Cho Chang and Harry Potter met for the first time on the Quidditch pitch during Harry’s third year at Hogwarts. They both played Seekers, but while Harry played for Gryffindor, Cho played for another Hogwarts House.
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What House Was Cho Chang In?
Cho Chang was in Ravenclaw.
It wasn’t easy to miss Cho Chang’s House allegiance through the books. Even though there were not many times anybody mentioned her initially, Harry usually thought of her as “Cho Chang, the Seeker on the Ravenclaw Quidditch team” before getting to know her better.
The very first mention of Cho Chang happened in chapter 13 of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Oliver Wood mentioned to Harry that Cho would play as a Ravenclaw Seeker in the next Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw Quidditch game.
Apart from her appearance during the said game, she didn’t get too much action until the Order of the Phoenix book, where she joined the Dumbledore’s Army. During that time, she showed her real Ravenclaw potential.
Why Was Cho Chang In Ravenclaw?
Many people questioned Cho’s House because she wasn’t smart enough for them, but that’s not entirely true.
During her first game against Harry, she played a well-thought-out tactic that showed her intelligence and wit – the traits sought after the most in Ravenclaw.
Cho knew she could not win a race against the fastest broom ever made, so she decided to play smart and block Harry’s attempts at finding the Snitch.
She was also one of the few who noticed a strange thing about Dementors. While everyone called Harry a liar and didn’t believe in Voldemort’s return, Cho noticed that hundreds of Dementors guarded Hogwarts when Sirius Black escaped Azkaban.
Still, after the mass breakout of ten highly dangerous wizards, there were no signs of even one Dementor protecting students at school.Â
Another thing people often forget when discussing Ravenclaw is that apart from intelligence, one needs also to value the learning process.
Even though Cho never managed to stun anybody before joining Dumbledore’s Army in her sixth year, she made significant progress during those meetings.
Was Cho Chang a Transfer Student at Hogwarts?
Some fans are curious if Cho got transferred to Hogwarts from another school. We don’t really have any reason to think Cho got transferred. In fact, we are pretty confident that Hogwarts doesn’t do transfers. The school only allows magical kids from Great Britain and Ireland.
Some people might think that Cho was transferred because we had never heard of her before Harry’s third year.
We also have to remember that there are hundreds of students we never hear about because the story focuses mostly on Harry, his friends, people he has seen or interacted with, or events that somehow connect with his adventures. That excludes almost 90% of the school population of students and a few teachers as well.
Cho was in a different House and different year than Harry, so there was a big chance they would have never met if not for the Quidditch. We don’t think this is a good reason to believe Cho got transferred from another school.
Others might think that because Chang is not your typical British or Irish the last name, Cho might have traveled from another country to attend Hogwarts.
On that note, we can only say that there is a big probability that witches and wizards travel more freely than Muggles, and they do that with more ease (i.e., Floo, Portkey, Apparition).
There would be nothing stopping Cho’s parents from traveling from abroad before she was born. Or even if her grandparents were Muggles, plenty of foreigners made their lives in Great Britain and Ireland.
Final Thoughts
Cho Chang is a Ravenclaw girl, and even though we never got to experience her smarts like we did Hermione’s, there is no reason to doubt it. She was clever to figure many things out without anyone’s help.
Cho was also very keen to learn from Harry during Dumbledore’s Army meetings. That is one of the traits that Ravenclaws are all about – being passionate about learning and knowledge.