RP: Three days by the calendar, a million years by the heart
Date: May 21, 1998
Character: Cho Chang
Location: Hogwarts, Glasgow and Hogsmeade
Status: Private
Summary: The events of the last few days finally leave an impact on Cho.
Completion: Complete
Cho sat up suddenly in bed, a bead of sweat sliding down her back. It was May in Scotland, but it might as well have been August in south India by the way she was sweating. She'd gone to bed early, shortly after having a bit of dinner in the dingy bar room at the Hog's Head Inn. She hadn't let her parents know she was staying there; she'd only said she would be "staying in Hogsmeade". She didn't attempt to find a room someplace better; there were still families of Hogwarts students staying in the village, many of them tending the less-wounded among the young witches and wizards who had stayed to fight, and it seemed proper to let them have the better rooms that were available. She didn't really need much, just a bed and a mirror and access to the loo, and she could get all of those at the Hog's Head. The mirror was a bit grimy, but less than most of the interior of Hogwarts after the battle.
The battle... Had it really been only three days since her fake Galleon had glowed in her pocket, summoning her to whatever was going on at Hogwarts? It felt like a million years ago. Cho had been lucky; she'd come out of the battle with minor injuries, including a broken wrist that Madam Pomfrey had healed quickly with a spell once she had time to tend to Cho. Watching the older woman work gave Cho plenty to think about; becoming a healer would be hard work, she knew, but if she chose that path it would be a very rewarding one.
Fortunately she didn't feel any pressure about a career path, not yet anyway. When she was finally patched up and feeling well enough to travel, she'd Apparated home Friday evening to assure her parents that she was okay. As the youngest child in the family, and the only girl, Cho was fawned over and, she thought, somewhat over-protected by her Chinese-immigrant parents. Still, they'd been fairly reasonable when she told them she didn't plan to stay in Glasgow more than the weekend, and her mother had spent only half an hour trying to convince her to stay longer.
Cho took advantage of her comfortable bed for just two nights. After what she had seen, and done, she found that the comfortable bed didn't matter and couldn't help; no matter where she slept, against a rough stone wall at school, in her own bed, on the sofa in the sitting room, she still dreamed of blood and curses and flying glass hurtling toward her head, and Su's lifeless body lying bloodied on the stone floor. She dreamed of little Colin Creevey, who shouldn't have stayed to fight because he wasn't of age, his cold body stretched out atop a table in the Great Hall. She couldn't sleep for more than three hours at a stretch, because if she did, she invariably had another nightmare about the death and destruction she had seen. It did no good for her body to remain in Glasgow while her heart remained at Hogwarts.
Sunday morning she packed a bag of clothes and personal items and told her parents goodbye. Her mother, Ming Ya, wept openly, while her father, Zhi Hong, merely looked heartbroken. Cho had spent the year after she left Hogwarts living with her parents in Glasgow. Publicly she was assisting them in their magical apothecary, which specialised in Chinese herbal remedies. Privately, she was helping them keep Muggleborns safe inside the Chang family home while they waited to move to permanent safe locations. With the war being over, Muggleborns would be free to move and live as they wished, and the Chang family wouldn't need to shelter them any more. Cho knew she hadn't convinced her parents that they didn't need her at home any more; she just hoped they understood that she needed to be where she was needed a lot more. It would take a serious concerted effort by a great many people to rebuild the school, and Cho wanted to do whatever she could to finish the post-battle cleanup and help with the beginning of the rebuilding.
She sat up suddenly in bed in her little room at the Hog's Head Inn, sweat trickling down her back, hands feeling around the bed and the little table next to it to make sure she really had been dreaming. Fred Weasley and Colin and Su weren't really in her room after all.
Character: Cho Chang
Location: Hogwarts, Glasgow and Hogsmeade
Status: Private
Summary: The events of the last few days finally leave an impact on Cho.
Completion: Complete
Cho sat up suddenly in bed, a bead of sweat sliding down her back. It was May in Scotland, but it might as well have been August in south India by the way she was sweating. She'd gone to bed early, shortly after having a bit of dinner in the dingy bar room at the Hog's Head Inn. She hadn't let her parents know she was staying there; she'd only said she would be "staying in Hogsmeade". She didn't attempt to find a room someplace better; there were still families of Hogwarts students staying in the village, many of them tending the less-wounded among the young witches and wizards who had stayed to fight, and it seemed proper to let them have the better rooms that were available. She didn't really need much, just a bed and a mirror and access to the loo, and she could get all of those at the Hog's Head. The mirror was a bit grimy, but less than most of the interior of Hogwarts after the battle.
The battle... Had it really been only three days since her fake Galleon had glowed in her pocket, summoning her to whatever was going on at Hogwarts? It felt like a million years ago. Cho had been lucky; she'd come out of the battle with minor injuries, including a broken wrist that Madam Pomfrey had healed quickly with a spell once she had time to tend to Cho. Watching the older woman work gave Cho plenty to think about; becoming a healer would be hard work, she knew, but if she chose that path it would be a very rewarding one.
Fortunately she didn't feel any pressure about a career path, not yet anyway. When she was finally patched up and feeling well enough to travel, she'd Apparated home Friday evening to assure her parents that she was okay. As the youngest child in the family, and the only girl, Cho was fawned over and, she thought, somewhat over-protected by her Chinese-immigrant parents. Still, they'd been fairly reasonable when she told them she didn't plan to stay in Glasgow more than the weekend, and her mother had spent only half an hour trying to convince her to stay longer.
Cho took advantage of her comfortable bed for just two nights. After what she had seen, and done, she found that the comfortable bed didn't matter and couldn't help; no matter where she slept, against a rough stone wall at school, in her own bed, on the sofa in the sitting room, she still dreamed of blood and curses and flying glass hurtling toward her head, and Su's lifeless body lying bloodied on the stone floor. She dreamed of little Colin Creevey, who shouldn't have stayed to fight because he wasn't of age, his cold body stretched out atop a table in the Great Hall. She couldn't sleep for more than three hours at a stretch, because if she did, she invariably had another nightmare about the death and destruction she had seen. It did no good for her body to remain in Glasgow while her heart remained at Hogwarts.
Sunday morning she packed a bag of clothes and personal items and told her parents goodbye. Her mother, Ming Ya, wept openly, while her father, Zhi Hong, merely looked heartbroken. Cho had spent the year after she left Hogwarts living with her parents in Glasgow. Publicly she was assisting them in their magical apothecary, which specialised in Chinese herbal remedies. Privately, she was helping them keep Muggleborns safe inside the Chang family home while they waited to move to permanent safe locations. With the war being over, Muggleborns would be free to move and live as they wished, and the Chang family wouldn't need to shelter them any more. Cho knew she hadn't convinced her parents that they didn't need her at home any more; she just hoped they understood that she needed to be where she was needed a lot more. It would take a serious concerted effort by a great many people to rebuild the school, and Cho wanted to do whatever she could to finish the post-battle cleanup and help with the beginning of the rebuilding.
She sat up suddenly in bed in her little room at the Hog's Head Inn, sweat trickling down her back, hands feeling around the bed and the little table next to it to make sure she really had been dreaming. Fred Weasley and Colin and Su weren't really in her room after all.