Harry looked up in surprise when the tawny owl swooped in through the open door of his hospital room. He watched with interest as it swooped around the room and came to land on his bedside table, between the fruit bowl and the book on occlumency that he had been reading.
Everyone else had left the room. Hannah and Susan had gone to raid the canteen. Amelia had returned to the Ministry. Sarah was off talking to a couple of healers. Sirius had said something about having some important business at Gringotts to take care of and Remus had volunteered to go with him.
The tawny owl held out its leg, presenting Harry with a small envelope, and then looked up at him expectantly. Harry took the envelope and opened it as the owl spread its wings and took off again.
Harry watched as the owl flew back out through the door before taking a piece of parchment out of the envelope and unfolding it to read the words written on it.
Dear Harry,
I hope that this letter finds you well. As you may know, in light of recent events, my father has decided to send me to attend school in China rather than remain in Britain with my family. I'm writing this in my new dorm room and will have to send it to my mother and then hope that she will send it on to you, so I don't even know if this will ever get to you.
I don't know if anybody told you, but the Ministry did manage to confirm that I was regularly being given a rather heavy dosage of lust potion during the short time since the start of the new school year. They believe that the first dose was somehow slipped to me on the Hogwarts Express, though no one can confirm this.
I believe that I have you to thank for bringing my condition to the attention of the right people. The potion was indeed keyed to you, which explains why I was all over you outside the prefects' compartment and the carriage ride up to the castle.
I also want to thank you for not taking advantage of the situation. I know that you are a well-mannered wizard, but there aren't many boys your age that would have shown the restraint that you did. I shudder to think what would have happened had the potion been keyed to someone like Theodore Nott in your year or Cormac McLaggen or Graham Montague in mine. Or, Merlin forbid, that Cassius Warrington in the year above mine.
And lastly, I want to thank you for something else. I don't know if anyone else has thanked you for it, but I know that I haven't so I will do it now. Thank you for bringing Cedric back at the end of last term. I believe what you said happened at the end of the Third Task and I understand that it must have been a huge risk for you to try and bring Cedric back with you, but, ever selfless, you did. And I sincerely thank you for it. I would have hated for him to have been left in what must surely have been a terrible place.
Well, I had better be going now. It's getting late here and I have my first day of classes tomorrow. If you want to keep in touch, my address is on the back of this piece of parchment.
Thank you again, Harry. I hope that we will be able to see each other again one day.
Yours in friendship
Cho.
With a tear building in his right eye and threatening to fall, Harry blew out a breath and muttered "Damn! I was not prepared for that!"
"Prepared for what?" asked Hannah, causing Harry to look up to see that she and Susan had just walked back into the room, arms laden with cakes, cookies and a bunch of bananas that they had gotten from the visitors' tea room on the top floor of the hospital.
"Uh, I got a letter from Cho Chang," answered Harry, holding up the letter in question.
"Oh cool," said Hannah. "Let's see!"
She snatched the letter out of Harry's hand before he could even begin to contemplate refusing and glanced over it before letting out a low whistle.
"Blimey, Harry. You sure know how to catch the eye of these foreign witches don't you?"
"Very funny," retorted Harry, snatching the letter back as Susan giggled.
He tried glaring at the two witches, but the effect was somewhat ruined by the red flush to his cheeks and the moisture build up in his eye.
"Ah, don't worry Harry," said Hannah, keeping up her teasing tone as she threw one arm around his shoulders in a hug. "One day you will meet a nice girl who will decide to stay with you rather than retreat to Asia."
Without breaking his less than threatening glare at the blonde girl Harry asked "Susan, you know the rule that says boys can't hex girls?"
"Yup," the redhead replied.
"Are exceptions made for when the girl in question is being very mean to the boy?"
"Nope." responded Susan.
"Damn…" muttered Harry. "Are you sure? Even if it's not too serious? I'm thinking like a pimples hex or something."
Susan tapped her chin thoughtfully before answering "Well, there isn't really a rule that says boys can't hex girls; it's just a matter of good manners. But seeing as we are outside of school you could technically still get into trouble for using magic while underage."
"Damn…" muttered Harry again as Susan and Hannah giggled.
"Keep it up and I'll give you a strike, Prefect Abbott."
Hannah pouted "Come on Harry. That's just mean. You know that with Padma gone I'm your favourite prefect."
"Oh, I don't know about that," retorted Harry, seizing on the opportunity to get in a little teasing of his own. "Pansy Parkinson's not so bad now that she's growing into that nose of hers."
Hannah gasped in shock and then slapped Harry on the arm. "Don't you dare ever compare me unfavourably to that pug faced cow again, Harry Potter!"
Harry was laughing as Hannah attempted to whack him again. "Okay, okay. Fine. You're better than Pansy, okay?"
Hannah straightened herself up and crossed her arms. "That's better."
A grin tugged at the corners of Harry's mouth and he couldn't resist adding "But I will point out that I did recently have to replace Draco Malfoy with one Daphne Greengrass and, I mean, have you seen those legs she's got?"
Hannah glared at him but quickly turned it onto her best friend when Susan commented "He has kind of got you there, Han. That girl's got the kind of legs that go on and on forever."
"Yeah," agreed Harry. "Well, not forever, obviously. They do end. In fact they come off of the ground and up and up and up until they are replaced by what has to be the loveliest bottom I've ever seen - OUCH!"
Harry's monologue about the finer things regarding Daphne Greengrass came to an end when Hannah punched him in the shoulder.
"Oh, come on Hannah," he protested. "I'm just messing with you. You've clearly got your own thing going. I mean come on; Neville obviously likes what he sees when he looks at you."
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