Live It Up While You Can.

[Ministry, anybody at all, mid-morning.]

Cho left the Ministry cafeteria with a jelly-filled donut in hand. All morning she'd had the odd feeling that there was somebody who kept trying to talk to her, but hadn't been approached by anyone else other than Bob from accounting who wanted to know if that was indeed the last jelly-filled donut. (It was.) So far the Department of Mysteries had yet to be renamed the Department of Marzipan, though, so she figured things were all okay...

...until she finally ran into the person who had been wanting to talk to her! Mr. Space Potatoes caught Cho on her way to her office and dragged her aside.

"Um, I have work to do--"

"But I must show you this, Miss Chang!"

"I really have to--"

"Oh, the lovely little dears will be so happy to share their good news with you..."

Cho stared at Mr. Space Potatoes in horror.

"Is something the matter, Miss Chang?" Mr. Space Potatoes looked at her curiously, whilst still digging inside of his coat pocket for something. Occassionally he muttered to himself about potatoes and their crocodile king.

Cho busied herself by nibbling on her donut. There was no way out of this, it seemed. She looked around her for an escape route, but alas, that was only a broom closet, and she didn't want to get stuck in a broom closet with Mr. Space Potatoes.

"The little darlings sent me a photograph from their lunar base," the strange Auror started. "Isn't it gorgeous, Miss Chang? Oh, they were so pleased to meet you last time! Won't you visit them some time? They miss you terribly,"

"Um--um. I--you'll have to talk to Tonks," Cho stuttered.

"What a brilliant idea!" Mr. Space Potatoes brought his hands together, palm-to-palm, and wiggled his fingers happily, before returning to his search. Finally, he found what he was looking for. "Oh, here it is! Here it is, Miss Chang!"

He shoved a picture in her face. "Isn't this so exciting, Miss Chang? They've completed their Lunar Base! Oh, this is just so wonderful, this is just so divine and exalting!"

Cho laughed awkwardly and gently returned the picture to Mr. Space Potatoes, who cradled said picture carefully in his hands as he continued singing praises of the potatoes.

"Right, yes, well, that's all lovely and such but I really must be going now--"

"Oh, I have more pictures to show you, Miss Chang!" Mr. Space Potatoes reached inside his pocket once more to grab yet another picture.

"Sorry, I can't hear you, I've suddenly gone deaf and it won't be cured until I return to my desk!" Cho shrieked, and vacated the area as quickly as she could.

[Ministry to The Leaky Cauldron, anybody, noon-ish]

Cho stepped off the Knight Bus and looked around at the Ministry with a feeling of finally being home. She turned to Tonks, whose belongings, like hers, had already been sent to her flat ahead of time. "I can't believe it's been two months since we've been here,"

Tonks shrugged. "If you're going to be an Auror, you're gonna have to get used to going on missions away from home. Even if it is to Moldova to play Riot Police for two months."

"I know," Cho said, picking up an old copy of the Prophet somebody had discarded. She began to flip through to the crime and gossip sections, but she paused every so often when there was a headline that caught her eye. "Damn, we missed a lot..."

"You may have," Tonks said chidingly, with a grin, "but I haven't. Go on and get something to eat, Cho; I have to do some things around the office. I'll owl you if I need you."

Instead of going home, though, Cho headed into the Leaky Cauldron for some food. On the way there she bought copies of the Prophet from all the time she had been away and began reading through them as she sat down. Cho's friend from MLE, Abigail Shyennik, had been house/dog-sitting while Cho was away, and so she figured that after lunch she would stop by the bank and get out the money she had promised her friend for the favor because I meant to put this in earlier but I forgot.


((We did so well at work that we beat the week a day early -- whatever we do tomorrow is just extra profit. Hell yes! *Pats self on back.*))

[Hogsmeade, around 10pm, anybody.]


Cho thought that she really had to stop doing this "travel back and forth between China and Britain" thing so often, as it was quite draining, never accomplished much of anything (aside from sore throats and splitting headaches) because, even now, people still couldn't agree on anything. Acting as an ambassadress for the British Ministry to China, she often got caught up in Chinese politics, and she figured that if the wizarding community's politics were crazy this crazy in her parents' country, the Muggle world couldn't possibly be any better off -- not like she really payed attention to that. Maybe she should. Maybe not. She was too tired to care right now.

Somewhere in between her Auror training/duties and her constant arguments with the Chinese ministry (all for the greater good, she kept telling herself) she wondered how long she could keep this up. It was almost like having two jobs and working both all the time. But while on duty she had come across many families and communities who still needed help repairing after the war, and for them she had to continue trying to get whatever international aide she could.

Cho leaned back against the wall of one of the buildings, closed her eyes, and tried to block out the sounds of people rushing past, even at this hour. Some businesses had already closed up, but hell -- what she wouldn't give for a nice hot meal and something warm to drink right now.

[Flat, then?; anyone ATTN: Cedric; midday.]


Cho knew that Harry meant well with his protectiveness, but she needed out of the house and was going to go insane(er) if she didn't manage to get away from the constant lock-down state. With a determined expression, she quickly grabbed some parchment and a quill-

Ced,
GET ME OUT OF THIS HOUSE PLEASE I SWEAR TO MERLIN I MIGHT KILL HARRY IF THIS DOESN'T STOP AND THAT WOULD MAKE ME SAD BECAUSE HE'S MY FRIEND. Besides, I want to see you.
♥ Cho.

-and sent it off, busying herself with feeding the puppies until Cedric--or anyone, really, but she did want to see him--came to her rescue.

[Flat, around midnight, anyone at all... no really.]

It had been a little while since the whole kidnapping adventure, and things seemed to have fallen back into place the way they had been before. Tonks had been checking in on her every so often at MLE, but after the first few days, the other Auror had decided that Cho would probably be okay without constant supervision--or, more like Cho had threatened to set Tonks up on a date with Mr. Space Potatoes if she didn't stop popping in every ten minutes. Whatever worked, right?

Now, Cho sat curled up on the sofa with the puppies and flipping through the channels on the telly. She had never really used the strange contraption, but since she and Harry had a bunch of other random Muggle things lying around, she figured that midnight was as good a time as ever to figure out just how many late-night cooking channels she could find. Salt had fallen asleep in her lap about an hour ago and Pepper was well on the way to dozing off. She stifled a yawn and continued to flip through channel after channel of infomercials.

"Oh god, why would anyone ever buy something like that?" She wondered aloud, and Pepper seemed to glare at her for snapping him out of his almost-sleep state. Damnit, if she couldn't get to sleep, neither would Pepper! It was a contest to outdo all others of the era...

[St. Mungo's, anyone ATTN: Harry, Cedric, anyone who wants to see her; now.]


Something about the softness of the St. Mungo's mattress beneath her tired body and the sounds of people walking in and out and all around made Cho take a step back and quiet down as the weight of everything that had taken place over the past two weeks finally began to sink in. Tonks had been in the room until Novarro and Suarez had come to force her to sleep. Without someone to talk to, she couldn't help but think about the things that would probably be bothering her for a long time to come. Memories from the two weeks of being held prisoner played over and over again and she sat up and leaned forward, holding her head in her hands.

She could have been murdered.

Cho breathed in very slowly, closing her eyes tight against tears that were forming whether or not she wanted them to. She talked big and acted big but now she felt smaller and more vulnerable than when she and Ginny had first been taken.

It had been about a week--maybe more, maybe less---since they had been taken to this place. Cho felt uneasy about the simplicity of their escape - either their captors were just bumbling morons or there was a nasty surprise waiting for them up ahead. She tried to think of everything that could possibly be lying in wait for them. For all she knew there could be Dementors and sphinxes and all those other friendly things that would probably revel in killing her.

Walking backwards, Cho absentmindedly dropped little pebbles on the ground to keep track of where they had already been. The first hour of exploration had been spent trying to keep her mind off of all the horrible things that could happen to them by Cho reciting excerpts of classical literature until she ran out of pieces she had memorized. Maybe if nothing else it kept Ginny entertained and her mind occupied. She missed Cedric and Harry and Tonks and Evey and everyone else.

This all seemed too easy, and she cringed. Without their wands they were essentially helpless, because no amount of stealth and physical prowess could keep them running away from hexes for forever. She closed her eyes and tried to think of more things to recite to keep some kind of sound going, even though it was debatable whether or not it was actually being helpful at all.

"... Her father lov'd me; oft invited me;
Still question'd me the story of my life,
From year to year,--the battles, sieges, fortunes,
That I have pass'd.
I ran it through, even from my boyish days
To the very moment that he bade me tell it:
Wherein I spake of most disastrous chances,
Of moving accidents by flood and field;
Of hair-breadth scapes i' the imminent deadly breach;
Of being taken by the insolent foe,
And sold to slavery; of my redemption thence,
And portance in my travels' history:
Wherein of antres vast and deserts idle,
Rough quarries, rocks, and hills whose heads touch heaven,
It was my hint to speak,--such was the process;
And of the Cannibals that each other eat,
The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads
Do grow beneath their shoulders. This to hear
Would Desdemona seriously incline:
But still the house affairs would draw her thence;
Which ever as she could with haste despatch,
She'd come again, and with a greedy ear
Devour up my discourse; which I observing,
Took once a pliant hour; and found good means
To draw from her a prayer of earnest heart
That I would all my pilgrimage dilate,
Whereof by parcels she had something heard,
But not intentively; I did consent;
And often did beguile her of her tears,
When I did speak of some distressful stroke
That my youth suffer'd. My story being done,
She gave me for my pains a world of sighs:
She swore,--in faith, 'twas strange, 'twas passing strange;
'Twas pitiful, 'twas wondrous pitiful:
She wish'd she had not heard it, yet she wish'd
That heaven had made her such a man: she thank'd me;
And bade me, if I had a friend that lov'd her,
I should but teach him how to tell my story,
And that would woo her. Upon this hint I spake:
She lov'd me for the dangers I had pass'd;
And I lov'd her that she did pity them.
This only is the witchcraft I have us'd:--"

Almost at the end of her recital, Cho's voice dropped off and the sound of the pebble hitting the ground echoed in the empty labyrinth. She narrowed her eyes, turning her head to listen, to the sound of voices from somewhere above them.

They were getting close to the exit!

She shoved the rest of her pebbles securely in her pocket, and ran ahead a few paces of Ginny to listen even further. She waved her hand towards her, signaling for Ginny to come listen too.

"You hear that?" Cho whispered. "There's people above us...we're almost out of here..."

They walked again for about twenty minutes, before Cho looked up and saw what looked like the bottom of a trap door. Cho climbed the small set of stairs and tried to see where it lead. Through tiny cracks in the wood she could see the interior of a room. Making sure to be very quiet, she skipped down the stairs and ran towards Ginny, grinning excitedly. "This is it, Gin! From here on out we just have to get our wands back, battle our way out of here, and then we're home free."

The people above them continued to talk for the next couple of hours. It was too quiet for her to discern much of anything - other than that the captors knew they had escaped the cells and that they were somewhere in the maze. Come nightfall, they would have to chance an escape from the labyrinth and find their wands. Until then, they would have to wait.

[Everywhere, everyone, whenever!]

( Present list! )

[Hotel, then grocery store, then ?; anyone ATTN: Cedric; late morning]


Cho bundled herself up for the cold winter morning and headed over to the hotel Cedric was staying at. She had promised to take him grocery shopping and teach him how to buy food that wasn't peanuts and tea, and now that she had a day off from work, it was the perfect time to make good on that!

She entered the hotel much more calmly than before, and walked over to the concierge's desk, unable to repress a snicker when she saw that it was indeed the same one as last time. "Hi!"

The concierge looked at her cautiously. "Hello. The bathroom is out of service for cleaning right now, may I help you with something else?"

"...that's fine. Can you ring Cedric Diggory's room, please?"

"Sure. And who may I say is requesting him?"

"Cho Chang."

"Sure, one moment please." The concierge sent one of the hotel staff up to Cedric's room to see if he was there, and Cho walked over to sit in one of the chairs in the lobby and wait.

[Diagon Alley - streets; early afternoon; anybody at all!]


She had put this off for as long as she possibly could. There was no escaping it now.

Christmas shopping.

Cho stared blankly at the waves of people coming in and out of the stores in Diagon Alley from her spot on the sidewalk, out of the line of traffic. Sooner or later she and Harry would have to look into getting a tree and decorations for the house; time was running around and most of the good ones were probably gone by this point.

She looked at her list--she had no idea what to get for this many people--and slumped her shoulders. Better get started!

[Flat, anyone, around 7:30pm.]


It had been an painfully long day at MLE. Tonks had pulled her from her paperwork and left her in charge of collecting and organizing data from the previous day's crime reports. Most of the items she had wound up with had been for average things like noisy neighbors and minor thefts; nothing too horrible but enough to make her tired of dealing with people and trying to keep up a professional appearance when she really just wanted to smack some of them upside the head for being too stupid to breathe on their own without somebody to hold their hand through things like gnome removal and unruly dishes.

She flopped down on to the empty couch, made a loud sound of frustration, and laid there, just breathing, with her eyes closed, trying to relax her shoulders. Damn, she really needed a massage therapist. Thankfully, though, work had picked up a lot and given her plenty to distract herself with--she hadn't thought of him since the night she ended up snogging a couple girls at that Muggle bar in London. If nothing else, she appreciated her job for that.

[Random bar in Muggle London; anybody brave enough; around 10pm.]


Cho stepped into the bar dressed in a striped purple top, a pair of form-fitting jeans, and a pair of black high heels. She noticed some of the younger men turn their heads and wink at her, she finger-waved back and then walked right on past them. She wasn't really interested in picking anyone up here, of course, but it didn't matter; she wasn't here for anything except to distract herself and maybe forget.

She was tired of being hurt.

[St. Mungo's; anyone; midday-ish...like 4pm.]


"Can you tell us what happened, Miss Chang?"

Cho sighed and tried not to roll her eyes. She really hated hospitals. "I broke my arm while doing Auror training with Harry. No one's fault, despite what he may try to tell you."

The mediwitch nodded and scribbled some notes down on to her clipboard. It was pretty common to get Aurors in through the doors with various injuries; usually they were on the bad side of worse but luckily Cho's broken arm was the only case they'd had to deal with today.

"We can mend your arm in no time, but hospital protocal requires us to keep you over night, just to make sure those cuts you got don't get infected," the mediwitch said, looking over some bruises and cuts along Cho's arm where she hurt herself during training.

Cho frowned. "But I can take care of those myself at home."

The mediwitch held her hands up. "I don't doubt that, Miss Chang, but it's protocol."

Oh hell no, she wasn't going down without a fight! "But, really, I can go home right after, I don't need to stay--"

"The doctor will be here in a moment to repair your arm." With that, the mediwitch left the room, leaving Cho to fume and glare holes through the door. She really hated hospitals.

[Hogsmeade, anyone ATTN: Cedric, midday Sunday.]


Cho pulled her sweater even tighter around her frame; it didn't matter how many sweaters and long coats she wore, she was constantly cold during the winter season, and nothing really seemed to keep her warm.

Well, no, she could think of one thing...one person.

She slapped herself across the cheek lightly, muttering something about "get over it, Chang" under her breath. She had done more than her fair share of work at MLE this week with the case; by morning Kingsley--or whoever checked his inbox--would hopefully find the massive manila folder that contained the latest of her research, in the proper format and with the proper paperwork completed.

She ducked into a coffee shop and bought a large hot cocoa with whipped cream. Cho held the cup in her gloved hands, trying to absorb as much of its warmth as she possibly could. She brought the cup to her lips and took a long sip, relishing the warm feeling of hot cocoa.

Something--someone--was still missing from this picture.

"Come on, Cho, grow up already..."

She sat down on a nearby bench and closed her eyes against the cold. She was being ridiculous...

[Ministry - Auror HQ; midday; anyone.]


"So I see you managed to stay out of the gossip column this week," said Analee Shyennik, one of Cho's many friends in the Auror Department, with a teasing grin. "How'd you manage that one?"

Cho looked at Analee very briefly. "I didn't entirely, but I'll take what respite I can get."

Analee laughed. "Right. What's new with you and Diggory?"

She paused in filing things away in the cabinet. "I don't know," Cho admitted. "I think he's trying to get a teaching spot up at the school. I haven't seen him lately."

"Oh. You know, the way you talk about him, it sounds like--"

There was a rustling sound outside, and Auror Suarez popped his head into the filing room. "Shyennik? Shyennik! There you are! Can I borrow you for a moment? Croixante is trying to get into one of the locked rooms and he says you know the passcode. And I can't find Castellanos."

Cho grinned and exchanged a pitied glance with Analee, who slumped her shoulders and stalked out of the room. Suarez smiled at Cho, and held his index finger up to signal that he would bring Analee back in just a minute or two. Cho was glad for the break in the conversation; she needed to get everything filed by tonight, because she didn't want to do any more over time.

On second thought though, overtime meant more pay, so maybe she was only subconciously slowing down as she filed the papers away in the cabinet. More pay was always good.

[Hogsmeade; anyone; early evening.]


Cho was cold.

No, very cold.

Downright freezing.

There were only a few times that Cho kind of hated being a twig, and winter was always one of those times. She was ill-adapted to cold weather, and by cold weather she meant anything that wasn't warm or hot weather, and this whole "approaching winter" thing was not really cool with her. She had spent another restless half-or-so week trying to help solve the case and do other Auror training and work that she hadn't gotten done last week, but for now Cho decided she needed to give herself a break.

Stupid cold weather.

She looked at the list of things she needed to buy today: New winter gloves (her old ones had finally died after three years of abuse), new winter boots (there were holes in the bottom of those...), new winter cloak (the old one was on its last limb already? She'd only had it since fifth year!), new earmuffs (the other pair was just tacky)...

She slumped her shoulders. This was going to take all day.

[Owl to Ginny, then Ginny's flat?;  anyone ATTN:  Ginny;  midday Saturday...because I'll be working all day tomorrow!~]


Cho looked at Salt, who had been sitting in her lap for the past half hour, and poked him.  "Maybe I should go to people-training or something," she told her puppy.  "I mean, I keep putting my foot in my mouth and it's kind of bad."

Salt looked back at her and barked. 

"Yeah, I know they don't actually have people training.  We're supposed to already know."

Salt made a sound that, if it had been in English, would have said something along the lines of 'but you don't, do you?'

She sighed and flopped down on to her back on the floor.  "Yeah, I guess you're right, Salt."

The puppy walked on top of her stomach towards her face and licked her cheek, then yipped and ran off to find Pepper. 

Cho rolled over and stared at the leg of the couch for a minute or two.  Finally, she got up and sent an owl to Ginny, asking if she would mind a girl talk session.

[Flat, anyone, about an hour or two after sunset.]


Cho pushed the door to the flat open and gingerly walked around the puppies, who were bouncing around as though they hadn't seen her in days.  Well, that would have been accurate.  Cho had been at the office or out in the field almost all day and all night long for the past half-week chasing down leads about the case and doing some more general Auror work. 

One elderly witch from Manchester had owled MLE in a frenzy earlier today about some strange noises coming from her back yard, and as Cho had been the only Auror without something to work on at that particular second, she'd been sent out to deal with it.  As it had turned out, the weird sound had only been a nest of cicadas who seemed oblivious to the time of day.  Cho sighed.  That time could have been spent working on the case. 

So far, she'd gained some useful information, but it was only in bits and pieces and not quite enough to make any progressive work with.  She figured she would spent tonight organizing the information she had collected over the past week so that tomorrow or whenever we're both online she could hand it in to Kingsley.  Cho felt kind of bad; she had barely been home for more than an hour or two a day for the past nine days and it was usually either in the dead of night to pick up a change of clothes, or around noon to make sure they puppies had been fed and let out to go to the bathroom. 

She rubbed out a crick in her neck; she hadn't been sleeping too well -- but that was what she got for sleeping at the office.  Tonight, she decided, would definitely be spent in her own bed. 

[Letter, open to: all interested females, midday.]


( Letter. )

[Breakfast cafe in Diagon Alley, anyone, early morning around 9am.]


The past few days had been a whirlwind of insanity and things had finally settled down enough for Cho to be able to deal with it all. She could hardly believe this chain of events: On the day her best friend came back and staked out the couch, Theodore had informed her about his Wizengamot retrial and his decision to leave. Cho rubbed her temples.

And then Ginny's party. Cho felt kind of bad for hanging out in the background of the party and not really taking part in any festivities, but she hadn't been in the mood to celebrate and it had pretty much been all she could do to act as cheery and brightly as possible for everybody else. "I guess I could apologize for that," she thought out loud. It wasn't Ginny's fault that Cho's personal life had been making low blows at her lately.

She took a long sip of her coffee and stared out at the street, her gaze going slightly unfocused as she wasn't paying attention to anything at all.

This was for the best. This was safest.

But she couldn't pretend that this didn't hurt.