Cho Chang: Ravenclaw's Seeker and Harry's First Kiss

Cho Chang is usually remembered as the girl Harry had the worst date of his life with. That version is unfair to her. She is one of the few characters who goes through real grief, and the book takes it seriously, even if Harry doesn't know what to do with it.

Who she is

Cho is Ravenclaw's Seeker and is a year ahead of Harry. She is popular, good at Quidditch and a friend of Marietta Edgecombe. Harry first sees her playing against Gryffindor and stares more than he should. She dates Cedric Diggory during the Triwizard Tournament.

Key moments

• Goblet of Fire, ch. 22: Harry gathers the nerve to ask her to the Yule Ball and she says she's already going with Cedric. She says it with real regret.
• Goblet of Fire, ch. 26: Cedric rescues Cho in the second task. She is the treasure he has to bring up from the lake.
• Order of the Phoenix, ch. 18: she joins Dumbledore's Army, though her friend Marietta joins with plenty of reservations.
• Order of the Phoenix, ch. 25: Harry and Cho kiss under the mistletoe, and she cries over Cedric while it happens.
• Order of the Phoenix, ch. 27: Marietta betrays the group to Umbridge. Cho is caught between loyalty to her friend and loyalty to Harry.

Relationships

With Cedric she had a romance that his death left unfinished. With Harry the relationship starts with mutual attraction and gets complicated because she is still mourning Cedric. Harry doesn't know how to handle that, and she doesn't know how to explain it.

With Marietta she has a friendship that ends badly because of a betrayal Cho didn't expect. It is the hardest blow she takes that year after Cedric's death.

What almost nobody notices

The date at Madam Puddifoot's tea shop is awkward for both of them. Harry mentions he is meeting Hermione afterward, and she ends up in tears over Cedric. Read calmly, neither of them is at fault: she needs to mourn her boyfriend, and he is fifteen and doesn't know what to say (Order of the Phoenix, ch. 25).

Her case shows the book isn't treating her as a romantic accessory: she has her own grief and her own conflicting loyalties.

Do you think first or act first? The house quiz asks.