Well, this chapter isn't that long either, but you'll all love it! Love it, like...a lot.(: So read on!
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor do I own the song mentioned. "I can love you like that, I can make you my world..." Oh, don't sue me, its a 1995 song, and it fit the moment!
July Fourth
Part Two
The Tale Weaver, the Amber Necklace, and the English Reporter
The day felt wonderful. Not just because it was sunny, and the charm around Viktor kept him cool, or the fact that the clouds were wispy and soft, or that every color was bright and vivid. No, it was the fact that Leigh Ann's hand was in his, and the beautiful sun dress that covered her body made him very, very happy indeed.
It was five o'clock in the afternoon, and the large park that they were having the Fourth of July Celebration in was already starting to get full. His stomach growled as the smells of cooking meat came to his nose, mixed in with the fresh smell of the clean, cozy park.
Small children were running around, chasing each other, waving small American flags as they tromped through the park. Swing sets in the playground were full to capacity, and so were all of the slides, jungle gyms, and monkey bars.
One small child, with big blue eyes, dimples, and long blonde hair, ran up and tugged on Leigh's skirt with a large smile on her face. "Leigh Ann, Leigh Ann! Look!"
Leigh Ann's eyes softened, and she bent down and picked the girl up, putting her on her hip. Viktor was slightly disappointed to see that her hand left his, but his heart was touched by the way she looked at the little girl. "Oh, it looks like you lost your first tooth! Did the Tooth Fairy give you money?"
"Yup! I gotta dollar!"
"Well isn't that something?" she asked, looking over to Viktor and giving him a wink. "I only got twenty-five cents for my first tooth. Where's your mother at, Caitlyn?"
"Mommy's cooking. I should go help her." The little girl started squirming, wanting to get down. Leigh Ann let her go, and the girl ran off, laughing in happiness.
"Isn't she the cutest thing?" Leigh Ann asked, intertwining her fingers in his once more before she started pulling him along again.
"Booteefool eyes," he said, watching all of the happy children around them. Slowly, a small image formed in his mind—a small boy or girl, with olive skin, thick, black hair, and familiar hazel eyes that shined in laughter.
Leigh Ann sighed, almost as if she had been picturing the same child. "Yeah."
Her white sundress was beautiful in the sunlight, making her eyes very green, almost like yesterday. It was tight around her breasts, tying around the back of her tanned neck and flowing out around her hips and knees. Something else was underneath her dress, but it had thinner straps, and was black, and yet it still wrapped around her neck. She had left her hair down around her hips, though it was slightly curly, which he wasn't used to seeing. All he knew was that she looked beautiful.
He also knew that he had to ask her a question about the conversation she and the child had just had, but he would wait until that look in her eyes went away. "Vhat ees a tooth fairy?"
"Hmm? Oh. Well, it actually was a fairy that went around stealing children's teeth when they fell out. But Muggles made up a story after she died, saying that if you put your lost tooth under your pillow at night, then the Tooth Fairy would take it and leave money."
Ha, what a meaningless story to sooth children. "So, it ees a lie."
"No!" she said quickly, stopping in her white flip-flop tracks. "It's something to make children believe. Weren't there any fairytales that you believed in when you were a child?"
"There vere a few, ven I vas a child."
She pulled him to a halt in front of a small wooden platform, where a soft but medium-beat tune was playing from a four-person band. "Tell me," she said with a small smile, grasping his other hand.
Viktor then, on an impulse, wrapped his arm around her waist, holding the other up so that he could dance with her. "You vould like to hear a fairy-tale, da."
"Yes," she said, her eyes wide.
He started spinning them slowly, not even on beat to the music, but on beat to the fairy tale. "There are many stories about the zmey, or dragon, a coomplex being, coombining eeleements from Thracian, Slavic and Proto Bulgarian mythologies. Eet ees sometimes portrayed as a bad character, but often eet ees seen as kind and has an eempoortant place in Bulgarian myth and folklore. Eet has elemental power and ees coonected vith fertility and sexuality."
"Hmm, really?" she asked as he started to pull them closer, looking at him as if she had never seen anything like him before. "I think I'm starting to like this story."
He smiled at her, holding her close to him. "Each village had eets own guardian zmey to protect the harvest and battle vith the eeveel forces that cause drought and hail. The violence of these battles gave rise to thunderstorms and lightening, coonecting the zmey to the Slavic thoonder god, Perun, and to his Christian successor, St. Ilya.
"Part snake, part bird, part human, zmeys are associated vith both fire and vater. They live in caves, lakes or mountain castools and glow as they fly. They can summon vhirlvinds or become invisible at vill. They are immensely strong, and a human who eats a dragon's heart gains some of that power.
"They are shape shifters and can take on an alluring human form but they can also change into dogs, flower garlands, or even necklaces. Zmeys are predominantly male, but the rare zmeyitsas, the females of the species, can shape shift into bears. Oon the oother hand, humans can become dragons, either through magical means or by taking certain herbs.
"Zmeys ooften fall een love vith humans, who then may grow pale and lovesick. They may ache away, for dragon love can be deadly. The only cure is to take a potion made with herbs such as gentian, tansy and vormvood to repulse the dragon. Zmeys are attracted by music, and have been known to seduce maidens with the beauty of their kaval-playing."
"What's a kaval?"
"A woodeen floot."
"Ah. Do you know how to play?"
He nodded, gently squeezing her waist tenderly. "I vill play for you soomteem. Boot, as I vas saying, sometimes they will trick a vain or arrogant maiden and carry her off."
"You aren't saying that I'm vain or arrogant, are you?" she asked, a twinkle of seduction in her eyes. She was only five inches below him, but she still looked into his eyes and made the point that she was there. "Because you could just be a zmey, who is in the alluring form of a human. Or maybe this is a zmey on my neck?" She touched the small amber necklace, giving him a look that he couldn't place.
"He—no. Olf course you are noot vain, noor arrogant," he said, lifting one hand from her waist to push her hair behind her ear. "And eet could be a zmey, you may neever knoo. Boot I vas noot feeneeshed."
She nodded her head, a slight amount of blush on her cheeks. "Continue, then. I'm entranced."
"Marreeg to a zmey can be a symbol for death. But soometimes humans marry a zmey and give birth to offspring, who look human in every vay except for tiny vings groving under their arms. Twelve maidens are then called in under oath of silence and secrecy to veave a shirt for the child to hide its vings. The dragon child can then safely enter the human world, and no-vone vill ever see his or her true nature except for the pure in heart."
He lifted his hand to put his palm over her heart, wrapping his fingers over her delicate, bare shoulder.
"Zmeys should noot be confused with their evil relatives, the lamia and the hala. These reptilian beasts ooften half three heads and half a different origin to the zmey. In particular, lamias and halas are alvays female vhereas zmeys are moostly male. Also they are related vith drought and hail respectively, threatening the fertility of the land. As such, they are enemies of the zmey."
"Hmm…you weave a wonderful tale, Viktor," she said, her eyes having fogged over and a small smile having formed on her face. "So women are threatening?"
"Oonly the lamias and halas. And soometimes, you."
"Why me?" she asked softly, taking her hand from his and wrapping both around his neck, their bodies already as close as possible. "And why can't you be a zmey?"
"Because, vomen who attract me are dangerous," he said softly, in almost a growl as he wrapped both arms around her tightly. "And I cannoot be a zmey, elsvise you vould be pale and vant foor me."
She smiled softly, leaning her head on his chest as they danced slowly to a song that was many past the one they had first started dancing to, not saying anything. Obviously, she hadn't gotten the fact that he was attracted to her, else wise she would have blushed clear to her feet. This song was slow, with pretty lyrics and a soothing rhythm. Or maybe it was her soft body against his that was soothing, as he held her close. "I can love you like that, I could make you my world, move heaven and earth, if you were my girl. I will give you my heart, be all that you need, show you you're everything that's special to me, if you give me the chance...I could love you like that."
He felt that this song described his infatuation towards Leigh Ann. He could eventually love her. And he would do anything for her. Soon, though, the song was over, and the lead singer apologized that that had been the last song. Leigh Ann pulled away, clapping, and Viktor joined in, though he was upset that her body was gone.
"Come on, big boy," she said, smiling radiantly and taking his hand, "we've got lots to do today before it gets dark. You've got to drink a slushy, eat an elephant ear, and swim at the beach."
"Vhat ees an eeleephoont ear?" he wanted to know, wondering if it would be anything like what he was thinking, or more like the hot dog which hadn't been so bad.
"Don't worry, it's just flower, sugar, and cinnamon, all fried and delicious. If you want to know why I can never loose weight, its because of them."
He gently wrapped one arm around her waist, slowing her rampaging of words and walking. "You need to noot loose veight."
"Well, a little, if I want to keep going to the Academy," she said off-handedly, as if she didn't care. "I'm a little bit more than I was during the school year. I've got to be careful." She giggled to herself. "If I don't watch it, I won't fit into my uniform!"
Viktor was starting to get agitated. "Leahn, leesteen to me—"
"Oooh, look, it's a dunk tank! Come on, lets go!"
"Leahn—!" He pulled her to a stop, twirling her around to face him once more. The children, the couples, and the people were no longer on his mind as he stared into those green eyes, with the soft lining of black eyeliner and the slight bit of mascara outlining her beautiful eyes, and a small amount of maroon shadow above, and a small amount of tan lip-coloring on those plump lips. "Stoop."
"Stop what?" she asked, her eyes alive with excitement. She tried to pull him along again, but he stopped her.
"Stoop saying that you need to loose veight."
Her smile faltered for only a moment before it came right back on, full-force. "Oh, it's just something that I say every so often, you know that I don't really think I need to."
He placed his hands on her flaring hips, using his thumbs to massage her protruding hipbones. "Curves, you half."
Leigh Ann's face instantly filled with color, and she placed her hands gently on his forearms, trying to move his hands away. "V-Viktor, I know I do, but I was just saying—"
"No boots," he said softly, hoping not to scare her away as he explained to her that he liked her the way she was. "Meat on bones ees good."
"Not this much," she insisted, her face incredulous.
Viktor squeezed her hips, her waist, and nodded. "You are perfect, the vay you are."
"B-b-b…" She quickly looked away, her entire face beet red. "W-we need to move out of the middle of the w-walkway. People are staring." Somehow, with a rush of adrenaline, she grabbed his arms and started pulling him along. "I'm so excited that you and your team will get to see the fireworks tonight. I hope that our conversation yesterday really convinced them that you're…" She gave him a wink. "Getting under my skin."
"They are vatching now, I am sure," he said, itching still to finish their conversation. "Ve moost be careful."
"Why do we have to be careful?" she asked, pulling him into the line for what looked like a "slushy." "The necklace, it keeps them away from me, right?"
Viktor wondered how much of last night she had heard and understood. "It…ah, eet means something to Bulgaria, to my village."
"Ah. I see." She gently picked it up with her thin fingers, trying to look at it, but the chain wasn't long enough. "So…amber…is it the stone of your family?" she asked softly, her eyes only meeting his for a second before those mile-long eyelashes batted and looked away.
"…Yes," he said slowly, trying to make her look at him. "Leahn, I—"
"That's so sweet," she said softly, a light blush appearing on those high cheekbones. Sometime that day, he'd wondered why she hadn't worn blush with the rest of her subtle makeup, and now he knew why.
Not that he liked makeup on everyone, but when she did it, it was tasteful and not overdone. He enjoyed her the most whenever she had just woken up, or was just about to go to bed, when she wasn't wearing any. But sometimes, like now, he did enjoy a slight amount of makeup.
"You're worried about me, right?" she asked, absent-mindedly putting money on the counter of the small stand and not even paying attention as the man made two strawberry "slushies." "So this is your way of making sure that no one else messes with me."
"You…are noot…angry," he said softly, hesitantly, as if any moment she would explode in her feminist anger. He'd expected it ten-fold the second she figured it out, but it had just made him feel safer knowing that his stone was around her neck.
If she was taking this well, then perhaps he would be able to tell her that it was infused with a small ward as well, protecting her from small curses and jinxes.
"Of course I'm not angry," she scoffed, snatching up the two slushies and shoving one of them towards him. He barely grasped it before it fell, and almost couldn't keep up with her as she stared walking off again.
"You are upset?" he asked, trying to juggle the slushy and figure out how to drink it, when he saw her take a sip out of the straw from the top. He tried it, to find out that it wasn't so bad. Maybe I should not tell her about the ward.
"You've pretty much branded me as yours, you protective bastard," she scoffed, not even looking back at him as she wove expertly through the crowds, almost gracefully. He, on the other hand, had to apologize profusely to the many people he bumped into. "Again, I've been lost in your whirlwind of kindness. First off, not knowing who you were and trying to guess your name. Second, the necklace, which is seemingly innocent and yet not, maybe to soften me up, but instead to mark me as owned."
"I do noot ovn you," he growled, grasping her arm and turning her around. She stared defiantly up at him, as if telling him to explain, or else. "I just vanted…Levski, the vay he vas looking at you…and the men at the peetch—"
She lifted his slushy to his lips, forcing him to take a drink. "Shut up. I'm peeved, and when I'm peeved, it takes me a few minutes to calm down. No one owns me, and I am my own woman. Get it? Got it?" She didn't even let him answer before she nodded and said, "Good." Leigh Ann then grabbed his arm and pulled him along, towards a large white box that people were standing around. "Now come on."
"Vhat are you going to do?" he asked worriedly, noticing that she didn't move to take off his necklace at all, instead giving him smug looks as she stopped in front of a very large white box. A man was calling out words fast, and he couldn't understand them.
"This man would love to participate!" Leigh Ann called, holding his arm up for him. "And I'd like the first throw."
"Excellent!" the man exclaimed, grabbing Viktor's arm and pulling him up to the white box. Viktor was walked up steps and sat on a small stool over what appeared to be… Water? "Here, Leigh Anna, three throws." Throws? "Aim…"
"For your sake, Viktor," she said with a tiny smile on her face, throwing a small red ball up and down with one hand, "you'd better hope I'm a horrible throw."
Viktor was very confused as he watched Leigh Ann throw the first ball, which missed a small…target. "Leahn, I do noot oonderstand."
"You will in a second," she said, throwing the second one, which hit the target, but nothing happened except that his seat bobbed slightly. "Damn. Alright, here goes nothing!"
Finally, she threw the last ball, which hit directly in the center of the target, which then made his seat fall straight into the cool water of what he believed was probably the "dunk tank."
As soon as he resurfaced, soaked and sputtering, he felt two slim, familiar hands on either side of his face, water being pushed from his short hair and laughter coming from the woman in front of him. He opened his eyes to see that the beautiful, devious woman who had just dunked him was laughing so hard that she was tearing up. "I'm sorry, Viktor, I had to!" she exclaimed happily, settling a kiss on one of his cheekbones. "Now, I feel better. I told you that payback was a bitch."
I'm glad you feel better, Viktor thought as she pulled him out of the water tank and wrapped a fluffy towel around his shoulders. She giggled as she paid the man who'd given her the balls, who then ruffled her hair before she walked back over to Viktor. "I am soory."
Leigh Ann pulled his arm over her shoulder, snuggling up against his wet t-shirted side. "Nah, its fine. I overreacted."
Well, that was something new. He looked down onto her sun-kissed cheek to see that she was smiling. "You doonked me, for oolfer-reoocting?" He wasn't angry, but he was just wondering…what happened when she overreacted far, far worse?
She glanced up at him, and he knew that he'd forgiven her the second she'd kissed him on the cheek. "Yes and no. Part of it was payback for this morning. The other part… Well, you deserved it. No man marks me. Not even with a beautiful necklace."
"You are even more beautiful," he whispered, squeezing her side.
Leigh Ann blushed proudly, gently touching the small oval. "I don't want compliments, Viktor. I want to know that no one thinks that you're using me, or that I'm using you. What does your team think of us?"
"They think that I am using you," he said softly, giving her temple a small peck, "and that you are using me." He couldn't stop his lips as they gently moved down her jaw, and he wondered if her skin had always been so soft. "That ve are using each oother…
She jokingly pushed him away, but not before a slight flash of light blinded them both. Leigh Ann started coughing from a small amount of smoke, and he couldn't see.
"Oh, well, how cute," came a very familiar, very nails-on-a-chalkboard voice. "That'll be a good one for the paper, won't it, Lieutenant?"
Viktor could almost feel Leigh Ann's body heat up in embarrassment as Rita Skeeter walked up to them, her handy-dandy camera man behind her like an obedient pup. "Vhat are you doing here, Vita?" he asked, wrapping Leigh Ann up in the towel and standing in front of her.
"The last I checked, Mr. Krum," she said, gently poking him in the chest with one long red fingernail, "America is a free country. Freedom of the press, and all."
Leigh Ann picked the towel up off of her shoulders, throwing it over Viktor's instead. Her face was slightly betrayed. "Rita, I thought that my aunt got rid of you."
"I'm glad to see that you took my advise to leave your hair down, sweetheart," she said cheekily, patting Leigh Ann's head with one heavy hand. "It does wonders for your square jaw, and those plump little cheeks that I just want to pinch!"
His woman slapped the reporter's hand away before she could even try it. "Hermione and I know your secret, Rita. My mother works for the American Ministry, don't make me—"
"Oh, I know all about your mother, Leigh Ann," the woman scoffed, flipping her much-too-done-up hair. "And I'm sorry to say that I do."
Viktor put a hand on the soon-to-be-enraged Leigh Ann's shoulder. "Vhat do you vant, Mees Skeeter? It is the Foorth olf July, and thees ees a speceel time."
The woman pursed her lips, snapping her fingers to bring her camera man forwards. The man handed her the negative, and then Rita handed it to Leigh Ann. "I'm not supposed to write anything for a year, you know that. I almost forgot when I saw you two together. You might want to be careful while you're out and about…even your aunt needs a scoop every now and then."
Leigh Ann put the negatives gently into her top, and Viktor couldn't help but watch as it slid down. "Come on, Viktor," she growled, tugging on his wet shirt, "we've got places we need to be."
"Remember my warnings, Miss Nelson," Rita called back, her giggling as fake as the makeup on her face. "Your aunt isn't who she seems to be!"
"Ignore her, Leahn," he said softly, holding her hand in his. "Ve need eleephoont ears, da?"
She put on a small smile, but he knew that it was forced. "Yeah...we do."
UGH. You gotta love Rita, but you want to tear her hair from her head at the same time! Here's a look at Part III!
He took her hands in his, gently running his fingers over the small bracelet on her wrist and the rings, both on her ring fingers. "Vhat is vong?"
She sighed, pulling her hands from his. "You. You don't get it, do you?"
"Get vhat?"
"Get the fact that I…that I like you, Viktor."
Viktor Krum, famous Seeker of the Bulgarian National Quidditch Team and Champion of Durmstrang, felt his ego inflating at a rather enlarged rate. He couldn't help but smile from ear to ear. "I thoot that ve already half said thees?" he asked as he cupped her heart-shaped face, pulling her up so that she could see the smile on his face. "I leek you too, Leahn."
She pushed his hand away again, and a look of sadness was in her eyes. "I…I want to know where we stand, Viktor. People have been talking, and—"
"And they are saying that ve are together, da?" he asked softly, his heart beating faster with each passing moment. We're together…
"Are we?"