Viktor sat in silence with his parents in the grande living room. In a couple of minutes, he was going to see the young woman he was arranged to marry for the first time. Since he was five, his parents had told him how he had an arranged marriage. Until now, he hadn't taken it so seriously. He hadn't seen her or talked to her before so there was no point.
He had dated many girls in the past. The only serious and longest one had been with Hermione Granger. They had dated for about five years before he told her about his arranged marriage. They broke up last year and she was now married to Ronald Weasley. He still spoke to her and had feelings for her. He suspected that she did too but he didn't press her to tell him, he just knew she did.
The arm hit twelve. She was supposed to be appearing at their fireplace now.
A sudden poof of flames appeared and suddenly a man walked out of the fireplace. He looked very eccentric, wearing everything that seem to not fit and fit at the same time. It burned Viktor's eyes to look at the man, but he had to be polite. Viktor stood up and greeted him after the man exchanged words with his parents.
"Hello, Viktor Krum!" The man said in a rather golly way. "The best seeker the world has ever seen! Hello!"
Viktor ignored the enthusiasm the best he could and forced a smile. A sudden memory hit him. It was when he had first met Hermione's parents. They had been very kind to him, not treating him like a great celebrity. They had been very down to Earth.
"Xen, vhere ez your dow-ter?" Mr. Branislaw Krum, Viktor's father, asked the man.
"She should be popping up just now!" he said, still smiling. "Maybe she's having a little trouble getting here."
There was another poof in the fireplace and a young woman appeared in the fireplace. She had very bright blonde hair and cloudy dreamy grey eyes and dressed just the way her father did except she was in a dress. Viktor studied her face and saw how her lower lip was fuller than the upper and how her eyes seemed to lose focus and cast itself away into dreamland. It then hit him that he already knew her.
"Hello, Viktor, it's been a while," Luna Lovegood said rather dreamily. "You haven't changed very much."
"You know this girl already?" His father asked him in Bulgarian with a curious look on his face. "She seems good looking enough. She has the right blood for our family and our promise to the Lovegood's will be fulfilled once you marry her."
Viktor knew the promise very well. A couple of hundred of years ago, his great great grandfather had made a rather foolish deal with one of the Lovegood's that he would bring back a Nargle to her in exchange for a jug of muggle beer. If he didn't keep it, then his family would be cursed with unfortunate events and it would not stop until a son of the Krums married a daughter of the Lovegood's. His great great grandfather had obviously not kept the promise as he couldn't find a Nargle anywhere, so the family had been cursed with being able to have only one child per a generation. Every generation had had a son but the Lovegood's had never had had a daughter, so they had continued to be cursed. Now that Luna Lovegood had come along, the curse could be broken.
Viktor suddenly felt rather stupid that he hadn't realised that Luna Lovegood was the Lovegood he was supposed to marry. He had been thinking that there were a thousand other Lovegood families that it couldn't be Luna.
"We'll leave you two alone to catch up with each other," Mr. Lovegood said, suddenly very seriously which seemed odd. "Come along Bran and Kat"
Viktor had never heard anyone call his parents, 'Bran' and 'Kat'. The two young people watched as their parents left them. The door shut and silence filled the room.
"You still miss Hermione don't you?" Luna said after a while. "I see the way you look at her during the parties where we all meet up."
Viktor said nothing and just looked blankly at the floor.
"I know you don't want to do this. Who would want to be with me anyway?" Luna continued.
Viktor looked up at her and met her eyes. He had never seen a serious Luna Lovegood before. She had always been dreamy and way out in the galaxy where no one really knew what she was thinking about.
"I'm odd. Different. Strange. It must kill you to have to marry me. You're a celebrity. Best seeker in the world. Ex boyfriend to THE Hermione Granger. You're fantastic in every way. What have I done except be odd and different?"
Viktor looked at her and felt a little bit of sympathy. She didn't want to do this as much as he did, or maybe not, but still. He thought through everything she had just said and looked at her from a different light. "Yes, I do still love her but it's not her I am going to marry right? It is you. You are beautiful and fantastic in your own way and very different to her. I may not love you now but I can grow to love you. That is how love works, right? It doesn't just happen. It grows."
"It was different for you and Hermione," Luna said. "Love didn't grow. It was already there. You saw her. You loved her. You asked her out. You guys got together. You guys kissed. You guys-"
"We did not end up together in the end" Viktor said.
"That would be because of me?" Luna said. "If it wasn't for the arranged marriage, you two would have probably be married by now."
Viktor sighed as he saw a tear drop from the young woman's eye. She was right about that. If it wasn't for the arranged marriage, maybe they would be together now, married. Viktor looked at Luna again as a thought came to him. "Luna, things happen for a reason. Hermione married Weasley for a reason. It's the same I am going to marry you. Maybe there was a reason behind the mistake my great great grandfather made. Maybe this was meant to be, maybe we were meant for each other... It's just not happening the fairytale way most girls dream about."
After another moment of silence Luna nodded. "Viktor... I guess you're right. Things happen for a reason."
"So let's make this work" He said. "Some how some way, we will fall in love with each other. Just not now. It may take time."
Luna nodded. "We'll make this work."