Quidditch tryouts were upon them sooner than anyone wanted. Everyone except for a certain Cormac McLaggan. Hermione was so tired of hearing him talk about himself.
Part of her wanted to wave her ring around and scream that she was engaged. Him dating her just wasn't going to happen. But part of her didn't want to scream that to the whole castle, even if most of them knew.
She knew that all the Slytherins knew, thanks to Daphne and her need to gossip. She sat with the Ravenclaws enough for most of them to have noticed her ring. They didn't mention anything to her, but they were too smart to have not realized the implications.
That left the Gryffindors, who knew. They all lived in the same space. And keeping secrets had never been their strong suit. And she guessed by that point the Hufflepuffs knew as well. She might not have any friends in that house, but she suspected that the whole school knew.
And so, even though she hated McLaggan, she wound up on the benches watching tryouts. Lavender Brown was there, and so was Pavarti. Hermione focused on her book until it was time for them to tryout for keeper.
Lavender seemed the most invested in that part. She clung onto the railing, while Hermione watched her.
"Do you have a crush on someone?" Hermione whispered conspiratorially.
Lavender blushed. "You wouldn't tell anyone."
Hermione looked at her like she was crazy. "You know how much I like my privacy. Why would I tell people what's not mine to tell?"
Lavender smiled. "You won't get privacy for very long," she said. "But thank you."
Hermione smiled at her warmly, and turned her attention back up to the boys flying above them. Cormac had saved four saves, and Ron had gotten three. There were only two throws left. Hermione found her nerves growing in her chest.
She had to do something. She couldn't let McLaggan, whom she hated, win a spot on the team. She wasn't his friend, but she was Harry's and he would take her support the wrong way. She frowned, thinking it over.
She watched them, the wheels in her mind turning faster and faster, as they both saved the next throw. Then it came to her.
She muttered a confounding charm, using the wandless magic that Vanessa had taught her in her fourth year. It wasn't the most powerful magic ever, but it did enough and blocked Cormac from making the save.
His confidence bolstered a little, Ron made the last save easily. With the number of saves equal, it would come down to other factors. Sportsmanship was likely one of them. And that thing alone would put Ron leagues ahead of Cormac.
The rest of the tryouts seemed rather quiet. Hermione wasn't interested in much else, and just read her book. She would have to tell Ron what she had done eventually. And she figured that she should tell him that she thought Lavender had a crush on him.
She packed up her book when the tryouts were done. Harry was going to post the list in the common room the next day. He said he had some things he needed to go over in his mind. What he meant was that he needed to talk to Ginny about who was the best.
Hermione was walking up to Gryffindor tower when Ginny caught up to her. "So, Ron says that you're going to be in close contact with a certain world famous seeker for pretty much forever," Ginny said.
"Great. Now Ron's telling people about my love life," Hermione groaned. "Not that you wouldn't be informed, but I've been trying to keep it under wraps."
Ginny shrugged. "He's Ron. He can keep his mouth shut, but I'm his sister. I know how to get most of his secrets out of him."
They walked up to the tower. Hermione couldn't get her mind to be quiet. There were way too many things that occupied her thoughts. And part of her just wanted to be alone so she could talk to Viktor.
"What did you want to know?" Hermione asked. She knew Ginny was looking for something. She wasn't Hermione's closest friend. She was one of her friend' younger sisters. Which made them friendly, but not friends.
"What makes you sure I want anything?" Ginny asked as innocently as she could for being the youngest child out of seven.
She was likely more subtle than Hermione was giving her credit for. But Hermione was suspicious of her intentions, and was watching for every little sign.
Hermione raised an eyebrow and folded her arms over her chest. She knew Ginny wanted something. She wouldn't have brought up Viktor if that wasn't the case.
"Aren't the Vultures playing the Harpies over the summer?" Ginny asked.
Hermione shrugged. "I don't know. I wouldn't think so, but I can ask. And if you're asking for tickets, I recommend that you talk to Viktor for those."
She headed up to the tower, thankfully alone. She didn't want to think about much. She didn't want to talk to anyone, or at least anyone there. There was one person she desperately wanted to talk to, but he wasn't exactly someone she could speak face to face with at that moment in time.
She climbed the stairs and went to her dorm, barely giving any pleasantries to the people who were in the common room. She figured that they wouldn't mind too much. After all, she had spent most of her day supporting some of her friends. And they would be sure to give her regards to Neville when he showed up.
She sat down on her bed, intending to do some reading before she wrote to Viktor. She was hoping to clear her brain a little. But she was hardly able to finish a page before she rummaged through her bag for her pen.
Viktor, she wrote. How was your day?
She waited a few moments. She knew that Viktor was often busy. And she didn't have any qualms about that. He had had practice that day. But she wasn't sure when it would be over. She suspected that two in England, which was four in Bulgaria, was probably not that late. But it wasn't necessarily time for him to be done.
Just a few moments later, the reply came, in rushed cramped writing. We had practice today. It wasn't bad, but coach went pretty hard on us. We did more running than any of us wanted to.
Hermione smiled. If that was the case they had probably run at least a mile before their practice actually started. And she knew that the beaters of the Vultures hated running. But the chasers didn't mind so much. And Viktor had taken up running with her father.
He's just trying to make you guys better.
I know that. But you try telling our keeper that he needs to run more than just at practice.
Antov needs to stop whining about that.
Antov was the last name of the Vultures' keeper. Hermione knew them all by name, but he ticked her off a little. He wasn't as dedicated to the sport as he could be. And she knew a few wizards who would kill for his spot.
I know, Viktor responded. But coach won't fire him because he's actually good at blocking goals. I just wish he would put in the effort the rest of us do.
Well, there's a reason that you're the best seeker in the world, as opposed to simply not getting fired, Hermione wrote.
Well, I doubt I could skip out on my runs with your dad. We run just about every morning. Except for Sundays.
I'm just glad that you're getting along. I know that you haven't had problems ever, but it's nice to know that he's not planning on killing you in your sleep.
He wouldn't do that. No one else is going to help him with his plans to get muggles into the world cup.
Hermione burst out laughing. She was certain that no matter how much her father worked for it, they wouldn't live to see muggles at the world cup. But she was exceedingly glad that there were two more years until they had to figure everything out for that.
"Everything alright?" Parvati asked.
"My dad…" Hermione giggled some more. "Just something my dad's trying to do. I think he's nuts."
Parvati frowned. "Is this the same thing that caused your mum to try and take over the world."
"Change. I doubt she's crazy enough to try and take over. Especially with the whole wizarding thing," Hermione said.
"Whatever," Parvati shrugged her off. "Don't forget dinner's in half an hour."
"I don't think I could," Hermione said, but Parvati had already left her alone.
Hermione didn't mind that much. She had a number of things she wanted to get done, and she wanted to finish talking to Viktor so that she could focus on them after she was done eating. She barely managed to wrap up the conversation, promising that she would talk to him the next day at the latest.
A/N: So I got back yesterday from Florida. I had an awesome time, and got a little sunburnt. It's certainly not the worst I've ever been burnt. But still. I think half of it happened because I never go outside. And I loved Diagonal Alley and Hogsmeade in Universal. They were awesome!