Krum Chronicles

Chapter 1: Memories

Night and day, that's what it was like when the stone faced, kind hearted, ever so rugged and Bulgarian seeker fell for miss bushy haired, book worm, member of the Golden Trio Hermione Granger during his year at Hogwarts. It was his final year of schooling and only her fourth which made him 17 and 14, but due to her time spent time traveling during her third year she was actually 15 years of age. 

It was within the enchantingly large Victorian castle, in which Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry resided, that he had the pure luck of meeting Miss Granger. He never anticipated such a thing. In his years at Durmstrang and as a world class seeker he had a fair amount of encounters with women from all across Europe. He was not a womanizer or a playboy, for his mother taught him to respect and value women, their feelings  and their bodies, regardless of the way in which they dressed, spoke or presented themselves. No witch has ever caught his eye, or his heart for that matter, the same way that Hermione Granger did. It was he who had to approach her and when he did she would not even give him the light of day. Only through extraneous hours of mustering up the courage ask her a question and continuous visits to the Hogwarts library, which seemed to be her second home, did she speak to him. When they did speak for the first time, he stumbled over his words and she had barely even looked at him. He was nervous wreck, a feeling that he had rarely ever experienced in his life. He wasn't aware of it, but that nervousness would eventually be overpowered by more intimate feelings for the young Gryffindor.

It was different with her. She rarely ever complimented him and was rather rough in the way she spoke to him. He had never been spoken to like that by a woman before, perhaps that is one of the things that attracted him to her in the first place. A romance was blooming between the two and most of it was thanks to her indifference towards Krum and his fame. Other women, rather girls, would fawn over him and constantly feel the need to follow him and compliment him. Not that he was complaining, but it felt good to know that someone thought of him as just Viktor rather than Viktor the world class seeker.

"Oh , Viktor! The way you caught the snitch at the game versus France in the semi-finals was marvelous!"

"Viktor! You are so rugged, maybe you could help me move some of my furniture up in my room."

Or the constant. "Viktor , you always look so upset maybe you should smile more . I'm sure I could get a smile out of you." He was sick of the fangirls trailing him everywhere he went.

Hermione never trailed him, actually it was the complete opposite. It was he who trailed Hermione, in the most admirable and endearing manner of course. He noticed right away that she spent nearly all of her time in the library either studying, reading or just simply helping organize the shelves. However, when she was not in the library she was nearly glued to the hips of Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley, neither of which Viktor felt comfortable approaching or questioning their relationship with Hermione. He knew that in order to talk to her he had to do more than just go to the library or steal glances of her in the Great Hall. He tried to spend as much time as he could in the library as well, just to be close to her,  to see if she would notice him. He knew that she would not, but it was worth a try. His numerous attempts to ask her a question would be foiled by one fangirl or another. It was not until Hermione finally grew tired of the girls that she felt inclined to embarrass the girls so much that they exited the library within seconds. He looked at her in awe and opened his mouth and knew that this was going to be a big moment in his life. Unfortunately, their first conversation only entailed about 30 words.

" Em.. Thank you ." He hesitated approaching Hermione after her outburst. Nearly everyone the library was looking at her, but turned their attention back to their books and parchment when Viktor approached her. 

"Hm?" Hermione asked while placing there books back in their proper places, not even looking at him.

"I say thank you for defending me. I know that fangirls can be --" He stopped looking up trying to find the word,. 

"Annoying?" Hermione responded continuing her work. "You really should find a better time to come to the library. Perhaps when they are not free from classes and can follow your every move." She said quickly moving to the next aisle of shelves. 

Viktor put his head down and sighed not knowing whether or not she was angry with him or the girls. He inhaled deeply and walked over to the next aisle ."Hallo again. I am sorry about the girls. I vill try to come to the library vhen I know they may be in class." Hermione looked to him, gave him a small smile and simply nodded. He took this as a good sign and continued with "I- I vas vondering if here at Hogvarts there vas a Bulgarian section." His voice quivered and he cringed realizing how bad his accent really was when he spoke English .

"Oh , yes . It is three shelves behind the muggle section which is two shelves to your left." Hermione said with ease as though it was her job to dictate people around the library.

"Oh. Em.. Thank you." He said bowing his head in understanding. He began to walk away when something told him to to around. He shrugged off the voice in his head and continued to walk toward the Bulgarian section of literature. When he arrived in front of the books he had completely forgotten what book he needed for the Transfiguration class he was taking at Hogwarts. As the name of the book popped back into his head suddenly , he released a sigh of relief knowing that not only had he found the book he needed, but that he had finally talked to the bushy haired, pale skinned, book worm with fire in her eyes. He knew her name was Hermione, on account that he had spent so much time in the library, but he could not bring himself to say it.

"Herm. Herm-myoninee. Herm-hermineeno." He practiced to himself as he clenched the book under his arm and proceeded out the library into the vast amount hallways, that could either lead him out to the yard and eventually the Durmstrang ship, or upstairs to corridors which he had never seen before. "Agh!" He grunted going down the stairs and out of the castle. "She could not have an easy name?" He thought to himself. Of course he would choose to swoon over the one girl in the entire school whose name he could not only not pronounce but not even spell.

"Viktor. That is simple. Maybe she will like saying my name more than I like chopping up hers." He thought to himself before his train of thought was broken by a very Bulgarian sounding voice.

"Kruuuuuuuum!" He heard a voice call, from the hall. It was, of course, Nikolai his best friend, disturbing him as best as he could because he knew how much Viktor thought about Hermione and how much he would continue to think about and miss her on their long trip back to Bulgaria.

Viktor huffed and puffed and put the photo of him and Hermione dancing at the Yule Ball down and smiled. "My Mina." He whispered setting the magical picture in his desk drawer and walking over to the door of his private cabin. "What Nikolai?" He asked in his native tongue.

"Still wallowing? You just saw her! Come! Drink with us down in the kitchen quarters. Karkaroff is asleep in his cabin." Nikolai said pressuring Viktor and nudging an elbow into his side.

"Humph. For a little while." Viktor replied sternly but then a sly smile curved onto his face and he knew that by drinking with his friends the trip would go by faster. The faster it went the quicker he could send Hermione an owl letting her know he had arrived in Bulgaria and that she could spend the summer with him and his family. That was ... if she wanted to.