Nothing to say - I hope you enjoy this next chapter! (:

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter! (Or Elvis.) (Or Journey.)

... I don't own a lot of stuff, actually.

ti si moyat jivot

Viktor Krum
January 2, 1996, 11:37 P.M.
Outside of Sofia, Bulgaria

They arrived by port key late that night. He was so eager to show her his family home, the one he'd grown up in before all of the money, before all of the fame. It was a small cottage an hour outside of Sofia, covered in a traditional thatch roof. It held two small bedrooms, a roomy, home-style kitchen, and the coziest family room that one could ever see.

He grasped her hand and pulled her with him through the snow. She was smiling—he hoped that she liked it! He wanted her to be happy here, to live here with him, to hold his children, and to wake up with him every morning.

They arrived at the door to see his grandmother throwing it open, tackling him with a bear-hug so large, he thought that he would fall over. Stoyanka wasn't a tall woman. She was short and round, with thick white hair and a smile that could rival a Veela's. She smiled at Viktor and instantly asked how he was.

"I am fine, grandmother. Leahn and I vanted to come tonight, to be settled in."

His grandmother turned her dark brown eyes onto Leigh Ann, as if looking her over once more. He'd never imagined that his grandmother would have anything to think but nice things, but obviously, he was wrong. "I do not want her staying here."

"Grandmother!" Viktor glared at Stoyanka, wondering what was going on in that head of hers. Leigh Ann was his fiance! She was to be treated as such. She'd liked Leigh Ann just fine the day before. What had changed that?

"V-Viktor," Leigh Ann said, her teeth chattering underneath all of the fur he'd piled on her, "I-I'm fr-freezin'!"

He turned back to his grandmother to see that she was glaring at the girl. "Can we at least come in before we freeze?"

She frowned, as if it were a burden, before letting them in. "Very well."

Viktor walked in to his childhood home, taking in the smell of firewood and pine needles that permeated the air. It was as he remembered it—a brick fireplace to the right, with a small, tan couch in front of it. A rug where he used to play was in the center of the room. To the left was the walkway to the kitchen.

"Follow me," she said under her breath, stalking into the next room. Viktor sent an apologetic glance back to his fiance. She just seemed happy to be out of the cold as she took off her oversized parka. They all walked into a back room that was taken up mainly by a large, four-poster bed with a few of Grandmother Stoyanka's quilts thrown across it. Other than that, there was a small armior and a stand with a pitcher on it. "You vill stay." The old woman pointed to the bed.

"Oh, no, I can't," Leigh Ann said, blushing deeply as she tried to scoot away from the large, four-poster bed. "Really."

The old woman's eyes narrowed. "We are noot oonder any eempreesions that you two are noot sleeping vith each oother," Stoyanka said bitingly, making Viktor flush down to his toes.

"Grandmother," he growled, narrowing his eyes at her. "Stop it." What had gotten into her?

"I am not doing anything." He didn't know when she'd suddenly gotten the inclination to be hateful towards his fiance, but he was sure to put a stop to it.

Viktor turned a face away from his grandmother, to watch as Leigh Ann slowly moved towards the door. "I am sorry, Leahn. My grandmother knows that Ameereecans are…progreeseeve." Oh, how he wished that she was slightly more progressive.

"Well I'm not," she said, putting her hands on her hips. He knew that look. It was the same one she gave him before each lecture. She turned towards his grandmother, her face going soft, her eyes still hard, and said, "Mrs. Krum, I apologize that you have such a bad view on my country, but some of us save ourselves for our husbands. I have saved myself for my weddin' night."

His grandmother looked shocked, to say the least. She tried to open her mouth, but nothing came out. She tried again, but Leigh Ann beat her to it.

"I apologize that you think so lowly of me, but I was expectin' much, much more from you. I am marryin' your grandson, and I love him very, very much, with all of my heart and more. And if you can't understand that, well then I'm sorry."

Stoyanka looked very, very shocked at this, and Viktor was waiting for the look of malice to come over her face, and a stream of Bulgarian profanities to shoot out. But Stoyanka only narrowed her eyes and stood up straight. "My family is from a long line of pure vizards. Your blood is not pure."

Viktor wanted to do something to stop the look of horrified shock from coming onto his fiancé's face, and to take back the words from his grandmother's mouth. "Ladies—"

"You don't want me to marry your grandson because I'm not pure-blood?" she asked in a voice so soft, that Viktor wondered if his elderly grandmother had even heard her. He knew this voice, though, to be a sign of pure and utter fury.

Stoyanka only nodded, a serious expression on her face.

He knew that Leigh Ann was touching her tongue to a back molar, as her jaw was set in that one way that he knew to fear. He tried to put his hand on her back and negate this conversation all together, but she threw him a look that told him to let her do it on her own. "You were just fine with me when you thought I was pure-blood! Mercy!" She stopped and took a breath, closing her eyes for a moment before pointing them at the old woman. "Mrs. Krum, my mother is pure-blood, from some of the oldest families in America and England."

"Just like Krums," she said stiffly, crossing her arms under her chest. "Your father, though…"

"Yes, just like the Krum family." Leigh Ann took a deep breath, looking away from either person in the room. "Let me tell you a story. It isn't that long. When my mother came home from school one year, she went out with a few of her other pure-blood friends to a Muggle military fort, to learn a few things for an assignment for school. There, she met my father. Muggle. Completely. She had already been engaged, to a man that she thought she had loved, but in truth she had only loved him because it would have made her mother happy. She fell in love with my father, then, for who he was, not for what was in his blood. Viktor could be a Muggle and I would have fallen for him."

Viktor hadn't known that Leigh Ann's mother had been engaged prior to meeting Jonathan, but it did make sense. Rene and Jonathan were the happiest couple he'd ever seen, and it was probably because they were in love, and not in an arranged marriage.

Leigh Ann took his hand, intertwining their fingers. "I'm very, very sorry if you don't know love like my mother, or like me. But Viktor…without him, my life would be meaningless." At that moment, he knew that he wanted to spend every moment for the rest of his life with this woman. He didn't get a chance to hold her

"Veakness," the old woman scoffed, turning her head to the side. "Love is merely veakness."

"To you, maybe, yes. But it strengthens me." She reached down and grasped Viktor's hand, pulling him closer. "Come on, Viktor, I can hear your stomach growling from a mile away." And then they were walking out of the room, their footsteps the only sound in the small house. He heard his grandmother 'huff' and Apparate out of the room behind them.

"Leahn…" he whispered, sensing the tension in her back. She stopped suddenly and pushed him against the nearest wall, jumping up to wrap her arms around him and forcing her lips onto his.

Not that he was complaining, but it wasn't loving or what he was used to, but rather anger, the need to feel something crumble beneath her lips. He was surprised to feel her legs hook around his hips, to feel her jeans rubbing against his khakis. Her hands ran through his curls, tugging them, making his mouth open wider.

Viktor Apparated them both back to his—well, their—bedroom. Leigh Ann pushed him down onto the bed as he muttered a silencing spell around the room, locking the door. "Leahn—"

She silenced him by straddling his hips, her hands instantly grasping his shirt, pulling him up to meet her. Her lips were open when their mouths touched. She tasted like cinnamon, from that cafe she'd wanted to stop at back in Sofia. She'd always tasted sweet, just as her hands had always felt hot against his body.

The weight she'd lost showed as his hands moved across her waist and hips, as he gently grasped her butt and ground her hips into his. She moaned hotly into his mouth, tightening her thighs and repeating the motion. He ran his fingers softly down her crease, hearing her grunt in approval, her hips grinding into his to find friction. He moved the tips of his fingers down and parted her legs further, situating himself between her legs.

She took her mouth from his and placed it onto his neck, gently kissing from his collarbone to his ear and back until she found the spot she liked most. He slid himself across her jeaned maidenhead when she opened her lips beneath his ear, gently running her tongue across his skin before closing her lips and sucking.

He groaned and leaned his head back against the pillows, letting her ravage him for a moment. He knew that this wasn't her. This wasn't his Leigh Ann. As much as he loved her mouth roaming over his neck, down his chest, he couldn't help but feel disheartened, even if his cock was feeling...well, heartened.

"Leahn," he groaned, moving his hands back up to her hips. She didn't answer him, her lips still attached to his neck. "Leahn, you must stop."

She pulled her lips away and shook her head, her eyes lidded dangerously. "N-no," she said softly, shaking her head. "Th-this is what they e-expect us to do."

"I vill not complain." He slid his fingers into her hair and pulled her forehead to his. They were both breathing harshly, so it took him a moment to say what he needed to. His cock was still throbbing, nestled between her legs as if it belonged there. Her heat was doing things to him that he wished he could control. The sweet smell of her breath against his lips made him want to do things he shouldn't have thought. "This...this is not you."

Leigh Ann shook her head, gently brushing her nose against his. "H-how can your f-family... Wh-what did I do wrong?" Her last breath was shaky and vulnerable.

"Oh, dear vun, you did nothing vong," he crooned, gently pressing a kiss to her cheek. "Nothing." He slowly turned her over, leaning on his elbow over the love of his life. "My family... They are like most pure-blood, yes? They are not so, ah, open-minded vhen it comes to Moogle blood."

She frowned, so he used his thumb to gently smooth out the lines on her forehead. "I'm only half. Do they really care that much? About blood?"

He wanted to tell her no, but he knew differently. He would be stricken from the family records if he married her—unless she could prove that she was pure-blooded. "Da, they do."

Leigh closed her eyes and sighed, placing one hand over her face. "Why do you want to marry me, Viktor?"

He didn't really understand the question—why didn't he want to marry this beautiful woman who lay in his bed? "I loff you."

"Is that enough?" His heart was stricken as she opened her eyes and looked at him with a sadness so deep, it hit him, too. "Is that what they want from us?"

"It is vhat I vant from us!" He didn't know what to say to get it through her thick head—he loved her, and he was going to marry her! "Do you not see?" he asked softly, grasping her chin to make her look at him. "I do not care vhat they say."

"But they're your family," she groaned softly, throwing her head back. "How can you not take their opinions into consideration?"

Viktor leaned up and gently kissed her exposed neck. "I half," he told her simply, making her look at him in shock.

"Wha—?"

"And I half decided I do not care vhat they say."

She looked at him for a moment, her eyes incredulous, before she let out a humorless laugh. "Bless your heart, Viktor."

"It is full of loff for you."

That cute little snort of hers came out as she arched herself slowly off the bed, pushing him off of her. "When did you get all corny?"

He stayed in his place as he watched her get up, moving over to her suitcase and bending down to get her nightgown. He appreciated the tight jeans that molded against her ass, wanting to grab it and pull her back to the bed. "Vhen I met you."

She gave him a look that said she knew what he'd been doing, but he didn't care. He was still turned on from her "attack" a moment ago. He knew that he'd have to take yet another cold shower, but, as soon as he was married to his fiance, he would have her.

Suddenly, that seemed very, very far away.

She blushed and raised an eyebrow at him, shaking her nightgown to ask a question. "Yes?" he asked, looking at her intensely.

"Care to close your eyes?" He loved the blush that she got when he looked at her like that. He wondered now how he could have kept from ravaging her in his office, back at the Academy. At the moment, he could see himself sprawling her against his desk, spreading her legs to allow him entry. He could see her beautiful breasts heaving with air as he plunged into her, making the desk shake with the power of their love-making.

So, obviously, his answer was, "No."

"Viktor," she groaned, sticking her lower lip out. Normally, that look would have done him in. But he wanted her, so watching her undress wouldn't have hurt anything more. "I want to change!"

"Then change."

"I'm not changin' in front of you!"

He smirked at that. "I half changed you before...or you do not remember?" He remembered, even though he knew that he'd not seen anything.

The red covered her face completely now—he even saw it on the tips of her ears when she pushed her hair behind them. "Y-yes, but that w-was a different incident."

Viktor shook his head and turned over, closing his eyes as he pulled his shirt over his head and threw it in her direction. "Ah, change, Leahn. I vill not look."

"Swear?"

"Svear."

He heard her rustling around, changing, so he imagined what he'd see if he'd opened his eyes. The curve of her hips...the swell of her breasts...

He felt her lay down next to him, so he opened his eyes and pulled her up against his side. He pulled her on top of him, delighting in her squeal. He smiled down at her and ran his fingers up and down her spine. "Sleep, my loff. Tomorrow, ve celebrate like Bulgarians."

Leigh Ann smiled back up at him before lying her head down on his chest. "I'm lookin' forward to it."

January 3, 9:21 A.M.

Viktor's Childhood Kitchen

It was a beautiful scene—Leigh Ann, cooking in his Grandmother's kitchen. She was dressed in a simple cotton dress, seeing as how his grandmother couldn't stand women who wore pants, and it fitted her perfectly. When a breeze drifted under her dress, he could see a bump of a baby, his baby...

Viktor had to shake his head to keep the images out of his mind, but she was so beautiful! He had always thought that she had been beautiful, but seeing her in his home clothing, in Bulgarian traditional clothing, made as if to fit only her, sent his pulse racing.

It was less flamboyant than most, and more streamline. It was a soft blue, a dark black, and a medium brown that matched her skin tone so perfectly that he could have wept.

It was called a soukman, a short-sleeved overdress with a low V-neck that showed a beautiful curve of tanned neck and cleavage. Even though it was usually made of dark woolen material, it was more of a soft silk, with a slight amount of wool. He knew that it was worn over an embroidered straight cut chemise, called a riza. Over the dress was a thick, brown, richly decorated apron with pearls, beads, and colorful stones sewn into the fabric. A narrow belt was around her waist, emphasizing the curve of her body.

Oh, she is so beautiful...

She didn't help his need to change his mind's thoughts when she picked up a mixing spoon and closed her eyes, swinging her wide hips back and forth. "Are you lonesome tonight?" she sang softly into the spoon, slow dancing around the small kitchen. "Do you miss me tonight? Are you sorry we drifted apart? Does your memory stray to a bright summer day? When I kissed you and called you sweetheart?"

At that point, he didn't care what she was making, or what he was going to have for breakfast.

He wanted her.

Leigh Ann wasn't even aware he was in the kitchen. So, when he saddled up behind her and wrapped his arms around her, he was surprised when she didn't jump. Instead, she kept swaying those beautiful hips and singing into the spoon. She turned her head and smiled up to him, complete freedom in her beautiful hazel eyes.

"Good morning," he said to her, lowering his lips down to the soft cream of her shoulder. "I see you half grown comfortable in my childhood home?"

"It's so beautiful here," she sighed, leaning her head back onto his chest, humming the song she'd been singing, but slower. "I see why you want to be married here."

He wanted to broach the subject of them living there, but all he could think about were the reasons not to. Things were starting to get dangerous. He knew that he was selfish to keep her close to him, but not being near her killed him inside. "That song...vhy that vone?"

She turned around in his arms, refusing to look at him as she wrapped her arms around him and laid her head on his chest. "My dad would sing that song to my mother when he came home from overseas." Leigh Ann looked up at him and smiled softly at him, raising one hand up to gently caress his cheek. "Being here, everythin' reminds me of you. When you leave to do...whatever it is you do, I feel like you're overseas. I try to think of the happy things that we do together, but I still get lonesome without you." He could see in her eyes that she was asking what he was doing there, but both of them knew that they couldn't answer.

Her words were like a stab to his chest. All that Viktor could do was hug her tightly to him and kiss the top of her head. I can't tell you what I do, my love. You would be in danger...and I can't let that happen.

Leigh Ann started singing softly under her breath as she swayed with him, snuggling her face into his chest. "Love me tender, love me sweet, never let me go." I will not let you go. "You have made my life complete, and I love you so. Love me tender, love true, all my dreams fulfilled. For my darling, I love you, and I always will."

Viktor looked down on her beautiful face to see that she was smiling so widely, with such happiness, that he instantly felt his heart swell. Those words filled him with a joy that he had never expected. He tried to show her how he felt in their next kiss, her soft lips moving with his in a dance that they both knew all too well.

He vaguely heard the spoon clatter to the floor as she grasped his hair between her fingers, pulling him closer to her. His hands found those beautiful hips, pulling them both ever closer. He thought that this was a dream—the woman he loved in his childhood home, dressed in a simple dress, surrounded by simple things, his wealth not playing a part in anything. He never believed that he could ever love someone so much.

"Leahn," he said softly, moving his lips to her cheek as he stopped to catch his breath. She gave a small inclination that she heard him, instead putting her head in the crook of his neck and taking a deep breath of him. He then whispered in her ear, "I loff you."

She gave the crook of his neck a small kiss, sending shivers down his back. "I love you too, Viktor." Her hands slowly moved from his head, to his neck, to his shoulders before she gently put some space between them. Her hazel eyes, when she next looked up to him, were suddenly full of something that looked like...fear? "Viktor...are you leaving again?"

His own fear stabbed him in the heart and made his body grow rigid before he could stop it. He could feel the burning in the back of his mind, telling him that he had to leave, but he ignored it. She felt his body tense, because she instantly pushed him away and went back to cooking—exactly what she did when she was upset. "Leahn, I am not leafing."

That was when his heart constricted. I just told her my first lie. He knew that his ruse would be much, much harder to hide from her if this was what would happened when he told her these things.

"Don't lie to me, please," she whispered, stirring whatever she'd had in the pot before he'd ambushed her. "I'm here, in your house, cookin' your breakfast—which is burned, now, by the way—and you're goin' to leave me again."

He shook his head and took a deep breath, gently kissing her on the forehead. "Do noot vorry about this vight now. I vant you to enjoy yourself. My grandmoother has things for you to do today. I vant you to relax for party, yes? I vill see you tonight."

"Where are you going?" she asked softly, running her hands down his chest. She refused to look at him.

He shook his head again and pulled her closer, holding her to him. "I vill not tell. You vill be oopset." He put his head on hers, hoping that it was the end of her argument.

Obviously, he was wrong. "I'm upset now!" she sighed, her forehead on his chest. "You leave for days at a time. What will it be next time? A week? A month? Are you going to miss our weddin'?"

"No!" He grasped her face and forced her to look at him. Her hazel eyes were full of tears, while at the same time being narrowed in anger. "I vould not."

"You'll be here tonight, then?"

"Da." He would be out of his...ah, meeting before their second engagement party that night.

The look in her eyes made him sure that he would be. "You swear?"

Viktor gently pulled her forwards, tasting her delectable lips against his once more. He almost lost himself in the kiss, but he pulled back and instantly said, "Da. I svear. Ti si moyat jivot."

You are my life.

Stoyanka Krum
January 3, 1:32 P.M.
The Wizarding Town of Bulholm

Stoyanka had proclaimed that Leigh Ann was much too old to do any of this, and that Viktor and she were already going to be married, so there was no point. But Viktor had insisted that she be in all customs.

Before the holiday each lass prepared a wreath or bouquet of flowers, putting a valued ring or bracelet or necklace around it before putting them in a caldron with silent water. The caldron was covered with an apron and was left over the night under the stars, underneath a rose bush.

In the morning the girls would prepare the Enjova boulja, which was a four or five year old girl dressed in wedding clothes with a red veil and decorations on the head. The whole group would go around the village and the girls carried one after another the Enjova boulja. They would stop by every well or spring, around the fields, the gardens, the cattle sheds while they are singing songs about fertility and love. During the whole procession, the Enjova boulja would be waiving her hands, imitating flying.

People would ask her questions about the future harvest and the random answers were considered as predictions After the tout around the village the group goes back to the house where they have left the caldron. The girls sing prediction songs there. If the singing competition was only over the lasses' bunch of flowers, the predictions were about weddings, and if there are bunches of flowers for everyone the predictions were about health and fertility.

In this case, it was about weddings, and their true loves.

Leigh Ann was humming a tune as she and the other, much smaller, girls were picking flowers to make their wreaths. She was wearing one of Viktor's thick fur coats that she'd transfigured to fit her own body, though it was still too big. Her hair was pulled up tight under a wool scarf, her face free of all makeup.

Stoyanka had never heard the song her future daughter-in-law was humming, but by the way Leigh Ann was humming it, it made Viktor's mother believe that she could sing.

"Vhat are you singing?" she asked as the girl—well, she really couldn't be called a girl—picked small lilies in white and orange, intertwining them artistically with ivy.

She smiled, stopping the picking for a moment. "It's called 'Open Arms.' Would you like me to sing you a part of it?"

Knowing that she should have said no, because this girl was throwing even more surprises at her at every turn, Stoyanka nodded. "I vill listen."

"Lying beside you, here in the dark. Feeling your heart beat with mine. Softly you whisper, 'You're so sincere. How could I love you so much?'" Leigh Ann's voice was soft, with a small gravel down in the bottom, and it very much pretty. "We sailed on together, we drifted apart. Now here you are by my side. So now I run to you, with open arms! Nothing to hide, believe what I say. So here I am, with open arms! Hoping you'll see what your love means to me, open arms."

It was very beautiful, even though she couldn't understand what most of it meant. Still, nothing could have prepared her for the girl's presence, especially the way she made Viktor look. Every time she was near, his face lit up like a fire. His happiness radiated out, making her feel almost...awful for treating the woman badly.

She sighed and knew that she had to apologize. Unfortunately, there was a language barrier. "Az sŭm sŭzhalyavam," she sighed, wishing that the girl could understand her somehow.

Leigh Ann turned and looked at Stoyanka, her eyes narrowed in confusion. "Blagodarya."

Thank you? The girl had just thanked her in her own language! It instantly made the girl seem a little better in Stoyanka's mind. "You..."

There was a slight amount of blush on the girl's cheeks as she pushed a stray piece of hair behind her ear. "I-I thought, that, since Viktor and I were getting so close, I'd learn a little Bulgarian. Now that we're getting married, I guess that it was a good idea."

Stoyanka was impressed with the girl's gumption. She was larger than most, but held herself as if she were the most beautiful woman in the world. She was half-blood, and yet was just as determined as a pure-blood. "It vas good idea."

If anything, Stoyanka was really wondering whether or not she really wanted to strike her grandson out of the family line.

Hmm, well? I would really like some reviews, yes? Let's say 50 before I post the next chapter?

Because of the size of Stoyanka's house, the party had to be held in his parent's house. It was a magnificent mansion, one that showed Viktor's other side. I had to remember that, even though Viktor was mine, he was also the world's. It showed in the glitz and glam that surrounded me, by the fashionable people, the trophies, and the scathing looks that I was getting.

I was wearing what was considered a fashionable wizard robe to my own engagement party. Lilyana had picked it out...and I hadn't seen her since. I'd been introduced to so many people that I couldn't remember their names, and so many drinks had been given to me that I started to feel tipsy. My mother was there, though, being the celebrity she was, and Alex was right by my side. It made it kind of acceptable to be there.

Though it wouldn't have been so bad...if Viktor were there at our engagement party.