Who: Cho, Ben, & Bernadette Chambers When: Wednesday, January 24 Where: Ilkley Moor, then Chambers' Fine Jewels & Enchantments Status: COMPLETE
This was ridiculous. Cho was a grown woman. And a Healer at that. (Well, almost.) She'd been in the Puddlemere lockeroom dozens of times, seen things that fangirls would shave their heads and sell their firstborn to see, and yet... She was afraid to open the door, and she needed to do it. Now. She needed to find Ben...before she was forced to take drastic measures and sell her firstborn. Ben was her last hope. Taking a deep breath, she swung the door open and marched towards Ben's locker. His mop of blond hair wasn't hard to spot.
"Ben, can I talk to you? I can make it quick."
Ben notched his towel in at his hip and turned around, crossing his arms over his bare, dripping wet chest. "Sure, what do you need?" he asked, the corner of his mouth quirking up.
"In private," she said, looking up at him with wide eyes. "The Captain's office?"
Ben glanced over across the locker room toward the captain in question, who was in the middle of an urgent discussion with Leo, both still as wet from the showers as Ben was. "Yeah, sure. Let's go now, though, unless you plan on kicking him off his own turf later."
"I'm trying to stay off of his turf," Cho said, not daring to follow Ben's gaze even as they passed Oliver on the way to the office.
Ben strode through the halls as if he was wearing designer robes rather than a towel and let her into the office, closing the door behind them. "So, what's this about?"
Cho blinked up at him. Hi Ben, I have a plan to get out of marrying your cousin, and I want you to finance it. There was no easy way to say this. "Your family has a lot of money, right? Rich people can do anything."
"Yeah..." Ben said, his lips curling and eyes narrowing into a bemused expression. "I'm not sure I'd say that we can do anything, but we're certainly not hurting."
"I need to take out a loan," she said, giving him the same wide eyed look as before. "Or at least sell you some things." That's what Katie would do, after all. Cho wanted to be strong, like Katie would be. Like she was this morning.