Found. [Vermione]

XV

|Word count:3579.

Hermione.

IN A MATTER OF SECONDS I WAS ON MY FEET, THE SCREAM STILL FRESH IN MY EARS. I dropped on my knees next to Viktor, shaking him awake. He was thrashing around, face glistening with sweat as he threw the covers off him. He was panting and breathing heavily, a crease between his eyebrows while his lips were in a small pout.

I shook him again, harder this time, and thankfully his eyes fluttered open. My eyes were immediately met with his, unguarded and broken. He looked around in confusion, getting up from the mattress. His stare looked empty and unfocused, as if he was expecting to be in a whole different place, not here, not now.

Rolls of sweat trailed down his neck and face, landing on the collar of his pajama that were already soaked. His shirt clung onto him, wrinkled from all the tossing and turning. He was still breathing heavily, fists clenching and unclenching.

Then Viktor's eyes landed on me, and he adverted his gaze as he looked down, almost in shame.

"I'm sorry you had to witness that." He muttered, fiddling with a loose string on the mattress as I raised my brows in confusion.

"What are you talking about?" I said, my heart shattering into pieces. It was just a bad dream, right?

"This, of course. For having to see me in that state." He said, still avoiding my worried gaze.

"Viktor, you do realize there's nothing to be ashamed off, right?" I quietly asked, afraid of the answer.

He merely nodded.

I didn't know what else to say, so I decided to rub his back in a comforting manner.

"Want to talk about it?" I inquired, knowing that he will probably disagree.

"No." He said a bit sharply, but I nodded in understanding.

"Okay." I replied, still continuing to rub circles on his back.

It was silent for a few minutes, the only sounds that were audible were mine and his breathing. It was still pitch black outside, so it was most likely around 2 a.m.. I was dozing off in my thoughts, only to get interrupted by his voice that was still laced with heavy sleep.

"What I really meant to say is... I don't know." He mumbled as he pulled harder on the loose string of the mattress, making it bounce back.

"I've never really talked about it to anyone, you know?" He said.

"I understand." I replied, holding back a yawn. Sleep was starting to get to me, unleashing its' claws to caress me softly.

"You do?" He asked, and his gaze met mine for the first time this evening.

"Yeah, why wouldn't I?"

"A lot of people tried to force it out of me. The media, mostly. They never knew about my background history, so they tried the impossible to get me to speak up."

I stopped my motion, narrowing my eyes.

"Oh my God, how can people be so cruel? If I could, I would reach down their throats and-" I started but he stopped me.

"Don't finish that sentence." He said with a quiet chuckle. My heart leaped, and I realized how much I missed his laugh, his presence, his everything.

"Fine." I pouted in a childish manner, but smiled nonetheless. More silence followed after that, but thankfully it wasn't uncomfortable.

This time, I didn't wander off. Not because I wasn't sleepy, but because I knew that he would need all the comfort that he could get. I stared at the fire, my brain a mush. I tried to come up with a conversation, but my mouth seemed to be sewed shut.