Chapter Text
*Hermione*
“Viktor” Hermione’s voice rang out through their flat.
She grabbed her boots and rushed out of the closet, stumbling as she tried to shove her foot into one on the way to the full length mirror.
“Are you ready? We need to be there in five and you know how Oliver gets when he has to wait. Honestly, I don’t know how Gin puts up with him.” She mumbled that last bit as she finished pulling on her boots.
She gave herself one last look over in the mirror while smoothing down her skirt, then quickly grabbed her handbag and jacket and rushed out towards their floo, calling out to him again, “Viktor, did you hear me?”
When she made it to the living room, Viktor was standing there with his back to her.
“There you are, are you all set?” She asked while slipping her jacket on. He still didn’t move, almost like he was in a trance and not entirely aware that Hermione was talking to him or even there at all.
“I’m actually looking forward to this dinner tonight, they are supposed to have the best Indian food in London.” Her eyes lit up as she thought about the Tandoori Chaat and paneer she was going to eat. “I read through all of the reviews in the last few months and went over the menu, obviously, so I am prepared for our order” she said this jokingly, though she was completely serious. Her favorite part of going to a new restaurant, or even an old favorite, was skimming over the menu beforehand and planning out her whole meal. Viktor thought it was insane, but she loved to be prepared.
“Now that I think about it, I’m not sure how Gin got this reservation last minute,” Hermione wondered aloud. “I know she’ll say she didn’t confund anyone, but I don’t believe it. Five Galleons I can get her to spill after her second drink,” she laughed as she walked up to Viktor, hugging him from behind. When she looped her arms around his front she felt the paper clutched tightly in his hands brush against her fingers.
Hermione shook her head and nuzzled it against his back, finally guessing at what had captured his attention. “Must be a riveting article,” she quipped. “Did Lee at least make sure to mention how fit you look while searching for the snitch or did he keep it strictly professional and stick to analyzing your Wonky-Faint thing?” Hermione giggled as she squeezed him tighter.
Her embrace mixed with her words finally jolted Viktor and he quickly stepped away, moving the Evening Prophet behind his back as he did. His eyes shifted around the room and settled on the floor near her feet.
“Are you okay?” She asked nervously, just now realizing that something was wrong. Her internal alarm to sense peril was usually triggered by a hair, but she had been working on lowering her guard in her own home and with Viktor.
“It’s a Wronski Feint” he quietly corrected, finally acknowledging her but still looking dazed.
Hermione tugged on the sleeves of her sweater as she cautiously stepped closer to him. “Bugger, I can never get that straight."
She stepped in front of him, putting her hands on his shoulders and pulling him to face her. “Viktor, what is it? What’s wrong?”
He finally looked at her, his eyes widening as he swallowed loudly. And then as if his on button was finally pressed, it all started spewing out. “This is not how I wanted you to find out Hermione. It was a mistake. A one time thing that meant nothing. She meant nothing. Less than nothing. You're everything to me. And fucking Skeeter, will she never quit.”
He sounded on the verge of tears, but Hermione was unsure because she couldn't make sense of anything right now. It was like her body knew it was in for a crash and it just stopped processing to keep her safe. Her brain felt like it was slowing down and her stomach felt like it had dropped to her feet. She was no longer hungry for dinner.
“I love you. I have loved you for years. I love everything about you Hermione, you need to understand. This was nothing. I promise, I promise, I promise you.” He continued on, almost begging her. Repeating himself over and over and talking so quickly, as if the faster he spoke and the more he repeated his words the better this whole conversation would go.
Hermione stood there feeling like her head was now floating away even though her feet were still planted firmly on the ground. At least she assumed they were because Viktor was still staring at them. She heard his words, but no matter how many times he said the same thing it didn’t register in her mind.
Was she going mad? Is this what loosing it felt like? All she could think was that her head felt full of Wrackspurts and that was a deeply unsettling thought.
“It was a mistake. She meant nothing. You have to forgive me. I love you, Min-”
He tried to keep going, but she held up her hand to stop him, she needed a minute to think, to breathe. Maybe Luna had been right, all those long nights in the library and now at the Ministry had caused her brain to go fuzzy at the most inopportune moment.
The silence dragged on, it was unnerving but what she needed to ground herself and get through this.
Finally she spoke, her voice sounding smaller than it had in years, “what was a mistake?”
Viktor just continued to stare at the floor, tears now unmistakably running down his cheeks. “Who meant nothing, Viktor?” She spoke a little louder, finally starting to hear the words he'd been saying.
He shifted around uncomfortably and finally looked up. It seemed his voice had also gone missing because when he finally responded she could barely hear him,”Daphne Greengrass.”
“Pardon?” She started shaking slightly while still trying to make sense of what he was saying.
But it didn’t make sense. They had been together for three years. Lived in this flat, their home, for the past two. Before that they had sent owls on and off since the summer after fourth year. He had met her parents, helped her bring them back from Australia and sat with her at St. Mungo’s while the healers worked to reverse the memory charm she had cast on them before the war. Merlin, he'd even become a patient at their dental practice to get to know them and better understand her muggle upbringing. She spent holidays in Bulgaria with his family and tolerated them all butchering her name in more horrifying ways each visit. Hermione had been to more Quidditch games then she could count by now and more often than not left her book at home so she could cheer on Viktor with the other WAGs. And this past week while he was away at his match and she was busy putting away laundry, she'd found a little velvet box with an abhorrently large diamond ring nestled snuggly inside, hidden in one of his drawers.
So needless to say, she did'nt see this coming. Maybe she should've taken Divination more seriously. Lavender probably would have foreseen this ages ago. Hermione’s future had likely been swirling around in a crystal ball or written in the dregs of her tea leaves, just waiting for her to open her inner eye and see into the beyond. If only she'd taken the time to look and of course believed in such utter nonsense.
Why were the only things she could think of right now Wrackspurts and Divination?! It was that maddening thought that pissed her off more than anything else and brought her out of her introspection.
Hermione finally heard Viktor reverently whispering her name as he tried to get closer to her, but she must have subconsciously cast a Protego to keep him away before getting lost in her thoughts. She wandlessly lowered the charm but stepped back simultaneously to keep him at a distance.
She thought he had mentioned Daphne Greengrass, but she chose to ignore that for the time being, barely even knowing the witch. She instead chose to latch onto a name she was more familiar with, “what did you say about Rita Skeeter?” She finally asked, recalling something he'd said when he first started talking.
He shook his head as he swallowed hard, then looked down at the Evening Prophet in his hands.
“Please don’t read it. I can make this better, I promise you. I need you, Hermione,” he pleaded.
She just stared at him and held out her hand, having no idea what to say.
He reluctantly handed her their copy of the paper, having no other choice, and Hermione shakily grabbed it without a word. She stared at the front page while Viktor started up again saying how sorry he was and begging Hermione to forgive him.
And there they were, the words that finally started registering in her head, ready to upend her life. They were written in a bold, jarring font above Rita Skeeter’s byline. Has Krum Finally Tired of the Golden Girl and Caught a Sterling Pureblood Witch?
She hated that fucking nickname and knew it would one day be turned against her. She was sure Rita had been counting down the days, just waiting for Hermione’s war heroine status to be old news.
There was a photo included below the headline, it was clearly taken in haste at quite a distance and late at night. It was so dark that it was hard to tell exactly what she was looking at. There was a large man, who could potentially be Viktor, rubbing his hands up and down a fair-haired witch that he had pressed up against an alley wall.
Hermione was just starting to think that maybe this was a big misunderstanding, maybe Viktor was apologizing about something else, maybe the Prophet was wrong. Godric knows they fudged the truth about her many times in the past.
It was the hopes of someone truly desperate with a brain full of Wrackspurts, because in the next moment she saw the man turn his head. And while she could delude herself into thinking it wasn’t him from his back alone, his face was unmistakable .
Hermione looked up at Viktor, the real Viktor, her Viktor, not the one that seemed to be laughing at her from the front page of the Prophet. Her eyes wouldn’t stop blinking and her breath was coming quick, getting shallower by the second as everything he'd been saying started to catch up to her. Her mind felt like she was swimming, barely keeping afloat. She knew she wouldn’t be able to read the article in its entirety, and she understood enough about her panic attacks to know that she needed to get out of here immediately before she started drowning in Viktor’s words.
She set the paper down and turned towards the floo. Viktor ran up behind her, trying to get in front of her, forcing her to look at him. “Minny, talk to me please. Say something”
She looked up with tears beginning to form on her lower lashes. Not that name, the nickname he made for her back in fourth year when he still couldn’t say Hermione properly. That name stirred up too many memories, memories he was clearly okay with throwing away for one night with Daphne fucking Greengrass. She couldn’t do this right now. “I need-“
But what Hermione needed was interrupted by a silver, misted horse galloping through their living room. The horse stopped right in front of her and she heard the raging voice of Ginny Weasley, which was oddly comforting, since Hermione couldn’t find the strength within herself at the moment to be angry. “I just saw the Prophet, I’m on my way over now. That fucking arsehole better be gone by the time I get there or I swear to Merlin I will beat him senseless with George’s old beater bat. No, better yet I will get Fred and George to come with me and maybe Charlie too. And I know Ron has wanted to Avada him and make it look like an accident since fourth year. So don’t you move a muscle, I'll be right there.”
Viktor was pacing now. “Fuck,” he yelled, drawing the word out into multiple syllables and raking his hands through his hair.
“Hermione, I need you to listen to me. We can figure this out, I know we can.”
She just stood there, not knowing what to do. How could she be so helpless right now, she always knew what to do next, being stuck miles below the surface in a bank vault next to a dragon seemed like an easier situation to maneuver than this. Luckily, she didn’t have to figure it out because at that moment Ginny walked out of the floo.
“I thought I made myself perfectly clear that you were not to be here.” Ginny yelled at Krum, walking towards him with her wand held out in front of her.
“You've done more than enough Vicky, now get out of my way and get even further away from her” she sneered at him, then turned to Hermione, her face softening when she looked at her best friend.
“Let’s go pack you a bag, then head to my flat, alright?” Ginny said gently while grabbing Hermione’s hand and turning her away from Viktor.
Hermione nodded her head while mumbling a quiet okay. Tears slipping down her cheeks at a faster pace.
“Minny, please. I need you here, I'll do anything just tell me what I need to do,” he pleaded.
“Didn’t I tell you to get the fu-“ Ginny fumed.
Hermione’s voice interrupted and even though it was soft, it sounded as if every other noise in the flat ceased to exist. “Was the ring in your drawer for me?”
His eyes widened, looking completely caught off guard, as did Ginny, “You found the ring?” He asked cautiously, his voice laced with an air of hope.
She just nodded.
“Of course it’s for you, Minny. I've been waiting for the perfect moment to propose. I want to be with you forever.”
Ginny stared at him, blinking madly, “I think you nailed it, seems you created the perfect moment.”
“Did you sleep with her?” Hermione blurted out, her Gryffindor bravery choosing now to finally roar.
Ginny moved closer, slipping her arm around Hermione's back while staring daggers at Viktor.
The hope seemed to leave him faster than it came. “Hermione” he said, his voice sounding thick.
“Did you sleep with her, Viktor?”
He nodded and then rushed to add words to that damning motion. “But it was a mistake, I regretted it immediately. I just…I don’t know what came over me. I was so nervous planning the proposal and thinking you would say no or bring up that it was too soon to think about marriage and starting a family. I know how driven and headstrong you are-”
“So, I’m the reason you slept with her. Because I care about my career and I’m not sure if I am ready to be a mum,” her voice still sounding small, not being able to access her anger she thought would be close to the surface. Ginny didn’t have that problem, standing next to her looking as if she was ready to curse his bollocks off.
“No,” he quickly shouted. “No, none of this is your fault. It’s all mine and I'm willing to do anything to fix this. I want to marry you, nothing has changed.”
Ginny scoffed loudly, “fucking wizards, unbelievable."
“Maybe for you nothing has changed. But for me, everything has. I need to get out of here,” she said in a panic.
“Let’s go get your stuff and head out.” Ginny rubbed Hermione’s arm, leading her down the hall to her and Viktor’s room.
“Hermione, ple-” he called out.
“No,” Ginny said sternly, turning around. “We’re done here. I’m taking her back to mine and you can rot for all I care. And don’t even think of contacting her, I’m locking my floo and if I so much as catch a glimpse of your snidget patronus whizzing by I’ll come back here and hex you so hard it will hurt to even think about sitting on a broom ever again.”
She let Ginny lead the way back to her room then went straight to her closet and grabbed her bag along with a few hangers of clothing at random, handing it all over to Ginny who was grabbing more practical items she would actually need like pyjamas and toiletries. Realizing she was of no use, Hermione sat on the bed, picking at her nails, not being able to get the picture of Daphne and Viktor kissing and rolling around together out of her mind.
Thankfully, before the traitorous couple in her head could loose their clothing, Harry’s stag patronus rushed in and came to a halt before her and Ginny, causing her to jump in alarm. “Ron and I just saw the paper. We can come get you right away.” She heard shouting over Harry’s voice. “I’m going to bloody murder him. I always knew he was a twat. Couldn’t get a girl his own age, what a-“ “Ron, slow down, that’s not helping. What I was trying to say Hermione, is that we can come right over. Get your stuff together and send a message back. If we don’t hear from you in five minutes we’re coming over anyways.”
She heard Ron yell after, “whether that fucking ogre likes it or not.” And with that the stag disappeared and Hermione and Ginny were left staring at each other, a small smile forming on Ginny’s face.
“Well, that was….sweet. I’ll head them off though, huh. I think you've gone through enough for one night.” Ginny smoothed Hermione’s hair down and gave her a tight hug.
Hermione latched on, not wanting to let go of her best friend. Needing her to stay standing.
Ginny quickly sent off a reply letting them know she had Hermione and that they could meet at her flat tomorrow. Hermione held on to her the whole time and Ginny never let go, even when casting the spell.
Ginny gave her one last tight squeeze and then held her face in her hands, “Just another minute okay, we're almost out of here.”
With that, Gin grabbed her bag and headed them towards the floo. She had her wand out, like this was a battle and not them walking down the hall towards her boyfriend.
Boyfriend? Ex-boyfriend? She could figure that out later. Now she just wanted to fall asleep and forget this night ever happened.
When they got to the living room, Viktor was sitting on the sofa, bent over with his head in his hands. He heard them and jumped up.
Ginny jabbed her wand out and gave him a hard stare.
He put up his hands and spoke first to Ginny, “I heard you. I’m not going to stop you or try anything. I thought I heard Potter and your brother, they aren’t coming as well, are they?”
“No, you lucked out and only have have to deal with me. For now”
Viktor nodded then turned to Hermione. He looked so lost, which was at such odds to how he normally looked. He was a seeker, nothing was ever truly lost to him.
“I'm so sorry, Minny. I'll be here, waiting for you. Please come back soon.”
And with that Ginny grabbed her hand once again and pulled her into the floo. Green flames burst up around them, Ginny calling out their destination. She looked back at Viktor one last time, biting her lips to keep from crying and when she saw his face it was like she was seeing him in an entirely new light.
Hermione was unsure if it was the smoke from the fire or the haze of an unclear future fogging up her gaze.