Author: Thalia Kendall
Category: Drama, Romance
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Harry Potter is the property of J.K. Rowling. Characters and situations are used without permission, no infringement is intended.
Summary: The war is over, technically. Harry defeated Voldemort, but then disappeared to whereabouts unknown, leaving behind a wizarding Britain that still needs to recover from the war and deal with the fallout. Amidst this all, a young Auror by the name of Roger Davies was hexed at close range during a raid and because of subsequent injuries, released from the Auror's Guild. Fate has it that he runs into the father of an old housemate, who offers him a new job managing an apartment complex in Hogsmeade-- an old building called Euterpe's Corner.
Author's Notes: A long-ish chapter in which cheesy Romeo and Juliet
music plays as our hero and heroine reunite... not. I'm not that sappy.
But a longish chapter nonetheless, in which we finally see a
non-Ravenclaw who has a speaking part! Shocking, I know. This chapter is dedicated
to Dove, the other half of my brain, whose ideas about Su have been
incorporated into here, and were it not for her, we'd all be missing out
on a refreshingly madcap smart-aleck.
Disclaimer: It can be assumed that I do not own Roger Davies unless
directly stated otherwise.
* * *
Cho listened and let her other three housemates do most of the talking as they finished their meal at the Leaky Cauldron. Kevin kept her in gales of laughter over his anecdotes of pranks that they'd played, mostly masterminded by Su, through the course of the years. The tale about the party that Su had thrown the night before the last battle, though, brought a sad smile to her lips.
"The place was practically destroyed, of course," Terry told her. "The flat was not nearly big enough to hold us all-- what with all the people who showed up. We certainly didn't invite as many people as actually showed up."
"But it was nice that they came," Su said drolly. "I do believe I got more blackmail-worthy information on more people that night than I could have garnered in a decade of diligent collection. But then again, Ravenclaw philosophy has always been to work smart, not hard, no?"
The dry comments hid Su's true feelings about the party that she had thrown, but Cho thought that she could understand. In a world where "tomorrow" was just a vague concept, a day that might never come, one lived life to the fullest. Su had thrown the party because if they were going to die, they should die with good memories. Cho wasn't surprised at the reported mob of uninvited guests. Such vim and abandon would have been inspiring in the face of an uncertain future.
The three of them Apparated to Hogsmeade, which was on the path to healing, though the scars of battle would likely remain for decades to come. They were subtle, but Cho noticed them with the sharp eyes of a Seeker-- a broken window in Honeydukes, scorch marks on the otherwise clean walls of the post office, the Shrieking Shack looking even more dilapidated than she'd remembered. Broken buildings and broken people who lived in them-- and for a moment, she felt an odd sort of trepidation at the thought of seeing Roger again. She had no information on what he felt about his injury and his new occupation, after all, and she'd never liked the feeling of being unprepared for anything.
"Well, here it is," Kevin's voice broke through her slightly troubled thoughts as they came to the doorsteps of a gray stone building, and Cho glanced around curiously.
"Bring her flowers by all means, but not roses," A fifth-year version of herself had said with all the careless wisdom of fifteen, giving advice to her closest friend, who had just scored a date with a veela. There was a pot of geraniums on a table, and a few rows of marigolds and pansies by the door. No roses in sight, and Cho smiled to herself, remaining silent. The others wouldn't have known that memory.
Kevin flicked his wand at the door and uttered a spell and a password that Cho recognized as one of the passwords that had been used for the Ravenclaw Common Room her last year. The door opened, and she followed the others inside. Cream-coloured walls. Polished wooden floors with rugs in cool colours. It was quaint and peaceful, and she found herself smiling faintly.
"Oh, looks like he's in the middle of some landlordy business or another," Kevin remarked as they approached the office, and through the narrow window on the door, Cho could see the stalwart back of a tall, dark-haired young man standing in front of the desk, apparently in conversation with the person seated behind the desk. The young man wore staid robes of charcoal gray, and seemed to have his arms crossed, though it wasn't completely clear from her vantage point at the door. The conversation was either quiet and civil, or the office was silence-charmed so that no hint of sound could escape. Patiently, but feeling unaccountably nervous, Cho stood by the door alongside her friends and waited, her valise suddenly feeling heavy in her hands.
And then the young man turned away from the desk to walk towards the door, and Su's mouth twisted into a moue of displeasure. "Well then... the Slytherin git looks even more sulky than usual."
"Could it POSSIBLY be the fact that he called you a little girl and through that one act cemented himself on your list of people to torment ceaselessly for the next fifty years?" Terry asked wryly. "I almost feel sorry for the bloke."
"Oh, why?" Su asked blandly, widening her eyes. "I've not done anything to him. Yet."
"I'll be looking forward to whatever you plan to 'do' to me and spend countless days and nights caught in giddy anticipation, I assure you," the satirical voice of Su's 'Slytherin git' broke into their bickering, and it was only with a closer look that Cho recognized him. The features were the same, the words and tone of voice not noticeably different, but something about Cassius Warrington's demeanor made her pause and frown. She had certainly remembered him from her Prefect days, when he had been a capable and competent if not always pleasant Head Boy to work under. Yet, this wasn't the snarky, smirking Quidditch player who'd joked that they should set the boys' Prefect bathroom password to "Stercus accidit", saying smarmily that not all the teachers would know that the phrase was Latin for "shite happens".
"Warrington?" she blurted out, gazing at him and trying to analyze what was different.
He paused, looked at her for a few moments before nodding his head in curt acknowledgement. "Chang," he murmured. "You look well."
"Thank you," she said politely. "You live here?"
"Next door to your friend the little hellion," Warrington replied, a sardonic quirk crossing his lips for an instant. "She hasn't succeeded in killing me yet, despite her best efforts. But I suppose that I am just too stubborn to die."
There was something about the way that he said that last sentence that made Cho frown, coupled with the dark, too-old look in his eyes. But before she could remark upon it, Su scoffed, fixing Warrington with a disdainful look. "I haven't been trying to kill you. Drama queen."
"No, I suppose you haven't," Warrington acknowledged, his voice dripping with sarcasm and yet oddly hollow. "I'll be expecting explosives and curses any day, Li." With that parting shot, he turned on his heel and made his way down the hall without a backward glance. Su glared balefully at his back for a moment.
"That'd be too unsubtle," Su muttered to herself after Warrington disappeared, before recollecting her thoughts and turning her attention away from her cynical neighbor and back to her friend. Warrington had shut the door of the office behind his back, and as Terry knocked on it, Su gave Cho an encouraging smile.
"Come in," the voice of Roger Davies carried out, and Terry pushed the door open. Cho took a deep breath and stepped forward, and when her eyes met his, she smiled a slightly hesitant smile.
Roger's features were unchanged, she decided. A bit more mature, but certainly recognizable. The same shock of dark hair that fell a bit messily over his eyes, which were the same shade of blue. He had the same nose and chin as she remembered, almost the same look of surprise, even, when he saw who it was. For a few moments, neither of them spoke, before he stood and inclined his head, his voice quiet and gentle but a bit too formal for her comfort as he said her name.
Almost the same Roger she remembered-- almost, but not quite, and she bit her lip in hesitation for a moment, taking a few seconds to set down her valise. Years and an ocean and a war had separated them, and the idea that so much had happened while she was gone, the idea of him incapacitated and grown apart from her-- it was hard to swallow.
"Roger," she finally said, her mouth a bit dry. "How are you?"
"I am well," he replied, and though his tone was modulated and perhaps even sincere, there was something about the way it was said that made her feel as though nothing could be further from the truth, and then a sudden wave of warmth and concern and affection for him swamped over her heart, filling it with something that felt hot and homesick and poignant all at once. A flash of nervousness at the feeling, and then she was crossing the room with quick steps-- he was still the boy who'd swung her around the Common Room and held her hand in the infirmary when she'd broken her arm playing Quidditch, wasn't he? What was the matter with her if she had to go and greet him like some cold, stuffy stranger?
She was in front of him in an instant, dark eyes locked with blue, and when she stood up on tiptoes and wrapped her arms around his neck in a warm embrace, she didn't let go for a very long time. Five heartbeats had passed before he returned her embrace gently, a bit unsteadily, and she felt tears stinging in her eyes. "Oh gods, I've missed you," she whispered into his shirt, hoping that he'd hear or feel it. And really, there was nothing improper or presumptuous about this, right? They'd been close friends for years, and he looked as though he'd not been hugged for a very long while.
By the door, Su, Kevin and Terry were watching them with avid interest. Gazing at the two beadily, Su leaned up to whisper in Kevin's ear.
"Five Galleons that they'll finally get together like we all KNEW they wanted to back in school within a year," she murmured, sotto voce.
"I don't take sucker bets, lass," Kevin mouthed back. "Though... shouldn't we leave them alone, then? Not that they seem to remember that we're here still."
"Where's she going to sleep, then?" Terry asked quietly. "Would be a bit silly to bring her all the way here to Hogsmeade and then have her go back to the Leaky for a room, wouldn't it?"
Su seemed to ponder this for a moment, before grinning complacently. "Oh, it will be fine, I think. Roger has a spare room in his flat, if I recall correctly. More room in any case, and I think they'll want to play catch-up before we bother them again. Worse comes to worse, I'll back down to see if she needs a place to kip in an hour or so."
"You just want me to take your sucker bet and cheat me of me hard-earned money," Kevin proclaimed. Su smirked, didn't reply, and pulled her two roommates away from the office.
"Come on, let's give them a bit of privacy. That way, when I find Cho tomorrow, she'll be utterly embarrassed and I can pump her for all the juicy details." Saying so, she dragged the two young men away with surprising strength.
She had a few more immediate concerns, and one of them was getting rid of the sudden, pesky thought that he might never twirl her around again, might never express the same open, pure joy he had on that day. Yet, as she was quickly discovering, he could still hold her and like before, she'd feel as though nothing could hurt her when she was in his arms. A war had come and passed, and he'd gone through what had once upon a time been unthinkable. If this changed him from the ecstatic boy of that day into something else, she had no right to look on it negatively. Only, perhaps, with a tinge of sadness.
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