A/N: To answer some of your questions, Ron is (as I said before) on an extended vacation with his family in Romania; Krum (for my story purposes) has not graduated. He is in the same year as Harry and Hermione- Sixth year.

A/N: Also, as Zealous said, this is now solely my (Jenalla) story. Now, on with the chapter!

Hermione felt her mind go numb as she sat there in a state of absolute amazement.

"This can't be happening," she thought. "I must be dreaming. This must be a dream!" She gave herself a quick pinch on the arm, hoping she would feel nothing at all. But to her dismay, she wasn't dreaming. It was really happening. Krum was indeed joining Hogwart's.

She looked around at the other students, who were all on their feet clapping loudly and cheering, and then at Harry, who was looking at her with concern.

"Hey, you okay?" he asked gently. She nodded, but her eyes told a different story. They were filled with sadness, and a little bit of worry. He didn't want to press the issue anymore, so he let it drop for now. But he was concerned. Hermione never let anything phase her. What the devil could Krum have done that was so horrible to make her act like this?

The rest of the welcoming ceremony went by in a blur to Hermione, and afterwards, she couldn't have told anyone a single thing that Professor Dumbledore had said. She was in such complete shock that she was no longer aware of her surroundings. Harry had to guide Hermione back to their common area, and sit her down on the couch in front of the fire. She had a dazed look on her face, like she was there but at the same time lost in space. He knew she was thinking about Krum; he could just tell. He turned to face her, so he ended up sitting cross-legged on the cushion next to her. She took a deep breath and, still looking into the fire, she began to tell her story, her voice flat, with no emotion. Harry knew better to interrupt, and besides, his curiosity was piqued.

"Last summer, Krum invited me to come up to his summer house for a couple weeks. I accepted his invitation, and flew out to Marseilles, where the house was. We met at the airport, and he drove me back to his house, pointing out different landmarks along the way. When we got there, I got to meet his parents, who were incredibly nice to me. They were the picture of perfect parents, the kind every kid wishes they could have. They were sincere, always told you the truth, and were cool at the same time. They let us go wherever we wanted, as long as we told them beforehand. So we pretty much had a free reign, and took full advantage of it. One day, we spent an entire day in the city. First, he gave me the grand tour, and then we had lunch in a cute little pastry shop. It was like that of a movie. After, he took me shopping, and I got some new clothes. Another day, we took his parent's yacht out on this lake his house sat on. We sailed out to the middle, and then dropped anchor and had a picnic, and we went swimming, and just sat out in the sun. It all started off so well, that it blinded me of the little signs that things weren't quite as good as they seemed."

She paused to take several deep breaths, and then continued. "Like this one night, we went to one of those teen clubs, and were having the best time, dancing and hanging out. We met up with some of his friends, and their girlfriends. I met this one girl, Rachel, and hit it off right away. So were on the floor, dancing away, and I turned to talk to Rachel but Viktor grabbed my jaw and turned my head back to him, saying that I shouldn't be talking to other people while I was dancing with him. I shrugged it off, telling myself that it was my fault because I was the one that had looked away. But then other things started happening. Just little things that I brushed off, never paying any attention to; like how he became more and more clingy, wanting to be with me every second of the day. But, like I said, I just ignored them, figuring that he just didn't want any other guys approaching me. After all, France is known for its cute boys."

"However, he was becoming almost obsessive around me. At first it was flattering that he wanted to spend all his time with me, but after a while, it became tiring. I could barely convince him to let me go to the bathroom on my own, and even then, he insisted on waiting right outside the door. He even wanted to sleep in my bed, but I kind of figured where that would go so I refused. And he did back down on that, but it didn't do much good. He had to be with me everywhere, no matter what. I tried to shake him off, saying I had reading I needed to do for school, but he would join me with his own 'reading'."

"He slowly began to lose his temper more and more easily, flying off the handle at the simplest of things. He yelled at me once for asking a guy on the street (that I had never seen before) what time it was. He accused me of flirting with the guy, and said that I didn't love him and that I never had. Of course, at the time, I still loved him, or so I though, so I told him that none of that was true. I told him that I loved so much, and I had never lied to him, and I would never cheat on him. And it was true. At least, part of it was."

"But things started spiraling out of control. I just assumed that they would get better, but they never did. He kept making excuses as to why he behaved that way: he was having problems with his father, his schoolwork hadn't been as good as expected, he was feeling a lot of pressure from his parents to do well, he had to do all his summer work still, etc. etc. I felt bad, so I offered to help him, and then proceeded to do almost every bit of that work. And did I ever hear even so much as a thank-you? No, of course not. But I didn't think it really mattered, because I thought that maybe since I had helped him work through one of his problems, things would start to get better, to go back to the way they used to be. But instead, they got worse still. I figured maybe something else had happened, but when I tried to talk to him, he brushed me off angrily, saying he was fine and that "I wish you would stop sticking your nose where it doesn't belong.""

"He became even more controlling after that. He started telling me what to wear, and pretty much picked out my outfits for me. I didn't want to start another argument, so I just wore whatever he told me to. I figured if I listened, maybe he would stop, but instead, it just gave him more leverage over me. He started ordering for me in restaurants, restaurants that he got to pick out, and we had to go where he wanted to go. But I didn't know what to do, so I just went along with it. I even tried to tell myself he was being sweet, that he didn't want anyone to be able to take advantage of me. But I knew what was happening. He was slowly taking over my life. I knew I needed to end the relationship, but I couldn't figure out how to do it without it turning into another one of his jealous rages. When I tried to tell him it was over, he would have started screaming at me about me being with another guy, how I never loved him, blah blah blah. And that was something I could have definitely done without. But I couldn't really think of anything else to do, so I decided to take the risk, thinking that if it got Viktor out of my life, then it was all worth it."

"So one night, I went into his room and told him we needed to talk. He immediately became suspicious, but I decided to go ahead and tell him anyway. After I told him that we should see other people, he started yelling, just as I figured he would. I tried to explain to him that no, I hadn't been seeing another guy, and that I had loved him, but that I just felt it was the right time to end things, but he wouldn't listen to me. He just kept ranting on and on about how he knew this and that, and after a bit, I got so frustrated that I started yelling back at him. And that was when he hit me."

A/N: Sorry to keep you hanging guys! More to come soon, I promise!!