2/18/2002

 

Seventh Floor Corridor

 

The seventh floor corridor of Hogwarts is a little less decorative than the first floor, but nevertheless it serves it's function as a hallway well.  There are doors leading here and there, leading to classrooms, common rooms, and the such.

 

 

Harry climbs up the stairs, heading down the hall towards Gryffindor tower, his bookbag slung over his shoulder. One of his sleeves has a nice tear down it. Gotta love teething plants in Herbology huh? He'll try to repair the tear later on, if not, he's got some other robes.. or he could sneak off to Hogsmeade for replacements.

 

Oh yes, teething plants in herbology can be quite bothersome. Cho never really could get into that aspect of Herbology. It is one of her better classes, since it ties in closely with medi-magic, but still, she never much liked the fact that some of those plants could maim someone if they weren't careful. Same reason she didn't take Care for Magical Creatures. The Ravenclaw Seeker is coming from the passage way to the left, having just left her common room, a small black cat, likely only seven months old, held in her arms, letting out occassional mews of annoyance. It doesn't want to be out in the cold corridors. It wants to be by the fire. She notices a familar figure and calls out, "Harry?"

 

Harry suspects that it was a great big joke on his behalf. Yes, the tentacula is teething, but we won't tell Harry that. Instead we'll just tell him to move the pot to where it has more light. *sigh* Oh gads.. not another cat in the school.. But wait, it's Cho's, so that's okay.. wait.. He pauses in the middle of the corridor and blinks before heading in your direction, "Hey Cho.."

 

Oh, this cat is special. Well, not really, but it is to her. At least the cat looks exceptionally pretty, in terms of having shiny, well-kept fur. Cho moves in his direction as he heads towards her, stopping when they meet halfway or some such, "How're--" she starts, only to stop and ask something else instead. "Did you get hurt?" She notices the torn sleeve, asking in a genuinely concerned voice.

 

Harry would ask if you got your flowers okay, but Hedwig never fails in a delivery. Besides, talking about Valentine's, gifts and girls makes him feel all weird, like he's a complete prat or something. He looks at the cat and asks, "When you get the kitten? Eh? Oh.. naaah, it got my robes before it could do any real damage. Professor Sprout's too quick for the plants in the greenhouse." Wait. You sound concerned. Perhaps he should have said, yes, and it hurt quite a bit, but Pomfrey mended him up right quick. Wait.. why would he want to do such a thing? u.u;

 

Well, at least you don't yell at her for asking like another Fifth year Seeker who will remain nameless. Cho nods slowly, settling down after she hears that it wasn't anything too big. She doesn't see any blood, so it does look as if his story is true. The concerned expression turns into a friendly smile, "I got her right before the end of summer. My father bought her for me. She doesn't really like leaving the Common Room, but I'm trying to get her used to it." As if to show that what she said was true, the cat mews again in protest. Take me back! =^Q.Q^= And it looks as if he's saved from asking about the flowers, because immediately after she says, "Thank you for the flowers the other day."

 

Jeee, just who could that be? Why would Harry yell at you anyway? He can't begin to fathom a reason to yell at you. He grins and reaches out a hand for the kitten to sniff. It's kinda dangerous to thrust your hand into an animal's face to try and pet 'em. "She's cute, what did you name her? She should get used to roaming the castle soon enough." Maybe we should introduce her to Crookshanks.. and huh? What were we talking about? "Flowers? OH! You're welcome.. Thanks for the caramels.." He wasn't expecting to receive anything, but did, mainly from nameless sources. Guh. It kinda sucks being a teenager. Why can't he just hide from a stupid day like Valentine's?

 

Oh, this cat seems to be used to getting petted. She sniffs the hand for a few seconds, and seems to find the smell of the plants odd, but not so much that she cowers away. In fact, she stops meowing in protest. Cho smiles, taking note of something that seems to please her, then she answers, "Kaui Hua. It's Chinese." She can't help but continue to smile as he response to the flowers, "You're welcome," she returns. As for if she was expecting to get anything, yeah, she was, but oddly enough she barely got anything at all. Guess most of her friends decided to back off with trying to set her up with guys. Some of that probably has to do, unfortunately, with that previously unnamed person.

 

Harry grins and lightly scratches the kitten behind the ears. While Ron is biased towards cats, Harry doesn't mind them so much. "... I can't even begin to pronounce that. It sounds really pretty." Especially since you said it. Augh! There he goes again u.u;; "What does it mean?" Bah.. why do people want to set their friends up so badly? Let them work things out on their own.

 

"It means 'mallow blossom'. It's a kind of flower." Cho doesn't seem surprised that he has trouble with the pronounciation at all, in fact, she adds the reason, "Almost none of the other Ravenclaws can say it right either. They just started calling her 'Q'" because the first sound of the name does sound remarkably like Q. And poor Cho has no idea why some of the Muggleborn students keep snickering when they hear that her cat is named 'Q.'

 

Harry ahs, "It's definitely a pretty name. Oh good, now I don't feel so badly about not being able to say it." Now watch him practice it in the common room and dorm until people start to snicker madly at him. He scratches Kaui Hua under the chin before straightening up. "Q?" He racks his brain for a few moments and draws a complete blank. If he were able to watch more TV and movies, he might catch on to the reference.

 

Kaui Hua was just started to really like getting petted by the planty smelling boy, and meows in protest again when the hand is pulled away. Cho can't help but laugh softly, "I think she likes you, Harry." Perhaps she will have it wait til one of the Muggle girls decides to explain to her why they snicker when they say that, but for now, it is easier and most of the girls call her that. "Since we're on the topic, I don't recall ever being told what your owl is called." She remembers seeing the bird in the Hospital Wing, and one of the girls mentioned the flowers were delieved by a snowy white owl (she'd been elsewhere in the castle at the time) and likely some other times during the mail.

 

Harry erps and pets her some more o.o; ".. So it seems.. Oh! It's Hedwig. Speaking of which, I hope she doesn't get too terribly jealous." You know, fraternizing with the pets of others. "She's already mad at me as it is. Ron's owl, Pig, is kinda, erhm, taken with her thanks to a spell I was casting backfiring." Poor, poor Pig and Hedwig. Hagrid would have bought him an owl that would stand out among the others. Not that Harry minds this one bit mind you.

 

Now, Hedwig is more like the kind of pet name that's fairly easily to pronounces. "The jealous type, is she?" Cho can't help but laugh softly, shaking her head, but she doesn't say anything against the poor bird. "Oh dear. What exactly were you trying to do do that caused something like that to happen?" She's curious what kind of spell would have that kind of a backfire.

 

Harry grins a bit, "Yeah.. She's also pretty sensitive and gets offended if I can't use her for delivering mail." just like a woman.. errr..  Uhm, he's not going to answer that fully. You might like the reasoning less than Hermione would. "Oh, we were practicing with some charms and one ricoheted and hit Pig. Hedwig ignored me completely for two days while he was flapping about her twittering with excitement."

 

Cho would probably take that pretty interestingly, but then again, she can stand to be around Draco for more than a few minutes, so perhaps it wouldn't bother her /too/ badly. That isn't half as bad as some of the things that come out of /his/ mouth... "I've never had my own owl, I suppose they might get a little bit jealous if you don't use them." She can't help but laugh again at the story of the owls, asking curiously, "What charm hit him?"

 

Maybe Harry shouldn't have mentioned this to begin with o.o; "Ah, we were practicing with adoration and affection charms. It was better for the spell to hit Pig than a person." Utter chaos. Definitely. "Not sure about other owls. It could just be Hedwig with the jealous streak. Pig definitely doesn't get affronted by anything." He hasn't seen any other owl behave quite like Hedwig. "she could just be tempermental thanks to usually having to keep her locked up over the summer."

 

Adoration and affection charms? Cho can't help but raise her eyebrows at that. She remembers all the mentions about how good Professor Flitwick was at those spells in his youth, but she has never tried one before, even on a bird. They've learned Cheering charms and the like, but never those kinds. "Why were you practicing them?" She can't help but ask curiously, but she doesn't look as if she's going to press it if the question is dismissed.

 

ACK! Twenty questions and here's your host, Cho Chang! Our first contestant is Harry Potter, and sir, what is your answer please? "Uhm, just as a joke." Well that is telling the truth. "We were a bit bored with classwork too." He's dying to see what Draco's reaction was to all of this too. The bird only got hit on accident.

 

Cho seems to accept that, nodding and smiling, "Well, just try not to get into trouble. The Ravenclaws are starting to think that we're going to get handed the Cup if you and the Slytherins keep losing so many large amounts of points." She probably shouldn't be argueing about that, but she is one of those people who would rather think that her house earned the cup, rather than got it cause the two leading houses lost too many points.

 

Harry laughs then chokes a bit. ".. Ah.. yeah.. I've already asked McGonagall about Quidditch, but I'm still getting the usual answer. 'Soon Potter, soon. You didn't expect me to put it back on tonight did you?' Why on earth are they taking so long?" He can understand that viewpoint on winning the cup. Give us back our Quidditch!

 

"I have no idea." Cho says with a sigh, shaking her head sadly. She misses Quidditch. "The least she could do is at least give us our brooms back. I could live without the actual matches as long as I could get out and fly for a few hours... Maybe a couple practice games, anything..." Professor McGonagall has her mind in the right place, but... but... brooms! Sigh.

 

Harry shrugs his shoulders, "I know. I want my Firebolt back." Sentimental value n'all. "This is getting ridiculous. I'm starting to favor an actual protest until we get Quidditch back on." Surely there are enough students that will put up a fuss. He would ask Dumbledore, but that would be overstepping McGonagall's authority and that would be bad.

 

Oh, not just sentimental value. Sanity value! Especially with Draco and everything, Cho needs /something/ to do sometimes... sigh. "We could always try to find out where she's keeping them and see if we can get past whatever she's put up to protect our brooms. We'd probably get in even worse trouble, but..." It might be worth it. How hard can the precausions be to get past anyway? Especially for you.

 

That too! Harry loves that broomstick. His Godfather bought him that! "That is a tempting idea, but I'm a bit worried that she'd kick me off the team should I play any part in something like that." Oh he has been pondering stealing back his broom.. he's also worried that his invisibility cloak will be confiscated too. They'll have to pry that from his cold dead hands.

 

"Well... I'll try to ask her sometime. Maybe she'll take it better if it comes from someone else." Cho offers a smile, then says, "Well, I better go down and take Kaui Hua for more of a walk. I'll talk to you later, all right, Harry?"

 

Harry nods, "I bet she's tired of hearing about it from me. I tried appealing to her by saying it was the only way for Gryffindor to catch up in points." Granted most of the points lost are thanks to him... as per usual. Along with Snape's bullying. "Alright, it was nice talking to you Cho." AUGH! Why'd he phrase it that way? He gives the kitten another scritch. "Later." Then he turns and heads for Gryffindor tower.

 

"I'll see if I can get a few others as well." Maybe if she can get one person from each house to ask it won't sound so bad. Cho doubts she'll be able to talk Draco into it though. Sigh. She smiles and says, "Later." She starts towards the stairs down to continue on her walk, her cat meowing in protest. Want planty smelling boy hand back. =^;.;^=