Hey! So I was strongly disappointed in you all for the lack-of-reveiws for chapter two.
Strongly, strongly disappointed.
Excuse me, I just need a moment... ok.
As I was saying, I thought maybe this was because I didn't give reviewers enough credit. So I would give a big warm thank-you to...(in the order they reviewed)
Padfoot-Dreamer (not because she was first, but she reviewed chapter two so I put her first. Yay Allison!), Shadowed Past, sg360girl, the-love-of-Ron, Lesa, tsk tsk, and LuvHarryPotter712 (I emailed you, by the way!)
Yep. Thanks, you guys! You're the best! You all get gold stars, and if you review chapter three, you get a smiley-face sticker! Woo-hoo! Now on with the chapter!
No, wait, one more very important announcement! Up until now (I'm not sure if it will show up yet in this chapter or not), Ron and Hermione DO NOT REALIZE THEY LIKE EACH OTHER. So if any of you are going to review chapters one and/or two and be like "OMG when so-and-so said blah-blah-blah you made it sooo obvious", don't. It really is just platonic best-friend-love. I swear. It may or may not turn into something more in this chapter, probably not. Actually, almost definitely not. So don't say that for this chapter, either.
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Chapter Three: The Great Escape
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Hermione's now icy breath caught in her throat. It wasn't, it couldn't be...but the voice sounded all too familiar.
She spun around, her eyes searching in the darkness, as shadowy figure about six inches taller than her stepped out from the dark woods.
Hermione grinned as she saw him. "You...you pronounced my name right."
Viktor laughed and rushed toward her, planting a kiss on her cheek.
"I'm so sorry I could not be here sooner, Hermo...Herm...Hermione! You see? I have practiced!"
Hermione laughed, ecstatic and terribly let down at the same time. She hadn't seen Viktor since the summer she spent in Bulgaria after sixth year. But a small, small part of her wished that he was Harry or Ron. But never mind that. If he could be here, when her two best friends in the world couldn't, then very well. She would have to move on.
"How did you get here?" she said, still grinning from ear to ear and clutching the little box.
"Vell, it vas very hard to do. You see, they are expecting the vizards to come by magic! And so, I come by car. But they have the road into the town closed, and so they ask for my identification. I go to hand it to them, but I forget that the picture is moving! Right when I am about to give it to the man, I remember! I yank it back and then, I start to panic. The man, he is screaming at me, asking me vat is going on? I don't know vat to do, and so I drive avay, very very fast, the way I come from."
Hermione was listening with her mouth hanging open. What kind of place was this where I guy couldn't get in without an I.D.? She had to hand it to them for security, but still.
"You...you learned how to drive?"
"Ah, yes, Hermi-o...Hermione! Yes, I did. It vas all part of the reason I could not be here, but the driving, it is harder for me than the broomstick, and so it took me two month to learn. But I learn, and I get here!"
"Oh, Viktor, that's just so..." Romantic? Wonderful? Amazing? "...sweet of you! Oh, I'm so glad that you're here!"
"Yes, I am too, Hermione. But you see, after I am driving avay, I am still much determined to be here! To see you, of course! And so I am driving to the edge of these woods, and I am placing invisibility charm on myself. I am walking through woods for long time, maybe two hours, I am thinking. And there are no guards? No, yes, there are. They are at beginning of woods, but that is all. And so I am making myself invisible, and they, being Muggles, are not detecting magic. And so I come into this town, and I see a person on the street. He is shorter than me, and he has dark hair and eyes? You know him, maybe? He says his name is Paul, and asks for my autograph. I know he is not a Muggle. I say I give it to him if he tell me where Hermione Granger is living. He says okay. And so I come into your house, around six o'clock, and find that the house is empty."
"We were at dinner..." Hermione murmured, still in shock.
"Yes, yes. And so I look around, and find what to be your room. I don't know where to leave my note, where your mother and father will not find it. And so I see a small chest, it is locked. I suppose that only you have the key, and so I decide that this is a good spot."
"But...how did you open it?" Hermione said, still a bit dazed.
Viktor cocked an eyebrow at her. "Alohomora..." he said a bit cautiously, as if she might be sick.
"Oh - duh!" Hermione said as she slapped herself on the forehead, not sure whether she was doing it because she totally forgot about the charm, or because she had just used the word 'duh'. "Sorry...I'm a little out of it..."
Viktor grinned at her. "It is no problem. And so...vell, you know the rest I suppose. I vasn't sure whether you vould get the note, but I say to myself that I wait every day for a veek, and if you not come, than so be it. But you are here! You come on very first day!"
Hermione laughed, hugging him again. Viktor laughed, too, gesturing to the present in her hand.
"Open it!"
"Oh – of course – but I didn't get you any-"
"Open my present for you, Hermi...Hermione!"
"Oh, alright. But not yet. We have to leave, very soon. Now, even. Let me go back to my house, and get a few of my things, and then I'll be right out. We should go as soon as possible. So I'll just –"
"Hermioninn...Hermione, I get you this present special, you open now! Please? And then get things and then ve leave?"
"Oh – of course, very well. I'm sorry, Viktor, I didn't mean to be rude or anything, I was just-"
He yanked the present from her and held it in front of her face, laughing. Sheepishly, Hermione took it and opened the box. It was a tiny book, labeled, Everything You Need to Know about Basic Quidditch. Hermione laughed, remembering how devastated Viktor had been to find that she knew next to nothing about the sport.
"Thank you, I love it! I'll go get my things, wait here!" and with that she raced back to her house, tiptoeing into her room and shutting the creaky door quietly behind her, still holding the book.
Hermione yanked open her closet door, removing the trunk she had used at Hogwarts, which was now quite dusty, and throwing in her clothes and books. Then she reached up into a corner on the top shelf of her closet and pulled out her Hogwarts uniform and cloak. Breathing in their familiar smell, she put them into the trunk as well.
Next, Hermione quickly unlocked her "secret drawer" and spilled the contents into the trunk, along with her quills and parchment and schoolbooks, her letters, and her calendar. Looking around the room a last time, Hermione grabbed her wand and opened the door as silently as possible, feeling even a bit sad to be leaving the now rather familiar room.
Suddenly she thought of something, rushing back into her room and opening the trunk again. Pulling out parchment, a quill, and an inkwell, Hermione smiled at not using a pen. She wrote two letters.
Mum and Dad-
I know that you think that keeping me here is for the best, but I'm afraid it is not. You've been so concerned with keeping me safe that I believe it has blinded you. There is witch blood in me for a reason. And now I must go. As hard as it is for me to be writing this...I can't be here anymore. It's driving me mad. You've taken me away from my friends and everything I've come to know over the last seven years. It really isn't fair anymore. I'll write you as soon as I arrive at my destination, which I don't know yet, and I beg you not to come looking for me.
I love you both very much, and I ask you to let me be the adult that I am. You know I'm independent and that I can handle myself.
Much love, Hermione
Hermione brushed away the tears she was shedding, from both anger and sorrow, and went on to her other piece of parchment.
To Monica, Justin, and Sarah: Continue your computer lessons! And I will write you as soon as I can.
Love from, Hermione.
Placing both letters on her desk, Hermione headed out the creaky wooden door a last time, down the hallway, and out into the snow. Trudging along with her trunk took longer than just walking, but she arrived at the edge of the woods in ten minutes' time. Viktor grinned and carried her trunk into the woods.
"Hold on," Hermione said, pulling out her wand, "Locomotor, trunk," she recited, as the trunk hovered into the air in front of her.
"Alright, Hermio...Hermione. Now we walk very fast, until we get to the road, vere the car is vaiting."
The walk was long and cold, but worth it all the time. After about an hour and a half, they arrived, chilled to the bone, at a rusty little blue car.
"Ta-da! I make it invisible as vell before I leave, the guards are far avay from here, though. You like it? I get it at good price, and I drive it very vell. You see. Now, ve put trunk in back, and ve drive!"
They did just that, for about twenty minutes. The two sat in silence as they drove along the empty road. Hermione doubted at times whether the little car would make it up a few of the hills, but it always pulled through. Around one o'clock, Viktor broke the silence.
"I am so glad you are here, Hermione. I have been thinking about you much."
Hermione smiled, kissing him gently on the cheek. She asked a question that had come to her mind on the walk through the woods.
"Viktor? How did you...er...know where I was?"
"Ah." He smiled knowingly, "I have my ways, Hermee...Hermione." She just shrugged, looking out the window at the passing scenery.
"Have you read my book?" Viktor asked, about ten minutes later.
"Oh! I almost forgot. Some reading would do me good, I think, I don't want to drift off. Accio book!" Hermione said, pulling out her wand, as the trunk behind he unlatched and the book floated towards her.
She flipped through the pages, smiling at the little moving pictures she had missed so much. Chapter one was about the rules and regulations, which she kind of knew, and which bored her greatly. Pretending to be interested, Hermione looked instead at the pictures as she flipped slowly and finally arrived at chapter two, which was about the different teams in the professional leagues.
Hermione looked at these pages with moderate interests, until she opened to a violently orange page.
Hermione's breath caught in her throat as she looked at the Chudley Cannons, all of whom were waving at her enthusiastically from their page, and she was reminded forcefully of Ron. Hermione looked quickly out the window, trying to hide the tears that had surfaced once more. Hermione slammed the book shut and tossed it over her shoulder. She felt Viktor's wondering gaze upon her.
"Oh! I – er – get carsick, when I read. I forgot." Then she went back to looking out the window into the darkness.
Hermione was both sad and angry at the same time. She missed Ron and Harry, so very much, but she was angry at them for not coming to get her. If Viktor Krum could do it, why couldn't her best friends pull through when she needed them? Whenever they had needed help on their homework, she had been there for them. When Ron's sister needed a shoulder to cry on after breaking up with various boyfriends, Hermione had been there every time. But when she needed Ron or Harry, where were they? Nowhere. Seven months, and Viktor comes from Bulgaria.
If there was an explanation for the absence of her so-called best friends, she'd like to hear it, because she doubted it would be a good one.
But who cares? Who really cares?
"I don't." Hermione muttered forcefully to herself. She didn't need them. She didn't need anyone. Viktor was there, and he was bringing her back into the wizarding world, and that was all that mattered. She didn't need Harry or Ron, she didn't need them.
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A/N: AHA! How's THAT for a surprise? Did anyone out there see Viktor coming? Anyone? Muahahaha. Yea, actually, I didn't either. I wrote this entire chapter, believe it or not, with Ron as the one who left the note and everything. But then I got feedback (hardly any feedback, cough cough, but some) with people guessing it was Ron, and even though it was supposed to be obvious, I decided it was a bit too corny. So I surprised everyone, myself included, by rewriting the chapter with Viktor.
DON'T WORRY! THIS IS STILL A RON/HERMIONE STORY!!! Of course. Anyway...
Yea, I know, it was short. Only five pages on Microsoft Word, actually. That's one of my shortest yet. But I felt like if I combined it with another chapter it wouldn't have the same effect, because this chapter was basically created to show that it was Viktor Krum who came, and that's pretty much it. Sorry!
Please review! I'd really appreciate it!