Fic: The Art of Visibility
Title: The Art of Visibility
Author: dangerous_angel
Fandom: Harry Potter
Character(s): Cho Chang
Summary: All Cho wants is to be seen.
Rating: All
Spoilers: Takes place at the end of GoF.
Word Count: 654
A/N: This was spurred by a post on redcandle17’s journal about the Cho hate. I’m not particularly taken with the character, but I believe she can be interesting. So I had to write a fic to prove that.
One of the worst feelings in the world, Cho Chang knew, was to feel like you didn’t exist. Before Hogwarts, she didn’t know what it was like to be visible. At home, she knew that to survive she had to become small and insignificant, to have no wants or needs and to take what was begrudgingly given to her.
She wasn’t like her beautiful sister, Aiko, who got all Outstandings on her NEWTS and travelled the world, bringing home exciting stories about Muggles and their inventions and what it was like in Wizarding Africa and Peru. Neither was she like Mai, who could weave stories from clouds and enchanted anyone who asked her to tell them a tale. She was just Cho. Cho, whose birth her mother was apprehensive about. Cho, who came too early and killed her.
Hogwarts changed things because she was invisible for reasons that had nothing to do with her. No one knew about her mother, and Marietta, who did, did not blame her. It was like getting warm after being out in the snow for hours.
Cho enjoyed her new invisibility until third year. When she arrived at Platform 9 ¾, she immediately noticed the way boys did double-takes upon seeing her. Their jaws would become slack and they’d begin to blush when they’d recovered some. She knew it had something to do with her breasts, which she hadn’t noticed until this summer when they’d begun growing. The summer had brought other changes, and to her it seemed as if her body was staging a revolt. She was uncomfortable in her skin. But standing there on the platform, Cho began to understand the way of the world, and the discomfort was erased.
She boarded the train, smiling. When Marietta saw her, she pouted. “You’re pretty,” she said, sounding both insulted and accusing.
Cho shrugged and continued smiling. Marietta was insignificant at that moment because Cho was having an epiphany of sorts. She’d finally realized how to be seen.
It was quite amusing how the boys tried to impress her. The silly things they’d say and do. They loved that she was a Quidditch player. It kept them interested longer.
She’d never been truly taken with any of them, not until Cedric. He was perfect for her. The Golden Boy who seemed too good to be true. Cedric did not understand the concept of invisibility. He was light and perfection embodied in his yellow Quidditch robes, flashing his winning smile. Before Cedric, Cho was seen, but with him she shone. It was difficult for people to ignore her now. She was Cedric Diggory’s girlfriend. She was perfect by association.
And then, he was taken from her. Just like that, it was all coming undone and everything she’d worked for was slipping from her grasp.
She grieved for Cedric. Grieved because she loved him, because she missed him, and because she knew that without him she would wish for invisibility. She would become the late Cedric Diggory’s girlfriend, untouchable and pitied. People would see her on their own terms, if they chose to see her at all. She would become grotesque, once again aligned with death and other things people wanted to forget. They would reach a point where she could not shape their wills with a smile or a toss of her hair.
Thinking on Cedric and a future she did not want, Cho began to cry. They noticed her. All it took was a few more tears and sobs and she had them. “Would you like something, Cho?” “Do you need anything, dear?” “Is there something we can do for you?”
There was another epiphany: Cedric was gone and she remained. There was no one in Hogwarts who was viscerally closer to him than her. She was now an avatar for her dead boyfriend. All eyes would be on her. It was sick and twisted, and yet, she rejoiced.
-end-
Now I can go back to my schedule.
Author: dangerous_angel
Fandom: Harry Potter
Character(s): Cho Chang
Summary: All Cho wants is to be seen.
Rating: All
Spoilers: Takes place at the end of GoF.
Word Count: 654
A/N: This was spurred by a post on redcandle17’s journal about the Cho hate. I’m not particularly taken with the character, but I believe she can be interesting. So I had to write a fic to prove that.
One of the worst feelings in the world, Cho Chang knew, was to feel like you didn’t exist. Before Hogwarts, she didn’t know what it was like to be visible. At home, she knew that to survive she had to become small and insignificant, to have no wants or needs and to take what was begrudgingly given to her.
She wasn’t like her beautiful sister, Aiko, who got all Outstandings on her NEWTS and travelled the world, bringing home exciting stories about Muggles and their inventions and what it was like in Wizarding Africa and Peru. Neither was she like Mai, who could weave stories from clouds and enchanted anyone who asked her to tell them a tale. She was just Cho. Cho, whose birth her mother was apprehensive about. Cho, who came too early and killed her.
Hogwarts changed things because she was invisible for reasons that had nothing to do with her. No one knew about her mother, and Marietta, who did, did not blame her. It was like getting warm after being out in the snow for hours.
Cho enjoyed her new invisibility until third year. When she arrived at Platform 9 ¾, she immediately noticed the way boys did double-takes upon seeing her. Their jaws would become slack and they’d begin to blush when they’d recovered some. She knew it had something to do with her breasts, which she hadn’t noticed until this summer when they’d begun growing. The summer had brought other changes, and to her it seemed as if her body was staging a revolt. She was uncomfortable in her skin. But standing there on the platform, Cho began to understand the way of the world, and the discomfort was erased.
She boarded the train, smiling. When Marietta saw her, she pouted. “You’re pretty,” she said, sounding both insulted and accusing.
Cho shrugged and continued smiling. Marietta was insignificant at that moment because Cho was having an epiphany of sorts. She’d finally realized how to be seen.
It was quite amusing how the boys tried to impress her. The silly things they’d say and do. They loved that she was a Quidditch player. It kept them interested longer.
She’d never been truly taken with any of them, not until Cedric. He was perfect for her. The Golden Boy who seemed too good to be true. Cedric did not understand the concept of invisibility. He was light and perfection embodied in his yellow Quidditch robes, flashing his winning smile. Before Cedric, Cho was seen, but with him she shone. It was difficult for people to ignore her now. She was Cedric Diggory’s girlfriend. She was perfect by association.
And then, he was taken from her. Just like that, it was all coming undone and everything she’d worked for was slipping from her grasp.
She grieved for Cedric. Grieved because she loved him, because she missed him, and because she knew that without him she would wish for invisibility. She would become the late Cedric Diggory’s girlfriend, untouchable and pitied. People would see her on their own terms, if they chose to see her at all. She would become grotesque, once again aligned with death and other things people wanted to forget. They would reach a point where she could not shape their wills with a smile or a toss of her hair.
Thinking on Cedric and a future she did not want, Cho began to cry. They noticed her. All it took was a few more tears and sobs and she had them. “Would you like something, Cho?” “Do you need anything, dear?” “Is there something we can do for you?”
There was another epiphany: Cedric was gone and she remained. There was no one in Hogwarts who was viscerally closer to him than her. She was now an avatar for her dead boyfriend. All eyes would be on her. It was sick and twisted, and yet, she rejoiced.
-end-
Now I can go back to my schedule.