So this is the new year... C/C round out 2005.
By c0nvolution
Crazy time and tense shifts; be warned. I tried to state the year in each little ‘flashback’ to try and make it as easy to follow as possible. Hopefully it’s not TOO confusing. Also, my dates might be wrong… This fic assumes that the TriWizard tournament took place in 1994-1995.
&&&
"...And I don’t want to move a thing,
‘Cause it might change my memory…”
-“Here With Me,” Dido
&&&
Dumbledore is not surprised to find her there. “Chang?” He says, softly, unsure of just how deeply she’s fallen in. He walks up behind her and places a papery thin hand on her left shoulder. “Chang?”
One look in her eyes and he knows she’s almost gone.
&&&
Cho was sitting in the quidditch stands, a textbook open on her lap. It was a lazy afternoon in September of ‘94, the warmth of summer lingering headily on the air. The Hufflepuff quidditch team had booked the field for practice, and Cedric Diggory, the team captain, was whizzing around, watching his teammates play, and giving pointers or words of encouragement. Once everyone had something to do, he got on his own broom and flew up near the stands where she was sitting. “I didn’t think you’d actually come out.” He said, slowly grinning.
She shrugged, tilting her face up to look at him properly. “It’s a lovely afternoon, just thought I’d…”
“Bask in the glory of the undefeatable, magnificent, bound-to-be-champions Hufflepuff quidditch team?” He finished for her.
“Eh… Not quite…” She replied, arching a brow. “If I’m not mistaken, Huffepuff’s only won what, two out if its past four matches? 50 percent isn’t quite equivalent to glory. Sorry to have to break it to you, Diggory.”
He laughed and then reached over and cupped her chin. “If I’m not mistaken, one of those victories was over Ravenclaw.”
“Look, you know I wasn’t feeling very good that day-” She began, riled that he’d brought that up. He laughed again at how easily he could provoke her, even after all this time of being together.
Within a moment he lowered his broom a bit more, jumped off, and landed easily in the seat next to her. “Chang, you know I almost lost that game because I was so distracted by you.”
“Yeah, I was too worried about you getting hit in the head with a bludger to pay much attention to the snitch. Honestly, Diggory. You fly like a mad man sometimes.”
“So you were watching me all game too…” He said, sneakily, another grin parting his lips.
“Oh, shut up! And honestly, why were you staring at me the whole time?!” She huffed, pretending to be quite irritated, though in truth she was more embarrassed than anything.
In that last game of Hufflepuff versus Ravenclaw, Cedric’s eyes had been on nothing but her, and she’d been unable to concentrate knowing he was watching her so. His intent focus on her threw off his game, making him careless with his flying. She had been quite concerned (legitimately so!) for his life, seeing as how he kept getting in the way of bludgers and beaters’ sticks while gazing at her.
He’d won by a sheer stroke of luck, when the snitch hovered for a brief moment right over Cho’s head. As it entered his field of vision, he immediately sped straight for it, going as fast as his broom would take him. Which was pretty bloody fast. Cho shrieked when she saw him coming straight at her like an unleashed arrow, and it was only with a quick maneuver on her part that he didn’t collide right into her.
“Can’t believe you didn’t see that, Chang!” He’d yelled, as he raised his arm in victory, the snitch nestled in his palm.
“You almost killed me!” She’d screamed.
At the end of the game, when the players came forth to shake hands, he’d held hers much longer than common courtesy demanded, rubbing a rough thumb over the back of her hand. She was being a bit petulant, because she felt like he’d won most unfairly. He brought his other hand to her cheek, smoothing away her frown, and began saying something, but she couldn’t quite hear… The roaring of the stands around them muffled his voice…
He was saying, “I can’t take my eyes off of you.”
&&&
It’s a windy, cold day in October. 1993. Halloween is around the corner, as well as a Hogsmeade excursion for all of the students. Marietta is twittering on and on about some 7th year Slytherin boy who’s asked her to go, and Cho is hardly paying any attention.
“Choooo?” She whines. “Are ye listening?”
“What was that?” Cho says, absent-mindedly. They’re sitting in the library, because Cho wants to edit one of her Ancient Runes essays. For all the times people say, “Look at that Hermione Granger, always in the library, what a nerd!” They fail to notice Cho Chang is equally just as erudite.
Marietta flips a bit of hair over her shoulder and starts again. “He’s just so nice, oh gosh… Cho, I mean, you’d think that because he’s in Slytherin he’d be weird or something, but he’s not!”
Cho grins, weakly, and opens another book. She glances up when Marietta complains that she’s not listening again, and in that moment her gaze meets the amused blue-grey eyes of Cedric Diggory. He’s standing beside a few of his Hufflepuff friends, balancing a Transfiguration book in his hands. He mouths, “Need some help?”
She shrugs helplessly, and then quickly nods.
Marietta’s about to start talking again when Cedric comes up and lightly places a hand on Cho’s shoulder. She stiffens at the warm touch, a hint of a smile touching her lips. He says to Marietta, “I was wondering if I could, eh, borrow Ms. Chang for a moment? We need to talk about, ehm, quidditch.”
Smooth, Diggory. Real smooth.
As he leads her away, he whispers, “Well, I never said I was good at this sort of thing.”
She nods, a bit too vigorously. “Right.”
He leads her far away to a distant aisle of books in the “Vegetative Animals” section of the library, and leans against one of the shelves. “Well,” he begins, “I think that since I just rescued you from a wholeheartedly uncomfortable situation, the least you could do is compensate me.”
Cho makes a face. “What?”
He laughs. “Not money or sex, Chang.” He winks at her. “Just- well, maybe you’d go to Hogsmeade with me?”
She bites her lower lip. “Ummm…”
“If you’d rather not, that’s fine. I was kidding about the compensating part.” He says, rather quickly.
He looks at her so earnestly; she can plainly see how crushed he would be were she to say no. Not that she was planning on it.
“I’d love to go.” She says.
He laughs and smiles again, beaming, and from somewhere they hear Madam Pince, the stiff old bird, going “Shhhhh!”
&&&
April, 1993. Cho finds out she’s been chosen as seeker for the Ravenclaw team. Her housemates throw a huge party for her, and after countless cups of pumpkin juice and mouthfuls of smuggled firewhiskey, she staggers out of the common room, victory hot on her cheeks.
She thinks to go outside, drink in everything that’s happening by herself, take it apart bit-by-bit in her (sometimes overly) analytical mind.
She barely makes it two steps out of the portrait hole when she bumps into Cedric Diggory.
“Oh, hello.” She says, quickly.
“Uh, hi.” He mumbles in return.
She gives him a look, pulls her robe more tightly around herself, and keeps on walking. As she’s turning the corner, she hears him say:
“By the way, congratulations, Chang! You’re quite brilliant in the air!”
She pauses, takes a quick peek over her shoulder. He flashes a smile and then keeps walking.
“Thanks.” She whispers, when he’s walked off far enough that she can no longer see him.
&&&
The Great Hall was charmed to look like a positively glorious winter wonderland, in December of 1994. Cho smoothed the folds of her silken dress, feeling somewhat giddy and lightheaded at the enormity of being a date to a TriWizard champion.
As she descended the stairs towards the Great Hall, she saw Cedric standing next to Harry Potter, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. Pulling away from Potter, he came up halfway to meet her, taking her right arm and deftly tying on some sort of flowery corsage on her wrist. She brought it up to her face, studying it; a strange concoction of red and white roses and green leaves sprouting red berries.
“Cedric,” She mumbled, blushing. “Is this… mistletoe?” She pointed to the berries dangling on her pale wrist.
“Why, what have we got here?” He breathed. He pulled up her hand, made it rest in his tousled hair. A mischievous glint coloured his grey eyes. “Chang, I’m standing beneath mistletoe now. Aren’t you supposed to kiss me, or something?”
She rolled her eyes. “Of all the cheesy and stupid things to do, Diggory-”
He leaned forward and placed a lingering kiss on the corner of her mouth. “Just shut up and kiss me, Chang.” He whispered against her lips.
So she did.
&&&
10:31 AM. February 24th, 1995. As the cool air rushed into her lungs, Cho realized she was clinging onto Cedric Diggory for dear life in the middle of the lake, with thousands of screaming onlookers watching. Oh.
“I guess this is what happened when they called me to McGonagall’s last night…” She said, sheepishly, loosening her death grip on Cedric’s throat. He brushed the wet hair from her face.
“You told me you would come and see me, before the second task… I was so worried when you didn’t come.” He said into her ear, as they were pulled up and out of the water.
“Yeah, well… as you can see, I was quite busy.” She replied, taking a towel and wrapping it around herself.
He came up and threw his arms around her, smashing their sodden bodies together. She almost winced at the powerful grip he had on her.
“They’d said they’d take something I’d miss most...” He muttered into her hair. “Bloody fright of my life, seeing you down there.”
“Oh, my hero!” Cho sighed, dramatically, smiling into his shoulder. She played it off like it was nothing, but really- truly- honestly- In that moment she’d never felt more loved.
&&&
June 24th, 1994.
He was watching her study, again.
He claimed that being near her while studying helped him concentrate, but Cho knew it was quite the opposite. More often than not, she’d glance up from the middle of writing an essay to see him just watching her, his own studies completely forgotten.
“Cedric, you need to finish that paper by tonight, you know. It won’t write itself.” She chided, gesturing at him to get back to his work.
He nibbled on the end of his quill and then began putting away his books. “Chang, what the world really needs is… is more love. Less paperwork. I’m tired of writing this essay. I really just want to snog you senseless. Hope you don’t mind.”
“I think that the more filled with love you are, Mr. Diggory, the emptier your head gets!” She replied, though a faint smile crossed her countenance.
“Then Chang, I am truly dumber than a dog. I am madly in love with you.”
A moment passed, him dropping his quill and her setting aside her parchment.
“Come here.”
&&&
June 24th, one year later.
“Good luck, Cedric.” She says, trying to be a bit brave and a bit tough and a bit strong but in the end she’s just a Ravenclaw, not some heroic Gryffindor, and Ravenclaws can only rattle off facts and numbers.
Cedric stands in front of her, holding her hands in his, mumbling sweet endearments in her hair, reassuring her- when it should be she reassuring him.
“I’ll be fine, Chang.” He says, voice steady.
She doesn’t know why, but she’s suddenly so terrified of losing him that tears begin to form in her eyes. “Cedric, I’m so scared for you.” She mumbles. She can’t fathom why she’s being such a baby about this. “Be careful in there.”
The tears begin to run like rivers, unstoppable tears that soak Cedric’s shirt. He’s still smiling at her, “I’ll be fine.” He repeats, over and over.
The tears puddle around her feet. “Cedric, be careful, please…”
She grabs his face, tries to give him one last kiss. He leans forward and kisses her gently, tilts up her chin with one hand. “So this is it, Chang… Bye.”
She feels herself being ripped from his grasp. “Cedric!”
He’s walking into the maze, holding out his wand. Both he and Harry turn at her desperate cry. “It’ll be fine, Chang! Just fine!” He calls out, as he disappears in the dark and twisted labyrinth.
She fails to notice the illogicality of her tears, which are beginning to form an ankle-deep lake around her.
“Turn around, Chang.” Says a voice. She doesn’t want to. Her heart’s caught in her throat. She can feel every step that Cedric takes, feel it resonate somewhere deep in her chest. Oh god. Oh god.
Two hands take her shoulders and roughly pull.
&&&
July, 1995.
Mr. Chang and Mrs. Chang,
I am so glad you owled- I wish to clarify a few things about Cho’s last few weeks at school. I’d like to stress that Cho was not dabbling in dark arts- she was simply becoming sucked into an imaginary world- a world, wholly invented in her mind, by a special, magical mirror, a mirror known as the Mirror of Erised.
You may be wondering how she found such a mirror? Well, (I shall now let you in on a little secret), it was stumbled upon by Harry Potter in his first year, and he also became quite enraptured with the wonderful images it could provide. After Potter found it, I had it hidden away, in a place most of the staff do not even know exists. But that is not where Cho found it, no. She instead, in a bout of truly passionate grief, stumbled upon the Room of Requirement. The Room of Requirement is a magical room that can create whatever it is a person so truly needs and desires. For Cho, it was a chance to revisit the many memories of her first love. Her teacher’s had been noting her frequent absences from usual social activities with the other students- it appears that Cho became rather obsessed with this Room and the magical mirror it could provide. And it is lucky that I found her because many a wizard has gone mad staring into his or her own treacherous desires.
When I found her, she really and truly believed that what she could see in the mirror was real- to the point that she was hallucinating that everything occurring in the mirror was happening to her physically. I hope you do not admonish her for her actions, for many other witches and wizards and myself included have fallen prey to peeking into our hearts’ greatest wants.
She is very lonely, I think. The death of Cedric Diggory has affected her more deeply than any of us ever imagined.
Warmest regards,
A. Dumbledore
&&&
fin
Crazy time and tense shifts; be warned. I tried to state the year in each little ‘flashback’ to try and make it as easy to follow as possible. Hopefully it’s not TOO confusing. Also, my dates might be wrong… This fic assumes that the TriWizard tournament took place in 1994-1995.
&&&
"...And I don’t want to move a thing,
‘Cause it might change my memory…”
-“Here With Me,” Dido
&&&
Dumbledore is not surprised to find her there. “Chang?” He says, softly, unsure of just how deeply she’s fallen in. He walks up behind her and places a papery thin hand on her left shoulder. “Chang?”
One look in her eyes and he knows she’s almost gone.
&&&
Cho was sitting in the quidditch stands, a textbook open on her lap. It was a lazy afternoon in September of ‘94, the warmth of summer lingering headily on the air. The Hufflepuff quidditch team had booked the field for practice, and Cedric Diggory, the team captain, was whizzing around, watching his teammates play, and giving pointers or words of encouragement. Once everyone had something to do, he got on his own broom and flew up near the stands where she was sitting. “I didn’t think you’d actually come out.” He said, slowly grinning.
She shrugged, tilting her face up to look at him properly. “It’s a lovely afternoon, just thought I’d…”
“Bask in the glory of the undefeatable, magnificent, bound-to-be-champions Hufflepuff quidditch team?” He finished for her.
“Eh… Not quite…” She replied, arching a brow. “If I’m not mistaken, Huffepuff’s only won what, two out if its past four matches? 50 percent isn’t quite equivalent to glory. Sorry to have to break it to you, Diggory.”
He laughed and then reached over and cupped her chin. “If I’m not mistaken, one of those victories was over Ravenclaw.”
“Look, you know I wasn’t feeling very good that day-” She began, riled that he’d brought that up. He laughed again at how easily he could provoke her, even after all this time of being together.
Within a moment he lowered his broom a bit more, jumped off, and landed easily in the seat next to her. “Chang, you know I almost lost that game because I was so distracted by you.”
“Yeah, I was too worried about you getting hit in the head with a bludger to pay much attention to the snitch. Honestly, Diggory. You fly like a mad man sometimes.”
“So you were watching me all game too…” He said, sneakily, another grin parting his lips.
“Oh, shut up! And honestly, why were you staring at me the whole time?!” She huffed, pretending to be quite irritated, though in truth she was more embarrassed than anything.
In that last game of Hufflepuff versus Ravenclaw, Cedric’s eyes had been on nothing but her, and she’d been unable to concentrate knowing he was watching her so. His intent focus on her threw off his game, making him careless with his flying. She had been quite concerned (legitimately so!) for his life, seeing as how he kept getting in the way of bludgers and beaters’ sticks while gazing at her.
He’d won by a sheer stroke of luck, when the snitch hovered for a brief moment right over Cho’s head. As it entered his field of vision, he immediately sped straight for it, going as fast as his broom would take him. Which was pretty bloody fast. Cho shrieked when she saw him coming straight at her like an unleashed arrow, and it was only with a quick maneuver on her part that he didn’t collide right into her.
“Can’t believe you didn’t see that, Chang!” He’d yelled, as he raised his arm in victory, the snitch nestled in his palm.
“You almost killed me!” She’d screamed.
At the end of the game, when the players came forth to shake hands, he’d held hers much longer than common courtesy demanded, rubbing a rough thumb over the back of her hand. She was being a bit petulant, because she felt like he’d won most unfairly. He brought his other hand to her cheek, smoothing away her frown, and began saying something, but she couldn’t quite hear… The roaring of the stands around them muffled his voice…
He was saying, “I can’t take my eyes off of you.”
&&&
It’s a windy, cold day in October. 1993. Halloween is around the corner, as well as a Hogsmeade excursion for all of the students. Marietta is twittering on and on about some 7th year Slytherin boy who’s asked her to go, and Cho is hardly paying any attention.
“Choooo?” She whines. “Are ye listening?”
“What was that?” Cho says, absent-mindedly. They’re sitting in the library, because Cho wants to edit one of her Ancient Runes essays. For all the times people say, “Look at that Hermione Granger, always in the library, what a nerd!” They fail to notice Cho Chang is equally just as erudite.
Marietta flips a bit of hair over her shoulder and starts again. “He’s just so nice, oh gosh… Cho, I mean, you’d think that because he’s in Slytherin he’d be weird or something, but he’s not!”
Cho grins, weakly, and opens another book. She glances up when Marietta complains that she’s not listening again, and in that moment her gaze meets the amused blue-grey eyes of Cedric Diggory. He’s standing beside a few of his Hufflepuff friends, balancing a Transfiguration book in his hands. He mouths, “Need some help?”
She shrugs helplessly, and then quickly nods.
Marietta’s about to start talking again when Cedric comes up and lightly places a hand on Cho’s shoulder. She stiffens at the warm touch, a hint of a smile touching her lips. He says to Marietta, “I was wondering if I could, eh, borrow Ms. Chang for a moment? We need to talk about, ehm, quidditch.”
Smooth, Diggory. Real smooth.
As he leads her away, he whispers, “Well, I never said I was good at this sort of thing.”
She nods, a bit too vigorously. “Right.”
He leads her far away to a distant aisle of books in the “Vegetative Animals” section of the library, and leans against one of the shelves. “Well,” he begins, “I think that since I just rescued you from a wholeheartedly uncomfortable situation, the least you could do is compensate me.”
Cho makes a face. “What?”
He laughs. “Not money or sex, Chang.” He winks at her. “Just- well, maybe you’d go to Hogsmeade with me?”
She bites her lower lip. “Ummm…”
“If you’d rather not, that’s fine. I was kidding about the compensating part.” He says, rather quickly.
He looks at her so earnestly; she can plainly see how crushed he would be were she to say no. Not that she was planning on it.
“I’d love to go.” She says.
He laughs and smiles again, beaming, and from somewhere they hear Madam Pince, the stiff old bird, going “Shhhhh!”
&&&
April, 1993. Cho finds out she’s been chosen as seeker for the Ravenclaw team. Her housemates throw a huge party for her, and after countless cups of pumpkin juice and mouthfuls of smuggled firewhiskey, she staggers out of the common room, victory hot on her cheeks.
She thinks to go outside, drink in everything that’s happening by herself, take it apart bit-by-bit in her (sometimes overly) analytical mind.
She barely makes it two steps out of the portrait hole when she bumps into Cedric Diggory.
“Oh, hello.” She says, quickly.
“Uh, hi.” He mumbles in return.
She gives him a look, pulls her robe more tightly around herself, and keeps on walking. As she’s turning the corner, she hears him say:
“By the way, congratulations, Chang! You’re quite brilliant in the air!”
She pauses, takes a quick peek over her shoulder. He flashes a smile and then keeps walking.
“Thanks.” She whispers, when he’s walked off far enough that she can no longer see him.
&&&
The Great Hall was charmed to look like a positively glorious winter wonderland, in December of 1994. Cho smoothed the folds of her silken dress, feeling somewhat giddy and lightheaded at the enormity of being a date to a TriWizard champion.
As she descended the stairs towards the Great Hall, she saw Cedric standing next to Harry Potter, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. Pulling away from Potter, he came up halfway to meet her, taking her right arm and deftly tying on some sort of flowery corsage on her wrist. She brought it up to her face, studying it; a strange concoction of red and white roses and green leaves sprouting red berries.
“Cedric,” She mumbled, blushing. “Is this… mistletoe?” She pointed to the berries dangling on her pale wrist.
“Why, what have we got here?” He breathed. He pulled up her hand, made it rest in his tousled hair. A mischievous glint coloured his grey eyes. “Chang, I’m standing beneath mistletoe now. Aren’t you supposed to kiss me, or something?”
She rolled her eyes. “Of all the cheesy and stupid things to do, Diggory-”
He leaned forward and placed a lingering kiss on the corner of her mouth. “Just shut up and kiss me, Chang.” He whispered against her lips.
So she did.
&&&
10:31 AM. February 24th, 1995. As the cool air rushed into her lungs, Cho realized she was clinging onto Cedric Diggory for dear life in the middle of the lake, with thousands of screaming onlookers watching. Oh.
“I guess this is what happened when they called me to McGonagall’s last night…” She said, sheepishly, loosening her death grip on Cedric’s throat. He brushed the wet hair from her face.
“You told me you would come and see me, before the second task… I was so worried when you didn’t come.” He said into her ear, as they were pulled up and out of the water.
“Yeah, well… as you can see, I was quite busy.” She replied, taking a towel and wrapping it around herself.
He came up and threw his arms around her, smashing their sodden bodies together. She almost winced at the powerful grip he had on her.
“They’d said they’d take something I’d miss most...” He muttered into her hair. “Bloody fright of my life, seeing you down there.”
“Oh, my hero!” Cho sighed, dramatically, smiling into his shoulder. She played it off like it was nothing, but really- truly- honestly- In that moment she’d never felt more loved.
&&&
June 24th, 1994.
He was watching her study, again.
He claimed that being near her while studying helped him concentrate, but Cho knew it was quite the opposite. More often than not, she’d glance up from the middle of writing an essay to see him just watching her, his own studies completely forgotten.
“Cedric, you need to finish that paper by tonight, you know. It won’t write itself.” She chided, gesturing at him to get back to his work.
He nibbled on the end of his quill and then began putting away his books. “Chang, what the world really needs is… is more love. Less paperwork. I’m tired of writing this essay. I really just want to snog you senseless. Hope you don’t mind.”
“I think that the more filled with love you are, Mr. Diggory, the emptier your head gets!” She replied, though a faint smile crossed her countenance.
“Then Chang, I am truly dumber than a dog. I am madly in love with you.”
A moment passed, him dropping his quill and her setting aside her parchment.
“Come here.”
&&&
June 24th, one year later.
“Good luck, Cedric.” She says, trying to be a bit brave and a bit tough and a bit strong but in the end she’s just a Ravenclaw, not some heroic Gryffindor, and Ravenclaws can only rattle off facts and numbers.
Cedric stands in front of her, holding her hands in his, mumbling sweet endearments in her hair, reassuring her- when it should be she reassuring him.
“I’ll be fine, Chang.” He says, voice steady.
She doesn’t know why, but she’s suddenly so terrified of losing him that tears begin to form in her eyes. “Cedric, I’m so scared for you.” She mumbles. She can’t fathom why she’s being such a baby about this. “Be careful in there.”
The tears begin to run like rivers, unstoppable tears that soak Cedric’s shirt. He’s still smiling at her, “I’ll be fine.” He repeats, over and over.
The tears puddle around her feet. “Cedric, be careful, please…”
She grabs his face, tries to give him one last kiss. He leans forward and kisses her gently, tilts up her chin with one hand. “So this is it, Chang… Bye.”
She feels herself being ripped from his grasp. “Cedric!”
He’s walking into the maze, holding out his wand. Both he and Harry turn at her desperate cry. “It’ll be fine, Chang! Just fine!” He calls out, as he disappears in the dark and twisted labyrinth.
She fails to notice the illogicality of her tears, which are beginning to form an ankle-deep lake around her.
“Turn around, Chang.” Says a voice. She doesn’t want to. Her heart’s caught in her throat. She can feel every step that Cedric takes, feel it resonate somewhere deep in her chest. Oh god. Oh god.
Two hands take her shoulders and roughly pull.
&&&
July, 1995.
Mr. Chang and Mrs. Chang,
I am so glad you owled- I wish to clarify a few things about Cho’s last few weeks at school. I’d like to stress that Cho was not dabbling in dark arts- she was simply becoming sucked into an imaginary world- a world, wholly invented in her mind, by a special, magical mirror, a mirror known as the Mirror of Erised.
You may be wondering how she found such a mirror? Well, (I shall now let you in on a little secret), it was stumbled upon by Harry Potter in his first year, and he also became quite enraptured with the wonderful images it could provide. After Potter found it, I had it hidden away, in a place most of the staff do not even know exists. But that is not where Cho found it, no. She instead, in a bout of truly passionate grief, stumbled upon the Room of Requirement. The Room of Requirement is a magical room that can create whatever it is a person so truly needs and desires. For Cho, it was a chance to revisit the many memories of her first love. Her teacher’s had been noting her frequent absences from usual social activities with the other students- it appears that Cho became rather obsessed with this Room and the magical mirror it could provide. And it is lucky that I found her because many a wizard has gone mad staring into his or her own treacherous desires.
When I found her, she really and truly believed that what she could see in the mirror was real- to the point that she was hallucinating that everything occurring in the mirror was happening to her physically. I hope you do not admonish her for her actions, for many other witches and wizards and myself included have fallen prey to peeking into our hearts’ greatest wants.
She is very lonely, I think. The death of Cedric Diggory has affected her more deeply than any of us ever imagined.
Warmest regards,
A. Dumbledore
&&&
fin