Chapter Nine

For the first time in the years since she lived across the corridor from Pasha, Hermione was nervous to enter his flat. Never before had there been any reason. Almost immediately after he moved in, they grew close enough friends to wander in and out of each other's flats on a regular basis. Adding in George's just a few flats down, the three of them had become very good friends.

As she stepped inside Pasha's home still holding the photograph of his father Igor holding him as a small boy, she worried she might be sick. Of course there was no way to keep a secret for very long. That was the problem with secrets. They always had a nasty way of coming out at the worst possible times. Ever the gracious host, Pasha asked her if she wanted something to drink once she was seated on the edge of his sofa. Fearing that she might be unable to swallow, she politely shook her head. Neither of them exchanged another word until her friend sat down next to her. At least it seemed like he wasn't disgusted by her enough to move across the room.

"I owe you an apology, Hermione."

Utterly gobsmacked by his statement, all she could do was turn towards him with wide, confused eyes. What could he possibly have to apologize to her about? She had been living with his dead father in her flat for days and never told him, not even after she learned the truth. If there was someone in that room that needed to trip over themselves with a dozen different apologies, she had that honor. When he didn't immediately explain why he felt that way, she quietly cleared her throat and mustered up enough courage to ask the uncomfortable question.

"I'm not sure what you think you have to apologize to me for, Pasha. Why would you say that?"

"Because you've been a wonderful friend to me and I never once told you the truth about my father."

Already the conversation wasn't going anything like she anticipated when he announced they needed to talk outside the flat. She'd expected him to immediately start screaming at her for keeping the return of his dead father from him. The calm, resigned way he spoke wasn't exactly out of character for the man, but it wasn't what she thought would happen.

"Have you ever hated someone as much as you admired them and wished they would love you?"

She had to think about it before she concluded that she really hadn't. It sounded terrible. Was that what it was like being the secret son of the stern Headmaster who seemed to only find fault in everything he did? All of the times he mentioned Igor in the past had been in moments of frustration or anger. There was a lot between the two men that needed to be cleared up if they were ever hoping to have any sort of relationship again. Of course as soon as she thought that thought, she chastised herself. It wasn't any of her business what they chose to do. Despite being the reason Igor was there and not in the paradise he much preferred to exist in, he wasn't really her concern. The sooner she got him out of her life, the better.

"I could never make my father proud of me. All I ever seemed to do was embarrass him. I never told you or George that my father was Igor Karkaroff."

If he hadn't pushed the photograph in her hand, she might have tried to pretend like his revelation was a shock. They were past that. Somehow Pasha had figured it all out already. She didn't know if she should be relieved or terrified. Maybe both. Remembering that she was supposed to be shocked by the revelation her friend just made, she tried to pretend that she was.

"I had no idea. That's… wow, Pasha."

The wizard laughed softly but there was no joy behind the sound.

"We are friends, yes?"

She nodded. Of course they were. How could he even ask that?

"Then there is no need to lie. You know already."

There was nothing else she could do but sigh. Any further denial would just be an outright lie and she didn't feel comfortable telling any more of those. Not when he truly had been such a good friend to her.

"Yes, I figured it out."

"It's strange to see him so young again."

Pasha was very calm. Too calm for a man who just discovered his father who had been dead for fourteen years was miraculously back from the dead. What was he hiding? Hermione didn't feel any sense of peace about anything. His behavior was odd. Shouldn't he be more alarmed or curious about his dead father being alive and in his younger body? It was weird.

"Pasha, I don't understand. How are you so calm about this?"

He leaned closer to tap the photograph right where Igor's ugly gold ring was prominent.

"My father always wore that ring. I can't remember seeing him not wearing it. As a small boy I found it interesting. My papa used to tell me that it would one day be mine, but I had to be very careful with it because it had very strong magic."

"Yes, it does."

"You read the back of it out loud?"

"Yes, I did."

"Why?"

Even as the conversation progressed he remained perfectly calm, acting as if what was happening was all very normal. How was he not freaking out? She was freaking out and it wasn't her father. In an effort to be calm like him, she shrugged her shoulders.

"I don't really know why. I felt, well, honestly, I felt compelled to read it. Even knowing it was a terrible idea, it was almost like I didn't have a will of my own."

Pasha's smile was the last straw. She couldn't take it anymore.

"How are you so calm?"

"Because my great-grandmother told me this could happen if the ring was ever found again. As much as I could sometimes hate my father, I loved him too. I've been hoping his ring would be found for a long time. I never expected you would find it."

Nothing he said cleared up any of her concerns or worries or answered the myriad of questions swirling around her overactive brain. Hermione couldn't remember the last time in her life when she had been so terribly confused. Likely she never had been before. With so many questions she wanted to ask, she wasn't even sure where to start.

"Did you know who he was when you saw him yesterday?"

Pasha shook his head with a sad smile.

"No, I didn't. I have lunch with my great-grandmother every Saturday I can make it. She will only live a short time more so I try to go every week."

"Your great-grandmother? Do you mean Igor's..?"

"Yes, his grandmother is still alive. She was the one to help me get a job here at the embassy. She has many friends."

Hermione remembered how Igor said he wanted to stay in that country instead of returning to Russia with his ex-wife because his mother's family was powerful and had a lot of influence. There was more she wanted to know about the mysterious family. Who were they? Did she know any of the other members? Ignorance was never a state she cared to be in. If she could learn more, she felt it a responsibility to do so.

"I told my great-grandmother at lunch that I met a man named Igor who looked like my father when he was young. I just thought it strange coincidence, but Grandmother asked if he was wearing his gold ring. I didn't notice if he did. I stared at his face, not his hands. She said it was very important that I find out if he had the ring. I remembered how she once told me about how powerful it was, but I never believed her."

"What did she say about it?"

"It sounded crazy. I thought it all legend. When my father's body was found, she was very upset to learn his ring had been stolen. She promised my great-grandfather that she would never tell him what the ring could do, but when it was lost, she told me. She never promised her husband she wouldn't tell me. I wasn't born when he died."

His smile quickly turned into a heavy sigh. As reluctant as he seemed to continue telling her more of the story, Hermione knew she had to push him for more information. Her curiosity would be the death of her some day, she was certain. It nearly killed her more than once already.

"What can the ring do? Beyond bringing horribly obnoxious wizards back from the dead against their will?"

Pasha's smile grew a little brighter. Clearly she amused him.

"Opens doors she says should always remain locked. She never told me more than that. I don't know what doors she means. Maybe she was worried the ring would be found some day and I would be curious."

"I would be."

"Yes, I think I would be too. She said that my great-grandfather told her to give the ring immediately to my father after he died, that she wasn't supposed to read the back of the ring because he had already lived a nice, long life and didn't want to be brought back."

"She knew it would be bring back the dead?"

He nodded.

"But only sometimes. It only works if…"

The abrupt stop he made in the middle of his sentence frustrated her further. When he could no longer look in her eyes, she grew nervous. What was so terrible that he couldn't speak it out loud? Yet again she wished she had never gone down into that damned cellar. Nothing but trouble ever came out of Borgin and Burkes. Because Pasha knew her well enough to know she wouldn't drop the subject just because he was uncomfortable, he cleared his throat before continuing his explanation.

"It only works between soulmates."

He spoke in a whisper, as if that would somehow soften the blow of the ridiculous statement. Stunned into silence, it took a minute for the full impact of his words to hit her. A loud, booming laugh practically exploded out of her mouth.

What an absolutely insane idea! First of all, she was certain that soulmates didn't exist. That was a fantasy from cheesy romance novels or sappy movies. No one took those seriously because it just wasn't real. But secondly, even if they did exist, there was no possible way that she and Igor were soulmates. Didn't soulmates have to at the very least like each other?

"Your great-grandmother must be mistaken, Pasha. I'm sure she's a lovely woman, but she must also be very, very old. There's absolutely no possible way your horrible father is my soulmate. Just absolutely… no, not possible. Not in a million lifetimes."

The wizard smiled, but he didn't immediately jump to arguing.

"Yes, probably all legend, but…"

"But what?"

"But you were the one who found it. George said you felt a strange compulsion to read the incantation almost against your will."

Usually she tried to resist the urge to roll her eyes. It was a habit she knew she needed to break. Hearing that her two neighbors had been discussing her unique predicament behind her back was a good enough reason to show her displeasure with a simple eye roll. Of course the two of them talked about what happened when she wasn't in the room. Some days she feared more of that was happening than she ever realized.

Why George was so calm that morning was explained. And why he seemed so convinced she was going to soon fall madly in love with the horrible man. Pasha must have shared his insane theory about them being soulmates. It would soften the blow to his ego, she supposed. If the woman he was in love with was fated to be with another man, it made it easier to not take her rejection personally.

Hermione couldn't believe she was even daring to entertain such a mad theory. It was impossible. She refused to believe that her fate, her destiny, her whatever it was could be tied with Igor's. Soulmates weren't real. Nothing anyone said to her would convince her otherwise.

"Yes, and the ring called out to me in the basement of Borgin and Burkes. It means the ring has powerful magic, not that I'm Igor's soulmate."

Pasha smiled again, clearly not believing her. It was maddening to consider the possibility that nothing she said would change his mind. Was he already planning a wedding between his father and close friend? That would be even weirder than calmly accepting his father was back from the dead. How could he be so calm about that? Wanting to get away from even just the thought of there being some sort of indescribable pull to the wizard she couldn't stand, she had to change the topic of conversation. How much would Pasha appreciate being the center of discussion?

"What are you planning to do now that your father is alive again?"

It was a simple question with a complicated answer. All evidence that he had been enjoying their talk disappeared from his face. Seeing him look as serious as she felt helped to calm some of Hermione's nerves. She never liked to feel as if she was the butt of someone's joke. Pasha sighed again.

"I have second chance with him. Maybe we can be better than we were before."

He chuckled, but every part of it was sad. Theirs had not been a good history. Despite her lingering frustration and mild anger towards the kind man, she felt some sympathy. She wasn't the only person who was profoundly affected by the ring being discovered. What other horrors awaited them all before it was all said and done? The possibilities were terrifying.

"I don't think we could be worse. When he was alive… I know I was great disappointment to him. I would like to think that maybe he would be proud to have me as his son now."

Some wounds from childhood never fully healed. Perhaps Igor truly did care about his son as he insisted he did when they spoke about the higher standards he held Pasha too, but he obviously hadn't done a very good job about showing his child how much he cared. It could not have been easy to have Igor as a father, especially when he was an awkward student at Durmstrang. The impossible standards and his feeling like he could never quite measure up had to have been painful. Every child just wanted their parents to be pleased with them, to love them, to like them. Constantly being compared to Viktor Krum and coming up short must've been torture.

She reached across the sofa to place her hand on top of his. Pasha really was a remarkable man. If nothing else positive was brought about by her meddling with the damned ring, she hoped that at least Igor would finally come to understand how fortunate he was to have the son he did. There was no one in her life half as kind as the quiet man nor so willing to drop everything to help when he was needed. Perhaps he would never be an internationally famous Quidditch star, but there was so much about him she admired. Igor would see it too if he just gave Pasha half a chance. The past was done and finished. None of them could go back to change any of it. The ring's magic gave the father and son a chance to improve their future. A little bit of aggravation in her own life was worth it if her friend could finally feel like his father was proud of him.

"If you want to improve your relationship with your father, Pasha…"

Before she lost her courage, Hermione stood up. She tugged on his hand to pull him up to his feet. They were wasting time just sitting there talking about the ridiculous notion of soulmates and doors that should remain locked when there was a very real problem just across the corridor in need of a solution.

"Then you should talk to him."

There was a great deal of reluctance in Pasha to cross his flat to the front door. Already she could see some of the similarities between the two wizards whether they were aware of it or not. Despite knowing that Igor wouldn't be pleased that she was sabotaging his plan to avoid his son as much as possible, she all but dragged Pasha to her flat.

Once she stepped inside her home Hermione could immediately hear movement in the kitchen. The wizard's self-exile to the guest bedroom appeared to be over for the time being. She forced herself to take a deep, calming breath before reaching for the kitchen door.

It was evident at first glance that the obnoxious wizard was in a mood. If she didn't have Pasha standing just a few steps behind her, she would've been tempted to close the door again and run far away. Dealing with his petulance was never going to get easier. She must have made a noise opening the door without realizing it. As soon as Igor turned and saw her standing in the doorway, he sighed.

"These ghastly appliances of yours are hardly adequate for a caveman. I've cooked over open campfires that were more luxurious than this room you dare to call a kitchen."

Would she ever get to the point where she didn't want to curse him every time he opened his mouth? It hardly seemed likely. Instead of uttering a snarky comeback or kicking him out of her flat entirely, she restrained her frustrations. One of them had to be the adult.

"There is someone here who would like to speak with you, Igor."

Sensing Pasha was nervous about entering the room and approaching his father, Hermione took his hand in hers again to pull him inside. The very moment he entered the kitchen Igor's deep blue eyes widened.

"Privet, Papa."

The pot Igor held slipped out of his hand to land on the floor with a loud crash.