A/N: This collection will be for Vikmione gift fics and other bits of writing. If you are waiting on a Vikmione gift fic following a prompt, this is where it will appear.

What You Always Wanted

Prompt: [Hermione x Viktor] What you always wanted.
for Nautical Paramour

Cassandra Lambert had worked hard to get to where she was in life. She had graduated top of her class from Beauxbatons and had travelled extensively. Now she had her dream position as Assistant to the Head of the Department of Mysteries at the British Ministry of Magic.

After the war, the Ministry was a place of sweeping development and reform. As its reputation for excellence grew, it became a beacon to the next generation of change-makers, attracting them from all over the world.

Cassandra felt the role was an excellent stepping stone; it was certainly more than she had expected for 'entry-level'. It allowed her to build up a network that she would need to succeed. It also helped that her boss was resoundingly fair and predictable. Well, she always had been predictable, until that morning.

Hermione Granger, the youngest Department head in Ministry history, came back from her budget review meeting and excitedly announced that they would be receiving double their funding for the coming year.

The team were elated, and Hermione had a rare grin on her face which made her look much younger than her thirty-five years, reminding them all of how amazing it was that she was so good at her job considering her relative inexperience.

It was no secret that it had been Hermione's ambition since she joined the department to get their coffers increased, and she had ample - and impressive - plans for the additional funds.

After the cheering had died down, Cassandra had done what she always did when Hermione arrived in the morning. She followed her into her office and placed a coffee - black, no sugar - onto her desk and took her through the urgent memos and schedule for that day.

"Congratulations, Miss Granger," she had said as she left, with a warm smile on her face. "You've got what you always wanted."

Since then her utterly predictable boss had been doing the unthinkable, something Cassandra was unprepared for. Hermione was sat with her head pressed against her parchment-covered desk muttering to herself, and a crowd was beginning to form.

Hermione was sat with her forehead pressed against her too hard, too large desk trying to reboot herself. Cassandra's words ran through her mind on loop; what you always wanted, what you always wanted, what you always wanted.

She felt sick. She felt distracted. She felt tired — things she was never supposed to think in her office. Her mind conjured the memory of Viktor as he packed his bags, but this time it wasn't for another tour. His usually smiling mouth had been set in a grim line, and he had brushed passed her on his way to the door, managing to not touch her despite the restrictions of the small hotel corridor.

"Well, Hermione, I guess you got what you always wanted."

"Viktor, I…"

"Don't. You were always looking for a way out, and now you have one."

It was the last thing he ever said to her, and even then, even when they were breaking up, he was too kind to say it with any bitterness.

Hermione had never forgotten it, and it made her achievement that day, or any of them that had come after if she was honest, hollow.

Cassandra had eventually shooed away the rubberneckers and was contemplating contacting Auror Potter when suddenly Hermione's voice called weakly to her from the office behind.

"Cassandra," she began in a hesitant tone, "clear my schedule, I think I… I think I need to go to Bulgaria."