The Hogwarts library is not the most welcoming of places even by day. The ominous vastness of the place, with the myriads of dusty volumes full of centuries-old wisdom leering down at you from bookshelves twice your height, the tense atmosphere in the air caused by the muffled silence and the piercing glares of Madame Pince the librarian, all make the library one of the less popular parts of the castle for most of the Hogwarts students. That's with lighting and fresh air wafting in from the open windows. By night, the reading hall is a terrifying jungle of monstrous shapes and shadows, raked by the odd moonbeam slicing its way through the gloom from the windows by the wall. Add the threat of serious trouble, should you get caught by the Filch patrol and the library becomes little more welcoming than the Forbidden Forest.

Choosing to ignore all of the above, a newly-appointed fifth-year Prefect leaned on a bookcase at the very back on the library, holding the ancient book she was engrossed in, up to the moonlight streaming in from the window behind her. Hermione shivered slightly as she paused to turn a page. The Restricted Section. The creepiest the Hogwarts castle could get. The rest of the library was Honeydukes compared to this section. The humongous black outlines of the towering bookcases seemed to close in her, the books on their shelves seemingly hissing at her…Hermione shook herself and returned to her book – The Avada Kedavra Curse – The Complete Encyclopedia. She had decided that researching the curse to the finest of detail could lead to ways of finally bringing about Voldemort's absolute downfall before he claimed too much power or too many victims. The only place she could study such a deadly curse in all the detail she wanted was the Restricted Section, and as no teacher in their right minds would allow a student to read such a book, one o' clock in the morning on her sixth night back at Hogwarts was her only option…

Hermione shivered again, as the icy tingling sensation creeping down her spine told her all too clearly she was being closely watched. Sensing her stalker was very nearby, Hermione froze, stiller than a statue, in case movement provoked an attack, but raised her eyes from the ancient book and allowed them to sweep freely over the gaps between the bookcases, dart over to as much of the window behind her as she could see, then straight ahead, where she found her hunter.

Hermione jumped and closed her book, swallowing an instinctive scream. A tall solid black silhouette towered over her, standing just outside the moonbeam's reach, so that not the tiniest detail of the face or body was visible in the black-hole-like human shape. In her initial fright, it took Hermione a few moments before she recognized the slouched, hook-nosed profile of the shadow.

"V-Viktor?!" she cried disbelievingly.

The black outline of the head nodded slowly.

"Wh-what are you doing here?" Hermione cried, still too shocked to be able to offer her admirer a warmer welcome.

"I had to come," came the unmistakable gruff voice quickly. "I haff been thinking off you all summer, Herm-own-ninny. I can not stop thinking off you…I lofe you," he finished quietly.

Hermione gazed into his shadowy face, searching for an expression in the dark, though all she could see was the outline of his head. Her eyes widened with surprise, and she felt deeply touched by this declaration. True, she didn't love Viktor, but knowing that someone in the world felt this way about her, made her feel special and wanted – two things she hadn't felt since Harry had cooled off her halfway through the summer, excusing himself from her company several times a day, and accepting her kisses with obviously stifled reluctance, while offering no expression of affection towards her. He hadn't explained anything to her or suggested they split up, but their relationship had taken a steep downhill course since their arrival at the Burrow. However, she still felt very strongly towards Harry, however disappointed she was with him, and he was still officially her boyfriend…

"Viktor, I…I'm very flattered," she began awkwardly, lowering her gaze to the book under her arm and fiddling with the pages uncomfortably. "You're very sweet and I really like you a lot, I really do, but…"

"But vot?" Krum demanded sharply.

Hermione looked up, concerned and slightly intimidated by the harshness of his tone. She'd never heard him speak with such an edge to his voice and if his feelings rivaling Harry's was a sensitive subject, she found herself worrying about Viktor turning nasty.

"Well, it's just that…" she muttered, avoiding his eyes again and fumbling with her book, while searching for the right words to soften the blow. "…Harry and I have been, well, seeing each other since the beginning of summer. We're…going out, and he's really my…"

"Potter does not lofe you," Krum grunted dismissively, with a certainty in his voice that made Hermione stare.

"How can you say something like that?" she asked quietly, unsure she wanted to hear the answer.

"Ve talked about it," said Viktor. "Last year, the night ve found Mister Crouch in the Forest. I asked Potter vot he feels for you and he said he could never lofe someone like y - "

"That's not what Harry told me," Hermione said defensively, aware that she had broken one of her basic ten commandments and interrupted someone. "He said you asked what there was between us and he was quite right to tell we were just friends, because that's all we were then -" "He vos lying," Krum snorted. "I asked him if he had ever lofed you and he said "no" very quickly and talked about flying. He doesn't care for you. All he cares about is Qvidditch - "

"Well, maybe that was last year -"

"…and the Veasley girl," Krum finished pointedly, overriding Hermione's protest.

Hermione froze.

"Ginny?"

Over the summer, she had developed an unconscious rivalry with the youngest Weasley, a rivalry she hadn't been fully aware of. She had of course not been entirely oblivious to Harry's drastic change in attitude towards Ginny, and at times found herself feeling that Ginny was competing with her for Harry's feelings, like the two girls were on a scale – the more Harry cared for Ginny, the less he cared for Hermione. She had dismissed these feelings on the grounds of improbability, convincing herself that Harry still loved her and had something big on his mind that temporarily pushed his love for her into second place on his priorities list. However, hearing someone other than herself mentioning the scale-theory out loud made her worry that she hadn't imagined the competition at all, and she raised her eyes searchingly to Viktor's invisible ones.

His black outline tugged at the neck of his robes with one hand, reaching the other hand inside and pulling out a rectangular piece of card, which he handed to her. Hermione held the photograph into the moonlight and what she saw made her stomach squirm painfully into a tightly-squeezed sponge, while her heart sank sickeningly into the black hole that replaced her insides. The photo, with the previous day's date imprinted in the bottom-left-hand corner, showed Harry and Ginny in the empty Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom, engulfed in a kiss a thousand times deeper, more passionate and more loving than anything Harry had ever offered her. The couple were moving of course, wrapping their arms around each other and shifting the grip on each other's lips. Even in the poor light, the love, the intensity and the passion radiated from the teenagers, all proving all too clearly that this was no spontaneous one-off, but a well-practised procedure between Ginny and Harry.

Understandably, Hermione felt crushed.

"I took that photo this morning from behind an Invisibility Cloak," Krum said quietly, his sympathetic tone very very much appreciated by Hermione, who looked up into his eyes and gave a small defeated smile. "I didn't vont to upset you, I just vont you know the truth. I don't vont you dating Potter ven he can hurt you. I thought you should know."

"Thanks, Viktor," Hermione said quietly, smiling at him gratefully and raising a delicate hand to touch his cheek affectionately.

For a few silent moments, she gazed into black face, at the place where his eyes were positioned, although she still couldn't make them out. She found herself wishing he would step into light.

"Come back to Bulgaria vith me," said Krum abruptly.

Convinced the shock of seeing the photo had disengaged her ears somehow, Hermione gave a bemused frown. "Sorry?"

"I am returning to Bulgaria," Krum repeated. "I vont you to come vith me. There is nothing for you here – only betrayal and false friends. You haff no von here. Look at the photograph if you vont proof. Besides, I haff seen the vay other houses treat you. No von here really cares about you. But I do. I lofe you. You are the only girl who has ever liked me for who I am, not because I am famous. I vont you to live vith me. Ve could be happy, living together. I vill make you happy. Vot do you say?"

Hermione just stared in stunned silence, taking in each word slowly as though they were scanned individually before forming a complete sentence. It sounds almost like a marriage proposal, she thought, when she had quite taken in most of what he was saying.

"No von could ever lofe you like I do," Viktor added, in case she needed persuading.

Hermione's immediate thought was Ron.

Viktor cleared his throat and she turned her attention back to his proposition. She knew she couldn't accept it.

"Viktor, I really really appreciate the offer," she said gently. "It's really very sweet of you and I'm extremely grateful, but…I can't come with you, you know I can't."

"Vhy not?" Krum inquired, again, with a slight edge to his voice.

"Well, I've…I've got my family here, I can't leave them," said Hermione, choosing the most rational reason. "How do I explain to my parents that I'm leaving the country with someone they know nothing about?"

"They need never know," replied Krum. "You vill visit them in the summers and during Christmas and Easter and they vill think you are here. They vouldn't know you are in Bulgaria vith me."

"I couldn't lie to them," said Hermione gently. "Besides, there are so many other reasons… I've got school here, and You-Know-Who's return to worry about. How could I sit peacefully in Bulgaria while my friends and family are being constantly terrorized by You-Know-Who? Harry and Ron are still my friends and if anything happened to them…not to mention the rest of the Weasleys or Hagrid…And anyway," she said, softening her tone even more, "I couldn't live with you in the same house, just you and me. I'm fifteen, and you're, what, nineteen? It wouldn't be right. I mean, it wouldn't matter if it weren't for the fact that, well, much as I don't want to say this, I don't love you."

Silence followed, a cold, dangerous silence. Viktor's towering figure was rock-still and though Hermione couldn't see his eyes she could tell he was glaring at her. He didn't seem hurt by her words at all, not did he seem upset or grateful of her honesty. He seemed angry, as though she'd given the wrong answer - dangerously angry, as though her response had clashed with his plan. Hermione suddenly wished her feet would allow her to take a step back. She began to feel intimidated again, even scared…

"I vont you," said Krum coldly, a definite note of menacing in his harsh tone. Hermione closed her eyes and found herself wishing he'd chosen his wording differently. He sounded like he was on the verge of raping her.

"Viktor -" she began helplessly, but next moment was unable to say another word. In one sharp movement, Krum's arms shot forward and seized both her shoulders tightly, pulling her roughly to him, jamming her face into his in a kiss. In a state of total shock, Hermione whimpered as Krum's lips flayed hers furiously. This was no kiss, this was torture – Krum's lip movements were aggressive, violent and lustful – there was not the slightest hint of affection in them. His jawbone was pressed painfully against hers, his grip on her shoulders was so tight, his fingernails were cutting through her robes into her flesh. Whimpering in pain and fright, she tried fighting him off, wriggling to free herself from his agonizing grip, but he slapped her sharply across the face. She knew she was now entirely at his mercy, and waited, trembling, from him to release her.

When eventually, Krum's face left hers, he was standing half in the moonlight. Hermione wished he'd step back into the shadow because the crazed look on his face, and the merciless, lustful gleam in his eyes told her he was nowhere near finished.

"I haff vonted to do this for ages," Krum hissed.

Hermione closed her eyes for a moment, trying to blot him and the library out, while steadying her rapid breathing. In a brief flash of optimism, she hoped he was referring to the lip-torture he had just afflicted upon her, but when she opened her eyes and saw his moon-slashed face, even this tiny wisp of hope was gone.

It took her a moment to realise Krum had released her right shoulder, and as the blood trickled silently down her arm from the deep cuts his fingernails had dug, his left arm traced its way down to her belt. He pressed the brass clip of it with his fingertips and with a click, it fell limp and snaked its way down her legs to the thin dusty carpet, where it lay helplessly around her feet. Hermione looked up from her belt to Krum's face, beginning to quiver with terror as her robes began to sag and slip down her. She clutched them desperately with her hands, trying to cover herself, and whispered, "Please Viktor. It's late I just want to go to bed…"

Krum grabbed a handful of her robes and pulled her roughly to him.

"I think not," he hissed maliciously, his face dangerously close to hers.

"Viktor, please don't do this to me," Hermione pleaded weakly. "I really don't want this…"

Krum whipped out his wand and stabbed the tip between her breasts. "You do vont this. I vill make sure off that…I haff a gift for Unforgivable Curses, you know."

"Help," Hermione whispered, wishing she could scream it. "Please, someone…"

"No von can help you," Krum sneered, beginning to tug her robes down, sliding her bare shoulders into view. "Look at photograph if you vont proof. Potter has betrayed you, the Veasleys haff betrayed you. No von cares about you. No von vonts you. You are mine, Granger…you vill come to Bulgaria and serve my purposes, if you know vot I mean."

Hermione glanced at the photo she'd dropped during the enforced kiss. It was lying in the patch of moonlight next to her Hogwarts belt, Harry and Ginny thoroughly enjoying their photographic kiss. Krum's words rebounded horribly in her head…Potter has betrayed you, the Veasleys haff betrayed you…

She looked up into Krum's merciless face, clutching her robes tightly, fighting to remain modest, although the Gregorovitch-made wand at her chest told her she was completely helpless.

Oh where was her Ron? Ron had never let her down before, he'd always been there for her, Ron loved her, where was he now? He'll come, she told herself, Ron'll save me…

As though reading her thoughts, Krum's eyes flashed in the moonlight.

"Imperio!" he hissed.

A/N Chapter seven? Hmmmm, I dunno, let's see those reviews first!