A/N - Usual statement regarding rights holders to HP etc. Much reworked from the first version because annoyingly I thought of a way to give me more options moving forward. Given the furor the first version created, I kind of hate myself for changing it though. The ornery side of me really wanted to keep it as was, but if I'm being honest, this opens up more opportunities for the story moving forward.

Chapter 8 - I swear to [insert deity of choice]...

It was Harry's turn to look at Hermione with consternation. "What kind of problem? What's going on?"

Hermione took a moment to gather her thoughts before recounting her morning.

The sound of a throat being cleared had distracted her. She looked up, ready to grouch at whoever had caused this break in her concentration to find herself looking at the severe form of Viktor Krum, Bulgarian quidditch star, seventh year Durmstrang student and tri-wizard champion.

"Zdraveĭte. Miss Hermeeown Grencher, yes? I am Krum. It is said you are best in year, da? I also."

Hermione's eyebrows rose, wondering what this was all about. She'd seen Krum in the library a few times and wrote that off as being worth knowing. Every time he was there, indeed every time she'd seen him throughout the school there seemed to be a coterie of hangers-on surrounding him. His mangling of her name caused a brief flush of annoyance (as it always did) but remembering that English was for him at best a second language, she let it slide.

"Erm, well, I'm not sure I'd go that far, but thank you, I take my studies seriously."

Krum nodded. "Is good. There is ball, da? I wish you to come with me."

The young witch was stunned. Why on earth would Viktor Krum, on the occasion of the first time they ever spoke, ask her to the Yule Ball. Hey eyebrows furrowed in thought and several seconds passed before she realised that the Bulgarian was waiting for a response.

"Erm, well, uhhhh." Not the most articulate response so far Granger, she thought. "Right. Ok, well, thank you b…" She didn't get any further.

"Otlichno" The Bulgarian cut her off before she could finish the sentence. "We make powerful statement with this." In her confusion Hermione couldn't miss the slight darkening of the older wizard's eyes.

"Wait, what? No, Mr Krum I think you mis…" She was cut off again.

"I wait for you at entrance to great hall on ball night. Everyone see then who the power is in tournament!" He was already turning around as Hermione tried to interrupt.

"But wait, I didn't…"

"Dovizhdane, Miss Grencher. Until then." Krum's voice was loud enough to start attracting attention in the library as he strode off, leaving behind an utterly confused Hermione Granger.

Harry sat there with a carefully schooled look on his face. His friend glanced up at him before returning her gaze to the table. She was still trying herself to work out how she managed to make Krum think that she would go with him when she had clearly (in her mind) not said that she would. The last thing she wanted was for Harry to think that she had agreed.

"So, you absolutely didn't say 'yes'?" Harry asked tentatively.

"Of course I didn't say yes, you prat. I've been waiting on you asking me for the last week!" Harry at least had the good grace to look abashed at this. "Honestly, I was this close to just asking you myself. Part of me did for half a second think about saying yes just to teach you a lesson for making me wait so long to be asked!" Hermione's tone belied the threat in the words. "When he asked I was trying to think of a polite way of saying no, I realised I hadn't responded so I was going to say 'ok, thank you but as nice as it is for you to ask, I must refuse' or something along those lines. I never got that far before Krum cut me off."

Harry's eyes took on the slightly far away look that Hermione had come to associate with him thinking something through. "I think I understand."

"Understand what?"

"Ok. First off, I'm obviously delighted you didn't say yes and that you were going to say no, and I'm sorry I didn't just ask you when I found out. I fell into my usual habit of overthinking things, wondering if you would actually want to go with me, then thought that I needed to make some kind of grand effort when I asked to show you how much it would mean to me to go with you and I…" He stopped, aware that he was rambling again. What was it about this girl that made him this way. "Anyway, I'd actually seen Krum in the library a few times, but never really thought much of it, it's a school, he's a visiting student, why wouldn't he be. Anyway, it makes sense on any number of levels for him to want to ask you."

"How do you mean?" Hermione could help a small blush.

"Well, regardless of anything else, he's right that you are top of the year, hell, damn near top of the school. You are a powerful witch, I can see that in every class we take together, it's not just your awesome brain, you have the chops to back it up." Hermione's blush grew at the praise. "So from that viewpoint, yeah, power seeks power, so I understand Krum being interested. Of course there's you know, also the fact that, you are, well, you know… Erm… Yeah. You know…"

"I know what, Harry? You've said 'you know' three times in the one sentence, but I'm not sure what I'm meant to know."

This time it was Harry's turn to flush. "Well, you know…" He heard the exasperated sigh at his fourth iteration of 'you know' and decided to just wizard up and compliment the girl. "There's the fact that you are, well, very pretty." The last two words were almost whispered as Harry found himself utterly intrigued by a non-existent mark on the library desk. He eventually looked up to see Hermione stare at him with wide eyes which contained hints of tears.

'Shit!" he thought. "Hermione, I'm really sorry if I've upset or offended you I didn't mean to I promi…" He was cut off by a couple of very soft, very dainty fingers pressing against his mouth as she shook her head, her hair flying with the movement.

"I'm far from offended or upset Harry, I'm just surprised. Other than my parents no one has ever called me pretty before." Her voice was soft, an expression of wonder and surprise could be clearly made out. She looked up at Harry, brown eyes meeting green and she smiled. It was a smile which lifted the last vestige of worry from Harry's heart and he found himself automatically smiling in return.

"I'm kind of glad I'm the first" he started, nerves still clear in his voice "but annoyed too. You should be told you are pretty, because, well… you know… You are."

Hermione couldn't help a tear fall as she looked at the still nervous young man whose eyes had somehow remained focussed on her own. "Thank you" she whispered out, before taking a second to compose herself. She'd just been called pretty by the boy who had gone out of his way to befriend her from the first chance he had after walking into the castle. The boy who had been challenging her in classes and helping her where he could. The boy she was slowly but inexorably developing a crush on. This was turning out to be something or a red letter day for Hermione. "So before you turn me into a blubbering mess, what other reasons do you think Krum has?"

"He must have seen that we are close. Erm, I mean that we are good friends. He's been something of a shadow since the first task. I think I surprised a few people there, when really it was mostly luck and instinct, but anyway. I know he has been developing his own network in the school, mostly Slytherins but he has not been above using his quidditch fame to recruit sycophants in other Houses. I know for a fact that Ron Weasley and Roger Davies have been part of his entourage at times. From that he will have known that I was dumb as a box of rocks and hadn't asked you yet. I think he saw that as a chance to try and get one over on me. He will have known that you would be my first, and being honest, only, choice, so add the chance to piss me off to everything I said before, and yeah… Makes absolute sense." Harry's musing was causing him to think out loud. "So yeah, smart, powerful, beautiful and close to me, I can't help but think there's something I'm missing though."

Hermione was also thinking, or was trying to. Harry calling her 'beautiful' once again caused her thoughts to become rapidly derailed. She shot a look at him and saw that he was still thinking things out. She revelled in the feeling that her words had introduced however briefly. 'Get it together again' she thought. 'You can think about this later' Out loud she said "what do you think you are missing?"

Harry shrugged. "I'm not sure. Come on, we need to speak to my dad."

The two teens made their way toward the suite in relative silence. Harry running ideas through his mind, trying to work on figuring out what Krum's game was whilst at the same time revelling in the thought that ultimately, Hermione had said that she wanted to go to the ball with him. For her part, the witch in question was having similar thoughts, interspersed with the phrase 'he said I was beautiful' beating a mantra into her mind.

Before long they reached the door and slipped inside where fortunately, James was found at the desk, flicking through some parchment. He looked up at his son and the young witch who was more often than not to be found at his side and smiled. The smile wasn't to get much of a chance to linger though.

"We have a problem." Harry's words made James sit up and a solemn look replaced the grin.

"Go on…"

The two, led by Hermione, recounted the conversation they had just concluded in the library, Hermione giving the story of her ambush by Krum with Harry throwing in his thoughts, although when it came to the part about his opinions on Hermone's attractiveness, the words flew out at such a pace as to be almost unintelligible.

Almost.

James briefly allowed himself an internal yelp of exaltation. He knew that for all of Harry's abilities, intellectual and magical, socially he was somewhat awkward, an unfortunate consequence of the way he had to grow up. He had seen the nascent connection with his son and Hermione almost from the start but had made a conscious decision not to say anything. For all that he was an inveterate prankster at heart, he loved his son and knew that making any kind of comment would cause Harry to shoot back into the shell he so often wore around himself.

James and Lily knew that Harry was an enigma. Put him in a challenging position and he would rise to the occasion like he was born to do it. At 14 he could hold his own against much older people in a duel - yes against adults he'd lose more often than he'd win but he never lost the same way twice. If he duelled you and lost, you better be damn sure you had more tricks up your sleeve for any rematch. That was the positive side of Harry Hellfire, and had never been more obvious than the night they were forced to make their return to the magical world in Britain. Harry had owned it, yet the following day when he was placed in social situations, no looming danger, no sense of injustice fuelling him, Harry was the same shy, awkward kid he'd always been. It was like there were two competing personalities sharing the same body.

Snapping himself out of his thoughts, James turned to the issue at hand. "I can't say I disagree with your thoughts Harry. I've been doing my own research since we got here, looking at the other champions, I knew more about Beauxbatons than Durmstrang, although I wasn't entirely ignorant of them, and I've been looking into the backgrounds of Diggory, Delacour and Krum, so let's start there."

James walked over to the other table and pulled out some parchment. "Firstly, what do you know about the Boyars?"

Hermione answered first. "Not much, other than they were essentially the aristocracy in Eastern European countries during the late middle ages, but they seemed to die out."

James nodded. "The Boyars were indeed the nobility in countries like old Wallachia, Moldova, Russia and of course Bulgaria. Muggle history says that the Boyar class rose to prominence around the 10th century, and had all but disappeared by the 17th, with the rise of the tzars. What it doesn't tell you is why."

James motioned for them both to sit down. He noticed his son give Hermione a look with a raised eyebrow. The young witch nodded and Harry gathered some spare parchment and a self-inking quill, somehow knowing that the girl would want to take notes. He stifled another grin and continued.

"The Boyars came to power in the dark ages, before the strict separation of magical and non-magical society. Boyars rose to power because they were magical. It might help to think of them as the precursors to the pureblood bigots in the UK. Anyway, if you think of some of the most famous Boyars - voivode rulers like Vlad Dracul and Vlad Tepes - names which even non magical society remembers, albeit for all the wrong reasons, you can see where the power came from. Many of the ruling families of what was Eastern Europe at the time were of Boyar stock. The Dracul, Hunyadi, Ferenczy, the Ruriks, who are said to be one of the founders of Durmstrang, all magical. Over the centuries, as non magical technology advanced, muggles were able to start to mitigate against the magic of the Boyars, developing weapons which could be fired at a longer range than a spell, being one example. The most powerful muggles in Eastern Europe became the Tzars starting with the Ivanovs and Vasilyevs led the Great War of Separation against the Boyars. By the 17th century the Boyars had faded from non magical society but remained at the top of the pile in the magical world after The Separation. The Separation is even more obvious in that world than it is in ours. Not well taught in Britain is the differences between muggle geopolitics and magical in Europe. Look at a non-magical map of Europe and you will see Romania, Hungary, Moldova, Russia and the like. Look at a magical one and you will still see Wallachia, Muscovy Rus, Kievan Rus, Galicia amongst others. "

Hermione stopped her writing to ask a question. "So should I presume that the Krum family is of Boyar stock?"

James nodded. "Not the top of the pile within the top of the pile any more, but yes, the House of Krum is firmly ensconced within the ranks of the Bulgar nobility. Their star has very much fallen in the last couple of centuries though, a series of scandals, bad investments, lost honour all that thestral shite."

James took a second to look through some parchments. "The name Krum originates from Krum the Fearsome, he was the Khan of Bulgaria for about ten years at the start of the 9th century. The name itself means 'governor prince' and during his reign the Bulgar borders were massively expanded. The Krum dynasty however only lasted around 200 years. The later Krums called themselves knyaz, or king until the last couple of Krum line rulers started flirting with tzaric titles. This didn't go down well with others, and the Krums found themselves challenged for the throne. The ruling side of the dynasty came to an end when Boris II Krum was killed and after his death was succeeded by Roman Krum, who was essentially a squib, but as the title was strictly patrilinear and Roman was the second son of Peter Krum, the title fell to him over the third son Plenimir of whom almost nothing is known. With the Krums flirting with tsarist ideas, and Roman being a squib in all but name, when the challenge came from the Cometopuli dynasty at the turn of the millennium, Krum had nothing and the line was supplanted. The remaining Krums departed to the Pecheneg Khanate in the area which eventually became Wallachia until the Cometopuli dynasty tore itself apart. They returned to Bulgaria still aristocratic, but no longer the ruling elite. The name still held sway at the time, but over the centuries, its influence has been much eroded."

James stopped for a drink, suddenly aware how long he'd been speaking for. "Krum sees this tournament, I'd imagine, as a chance to rebuild the family name, building on his quidditch career which has restored some honour to the name, but only to a limited degree."

James could see that Hermione was confused by this. "Think of it this way, presume there was a branch of the monarchy which was considered to be a bit of an embarrassment these days." Hermione didn't have to think too hard to see where James was going. "Now imagine that the scion of that branch had some talent at football, correct me if I'm wrong, generally considered to be working class, or at least an everyman's game, yes?" A nod was the response. "Right, so this scion of the branch becomes a professional footballer. It would raise their standing, certainly, sports stars are popular no matter which side of the magic/muggle divide you are, but would it raise the profile of the family name?"

"Probably not, the player would be lauded, but it would be considered a quirky side-note that they came from an aristocratic background."

James smiled as he nodded. "Same with Krum. You don't have to be particularly powerful magically to play quidditch, nor do you have to excel academically, you just need physical strength, stamina, coordination and occasionally balls of steel! That's not to say that Krum isn't powerful or intelligent, everything suggests that he is, and whilst as I said, you don't need to be powerful to play quidditch, if you are it helps. It's why Harry is such a good seeker, he has more raw power than most, his magic helps him with the snitch." Hermione looked over at her friend who was blushing under his father's praise. In an attempt to deflect away from that, Harry joined in the conversation at this point.

"So you think Krum really was making a power play. He's hoping to use Hermione to send a signal that the Krum name has been able to attract a powerful and smart witch as part of a, I dunno, rebranding or rebuilding exercise? That's pretty cynical. I asked Hermione because she's awesome and bea… erm… you know, I would never have thought about whether or not it was making some kind of statement."

Hermione beamed at that. "And that's why I said yes. I want to go with someone I will actually enjoy myself with, I can't imagine I'd enjoy the ball anywhere near as much if I went with anyone else."

It was Harry's turn to smile as did James, watching the semi-shy interplay between his son and the young woman who seemed more often than not to be in his company.

It was the elder Potter who spoke next. "The other thing to remember is the patriarchal society prevalent in the Bulgarian aristocracy. Had the tournament been in Bulgaria, or Moldova, Romania, any of those types of place, someone of Krum's status wouldn't even have asked. You would have been told that you were going to the ball with him and that would have been it. I think, or at least I want to think, that background accounts for part of his behaviour. He modified his norm enough to almost fit in with what is acceptable to our society, but not enough to consider that anyone he asked might say no."

Harry was keen to move things forward. "So what do we do now?"

James shrugged. "There are two options, both of which are entirely up to Hermione. Option 1 - she accepts the 'invitation' from Krum and attends the ball with him." James noted the look on both teenagers' faces. "Or not! Option 2 - we request a meeting with Krum, Hermione, probably Minnie as her Head of House, I'd presume Karkaroff will want to stick his hook nose in, having one headmaster there will no doubt leave Dumbledore sticking his hook nose in. There's no getting away from it, option 2 is going to be high profile."

Hermione nodded and looked at Harry. "Will you be with me?"

Harry's eyes met Hermione's as he nodded back. "100 percent. But you don't have to put yourself through that. I know how much I prefer to avoid that kind of thing unless I really have to, I'd never want you to subject yourself to…"

He was cut off by those soft fingers again. "I need to do this Harry, not just because I want to go to the ball with you, but because if I don't men like Krum will keep getting away with stuff like this."

James nodded at the witch who kept on impressing him. "You want me to go speak to Minnie?"

The nod was all he needed.

- oOoOoOo -

James thought he was part seer. Minerva's office was soon filled with witches, wizards, headmasters and it was clear that it was becoming cramped, so they all trouped to the nearest empty classroom.

Karkaroff thought he would try and control proceedings. "Why haf we been drag here?" he grouched.

James, Lily and Harry all took up a position around Hermione who, despite her earlier bravado and determination, found herself shaking a little at being the centre of attention. She cast a nervous eye over to Harry and seeing the look of utter determination on his face, took strength and solace from it and steeled herself.

She had spent some time in the afternoon with Lily after the older witch had been brought up to speed with the situation by the other three. They had gone over how best to handle this situation.

Hermione squared her shoulders and held her head up, looking at a typically glowering Krum. "Mr Krum, when you spoke to me in the library earlier, you did not allow me to finish speaking before making a presumption as to what I was going to say. I wish to correct your misunderstanding before the situation becomes worse."

Krum knew what she was talking about but was determined to make his play regardless. "No matter. I ask, you say OK. My English is not best, but I know OK is yes."

"No. OK does not mean yes." Hermione was itching to be utterly accurate and say that there were instances where OK could mean yes and instances where OK could be used as an exclamatory interjection and that the latter was how she intended for her use of OK to be interpreted, but had been told in no uncertain terms by both Lily and James to keep it simple. "Had you allowed me to finish, my statement would have been 'ok, thank you for the invitation, but I must decline'" Hermione took another deep breath. "So that there can be no misunderstanding, Mr Krum, I did not agree to accompany you to the ball, and would like to confirm that as much as I appreciate you asking, I do refuse. I do not wish to go to the ball with you."

Krum was furious. "This is INSULT!" He looked at the Potters, his sour eyes coming to rest on the youngest of them. "This.. pishka Potter. He has made you do this to embarrass Krum. This will not stand." Krum took a menacing step toward Hermione who instinctively flinched. Harry Hellfire decided it was time to make an appearance and stepped forward to make sure he was between the Bulgarian and Hermione.

"I did not make Hermione do anything" he spat. "If you want to talk about an insult, the way you treated her was insulting, degrading and unacceptable. I know the likes of you would never apologise, even though you should."

Krum took another step forward, expecting the smaller boy to back off. Harry however, stood his ground, his eyes never leaving those of the older champion.

"You think you are better than me? You are a kopele, a boy. You are nothing."

Harry shrugged. "I'm confident enough in my own skin and my own abilities that I don't feel the need to constantly consider how I compare to others. As for nothing, maybe that's correct, but this nothing is currently ahead of you." Harry knew that would push Krum's buttons.

The Bulgarian snarled again and was now toe to toe with his younger opponent. James had palmed his wand, as he was sure had Lily although neither would do anything unless they absolutely had to. This particular pissing contest was better resolved by the two protagonists. If possible anyway.

"I see how is. You haf all week to ask Grencher. You see Krum beat you and you think you can insult Krum."

"Bollocks. Yeah, can't argue with being dumb enough to wait to ask Hermione, but I am quite happy to make any kind of vow you want that when I did ask her to the ball, I did so completely unaware that you had already asked her."

"You lie". Those two words were said both by Karkaroff and Krum.

For a second James was worried that Harry was going to flat out punch the older wizard. Somehow his anger at what was one of the worst insults Harry could imagine abated enough to make him step back and make a show of palming his wand. The action caused Krum to also take a step back and draw his. James had noticed Karkaroff's wand hand moving and was readying himself to cover the 'former' death eater.

It was the other venerable wizard who interjected. "Gentlemen, lower your wands. There will be no curses sent here today."

"I will not be called a liar" snarled Harry.

"This gadost haf insult my honour" growled Krum at almost the same time. "I will challenge to duel!"

"I cannot allow that" interjected Dumbledore, raising a hand to silence the scowling Bulgarian. "There are two reasons. One, whilst you are of age, Mr Potter is not, and two, there are many arcane laws which surround the Tri-Wizard Tournament and the restrictions imposed by using the Goblet as the binding artefact. One of those laws states that competitors cannot challenge each other in combat for the duration of the tournament. There are punishments for those who break the rule of induciae magicae. Were one of you to instigate a duel, I cannot say for certain what price mother magic will ask."

"I cannot stand while honour is challenged!" Krum was looking for someone to fight. If he was being honest, he wasn't really overly concerned about taking Hermione to the ball. James and Harry between them had pretty much nailed it. Krum wanted to show that his name was able to capture the so called 'brightest witch in Hogwarts' whilst showing his much younger competitor that it really was, the first task notwithstanding, men against boys. That the witch in question had the temerity to say no was as much a blow to his male pride and ego as anything else.

It was Harry who spoke up next though. "Wait, so I can't join in with the duelling club?"

Dumbledore fixed him with a look. "I do not believe that is the crux of the issue currently at hand, however yes, you can. There is no restriction on how you may engage with those not competing in the tournament, other than the laws of the land and the rules of Hogwarts. I would point out however that should you find yourself wounded and unable to compete in a task..." The aged headmaster let the sentence tail off, the meaning clear. Harry nodded before returning his gaze to Krum.

The older wizard sneered at the smaller boy, before turning to Hermione. "You haf not thought this through. You do not want powerful enemy, do you."

A new voice entered the fray. "Well, she does have some very powerful friends."

Almost as one multiple heads spun round to see where the voice had come from. There, standing in the doorway, flanked by the slightly shorter but stockier Remus Lupin stood the grinning form of one Sirius Orion Black. A solid six foot two, a mop of rakish hair and a goatee he swore made him look dapper, he projected an image of power with ease. Of course, that was made easier by fact of him having a werewolf as his right hand man. Remus was a six footer himself, brawnier, far more plainly dressed but also had power radiating from him.

Sirius glanced at James with a marginally raised eyebrow. For his part the elder Potter gave an almost imperceptible nod. Returning his gaze to Krum he took a step forward. "Let it be known that Miss Granger is a Friend of the families of Black and Potter, and I swear to whatever deity you want to choose, those families will offer all the protections their houses can offer."

Sweeping into the room, Sirius finally looked around. "Minnie! Long time no speak!"

"Always have to make an entrance, Black!" Minerva's tone was curt but had a hint of humour laced around the edge.

"Mr Black" started Dumbledore. "I am surprised to see you walking around so brazenly."

Sirius shrugged. "Well, even if the 'kiss on sight' order hadn't been lifted, Hogwarts has enough autonomy that I'd be fine."

Dumbledore scowled for a second. "I was not aware that the Wizengamot had met to discuss such a change of your status. I am, after all, Chief Warlock, and would have been summoned."

Sirius grinned. "Interesting fact, Albie. The Wizengamot never voted to lift the KOS because they never had to. That bastard Crouch used little known executive powers to bypass as much as he could, Amelia finally worked it out and was able to use the same executive powers to rescind the order. Of course, it being kind of obvious that James and Lily weren't dead, making it rather tricky to have had a hand in their murder might have helped."

"Anyway, this is not the issue at hand." James had entered the fray. Turning to Krum he spoke with a seriousness not always present. "I endorse the statement made by Mr Black. Miss Granger is a Friend of my family and benefits from all protections so entailed by one of her status. I am quite happy to invoke the Old Rules should that be necessary."

Krum wasn't for backing down. "The honour of Krum has been challenged. This will not be forgotten." Karkaroff however had snapped into action at the mention of the Old Rules. He placed a hand on the Bulgarian's shoulder and whispered in his ear. Krum looked at the headmaster with wide eyes before a malevolent grin took hold. Without another word, the two representatives of Durmstrang left the room.

James was first to react. "What the fuck was that?"