Rating:
PG-13
House:
Astronomy Tower
Characters:
Hermione Granger Viktor Krum
Genres:
General Romance
Era:
Multiple Eras
Stats:
Published: 06/09/2003
Updated: 11/20/2003
Words: 224,686
Chapters: 100
Hits: 71,003

Past Present

Miss Yetigoosecreature

Story Summary:
Hermione, Harry, and Ron visit Viktor Krum in Bulgaria and discover there's a lot more to Viktor's past than they could have imagined.

Chapter 02

Chapter Summary:
A teeny weeny, itsy bitsy bit about Durmstrang from Viktor's point of view, in which Viktor mocks Poliakoff and Hermione voices a very good point about making snap judgements based on where you go to school.
Posted:
06/15/2003
Hits:
1,309
Author's Note:
I nearly fell over when I saw 255 views. My word, this is a busy place!

The sunlight through the windows woke Hermione. It was still fairly early, judging from the misty sunshine coming through the last bits of dew burning off in the air. She dressed and headed downstairs. Viktor's door was standing open, and his room was obviously empty, so she went downstairs. Anya finished up her coffee, smiled, and indicated the kitchen table. "Eat now, or later vith Viktor?" she asked.

"Later, I think, but thank you," Hermione said.

"Viktor, out," Anya pointed out the back door of the kitchen toward the orchard, then went back to cleaning up her breakfast dishes.

Hermione stepped out into the morning sunshine. It was pleasantly warm, and quiet, there was little noise aside from the birds singing. She could actually hear the sheep munching on the grass. She walked toward the fruit orchard, and almost giggled out loud when she saw the familiar hiking boots Viktor had worn on his forays to England splayed awkwardly in the grass, beneath a pear tree. But breaking the silence seemed almost sacrilegious, so she suppressed it.

Dressed much as he had been yesterday, in jeans and a tee, Viktor lay near the trunk, his head pillowed against Ivan, his face tilted toward Hermione. Natasha lay at his side, her muzzle resting on his thigh. His long tapered fingers rested in the grass at his left, the right hand draped across his torso. She suppressed another laugh. Nature boy, she thought.

She studied his face for a moment. Without a trace of his usual scowl, the planes of his face were far more relaxed, his mouth almost slack. He very nearly pouted in his sleep. He had high cheekbones, and thick, dark eyelashes that matched his bushy brows. His forehead was unlined between them now. His longer hair suited him, and now with the tendrils flopping across his forehead in the breeze and around the sides of his face, it made him look younger, softer somehow. Even his nose, with it's hook and the battered, slightly crooked bridge, gave his face character, she decided.

For only the second time since they had met, she found it quite easy to believe his age, only eighteen, nearly nineteen. He was the grizzled veteran in competition of any kind, but he had seemed so naive when he had approached her in the library, awkward. Strange how he could have been pursued by so much opportunity to chat up those giggling schoolgirls, yet he had approached her with far more caution than he had the dragon in the first challenge of the tournament. She walked softly on the grass, noiselessly, she thought, since Viktor was obviously asleep.

She nearly jumped out of her skin when he suddenly spoke her name, without even opening his eyes. He opened one eyelid lazily, and peered up at her.

"How did you know?" she asked, hand over her heart, trying to catch her breath.

"First of all, you make noise, and it is qviet. I sleep light. Ron and Harry clomp like horses. Second, Papa is in town, and Mama never leaves the kitchen before breakfast is done. Had to be you."

"Noisy, huh? You accusing me of being undainty?"

"Seekers use more than eyes. They use ears, too. Like scouts." He sat up, rousing the dogs, and leaned back into the tree, ear to the trunk as though listening, "One British girl... on trail...due east."

She laughed. "Why Mr. Krum, I do believe that was an attempt at humor. Making fun of that western film I took you to?"

"Never. Come. Sit." He patted the grass with great solemnity, as though he were a king granting access to his throne, then propped himself against the tree.

"So, did you get out of bed early to come out here and sleep?" she asked, leaning against the trunk beside him.

"Yes," he replied, grinning slightly.

"It's beautiful. I'm glad you asked me. I'm glad I came," she said, looking back at Pavlova.

"I am glad too. Ve can talk now, like in London. Not so much distraction."

"Viktor... I hate to ask you this, but the curiosity is eating me up. Durmstrang... what is it really like?" He stiffened a little and she wished she had bitten her tongue.

"Vot do you vont to know?" he asked, staring back at the house. Might as well press on now, so she asked the least offensive question on her mind.

"Is it... is it in Siberia? You talk about it being so cold, it must be even further north than here. North is Russia. Coldest place in Russia is Siberia. Pretty deserted too."

Viktor nodded slowly. "I think it is there, or at least near there. Many of the classes are taught in Russian. Many of the instructors are Russian. A few Germans. The founder vos German. Used to be mostly Russians and Bulgarians who vent there. So many come from all over now, though, they start teaching English as part of regular classes a few years after my parents left. Not many living close, Muggle or vizard. Hard to tell. Harder than Hogvarts. Karkaroff vos even more guarded than Dumbledore about vare ve really vere. The ship is not like the Hogvarts Express, no scenery, except undervater. Ve get on at a port up north, and don't see out for the entire trip. Hard to get your bearings."

She could have sworn he had shuddered a bit when he mentioned Karkaroff. "Founder?" she asked.

"A vizard named Gryndel. Durmstrang. Strang und Durm. Stress and storm. He meant it to be like a harbor from those things." Hermione could detect the slightest hint of irony in Viktor's voice.

She let the answer sink in for a moment. "Viktor...I...I...I've read that Durmstrang... they... well, they don't just teach defense against the dark arts...they actually teach dark arts..." Viktor turned to look at her, his big, almost black eyes distressed, his brows together. He nodded, slowly, one downward and upward bob of the head, then turned back to the house.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked. You must think I'm awful. And nosy." He looked at his hands, dangling between his tented knees.

He slowly shook his head in the negative. "No. Curiosity is natural. I vould be asking qvestions if I had not been to Hogvarts. Many of the instructors, they are as kind and caring as most of your professors. Ve haff a few Snapes, as vell. To tell the truth, I do not know many people at Durmstrang well enough to pass any judgment on them. Karkaroff alvays had me practicing. Not much time for making friends, getting up at dawn, your whole day scheduled. Poliakoff, he is a decent enough friend, loyal, even amusing. He took it upon himself to act as a... barrier between me and... vot vos Ron calling them? My fan club?"

Hermione laughed and replied, "Well, he didn't seem to be doing such a great job last year, I didn't see him once in the library! I recall a lot of girls from three different schools who wanted to choke me. He could have taken several off your hands."

Viktor adopted a different mannerism, perkier, cheekier, which she presumed to be his take on Poliakoff. "Viktor, I am just vone man... I cannot possibly fend off three schools vorth of girls at vonce!" he said theatrically, indignation in his voice. "And Elena, she is vonting my attention! I cannot refuse Elena! Her heart vould break!"

He dropped the act and laughed. "Only thing is, the name changed and the situation changed all the time, Alexei is as fickle as some of those reporters." He adopted the strange mannerisms again, "Viktor, I vill help you fend off those vicious girls during practice. Elena vos not happy vith my birthday gift, and that Sasha, she is very nice, alvays eyeing you at practice. She is sad you do not notice her! If you do not vont her, I vill be glad to keep her busy for you!"

It was so comical, Hermione had to laugh. " Othervise, though, he vos a steady sort of friend. Steadier than I deserve. Ve did not get much time to spend together, maybe because Karkaroff did not approve of him, alvays picking on him. Probably because Alexei vos the only vone brave or foolhardy enough to do things like put tadpoles in his drinks," Viktor chuckled as he spoke, then his face hardened. "But... knowing something about dark arts and being evil...they are two different things," he said softly.

"I'm learning that," she replied, laying a hand on his shoulder. "Silly that we act like where you come from, where you study, is important. Voldemort came from Hogwarts. So did Dumbledore. And a lot of people who fall somewhere in between on the good and evil scale. I'm sure there are plenty of good people at Durmstrang, and plenty of bad ones at Hogwarts. A certain potions professor comes to mind..." she teased, knowing Viktor was no more fond of Snape than she or Harry or Ron.

He had once told her he disliked the theatrical way Snape picked on the slightest hint of weakness from the students in his class. So much so that he retaliated when Snape ridiculed Poliakoff as a stupid boy for not knowing what snapdragons were, never having encountered the English word in a lecture before. Viktor had made Snape look twice as foolish as Poliakoff when he innocently invited Snape to give them the term in both Russian or Bulgarian, so Poliakoff could remember. She remembered thinking that Neville could use Viktor on his side in potions. Viktor didn't answer, he just kept looking back at the house in the morning quiet.