Orokid: I originally got the idea for this fanfic from the song "Do You" by Ne-Yo, one of my favorite singers in the past couple of years when I started to write fan fiction. At first, I really didn't have a good idea on who it would fit, and I had been debating on using my usual coupling, Harry and Hermione- but, as I listened to it, I was reminded of one person in particular who fit the persona of the singer more than anyone else really could in the series. So, as I started to write, the fanfic itself came alive more and more, and I started to see how things would occur if the character I had decided on might contact his lady love after everything was said and done, a few years after "Deathly Hallows".
Disclaimer: I own nothing that has to do with Harry Potter. Not the characters, the storylines, the figurines, etc… Nothing. Those (mostly) belongs to JK Rowling. Not me.
Moving on… Enjoy!
Do You
Viktor stared at the muggle device in his hands with wonder and puzzlement, as well as the fear that he might've been doing the wrong thing settling badly in the pit of his stomach. Never once had he walked amongst the 'normal' people in Bulgaria unless he had been within a ground of men in which he respected entirely- and even that had rarely ever occurred. He feared that, once he would punch in those umbers, his entire world might collapse around him, and those words he had avoided for so many years might slam straight into his very being and make him incapable of breathing, living.
He hung up the phone on the carrier, listening as the odd muggle currency drop behind the closed door of the change return. Everything seemed to be falling around him already, and he found himself despising his inability to control a portion of his life. While he wanted nothing but to turn around and forget about the experience entirely, there was a separate fear that gurgled within him like a meal that hadn't been cooked well, and the regret gave him a sensation that he hadn't felt since the war, smelling the burnt and decaying bodies of friend or foe alike. The man felt sickened in his very soul, and the thought of never knowing lingered in the air.
His fingers wrapped about the phone again, pulling it from the spot it had rested prior. With three loud plunks, he reentered the change in their receptive slot, only to tap against the number pad the digits he had been repeating in his heart and mind endlessly ever since he had gotten a hold of it. His end rang once... twice... three times- and the Bulgarian listened to a tired voice greet him, tell him the time, and ask why in the name of Merlin someone was calling them at that hour.
Viktor had merely bit his tongue to keep him from saying something rude to the person that had answered the call, knowing better than to tempt a lion with unarmed meat. "Mister Weasel-bee, might I talk to Hermi-ninny?"
There was a long and pregnant pause in which the seeker felt his fear deepen further then ever before. It was true that neither of them enjoyed the other's presence, and he knew that that would never change, but when one needed the other's help with something as odd as this, there was a feeling that he just might be denied his request. Still, he hoped above all other hopes that he might be kind enough to grant him this.
His heart almost stopped as he heard the male on the opposite end of the line speak for the first time after the pregnant pause. "Give me a moment to wake her." Glee flooded through his being, even though he was doing his best to remain gruff and unresponsive as ever. "Rose doesn't let her sleep much anymore, so it figures that you'd call tonight." The one thing that never changes between enemies... Still, Viktor felt himself slouch, having heard that he was disturbing a much needed night of rest.
But his heart couldn't help itself from racing as he listened to her yawn, and she said his name softly, questioning his late call and if it had really been him. "Viktor?" He imagined her running her fingers through that beautiful mane of hers, trying to wake from what he could assume had been a very restful sleep.
"I am sorry for vaking you, Hermi-ninny," he apologized immediately, having guilted himself after moments of silence. "Maybe... this was bad decision. I'm sorry."
"No, no, you don't have to apologize, Viktor, I was, uh..." He smiled to himself as he waited for the lie she was to give him so just to save his pride from the plunge of death it had already taken. "I needed to complete my essay for the muggle university I go to anyway. My professor would thank you."
He gave a sigh, leaning against the booth he had confined himself within. "You've don't have to lie, Hermi-ninny." The man had found his heart less than careful whenever he could read her as he could now, and he could only remember how quiet and pensive he had been back when they had first met. Much to the pleasure of some and displeasure of others, he wasn't the boy he used to be, and nothing could change that about him. At least, not after all this time- he'd changed too much to go back to the quiet and subservient creature he had once been.
She didn't deny that she had lied when the anxiety between them had calmed somewhat. Still, he could feel it in the air, so both knew instinctively that she couldn't answer it with anything except the truth. "So what's on your mind? I would suppose something, since you haven't tried to call me on the telephone before."
"It's..." Viktor found his throat closing as the words tried to spill from his lips, as the questions within bubbled teasingly in the back of his throat. Could he tell her all those things that he had been wondering about? Would those words leave him? Would he be able to risk everything in one final leap of faith?
He didn't know, and he had found his confidence lost in the seconds it had taken him to over think something that was supposed to be easier than it was. "It's not-ting really important, Hermi-ninny." He smiled at the irony he was, finding somewhat humorous that he could ask her not to lie while being unable to speak the words he had called to say. "Just... something you probably don't vant to hear."
"You want to talk about it?" Sometimes, he couldn't help but wonder how she could still be so loving and kind to everyone after all that had happened to each of them. For any other person, he would assume that the wanted something in return, but she was different than everyone else- she cared, truly, and it showed whenever someone needed her as a shoulder to lean or cry on. He hated and loved that aspect of her, and a part of him yearned guiltily to be the only one who received such care from her.
"Possibly," seemed to be the only answer to exit him nonetheless, even if he couldn't pinpoint the reason why. It was a probability that his fear remained within his way, and his wish to hold tight to his tongue and forget that the call had ever been made. Nonetheless, the seeker player knew well enough to know that a man should never run and hide from any trouble that might come his way, and it was only a coward who ducked and covered away from an experience that might cause him some pain.
Leaning against the cold metal of the upright phone booth, Viktor heaved a heavy sigh into the receiver. If he had to know anything in his life, he was determined to know the answer to this. "Hermi-ninny, I-"
A loud wail broke through the silence, and he was once more reminded of the things he had lost. He listened as the woman he spoke to apologize for the noise, and kept his ear to the earpiece as she picked her young infant up into her arms. He breathing had changed some, and he could hear in her breath how she was rocked her child into silence. Biting his lower lip, he forced his lips to smile despite the fact that she couldn't see it. Always, she had been able to read him through his voice- a fact uncommon in most women he had come to meet- and he was sure that her ability was one of the many, many reasons he cared for her as much as he did.
"Congrad-jew-lash-ons," he told her, finding his prior courage flailing in lost hope, leaving him until it had vanished completely. "I am happy for your fam-ill-ee."
"Thank you, Viktor." For once, it seemed as tough she had either ignored the truth that only she could have heard in years prior... or hadn't heard his emotions at all. It had been odd for her to just accept something as delicate as his heart seemed to be at that moment.
"I'll… You have good night, Hermi-ninny." He didn't wait for her reply, knowing all too well how she'd return his well wishes for good dreams without knowing of his dilemma, taking the receiver from his ear only to shut it calmly onto the carrier with a slightly shaking had. He listened to the muggle coins drop into the insides of the mechanism, listening silently to the hum of the payphone as he leaned his warm head against the cool surface of it's exterior.
He knew the answer to his unsaid question.
Pushing lightly away from the device, he felt pain echo in and out from his body, starting from his heart and ending at each and every one of his nerves. The man reached up, flipping up the collar of his jacket as he moved in closer to the wool lining of his coat, walking away carefully, longingly, from the muggle contraption that had brought to him only pain.
Upon his face, a single shed tear froze in place upon his skin.
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I hope you guys enjoyed my fanfic. If you did, didn't, or think that purple is awesome, please tell me in a review. Thanks! X3