Character Descriptions
Time to delve our knowledge into another fantasy fandom; DnD!
The class (Barbarian, Cleric, etc…) does not need to be mentioned or used in any way, it's the description of the character that needs to be a focus of the story.
KEEPER: Bard - Write about a character who's known for their musical talent
Title/Link: Follow Your Dreams
Team: Appleby Arrows
Position: Keeper
Season 9 Round 11
Task: Bard - Write about a character who's known for their musical talent
Bonus Prompts: n/a
Summary: Second Chair of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Hermione Granger comes home to a supportive, loving boyfriend, and maybe something more. Vikmione, Muggle!AU; Sequel to Scoring a Goal, but no need to read the other to understand this one.
Word Count: 1537
A/N: Hello! Here's a semi-sequel to Scoring a Goal, another one of my Vikmione one-shots. This one takes place nearly one year after the other takes place, and you do not need to have read it in order to understand anything in this one.
This is a Muggle!AU, and not much has changed from canon. Harry, Ron, and Hermione are still best friends, and of course Hermione likes Viktor Krum for more than just his talent on the soccer field (or football field, as I'm using the UK terminology).
Anyway, this is getting long. Enjoy the Vikmione! :3 I know I loved writing it (and tbh, loved writing Crookshanks. Writing cats is always a joy for me). For those of you who also own cats, who clip their nails to help prevent worse scratches, I hope you understood mine and Hermione's joy at Crookshanks being good when getting his nails clipped. :)
Thanks to my Captain DaughteroftheOneTrueKing and the rest of my team for reading through and beta-ing.
I hope you enjoy! :)
Muggle!AU Vikmione
Follow Your Dreams
Musical prodigy Hermione Granger was a well rounded woman. Growing up, she had learned the piano, violin, harp, guitar, and the flute (however her lung capacity wouldn't let her succeed in the flute like she could with the string instruments.) That never stopped her, however. Every instrument that her parents exposed her to, she took to like a moth to a flame, and when she was accepted to a prestigious boarding school in Scotland, her music was the one thing that helped her keep her sanity.
In the end, she didn't specialize in the music program, instead focusing her extracurricular classes on charity work and management. These were topics she was fairly familiar with after helping her parents plan charity events since she was old enough to talk. However, her real passion came from her music, and she couldn't help but fall into the comfort of her instruments whenever she had a particularly stressful day.
Out of all of the instruments in her collection, the violin was her favorite, and oftentimes, Hermione could be found in the courtyard, playing her heart out. Her classmates knew, by the time they all finished school, that the music that played in the background as they studied during exam time was Hermione relaxing.
Her best friends supported and encouraged this hobby of hers, the only thing that seems to bring her out of the library and away from her books. Ron tended to find the most obscure sheet music for her to play, and Harry always made sure to surprise her with tickets to the latest symphony whenever they were back home in London. She felt it was only fair, as she and Ron fully supported Harry's love for football and her and Harry followed Ron to his chess tournaments, even going with him to Glasgow for the National Chess tournament that was held their junior year of secondary.
Ron becoming a chessmaster and Harry becoming a striker for Arsenal encouraged Hermione to follow her own dream, and instead of following her parents in dentistry like they had expected of her, she took her violin to audition for the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and she got in.
Second chair.
She was breathless, and couldn't help but celebrate, with Harry, Ron, Ginny, and the rest of their friends at her side.
Five years had passed since then, and Hermione had continually striven for First Chair. Today, finally, she achieved First Chair in the Orchestra. Or at least the closest she's gotten to First Chair due to the circumstances. Coming home and dropping her keys on the counter, she gently set her violin case down on the floor and called out to her flat.
"Honey, I'm home!"
Crookshanks, her cat that she's had since she was 13, raced into the room to greet her, meowing loudly as if complaining about something.
"Yes, yes, you tell mama vhat daddy did to you today," her boyfriend of a year and one of Harry's teammates, Viktor Krum, crooned to the cat as he emerged from their small kitchen.
"Oh? What happened?" Hermione asked with a grin, leaning forward to accept a kiss from Viktor before he bent down to scoop the ginger cat up. Crookshanks meowed from his place in the Bulgarian's arms.
"Ah, yes, you tell mama that daddy vas mean and clips your front nails. How dare he give you a manicure to help protect the couch!" he teased, and Hermione had to smother her giggle. She swooped in and planted a large kiss on Crookshanks' head, much to the cat's annoyance. Viktor continued his little conversation with the cat. "Ah, yes, but you always forget to tell mama that daddy gave you tuna as a revard for being a good kitty in getting your nails trimmed. No new scratches today!" Viktor held out one arm, cradling the enormous Maine Coon in the other, to show off the scratchless arm. "And then you got some extra vet food as a t-r-e-a-t," he added, spelling the word treat in order to not prompt Crookshanks' learned-trigger-words-response.
"Aw, I'm so proud of you, Crookshanks!" Hermione praised, and her cat meowed again before beginning to squirm. Viktor set him down, before Hermione stepped up and into his arms for a proper welcome home kiss.
"How vas your day, love?" he asked, his voice rumbling from his chest, and Hermione snuggled closer.
"Ugh, the conductor decided to go over the same 8 bar section for the whole three hours of practice, all because someone in the percussion section was choosing to be off beat from the rest of us. I swear, if I find whoever it was that was off beat, I'm going to show them where exactly I can shove their drumsticks!" Hermione huffed, and Viktor merely held her closer, kissing her hair from where it escaped from her bun.
"Is he insisting on extra practice tomorrow?" he asked, and she shook her head.
"No, mercifully, Slatkin decided to give everyone the day off tomorrow, hoping that we would come back refreshed and ready for our dress rehearsal for this weekend," she replied before stepping out of his arms and shucking the cardigan she had gotten back from Ginny the night she had officially met Viktor at the pub. "First chair didn't show up today, so I do have to practice both parts tonight to make sure I can take over for the solo, if needed."
"So, does this mean you vill haff time tomorrow to go on a picnic vith me?" he asked, and Hermione turned and grinned widely at him.
"Yes I will," she replied confidently before stepping forward and giving him a soft kiss. "Time for a shower for me, however," she then said before stepping away. Viktor couldn't help but smile and nod.
"Dinner is almost ready. Should be done ven you are finished," he replied, and she gave him one last kiss before retreating down the hallway leading to the bathroom, Viktor heading back into the kitchen to finish up the noodle dish he prepared for them, since she had to stay late at rehearsal.
After her shower, and after the delicious chicken fettuccine alfredo that Viktor made for them, the two of them plus Crookshanks settled into the living room, and Hermione pulled out her practice violin. It was identical to her performance one, however she made sure to have the extra one to avoid last minute damages and accidents that would affect her playing.
Viktor settled down into the stuffed armchair that he had claimed as his after he had moved in with her, with Crookshanks in his lap. Hermione took a moment to make sure her violin was tuned, before she pulled out the sheet music and set it on the stand that was in the corner of the room. She stood behind it, adjusting the papers so it would be easier to flip to the third page for the solo, before gently setting her bow on the strings and closing her eyes. Exhaling lightly, she drew the bow across the strings of her instrument, and began to play, only opening her eyes once or twice to check a note before losing herself in the music.
When at long last she finished, Hermione took a moment to enjoy the ringing silence that followed, before opening her eyes and startling as she found Viktor kneeling before her. Her eyes widened, and she found that she suddenly couldn't breathe.
"Hermione-"
"Yes, I do," she interrupted, unable to keep the grin from her face and he gave her a look with a small huff.
"I haff not even asked you the question yet!" he pointed out and she merely grinned wider at him.
"Of course I'll marry you, but go ahead, ask. No wait!" she suddenly exclaimed, rushing to go set her violin down before returning before him, Viktor still kneeling and giving her a pointed stare. "Okay, I'm ready," she replied, unable to stop smiling, and Viktor lifted a brow in response. "Yes, I'm ready now!" Hermione repeated herself with a laugh. Viktor took her hands in one of his, his other reaching into his pocket.
"Hermione, you haff bewitched me, body and soul, since the first moment I met you. You did not care of football, and yet you come and support your friends anyway. You care not for residual fame, for you haff your own, and your kindness to others is only ever outshone by your villingness to help people in need. I had vanted to ask this of you during our picnic tomorrow, but I cannot vait. I love you, Hermione Jean Granger. Vill you do me the highest honor, and become my vife?" He opened up the ring box to reveal a simple band of diamonds clustered around a sapphire droplet. There was a beat of silence, as Hermione tried and failed to contain her excitement.
"Yes," she whispered happily, tears springing to her eyes in happiness. "Yes, yes, a thousand times yes!" She helped Viktor to his feet, let him put the ring on her finger, and then kissed him for all that she was worth.
She couldn't imagine spending the rest of her life with anyone else.