The Autumn Swan

a Harry Potter fan fiction story

by Lord Akiyama

Author's Note: This is a reboot of Harry Potter and the Autumn Swan. I had stopped that story after fifty chapters and nearly a year of inactivity because I felt I was getting away from the primary focus of the story, which was the development of a relationship between Harry and Cho, by throwing in a great deal of unnecessary additional storylines that ultimately clashed together. Clashing to the point that I could not figure out how to proceed any further with the story properly. Coming out of a challenging period for me and my family that sapped my creativity for a good long while, it allowed me to really see for myself just how far off the tracks I felt I was going. So I came to the difficult decision to reboot the story almost from scratch. Elements from the original version will more than likely carry over into this version because there were a lot of great things in there that I am still happy to have written and would like to retain. There will be changes, though I am confident they will not deter from the spirit of the original version.

Please enjoy this version of the story and send in reviews. I really want to know what you guys think every step of the way.

Prologue

Cho Chang was talked into trying out for the Ravenclaw Quidditch team at the start of her fourth year at Hogwarts when it was discovered that her godfather was Liam MacPherson, the famed former Seeker for the Tutshill Tornadoes. Roger Davies, the house team captain, was so insistent of her trying out that he was literally crawling on his knees to beg on a daily basis. At first, Cho thought it was really an attempt by Roger to eventually ask her out. After all, it was not the first time he told a girl she had potential talent and to try out for the team, only for her to not make it and instead engage in a short-term relationship with him. Yet this ended up being different as she would later learn that the team was in desperate need of a Seeker. And since her godfather was Liam MacPherson, it would stand to reason that she received some training from him, which was indeed the case. Cho finally gave in and tried out for the team. Within hours, it was apparent that she was quite skillful and talented enough at the position to warrant her earning a spot on the team. Some thing that she never really aspired to do.

Being part of the Quidditch house team was quite the physical chore. Roger wanted to make sure that everyone was at the top of their game at all times. It did not matter that it was practice, he wanted to make sure that all were giving their best to justify their being on the team. Often times he would single some one out and push them beyond their limits in order for them to excel at one exercise drill. Being a rookie, Cho was singled out very early. She was pushed so hard and so far beyond her athletic capabilities that when the day was finally finished she was soaked in sweat and her entire body was sore for a week. No training she had previously received from her godfather ever came close to matching the intensity of a practice run by Roger.

Yet there was also a strengthening of camaraderie taking place. The team, by in large, hung out together as much and as often as possible every day. They gathered together at one end of the Ravenclaw dining table in the Great Hall, conversing either on Quidditch strategies or just to tell one another humorous stories. Within Ravenclaw Tower, all would be found in the common room to pass along some more stories or share knowledge with one another as they studied for upcoming exams and tests. It hardly left Cho with any time to spend with her friends like Marietta Edgecombe or Padma Patil. As a matter of fact, spending time with the team was quite an experience compared to spending time with her friends. To be perfectly blunt, her friends were girls and everyone else on the team were boys. Aside from Quidditch, there was not much she had in common with the boys. Regardless, they were getting along swimmingly and by the end of their second practice it was as if they could all relate to one another on the same level. Still, this did not stop them from pulling some unfortunate ribbing on her, most of which in the beginning were attempts to cause Cho to be caught without some clothes on. At least Roger had the decency to put a stop to the tomfoolery quickly before it really got any worse.

By the time Ravenclaw finally played their first game of the year against Slytherin, they were the equivalent of a well-oiled machine. There was not a weak link within the team as their bond was stronger than ever. Through all of the practice Roger put them through, they were more than ready to achieve nothing less than victory. So they were shocked and disappointed when they were narrowly defeated by Slytherin. No one on the team could figure out how they could have done any better than they did. None of them would even blame Cho, despite the fact that it was through Draco Malfoy's retrieval of the Snitch that allowed Slytherin to win at all. The way they saw it, the spoiled brat managed to get lucky by being at the right place at the right time when the Snitch made a sudden split move just as Cho had it within her grasp.

So when it came time for their next practice meet, they spent all of their time going over what they did both right and possibly wrong in the game and offering ideas and suggestions about how they could improve the next time around. Once an idea was announced, the team would get up and immediately run through an exercise designed to see if for sure the idea was helpful. Every practice afterward until the next game was back to the same routine of pushing one another past their limits to prepare them physically and mentally. And since they were implementing the new ideas that had been suggested in the earlier meet, it only made the drills more grueling and intense than before. Cho could hardly make it back to Ravenclaw Tower on her own two feet she was so exhausted and worn out at the end of each practice. But she was of the same mindset as the others that all of this hard work would reward them in the end.

Their second game of the year would be against Gryffindor. A game that made Roger very anxious. Not nervous, because that would be allowing the opposition to see that as a sign of weakness. No, Roger was instead anxious. Anxious because his rookie Seeker would be contending against The Boy Who Lived. Every student in the school knew that Harry Potter was a gifted Quidditch player. It was as though he had been born to master the sport inside and out, even though all knew that was very far from the case. Nevertheless, having Cho contend against Harry for the Snitch was going to be a difficult obstacle to overcome if Ravenclaw hoped to win against Gryffindor. What's more, Harry was going to be flying the new Firebolt broom while Cho would only have a Comet Two Sixty. This forced Roger, and the team in general, to come up with a different strategy than the one used against Slytherin. For Cho to even attempt to outfly Harry in an effort to catch the Snitch would be foolhardy at best.

Stepping out onto the field, Cho wanted to make sure that she would not feel intimidated or in awe of Harry Potter. She had heard so many stories about him, both good and bad. Most of the bad stories were obviously coming from the Slytherins, but there were a few that came from within Ravenclaw. Even Marietta would share some of the negative gossip she overheard about The Boy Who Lived. The positive things being said about him were not just coming from Gryffindor. Other Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff students, even some of the Hogwarts professors, had been praising him in some fashion or another, and not just because he was talented at Quidditch. Many had spoken of supposed acts of heroism he performed, be it within the school grounds or otherwise. There was, of course, the common knowledge that it was more than twelve years ago that he apparently brought an end to the reign of He Who Must Not Be Named, and yet from what Cho heard, he never really seemed to trade off of that fact. Instead, he merely wanted to get along with everyone else as best as he could. Hardly the personality of an attention-seeking hound that the negative stories made him out to be. Nevertheless, she was not going to allow herself to be taken in by any of the stories, good or bad. When it was time for her to meet Harry Potter, she was simply going to smile. Which was exactly what she did.

Cho found his reaction to her smiling to him curious. It was almost as if he had suddenly caught his breath for almost no apparent reason. She thought little more of this and returned immediately to concentrating on the game at hand. At the command of Madam Hooch, she mounted her broom and it was not long before she kicked off into the air. Shortly after the match officially started, Cho could sense that Harry immediately caught on to the strategy she and her team agreed upon. She may not be able to outfly Harry in speed, but she knew she had quite a few tricks up her sleeve with regards to setting up misdirections and then suddenly cutting across without him expecting it one bit. A little something her godfather helped her in mastering. She managed to cut him off a couple of times, looking to frustrate him to the point of making mistakes as the match progressed. At least, that was the plan. But then, more often than not, plans did go awry.

At one point, both Seekers caught sight of the Snitch glittering on the Ravenclaw end of the field. Harry had made an attempt to lose her as a tail only for both to accelerate toward the winged ball. As had been noted, the Firebolt Harry had would outmatch the Comet Two Sixty Cho flew in speed. Cho knew she needed to cut him off in some fashion. But before she could even allow herself a second to think, she spotted three black hooded figures appear suddenly on the field. She did not realize that she let out a mild scream of surprise until after the fact. In a flash, Harry, without any sort of hesitation, pulled out his wand, pointed it toward the figures, and yelled out a spell. A burst of white light shot out of the tip of his wand and connected against the figures, causing them to drop to the ground upon impact. As though this sort of distraction was not worth giving his attention to, he managed to quickly put his wand back into his robe, reached out, and grabbed the Snitch. It was a spectacular display of skill and ability that had to be far beyond his years, yet he pulled it off like it was second nature.

Cho was absolutely and utterly stunned. She really did not know how to react. What she saw was amazing. Unfortunately, it was at the expense of her team losing. Losing rather quickly and decisively. As Gryffindor celebrated their victory, the Ravenclaw Quidditch team managed to gather together and look on in disbelief. They could not believe that the match was over as soon as it did. It could not have been because they played bad. They barely had the opportunity to truly let themselves loose as they were just warming up. Cho did her part by cutting off Harry here and there. Just how in the world could they have lost this badly?

Within all of the commotion that was being made by the Gryffindor students, it was soon discovered that the three hooded figures were four Slytherin students. And not just any Slytherin students either. They were Draco Malfoy, Gregory Goyle, Vincent Crabbe, and the Slytherin Quidditch team captain Marcus Flint. It seemed that all four were attempting to disrupt Harry by passing themselves off as Dementors. Unfortunately for them, it appeared that Harry was prepared given the way he reacted. Seeing Slytherin students trying to interfere with the game was all the proof the Ravenclaw Quidditch team needed to pinpoint where the fault for their loss would lay. As much as they would like to have won the match, there was no way they could possibly live with themselves at the thought of winning because a group of poor sports tried to take out an opposing player by dubious means. It just would not be right morally and ethically. This interruption ruined the match for them, regardless of the fact that they lost.

The Ravenclaw Quidditch team was brooding as they made their way off of the field. Yet Cho, in an attempt to get her mind off of what happened and focus on any thing else as quickly as possible, brought her thoughts back to just before the match started. When she met Harry briefly for the first time, face to face, and she smiled at him. He did not smile back in response, but then he did not appear to display any sort of determination either. It was more like the sight of her caught him by surprise, that he was not expecting to see her of all people. The way his green eyes had shot wide open, if only for a quick moment, and his mouth opening just barely. Almost as though he was suddenly looking upon a vision. A curious way he reacted since he was only looking at her, Cho thought. It was not as though she were any sort of beauty to behold.

Or was she?

Author's Note: In rebooting the story, I decided to throw in this opening prologue to set the pace. With it came a couple of noticeable changes between this version and the previous in that I ended up following canon on some statistics on Cho. In the previous version, she started playing Quidditch in her second year, her parents were Muggle-born, and Liam MacPherson was her uncle. In this version, she started playing Quidditch in her fourth year, her parents were Wizard-born, and Liam MacPherson was her godfather. Expect other noticeable changes to occur, though, as I stated above, there will be elements that will remain the same. I will let you know when they occur.

I know this was only the prologue, but I would very much appreciate some feedback. So please send in your reviews and spread the word. The more the merrier.

Harry Potter and all the characters, locations, and world created and copyright © JK Rowling. This story was created out of pure fun and enjoyment, so please don't sue or place an Imperius Curse on me.