Breathe

Dinner was like no other meal that Cho had ever had at Hogwarts.  Her friends talked, babbling about the day, a few asking where the perfect Ravenclaw had been.  Cho really didn’t have an answer for them, but they moved on, no one doubting for a moment that she knew what was best, and perhaps wondering for themselves if they needed to miss a class or two, in order to be as wonderful as she obviously was.

But Cho’s eyes were glued to the Gryffindor table, her mind filled with nothing but red hair, blue eyes, and warmth that had spread over her skin that she could no longer attribute to the walk in the sun.  She thought that she could see the other girl’s eyes flicker towards hers, but maybe it was her imagination, her wishful thinking getting the better of her.

But maybe not.  The petite girl rose from the table, and Cho could not stop staring at the way she walked, full of grace and sexiness.  Sexiness?  Where had that thought come from, Cho wondered.  But her thoughts were stopped as soon as she had begun them, as Ginny began to walk toward the Ravenclaw table, her eyes locked onto Cho’s.

“Hey, Cho?  I was wondering if you wanted to come with me.  I wanted to show you something.”  Ginny’s voice washed over her, and a smile crept onto Cho’s lips like she hadn’t felt since her childhood.

“Sure!” Cho answered, a little too energetically. “Where are we going?”

“It’s a surprise,” Ginny flatly responded, though there was mischievousness in her eyes.

Ginny’s hand was clasped firmly over Cho’s as she lead her through the corridors.  Cho could not have said where she was, as her only thought was on the girl in front of her, and what might be in store.

She realized quickly that she no longer knew who she was.  Instead of the thought of perfection, beauty, the future, and how she could make it what it was supposed to be crowding her head, the only thing in her brain was the thought of kissing the beautiful girl. Ginny was outspoken, wild, impulsive, but free.  A Gryffindor through and through.  And she was a girl. This was something that had never crossed her mind before, yet all Cho wanted to do was feel if her porcelain skin was really as smooth and creamy as it seemed.  The word delicious suddenly struck Cho out of nowhere, but Cho could no longer be surprised by her thoughts.  They had all appeared today from a secret place inside of her, a dark place Cho supposed she had been afraid of until now.  Until Ginny.

They stopped, and Cho realized that they were in front of the Room of Requirement.  “Close your eyes,” Ginny whispered, and Cho obeyed without a second thought.  “Follow me.” Ginny’s voice was filled with hope, and Cho’s heart filled with it too, knowing that she would remember this moment forever.

She stepped through the door of the Room of Requirement, the whole while Cho’s eyes closed tightly, her heart pounding heavily.  “Open them,” came Ginny’s voice, music to her ears.

Before her eyes were even open, Cho could smell lavender as is wafted to her, sweet and calming.  And when she opened her eyes in front of her lay heaven.  She took a deep breath. There was a mineral bath in the corner, and bed against the wall and music coming from nowhere, filling the air with serenity.

“You need this.  You know you do.  I just wanted you to relax, if only for one night,” the thought slipped from Ginny’s lips.  Surprisingly, Cho heard hesitation, and maybe perhaps a hint of fear in her words, something that Cho had never considered coming from her.  From the moment they first met, in those terribly exciting DA meetings in this room the year previous, Ginny’s whole body screamed of confidence.  But now there was a strange tension exuding from her.  “Do you like it?”  Ginny breathed.

“It’s perfect.  Thank you.  I think this is the nicest thing that anyone has ever done for me.”  Tears were threatening to stream down Cho’s face, the gesture so overwhelming that she didn’t know how to process it.

“Come on.  Come take a soak with me, and then there are new pajamas for you over there, and I thought you might like a night of privacy in your own bed, in your own room, for once.  One day I was walking by this room on a particularly bad night and… here it was.  One of the most peaceful nights I have ever had, and I thought I would share it with you.”

“Thank you.”  Was all Cho could respond.