Chap. 20: An Unexpected Challenge

It had been three weeks since the little prank that Vladimir and Alucard had pulled on the Malfoy family. The gossip about the prank gone now, things were back to normal.

Or, so they seemed.

There was one problem that seemed to be getting worse, and Vladimir really didn't know what to do about it.

Walking down the hall, he spotted Ron and Hermione. He'd just been at the library, having left after breakfast, but was going to meet up with them so they could go study up in the common room, having a test coming up soon.

As he came level to them, he was just about greet them when Hermione said, "Oh, I'm so sorry… I, uh, forgot something in the Great Hall!" and rushed off before they could question her.

Vladimir frowned.

This was the problem. Every time he was near, Hermione would rush off, claiming she needed to do something, or be somewhere, or in this case, forgot something. At first, he'd let it slide, having no suspicions, but after almost 12 days of having not been able to say a word at all to your friend, you start to notice.

She'd not even been at breakfast that day, and normally, she would have gone to the library with him to find some books herself. She studied with them, but she was normally so absorbed in her studies that she might as well have been across the room, and she always went to bed before them, even though she didn't exactly look tired.

It was really starting to worry Vladimir. Because it was only with him. She was fine around Ron, Lee, the twins, Neville, and anyone else. He was starting to think he'd said something wrong, and the more he thought about it, the more he started to think about when this all started happening.

It'd been the day after he'd told the two about the artificial vampires. Had he spooked her…? Or, more horrifying and unbelieving, yet still harshly plausible… had he enlightened her? Did she want to become an arterial vampire? It just didn't seem like her. But if she did, and she felt guilty, it would explain why she was avoiding him.

No… plausible or not, that really just didn't seem like her. Not even a little. Ron would have been more likely to do that sort of thing.

Shaking his head, he decided that he'd have to corner her somehow at some point and get some answers.

That time would come that Wednesday in Herbology class. They'd been put into pairs, and Professor Sprout had put Hermione and Vladimir together. They were working out on the grounds today, spread out and looking for two certain kinds of mushroom, both identical, with one small detail different.

This was the perfect time to attack.

As they exited the green house that was the classroom, Hermione walked ahead of Vladimir and didn't even seem to acknowledge that he was even there, entirely focused on the ground, even though the mushrooms were supposed to found more out by the Quittage pitch, still a ways away.

Frowning and squinting his eyes at her, he let her be until the other students were farther away, when they had reached the pitch. Looking around to make sure no one saw, he opened a portal right in front of where she was stepping and pushed her though before she could scream, following shortly behind.

They emerged to find that they were now in one of the bleachers for the Quittage games.

Letting out a yelp that was never heard by others below, Hermione stumbled forward and caught herself on one of the seats.

Turning, face red, she looked at Vladimir, "Vladimir what the-"

"So you can talk to me." Vladimir said, arms crossed. She opened her mouth to say something, but then closed it, and then opened it again. Rolling his eyes, Vladimir said, "Well, almost then…" nodding to the seat she was next to, he said, "Sit."

She sat, looking confused, angry and just plain flustered. Finally, she managed to speak again. "What's this all about, Vladimir? We could get in trouble if we're found up here!"

"No worries, I made sure no one saw us disappear, and anyway, their too focused goofing off and looking for the mushrooms."

"But what is this all about?" she repeated.

"I could, and really, I was going to, ask you the same thing."

"W-what…?" she asked, though it was obvious she already knew what.

"You've been avoiding me. Ever since I told you about the arterial vampires, you haven't said a word to me, and always run off with some excuse. I didn't really notice it before, but I did after a few days.

"Hermione…" Vladimir looked at her hard, but in a concerned way. Hermione got a bit redder. "You… you don't want to… you know… be an artificial vam-"

"Oh god no!" Hermione burst out before he could even finish. The look she gave him was similar to the look of a freaked cat. "Oh, Vladimir, I'm so sorry, I didn't realize that you'd think that…"

Vladimir frowned. "Well… I didn't like thinking that. I mean, I didn't think you'd be one to do that sort of thing… But I had to make sure… You understand, right? I meant no offense."

"Yes, Vladimir, I understand. It's part of what you do." Hermione said, bowing her head in apology.

Vladimir sighed in relief. "Huh… good. I was really starting to worry." And then the problem came back. The whole reason why he'd done this. "So… why have you been doing it?"

Hermione blinked and turned red again. "Ah… well… you see…"

"I didn't say anything wrong, did I? I know sometimes I can say some things without thinking, and I know the manner in which I say it can sometimes be blunt, because it's so thoughtless… So if I said anything-"

"No, no… it's not that… it's just that… well I… um… been kind of thinking about… you…" she couldn't seem to get much more out and turned away.

Vladimir blinked, and thought about what she'd just said, trying to prossess what it meant. Then something having clicked in his head.

"Oh…." He said, feeling a bit guilty and slightly awkward. After all, he wasn't exactly the most… emotionally apt person out there. But he was sure that this was probably not the way Hermione would have wanted to tell him such a personal thing, if she even wanted to, that is.

He felt ashamed, as he felt that he had, in a way, forced it out of her, obviously before she was ready to admit it; perhaps just to herself for that matter.

Not really sure how to deal with this new situation, he decided to wing it- he had to do something.

"Um… do you want to talk about it…?" he asked.

She ducked her head a bit and after a few seconds of silence, looked back up and nodded.

Sitting down, Vladimir asked, "So, when did it all start…?"

"Huh… well, if I'm being honest, then I think it started around when we first became friends, maybe a bit before that even. But, it'd just always been a subconscious thing. I attributed it to my admiration of you. You're just so… mature, and smart. Unlike a lot of people our age.

"But then you told us about those artificial vampires, and I don't know, it just sort of clicked in my head how dangerous your life can actually get. It made me worry for you a lot at first. But then I realized you take it in stride, but not in a completely argent way.

"When I realized that, it made me think, 'wow, he really is amazing'…" she blushed slightly, but then shook her head and continued, "From then on, I kept thinking about all the other things, your maturity and all that, and I guess I was starting to compare them to others. I'd see some student dozing off in Charms, or someone getting a spell completely wrong, and I'd think, 'Vladimir would never do that.' or, 'Vladimir would perform that perfectly.'

"And every time I saw you… well… I just sort of starting to panic. I mean, we're friends, and I wasn't sure what admitting all of this would do to that friendship.

"I mean, I know that's an old cheesy thing to say," she chuckled, "But it's a real thing sometimes…"

She looked around, not wanting to see his face. "So… what do you think?"

Vladimir didn't want to answer immediately. Of course they were still friends. He was sure they both knew that. Hermione would know, no matter what, that Vladimir wouldn't just abandon a friend.

So the real question was, "Do you like me back?"

Not exactly a question he'd ever been prepared for. It was a completely new challenge, and completely unexpected.

But he thought about it, thinking of how mature she, herself, was. And she was by far the most brilliant witch in their year, perhaps even smarter than some of the second years. Both were qualities he highly respected of her, and praised her for. He couldn't be for sure if he actually did like her in that sort of way, but out of all the other girls, he certainly did like her more.

Could it really hurt to say that, yes, he did like her?

"Hermione…" he said, and she looked at him, "This is new for me. I really have no idea about this sort of thing… But I've thought about it, and I'm sure that I'm not mistaking myself in saying that I do like you- OOF!"

He'd not been able to get much more out as Hermione collided into him with a hug.

"T-Thank you for understanding!" she said.

He found his surprised face forming a warm smile. "You're welcome…"

Then she popped back up, panic in her eyes, "Oh, no, the class! How long have we been up here?"

"About twenty minutes…" Vladimir said, walking over to the edge and peering down the tower to see what it looked like down below. "Their starting to go back in. We should join them."

"Oh, but the mushrooms! What about them?"

Vladimir smiled and looked down at the bleacher's floor to see Crimson slithering up, her tail carefully curled around two mushrooms.

"I got it handled."

"But… isn't that sort of cheating?"

"Well, Crimson only picked them. She can't really tell if they're both different or not. So long as we make sure they are, then I'm sure it can't be counted on our conscious as cheating."

Hermione was hesitant but then nodded, and plucked one up and looked at it.

"This one has the blue speck."

"Right, and this one has the green." Vladimir said, and smirked. "There, no cheating. We just had help retrieving them."

Hermione smiled and then looked back to see how many more had gone inside.

"We'd better hurry, the last ones are getting in."

"Right this way," Vladimir said, showing her to a portal. They went through and came out right behind Ron, who was with Neville, the last two to be arriving.

"Bloody hell, where have you two been?!" Ron hissed.

"We were looking around on the inside of the Quittage towers. You know, mushrooms grow in more secluded and dark places, also dank, and it was plenty dank." Vladimir said easily.

"So did you find yours?" Neville asked.

"Yes," Hermione said and held them out.

"Lucky! We could only find the blue specked ones." Ron grumbled.

"You too then, eh?" Professor Sprout said as she approached- she was checking to see if they'd found the right ones and the two boys were next in line. "Don't worry about it, seems the green specked ones are still a bit dormant.

"How about you two?" she said, looking at Vladimir and Hermione.

Hermione again held out the mushrooms and Professor Sprout took them, and looked around the bulbs until she found the two different specks.

"Right, good job you two. Now head on in, time for the lesson."

AN: Ik, ik, a bit sappy, but how else do you write that sort of confession scene?

Anyway, just in case you're wondering, I'll be going through all the years. Or well, sorta. We'll see how it goes exactly. But this is going to be a loooooong fic. It's part of why I have writers block so often, because… well, just look! We're still in first year, and there's already 21- really 20- chapters in it, and we're not even done with first year yet- I'm pretty sure it's almost over though anyway. Still, it's really rather daunting… O.O'

But it will be done! No matter how long it takes me, this story with keep going until it's finished. Unless I die, then it'll be a bit hard, but since I'm sure it won't be that bad, I'm sure I can finish it. :)

Oh, and by the way, is anyone else having problems receiving traffic status notifications? For some reason, when I updated on this story, I'm not getting my reviews. I was at 260, and then the next day it said I'd gotten two reviews, and I could only see one. And now its at 265, and I can still only see that one, not any more. I looked at my gmail, and found that they were there, but still, its irksome. I'm also not getting an update on how many views a chapter has anymore.

Please, despite this, R&R, I'll still be able to see it in my gmail.

Well, I'm off. Let's hope I can get the next chap. up soon.

Bye!