Past Present

"Potter! Potter!" Umbridge called as she bustled across the front lawn toward the group of fifth years.

"Yes?" Harry replied.

"I need to speak to you," she sniffed, "to question you on a very serious matter."

"Like what?" Harry asked.

She grabbed Harry's arm and pulled him aside. "I have it from reliable sources that you may know the whereabouts of Sirius Black. That you may even have been communicating with him."

"No, I don't know where he is, and how would I communicate with him?" Harry asked.

"Our source seems to think that you've been owling him. And that possibly, you know where Albus Dumbledore is. Or that you might know someone who can tell us his whereabouts," Umbridge said, narrowing her beady eyes.

"No." Harry said as evenly as possible, but his heart was thumping as he realized he did. Viktor had said he knew where Dumbledore was, most likely.

"Perhaps you could accompany me to my office," Umbridge said, tightening her grip on Harry's arm and walking toward the castle, after a quick scout of the lawn and the library window. Harry cast a look toward the window, where he could see Hermione's bushy head, now alone at the library table. They were halfway to Umbridge's office and Harry was frantically searching for any excuse to get away when Umbridge pulled up short.

"Dolores, you wouldn't be taking Harry to your office would you?" came Viktor's voice, "Minerva already had an appointment with him."

"What? Office? Oh, no... no..." Umbridge said absently, and Harry gratefully wriggled from her grasp.

"Good. Because Potter and I need to have a discussion about his future career choices," McGonagall spoke up, clamping her thin lips together, "you hadn't forgotten, had you Potter?"

"Errr... no ma'am, the Headmistress just wanted to see me for a minute," Harry replied, pushing his slipping glasses back up his nose.

"Are you done, Dolores?" McGonagall asked sternly.

"Yes, yes, of course. Do go on," Umbridge said nervously.

"Get on to your office, Langdon will be wondering where you are," McGonagall said to Viktor, who simply nodded and strode off down the hall, "and as for you Potter, come along and I'll give you a biscuit."

Looking back from the library window to her notes, Hermione remembered the passage she had written down previously. "I really should make a copy of the picture as well," Hermione murmured to herself, "Now what was that spell? I suppose it works on pictures. Replicatum! Oh...it does." She rolled up the sheets of notes and tucked them into her bag, then exited the library, heading for Gryffindor Tower. The little seal of the alliance Gryndel and Khan Krum had organized had piqued her interest. Maybe Viktor could tell her what the Cyrillic script on it meant when she thought to ask.

The next day, she hurried across the campus to get back to the library. She was already a good fifteen minutes later than she had planned to be. Viktor would already be there, probably wondering where she was.

"Sorry I'm late, I was checking my answers for the Herbology exam," Hermione puffed as she sat down at the library table.

"I would ask how it went, but I am pretty sure I already know," Viktor said, pausing to look up from the pages of notes in front of him.

"I don't know about that, I mean some of the questions were fairly tricky, and they-"

"You got 105% on the last test. And Professor Sprout does not give easy tests. I am sure you did fine," Viktor interrupted.

"Well, I hope so. Find anything else?" Hermione asked.

"Plenty of nothing, really. More on how there are lots of stories about Patronuses and not much to back it up. Or how it works. Pity you cannot buy a simple pamphlet entitled 'All About Patronuses and How To Use Them'. Maybe even 'Irking the Incompetent' or 'How to Defeat Dark Lords in Three Easy Steps' or something," Viktor sighed.

Hermione laughed, "Maybe Fred and George can write the one about irking the incompetent. Oh! You know, I found something interesting in that dusty old book you made fun of. I thought you might like it, considering. It was at the end of that chapter on alliances. Here we are. 'One of the more mysterious and powerful alliances in Eastern Europe was founded by the combined efforts of four wizards, including Gryndel, founder of Durmstrang, as well as two of his brothers, Gustav and Stoykos. They were joined by a fourth, Khan Krum, widely held to be the first real ruler of the nation of Bulgaria.' That would be the part I think would be of interest. Anyway, it goes on, 'Their alliance was formed to combat the rise of a dark wizard, Nikephoros'..."

"Hold on," Viktor said, "Nikephoros? I never knew he was a wizard... Is that the same Nikephoros? The skull drinking cup?"

"I should think so. 'Nikephoros, a Byzantine, mustered an army of followers that could have done a thorough job of terrorizing most of Europe, if it had gone much longer without opposition. Because of the early warning and resistance organized in large part by Gryndel, Nikephoros was cut off in the mountains, and finally killed in hand to hand combat with Krum. Some of Nikephoros's supporters scattered from the battlefield when all four leaders of the resistance were found to be at the head of the opposition, composed mostly of Krum's Bulgarian supporters, and a sprinkling of other nationalities gathered by Gryndel. It's said that the four leaders of the alliance in concerted combat were considered more frightening than the whole rest of the army combined. After scattering the majority of the Byzantine supporters, Nikephoros, unaware that all four leaders were present, led the remaining Byzantines in the foolish pursuit of what they took to be the tired and retreating opposition into a narrow mountain pass. There, Nikephoros was said by some to have been stripped powerless by the combined efforts of Gryndel, Stoykos, Gustav and Krum. Defiant to the end, he refused to surrender. To emphasize the totality of the alliance victory over Nikephoros, Khan Krum abandoned his wand and beheaded Nikephoros with his sword.' And you obviously know the bit with the drinking cup. You mean you didn't know any of that? The other?" Hermione asked curiously.

"Well, you cannot be raised Bulgarian and not know about as much as there is to know about your first ruler, but I had no idea Nikephoros was a wizard, or a dark one, at that. I knew the two of them fought each other for years. The Byzantines invaded, and then the Bulgarians turned around and invaded in return. Nikephoros even took the capital then, Pliska, and looted it. Killed several thousand Bulgarian soldiers left to guard Krum's castle. Twelve thousand, I think. Obviously, Muggle history is not going to recognize that. Just that the two armies clashed in the mountains and Khan Krum came out on top in the end. At least for a while. Established the country, gave it a set of laws for the first time, and consolidated it. Turned it into a real unified nation, I suppose. And all any of our textbooks ever said about it was that Gryndel and Krum were involved in some of the same battles, became friends, visited, and that Krum was on the grounds a few times in the early years of the school. Gryndel was supposed to haff considered Krum as close as his brothers. Not much else to be known, I thought. Of course, Gryndel wrote the first version of the history of the school, so maybe he was just being modest, not mentioning he was there for the defeat of Nikephoros. Or maybe the Khan just made a better story. More dramatic, chopping off someone's head and making his country's ambassadors drink a toast out of it later," Viktor added, shrugging.

"Honestly, though, cutting his head off and drinking out of it?" Hermione asked.

"He did have it plated first," Viktor teased.

"Still...ugh. Was that really necessary?" Hermione said, making a face.

"You do not get the title 'Krum the Terrible' from your opposition by patting people on the head and sending them home with a promise to behave," Viktor said with a half smile.

Hermione shook her head, and then said, "But if they stripped him of his power somehow, did they really have to..."

"Does not say it was permanent." Viktor replied bluntly.

"True, but still, it seems like overkill." Hermione countered.

"Calling my ancestor overly melodramatic?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Just a tad. I mean, drinking out of a skull, really!" Hermione exclaimed, giving a little shiver.

"Well, stop going over it with me, I did not do it," Viktor laughed, "Krum the Great. Krum the Terrible. I guess it all depends on which side you look at it from. In reality, he was probably somewhere in the middle. Remind me never to let you read about Vlad Tepes."

"Who's he?" Hermione asked curiously.

"Let us put it this way, he did far worse than turning one body part into kitchenware. Things involving a lot more bloodshed and some rather nasty uses for pikes. You all probably will not study him. Sometimes I wished we had not. I could not drink tomato juice that entire semester for thinking about it," Viktor replied, shaking his head.

"Well, thank goodness, then. Do you think it was called for?" Hermione asked softly.

"Cutting his head off? Beats me. Maybe Nikephoros had it coming. Maybe he would haff been just as bad as or worse than Voldemort. Why were you so eager to read it to me if you hate what it said so much?" Viktor laughed.

"I thought it was interesting. Icky, but interesting. Really, what caught my interest more than anything else was the drawing that went with it. I wanted you to look at it, but I think I left it in my room," Hermione lamented, digging through her bag.

"Bring it tomorrow, then. You haff another OWL today, you know. Better go make me look good," Viktor warned.

"Am I allowed to wallop the examiner?" she asked lightly.

"Only if he or she threatens your head. So watch out if they cannot find their coffee mug. I would wish you luck, but you do not need it." Viktor observed with a little shake of his head.

"Wish me luck anyway. You know, technically... you're not my professor any more..." Hermione pointed out.

"You know, I think you are right. No more classes, anyway. Well then, in that case..." he leaned across the table and gave her a soft kiss on the lips, "... good luck."