Hogwarts Library - 1994
My heart was pounding in my chest. He's going to do it. I could tell by the way he'd steeled himself before walking up to her, and the slightly nervous swagger that his normally brooding gait had taken on before heading in her direction. My heart begins sinking as he walks up to her and clears his throat. I realise that I'm holding my breath in anticipation, and force myself to take a quiet breath so as not to give away my hiding place by doing something incredibly attractive like passing out from lack of oxygen. The pair are partially hidden from view so I can't quite make out what's happening and I'm hidden just far away enough that I can't hear the quiet conversation between them no matter how hard my ears strain trying to catch any tidbits.
An intake of breath. A nervous laugh. A sigh.
Then slow-moving footsteps start making their way towards me, and suddenly, before I can even begin to conceal myself further, he appears from around the corner. He sees me standing frozen in place and tilts his head at me.
"What are you doing, Diggory", his low accented baritone rumbles towards me.
"Oh, nothing just-", I scan the nearest shelf; looking for any feasible excuse for me being in the library. Grabbing the nearest book I stammer, "just uh- looking for a book on bubotubers…"
His eyebrows raise but he doesn't say anything. He just stares at me and my steadily reddening face and his lips quirk. Bubotubers?! Of all the books in the library to pick up, why did it have to be bubotubers?!
"Sounds painful...", he says his dark eyes twinkling with what might almost be considered amusement as he turns to leave.
"Wait!", I say as I realise I have to know the answer to my question. "What did she say?". Any sign of amusement is immediately wiped off of his handsome face as he blushes slightly and looks at the floor.
"She said no."
"What? Really?" I say, trying to keep my incredulity and the sudden burst of hope out of my voice.
"Yes. Really."
"Oh, well that's too bad..," I say lamely as he stares blankly back at me.
Tilting his head in the opposite direction he asks, "How did you know what I was asking."
"Oh, I just had a sneaky suspicion is all…", I say clearing my throat uncomfortably.
With his eyes locked on mine, I realise for the first time how close we are standing to one another and I suddenly find it particularly difficult to breathe. I catch a whiff of his cologne, woody and inviting, and my head spins. He studies me for a few moments and then says, "Who are you taking to the ball?"
Brought rather violently out of my rather embarrassing revelry, I blush viciously and cough once while looking away. His dark eyes suddenly much more difficult to look into. "Um, no one just yet.", I say. My eyes now fixed resolutely on a small spider slowly creeping its way into the dark sanctuary in the shadows of the bookshelves.
"Really? This surprises me. A boy who looks like you, I feel, would have no difficulty in finding a partner to go to the dance with."
My head suddenly darts back to his. He couldn't have. I must have misheard him. I could have sworn that he had just complimented me. A notably obscure compliment, but a compliment nonetheless.
"A boy who looks like me?" I ask. Trying to make sure I did not imagine it. He blushes. A slow heat now creeping up his neck, possibly realising the connotations to what he had just said.
"I mean to say that you are good looking- I mean, you have a nice nose.", he stammered nervously.
The air around me seems to suddenly crackle with intention. "I have a nice nose?"
"Well, as nice as I think a nose can be. Yes." His blush begins to intensify as he shifts uncomfortably from one foot to another, seemingly readying himself to escape from this suddenly bizarre conversation.
"Oh," I say, my head still whirring at the sudden little nugget of hope that suddenly bloomed in my chest.
"Well I should get back to th-"
"No!" I say suddenly. Cutting him off before he could even turn his head. My heart once again starts its percussive boxing match inside my chest. Breathing hard and crossing my fingers behind my back I ask the question I'd been dying to ask since the moment I found out about the Yule ball. The question that I had never even entertained the possibility of actually being able to ask because I had thought that there would never be even the slightest chance of the answer being yes. "Would you like to- to- Would you like to go to the ball with me?"
The silence was deafening. I hold my breath, my fingers now so slightly crossed inside my robes that they were in danger of breaking. His dark eyes staring into my grey ones giving away nothing. A silent conversation happening between us that my racing mind couldn't even begin to start deciphering.
One one-thousand, two one-thousand, three one-thousand. The seconds slowly ticking by while nothing happened. My brain begins to panic. I've made a terrible mistake. God, how could I have been so stupid to think that someone like him could indulge in the idea of taking me to the Yule ball? My heart sinking and my face reddening I brace myself to dash for the exit when…
"Is it allowed?", he asks me in a hoarse whisper. The question catches me off guard as I stare back at him.
"Is it allowed? You- You mean you would want to go to the ball with me?", I reply, dumbfounded.
"That is not what I asked you. I asked if it would be allowed. You know, two champions going to the ball together?"
"Oh, right. I forgot- um, as far as I'm aware there's nothing in the rule book saying that two champions aren't allowed to go to the ball together. I guess they would have assumed that with the competition no one would ever be in this situation." I finish, looking at him now with a completely different mindset. Did Krum seriously want to go to the ball with me?
"Just to clarify you are saying yes right? I'm not reading this wrong?" I say nervously, my anxious brain needing extra assurance that I wasn't going insane.
"Yes, of course, I am wanting to go to the dance with you… I just thought it would be against the rules. It is why I decided to ask that girl who loves to read the books instead of you. She is beautiful, yes, but she also seems intelligent enough that I would be able to have a decent conversation with her without her asking me to sign her arm, or if it is true that I have a giant phoenix tattooed on my back."
"A what?"
"When everybody in Bulgaria knows," he continues, ignoring my interruption, "that it is, in fact, a giant bubotuba."
That brings out a short laugh and I look into those black eyes and realise that that was the first joke I'd ever heard him make. How could he be making a joke already, while my heart still hadn't stopped beating like a Gryffindor left alone with a drum set and too many fizzing whizbees?
"Why do you not say anything?" Viktor asks after what must've been more than a few seconds of me staring dumbfounded at the man before me.
"Oh, just… I can't believe you said yes."
"Why would I say no?"
"Because you're gorgeous." slips out of my mouth says before I can stop it.
I slap a hand over my face and wish the floor would swallow me whole before he replies softly, with a slow smile gently blooming on his handsome face, "Nyamash predstava Kolko si krasiva nali? You have no idea how beautiful you are, do you?"
Thank you for reading my little story! This is one of the many ideas that run through my head while I'm trying to sleep so I thought I'd have a go at actually writing it down. Any constructive feedback is always well received. Thanks again!
- Dev