better than the Weasley girl.
“What was all that whispering about?” Hermione inquired.
“Oh, just Cho being talkative, as usual,” Harry lied. He didn’t want them knowing that Cho was probably going to seek them out at Hogsmeade, too.
No more was said as they made their way to their next class, but Ginny was staring suspiciously at Harry. She had a feeling that Harry was not telling the whole truth…something smelled very fishy…
Stuck in the Middle by hproxmysox36
Chapter Notes: A big thanks to my cousin, Chloe, who wrote a portion of the first few chapters and was a big help! Thanks Chloe! :)
Chapter Endnotes: ****
Hey all! The first couple chapters of this story may start out a little slow, but it will start to speed up and get better in later chapters!! Read and Review! :)