Previously: "Vere vould you like to sit?" Victor asked, pulling her out of her morose musings. There were two spots open, one between Karkaroff and Dumbledore, and the other between Dumbledore and Percy, who was standing in for Barty Crouch.
Hermione desperately wanted to stay away from Dumbledore, afraid that he would notice something wasn't right about her, but knew there was no chance of sitting next to Percy. Even now, Karkaroff was waving Victor over excitedly. "Oh, wherever you like," she said with a false sense of cheer.
Hermione took a seat next to Dumbledore, letting Victor pull the chair out for her. Dumbledore smiled kindly at her, eyes twinkling. Harry was just far enough away that he was inconvenient to chat with, so her options were Victor or Dumbledore. She was very tempted to ignore Dumbledore and pretend to be fully engaged in conversation with Victor. But no, fourth year Hermione would never ignore the Headmaster. Fourth year Hermione had nothing to hide from him. So summoning up all of her acting prowess, she addressed him very calmly. "Hello, Headmaster Dumbledore, how is your evening going?"
He looked at her, still quite cheerful. "Good evening to you too, Miss Granger. I've had a marvelous evening. Why just an hour ago, I was enjoying a very good cup of hot cocoa. Professor McGonagall always tells me it will rot my teeth, but I seem to be holding up just fine."
She blurted out the first thing that came to her mind. "Oh, my parents are dentists."
"Oh?" He raised a white eyebrow, looking fascinated. "They would probably tell me the same as Professor McGonagall."
Hermione nodded vigorously. "Oh yes, I wasn't allowed to have hot cocoa as a kid."
Victor, who had been sitting in polite bewilderment for the last few moments, finally piped up. "Vat is a dentist? I do not know dis vord."
Karkaroff leaned over as well. "Oh Victor, do not vorry yourself vith dentists. It is muggle." He made a face that was decidedly derogatory when he said 'muggle.'
Dumbledore, who had pretended not to hear him, answered Victor very loudly. "Oh, it is a type of healer, of course. One who specializes in teeth." She suddenly felt very fond of Dumbledore. For so long, she had lived with the memories of The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore, instead of talking to the real thing. She had forgotten what a genuinely kind man he was.
"I think your teeth are beautivul, Hermy-won." Victor replied, also ignoring Karkaroff.
"Thank you Victor," she said, a bit bewildered herself at the turn of the conversation. "Do you like Hogwarts?" She asked, trying to move towards safer waters.
"Oh yes, I find it very vonderful. It is very cold, vere we are. The vinters are harsh, and I haff almost frozen my fingers off vile flying." He said, rubbing his hands together in reminiscence. "But in the summer, ve see all the mountains and it is qvite beautiful."
"Vatch out, Victor. You do not vant to be telling your little friend vere we are located!" Karkaroff gave a booming laugh, and Hermione realized time would be repeating itself. She felt as if she had deja-vu, having experienced this exact conversation as it unfolded. But it wasn't quite deja-vu, was it? She had really lived it before.
She shook the confusing feelings off, just as Dumbledore was finishing a joke about chamber pots. "Ah, pudding. Wonderful stuff!" He said, clapping his hands merrily.
And suddenly, desserts appeared on the plates, no doubt thanks to the efforts of hundreds of house elves. She looked over at Harry, who was surprisingly having a very in-depth conversation with Pavarti and Percy. He didn't seem happy, per say, but he didn't look like he was sitting on his golden egg while it burned his bum, either.
And very quickly, she was getting up to dance with Victor. She caught Harry's eye and gave him a thumbs-up. He grinned back weakly, and actually took Pavarti's hand of his own free will. Considering her job done, she turned towards Victor.
"You are stunning," Victor said. "Vut I cannot help vut notice, you are also very distant. Is something on your mind?"
She shook her head quickly. "I'm sorry, Victor. You must be far more used to being in the spotlight than I am."
"Do not vorry," he said. "You are doing vonderfully."
She smiled, and they danced in silence for a while. His eyes were quite beautiful, when you looked past his dark brows. They were a chocolatey brown, with little flecks of amber around the center. She let herself be lost in them for a moment, listening to the music as it flowed. Soon enough, they were joined by hundreds of other students, and the dance floor required all of their attention to navigate.
Finally, Victor gestured towards the sides of the hall, where students and teachers alike were milling about and sipping punch.
He led her off the dance floor, but instead of going to the drink table, he led her outside among the rosebushes. When he finally found a quiet alcove, he gestured for her to sit down on a bench, then followed and put an arm around her.
What was he doing? He hadn't done this last time. She tried to keep her shoulders from tensing, smiling up at him. He smiled back, but it seemed forced and awkward. What was going on? And then, he was leaning in to her cheek. She thought he would try to kiss her, but he said very quietly, "You reek of dark magic, Hermy-one."
Hermione tensed up in shock. Before doing anything else, she cast a privacy ward around them, both wordlessly and wandlessly. A penetrating look from Victor showed her that he felt that, too.
How the hell was Victor able to pick that up? It took either a dark magic practitioner, or a very aware wizard to notice the stain of dark magic on another person. And only in very close proximity. Well, he got that easily enough when he was dancing with her, so it wasn't that much of a stretch that he would notice residue from dark spells. Krum looked at her very seriously. "Experimenting with these things is not safe, Hermy-ony. Ve are learning more of dark magic at Durmstrang, but under very close supervision, and I do not enjoy it. I do not recommend it to young vitches like yourself."
"Well, Victor, I am a bit of an overachiever." She winced. Would she have to make Victor believe she was a dark witch, just to keep him from looking closer at the situation? She glanced around, looking for anyone else approaching. "Do you think we could talk about this somewhere else?"
"You know just as vell as me, that your ward is private enuff. Ve could scream, and vould never be heard." He gave her a very dark look, and she wondered if that was meant as a threat. Maybe she should take it that way.
Hermione was frozen in her seat. Krum's arm was still around her, but it was more of a vice grip than a loving gesture. "There's a lot going on that you don't know about, Victor. But I can assure you, everything I do is to fight the Dark Arts, not to aid them."
"You haff a funny vay of saying you fight the Dark Arts. Although, you say I do not understand, and dis is true. But I think I vill need to understand."
Hermione shook her head sadly. "I can't, Victor."
"And I can't be vith a dark vitch, Hermy-one. I knew you vere too good to be true." He spat at her.
Her eyes watered dangerously. She needed to be on Krum's good side, it was part of what made Harry's year go the way it did. She didn't want to know what it would change, maybe Harry wouldn't find Crouch in the woods because Victor didn't take him there, and then Barty Crouch Senior might break away from his imperious and compromise his son's position as fake Moody, so she would never get a ticket to the graveyard and kill Voldemort…
And to add insult to injury, Victor was trying to use legilimency on her. A very rudimentary, ineffective legilimency, but the fact that he was doing it at all was worrisome. She was about to slam her shields up, but thought better of it. Why not show him what he was looking for?
Victor thought she was a dark witch, not that she had been hit with a very vicious curse. All she needed to do was show him that she fought against it, not for it.
So with that thought, she let him past her defenses and into her mind.
They were huddled over the gravestone, trying to undo the protections on it, arguing over what to do.
"It's the only way!" she said loudly, desperately.
She grit her teeth, preparing herself for what she knew would be an absolutely terrible experience.
Hermione started slowly, slowly pulling upwards, lifting the curse off of the gravestone.
The dark spell curled up viciously. Hermione's knuckles were white around her wand. And at long last, it became smaller and smaller, gathering at the tip of her wand like a funnel cloud.
The spell tore against the flesh of her stomach, and her yell turned into a scream of unadulterated pain. It burned, a white-hot agony that made her see stars – and with one last ditch effort, she swiped her wand to the left, flinging the curse away from her and into a nearby headstone.
Hermione clutched her stomach, gasping for breath. White hot agony coursed through her.
Victor recoiled with a yell. "Vat vas that?"
"That's why I reek of dark magic, Victor. I'm not a dark witch, I'm desperately trying to fight the dark. Just like you." She nodded at him, noting his attempt to stop her. "Although if I was a dark witch, you would've made a bloody stupid move just then. I could've killed you if I wanted."
Victor shook his head. "I haff a friend looking out vor me, if anything happened I vould have backup."
She snorted. "In the future, don't confront potentially dark witches or wizards without at least two people for backup. And where is this friend, anyway? How did you get him to follow us?"
"Invisibility cloak," he said simply. "And ve use legilemenzy vor communication."
"I've never heard of that." She said imperiously.
Victor eyed her consideringly. "You are a strong vitch, Hermy-one. But you haff much arrogance, as vell. I am still older than you, and had very different schooling."
She wanted to roll her eyes at Victor. He was being extremely aggravating, seeing as Hermione was actually about twenty-four at this point and she definitely knew more than him. Bugger that, she thought to herself. He's the arrogant one, the git, he, he, well… he might have a point. Dammit. Hermione thought back to her actions that night. She hadn't shielded against anyone detecting the dark magic, so focused on ignoring her own injury in favor of looking like a queen. And she was sat between Victor and Dumbledore, who definitely had enough awareness to realize she reeked of dark magic as well.
"You make good points, Victor. I have been arrogant, more so than you'd realize." Her mouth curled in self-disgust. Even after she realized the gravity of the situation, she still hadn't been treating it with proper care. She would have to have to start taking things more seriously, including Victor. "And you have a very different skillset."
She looked up at him, meeting his eyes and probing just the tiniest bit with legilimency – just enough for him to notice she was there. "Will you teach me?"
Victor smiled. "I vill. But I vould like to know how you learned your skills, if your parents are dentists."
"It's a deal. But this is neither the time nor the place. I believe there's a party going on." She glanced out across the garden, where Madam Maxime was walking away in a huff. And finally, she let the privacy ward dissipate.
Victor seemed to get her message, and stood up. "Vould you accompany me inside?"
"I would love to, Victor." She put her hand on his arm, and they started walking back through the gardens. There were still alcoves inhabited by students, but there seemed to be less than last time. The ball was winding down, and she was honestly quite happy to let the night end. It had been a long day.
AN: Thanks for reading and reviewing! What do you guys think of Victor?