Sure enough, rumors began circulating about Harry and Qiu.
This troubled them somewhat, but neither was particularly unhappy about it.
Harry went without saying-far from being unhappy, he was secretly a little pleased. As for Cho Chang, if the person in question was Harry, she did not particularly mind either.
Of course, in public, they both insisted that they were only classmates who happened to have studied and practiced Quidditch together over the holidays.
And that was indeed the case.
If one discounted the few occasions when Cho Chang had exhausted so much magic practicing the Patronus Charm that Harry had needed to help her walk, their relationship really was that of the most ordinary classmates.
That claim, however, came under scrutiny on the first weekend of term.
That day was a Hogsmeade visit day, and Harry received a letter delivered by Qiu's owl. She hoped that Harry and his friends could go to Hogsmeade with her and her friends.
Qiu explained her reasoning in the letter: she and her friends were all very afraid of Dementors, and having Harry along, who could cast a powerful Patronus Charm capable of holding off dozens of Dementors, would make everyone feel safer.
Well, Cho Chang also repeatedly stressed in her letter that she had only made the request because her roommates and friends had asked her to again and again. If Harry's schedule or anything else made it inconvenient, she would completely understand.
Harry's response was, "It's convenient. Extremely convenient."
Although the two groups did nothing together in Hogsmeade apart from walking there together, this still greatly fueled the gossip and rumors about the two of them.
As the Quidditch match approached, rather than dying down, the rumors and gossip grew even more rampant.
The reason was simple: the four matches that