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Ch. 36

Hermione looked around her and sighed happily. The books, empty tables, the quiet and peaceful atmosphere was something she had missed immensely while she was on bed rest. Sure, it was quite in her room, Mitzi had made sure of it. And yes, there were tons of books in her room as well, but there was just something about a library. Especially the library at Hogwarts.

The book-worm beauty sat her book bag down and pulled out her favorite chair at the table. She didn't have a lot of work to make up from while she was on bed rest, thanks to Ginny and Irina.

Irina. Hermione felt like it was all her fault that she was having to get married and have a family. When the Bulgarian princess had gotten her petition, Hermione had tried to get her to move back to France where she could continue on at her dream of design, both in the muggle world and in the magical one. But Irina had stubbornly refused, stating that she had come to Britain to help her make a decision and that she wasn't leaving until Hermione had a ring on her finger and a white dress or robe on, walking down the aisle. When she had persisted, Aphrodite had mailed Hermione a rather terrifying Howler, stating that it was not her fault that Irina had to get married and that she was a big girl who could make her own decisions. Thankfully the Howler was quickly followed by piece of baklava, so Hermione hadn't been too upset.

Shaking her head of the thought of the delicious dessert, the Gryffindor witch looked down at her books and began on a paper that Professor Chaffin had given out. She had asked the class to write a paper on what, in the students opinion, was the three major keys in a happy marriage and to explain why they felt that way.

Hermione made a list of somethings that she thought would be important in a good marriage, coming up with several. She was having trouble narrowing it down to just three though, finding there were really five things, to her that was important in a good marriage.

Love, respect, trust, team work, and passion. She really couldn't narrow it down anymore then that. Those were things that she saw in all of the great relationships that she had the privilege to take a peek into. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley loved each other fiercely, they respected each others opinions, they trusted each other to make important decisions if the other wasn't around. They had team work when dealing with the house hold things and the children. Hermione blushed any time she thought of the passion she heard from their room when they forgot to place a silencing charm around their room, or when Mr. Weasley would come through the kitchen and pinch Mrs. Weasley on the bum.

Hermione sighed, wondering if she could find any of the those things with the men that were interested in her. There were defiantly signs of all of the attributes when she was around all of the young men. She respected all of them, in different ways. And there was passion there, with all of them, sometimes more then she could handle. The other three, Love, trust and team work were yet to be determined. It will come with time, she assured herself.

I already feel love for all four of them, she thought, surprising herself with the thought. But it was true. She did feel love for all of them.

She loved the way that Fred and George were carefree and always working to make her happy and to make her laugh. She loved their work ethic and their ability to make every problem into an adventure.

She always smiled when she thought about Draco and everything that he had to over come to be the man that he was today. She loved the way he would light up the room when he smiled a real smile. And she loved that she could talk to him and he could keep up with the conversation without getting bored or wanting to change the subject.

Viktor, Hermione thought, putting her head in her hands. She still hadn't talked to him since he took her out of Hogwarts to Irina's house. The wonderful TV and DVD's had been a great help in her bed rest, keeping her mind occupied. It was little things like that which had made her fall in love this him all those years before. She loved his thoughtfulness and the way that he really did treat her like a princess. He never let her take herself too seriously, as she often did. And he always took care of her, when she was the one that usually took care of others. She really did still love him.

Setting aside her paper, which was almost finished, Hermione pulled out another piece of parchment and begin writing a letter that she should have written a week before.

Aphrodite loved both of her children equally. All good mother's did. But there was always that one child that you would either need extra attention, or extra guiadence. That child in the Krum household was Viktor.

When the kids were younger, Viktor always needed the extra healing spell or the extra attention on the broom from this father. He always needed the extra push to do well in school, until he had made it onto the Quidditch team. He knew then that if he didn't keep his grades satisfactory, then there would be no Quidditch.

Now, even though he was an adult, he needed his mother's guidance and advice. Now more than ever. He had shown up in her study, distraught and beside himself because he still hadn't received a word from Hermione.

"Dear, you know her. She's got a lot of her plate right now. Hermione will write you when she is ready," Aphrodite assured her son as she stired the sauce that was on the stove. She did her best mothering in the kitchen while she experimented with this ingrediant and that.

"I just thought that she would have written me by now. Irina said that she loved the gift I sent to her. So did Mitzi," Viktor told her, stealing one of the mushrooms off of the cutting board, earning a swat with a spoon from his mother.

"Oi!" he exclaimed, rubbing the back of his hand.

"You know better then to still things off of this cutting board that I have cut up," she stated, adding the mushrooms and onions to the pot. She knew how to cook just fine with magic, but Aphrodite enjoyed the manual task of cooking. It always had a better taste to it, in her opinion.

"And of course she loved the gift that you sent her. You have amazing taste. But gifts and kind words are not going to win your witch back. Her heart was broken by you, Dear, no matter how much you don't want to remember."

Viktor sighed, laying his head down in his hands. He knew that his mother was right, as she often was. She just hoped that Hermione would give him a chance to prove that breaking up with her had been one of the biggest mistakes of his life. If she did, he would spend everyday making up for all the time that they had lost and he would never again make her sad.

As the mother and son sat pondering what had been said, there was a light tapping at the window. Viktor got up from the stool he had sat on and walked over to open the window. The beautiful owl flew in and landed on the counter where Viktor had been sitting.

"It's for you, Dear," his mother informed him, turning back to her sauce that was on the stove.

The Quidditch star untied the parchment from the owls talons quickly, curious as to who would be owling him. The messenger looked at the wizard questioningly and then pecked his hand twice, then looked up at the him as if to convey a message. The bird then bowed to Aphrodite and flew back out the window, not waiting for a reply.

"That hurt," Viktor stated, looking down to where the little bird had pecked him as he opened the parchment.

"Whose it from?" his mother wondered.

Viktor grinned when he saw the hand writing. He knew that writing anywhere. He had several letters hidden in a special trunk in his room back in London.

"It's from my princess," he stated happily, walking over to the table in the corner of the kitchen for a little more privacy.

Dear Viktor,

I hope this letter finds you well and that Austen did not chose to peck you. He does that to people that he doesn't know and to people that he thinks might hurt me. He is very protective. Its something that he learned from Harry and Ron, I suppose.

I am sorry that it took me so long to write to you. With being on bed rest and then trying to get back into my normal routine, it was difficult to get anything done. Know that just because you didn't hear from me, does not mean that I didn't think about you, or anything that you have said. I thought about it a lot.

You were my first love, Viktor. I'm not sure if you knew that , but its true. You were the first boy that ever saw me as a girl, not just an answer to a question on your homework. You showed me what it was like to be taken care of, to be cherished. I had never felt like that before I met you.

I was so in love with you. I remember day dreaming about the day that I would be a professor at either a muggle university or here at Hogwarts and you would own your a Quidditch team or be a coach of a professional team. No one would ever think that I would do something like plan the names of our unborn children, but I did. I would sit, with the curtain closed around my bed, and doodle their names. (If you tell any one this, I will deny it. I'm sure that no one would believe you. Even now, there aren't many that think that I could act like a normal girl.)

I was devastated when you broke things off with me. I understood that you wanted to focus on your career; your work ethic is one of the things that I love about you. I just wish that I wouldn't have fallen as hard for you as I did. Or that you would have been as in love with me as I was with you. I know that Irina says that you've never stopped loving me, but sometimes I wonder if she's just saying that because she wants me to be her sister. I really don't know.

With all of that being said, I have made a decision. I will consider your petition, as I am with Draco and George. I expect to be getting a true petition from Fred soon and I will be considering that one as well. I want you to know this before you get excited and think that it is a sure thing. That way if you decide to back out, you can. I want to be totally honest with you.

I hope to hear from you soon.

Your Princess,

Hermione

Viktor let out a breath that he didn't know that he had been holding. He was so lucky to have Hermione say that she would consider his petition. That means that I can begin to try and make up for the things that I have done, he thought.

"I didn't know that she thought of baby names," Aphrodite stated excitedly, causing her son to jump. He didn't know that she had been reading the letter over his shoulder.

"Mum, she really doesn't want anyone to know that," he scolded his mother, taking the parchment, folding it and putting it in his pocket.

"I'm not going to tell a soul," she promised happily, dancing back to the stove. She was extremely pleased with the letter that Hermione had written her son. The bright witch had given him a proper tongue lashing, letting him know exactly what he had done to her. But she had also laid her heart out on the line again.

"I know that, but I doubt she wanted you to know."

"I won't tell her that I know either," Aphrodite said, pouring her finished sauce over the meat. "I'm just glad that she's going to consider you petition.

"I am as well," Viktor grinned, walking over and kissing his mothers cheek. He turned to head over to the fireplace to go back to his home in London to prepare a letter to send back to his princess.

"Oh and son?" his mother called to him before he called out his apartment.

"Yes, Mum?"

"Don't you dare turn this chance into a pile of rubbish."

Howdy! I'm proud of myself! :) I hope you liked this chapter. I thought it was far for Viktor to have a little bit of attention. :) What would you like to see next? Please review and let me know what you think. Reviews really do help me write. Happy Reading.