Chapter 8
Saturday, September 19th, Hermione's birthday
Hermione was awakened to the feel of someone brushing her hair out of her face and a peck on her cheek. She slowly opened her eyes to Victor leaning over smiling.
"Good morning beautiful, happy birthday. Breakfast in bed?" he gestured to a waiting tray.
"Uh, yeah." It was morning after all.
Pushing the covers back, she stumbled to a chair and started her coffee. Ahh, French vanilla. That sweet man!
Patting the chair next to her, she said,
"How long have you been here? Can you stay the whole weekend?"
Taking a seat, he replied, "I've been here about a half hour. And yes, I can stay the weekend."
Her thoughts drifted to the talk she and McGonagall had and she frowned a little bit. She would broach the subject later, first things first however.
"Now that I'm awake, can I have a proper greeting?" she asked naughtily. He obliged and breakfast was put on hold.
Later she was munching on muffins, an omelette, and chocolate covered raspberries.
Victor spoke up, "So, how does it feel to be nineteen?"
She shrugged her shoulders. "Dunno. I feel the same I felt yesterday."
"What's on your mind?" he asked.
"Not much really. Just have some jitters about the match. It's my first, you know. I just want to play well. We should seeing how practice has been," she replied.
"Oh?" he asked. Hermione went on to explain the long brutal paces Ron had been putting the team through.
Although he didn't let on, he really missed quidditch. The Bulgarian team captain had practically begged him to join the team, but life does not always go as planned. When his older brother had been killed in vampire hunting incident, he felt the obligation to take his brother's place. Hermione seemed to be his quidditch outlet. She absorbed flying and quidditch knowledge like a sponge. After he had managed to get her near a broom, there was no stopping her. He looked forward to seeing her in her first match.
"What time is the match?" he asked.
She looked at her clock. She jumped up as if she had been shocked. This caused him to jump up too.
"MERLIN"S ROBE!" she had completely forgot about the time. It was 9:30 and the match started at 10.
"Shit, shit, shit," she muttered as she rummaged through her wardrobe. Clothes were tossed about. "Son of a bitch,where's my gloves," more murmuring.
"Ahhh, such vulgar language to come from such a beautiful mouth" he chuckled.
She tried to contain a smile as she said, "You know you can help me instead of tease me. If I'm late, I'll hear much worse from Ron. I'll just blame you," she quipped.
Together they dressed her in her quidditch kit then jogged to the pitch. Victor went to join the spectators and Hermione went to the locker room to join the team.
Victor scanned the seats, trying to locate the visitor's section that was as close to the Gryffindors as possible. McGonagall noticed this and went to Victor and said,
"Mr. Krum! So glad you could join us today. Here to cheer the team on?"
He grinned. "Yes, a chaser in particular."
Minerva ushered him towards the professor's section. Victor shook hands with most the faculty. He received congratulations about his engagement with Hermione. They started to question him about vampire hunting and Bulgaria when the pitch exploded with applause.
"HERMIONE! I'm glad you could grace us with your presence today!" Ron exclaimed.
"Sorry Ron. I don't know what to say," she said blushing. The rest of the team was snickering. They were used to Ron's antics when he assumed his captain-of-the-team role.
"Well, there's a first time for everything. Okay, now that you are here, any questions?" Ron asked. She shook her head.
"Good! Let' hit the pitch! Game on!" Ron declared.
"By the way, Mione, Happy Birthday," Harry said as they left the locker room.
"Thanks," she replied quietly.
"Nervous? "asked Ginny.
"A little." Hermione said.
"Not to worry. Everyone gets nervous before their first match. You'll do fine," Ginny reassured her, patting her back.
A seventh year Ravenclaw, Melissa Feeley, who was announcing the matches, introduced the teams.
"EVERYONE GIVE A BIG CHEER FOR THE FIRST MATCH OF THE SEASON! LETS GIVE A SHOUT FOR THE HUFFLEPUFF TEAM! PLAYING CHASERS FOR THE STALWART HUFFLEPUFFS ARE…."
Not really listening to the announcer, Hermione went over the plays they had went over in practice.
i Come on, let's just start it already/i
She was startled out of her reverie when "GRYFFINDOR" was heard.
"NOW LETS HEAR IT FOR THE DEFENDING CUP CHAMPS, GRYFFINDOR! PLAYING KEEPER AND TEAM CAPTAIN, RON 'BOSSMAN' WEASLEY. ON THE ATTACK AS BEATERS ARE TYLER 'JELLYBEAN' SMITH AND HENRY 'HORSESHOE' GALLOP. Henry and Tyler frowned at the nicknames. The nickname idea had been Ginny's, so she had secretly passed this on to Melissa, who was only too happy to entertain. AT CHASER ARE GINNY 'RED STREAK' WEASLEY, MATT 'IRONMAN' FOSTER, AND OUR HEAD GIRL HERMIONE 'SOON-TO-BE-KRUM' GRANGER. FINALLY AT SEEKER IS HARRY 'PATRONUS' POTTER. WIZARDS AND WITCHES, ENJOY THE MATCH!"
At the whistle, the match started. It was a nervous few minutes as both teams felt each other out and fumbled with the quaffle. Hufflepuff took charge of the quaffle first. Flying close together very fast towards Ron, the chasers juggled the quaffle amongst each other. Smith and Gallop took up positions in front of and behind the chaser trio, while Hermione, Ginny and Matt tried to stay above and below them. This was the defensive strategy Ron called the Gryffindor Swarm. It worked well, the Hufflepuffs had to watch carefully what they did with the quaffle while Smith and Gallop hit the bludger. At the last second very close to Ron, the Hufflepuff chasers split up. One of the chasers did a reverse pass to another, who attempted a sly underhand pass to a chaser waiting just above Ron. He tried to throw the quaffle just below Ron through the goal, but he caught it in time and tossed it to Foster who tossed ot to a waiting Ginny. Ron admitted to himself that it was a good try.
Seeing as the whole of the Hufflepuff team was at Ron's end, Ginny launched a strong pass across a long stretch of the field to now Foster's waiting hands. Everyone in the stands was on their feet yelling for the teams. The Hufflepuffs tried as best they could to catch up as Hermione, Ginny and Matt raced towards the goal while tossing the quaffle between each other. Hermione tossed the quaffle over her head to Matt, knowing his awesome hook throw.
"Throw it Matt!" Hermione cried.
Matt threw it as hard as he could to the center goal, and the Hufflepuff keepr went that way- but it started gliding to the left at the last second. It went into the left goal just out of reach of his outstretched fingers. The Gryffindor fans went wild!
The game went on in this manner for a solid hour, both teams getting very hot and tired. Hufflepuff scored, then Gryffindor scored. Whe the score was a close 120 to 100, Harry was desperately scanning the pitch for any sign of the snitch. Hermione had done well her first game. She had dodged many bludgers and almost ran into the side of the stadium, twice. She scored a goal with a reverse pass while the Hufflepuff keeper was dodging a bludger. There was suddenly a collective "OOHHH" as Harry and the Hufflepuff seeker were seen racing towards a spot across the pitch. The snitch had been spotted!
"Go Harry go!" Ginny and Hermione yelled.
Wiping the sweat from her eyes, she spotted Victor smiling at her mouthing 'I love you.' Giving a thumbs up, she raced towards Harry's direction as she barely dodged a fast bludger.
Victor winced. His pulse raced.
Oh! That was too close! Little did he know how prophetic that thought was.
Harry and the other seeker chased the snitch around for ten minutes while the others attempted to score. They were side by side for a bit reaching for the snitch, but Harry had a faster broom. The Hufflepuff seeker couldn't help but dodge a bludger tossed his way, and slowed down in the process. Harry stretched out as much as he could and closed his hand around the snitch. The crowd went crazy. They didn't notice Harry grimacing in pain and grabbing his forehead where his scar was.
"Harry? Alright there?" Ron cried.
As Hermione gave a Ginny a high-five, they didn't see the bludger (now cursed, unknown to them) heading towards Hermione's head. Victor jumped to his feet, wand out. Horrified, he saw what was going to happen. It was too late when Ginny saw it at the last second, when she attempted to push Hermione out of the way. It hit Hermione soundly on the head above her left ear. The whole stadium heard the impact and became quiet.
She was knocked unconscious immediately. It knocked her clear off her broom. Ginny screamed. Foster was racing on his broom to catch her. Victor was already below her on the ground casting 'arresto mementum' in a grieved voice. He floated Hermione into his waiting arms as the school faculty came rushing up to them. They gasped at the sight of blood coming from her nose and ears. Her soft brown eyes were open, but fixed and glassy. Victor felt for a pulse; it was barely present. Turning to the faculty, he yelled in a panicked voice,
"Where is your clinic! Hurry!" McGonagall was close to tears as she rushed Victor with a very hurt Hermione to the hospital wing.
Minutes later in the hospital wing, it was a fight to keep Hermione alive. Twice she stopped breathing. It was too dangerous to move her, and Prof. Sprout was quickly dispatched to St. Mungo's to return with healers from there. Madame Pomfrey was casting spells as best she could to keep her heart beating and stop the blood flow from her nose and ears. Victor's heart was breaking as he saw Hermione fighting for her life. When the doctors arrived, Hermione was in the midst a seizure. They immediately started tossing aside her quidditch gear, administerd potions and cast more advanced healing spells. Dumbledore and McGonagall were trying their best to console Victor who never felt more helpless in his life.
Outside, a crowd of students were at the door waiting to hear something, anything about Hermione. When Snape hurried out the door, Harry caught the sight of Hermione in a seizure.
He heard a doctor's voice, "She stopped breathing again, quickly!"
Victor was at her side, bent over her ear, saying through his tears,
"Fight to live, please, My-own-nee."
McGonagall gently led him away from the bedside saying,
"Let the doctors do their work, son. They are the very best at what they do. She's in the best hands."
She was shaking herself. Snape appeared minutes later in the corridor with Hermione's parents who he had ported from their home.
"You need to brace yourself. She's in grave condition," Snape said quietly.
"Excuse me Potter," he said as he and the Grangers hurried through the door. He saw the Grangers gasp then Mrs. Granger was led to a chair being comforted by Mr. Granger. He saw Victor put his head back, look at the ceiling and say softly,
"I can't live without her" as a single tear ran down his cheek. Harry could take no more of the scene as the door shut.