My Happy Ending

Humour/Romance -PG - fairytale story - ship: Hermione/Krum
Canon based - the things we missed - short chapters

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or any of the characters or plots - all property of the wonderful JK Rowling.

Chapter 3 - The Walk

Whatever Hermione Granger had been expecting - it certainly wasn't this. She was very rarely lost for words, but this was one of those times - she had the feeling her mouth was opening and closing but could hear nothing. Viktor Krum looked at her nervously; she could see something in his eyes that gave her the impression he wanted to run far, far away.

"I…" Hermione choked out, "I'd like to."

Of course the answer was yes - the answer was always going to be yes, but she had had some difficulty in saying it. Krum's - Viktor's face lit up and he beamed at her, it was amazing the difference this made to his usual grumpy looking expression. Though she couldn't help wondering if she'd heard wrongly, or if she'd dreamed it…Hermione didn't often dream things like that, she usually had to pay attention in classes because otherwise noone would - and that was the prime time for dreaming. She wondered worriedly if he had been joking, but if he had it was an awfully convincing joke. She hoped that this was not the case and her face wasn't expressing the worry she suddenly felt in her head. On the contrary, she had never seen a person look happier than Viktor was currently looking.

"Are you OK?" he asked quickly. Hermione rearranged her facial features - she couldn't believe this.

"Yes, I'm fine," said Hermione, suddenly rather hot - she couldn't honestly be blushing? "Would you like to go outside? I was just going to go and get some breakfast, actually, but it's really quite hot in here…"

She was babbling. She couldn't babble! Not to Viktor Krum! But this was all unbelievable, she wondered if she should grab that book and hit herself hard on the head to make sure she wasn't dreaming…or maybe just pinch herself - like a normal person. She did so. It hurt.

This was real.

Viktor Krum, the famous Quidditch player and Durmstrang champion was grinning almost stupidly at her. This had to be unreal.

"Yeah," he replied. He seemed very caught up in looking at her as though he could not believe she'd said yes. Hermione was struck by an idea.

"Have you seen much of Hogwarts yet?" she asked Viktor, who shook his head, "I could show you around, the grounds are very nice too. You could see the Quidditch pitch if you'd like!"

She expected he would like to see the Quidditch pitch, after all, it was a game he loved.

"That's very thoughtful of you," he replied, "forgiff me for asking, but vot is your name?"

"Oh," said Hermione with a start, realising that she hadn't really introduced herself, "I'm Hermione, Hermione Granger."

"Hermy-Own?" he said. Hermione nodded without trying to correct him. People often had trouble saying her name - but that was nothing compared to the way some people tried to spell it sometimes. She remembered when she was five and she'd been invited to a muggle friend's birthday party, the invitation had been addressed to 'Hermyunee.' She smiled at the memory. It was still funny now.

"It's a bit of a mouthful, I know," said Hermione casually as they left the library together. Viktor had helped her pack the insanely huge library book into her schoolbag before they had set off in the direction of the entrance hall to walk around the grounds. "My parents are dentists - they thought it would be a great idea to name their daughter something tricky to say properly."

Hermione looked up at him. He was a bit more than a head taller than she was and seemed to be listening intently.

"Do you haff any brothers and sisters?" he asked.

"No," replied Hermione, "I've always wanted a sister, though. How about you?"

She had never before met someone so genuinely interested in her. Hermione was very happy to tell him about the times when she was younger and all the strange magical things she had done, without knowing she was a witch. Hermione had expected that Viktor, after all he came from Durmstrang, to be slightly put out when he found out she was muggle-born, but he wasn't. He found this very interesting. He told her back at Durmstrang nearly nobody was muggle-born, he told her of how he hated it there - everybody and their prejudices against muggles. He said that even though he had only been a Hogwarts a few weeks, he knew he definitely preferred it. Viktor's home life was surprisingly intriguing to Hermione, too. He was the only one out of his whole family to show talent flying, and he was picked for his house team about the same time Harry had been. He was pureblood, as she had guessed, and he talked about his brother and sister with fondness. Viktor was very modest, and Hermione liked him for it.

"I saw you at the Quidditch World Cup," said Hermione, remembering the dive but quite unsure of what it was actually called. They were walking beside the lake now. She had talked about the Giant Squid and Viktor had laughed, saying there was much worse back home in Bulgaria. She'd pointed to Hagrid's hut and said that Hagrid was the Care of Magical creatures teacher and a good friend and she'd gestured over to the forbidden forest and mentioned the time she herself had been in there. Now, however, Hermione found herself talking about the Quidditch World Cup. "You were very good, my friend Ron bought a toy figurine of you, actually. Then after we got home the first thing my friend Harry wanted to do was try out that wonky faint, he's the seeker for our school house, you know."

Hermione waited for him to tell her the proper name for the wonky faint - but he didn't mention it.

"He's a very good flier," said Viktor, "I vas vatching the first task." He smiled and she smiled back. It was very chilly outside, Hermione wished she had brought a cloak with her. Viktor, it seemed, could not feel the cold.

"We should head back, it's nearly lunchtime and I have a load of homework to hand in for Monday," said Hermione apologetically, "it's very cold out today, it's a shame you couldn't come in the nice weather."

Hermione wondered what she was talking about briefly when she said the words 'nice weather'; there was rarely nice weather in Britain.

To her surprise, Viktor removed his cloak and put it around her. The bright red robes he was wearing underneath illuminated his face in the cold, misty air. Hetook hold ofboth her hands to warm them up slightly. Hermione could not remember someone going to all this trouble for her for a long time now. She really did like his company, and when Viktor let go of one of her hands, she would not let him let go of her other hand. Hermione blushed as he looked at her surprisedly but didn't say anything about it.

"Are you sure you're all right without your cloak?" Hermione asked worriedly as they continued walking back. Hogwarts was back within vision range now.

Viktor shrugged. "It's much varmer here than it is around Durmstrang," he replied, soothing Hermione's worries.

They walked back past the lake without saying another word, yet Hermione felt warm and happy inside holding Viktor's hand. It was hard to believe that he was a celebrity now. He seemed just like any ordinary person, he was modest, he was kind, he was thoughtful, he laughed at her very bad attempts at jokes and listened when she talked about her life. He had been so nice to her. Hermione remembered him telling her how he'd seen her around Hogwarts and located her in the library for a lot of the time, that he'd been dying to ask her to the Yule Ball since the first time he saw her. If Hermione had been reading this all in a romance novel - she would have scoffed and thrown the book aside. Before now she'd never believed something as wonderful as this could have happened. She remembered him saying that he couldn't work up the courage to ask her, and that had been when he'd asked for the book. Viktor had said, grinning, that he'd been intending to ask her but ran out of bravery when he got there. Hermione had teased him jokingly about how she wondered why he was taking an interest in the enslavement of magical creatures. Viktor was, there was no other phrase to describe it, like a prince from a fairy tale.

Finally, they reached the Durmstrang ship and Viktor turned to Hermione, who reluctantly let go of his hand and smiled happily.

"Thank you, Hermy-Own," he said. Hermione removed the cloak that was wrapped around her and made to give it to him.

"It's Hermione," she said, still smiling.

"Hermy-Own?" he said confusedly.

"Don't worry, there's still time to learn," replied Hermione, she did not mind him saying her name wrong at all that much, "and thank you for the lovely time, Viktor. I'm really looking forward to the Yule Ball now."

He looked at her but did not take his cloak back.

"You take it," he said, "it's still a vay to Hogvarts. I'll see you soon."

Hermione looked up at him. He had dark brown eyes similar to her own; she put the cloak back on.

"Thank you, again," she said, "I'll see you here at Christmas, then."

"Yes, goodbye, Hermy-Own."

"Goodbye, Viktor."

She walked back to Hogwarts and back up into her dormitory without pausing to think exactly how she managed to get there, Viktor Krum's cloak draped around her.

Thank you everybody for the positive reviews. I hope you're enjoying reading this as much as I'm enjoying writing it. As always, reviews are helpful.