I. Remember Cedric

Li Ling Chang stood at platform nine of King's Cross station, waiting for her daughter to return from school.

The train that bore her, of course, would not be pulling up to that platform, or any others she could see. Even after five years, even with the other things she saw in her day-to-day life, it still took some getting used to.

Li Ling, in her late thirties and quite attractive, was highly successful considering her ancestry and gender. Not many Chinese-Vietnamese women could boast of owning two successful teahouses in London, with a dream of possibly expanding to a third location somewhere farther out, perhaps even outside Britain. That she still made time and then some for her family was even more remarkable. She had never forgotten how stern and frequently absent her own parents had been growing up, and was determined not to repeat their mistakes with her own family.

Yet even more remarkable still was the aspect of her home life which was carefully hidden away from the eyes and ears of the world.

Li Ling Chang was married to a wizard. Not only that, but her daughter just happened to be a witch.

She'd met Peter as a teenager, when her grandmother had asked her to stop at an apothecary for some special ingredients for a rheumatism cure. At the time, Peter, half Korean and half British, was apprenticing to his grandfather, an elderly wizard who fared better in potions and herbs than in spells and charms. He'd taken a fancy to her almost immediately, and she had thought he was cute, and she found herself returning to the apothecary less for herbs and more for conversation...and dates...and...

Of course, Li Ling didn't find out for quite some time that her boyfriend was a wizard. It came as a bit of a shock, but she loved him so dearly that she didn't care.

When her daughter Cho was born, her name went down for Hogwarts before she had her first birthday.

Now, Li Ling stood waiting, half in shadow, near the barrier that separated platforms nine and ten. Soon, the Hogwarts Express would arrive at Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, concealed from view of those who were unaware of the existence of real witches and wizards and magic. Soon, the students returning home for summer holiday would begin to trickle through the solid wall, into the station proper. Other parents were waiting now on the two platforms: a plump, matronly woman she'd seen towing an unseemly load of red-haired children every year since her daughter started at Hogwarts; a stocky, neckless man with horrible beady eyes and a perpetually twitching moustache; a frazzled-looking couple who seemed as unnerved by the invisible platform as she often was, and still others, all waiting anxiously.

Slowly, the first few students emerged from the barrier, trolleys loaded with trunks and owls in cages. A gaggle of redheads shot forth and headed for the plump woman; a girl with bushy brown hair headed for the frazzled couple; a skinny, slight boy with glasses and messy dark hair headed for the large man with no neck. More came and went, and after several minutes, her own daughter emerged into the station proper.

She knew immediately that something was wrong.

* * * * *

Cho smiled at her mother as they hailed a taxi and the driver loaded her luggage. The smile didn't quite reach her eyes.

"Is everything alright, dear?" Li Ling asked as they got into the cab.

Cho remained silent.

"Do you want to talk about it?" her mother asked.

"Ma-maybe later," she replied hoarsely. "Right now, I just want...to be home."

* * * * *

Once they'd arrived at their modest, comfortable two-story house, the driver helped unload the luggage and haul it up to the door. As her mother paid the driver, Cho unlocked the front door and started to take her things inside.

As she reached the stairs with her trunk, the front door closed and her mother called out to her.

"Cho?" The worry in her voice was almost heartbreaking.

Turning, she looked at her mother, fighting not to shed tears again, not to worry her mother even more. "Mum, I...I don't want to talk about it. Just yet. I—" She swallowed heavily. "Right now, I just want to sleep. I need to sleep."

Concern creasing her brow, Li Ling nodded. "A-alright, dear. Would you like some tea to calm your nerves?"

Cho nodded. "I think I'd like that."

Several minutes later, Cho had dragged her trunk upstairs; immediately after, she undressed and threw on an oversized T-shirt. Her mother arrived with the tea, and sat for a moment as she drank. "I put a little bit of diluted sleeping draught in it," her mother said. "I figured..."

Cho nodded, already feeling drowsy. "I'm glad Daddy's been teaching you a few things..."

"Alright then, I'll just...leave you to sleep. And we can talk later, when you're rested?" Cho nodded again, and her mother left, wishing her sweet dreams.

Sweet dreams...

A few tears arced down Cho's face as she slid into bed and waited for the tea to take full effect, to let her sleep...

* * * * *

She didn't awake until well into the morning of the next day.

Stretching, Cho blinked away the dregs of sleep from her eyes, wincing slightly at the brightness of the sunlight shining through her window. Sliding out of bed, she shuffled to her dresser and found a slightly ratty yet comfortable pair of shorts, slipped them on, and padded barefoot out of her bedroom.

The Chang house bore a strong Muggle influence, in part because her mother was, of course, a Muggle, and also because her father simply preferred the non-magical lifestyle. This being a wizard's household, there were the occasional nods to the less mundane; the fireplace was connected to the Floo network, at least one window was always open to admit post-owls, and two great horned owls nested in the loft, which provided many perches and self-replenishing food and water cups to accomodate both their own owls, and recently-arrived owls who needed a bit of rest before returning to their owners. A few other touches, mostly related to her father's work as an apothecary, were to be found here and there, but only one who knew to look for anything unusual would find it.

Paying the loo a quick visit, Cho began searching for her mother. She first ducked into her parents' bedroom; her mother wasn't there, and the door to their private bathroom was open, with the light extinguished. As she turned to leave, her attention fell to her mother's dressing table, where some of her jewelry was scattered about.

Her eyes passed over a pair of round, bright jade earrings lying on the table, and a small gold brooch just above them, a dragon whose sinuous body was twisted into an oddly jagged shape.

Cho's vision blurred, superimposing the image of a face over the dressing table. She bowed her head and left somberly, tears threatening to fall again.

She found her mother at last downstairs, sitting fretfully at the kitchen table. "Morning, Mum," she called.

"Cho, dear," Li Ling rose quickly and rushed over to engulf her daughter in a crushing hug. "Come on, dear, let's get some breakfast in you, and...and then we can talk. If you're up to it."

With a slight sniffle, Cho nodded and allowed herself to be seated and fussed over.

Once Cho had tea, toast, fried ham, and scrambled eggs in front of her, Li Ling sat across from her daughter, watching her with a concerned look. "So..." she prompted, then waited patiently.

After poking at her food for a few minutes, Cho sighed. "There was...a tragedy at...at Hogwarts. Someone...close to me...died."

Li Ling gasped. "Oh, Cho...God I'm so sorry..." She swept around the table and wrapped her daughter in a motherly embrace. "Tell me all about it."

"He..." Cho sniffled, feeling the tears come again. "We were good friends...close...almost...more." She paused to daub at her face with a napkin. "You know about the tournament, right?"

Li Ling nodded. "Your father mentioned it. Supposed to be a big deal, but I'm afraid I haven't kept up much with the wizarding world."

"Well, he...he was one of the champions from Hogwarts. C-Cedric Diggory." Cho paused for a moment. "We went to the Yule Ball together. He..." Here, she sniffled. "He fancied me quite a bit, and I did like him as a friend, and he w-was...handsome..." She blew her nose, tears now spilling freely down her cheeks.

Her mother closed her eyes and let out a long, hissing sigh. "Poor dear...I can't begin to say...how awful..."

"I..." Cho began again, voice breaking, choking on the words. "Th-three days before...before the last task, before the end...we had a talk, and I...I told him I w—" She bowed her head, raven bangs obscuring her face. "I told him I didn't w-want to be more than fr-friends..."

Cho's shoulders began to heave as sobs wracked her slender frame. Her mother sat silently, one hand on her daughter's shoulder, the other reaching to take Cho's hand.

"And then he died!" Cho wailed, the sobs coming full-force now. "They all w-went in, and wh-when he came out, he...was gone." She fell suddenly quiet, no sound except for sniffling, shuddering breaths escaping her.

Li Ling pulled her daughter into an embrace and let her cry herself out. "Go ahead, then," she told Cho. "Best to get it all out...I'm right here for you..."