Past Present

"Pachelbel? Johann Pachelbel? The one-hit wonder of the classical world? Canon in D. I've heard it at every wedding I have ever been to," Hermione laughed as she recognized the song that had just begun.

"Muggle weddings, are they much different in Britain? I've never even been to one here, just read about them," Viktor asked on a whim.

"Than wizard weddings? I don't know. I've never been to a wizard wedding either. They vary anyway. Some people have big formal weddings in cathedrals with lots of attendants and sit down dinner receptions, other people elope, go off with no planning and get married at the courthouse by a justice of the peace. Some people go in between, say, a wedding in the backyard, cookies and punch. What are Bulgarian weddings like? Either kind."

"Sounds a lot the same. They vary. My mother and father got married at Pavlova, but they had lots of people there. A lot of classmates. And what is a 'one hit wonder'?"

"It's sort of a joke name for singers or bands who have only one popular song in their entire career. Name one more song by Johann Pachelbel that you can hum," she challenged.

"You haff a point. Cannot think of a single one," he chuckled. "Look, do you want to go get a drink? I see Elena and Alexei are holding down the table for us, now."

"I admit, I could use a drink. And another rest. But not a long one. We still have two hours until they make us go," she warned.

"Agreed. What would you like?"

"Punch I think. No butterbeer. I'm quite warm enough, thank you," she said, wiping her moist forehead with the back of her hand.

As they reached the table, Viktor pulled out her chair. "So, punch for you. Elena, Alexei, do you two want anything?"

"I vill take some punch. That vill just about make up for you not peeling my caterpillars," Elena teased.

"Never going to let me live it down, are you?" he asked.

"No. Somevone has to keep you humble."

"Nothing for me, Viktor," Alexei waved him off, so Viktor set out and soon returned with three glasses of punch.

"Well spotted, by the way," Viktor confided over his cup to Elena, propping his elbows on the table.

"Thank you. Now vhat are you talking about?" she said after taking a long drink from her own cup.

"Haff you talked to Poppet all night?" he asked her in return.

"No."

"Exactly."

"Oh. That. And now I retire from my career as matchmaker vith a perfect record," she said, offering her cup in a mock toast.

"Amen to that," Viktor replied, mirroring the gesture.

"No more matchmaking for you two then?" Hermione asked.

"Mama always said the surest way to cause misery is by trying to make other people happy. If matchmaking is not a fine example of that, I do not know what is. What is that saying about the road to Hell and good intentions?" Viktor said, ducking back into his cup with a subtle smile and a raised eyebrow.

"What's wrong with trying to make people happy?" Hermione countered.

"Nothing. Trying to make people happy, there is nothing wrong with it. Trying to make people happy, that never works," Viktor replied, placing heavy emphasis on the word 'make' the second time through. "Pushing two people at each other is like juggling lit fireworks and dynamite. You never know if you are going to get a nice display or blow up the shed," he laughed.

"Like the idea of the two of us together," Elena snorted. "Ve vould kill vone another in a veek if ve ever dated, leave a trail of destruction a mile vide," she said with a smile.

"I would hate to see the aftermath," Viktor agreed. "Nothing but smoking ruins. Not a stone left on top of another."

"Why are the two of you so sure about that? You seem to get along fine. I've never heard a cross word between you," Hermione said.

"Too much alike," they said in perfect unison, and Hermione and Alexei burst out laughing.

"Ve make fine friends. Anything more, no. Couple of stubborn, pigheaded, fiery Bulgarians who vill not back down from each other, not a good combination. Not us. Vorks vith both our parents, but not us, eh, Viktor? Difference is they all vanted to be together so they vere villing to not do battle over every little thing they differed on. Spark between us, yes. But of the dynamite variety, to steal Viktor's phrase, if ve had to court. Sharp of us to figure that out before ve listen to those people who think ve should be together, or the castle might not still be standing. It vould never vork. Ve vould butt heads all the time. I'm strongvilled, he was already old and firmly set in his vays at fifteen. No offense," Elena said, grinning.

"None taken. But 'fiery Bulgarian' is redundant. We argue and peck at one another like an old married couple anyway. Now, are you the pigheaded one and I am the stubborn one, or the other way around?" Viktor teased.

"As you like," she responded, "Alexei, are you ready to go back or are you too tenderfooted?"

"Ah, yes, my lady, nothing makes me vant to dance more than hearing my two dearest friends talk about how romantically incompatible they are. Funny, I do not think Viktor and I could successfully court vone another, either. Vonderful how these things vork out, is it not, Miss Granger? That leaves you two free to wear the rest of us out just watching you two dance," Alexei said.

"Is that really true? If I didn't know better, I would think the two of you would make a good couple," Hermione found herself asking.

"Elena and I would not get on as a couple. For one thing, she and Alexei haff been together, on and off, most of the time they haff been here. I just referee the shouting matches and the pouting sessions and tell them what idiots they are for not admitting what they really want instead of doing this dancing around one another all these years. Do not misunderstand me. Elena is a formidable woman, more ways than one, and sometimes I think Alexei does not know he has a tiger by the tail. Intelligent, stubborn, proud, sure of herself, absolutely beautiful. And she does nothing for me. I do nothing for her," Viktor shrugged.

He finished his punch and set the cup on the table, rotating it between his fingertips as he spoke. "We figured out a long time ago that we worked best as friends. I did not want her, she did not want me, only other people thought we belonged together. Other people who did not know us very well and played deaf when we tried to tell them so. So I referee and yell at Alexei for being a dog when she gets tired of doing it, and in turn she plays mother hen when it suits her and gives me a good, swift kick when I really need it and I do the same. She is about the only one that was ever willing to do either one, but we really would kill one another if we could not get away from each other when we need to. Generally right after one of us gets a well deserved swift kick in the rear from the other. It would be the immovable object and the irresistible force. Alexei knows when to bend with her. I would just butt back until we both snap, and she would do the same," he laughed.

"What do you mean by 'a good, swift kick'?" Hermione asked.

"Last year for instance. 'Viktor, whoever the hell it is, just ask her to the ball. The worst she can do is say the word no.' , and 'Elena, just stand up for yourself for once. Put your damn foot down. This nonsense with the other girls. Alexei does not understand hints. Tell him you want to be with him' Thankfully, Elena does not need a kick that often. If she were less sensible, like Alexei, my leg would get tired, being around the both of them," he sighed. "Your leg ever get tired being around those two?" he asked, nodding across the room to where Ron and Harry were dancing with a couple of the girls from the Quidditch scrimmage earlier.

"Sometimes. They fight over the most ridiculous things. Like last year, when Ron was dead sure Harry had put his own name in for the Triwizard Tournament and hadn't shared with him how he managed to get over the age line. Didn't talk to one another for weeks, then they act like nothing's happened when Ron manages to see reason, and here I am worrying myself over it all that time," Hermione complained. "How did Elena know? About you wanting to ask some girl? Namely me?"

"She did not know it was you, but she knew it was someone. Beats me. Sometimes she just knows things. That mysterious woman's intuition, I suspect. Or maybe I am more transparent than I think and Alexei is simply much less observant than she is. Are you ready to go back out there?"

"Ready for the rest of the ball. I won't sit again for the rest of the night. Collapse in a heap in the floor maybe, but not sit," she said. They stayed on the floor long after Alexei and Elena had returned to the table. Soon some of the younger couples had left the ball entirely, gone back to their dorms and their beds. Most of the couples had retreated to their tables and only a hearty few were still dancing.

"So, are you ever going to tell me what you're going to do with yourself? Everyone keeps implying you're leaving sooner than Alexei and Elena, but I don't even know when they're leaving. Do I even get a hint?" Hermione asked him when they reached an otherwise empty patch of dance floor.

"Alexei and Elena are doing half-years. They were on track to be Triwizard candidates even last year, so they took more classes than usual to keep from falling an entire year behind while gone. They are doing double sessions on their remaining classes until they get caught up and can take exit exams. After Christmas, they leave. I still haff not gotten everything worked out, but I think I will see you again in three more weeks," he confided. "I haff most of the classes in or haff taken the tutoring, all but two, I just haff not been tested yet," he added.

"We take our O.W.Ls this year. Ever so important to do well, I do hope I get all I can, because they can impact your career and then you have to choose the N.E.W.T.s that you want to do, and I'm babbling now, aren't I?" she said, seeing the bemused smile twitch at the corners of his mouth.

"One test at a time. You do not haff to live your whole life in one breath, you know, and you haff nothing to prove," he said with a nod of his head. Not long after, Ron and Harry came by to bid them goodnight, followed closely by Elena and Alexei. "May I do something I haff been dying to do all night?" he asked a few minutes after Elena and Alexei had gone.

"I guess so," she replied, puzzled. Without breaking step, he took his hand off the small of her back, reached up behind her and unclipped her hair, slipped the clasp into his pocket, then tousled her hair lightly with his fingers, so it fell down her back. "Didn't like it?" she asked.

"Loved it. But I missed it, too," he said bluntly.

"It was starting to come down anyway," she said, wrapping her arm tighter around him, hugging herself to his shoulder. There couldn't be more than two or three dances left now. Even the diehards at the tables in dark corners and those couples out on the benches were starting to call it quits.

"If you haff any requests, you had better be getting them in," Viktor said in her ear.

"What's left? I mean, we've done everything but the tango...oh, boy, I just said the wrong thing, didn't I?" Hermione said when Viktor began to pull her by the hand toward the conductor. "Oh, tell me you don't know how to tango..." she pleaded.

"Piece of cake. Besides, what are you afraid of? There are what, twenty people left? Most are faculty, and the vast majority of them, you will never see again," Viktor argued. "It is no harder than the waltz, certainly." He passed on their request, and she learned the tango. Learned might be overstating the case, she thought. More like I watched him do the tango and followed along. When the last song ended, they milled around the room, having a word with some of the faculty, the conductor, and lingered near the table where their cloaks hung on the chairs. They both seemed reluctant to leave, even though the ball was well and truly over.

He walked her up the stairs, and to her door. "Viktor, I can't thank you enough for asking me. I had a wonderful time," she said, feeling as though she was going a bit pink.

"Me too," he replied quietly. He leaned over and brought his face closer to hers, and he was a bit surprised when she raised onto her toes, tilted her own face up to initiate a quick kiss on the lips. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight," she echoed, and closed her door. She was so exhausted she didn't even bother asking if he was going to be in the hall the rest of the night. No use arguing in any case, if he was planning on staying out there. She barely had the energy to pull off her robe, hang it up neatly, drape her cloak over the chair and crawl into her pyjamas, then the bed, before falling asleep.