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He had picked the time when she would be alone in her room,
where there would be no one to point a finger and laugh at him.
Harry paused outside the door to the Ravenclaw girl's
dormitory, his heart pounding under the Invisibility cloak. Did he
have the guts to do it? What would she say...?
No help for it, he told himself in a steely tone, go ahead,
and confess! Or are you too chicken? Take it like a man!
Before he could mentally goad himself anymore, he had grasped
the doorknob and pulled.
He found himself standing before a very surprised looking Cho
Chang, reclining on a large mound of pillows. Her hair was rather
dishevelled owing to the shock of having her room door pop open
apparently of its own accord. She looked a little like she had been
caught doing something she shouldn't have been doing.
Harry took a deep breath and drew back the hood of his
Invisibility cloak.
"Harry! W-What are you doing here? You're not allowed in the
girls rooms!"
"Cho, I know Cedric's death has been a shock, but you've got
to get over him! I want you to know that..." he reddened, "I'm here
for you, no matter what."
Silence. Harry stood there stupidly, awaiting her reaction.
She looked a little winded at the proclamation, then made a
thoughtful sound. "Harry, what exactly are you trying to say?"
"I'm trying to say.. er... well, I love you, Cho."
"I see." Cho brushed back her hair, her expression still
musing. "I think... not."
"What?" that wasn't exactly what he had been expecting.
Acceptance had been a slim prospect in his mind, rejection would have
been a little difficult to swallow, but this was a strange response to
his advances.
"Well, let's face it, Harry. You don't even know me well. I
think it might just be a momentary infatuation, spawned from one too
many Quidditch matches and a sudden influx of hormones. Besides, there
are other reasons."
"Umm.. Such as?"
"Why don't you sit down dear, and I'll tell you why. Over
there, yes, that nice, long couch. Lie down and relax." Cho gestured
to the far corner of the room, where a couch much resembling the kind
you find at a psychiatrist's resided. Harry blinked, then obeyed in a
slightly dazed manner.
"Isn't it obvious?" Cho continued, once Harry had made himself
comfortable. "You've got better prospects else where. Like Ron for
example."
"WHAT??????"
"Don't tell me you've never noticed it? The way Ron looks at
you sometimes? Don't you see how his gaze seems to linger longer on
you than Hermione? Or even Fleur Delacour while she was here? You've
shared the same dorm for six years, don't tell me it's never occurred
to you?"
"Now that you mention it..."
"Aha, see? Don't you find yourself sometimes looking at Ron or
Draco with a little more than friendly interest?"
"Yeah, well..."
"Hm, just as I suspected. I think that you're in denial,
Harry." Cho nodded to herself, as if confirming her long present
suspicions. "You're using me, Harry, like a tool to aid in your self
delusion. You don't want to admit that you're gay."
"I... never thought about it that way."
"No, it never really occurred to you, because you have taken
on the responsibility of continuing the Potter family line
unconsciously, based on raw instinct. To your conscious mind, you
*can't* be homosexual, but deep down inside, the real you is just
fighting to come out, so to speak."
"Wow, that's so... amazing. How do you know this stuff?"
Harry's eyes were full of emerald wonder.
"Not really. I'm surprised that you haven't noticed Ron
yourself, the way he practically hangs all over you during the
aftermath of a victorious Quidditch match. You don't *really* think
those were just brotherly hugs, do you?"
"Hm, that's--"
"And there was that Potions class two weeks ago, where he took
the rap for you when Professor Snape was going to give you detention."
"Oh, yes--"
"Not to mention the way he constantly brushes against you
during Care of Magical Creatures 'accidentally'," she wiggled her
fingers to annotate the word 'accidentally'.
"I don't see how I could have been so... blind!"
"Exactly, dear, but I don't blame you. Poor Ron though, and I
was wondering why he kept going to the Prefects' bathroom at night. He
must have been taking so many cold showers because of you."
"How do you know...?"
"That's not important. The point is, Harry, that you are in
the wrong place, saying the wrong things to the wrong person. You need
to right the wrong."
"Yes, yes! I realise it now!"
"Yes, so where should you be, what should you be doing and
with whom?"
"I should be in the Gryffindor boy's dorm screwing with Ron!"
"Brilliant, dear!"
"Cho, I don't know how to thank you, you've really made me see
the light! I could kiss you, but I' won't. " Harry crossed the room
and grasped her hand instead. He shook it firmly a couple of times
wearing an expression of sheer enlightenment, then he bolted from the
room, supposedly off to find Ron so they could... cement their
affections.
Cho watched the door of the room bang shut, then she went to
pick up the Invisibility cloak Harry had left behind. With the grace
of a willow(*) swaying in the wind, she bent down and poked her mound
of pillows in the side.
"You can come out now, Hermione. I think our excursions to the
Prefects' bathroom have become a little easier. Assuming Harry and Ron
won't be using it for the same purpose.."
The End
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