It had been hard at first, even though his English was fairly good. It was his accent more which confused things, and her accent as well which made him have to think for a while. He didn't know every single word he needed either, and sometimes his sentences would half be in his own native tongue, and the other half in slanted English. But it didn't matter, they could understand each other perfectly well most of the time, despite their mixed languages.
It didn't matter how he said her name either, in fact she kinda liked it like that. It made her smile to see someone try so hard to please her and be correct that she just loved the way he said it. It was completely different from Harry and Ron who did the bare minimum for her and then expected her to do all the rest for them, talking about their homework of course. Viktor tried for her, he went out of his way to try and make her happy! And he actually thought things through before he started. He had waited weeks before he even got the courage up to speak to her, and he had even written down what he wanted to say when he asked her to the Ball in perfect english, researching a few words and their pronunciations before he jumped in.

It made Hermione feel wanted. Cherished, almost, that he would go through so much trouble, just for her. No one else did that for her...Harry most of the time thought things through before he opened his mouth, but Ron...eugh! He didn't even know he had said the wrong thing even days after he had said it! He was clueless, he really was, not like Viktor.
Nothing like Viktor...

Hermione was going to take Bulgarian language lessons over the holidays, since they were going to stay in contact of course. She might even go and visit him, he had already offered. Since he always made such an effort for her to make things easier, she would now be able to do the same for her without feeling lame or like a 'try hard', an expression Pansy had oh so politely taught her. She didn't have to feel bad about herself at all when she was around Viktor, he even helped her with her homework. While everyone else wanted to play outside in the snow or sunlight he was more than happy to sit with her in the cosy library while she did her homework and essays, and even helped her improve them and make them better! Around Ron and Harry, she could just do hers and they would always be of a standard above theirs (and the classes) so it didn't matter. However, Viktor gently pointed out things she could improve on, or different angles to attack and assignment with.

She loved him, even though their communication was slightly messy. Despite the miced languages, she loved him.