Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/Cho Chang

Overview
Cho Chang is a very pretty and charming Ravenclaw seeker and is one year older than Harry. A romance bloomed between Cho and Harry in his fourth (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) and fifth (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix) year, but their relation quickly became strained, and had broken off before the end of his fifth year.

Prisoner of Azkaban
We first meet Cho when she is introduced as Seeker of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team. Harry immediately notices that she is very pretty, and he feels a slight jolt in his stomach when she smiles at him. It also turns out that she is a very skilled flyer; despite the disparity in brooms (Cho is riding a Comet Two-Sixty, Harry is riding a Firebolt), she is still able to block one of his three attempts to get the Snitch. Later on in the year, before the Gryffindor vs. Slytherin Quidditch Match, she wishes Harry good luck on winning the match against Slytherin.

Goblet of Fire
Harry sees Cho at the Quidditch World Cup in passing.

After the announcement of the Triwizard Tournament, Harry thinks of entering the tournament, winning it, and particularly of Cho's admiring gaze when he does so.

Cho most seriously wishes Harry luck in the first Task of the tournament.

Harry, upon learning that he will have to find a dance partner for the Yule Ball, decides to ask Cho. His fears of looking foolish doing so, however, prevent him actually asking her until the last day of classes, by which time it is too late: she has already promised Cedric Diggory that she would go with him. She does seem genuinely upset that she wouldn't get a chance to go to the Ball with Harry, though.

In the Second Task, Harry must free hostages that are held by Merpeople at the bottom of the lake. He finds that one of the hostages is Cho, unconscious like the others. Cedric arrives, some time after Harry, and frees her. Harry remains, because he doesn't want to leave anyone down here. When he finally reaches the surface, with Ron and Gabrielle Delacour, Cho is being helped by Madam Pomfrey.

Cho's boyfriend, Cedric Diggory, is killed by Voldemort during the Third Task of the Triwizard Tournament. At the Leaving Feast, as Dumbledore leads the school in honouring Cedric's memory, Harry sees Cho crying.

Order of the Phoenix
Cho looks into Harry's compartment on the Hogwarts Express to say hello to Harry, just after Neville Longbottom has demonstrated the defence mechanism of his new Mimbulus Mimbultonia plant. Harry, covered with Stinksap, is mortally embarrassed, and Cho quickly withdraws.

At Hogwarts, Cho approaches Harry, Ron, and Hermione in the courtyard at break, apparently to have a quick word with Harry. Ron sees that she is wearing the badge of a popular Quidditch team, and accuses her of supporting that team only because it is fashionable (we learn much later that Ron's favorite team, the Chudley Cannons, seems to be rather consistently at the bottom of the league). Stung, Cho retorts that she has always supported that team, and leaves.

Following his final session of detention with Professor Umbridge, Harry finds that he has to send a message to Sirius Black informing him that his scar hurt again when Umbridge touched him. In the Owlery, he is met by Cho, who has to send a birthday gift. They talk, sharing their revulsion at Umbridge's actions; when Argus Filch bursts in, accusing Harry of ordering Dungbombs, Cho defends him. Harry is extremely cheerful thereafter at breakfast, which draws notice from Hermione and Ron.

Harry is pleased again when Cho turns up at the Hog's Head for the first meeting of what is then called the Defence Association. When Zacharias Smith questions his qualifications, Harry is perhaps inordinately pleased that Cho is one of those who leaps to his defence, specifically talking about what he had faced in the Third Task. After the meeting breaks up, Cho seems to want to stay behind and talk to Harry, but her friend, who we later learn is Marietta Edgecombe, is impatient enough to leave that she manages to convince Cho to depart.

At the first regular meeting, Cho suggests "Defence Association" as a name for the group, and Ginny Weasley points out that the initials could as easily stand for Dumbledore's Army. This name is written on the parchment, and lessons begin. Cho seems to have a great deal of difficulty with simple spells when Harry is nearby, though Harry has noticed that she handles them quite capably when he is on the other side of the room.

At the last D.A. class before Christmas break, Cho lingers after the rest of the students have left. She and Harry talk, she is still wondering about how Cedric died. Harry is unable to give much reassurance. She maneuvers Harry under the mistletoe, and they kiss.

Afterwards, talking with Hermione, Harry describes the kiss as "wet. Because she had been crying." Hermione says she does that all the time because she is still so confused about her own feelings for Harry and about Cedric. When Harry describes his efforts to console Cho, Hermione says it could have been worse. Hermione asks if he's going to see her again; Harry does not answer – the idea that he could go out with Cho seems to take him by surprise.

Back at the school after Christmas, he meets Cho in the Entrance Hall. She points out that the next Hogsmeade weekend falls on February 14. When Harry realizes what she is talking about, he invites her to go to Hogsmeade with him; she enthusiastically accepts.

Once in Hogsmeade, though, Harry feels very out of place. Cho suggests Madam Puddifoot's Tearoom, and Harry agrees, but finds it full of Valentine's Day decorations, and packed solid with couples kissing. Harry, feeling awkward, casts around for topics of conversation but comes up with nothing. When Cho mentions that Roger Davies had asked her out, but she had turned him down, Harry is uncertain how to respond, not least because Roger, entwined in another girl, is sitting directly behind him. Harry has promised that he will meet Hermione at the Three Broomsticks at noon, and tells Cho this; Cho misunderstands, and storms out. Hermione, discussing this with Harry later, says that he should have expressed reluctance, that he really thought Hermione was ugly but that he had promised to meet her. Harry is somewhat appalled at the thought of such duplicity.

What Hermione has arranged is that an interview with Harry, written straight instead of being slanted to make him out to be an attention-seeker, will be published in The Quibbler. When the interview comes out two weeks later, Harry is greatly cheered that Cho seeks him out, and tells him that he was really brave to give that interview.

Shortly after this, the D.A. is betrayed by Cho's friend Marietta Edgecombe. When Cho meets Harry after this, she says that she is sorry about the betrayal, but then goes on to defend Marietta, saying that her mother works in the Ministry. Harry points out that Ron's father works in the Ministry as well, but Ron doesn't have the word "Sneak" written on his face. Cho says that it was a dirty trick to charm the parchment they had signed that way, but Harry is adamant: there was no reason to betray the D.A. Cho storms off.

Harry, having seen a very disturbing scene that passed between his father and Snape, is preoccupied; luckily, he can pass off his preoccupation as being the result of fighting with Cho.

Though Cho is playing in the final Quidditch match of the year, against Gryffindor, Harry is extremely ambivalent about watching her. He thinks to himself that he doesn't know what he wants, except that he doesn't want any more fights. When her name is announced and he sees her on the field, his stomach does not do its usual backflip, only more of a feeble lurch. Even seeing her talking animatedly with Roger Davies gets very little reaction.

On the Hogwarts Express heading back to London, Cho walks past Harry's compartment, blushes, but doesn't stop. Ginny says that she has taken up with Michael Corner. Ron asks, hadn't Ginny been going out with Michael? Ginny says that he was a poor loser, so she had dumped him.

Half-Blood Prince
Cho passes Harry a few times, but there is no real interaction.

Deathly Hallows
In the preliminary action before the second Battle at Hogwarts, Cho appears with the other members of Dumbledore's Army to help defend the school against Lord Voldemort. She volunteers to show Harry the bust of Rowena Ravenclaw in the Ravenclaw common room. Ginny Weasley forestalls this, suggesting quite strongly that Luna Lovegood should do that instead.

Strengths
An excellent Quidditch player. Cho was also a member of Dumbledores Army (DA) with Harry. As a member of Dumbledore's Army, she was strong enough magically to progress to the point of actually conjuring a corporeal Patronus. In Harry's OWL exam that same year, his ability to conjure a corporeal Patronus was evidently worth an extra mark; while other members of the DA were apparently not similarly tested, the fact that this was worth a whole letter-grade (about 10% of the examination total) would indicate that it is a relatively rare ability for a fifth-year, and presumably also for a sixth-year.

Weaknesses
She does not seem to be able to complete her mourning for Cedric Diggory, who is killed at the end of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Throughout the next book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, other characters are commenting on how much crying she is doing.

Relationships with Other Characters
While she seems to be friends with a lot of other Ravenclaw students, the main relationships presented are her and Harry dating 'on and off' after her former boyfriend, Cedric Diggory was killed, and her defence of the actions of her friend Marietta Edgecombe. Cho's romantic relationships are covered in more detail here.