Title: Chocolate Brown Eyed Girl

Author: Self-Stirring-Cauldron

Rating: K

Spoilers: Goblet of Fire.

Summary: Tried and true. Where Krum asks Hermione to the Yule Ball

Disclaimer: Characters Jo Rowling's. Title a spin on 'Brown-Eyed Girl' by Van Morrison.

Viktor Krum scowled at the giggling group of girls who were following him around the lake. He attempted jogging to get rid of them but to no avail. If only he could Apparate on Hogwarts grounds! Maybe he should summon his broomstick as Potter had done in the first task.

However, the speed of a Firebolt (Krum had recognized Harry's broom to be the same as his, while sufficient to get Potter away from a Hungarian Horntail, might not prevail upon these determined fan girls. Even now, they were silently whispering amongst themselves as to who should go up and get his autograph first.

With another scowl, Krum jammed his hands into the pockets of his blood red robes and set off back to the Durmstrang ship in a swirl of his heavy fur cloak. There at least those girls could not follow him.

Krum's friends, who were standing on the deck, laughed at his entourage as he approached the ship. Krum threw them a dark glare and quite a few, choice, Bulgarian curses.

"Viktor!" Poliakoff shouted. "Karkaroff wants to see you in his cabin! Probably want more pictures for the Daily Prophet!" Krum nodded at the first part of the message and scowled at the second. That Skeeter woman drove him mad.

He knew she drove the other champions mad too, probably Potter most of all. Krum didn't envy Potter that interview he'd had with her. All the rest of the champions had to suffer was having their pictures taken and their names misspelled horribly in a tiny corner of the Daily Prophet.

Viktor knocked on Karkaroff's cabin door. He heard a frazzled-sounding "Come in" emanating from within and hesitantly opened the door. "Oh good Viktor" Karkaroff swept over to him, his sleek silver furs askew. "Yes Professor" Krum said.

"Now Viktor, the Yule Ball will be held up at the castle on Christmas Day. It's a Christmas dance that is part of the Triwizard Tournament." Krum shuffled impatiently. Surely, Karkaroff hadn't just wanted to tell him about some silly dance they were having.

"Viktor, the Triwizard Champions and their partners…"

"What partners?" Krum asked quickly.

"Your partners for the Yule Ball." Karkaroff said. "Your dance partners. You know how to dance I trust?"

Krum nodded. A lot more emphasis was placed on learning to dance in Europe than seemed to be done here in Britain. Karkaroff continued. "As I was saying, you and your partners will open the Yule Ball with the first dance. So, it is absolutely imperative that you find a partner!"

Krum once again shuffled his feet. Karkaroff seemed to notice his nervous behaviour. "Come on, Viktor" he said impatiently. "All the girls in Hogwarts and Beauxbatons will want to go with you. You're Bulgaria's Seeker! I've seen those girls following you around all the time."

Viktor scowled at the memory of his fan club but nodded reluctantly to Karkaroff. He wouldn't be short of a partner no matter what happened, although he'd much prefer not to have to listen to one of those giggling girls chatter in his ear all Christmas night.

There was one girl in Hogwarts though. That bushy-haired, bookish one who always hung around with Potter. She maybe wasn't that pretty but she was intelligent and she had the most beautiful pair of dreamy chocolate brown eyes Krum had ever seen.

Well at any rate, Krum knew where to search for her. The library. He slouched in there on the pretext of looking things up in the books after Hogwarts classes were finished for the day and sure enough, there she was.

Hunched over stacks of books, her hand flying across parchment, only stopping for a second at regular intervals to dip her quill back into the ink jar. By the time Krum had been sitting there five minutes, she had written about a foot of parchment and he was wondering if her hand was cramping up from so much writing.

That was when Krum realized that the library wasn't quite as quiet as he'd thought. His fan club was there, hiding behind bookshelves, one of them wearing a Bulgaria scarf tied around her waist. Krum sank back into his chair, scowling. It was hard enough trying to work up the nerve to ask her to the ball without those ridiculous girls watching his every move.

He left the library that night without asking her. He came back though, every day, he actually quite liked the Hogwarts library, it was better than the one in Durmstrang, apart from that crazy librarian who would nearly hex you as soon as you touched one of her precious books.

She came back every day too, doing homework, reading or researching, a lot of her books seemed to have to do with House-Elves or the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures.

Never did Krum actually talk to her more than to say "Here" once when she dropped her quill and he gave it back to her. Sometimes she came in with Potter and that red-headed friend of theirs, sometimes by herself, but it was always those giggling girls that drained Krum's courage as he thought he might actually be able to go up and ask her out.

He glared at them every time he passed but they just sighed, simpered and fluttered their eyelashes at him. Anyone would think they were in a secret plot to keep him away from the chocolate-eyed girl! Hermione, he reminded himself, that was her name. He had caught sight of it on a book she had dropped and he had returned once.

Finally, he decided it was time to resort to drastic measures. Getting up at dinner, he loudly announced to his friends, in English, so they knew he was up to something, that he was going back to the ship for the evening. The fan girls looked very disappointed, he thought one or two might actually have started crying.

He slipped back to the ship, but instead of staying there as he had announced so loudly to his friends that he would be doing, he went to his trunk and pulled out something that flowed in silvery folds around him. It was almost like moonlight made solid. An invisibility cloak.

Draping the cloak around him, making doubly sure it covered every inch of his frame, he snuck off the ship and, as he had guessed, two or three girls were watching it from the shore. He rolled his eyes. One word for the lot of them. Pathetic.

He made his way back up to the castle and quietly through the Entrance Hall, occasionally having to flatten himself suddenly against the wall to avoid bumping into a crowd of students. He got to the library within about five minutes and to his relief Hermione was there without Potter and the redhead.

Moving up next to her, he took off the cloak. She gave a small 'eep' of surprise as he appeared, apparently out of nowhere beside her. "How did you do that?" she asked breathlessly. He showed her the cloak after a moment's hesitation. "Oh!" Her expression changed to one of comprehension. "An invisibility cloak!"

"Yes" He stood awkwardly for a moment or two until she gestured at one of the chairs at her table. "D'you want to sit down?" He took the seat she had indicated. "Thank you." She looked at him for a moment with a look that clearly said "Do you want something?" but he didn't say anything and she went back to her books.

"I know it's none of my business," she said after a few minutes. "But why were you coming to the library in an invisibility cloak." A scowl darkened Krum's features as he was reminded of his fan club. "I vanted to get away from them!" he said eloquently. "Those girls?" Hermione's tone was amused. Krum nodded. "They're just hoping you'll ask one of them to the Yule Ball. If you ask someone they'll go away."

There! The perfect opportunity to ask her! Come on Viktor he mentally berated himself. Just ask her! Go on! There's your opportunity! Take it! It's going… going… gone. In an attempt to strike up another conversation, he asked suddenly. "Ver you at the Quidditch Vorld Cup? I thought I saw you in the Top Box."

Hermione nodded. "I saw you too. You were brilliant. That Wonky… wronky…" Come on… what had Harry and Ron called it? "The thing where you made Lynch think you saw the snitch and crash." Hermione said finally. Krum's eyes glittered with amusement. "Wronksi Feint?"

"That's the one."

"You ver in the Top Box though veren't you? I saw you ven they brought in the Cup."

"Yes" Hermione acknowledged. "You were in some state by that time though weren't you? Did that Bludger break your nose?" Krum nodded and fingered his nose as though he could still feel the Bludger bashing it. "So" said Hermione. "Not that it hasn't been nice talking to you, but was there some reason you came up to the castle in an invisibility cloak or was it just to make idle conversation with students in the library?"

God Krum thought. She was forthright. He had no choice now though, did he? He'd have to tell her that he hadn't come up to make idle chatter. He'd come up specifically to see her, to talk to her.

"No" he admitted. "There vos a reason I come up."

"Well?" said Hermione, with raised eyebrows. "Are you going to tell me or do I have to play Twenty Questions?" For a brief moment, Krum wondered what on earth Twenty Questions was but then he gathered the last shreds of his courage and spoke.

"I… vas vondering… if… maybe…"

"Yes?"

"Vood you like to go to the Yule Ball vith me?"

Hermione smiled warmly at him her beautiful chocolate brown eyes twinkling amidst her rather pale face, probably from spending so much time doing exactly what she was now. Reading. "I'd love to" she said.

"Oh, good." Krum collapsed back into his seat with a sigh. Hermione's eyes took on a mischievous gleam. "Were you afraid I'd say no? Did you think any girl would turn down Viktor Krum, Bulgaria Seeker and Durmstrang Triwizard Champion?"

"Yes" Krum responded simply. "I vos very afraid. That is vy it took me so long to ask you. I vos coming in here every day meaning to ask you but I couldn't."

Hermione looked sympathetically at him. "That's why I had to endure your fan club for weeks? Because you were afraid to ask me to the ball?" Krum nodded. "Well" Hermione said. "You managed it after all, didn't you? And now you can tell them you're already going with someone and maybe they'll leave you alone. Just…" She looked at him imploringly.

"Please don't tell them it's me your going with all right? I have this strange urge to not have all the girls in the castle looking jealous at me every time I walk down a hallway." Krum smiled and nodded.

"So" he said. "I vill be meeting you in the Entrance Hall on Christmas night, yes?" Hermione nodded. Viktor took her slender hand and kissed the back of it softly. "I vill see you then." He turned and left the library with a smile on his face, a most unusual expression for Viktor Krum, and made his way back to the ship.

"What are you looking so happy about?" his friend, Ivar Poliakoff asked, back on the ship. "None of us have a date to the Yule Ball yet." Krum grinned. "No" he said, and began to walk back to the cabin where he slept. He heard Ivar shouting after him. "What do you mean, no? Have you got a date? Tell me Viktor or I'll put Veritaserum in your pumpkin juice! Viktor! Who are you going with?"

Krum merely smiled and waved to Ivar without saying a word, knowing it would infuriate him. They would have to wait until the Yule Ball to see who he was going with. Krum fell asleep that night with a smile on his face and a dream of a beautiful chocolate-brown eyed girl.