A/N

It's been ages since I last wrote. Had a bad day today and decided that my emotions could translate into a story by writing something somewhere along the lines of how I am feeling right now... Enjoy enjoy!

Tri-wizard reunion party

Viktor sat with firewhiskey in hand as people danced and partied to the music at the Tri-Wizard tournament reunion party that he was in. He spotted the girl who had taken his heart years ago dancing with her husband, Ronald Weasley, in the centre of the Great Hall and couldn't help but think just how lucky the ginger man was. He imagined himself in the man's position, holding her close, and thought how he would never let her go if she asked him to. When he caught her eye, he held his breath as the air suddenly felt of a strange atmosphere, a choking one- he was falling in love all over again.

It was then that he decided that he should leave, having no reason for him to stay. Nobody was talking to him and it had been that way ever since his retirement from Quidditch three years ago. People stopped caring about him.

He was walking along the Black Lake a few minutes later, deciding that he should forget her all together. His only friend and best friend, Poliakoff and his parents had frequently told him how he was painfully deteriorating ever since the unspoken breakup between Hermione and himself during what was supposed to be her seventh year when she had gone chasing after horcroaxes. They had since not spoken to each other and he decided at that moment that it was fruitless to hang onto the hope that she would maybe come back to him, because reality only reserved happy endings for a small portion of the human population. He suddenly felt stupid that he had decided to let her go now. He should have done so years ago.

Just as he was about to Apparate, he heard footsteps behind him and immediately whipped his wand out in case somebody was going to attack him. It was a habit he had acquired during the second war that he hadn't yet dropped. His eyes widened as he saw who it was.

"Hey... Viktor." Hermione greeted, nervously.

He didn't say anything as she slowly walked up to him, hands behind her back.

Had she followed him all the way here? Why did she always do this to him? She always came up to him somehow when he was ready to let her go.

"What are you doing here all alone?" she continued, when he looked away from her. "Isn't it cold out here?'

"And you?" he asked.

"It got a bit too hot to stay inside the Great Hall. I wanted some fresh air."

"Same." he lied.

A sudden silence descended on them. Viktor stared hard into the dark, murky waters of the Black Lake. What did Hermione want from him? Wasn't her husband inside waiting for her? What was he doing letting his wife walk about everywhere? His scowl grew stronger. He could feel a slight jealousy and anger building up inside of him. Poliakoff had been right when he had tried to explain how Hermione had been hurting him all this time. He could feel his heart breaking, knowing that Hermione stood directly next to him yet not being able to hold her.

"Are you married yet?" Hermione suddenly asked, blushing at the sudden blurting out.

"I am not married." Viktor replied, calmly.

"A girlfriend?"

He shook his head.

"I see."

He picked up a pebble and threw it into the waters, watching as it sunk after a couple of jumps.

"Then do you have any kids?" she asked, pausing for a moment as she chuckled nervously. "You were a famous Quidditch player after all."

"I have a boy." he said, annoyed with himself as his frequent imagination of the child that Hermione and himself could have had appeared deep within his mind. He or she would have had Hermione's amazing wild hair and her lovely chocolate eyes and maybe his love for Quidditch. His son was the spitting image of himself but didn't have his nose. He shook his head angrily and picked up another pebble, throwing it as far as he could this time rather than to watch it skim like he did earlier. He saw it splash far away from him and disappear totally from his sight.

"Oh. I'm married- to Ron. You remember him right?" she continued, when he didn't say anything else.

She looked at him in an expectant way like she expected him to make a comment. He knew that she was looking at him because he was looking at her from the corner of his eyes. But he didn't answer her. He didn't want to remember.

"He was the guy who asked for you autograph after you gave me you address remember? He is part of the so-called ''Golden Trio' who saved the world'."

"I know that." he said with an edge to his voice.

Viktor heard a sudden swishing and saw a settee behind him. Hermione sat down and patted on the settee to ask him to sit down. He unwillingly did, but only after some hesitation and sat leaving a huge gap between Hermione and himself.

"You... do you have children?" Viktor asked, making the starting point of a discussion for the first time. He knew the answer but asked her anyway. He wanted to hate her.

"Yes... I do. I've got a girl and boy, Rose and Hugo."

"Common name." Viktor muttered.

Hermione sighed. "Viktor, why are you being so... so... unrealistically mean?" She paused for a moment. "I saw you leave the Great Hall and I followed you out to talk to you, to say sorry for ignoring your mails, for forgetting your birthday, for forgetting you." She sniffled. "Chasing after the Horcroaxes... it was hard, physically... emotionally... I really needed to be comforted and... I can't tell you how I felt and still feel when I realised I completely forgot you."

Viktor could sense her tears streaming down her face and tried his best to not start sniffling too. Tears were forming in his own eyes as he thought how she was revealing her emotions and thoughts to him.

He suddenly felt Hermione's hand on his shoulders, forcing him to turn around. He didn't look up at her but at her laps, not wanting to look into her eyes. He watched as she put her hand behind her back as if to undo her dress, but instead unlatched her neckless to reveal a ring. It brought more memories to Viktor as he realised what it was. It was the ring he had given her when he was leaving Hogwarts to return to Durmstrang all those years ago. A ring that promised him to her and her to him... it was a ring that was filled with their memories together. He looked at it and could see fragmented images of their time together at Hogwarts, the dancing... their library sessions...

He looked away, not wanting to cry before her. He felt her hand caress the side of his cheeks and he closed his eyes, wanting the feeling to last forever.

"Hermione..."

"I named my children after you- I couldn't help it." she said. "I named my daughter Rose after the national flower of your country. I named my son Hugo after Victor Hugo. Ron didn't suspect a thing. He thought the 'R' and the 'H' symbolised my marriage to him, our togetherness... Rose for Ron, Hugo for Hermione... like we are one big happy family-"

Viktor lifted his hand, his eyes still closed, and placed it on top of Hermione's and rubbed her fingers with his thumb and this caused her to stop herself from saying anything more. He didn't want to listen. He didn't want to know her agony. He then wrapped his hand around her small ones and placed it back down onto her laps. He didn't want her touching him anymore.

"What are you trying to do, Hermione?" he grunted.

"What?"

"I asked you what you are trying to do."

"I'm... I'm apologising."

"By telling me that you named your children after me?" he asked angrily. "Hermione... when you let me go all those years ago, you built a road for yourself that I cannot follow by marrying your Weasley, so why are you trying to walk back now? You are going to ruin the life you built and created for your husband and children by trying to run down the wrong side of the road."

"Viktor..."

"Don't Viktor me." he told her. "I've let you go now, there's no going back."

He stood up and tried to ignore the fact that Hermione was crying furiously and that her dress was getting wet- but he couldn't. He took his cloak off and gave it to her without saying anything so that she could be warm in this cold. He didn't look her in the eyes in fear of falling in love again.

"Viktor... you were and are the best seeker ever to bless this Earth. You and I both know that. You've let me go but you can catch me again. Could you? Will you?"

He didn't answer her.

"Are-are you going to leave now?"

He nodded. "There is no point for me to stay any longer." he said. "Go back to your husband and children, be happy with him as it is the life you chose for yourself. I will build a road for myself and my son. I am sure he will have a happier life than I."

"I hope the same for my children."

Just before Viktor Apparated, he turned to look at Hermione, focusing his gaze on her hair, her eyes.

"Hermione, if I hadn't been a Quidditch player, do you think we would have ever met?" he asked.

She broke her gaze from him. "I don't think we would have."

"Then I wish I never had the damn skills to fly and catch the golden snitch." he told her.