Cho Chang was always a good girl.
Of course, being good came easy. When you were pretty, popular, and a
talented Seeker, with a Ravenclaw's keen intellect... well, there was no need
to be bad. Everyone always seemed to want to please her, to make her happy,
to earn her smile. No difficulty to be generous when you are given so
much, so freely. But then things changed... and she could, if she
wanted, pin down the hour and second that they did. The moment that
culminated the Tri-Wizard Tournament in her fifth year. The moment she
lost, for the very first time, someone she loved. The moment Cedric
Diggory died.
Not that even she herself realized it until later. She grieved him at the time,
certainly. It had hurt, and worse than anything she had ever experienced
- even the injuries that had plagued her in the course of playing
Quidditch. She had cried and cursed and then she had moved on... or so
she thought. After all, hadn't she even dated Harry Potter the following
year? Hadn't she started, on some level, to have feelings for him? She
didn't even blame him for Cedric's death, not then. Not until it all
went wrong between them and she started to see him in a different way.
The Great Harry Potter. Harry who could do no wrong. Perfect Harry, who
blamed her for something one of her friends did, while refusing
to acknowledge that his own friends were flawed.
She saw how Harry used who he was to get what he wanted. How he expected
everyone to do what he said, just because he was the-boy-who-lived. Suddenly
the things that people like Draco Malfoy had been saying about Harry started
to make sense. And if Harry Potter could get what he wanted, then so
could Cho Chang.
And what she wanted was revenge.
She came to blame Harry completely for Cedric's death. After all, she knew
that Harry had had a little crush on her since the previous year. Had he let
Cedric die because he was a rival? Or had he done it deliberately to
punish her for choosing Cedric over him? If so, he had grown bored with
her soon enough. Yes, Harry Potter was responsible for all her suffering ---
and for that he was going to pay.
While she was still at school, she kept up her image - but she was just biding
her time. Suddenly she was no longer cavalier about her intellect, letting
the lessons merely come as easily as they always had. No... now she had
a purpose, and she began to work towards it - and to subtly send out
feelers. Harry had enemies, plenty of them. People who had power, people
who had influence and money. So easy for a pretty, intelligent witch to
attract the attention of the "right" people. So easy to flatter the
right egos, to pander to the powerful men who could help her. And if she
sold her soul right along with her body... well, it was the price that
had to be paid.
After graduation, she kept up the "good girl" front, while secretly working
for the other side. Since she was not a Slytherin, she was above the
suspicion that those of that house attracted, and therefore was highly
useful to the other side. Sleep with the right Ministry Official, then
return the news to her superiors... it became a sport far more addictive
than Quidditch, and one that she was even more skilled at playing.
The defeat of Voldemort hurt her... but strangely enough, she was able to
walk away with reputation intact. Her position somehow was not compromised,
leaving her with the veneer of respectability. But it was yet another
thing for which to hate Harry. Once again, he walked away as a hero...
and although she had her reputation, she had almost nothing else.
Fortunately, that state of affairs didn't last long. She should
have had more faith that Harry's enemies would rise again... and that
they would want her. She was more than happy to aid them, especially
once she heard what they wished for her to do. After all, Harry had
wanted her once - she has no doubt that she can make him want her again.
And if she gets her way, that will prove to be his undoing.