Hermione's 4th Year, Part 10

Author's Note: None of this belongs to me. This story is based on Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling and will feature "offstage scenes" as well as scenes from the book reinterpreted from Hermione's point of view.

Hermione's 4th Year

Part 10: The Invitation

By Elanor Gamgee

Hermione was halfway to the library when she realized that didn't have her bag, so she had to go all the way up to Gryffindor Tower to get it. She hadn't intended to spend Saturday in the library, but she found herself so annoyed with Ron and Harry that she didn't really want to be around them at the moment.

When she arrived in the library, it was completely empty except for Madame Pince, who gave her a suspicious look. Hermione plunked her bag down at her usual table and pulled out her Tranfiguration notes.

She had finished going through her notes, and was just pulling out her S.P.E.W. notebook, when she heard the library door open. She glanced up and saw Viktor Krum entering. He stopped when he saw her and wrinkled his brow. Wonderful, thought Hermione as she turned back to her work, his fan club is bound to be here any minute.

"May I sit here?"

Hermione looked up in surprise. Instead of going over to his usual table by the windows, Krum had come to stand directly across from her. He was looking down at her with an inscrutible expression.

"Er…of course," she said, as politely as possible while still in shock. She glanced at the rows of empty tables around them and wondered vaguely why he wanted to sit at this one.

Krum pulled a chair back moodily and folded himself into it. "I am Viktor Krum," he stated, holding out a hand to her.

Hermione looked at him blankly, wondering if he seriously thought she wouldn't know that already. She smiled briefly at him. "Hermione Granger," she said, shaking his outstretched hand.

"I have been hearing that you are the top of your class," said Krum. "You vork very hard, yes? I see you in here often."

Hermione felt her face turn pink. "Well," she said, "you must work quite a bit yourself, to have become a Champion."

Krum grunted in response.

"And the way you faced that dragon! I didn't think of…I mean, I never would have thought of the Conjunctivitus Curse. That was brilliant." Hermione realized that she was babbling, and stopped talking. Krum was giving her a strange sort of piercing look, and she found herself growing slightly uneasy, though she couldn't say why.

"Vot are you vorking on?" he asked abruptly, gesturing toward the notebook in her hand.

Hermione looked down at the notebook, and it took a moment before she understood his question. "Oh!" she said, recovering herself. "This is for the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare, S.P.E.W. for short…" And she was off, telling him all about the injustices suffered by the house elves and how the society was formed. He seemed to be interested; at least, he nodded in the appropriate places and his eyes didn't glaze over the way Ron's and Harry's did whenever she talked to them about S.P.E.W. When she reached the part about wand use, Hermione took a deep breath and paused.

"I vant to ask you something," said Krum, apparently taking advantage of the moment's rest in her speech.

"Yes?" asked Hermione, expecting something like Why bother, since the house elves like being enslaved?, which she heard at least at least twice a day from Ron.

Krum seemed to be steeling himself for something. A vague suspicion formed in Hermione's mind, but she pushed it away. And then: "Vill you go to the Yule Ball vith me?"

Hermione looked at him blankly. Unaccountably, a brief image of Ron's face flitted across her mind. She tried to bend her mind around the fact that Viktor Krum, who was at least four years older than she was and was a famous Quidditch player and who she barely knew, had just asked her to the ball. This is almost surreal, she thought. Is this some kind of joke?

Hermione was vaguely aware that a small group of girls had just entered the library. One of them giggled loudly upon spying Krum.

Krum broke his gaze away from Hermione and glanced over at the girls. When he looked back, his face held an odd, protective expression. He leaned forward and lowered his voice. "Vill you think about it?" he asked.

Hermione nodded mutely and forced a nervous smile. Krum stood and gave her a serious nod. "I vill see you later, then."

Hermione only half-noticed that the group of girls followed Krum as he left the library. She was still trying to process what had just happened. She rubbed her forehead, trying to think straight. Viktor Krum seemed nice enough, and she knew he was very smart, but he was much older than she was. What would her parents think?

And then it hit her: Viktor Krum had asked her to the ball. Her. A smile spread across her face. She remembered Ron buying the Krum figurine at the Quidditch World Cup¸ and his reaction when Krum had arrived at Hogwarts. She couldn't wait to see his face when she told him she had actually spoken with Krum. But then, she thought uneasily as she gathered up her things, maybe I won't mention the part about the ball.

Hermione hurried up to the Gryffindor common room, but Harry and Ron weren't there. She settled in one of the armchairs by the fire and absently watched Ginny and her friend Theresa playing Exploding Snap.

"Are you going to the ball, Hermione?" said Lavender's voice behind her.

Hermione swiveled around. She found the question unnerving, as the ball was exactly what she had been thinking about. "I…probably. Are you?" She tried to sound cool and detached, but she wasn't sure it worked.

Parvati, who, as usual, seemed to be glued to Lavender's side, burst into giggles. "She's going with Seamus. He just asked her this morning."

Lavender giggled as well. She and Parvati moved toward the stairs to the girls' dormitories, but halfway there Lavender stopped and bent down to whisper in Hermione's ear. "Don't worry," she said in a mock sympathetic tone, "I'm sure someone will ask you." She raised her eyebrows knowingly and then she and Parvati were gone, up the stairs.

Hermione rolled her eyes and slumped back into her chair. If only they knew, she thought with an inward smile.

The Portrait Hole opened and Ron and Harry came in.

"Where have you been?" said Ron loudly, coming over to sit across from Hermione.

For some reason, his cheerfulness irritated Hermione. "I told you," she said shortly, "I went to the library."

"Right," said Ron with a grin, apparently ignoring her tone. "Should've known."

"Actually," Hermione began, in a tone more icy than she had meant it to be, "something rather interesting happened in the library today…"

"Oh, right," said Ron sarcastically, rolling his eyes at Harry, who had just come to sit next to him. "What, did you find another book about house elves or something?"

"No, I—" Hermione broke off.

"What?" asked Ron, looking at her with some concern.

Hermione glanced up at him and found that she didn't want to tell him after all. She wasn't sure why. Maybe it was because she knew he would tease her. Maybe it was because of what Lavender had said. All she knew was that she didn't want to tell him what had happened.

"Hermione?" said Ron. Both he and Harry were now looking at her with slightly worried expressions.

"I…found another book on poison antidotes. I thought it might help for Potions."

Ron stared at her for a moment, then turned to Harry with a grin. "What did I tell you?" he said.

The next few days were decidedly awkward. It felt strange not to tell Ron and Harry about Krum's invitation. She had kept secrets from them before, of course, but this was different somehow. To make things worse, she hadn't entirely decided what to do about Krum. Deep down, she found his invitation half disturbing, half flattering. He was quite a bit older than she was, after all. And why was he asking her anyway, when he had all those other girls fawning all over him?

Hermione found herself avoiding the library. Ron had looked at her in surprise when she had suggested they go to the common room instead, but hadn't said anything. Hermione knew she had to give Krum an answer soon, but she still found herself hesitating. She felt slightly skittish whenever the ball was mentioned, but she doubted anyone else noticed.

On Tuesday night, Hermione was trying to go over her Potions notes in the common room. This task was made difficult by Ron playing Exploding Snap nearby and Harry lounging by the fire reading about Quidditch. She had tried to get them to work, but neither would have it. Actually, she was feeling so tense that even she was glad of the diversion when Fred and George came in to borrow Pigwidgeon.

"No, he's off delivering a letter," said Ron. "Why?"

"Because George wants to invite him to the ball," Fred replied sarcastically.

Hermione flinched at the mention of the ball. She buried her nose in her notes and tried to ignore their conversation, but this became impossible when Fred bellowed across the common room.

"Oi! Angelina!"

Hermione looked over to see Angelina looking back at him coolly. "What?" she replied.

"Want to come to the ball with me?"

Angelina gave Fred a long look. "All right, then," she said, turning back to her conversation with Alicia. Hermione saw Alicia give Angelina a big wink.

"…piece of cake," Fred was saying to Harry and Ron. "We'd better use a school owl, then, George, come on…" And Fred and George got to their feet and left.

Hermione glanced over at Ron and Harry, wondering what they thought of Fred's little display.

Ron was looking morosely at Harry. "We should get a move on, you know…ask someone. He's right. We don't want to end up with a pair of trolls."

Hermione couldn't believe her ears. She suddenly felt like someone had poured lead into her stomach as she stared at Ron. "A pair of…what, excuse me?"

Ron shrugged at her. "Well—you know. I'd rather go alone than with—" Hermione narrowed her eyes at him. "—with Eloise Midgen, say," he finished lamely.

Hermione wasn't sure how to respond, but she burst out with, "Her acne's loads better lately—and she's really nice!"

Ron wrinkled his nose. "Her nose is off-center."

And yours is long and smudgy! she felt a sudden childish urge to yell at him, but she restrained herself. Instead, she sat up indignantly and looked straight at him. "Oh, I see. So, basically, you're going to take the best-looking girl who'll have you, even if she's completely horrible?"

"Er—yeah, that sounds about right," said Ron with a slight grin.

Hermione stared at him for a moment, torn between disgust and disappointment. "I'm going to bed," she snapped. She gathered her books and headed for the girls' dormitories. She could feel Ron's confused expression following her all the way across the room.

Oh, I could kill Lavender and Parvati, she thought bitterly as she lay in bed. And I could really kill Ron. "A pair of trolls", honestly! She hadn't been prepared for the wave of disappointment she felt when Ron had said that. Was it just disappointment that one of her best friends was acting so shallow? Or disappointment that he was obviously not thinking of asking her to the ball?

Would it have bothered me so much if Harry had said it? she asked herself honestly. No, it wouldn't.

Hermione took a deep breath as she realized that not only had she been assuming that Ron would ask her to the ball, she had been hoping he would. She thought back to that night she had found him sleeping in the common room. Obviously whatever she had thought was happening between them didn't mean anything to him. "Pair of trolls," she thought bitterly, well I guess we know what he wants, don't we? Hermione tossed and turned for a long time before she finally fell into an uneasy sleep.

The next morning, Hermione felt calmer than she had in months. She was perfectly civil to Ron all morning, and pretended nothing had happened.

Hermione finished her lunch quickly and told Ron and Harry that she needed to do something in the library. She gathered her things and marched away, ignoring their puzzled looks.

When she got to the library, Hermione marched directly over to the table by the windows, where Viktor Krum was sitting looking through a large book about, of all things, housekeeping charms.

"May I sit here?" she asked.

Viktor looked up at her with a surprised expression. "Of course," he said.

Hermione sat down and folded her hands in front of her on the table. She smiled at him. "I would be honored to go to the ball with you," she said, "if you would still like to take me."

Viktor's face broke out in the first genuine smile she had ever seen on it. "I vould," he said simply.