Past Present

After lunch they walked back toward the Quidditch pitch for tryouts. "Seekers first, this time, so you do not haff to stay any longer, if you do not want to. I thought maybe we would go to the library..."

"Viktor Krum? Did you just ask me on a date to a library?" Hermione teased.

"I thought you could sit at a table and I could go find myself a pack of stupid boys and we could hide in the stacks and giggle at you, just to see what it feels like, for a change. I thought you would want to see it. You cannot tell me you are this close to a library you haff not been in and you are not dying to get in there. You had to take a turn through the one in Sofia, even though you do not read a speck of Bulgarian," Viktor teased.

"True. I would like to see it. I just didn't want to sound like a complete wet blanket by showing up for a ball and being all eager beaver about the library, of all things," she confessed.

"You love books. It is nothing to be ashamed of. Remember, I might not be here if several years ago some woman had not liked books so much that she moved in over a bookshop. Maybe someday we will be telling people that books are to blame for the two of us haffing to waltz together at all those formal receptions," he laughed. They slid into a seat a couple of benches up from the front bleachers, next to Harry and Ron, who were already sitting there with Elena and Alexei.

"Well, Poppet's got her full rooting section," Ron told them when they sat down. "Now she just has to deliver. By the way, the scrimmages were great! Loads of fun, I'd like some of the Durmstrang lot on my team anyday," Ron enthused. Pushkin's seeker tryouts proved to be a lot like the Madame Hooch method. Poppet had the top time in the single trials, catching the snitch in forty seconds, and she held her own quite well in the free-for-alls, managing to come up with the snitch first three of the five times. She was by far the fastest in the time trials. By the time Pushkin blew his whistle and dismissed them, she was beaming.

" V-v-v-v-viktor, d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-do y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-you th-th-th-th-th-think I-I-I-I g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-got i-i-i-it?" she shyly addressed his kneecaps rather than his face.

"I would be very hard pressed to pick anyone but you. Pushkin is no fool. I saw him fiddling with his mustache when you were flying, that is his tell, he probably cannot wait to put your name at the top of the list," Viktor responded.

"B-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-bet h-h-h-h-h-h-he n-n-n-n-ne-near-near-nearly tw-t-t-t-tw-tw-twirled i-i-i-i-i-it off d-d-d-d-d-dur-during y-y-y-y-y-y-your tr-tr-tr-tr-tryout!" she grinned.

"Oh, I do not know about that. Hermione, are you ready to go?" Viktor turned to her expectantly.

Hermione wrestled with her answer for a moment. Poor Marianne's smile had vanished at Viktor's words, but Viktor was looking at her expectantly, ready to go. There was no way she could pretend that she would just love to sit here for the next hour watching beaters and keepers and chasers try out rather than go to the library. Viktor knew that she wasn't nearly as interested in that sort of thing as Harry and Ron. "Sure," she said finally. "I'll see the rest of you tonight if I don't see you before," she addressed those sitting on the bench as Viktor took her hand and led her back out of the bleachers.

"Poppet, you let me know where Pushkin puts you tomorrow," Viktor called back when he had nearly rounded the end of the stands. She nodded back numbly.