Chapter 8: About Those Pictures
Hermione awoke at six the next morning just as she always did, or rather she awoke at six o'clock, London time. In Bulgaria it was eight o'clock. Ron was sacked out on his back, snoring loudly. Hermione rolled her eyes and went to take a shower.
He was still asleep when she came back into the room. She dressed quietly and left him a note that she'd gone downstairs to get something to eat. She was starving. With the exception of a couple of bites of finger food right after the funeral, she hadn't eaten since breakfast the previous morning. As she walked into the hotel dining room she was surprised to see Viktor sitting at a table by himself perusing a menu. She struggled with herself for a moment. On the one hand, a big part of her really wanted to finish the conversation they'd started at the World Cup before Ron interrupted them. On the other hand, she wondered if it wasn't a better policy at this point, to let sleeping dogs lie. She shrugged her shoulders and started walking toward his table. Who was she kidding? She'd never let sleeping dogs lie in her life.
"Viktor," she said pleasantly as she approached his table. "I'm surprised to see you up so early after last night's escapades."
Viktor looked up at her. "You know me, I'm an early riser regardless of how I spent the night before. Would you like to join me?" He indicated the chair opposite him.
Hermione sat down and turned her coffee cup over. A large coffee pot came soaring toward her and filled it. "Where's Gabrielle this morning?"
"She likes to sleep in." He held up his own cup to be filled. Picking up his plate, he spoke his order. A moment later cheese and bread and yoghurt appeared on his plate.
Hermione followed suit and the same traditional Bulgarian breakfast appeared for her. They ate for a moment in silence before Hermione cleared her throat. "Since we have a moment alone, I need to ask you something."
He tore off a piece of bread. "About the pictures?"
Hermione sighed. "About the negatives actually. I searched through all the boxes that came from your flat and didn't see them."
"Because I burned them, years ago." He smeared some white cheese on the bread.
"Then why didn't you burn the pictures too?"
"Todor asked me not to."
Hermione blinked at him, her mouth agape. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. "They were dangerous to all of us. You would risk that? Over what, a personalized porn show?"
Viktor glared at her. "You know me better than that."
"I thought I did," Hermione said, glaring back.
He sighed. "What happened in Amsterdam helped him to stop doing drugs and he got Pietra to come back to him. He asked me to keep the pictures, so that if he ever slipped again, I could show him, so he could never forget what it did to us, most especially to Marianna and Boyka."
"And did you?" Hermione asked.
"What?"
"Ever have to show them to him?"
Viktor nodded. "Yes. Heroin is a very hard habit to leave behind."
Hermione closed her eyes. "Heroin is hard to leave behind even when it's not a habit."
Viktor shrugged. "I wouldn't know."
Hermione glared at him. She hated how sanctimonious he could be sometimes. "Right, I forgot you never do anything wrong."
He frowned at her. "I did plenty wrong that week. I think we both know that."
"But you didn't smoke heroin." She pushed at her yoghurt with a spoon.
"I would have stopped you, but I wasn't there at the time or do you not remember?"
"I remember plenty."
Viktor shook his head. "I have never been as angry at Todor as I was then. I got the pictures and the negatives. What more do you want from me?"
Hermione sighed. She didn't want to argue about this anymore. "Nothing, it's over. The pictures are gone."
"Yes," Viktor said sadly. "And so is Todor, and everyone else that was there, except you and me. That is weird, no?"
"It's very weird. It's like it happened to someone else. Like I wasn't really there, like it was a dream, a nightmare."
Viktor nodded. "I know what you mean. Right now, it's hard to imagine I was ever that man."
Hermione sipped her coffee and they both sat silent for a while. She finished her yoghurt and then waved to a house elf. When he came over she asked him if he could bring her a cup of coffee to take up to her room for Ron.
"That's a good idea," Viktor said, and asked the elf for one for Gabrielle. Two extra cups appeared on the table.
"You two seem happy," Hermione commented as they took the coffees and started back toward their rooms.
"Yes. But she is probably too young for me."
Hermione shrugged. "She's a grown woman." They reached the bottom of the stairs. "Why don't you let her decide that?"
Viktor laughed softly. "Yes, I think I will." He looked at her. "I also think it will be a long time before I see you again."
Hermione nodded. "I think that's probably true."
He reached out and hugged her and kissed her cheek. "You saved me," he whispered.
She stepped back and squeezed his hand. "You saved me first." She noticed that the hotel apothecary was just down the hall. "I'm going this way," she said.
They smiled sadly at each other, and she watched Viktor walk up the stairs for a moment, before going to see if the apothecary had any hangover potion.