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It was an otherwise boring morning in early October, but Cho Chang was a girl on a mission. Sitting herself down in front of Ravenclaw Quidditch Captain Roger Davies, she nervously fidgeted with her hands, trying to get up the nerve to say what she had to say.
“Go on,” he said. “What is it?”
“Katie told me that Angelina said -”
“Oh, cut it out!” Davies crossed his arms and looked at Cho sternly. “I don’t want to hear gossip. Is this something real?”
She lifted her chin and looked defiantly back at him.
“Umbridge isn’t going to let the Gryffindor team play.”
His eyes widened. He stared at her in shock for a long, quiet moment.
“Are you sure?”
“That’s what Katie said, yes.”
Davies frowned, a tiny crease appearing between his eyebrows.
“She’s already approved for Ravenclaw to continue,” he said. “It was a formality, really. Quidditch teams aren’t the sort of student group she’s worried about.”
No, she was worried about what Cho had been doing that weekend in the Hog’s Head, but that wasn’t worth saying aloud. Cho wasn’t entirely sure if Davies knew she had been at the meeting, and in any case, she knew he didn’t believe Harry Potter.
The fact that her Quidditch captain didn’t believe what was so obviously the truth about Cedric’s death was more painful than a Bludger to the ribs, but it wasn’t really the point.
“If there is no Gryffindor team, there’s almost no point in having the tournament,” she said. “Only three games total? Seriously? And anyway, it’s not fair, is it?”
He shook his head, considering.
“I suppose … she must be concerned about Potter, and I can’t say I blame her. But we’ve never had any problems playing against Gryffindor, nothing that would justify disbanding the team. They’ve usually played fair, if a bit aggressively at times.”
Which was more than could be said for the Slytherins, Cho thought to herself.
“If I start a petition, will you sign it?” she asked.
Davies hesitated. Then, he gave a tense nod.
“I will,” he said. “Not in support of Potter and his lies. But in support of the Gryffindor team being allowed to play, yes.”
Cho responded with a tight smile.
“Alright. That’s all I’m asking.”
It was easy to get the Hufflepuff team to sign. Not that they all believed Harry Potter, of course - a good portion of them were parroting the Ministry’s talking points, and even Zacharias Smith, who had been at the meeting in the Hog’s Head, still seemed skeptical. But they believed in fair play first and foremost, and the Gryffindor team had done nothing to deserve being disbanded.
In any case, Cho thought to herself, looking down at the seven signatures, it couldn’t be easy for them to say no to Cedric’s girlfriend.
She didn’t like using that to guilt trip people into helping, but this was worth it. This was important, even if most people wouldn’t understand why.
The Ravenclaw team was harder to convince. Davies was true to his word, but he didn’t use his position as captain to exert any influence over the rest of the team. Cho broke down crying - again - when Joshua Bradley told her he figured Cedric Diggory had just gotten killed by something in the maze.
“Oh, sorry,” he said. “I forgot you two were together.”
“Are you going to sign my petition or not?” asked Cho, wiping her eyes on her sleeve.
“I don’t want to play against Potter,” he said. “I reckon he’s not all there, you know what I mean?”
Cho bristled in anger, but - glaring at him through her tears - she managed to speak.
“You don’t play against Potter regardless,” she said. “Seekers and Chasers don’t have anything to do with each other unless somebody’s committing a foul - or helping somebody who fell off their broom, I suppose. And anyway, trust me, I’ve gone up against him before. When he’s not dealing with hexed broomsticks or rogue Bludgers, he’s a very by-the-book sort of player.”
Bradley grumbled and equivocated a bit more, but he signed the petition. They all did, every last one of them.
Cho hesitated on whether to even ask the Slytherins. But twenty-one signatures would be better than fourteen, and while she was certain twenty-one was a pipe dream, even fifteen would show a level of inter-House unity that fourteen wouldn’t. Umbridge had been in Slytherin herself, or so the rumor went, and Cho was more than willing to believe it judging by how much she seemed to favor them.
“It won’t be much of a tournament without the Gryffindors,” she argued. “And anyway, don’t you want the satisfaction of beating them?”
Montague rolled his eyes and waved her away.
Warrington laughed in her face.
Malfoy sneered and made empty threats, with Crabbe and Goyle lurking on either side of him, cracking their knuckles and glaring.
But Pucey nodded and picked up a quill, scrawling his name at the bottom of the list, then passed the parchment to Bletchley, who did the same. Cho smiled.
“Thank you.”
“Oh, I didn’t do it for you,” said Pucey coldly. “Or for the Gryffindors. I just reckon I’ve got a better chance of getting signed by a team in the League if I actually get to play this year, and - yeah, you’re right. It’s not much of a tournament without all four Houses, is it?”
Still, it didn’t really matter why. Cho figured most people’s motives weren’t really very pure. What was important was that sixteen people from all three of the other Houses wanted the Gryffindor team to compete.
That afternoon, Cho placed the parchment on the desk before Umbridge, who looked from it to the girl standing in front of her as though she couldn’t believe her eyes.
“I’m not sure I understand, Miss Chang,” she said. “But it seems to me as though you’re questioning my judgment.”
“Not at all,” said Cho. “Just passing on a message. You see, a lot of us would like to play the full tournament with all four teams. We don’t have a problem with the Gryffindor team - or the prospect of playing against the people who are on the team at the moment. So we’re asking you to reinstate them, please, and let them compete along with the rest of us.”
“I’m afraid, my dear, that it is not your place to decide …”
At that moment, a knock on the door interrupted Umbridge. With a glance at Cho, the woman called out, “Come in!”
There, in the doorway, stood Professor McGonagall.
“Ah, Dolores, I do hope I’m not interrupting.”
“No, no, of course not,” said Umbridge. “Miss Chang was just leaving.”
“Good,” said Professor McGonagall, “because I really must speak to you about the Gryffindor Quidditch team.”
Cho knew she ought to go. She knew she ought to keep her mouth shut and slink away in defeat. It had already been audacious of her to create the petition and deliver it to Umbridge, and she did have some idea of the fact that, if she got detention, it might be a distinctly unpleasant experience.
Still, she couldn’t help herself. Picking up the parchment she had placed on Umbridge’s desk, she turned to face Professor McGonagall.
“That’s actually what I was here to discuss with Professor Umbridge as well,” she said. “I’ve got a petition signed by sixteen players from the other three teams, and we’d very much like the Gryffindors to be able to play.”
She offered the parchment to Professor McGonagall, who took it and held it up before her, scrutinizing the words and the list of signatures.
“Thank you, Miss Chang, that is most helpful,” said McGonagall, looking down at Cho with a smile in her eyes. “Ten points to Ravenclaw for your excellent display of good sportsmanship. I believe I can take it from here.”
Cho nodded and slipped out the door, taking one last glance over her shoulder as she went. Umbridge did not look pleased, but if Cho had to take a bet, she’d be betting on McGonagall.
"I heard about the petition,” said Katie Bell, sliding into the seat beside Cho. She shouldn’t be there - it was the Ravenclaw table, and even if Dumbledore didn’t mind students occasionally mixing things up, Umbridge was sure to object - but at the moment, Cho was not inclined to care what Umbridge thought.
“I’m not sure it will do any good,” Cho admitted. “McGonagall gave me House points, but Umbridge would barely even look at it, and I think she gets the final say.”
“Well,” said Katie with a smile, “I don’t know what part the petition had in it, but Angelina says we’re back in business. McGonagall got her to let us keep playing.”
Cho let out a sigh of relief.
Maybe it hadn't made a difference. Maybe McGonagall would have been able to convince Umbridge with or without Cho's efforts. But she liked to think she had done something that mattered. If nothing else, she had made her voice heard, so that nobody could claim she and her teammates supported what Umbridge had tried to do.
“I guess I’ll see you on the pitch, then,” she said with a smile. “Good luck.”
“Yeah. You, too.”
She offered Katie a handshake and found herself blinking in surprise when the other girl went in for a hug instead.