Author's Note:

A few days ago I read the story "Eyes of Blue" from ABCCJPTT. The story impressed me very much and I liked the tragic end. But: I'm a hopeless romantic type and thought about how this story could go on, how this moment of Cho finding a solution to her pain could be twisted. So, please don't see this story as a sequel to "Eyes of Blue" but as an alternative ending.

Original story: s/2522272/1/Eyes_of_Blue

(Short summary of "Eyes of Blue" – but please read the story instead:

In the time of the tournament Fleur and Cho share a room. Slowly a friendship and more grows between them but both are unable to declare their feelings. Immediately before the last test Fleur declares her love but is rejected by Cho out of fear. Fleur dies in the test and Cho has to cope with the loss and the memory of her own awful behavior. Half a year later she decides that she is unable to survive with these memories and uses on herself an Obliviate spell to erase them)

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Bleeding Heart

One the way to the Ravenclaw dormitory (Hermione's POV)

The last weeks had been painful to all of us. Not only because of the events of the last year and our need to find a way to cope with the death of Cedric but also with Mrs. Umbridge's hellish talent to make our life a little more acrid every day.

Ron and I had needed all our persuasiveness and the help of some friends to convince Harry to build our small group, Dumbledore's Army. But we had succeeded so far and since a few weeks we had met once a week to train in the Defense against Dark Magic.

I should have been pleased with this success; my sleep should have been calmer. But the contrary was the case. With the beginning of our lessons a new problem arose and started to trouble me. A new problem at least for me because in reality it had been there for months only I needed a while and her vicinity to discover it. Her vicinity because the problem had a name: Cho Chang.

Since our return from summer break I had seen that something was amiss with her. She had lost weight in the past months; her eyes had been sad, her voice quiet. But with us never been very close friends and Cho one year above us I hadn't spent much time with her so far. Only after her joining our group had this changed a bit and these shared hours had immediately started to give me bad dreams and even some nightmares in the last days.

As everyone else I knew that she had been on the ball with Cedric. And she had been his "treasure" in the second test, meaning that at least to him Cho had meant much. So it had been natural that most assumed this feeling to be reciprocated by the beautiful Asian girl and it had been no surprise to anybody that she had coped very badly with his death in the third test. But thinking about that day I more and more scrutinized this conclusion. More and more often I went thru the pictures that had been branded in my mind, pictures about the last hours of Cedric.

Shortly before Harry came back with the body of Cedric they had found the corpse of Fleur. The finding had been almost overlooked by the masses of students and professors thanks to Cedric's death and the news Harry brought about Voldemort. But it had been Fleur's body Cho had herself thrown above. It had been Fleur's body, not Cedric's, whom she mourned with hysteric intensity. And it had been Fleur's body from whom she could only be separated thanks to Hagrid.

I wasn't sure about the relation these two girls shared. At all events it had been a complicated one. They had shared a room in the Ravenclaw dormitory for most of the time of the Triwizard Tournament. Certainly this room sharing had never been an easy one. Both were very intelligent and beautiful, but on the surface therewith their similarities ended.

While Cho always had been open, friendly and honest, to most of Hogwart's inhabitants Fleur seemed to be the typical spoiled brat from Beauxbatons. Always an insult on her sultry lips, never content with anything our home had to offer she let not one day pass without showing how she despised her time here.

But even from the beginning there must have been more. It had been Cho who went looking after the first test, who cared about her injuries as Fleur rejected any help from Mrs. Pomfroy. More than once I saw them together in their very up and down friendship. Now thinking back I remember the looks, how Cho stared at Fleur and Fleur watched Cho, both mostly ignoring their dance partners Roger and Cedric.

Immediately before the last test I had seen Cho returning from the Quidditch Pitch. She had been agitated, in inner turmoil, nearly unable to concentrate on the events around her. And now I also remember the look of Fleur as she appeared at the edge of the maze, ready to follow Harry, Cedric and Victor. How could I overlook it back then, this despair, this disappointment, this … broken heart? Some terrible must have happened between them. I had an idea what it had been but now this wasn't important.

The only thing of importance in this moment was my need to reach her. In the last days I had more than once seen her in the one place I more or less considered my private place, my home: the library. That is not to say that Cho would be an unusual sight there. Far from it. As a Ravenclaw she shared the interest in learning of her house members. Intelligent and studious as she was I had often seen her in the library. But these last days had been … different.

Every time she had been alone. Every time she had looked around with the eyes of a flushed deer, searching the vicinity for observers. And then she went to the department with the memory charms, reading there for hours in silence. Every time someone neared her place she hastily changed the books around and hid her notes. Slowly a horrible suspicion grew in my mind, a suspicion what her plan could be. I had tried yesterday after the group's meeting to speak with her, but she had been adamant that all was well. I had seen it in her eyes, that she was ready to set her plan in motion. So I decided to follow her after our lessons.

Harry must have seen my inner turmoil, must have realized how important this was to me. Without questions he had given me his invisibility cloak this morning which had allowed me to follow Cho without being detected. She had been very quiet at lunch, even more than on the days before. But her stance, her motions told me that I was right, that she would act today, do whatever her troubled mind had decided.

I followed her a last time to the library, watched her as she looked in one of the books as if she wanted to be secure. As she left I took the book and found what I had feared. I'm sure that this had been the first time that I crammed a book in a shelf, unable to care about dog-ears. Instead I followed her, tried to reach her in time only to watch in horror as she entered the Ravenclaw dormitory. Why hadn't I thought about that? Why hadn't I anticipated that she would do what she had planned in the security of her own room? I knew that she didn't share her room with anybody, that she would be alone there. I sensed the dire urge to tear my hair because of my stupidity.

With fast-growing anxiety I watched the entrance. Certainly I could look for a Ravenclaw and ask … ask what? And why and with what explanation? How could I explain why I wanted to enter the dormitory? With a little planning I could have readied a plan but in this moment my mind was somehow burned out completely.

With a heavy sigh of relief – nearly giving away my concealment – I watched Luna Lovgood nearing the entrance. Way to slow for my taste she went up the stairs and toward the picture. I nearly fainted as she stopped a few yards away; looking around with her dreamy stare, looking for something … my heart missed a beat as she stared in my direction. Could she see me? Impossible but somehow … she turned away with a small smile and opened the entrance, standing near the open passage without blocking it … like an invitation.

I had no time to think about it and hurried past her, perhaps even touching her with Harry's cloak. At least I had an idea where the rooms of her year were and hastily I went up the stairs, hoping that nobody was on his way down. The passage … six doors I saw. Giggling I heard behind the first on the right. The second door was open, the room empty. My heart raced. What if I was too late? The third door on the right … as I wanted to lean against I heard her voice from the door over the way. "Blue eyes" she said with a whimper. I crossed the ground, leaned against the door. Yes, this was her voice. Looking around I detected no one else and pulled the cloak away, gathering my nerves, thinking about how to start.

"Ob …"

No, please a second. I reached for the doorknob.

"li …"

I twisted the doorknob. If she had locked the door … please Merlin please.

"vi …"

The door gave away, I lifted my wand as I saw her there, my mind unable to really grasp what I saw, the vision not able to stun me, to stop me in this crucial moment, the vision of Cho pointing her wand at her own forehead, ready to cast the Obliviate spell against herself, to forget all these memories that were harassing her.

"a …."

"Expelliarmus" She did not see me, did not hear me, was unable to avoid my spell, unable to realize what happened.

"Stupor" Instantly my second spell followed, allowing me some time to think, some time to ease my mind and to soothe my pounding heart.

Cho fall to the ground, I following instantly after I somehow closed the door. I leaned against the wood, praising Merlin that she hadn't locked the door and that I had been there in time. I didn't really know how to go on from here, how to cope with the situation, how to convince her not to make another try as soon as I left.

But in this moment this was unimportant. In this moment I felt only joy and relief.

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A/N:

I hope you liked this part. At least a second chapter will follow, I hope tomorrow.