[HPforGrownups] Speculations re: Cho (was: Thoughts on Relationships)

[Peg Kerr]

No: HPFGUIDX 4996

Ryan Goertz wrote:

> Hi folks,
>
>   In reading through the posts where many predictions have been
> made as to who will end up dating who I would like to share some
> thoughts I had after reading Goblet of Fire. After several
> hours of processing and internalizing GOF I began thinking
> about the end of the relationship between Cho and Cedric.
> <snip>
>
> What I am guessing as a possible storyline is that Harry will
> probably try to approach her and she will be very stand-offish
> around him. She might even resent him for the death of Cedric. I
> am doubting it, but who knows? It is all up to the imagination
> of Rowling. If it happens I guess it will be gradual.

I may have expressed this before; can't remember.  I would like to see a
scene, and I think it could be lovely if handled well, where Cho and Harry
talk about Cedric's death.  Harry talked with Cedric's parents, and he found
it was an ordeal, and so did they, but they needed to hear what had happened
to their son, and he had to tell them.

The relationship that Cho had with Cedric isn't one where she would be
considered the next of kin, and so she wasn't there when Harry talked with
Cedric's parents.  We don't know EXACTLY what that relationship was: did
they love each other?  She was Cedric's hostage at for the second task,
after all.  She seems to be shaken by his death; Harry noticed her tears at
the feast where Dumbledore asks the students to acknowledge and remember
Cedric.  So at least we know that Cedric was important to Cho and vice
versa.

And so, although Dumbledore has asked the students not to ask Harry what
happened after the third task, Harry might feel that he should talk to Cho,
or at least offer to talk to her, to tell her whatever she might want to
know about how Cedric died--particularly if he senses that she's continuing
to hurt over his memory.  Or perhaps she might approach him, saying, "I
don't know if you would be willing to talk to me about it, but I loved him,
and it's killing me not to know.  Can you at least tell me what happened?
Did he suffer?"

If they could talk about this, it might be a comfort to Cho.  It would
probably be exquisitely painful for Harry, but if he cares about Cho, it
might help him a little bit to set her mind at ease about THAT--at least he
didn't suffer.  And who knows what the conversation might lead to?  (Scenes
where your hero is in exquisite pain are GREAT for character development.)

The interesting thing about such a conversation is that it would give us a
really good look at Cho's character for the first time, something we haven't
really had, although Harry has been interested in her for a while.  It would
arouse our sympathy toward her, for example, if she were very diffident
about asking Harry for fear that reliving the memory would hurt HIM.  It has
always struck me as rather odd that a number of fans seem to dislike
Cho--this shows up in fan fiction a lot--and I've speculated in past
messages that it might be because people are emotionally invested in
Hermione, whereas they don't quite know whether they should be with Cho
since we don't know what Rowling is going to do with her.

It could be a heartbreaking scene to read.  And that's another
consideration--it would take a great deal of maturity for them to have it:
Harry's grown up a lot in GoF, but maybe not enough to hold this
conversation with Cho, nor she with him.

We'll have to wait and see in the next book.

Peg