Secrets Withheld

An hour later Hermione stood upon a stool as the seamstress and her assistant measured her the dress that she was to wear to the banquet.

Viktor was not present for the measuring required Hermione to strip down to her underclothes.

After getting poked at several times by both the seamstress and her assistant, Hermione was allowed to put her clothes back on.

“Much too skinny, milady,” the seamstress said, writing down some measurements onto a piece of paper.

“Excuse me?” Hermione asked, politely.

The seamstress looked up. “It’s good to be skinny, milady. But you are too skinny. It looks as though you haven’t eaten in months.”

Hermione looked at herself in the full-length mirror hanging on the wall. She stared at the girl in the mirror. A very skinny girl, too. I suppose I should stop going to the library during lunch, Hermione thought.

The door knocked and the seamstress’s assistant allowed Viktor to enter. He strode over to the seamstress and started talking to her quickly in Russian. Hermione could hardly keep up with who was saying what. But she did know that it was about her. The seamstress and Viktor would look at her, talk a bit, look at her again, converse, and so on.

Finally, Viktor nodded to the seamstress and her assistant and beckoned Hermione to follow him.

“What did you say to the seamstress?” Hermione asked after they had the seamstress shop.

“Nothing,” Viktor said.

“Tell me,” Hermione pleaded.

“It will ruin the surprise if I tell you, sweetling.”

Hermione put on her pleading look and stared at Viktor. He refused to say anything more.

He bid Hermione good-bye when they reached her rooms. She walked in and flopped down on her bed.

Her thoughts drifted for awhile until the settled on the name Viktor had called her. Sweetling. Was she his sweetling? Whatever that meant. Maybe it was a Bulgarian word that men said to women.

Would this “sweetling” word meant that she and Viktor were a couple? Hermione never thought of them as dating since it really had never been made official. Sure, they did everything that a real couple did. The kissing, the romantic gestures (Viktor did most of those, Hermione didn’t know how to), visiting each other, and just acting like a couple.

She wasn’t sure if she wanted to date Viktor. It was something big for her. Never to have a boyfriend and then all of a sudden have the heart of a famous Quidditch player in you hands confused Hermione. She knew she should’ve asked her mother about it before she left but forgot about it.

But when she thought of her 4th Year and everything that had happened and how Viktor treated her, she knew the answer to that question. It was simple.

~~~~~

Two hours before dinner and the banquet, a maid shook Hermione awake.

“It’s time to get ready for the banquet, milady,” the maid told her.

Hermione stood up and stretched. She looked over to the desk in the corner and saw a large box on it.

“What’s that?” she asked the maid.

“That, my lady, is your gown for this evening. Go open it,” the maid said warmly.

Hermione stepped over to the desk and slowly lifted the top of the box. Inside was a gown. A beautiful gown. She lifted the dress out of the box to get a better look at it.

The maid walked over to her. “Milady, shall I help you dress?”

“No, that won’t be necessary,” Hermione began but then she noticed all the other garments that the maid was pulling out of the box. “There is just one dress in there, isn’t there?”

“Yes, milady. Only one,” the maid replied.

“Then I suppose I will need your help.”

*******

The process which dressed Hermione was awful. She could hardly move in the dress, let alone dance like she was supposed to.

“How do I dance in this?” she asked the maid once more.

“I wouldn’t know. I’ve never worn a dress like that. All I can say is that you dance. Somehow,” the maid answered.

Hermione walked over to the mirror once again to admire the gown. It was made of a deep blue silk with an opening in the skirts to reveal the white petticoats. The sleeves came down to the elbow and then branch out in lace. Hermione’s long bangs were pulled back and held back with a sapphire clip. A deep blue choker was around her small neck.

The overall effect was breathtaking. Hermione felt like Cinderella in the beautiful ball gown about to meet her prince. She giggled. What if she did meet her prince tonight? It would make the whole trip even more romantic.

“Is something wrong?” the maid asked kindly.

Hermione smiled. “No, I was just thinking about how much this reminds me of Cinderella. About meeting my prince,” she said.

The maid nodded knowingly. “I see. Do you have any idea of what this prince may look like?”

Hermione was thoughtful for a few moments, then said, “I have an idea.” She smiled.

An abrupt knock on the door ended the conversation. The maid walked over to the door and opened it. There Viktor stood, looking his very best. He was handsome, Hermione noticed now more than ever. She shivered with glee. This night was to be quite promising.

Viktor stepped in and reached for Hermione’s hand. Bending over, he kissed her hand, while Hermione giggled severely.

“I hope you don’t do this at the banquet,” he said, a light smile touching his lips.

“I’ll try not to, but it’s no guarantee,” she said, giggling even more.

“Shall we go?” Viktor offered Hermione his arm. She accepted it gracefully and they left the rooms.

The corridor was empty until they reached to point in which it branched into the main hallway. There it was filled with people. As soon as they saw Viktor and Hermione, they stepped aside, either nodding or bowing. Yet again Hermione wondered about Viktor’s stature. How powerful was his father?

As she and Viktor walked on, Hermione noticed that these people were witches and wizards. Not muggles. She wondered why only magical people had attended and said so.

“Only magic folk were invited,” he replied.

“Why?”

“You ask a lot of questions. This isn’t just a banquet, it’s a meeting. We’re going to discuss the events a few months ago,” Viktor said, not mentioning You-Know-Who’s name.

“Oh,” she replied softly. Well, at least, she would get to witness a discussion such as this. She had never attended anything like it before so it was bound to interesting.

It didn’t take very long for Hermione and Viktor to get into the banquet hall. Many other people still crowded towards the entrance.

Viktor led Hermione over to a long front table that overlooked the rest of the hall. There sat Alexander and Annetta.

“Hello,” Hermione said shyly.

“Hello, Hermione. That is a very beautiful dress you have,” Annetta commented.

“Thank you,” Hermione replied.

A few minutes later what seemed like everyone was in the hall. Viktor’s father stood up and made a toast. Then he told everyone to begin to feast.

The food was delicious. Hermione loved it all and actually had to stop herself from having thirds. She blushed severely when she saw that Viktor had noticed what she was doing.

“It’s all right,” he whispered to her. “I won’t tell anyone.”

“You’d better not,” she retorted.

Viktor smiled and sat back in his seat.

Alexander stood up after everyone had finished eating. “Now that our stomachs are full. Some too much.” A few men and women chuckled. “We can begin discussing the topics at hand...”

Hermione leaned over to Viktor. “When do we get to dance?” she whispered.

“After this,” he replied. “Are you that excited?”

Hermione smiled. “Yes.” She settled back into her seat and tried to pay attention to what Viktor’s father was saying.

She couldn’t concentrate though. She felt like Viktor was trying to reach his hand of to hers, but she wasn’t sure. Whenever she looked at him, he was watching his father intently.

She sighed. This was sort of boring because her mind kept drifting. She scolded it and told it to stop, but it kept drifting to Viktor and how his hand was drifting over to hers. She wanted to take it, but she felt she would be too forward if she did. She didn’t want him to think she actually noticed it.

Finally, Viktor’s large hand reached over and grabbed Hermione’s. She welcomed the warmth that it brought. It gave her a giddy feeling. He squeezed her hand lightly. She looked to him, smiled, then squeezed back.

This went on for a bit until one man said,”Your Highness, it’s your turn to make your speech.”

Viktor pushed his chair back. Hermione’s jaw dropped. Highness?? This was something she was not notified of. She tugged on viktor’s shirt.

“What?” he asked softly.

“Highness?” she hissed.

“Uh, I’ll explain later,” he said and stood up.

“Explain now!” she hissed once more.

“Later, Hermione,” he said in a voice that meant “case closed.”

Hermione sat back in her chair. This was ridiculous. How come she wasn’t told?

********

Viktor was done speaking, but Hermione didn’t want to talk to him. She stood up and gracefully exited the hall, her slippers clicking softing on the marble floor.

When she entered the hall, she looked left to right, trying to remember which way her room was. She chose left and began her clicking walk in search of her room.

Within ten minutes she was lost. Everything she saw either looked unfamiliar or the same as everything else she had seen.

“I need a map,” she mumbled to herself.

Suddenly, she heard footsteps pounding behind her. She turned, hoping to find a servant who could direct her. No such luck. It was Viktor.

“Hermione.” He stopped in front of her. “Listen to me.”

“How could you lie to me?” she demanded.

“About being a prince? Do you blame me for not telling you? Most girls only want to go out with me because of my title. I didn’t want you to be the same.”

“But, I’m not like them. You said so yourself.”

“Never mind what I said. The fact is that I couldn’t tell you. We’re so comfortable together that I thought something like this would ruin it.”

“So, that’s why you wanted to come to England instead,” she said. He nodded. “No wonder you have such a nice palace.”

“It’s been in the family for years,” he said, smiling.

They both silent for a moment, then Hermione said, “If you’re a prince, what does that make me?”

“The Prince’s lover,” Viktor said quietly. “If you want.”

Hermione smiled. “I’d like that. And maybe, if the Prince is good, he can have a princess.”

“But what if he’s bad?”

“We’ll see,” she said smiling.

“Do you want me to take you back to your room?”

“Would you?” Hermione was relieved.

“You should’ve taken a right, instead of a left when you exited the hall,” Viktor said.

“I feel really smart now.”

They walked back down the corridor to the banquet hall.

“I probably shouldn’t mention this, but something’s telling me to.”

“What’s that, Viktor?”

“When we were at the airport waiting for you, my father asked me if I had proposed to you yet,” he said, chuckling.

“He did?”

“Yeah.”

“What did you say.” Hermione stopped as did Viktor. She look at him.

“I told him that I hadn’t planned on it for a long time because of how different things are in England than here and because......” Viktor looked at her. She was thinking, he knew.

She bit her lip and said something that she would never understand the reasoning behind. “Yes.”

“Pardon?”

“Yes, I’ll marry you,” she said, looking up at him.

“You will?” Viktor asked, looking at her.

“I love you. You love me. It feels right,” she said.

“You’re right.” He smiled. “It does.” And with that he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her passionately.

THE END!!!