For those who followed the Harry Potter books when they were releasing one at a time, the idea of Cho Chang still remains that of a seemingly unattainable dream girl. Cho was Harry’s main love interest from Prisoner of Azkaban to Order of the Phoenix, which meant that readers thought of her as Harry’s likely romantic match from 1999 to 2003. Even today, when Harry’s been known to have married Ginny Weasley since 2007, longtime fans still think of Cho when thinking of Harry’s love interest. The films also reflected Harry’s attraction to Cho, but this wasn’t done nearly as much justice as it could’ve been.
Nowadays, the current generation binge watches the films before reading the books, or maybe skip the books altogether, which deprives them of learning about the progression of the romance angle between Harry and Cho. It’s a shame because the story isn’t really too bad, despite not being the endgame for either characters. If you’ve only been going by the story based on the films, then you’re in for a world of knowledge coming your way with this list because you’ve missed quite a lot of points the films didn’t touch upon.
For those who have read the books, they have most likely forgotten the finer points of these characters since it has been over a decade since the novel series has ended, and almost a decade since the film series has ended. In order to refresh your minds, or inform you of the true nature of their relationship, here are 25 Wild Revelations About Cho Chang And Harry’s Relationship Fans Didn’t Realize.
She Was His First Crush
The first time you’d notice the books becoming a little bit targeted towards an older generation was when Harry began exhibiting teenage tendencies such as having a crush. For him, the first one ever was Cho Chang.
He would be very much taken by her starting from Prisoner of Azkaban, but it became a full-on crush by the time of Goblet of Fire. In this book, Harry would ponder many times over how much he liked Cho. In fact, from Prisoner of Azkaban to Order of the Phoenix, Harry’s main love interest was Cho Chang.
He Was Attracted To Cho The Moment He Saw Her
Both the film and book fans will have noted that the moment Harry laid eyes on Cho, whether it was onscreen or while reading the words, he had an instant attraction to her. Cho was first shown in the novel Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, where her only role was for us to see how Harry was taken aback by how much he fancied her.
In the novel, it was mentioned that Harry instantly blushed when they faced each other for their Quidditch match, and her remainder appearances added to Harry’s instantaneous attraction.
She Was A Year Older
JK Rowling seems to like pairing younger guys with older girls seeing as Mrs. Weasley was older than Mr. Weasley, Ron was younger than Hermione, and Harry was also a year below Cho. All you film fans might not know this, but Cho wasn’t in the same year as Harry as she was a fourth-year student when introduced, while Harry was only in the third year.
This was also a point behind why Cho didn’t see Harry as much of a love interest seeing that he wasn’t quite up to her age.
Harry’s Wanted To Win The TriWizard Tournament To Impress Her
Another thing that film fans might not know is that Harry did envision winning the TriWizard tournament before his name was called out. In the first night back at Hogwarts for his fourth year, Harry had a dream where he imagined winning the cup and seeing Cho’s face the clearest in a crowd of admirers.
When he realized he very well could win the tournament, Harry again saw the picture of Cho in front of him as he held the trophy aloft. To be honest, there’s no better motivation for a guy than impressing the girl he’s into. No wonder Harry won the whole thing.
She Was One Of The Few Students Not To Ridicule Harry
Before he won the First Task and the hearts of everyone around Hogwarts, Harry was ridiculed by every House other than Gryffindor when the school thought he had cheated into entering the tournament. For the first time, the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs were against him.
However, this didn’t include Cho, who never made fun of Harry or held anything against him for entering the tournament. This would become one of the reasons why Harry became even more interested in her; the girl he likes being one of the few who didn’t antagonize him, even when his best friend had ditched him.
She Tried To Make Him Jealous
Turns out Cho wasn’t always so understanding and by the time Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix rolled out, the bad parts of her also came out. One of these was when she attempted to use jealousy against Harry so he would make his move.
This happened in Hogsmeade, when Harry and Cho went on a date in a sappily romantic establishment where Harry had no clue what to do. Cho’s response to clear the awkwardness was by pointing out how Roger Davies – the Hogwarts ladies’ man – asked her out, but she rejected him in favor of Harry. This did more bad than good and Harry took this as Cho patronizing him.
She Could Have Been His Girlfriend Much Sooner
Although people assume Cedric had always been Cho’s go-to guy, that wasn’t really the case. In actuality, Harry wasted a lot of time being a nervous prat to go after the girl he wanted, which allowed pretty boy Cedric to make his move and ask Cho to the Yule Ball first.
By the time Harry came round, Cho already had a date, and this led to Cedric becoming her boyfriend. However, Cho was genuinely sorry she couldn’t be Harry’s date, and had he asked her sooner, she would’ve ended up being his girlfriend in Goblet of Fire alone. That’s a lesson to be learned from, boys.
She Didn’t Think Of Harry Romantically At First
Sure, she might have become his girlfriend sooner, but that doesn’t mean Cho even thought of Harry romantically to begin with. As mentioned earlier, she was a year older and didn’t have much reason to be into him, along with the fact that she and Harry had little to no interaction with one another.
It was Harry who took notice of her for over a year before he had the guts to talk to her. Had he never been interested, Cho would never have been interested in him either.
Harry Disliked Cedric Because He Was With Cho
Harry and Cedric were both nice guys, but they were never friends. This was due to Harry never fully bringing himself to like or trust Cedric; the reason for which was juvenile. Since Cedric beat Harry into becoming Cho’s date, he subsequently had a role of contempt in Harry’s mind.
Harry had initially admired Cedric, thinking him to be in the mold of a champion, but after the Yule Ball, Cedric became more of a rival in his mind. However, by the end, Cedric did become something of an ally, and Harry thought of him as a fallen friend once Cedric met his end.
Cho Thought Harry Was Secretly Dating Hermione
Ironically, Cho was under the impression that something was going on between Hermione and Harry when the former was in actuality giving him advice on how to woo Cho. Like many other people around Hogwarts and outside of it; including Dumbledore, Mrs. Weasley, Rita Skeeter, Pansy Parkinson, and Viktor Krum, Cho thought Harry and Hermione were an item as well.
Cho walking out on Harry during their mess of a date had to do with her assuming Harry was more interested in Hermione than her when she flared up at Harry mentioned how he had spoken of Cedric’s passing to Hermione.
He Became Completely Indifferent Towards Her After Their Break Up
By the time they broke up, Harry had a lot of other things on his mind. Chief among these problems was the fact he had lost his loving godfather, and after this loss, he had no mind for anything else. He and Cho had parted on terrible terms and when he saw her again on the Hogwarts Express, he realized impressing her wasn’t something he wanted to do anymore.
He became indifferent to the point that he didn’t care Michael Corner had begun dating Cho; he also had not a single thought for her in the following year at Hogwarts.
She Was Embarrassed Around Harry
After the break up, Cho didn’t have the same reaction of indifference as Harry did. Rather, she was too embarrassed to be around him. This was how we know they were never meant to be; she didn’t seek to comfort him for losing Sirius or talk about what their problems were.
When the whole school was admiring Harry for being the Chosen One, Cho kept a distance away from him, not wanting any part in being around him now that they had their shot and failed miserably. Her embarrassment combined with Harry’s indifference meant there was no hope left for this couple.
The Rebound
These two also had separate reactions to their break up. While Harry responded with being on his own and shunned dating, Cho did the exact opposite and rebounded instantly by getting together with Ginny’s ex-boyfriend Michael Corner.
Harry wouldn’t date anyone for a whole year before he and Ginny became a couple, and it’s a known fact that Cho didn’t feel strongly about Michael Corner seeing that she eventually married a Muggle man. It seems Harry was always looking for the real thing while Cho was more focused on being a monogamist rather than searching for the one.
She Was Among The Few Who Believed Him
As was the case was in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Cho was among the select few who believed that Voldemort really was back and had taken Cedric’s life. In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Cho would look for reasons to chat up with Harry in order to tell him he did believe in him.
Harry would be greatly comforted by the knowledge that the girl he was into believed him when all the Wizarding world shunned him as a liar and a glory seek. At least some good did come out of Cho and Harry’s relationship seeing as Harry was extremely volatile around this time.
Their Kiss Is Very Different Depending On Medium
In the film version of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the kissing scene between Harry and Cho was shown to be something romantic. A lot of hype had surrounded the first kiss to be seen in a Harry Potter film and so the scene was made to please rather than stay faithful to the book.
In the novel version, Cho only kissed him briefly before breaking down and leaving Harry in an awkward spot. In the film, the kiss went on for longer, while in the book it was very brief and couldn’t even count as a real kiss for most people.
She Was Using Him To Get Over Cedric
Okay, maybe using is quite a strong word, but Cho was doing something like this in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. She was devastated after losing Cedric, who it seems would’ve been her soulmate had he not perished so young, and she turned her affections toward Harry as he had been with Cedric in his last moments.
In this way, Cho was confusing whether she did like Harry or it was just a transference of feelings to him because she associated Harry with Cedric now. Ron was right that such feelings could cause someone to explode, but he has the emotional range of a teaspoon, so what does he know?
She Was His Only Ex-Girlfriend
Technically, she was also Harry’s only girlfriend seeing as Ginny eventually became his wife and superseded the girlfriend term. Harry’s romantic history is almost completely barren as he only had Cho before he settled with Ginny, which means his list of exes only has one name on it.
Still, being the ex-girlfriend of the guy who took out Voldemort must have gotten her notable press in the Wizarding world; maybe that’s why she ended up marrying a muggle considering she had no luck with wizards.
The Reason For Their Break-Up
Again, if you’ve only watched the films then you’re misunderstood as to why Harry and Cho broke up. The real reason behind the end of their coupling was Cho’s sneak friend Marietta, who betrayed the Dumbledore’s Army to the Ministry of Magic.
Cho was Marietta’s best friend and still stood by her sneak friend despite her actions, which angered Harry so much he admonished Cho for it. Not wanting to hear any of it, Cho attacked Hermione’s relationship with Harry, thus causing a permanent rift between Cho and Harry.
Ginny Still Saw Cho As A Threat
Ginny was a pretty hard-to-like character and she gave more reason for us to consider her pretty pathetic when she still saw Cho as a romantic rival. Before Half-Blood Prince, Ginny had no love for Cho as she was extremely jealous of Harry’s attraction for her – this because Ginny was so obsessed with Harry the whole, if you’ll recall.
In Deathly Hallows, Cho offered to show Harry the Ravenclaw common room to see what the diadem looked like, only for Ginny to jump up and tell Luna to take Harry, in fear that Harry and Cho might rekindle their romance along the way.
They Were Amicable By Deathly Hallows
As to why Cho offered to show Harry the Ravenclaw common room is attributed to how the two were amicable by this point. We didn’t see Cho at all in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and only saw her by the end of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, but clearly she and Harry had come across at some point and agreed to be friendly again.
Cho and Harry even embraced when they saw each other in Deathly Hallows – Part 2, meaning they were now on a friendly basis.
