Chapter 1 – Aftermath

Cho apparated to the front of her family home in Scotland, taking in the familiar lush green scenery that surrounded her. Fishing out her wand from her robes, she brandished it towards the wrought iron gates, murmuring a string of words as the gates appeared to dissolve. She stepped through the smoke like bars, opening the front door to her home and into the hallway.

As usual, silence greeted her arrival. It was something she was accustomed to now that her parents were gone. They had disappeared at the height of the war, no letter, no nothing to tell Cho where they went. No one at the time could help her find them due to the overwhelming need of wizards and witches to help the fight against He Who Must Not Be Named, so they had let the case go cold. After the war, Aurors had questioned the prisoners in Azkaban about the Chang family but they all stayed in a stony silence, their eyes blank and unseeing.

After an entire year of searching for them, she had lost all hope. They were gone and there was no evidence they would ever come back. To give her relatives and herself closure she held a funeral for them, placing flowers on their graves every Sunday. The only thing she had left was this house and gold but it felt so empty. The family home which she had grown up in and loved was now desolate, devoid of the delicious smells of steaming dumplings and congee that her mother liked to cook. There was no familiar thrum of the random magical and muggle gadgets her father had a particular interest in or the happy carefree laughter in her backyard when her little cousins would all come over to play quidditch.

There was nothing left for her here, only an inheritance and a dead-beat job at the ministry that involved so much paperwork that it could probably fill in the whole of a Quidditch stadium. Since Cedric's death, she had preoccupied herself with helping Harry and the war; but now even that was over and Cho couldn't help but think that her life held little purpose or direction.

Shaking herself from her depressing thoughts, Cho removed her winter outer robes and draped them over the back of her dining room chair. She made herself a cup of tea then rifled through the envelopes that were littered across her kitchen table. There was a letter from a distant Aunty, a reminder from the Daily Prophet to extend her newspaper subscription, a brochure on the newest brooms and a thick pale gold envelope addressed to her in a slightly messy scrawl.

Curious, she flipped it open and took out the white card adorned with elegant gold swirls and inky black calligraphy.

"To Miss Cho Chang,

You are invited to celebrate the union between Harry James Potter and Ginerva Weasley at their home at…."

The rest of the letter detailed the time and place of the ceremony and reception followed by a moving picture of the happy couple with their arms loosely around one another.

Cho's first impression was surprise closely followed by genuine happiness towards the couple. Though they had not worked out, she was glad Harry had found someone he loved despite everything that had happened. Ginny seemed like a good person, a little bit too fiery for her liking but a good person all the same. They were a perfect match for one another.

But Cho had to admit she would be lying if she said she had gotten over Harry completely. For the first time since Cedric, she had felt safe and as close to happy as she could possibly get when with him. He was awkward but endearing, smart yet modest and brave – braver than anyone she knew. But their short relationship had ended on a misunderstanding that neither of them bothered to mend. In hindsight, Cho realised she could have handled the situation with more grace and poise; but as a teenage girl with little sense of rationale and a lot of stubbornness she believed it was all Harry's fault. She liked to think she had grown up so much over the year that maturity had come through from all the terrible events that had played out over her short life and in some way, resulted in making her a stronger person.

Tucking the card behind her empty fruit bowl, Cho walked upstairs for a well-deserved shower all the while thinking of what wedding gift to give Harry and his bride to be.

Cho sighed, slumping in her chair as she processed yet another folder of paperwork. Paper aeroplanes buzzed about her head, dropping onto her desk every now and then while flustered looking witches and wizards bustled about the office. After the war, the Ministry of Magic had redoubled its efforts in attempts to restore the Wizarding World. As a result, that meant that Cho as well as hundreds of others had to work overtime, leaving next to no time for themselves – not that she needed it. Her social life was dismal to say the least, and despite her popularity when she was at Hogwarts, none of those friends had stayed with her afterwards – not even Marietta Edgecombe whom Cho had defended though she knew that Marietta had been wrong to betray the DA.

Making new friends at work was even harder than trying to keep in contact with her old ones. There was no time for them to converse leisurely, let alone slip out for drinks or a casual get together. After a month of no luck, Cho decided that it didn't really matter. She was there to work, not to have fun and socialize, and if she was being honest to herself, she didn't really feel like getting close to anyone. She would inevitably bring back unwelcome memories and scare them off with her tears. It had happened at Hogwarts, where after weeks and months of crying in the girl's bathroom over Cedric, her peers had appropriately labelled her 'the human hose pipe' based on her inability to rein in the water works.

It had hurt when none of her friends had jumped to her defence when someone made a rude remark about her, but it hurt even more when they stopped trying to cheer her up. All she had needed was some comfort, something to help her cope with the situation while keeping Cedric's memory alive.

A paper plane suddenly plonked itself right in front of Cho, landing gracelessly into her half empty cup of steaming coffee. Drying off the stained paper with her wand, she read the print with difficulty. It was from the Head of Department, telling her that her stack of paperwork in regards to the ex- Death Eaters was to be completed by 6PM sharp.

Realising that she only had 3 hours to go, Cho hurriedly swept up the next folder, browsing through them and recording the relevant material before signing her name at the bottom. She sifted through folder after folder, the familiar faces staring up at her. She recognised Dolohov, Malfoy and the Lestrange men, their faces gaunt and sallow; a contrast to the pride and arrogance they use to possess.

As Cho continued to read through their sentences and convictions, she couldn't help but feel that perhaps these people were not as 'evil' as much of society labelled them as. They were misled, united towards a common enemy with the promise of grandeur. It was a classic formula for war that had been repeated throughout history by muggles and magical folk alike. Yes, they had killed and tortured but perhaps it was to save themselves and their families? Fear can make people do strange and awful things.

No, they weren't evil people, Cho thought to herself as she signed her signature once more. They had been lied to, and unfortunately were so wrapped up in their ideals, that they paid the price for their convictions with their lives.

So was You Know Who evil? He did terrible things but he must have had some shred of humanity in him at some stage in his life. Cho wondered what had brought a boy to such madness. From what she had heard from Harry, he was an orphan who thirsted to prove himself in the magical world amongst his pure blooded brethren. Rather than to try and belong, he alienated himself from anyone who could have possibly cared for him.

But even as Cho continued to think about it, she surmised that his sins could not be redeemed simply because of an unpleasant upbringing. As much as she strived to see the good in everyone, she could not imagine He Who Must Not Be Named caring for anyone or anything except himself. He was selfish and arrogant, overestimating his own strength and underestimating the power of faith and unity. The unforgivable things he had condoned and accomplished proved to Cho that he was too far gone for redemption of any kind.

He simply did not deserve to be saved.