It Could Have Gone That Way; A Harmione Fanfiction

Chapter 54: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

"Potter and Chang!" Pansy Parkinson screeched as Harry and Cho sat down in Madam Puddifoot's teashop on their date.

"Cute in here, isn't it?" Cho mused, ignoring Pansy and Millicent, who were sitting a few tables away.

"Er...yeah." Harry lied.

It took a while for their coffees to arrive. In that time, Roger Davies and his girlfriend had sat down at the table just next to Harry and Cho's and started kissing over the sugar bowl. Once their coffees had come, Cho began talking about Quidditch and DA meetings, two topics that Harry was very comfortable with. Then, however, she began talking about Umbridge.

"She's terrible." Cho took a sip of her coffee,"I've heard she has this quill that cuts your skin when you write. It's a good thing she hasn't found out about the DA meetings yet, or all of us'd be in detention with her."

"Yeah...terrible." Harry echoed, unable to stop his mind from wondering what Hermione wanted to tell him that day. When Cho carefully laced her fingers into his across the table, Harry decided it was a good time to ask if she wanted to come to the Three Broomsticks, as twelve o'clock was growing nearer, and Harry just wanted to leave. "Er...listen, d'you want to come with me to the Three Broomsticks at noon? I'm meeting Hermione Granger there."

Cho's perfectly straight eyebrows raised so high that Harry worried they'd shoot right off of her face. "You're meeting Hermione Granger? Today? Even though we're on a date?" Cho put her mug of coffee down hard, palm sweating in Harry's.

"Yeah." Harry said sheepishly,"Well, she asked me to, so I thought I would. D'you want to come? She won't mind if you do."

"Oh...well...that's nice of her, considering...everything." Cho said coldly, letting go of Harry's hand.

The pair sat in silence until their mugs were almost empty. As the large clock struck eleven, Harry broke the silence in the least awkward way he could think of.

"Great coffee."

"Told you it was nice, didn't I?" Cho didn't look at him,"Look, I've been meaning to ask you for ages...did Cedric - did he - m-m-mention me at all before he d-died?"

This was the very last subject on earth Harry wanted to discuss, and least of all with Cho. "Well - no." He said quietly,"He didn't really...he didn't have time." Harry changed his tone to a falsely bright one,"So d'you...d'you watch a lot of Quidditch? You support...er...who do you support?" This was a mistake. Cho's eyes had begun to swim with tears. "No, look, I just...let's not talk about Cedric right now. I don't-"

"I thought...I thought you'd understand!" Cho wailed suddenly,"I need to talk about it! Surely you n-need to talk about it t-too! I mean, you saw it happen d-didn't you?"

Everything was going nightmarishly wrong. "Well..." Harry said nervously,"I have talked about it...to Hermione, but-"

"Oh, you'll talk to Hermione Granger!" She said shrilly, standing up furiously,"But you won't talk to me! P-perhaps it would be best if we just p-paid and you went to meet up w-with Hermione G-Granger like you obviously want to!"

"Cho..." Harry gulped, bewildered.

"Go on, leave! I don't know why you said you'd go on a date with me in the first place if you're going to make arrangements to meet other girls right after me...how many times are you meeting Hermione? How many more girls are you meeting after her?"

"It's not like that!" Harry was so relieved he finally understood what was going on that he let out a little snort of laughter.

"I'll see you around, Harry." She said dramatically, hiccoughing as she stormed out of the tearoom without paying.

Muttering angrily to himself, Harry slammed some money into the table and swiftly followed her out. But, instead of turning back towards Hogwarts as she had done, Harry went into the Three Broomsticks to meet Hermione. She was sitting at a booth with Luna and - to Harry's shock - Rita Skeeter.