Marauders - Always - Part One

CCXIV: A Fourth Task

The spiraling walk way up through the Tower that led to the dormitory doors was crowded as students jostled on their way to or from breakfast, depending if they were early risers or not. Half the Tower was comprised of Morning People and the other half were Night Owls. Judging by the crowdedness of the Great Hall at breakfast, Cho supposed Ravenclaw was the most varied in this aspect: Most Gryffindors were late risers, while the Slytherins trended toward earlier breakfasts. The Hufflepuffs were harder to tell as they usually stayed at the table whether they were finished eating or not, gathered and chattering, grazing on food over the full time breakfast was served, rather than treating it as an in-and-out activity.

Cho herself wasn't particular either way - but she'd been avoiding one of the sixth year boys ever since the announcement of the Yule Ball had been made.

It wasn't that Henry Wu was terrible. It's just that he was exactly the sort of boy her parents would most definitely approve of and was, therefore, the last boy at Hogwarts that Cho wished to have anything to do with.

Usually Henry took the hint and stayed away, but over the Summer, Cho's father had gone golfing with Mr. Wu and there had been some family dinners where she'd had to sit with Henry and make small talk (which really meant listening to him babble on and on about his interests and his plans for after Hogwarts). Since then, Henry had been more forward - he'd asked her to go with him to Hogsmeade, and even had referred to her as his "sort of girlfriend" to a couple of the Ravenclaw boys. She'd found out when Loony Lovegood had asked her in Divination it she thought the nameless boy in her dream analysis was Henry Wu.

What a stereotype! Cho lamented.

Then the pastel posters had gone up and ever since Henry had been eyeing her in the common room the other night, peering over his glasses frames at her with a nervous expression. She was sure he was trying to build up the nerve to ask her to the Ball with him. Thus, Cho had to avoid him at all costs. She knew if he asked and she said no she would hear about it from her parents and Cho simply didn't need that. It was bad enough they were upset because she'd asked for tickets to a muggle concert for her Christmas gift and they had listened to the music and positively refused to allow her to listen to such things anymore.

Luckily, most of her music was hidden in magically enlarged compartments in her school trunk and they had no idea it was there at all.

Any way - Henry was definitely a late riser, which meant she had to get up, get ready, scurry down to the Hall, eat her breakfast, and rush back up to the Tower before he was up in order to avoid him - and that dreaded question.

She trotted quickly down into the Great Hall, ducking past Viktor Krum as he loitered around outside the hall. A gaggle of girls stood by the hourglasses tittering about Krum's presence in the Hall as he lingered. He usually just slouched right off to the library, so they were all flippy haired and doe eyed, hoping his being there meant he might be considering asking a Hogwarts girl to the Ball. She was ashamed to see several Ravenclaws among the cluster of females waiting for him to notice them, including her room mate, Marietta Edgecombe.

She slid into her place on the bench, slinging her bunny bag onto her lap and digging out a book to read while she ate her eggs and toast.

"That is a particularly good book," came a dreamy voice from her side.

Cho looked over to see Loony Lovegood staring at her with her slightly protrudent eyes.

"It's a shame they categorize it as a fictional story," she said. "There are quite a lot of historical books that are put under false genres due to how uncomfortable it makes people to consider they might be true." She shook her head.

Cho forced a nod. She doubted very much that Luna had any idea what she was on about.

"I suppose I would be afraid of the idea of a talking lion as well, but then again we witches and wizards should be used to unusual things. The fact so many in our world are so skeptical is really quite strange. We accept such funny things as common place and yet do not believe in things which are not half as odd."