His Greatest Challenge

Karkaroff spun around and became sickly pale when he saw a grossly deformed man glowering at him. Viktor was greatly disturbed by this man's arrival. Vlad turned to Viktor. "What's wrong with his face?"

"I don't know, but I don't trust him," Viktor stated, never taking his eyes off the man. Suddenly the group moved forward and Viktor was pushed away. As he passed the area where Hermione stood he looked at her and the unease that the man had caused vanished.

Viktor and Vlad hurried to their rooms and Viktor flopped down on his bed. Vlad sat on his bed opened his book: Dark Magic: What You Must Know to Defend Yourself by Iam De Ville. "I can't believe we still have homework, Karkaroff is a complete dictator," Vlad complained, absentmindedly flicking through the pages of his book.

"Well, all we have to do is write papers, so it's not all that bad," Viktor said staring up at the ceiling. Suddenly a large round object came flying towards his head; Viktor reached out his hand and snatched the item out of the air.

"Okay," Vlad stated, "I was just making sure you were the same Viktor that I grew up with because that Viktor really used to hate doing any kind of homework, let alone essays."

Viktor laughed. "Sorry, momentary insanity."

"It's that girl isn't it, what's her name, Hermo-something?" Vlad asked looking over at Viktor.

"Her name's Hermy-own. I can't say it right," Viktor said as he realized the way he said it came out nothing like the way it really sounded. "You're right, I was thinking about her. It's just that she's beautiful and I really just want to introduce myself." Viktor was talking more to himself than he was to Vlad.

Vlad shrugged, "So, what's stopping you?"

Viktor sat in silence. What is stopping me? Viktor could not think of any reason he couldn't introduce himself, so as he slowly drifted off to sleep, he resolved that he would talk to her the first chance he had.

He awoke at around two in the morning and was unable to go back to sleep. He rolled over in his bed and looked out the porthole. The moon sent silver shafts across the grass giving it the appearance of water. He pulled his legs over the side of his bed and stood up.

He exited the cabin a quietly as possible and crossed the dew soaked grass. He entered the castled and slipped into the hall where he had eaten dinner earlier. The room seemed so vast and empty that Viktor wanted to throw things just so that there would be some movement. Suddenly a house-elf popped out from behind him. "Is sir needing help?"

Viktor made a small jump and rounded on the elf. "Who are you?" He was panting,; he hated the quiet.

"I is Dobby sir," the elf said, making a deep bow so that his nose brushed the stone floor.

"Oh," Viktor said, "well, you really shouldn't sneak up on people like that. You scared me."

"Dobby is sorry," the elf said and suddenly began to beat his head against one of the benches.

"Hey, stop that," Viktor said lifting the elf off the ground. Viktor's mother used to own house-elves so he was used to their eccentrics. "You didn't do anything wrong, it's just...it's too quiet in here."

Dobby nodded his head and Viktor lowered him to the ground. "What is sir doing here? It is too late to be wandering halls." Dobby gently dusted himself off.

Viktor pulled the piece of parchment from his robes that said Viktor Krum, Durmstang. "I really should get this over with," Viktor said more to himself than to the house-elf. He gently dropped the piece of parchment into the goblet. The flames quickly emitted sparks and the white-blue flames turned red. Viktor backed off, nervous that he had done something wrong.

"It does that, sir," Dobby told him seeing the expression on Viktor's face.

Viktor shook his head and thanked the house-elf. Okay, the easy part is done, Viktor thought as he trudged back to the ship. Tomorrow I'll find Hermione and introduce myself.

Suddenly another part of his brain interrupted, Easier said than done.