Break Me, Shake Me
DaggersBloodPain
A/N You are going to have to suspend disbelief a little in this chapter regarding Viktor's comments. When he is thinking, please assume he is doing so in his native tongue, translated just for you. When he speaks though I cannot write his accent, I have never been good at accented dialogue, and I apologize for ruining the authenticity of his speech.
Chapter Twenty-One
Come Together
"Come on Harry, you can do this!" Viktor encouraged after yet another failed attempt at a sixth year level shielding charm. It was tricky to say, and the wand movement had a odd little twitch at the end that not only complicated the casting, but had a high tendency to make the wizard or witch casting it drop their wand. Harry had managed to hold onto his wand that time, but fumbled the last movement, the spell fizzled out before it had a chance to leave his wand.
Harry was tired, and a bit cranky at the time, they had been practicing for two hours already on top of his normal classes for the day. He had been trying to get this particular spell to work for the last twenty minutes with no more success than this try. It was fraying his nerves to say the least. "Argh! How many times am I going to have to do this!"
"You almost had it that time. This is advanced for you and will take time. There is no shame in you not getting this one without a few days practice, there is always magic that will take time to learn no matter who you are." Viktor lectured, surprisingly patient with the frustrated Slytherin. He had proven to be a good teacher, and when Harry called him on it, he simply brushed it off by saying it helped him review the spells himself while teaching them to Harry. Though he had to admit he was surprised at how much Harry already knew, Harry's habit of hiding in the library had definitely helped his theoretical magic knowledge, they were mainly working on practical now.
Harry just sighed and got ready for another try, he knew there was no use arguing, Viktor was right. He just wanted this whole stupid tournament over with already, but it wasn't even time for the first task yet. Viktor had shared with him privately that Headmaster Karkaroff knew where the first task was going to be held, a large arena was being built inside the Dark Forest. Karkaroff was trying to find out what would be put in the arena with them, but so far he hadn't found the answer. Just telling Viktor, and by extension Harry, to practice as many dueling charms as they could find, as well as general purpose subduing charms for magical creatures just in case.
When Viktor had first started passing on information from the Durmstrang headmaster, Harry had been worried for Viktor's safety. It seemed like it would be dangerous for Viktor to help another champion in the tournament. Viktor had simply replied that he knew for a fact he wasn't in any danger from his Headmaster. Harry had taken it on faith to mean Karkaroff had allowed Viktor to tell him things, but knew the other side of the coin meant even if the headmaster didn't approve of it, Viktor thought he could overcome the Headmaster's displeasure one way or another.
When Harry's next three attempts at casting the spell didn't improve, Viktor called a stop to the practice session. "That is enough for today, you need to rest for now." He had been keeping a sharp eye on the younger wizard, knowing the high level spells were going to drain his reserves quicker then he was used to, they had time to work on stamina, the goal now was to keep him healthy. It hadn't taken long for Viktor to realize Harry was trying to cover up an illness of some kind. He couldn't quite tell what it was, but something was definitely wrong with the smaller boy. He had seen a few more panic attacks being suppressed, and the vial around Harry's neck had caught his eye a few times. The vial was a curious thing, at first glance it didn't appear to be anything another than an oddly shaped stone in a light blue color, and it had taken him awhile to figure out it was indeed a vial of some kind filled with a potion he didn't recognize even in his seventh year.
"I can keep going!" Harry protested the prescribed rest.
"I know you can, for awhile anyway, but you shouldn't drain yourself completely in practice. You will be able to practice longer as we go on and your stamina grows, but if you are exhausted there is no way of defending yourself from an attack. A person in your position cannot afford to leave themselves vulnerable for no reason. In fact after each task I highly recommend you stay close to friends until your magic builds back up." Viktor tried to soothe the ruffled Slytherin, knowing Harry had to be dead tired if he was protesting anything he was told to do. Normally Harry followed along with any commands, no matter how they were worded, without hesitation.
Harry reluctantly started to gather his things, the two of them had found an empty classroom to practice in after classes and had been coming there every evening after dinner. They would practice until they got tired, though not always working on the same spell Viktor usually started off by showing Harry something new and then moving on to his own practice. It had worked out for them so far, and Harry was slowly advancing in skill in the reletively short time they had started doing this.
"Harry when you go back to your dorm, could you please tell your friend Draco that he can come practice with us a couple times a week? I think it would be good for you to duel against him a few times before you try to duel me. You are doing well but we are still only skimming the surface of the spells you will learn in the next few years. Fighting me wouldn't be fair to you until you have had some real practice." Viktor explained as they left the classroom together.
"I will ask him, as long as you know what you are in for, he practically worships you." Harry warned, knowing Draco would be angry with him, again, for saying that but figuring it was better to warn Viktor. "Though really me having to compete in this tournament in the first place isn't fair so hearing you talk about fairness is appreciated, but mostly unnecessary.
"I know, but I think he is intelligent enough to figure out the truth for himself if he spent some time with us. Its happened before with others. Also just because you are stuck in an unfair situation doesn't mean those helping you should add to it." Viktor replied before he heard someone come up behind them and get their attention.
"Hello Harry, Mr. Krum, sorry to interrupt you two, but could I have a word with you Harry?" Harry smiled at his old friend Porfessor Sinistra as the dark haired professor haled them for further down the hall.
"Hi, Professor, we were just finishing up, if you could give me a moment to say goodbye we can talk." Harry agreed with the invitation before turning to Viktor. "I will talk to Draco tonight, and I will see you tomorrow, so for now good night."
Viktor replied, "Goodnight Harry, have a nice evening Professor." He acknowledged the Hogwarts teacher with a tip of his head before striding off down the corridor towards the Entrance hall and out to the Durmstrang ship.
"I didn't know you were friends with the Durmstrang champion?" Adam commented as Harry took up pace beside him, heading back up towards Adam's office near the astronomy tower.
"He supported me after my name came out of the cup. We are preparing for the tournament together. So far its been going ok, but there is so much magic I need to catch up on. I don't think I could do this if I hadn't already been reading ahead all these years. There simply isn't enough time to do justice to my homework and practice as much as I need to in order to catch up, if I had to do all the research on top of that I would probably collapse." Harry has long since relaxed around this professor, he was able to talk to him easily now. Though he may not have admitted the strain he was under if he wasn't so tired.
"Just remember no one can run on empty forever you are going to need to rest. Are you and your friend at least taking one day off a week from your practicing?" Adam asked, concerned for Harry, but knowing how tough and stubborn he could be the Professor thought he would come out of this alright.
"Yes, we don't practice on Sundays, that is our day for catching up on school work and letting our magic recuperate, and he never lets us practice for too long at night. Like tonight for example I didn't want to stop yet, but he made me see reason. I like working with him." Harry confessed with a hardly noticeable blush.
Adam saw the reaction, but held back on questioning Harry further about Viktor, if it was what he thought it was than it was up to Harry to figure it out anyway. "So what did he want you to talk to Draco about? I heard you telling him you would."
"Oh, he thinks it would be fairer to me if I practiced dueling with Draco, rather than himself for awhile. He wants me to ask Draco to some with us during our practices a couple times a week. When we are in private I am probably going to have to scrape Draco off the ceiling after I tell him." Harry remarked drily.
"For someone normally so collected, are you finding it as amusing as I do that he has such a big soft spot for Mr. Krum?" Adam asked with a smile just trying to imagine the aloof Slytherin's reacting like Harry described.
"I do find it amusing," Harry admitted, "But I know it will get annoying for Viktor so I hope Draco calms down around him sooner or later. I think Draco and Viktor would really get along once Draco starts seeing him as a person not a celebrity." Harry was now curled up in one of the comfortable chairs in Professor Sinistra's office. Harry felt bad that he hadn't had much time for the man since the year started, but was fairly certain he had an airtight excuse with the tournament and everything.
"So Harry how are you doing? I know all this can't be easy to deal with." Adam inquired gently.
Harry sighed and ran a hand down his face, his eyes tired behind his glasses, "Its been ridiculously hard. I had been able to cut back on doses of my potion, but lately I have been taking more. I still haven't taken as much as Professor Snape has told me I could, but I am worried that someday I am going to run out of potion and I will be totally on my own. Its not a good feeling. I think Viktor suspects something, but I thought that might happen with all the time we spend together now. I just hope he either doesn't figure it out, or doesn't mind it when he does."
"With all the time he is spending on helping you, I doubt he will be upset with you over this. If you explain it to him, he will probably understand why you chose to hide your condition. He might even be worried it is something worse like a physical ailment. I wonder if maybe you told him, if he wouldn't be able to help you out of rough situations. With all this stress on you it might not be a bad idea to have a few extra sets of eyes watching over you." He tried to voice his concern to Harry, without appearing to coddle. When Harry had replied the solution of having Viktor help Harry had jumped out at him.
"I will think about it, but for now I think I need ot head for bed, I am really tired." Harry excused himself.
"Alright, goodnight, and I really do think it would be a good idea to tell him." Adam got up and opened the door letting Harry leave his office, wondering if maybe he should follow the tired Slytherin back to his dorm, but decided Harry could get back on his own. He had made many trips between the dungeons and this office before in varying states of alertness he would be fine.
Harry started his lonely way down to the Slytherin common room, intending to talk to Draco and then get into bed. He was about half way there when he felt someone else come up behind him on the stairwell, he tensed as usual, but passing it off as another student he kept going.
It wasn't until he felt two strong hands pushing on his shoulders that he realized how wrong he was, and the next thing he knew, air was whizzing passed his face and he wondered when he was going to land.