A Fated Marriage

A/N: I didn’t take as long as I thought to write this chapter. I think its one of the best yet. I hope you enjoy it. That to all the people who left all the encouraging reviews. I love you all and really hope you stick with me until the end. Alright on with the story!

P.S.
Thanks for making this the most read, reviewed, and voted for fan fic in the Hermione/Viktor catagory . I love you guys.

Truths


Hermione used to love old Wild West movies when she was a child. The good guys were always good. The bad guys were sometimes good turned bad. There was always a beautiful lady to save. And in the end there was a ride off into the sun set. But her all time favorite part was the stare downs before the big gun fights. The good guy and bad guy would stare at each other with their hands on their pistols just waiting for the other to make the first move. The staring was not her favorite part. The thing she loved most about the movies was the tumbleweed. Out of nowhere while moment of intensity was at its peak tumbleweed would just roll out from nowhere. In her child’s mind it was both a funny and awkward thing to see. It belonged yet it seemed so out of place. At the moment she felt like that tumbleweed.

Viktor was standing on one side of the room while Ron was at the other. Viktor and Hermione were eating lunch with the Weasley’s to tell them where they needed to be during Opening Week. Hermione had left the room for a few minutes to chat with Ginny. She thought that it was alright to do since Arthur, Bill, and Harry were in the dinning room with Viktor and Ron. Poor thing had no idea how wrong she was. The tension had been so high that the three left without a word. When Hermione had returned she caught the tail end of sentence.

“…a whore. The marriage will be a sham.”

“Who’s a whore?” Hermione asked quickly before Viktor could make a move or say a word. Both of them looked at her before staring back at on another.

“Nobody Mione. Could you leave us alone for a few minutes? We need to talk man to man.” Ron said trying to stand up a little straighter.

“I know this is about me. So you might as well say it to both of us Ron.” She said quietly. Viktor just stood in his place. His patience was to its very limit. The only thing holding him back now was the fact that Hermione was in the room. “Ron you’ve been a jerk for the past couple of weeks and I’ve let it slide hoping you would get over your issues. But you continue to act as immature as ever. I was a reason and I want it now.” Her voice was straining to be in control. Her entire body trembling with emotion.

“I don’t have to give you a reason. You or Vicky.” Ron spat.

There was a sickening crunch before she saw an explosion of blood. Viktor’s fist had met Ron’s nose.

“I have had enough of this.” The Seeker pulled the boy to him by the neck of his t-shirt. “I could care less vhat you say to me. I can look the other vay vhen you make your rude gestures. I can even ignore you disrespectful comments about my team. But you drew the line at disrespecting Hermione!” He shouted shaking the boy with every sentence. By now the commotion had brought a whole crowd: all the Weasley boys, including newly arrived Charlie, their sister, parents, and Harry. Plus a few of the Order Members who were staying for lunch.

“What is going on? Viktor what are you doing to my son?” Molly screamed nearly charging towards the boys only to be held back by her husband.

“Molly this is between boys. Stay out of it.” Arthur calmly said. He had raised six sons he knew when a fight had to happen. This was one of those times.

“Stay out of it? He’s hurting our son!” She looked at Hermione. “Do something about this!” Hermione just shook her head. She was tired of trying to stop something that was bound to happen. She simply didn’t have the energy to do it anymore. Everybody else looked just as exhausted with the whole situation.

Viktor had been ignoring Molly not once letting go of Ron’s shirt. “Are you going to give Hermione and answer?” He asked loosening his grip just a little. The red head spit in his face. The Bulgarian let out a slow breath and started to drag younger man out of the house. There was a loud slam of a door and then silence.

“So should we follow them?” Fred asked scratching his head.

“No son, this is one we should stay out of.” Arthur sighed shaking his head. “Hermione I think you should get some of your healing potions out and ready. Something tells me we’re going to need them in a few minutes. The rest of you just…get washed up for lunch.” Everyone did as they were told and all seemed normal if a little bit tense.

About fifteen minutes later Viktor came inside with a split lip and bruised knuckles. Ron followed looking like a walking paint pallet. His face was a colorful mix of reds, purples, and blues. His shirt was covered in dirt and grass. His pants were ripped and looking just as bad as the rest of him. It was obvious who the winner of the fight was.

“Viktor, you’re bleeding.” Hermione rushed over to heal his lip. She made it a point to ignore Ron, who was collapsed in a chair.

“It is nothing. I have had vorse.” He reassured his girl. She smiled and put her wand to his lip. It was all better in a few seconds. “I think you should go talk Ron.” He gave her a small kiss on the forehead. “If he gives you any problems just give me shout.” He told her softly. The girl didn’t do anything for a while. She just rubbed some ointment on her finance’s hands. “He vill tell you vhat you vant.” Hermione nodded and stood.

“Come on Ron. I’ll patch you up in the other room.” She pulled him by his arm to the living room where they could have some privacy. “Okay Ron tell me where it hurts.” She said getting her wand ready.

“Everywhere. I think he might have broken some ribs.” Ron moaned.

“Serves you right. He has been nothing but kind and patient and wonderful to this family and you treated him like…like…like he was a Malfoy.”

“I just…didn’t like seeing you with him is all.” He flinched as she healed some of the deeper cuts.

“Why? We both know we can’t be romantically involved. Why should you have a say in this?”

“It’s not about us.”

“What is it about Ron?”

“Well…It just should have been…”

“Should have been?”

“It should have been Harry!” He burst out. For a long while there was silence as Hermione absorbed these words.

“Harry?”

“Yes, Harry. He’s been in love with you since forth year. We were supposed to go to Hogwarts together. Harry was going to ask you to be his girl. Than you two would have been a couple. After that Neville, Ginny, me and Luna could have all gone out on dates and stuff. That’s how it was supposed to go. We were all supposed to be happy like that. We were finally going to have a normal year at school.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about Ron Weasley. Harry is in love with Cho.” She stopped her healing, so she could pay full attention to what her friend was saying.

“No, no he doesn’t Mione. Cho was just a crush. You know, a passing fancy?” Ron felt old all of the sudden. He knew he shouldn’t be talking about this. Not without Harry present, but there was no other choice. “Shortly after the Final Battle he told me everything. After the Triwizard Tournament he realized he loved you. The way you were so worried about him whenever he was competing made him so happy. He told me he never wanted to see you in pain.” He ran a hand through his hair. “He was going to tell you his feelings, but than the law came up. It killed him to know he couldn’t save you from it. It was even worse when he realized he couldn’t be with you.”

“Harry never said anything to me. He never acted differently.” She said to herself.

“Wake up Mione! He was the first to try and get you out of this marriage. He’s doing everything he can to make sure you have a wonderful wedding. He’s putting aside his feelings so you can have a chance at being happy.”

“Why?”

“I told you he never wanted to see you in pain.” More silence. Hermione let some very quiet tears fall. Mostly they were for Harry. Once again he had to put his feelings aside for the sake of another. It wasn’t fair that someone who did so much good for the world had to suffer so much pain. Some of the tears were for a future that the Golden Trio had wanted, but would never get. And the rest were for the anger she felt. Anger at herself for never noticing her friend’s feelings.

“Listen we can’t let Harry know that you told me all this. They weren’t your feelings to confess. So when we step out of this room we are going to act like we simply talked things out. If Harry hasn’t told me anything than he clearly doesn’t want us to know about it. Nothing changes. I’m going to marry Viktor. You and Harry are going to Hogwarts after the wedding. And that’s how life is going to be.” She wiped her eyes and finished with the healing. Ron nodded meekly as he stood looking as docile as new born kitten. She had fixed her friend for the most part. All of the broken bones had been healed and the bruises were all much lighter than they had been before.

They were just about to leave the room when Hermione stopped and turned around to look her friend in the eye. “I know you’re worried about Harry, but did you for one moment think about my feelings? It’s been killing me watching you act the way you have. I thought you would just get over it and be the friend I have grown to love all these year.” She stood on tip toes to whisper in his ear. The word seemed to do more magic on his person than any of her healing spells.

“Is that right?” He asked beginning to smile.

“Yes, but if you tell I swear I’ll hex you from here to Avalon.” She said trying to sound threatening, but failing by saying it with a smile.

“Fine. I’ll keep it a secret.” And for once Hermione knew he would keep his word.

The pair walked back to the kitchen where everyone was trying to act causal by sitting at the table or meandering outside. Both knew that they had been trying to listen, but everyone just thought it better to say nothing. Viktor was the only one who looked truly innocent. Hermione walked over to him so that she could sit on his lap. “How did it go?” He asked simply.

“Wonderfully. You’ll see a difference right away. I promise.” She gave him a kiss on the forehead. All was peaceful in the Burrow. Lunch was quiet, at least as quiet as you could get with the Weasley clan together. Ron talked to Hermione about some of the potions work he needed to get done by the end of summer. Once in a while he would look over at Viktor appraisingly, but never said anything. Nothing was really out of the ordinary until around dessert. Order members started arriving. More specifically Order male members. Snape, Kingsley, Moody joined everyone for sponge cake. Clearly something was going on.

“Alright, I guess we’d better do this then.” Arthur said nodding to his oldest sons. On cue Bill and Charlie came up from behind Viktor so they could pick up by his armpits and carry him outside. The twins and Harry followed closely behind. The men made polite excuses then went to join the rest of the party. Ron remained the lone male in the room. Molly, Ginny, and Hermione were all just staring at him waiting for an explanation.

“It’s a man thing.” Was all he said and closed the door behind him.

“You know, I know what they’re doing, but I have no desire to listen.” Hermione told the other two while cutting herself another big slice of cake. Ginny started giggling and Molly simply rolled her eyes.

Meanwhile Viktor was facing “The Talk”.

“Seeing as I am her adopted father I’ll start this.” Arthur said with a stone cold look in his eye. “Hermione is special to us. And worth far more than you will ever know.”

“She’s our little sister. Our best friend. Our student. Our daughter. And on many occasions our sanity.” Harry’s voice was even and chilling.

“Her life is worth far more than yours to us make no mistake boy.” Alastor said with his magical eye looking Viktor up and down.

“If you hurt her in any way, and trust me we will know, you will wish for death.” It was Bill turn to look threatening.

“Yeah, because if we find out you hurt our girl we will start by using one of our Silly Slow Slicing Knives to cut your balls off…” Fred pushed up to Viktor’s left side.

“Than we will fry them up in the batter and make you eat them…” George mirrored his twin on the right.

“After which you will forced to ingest various potions that will turn your skin different colors, cause you to go bald, and shrink what remains of your manhood.” Snape had become oddly protective of Hermione ever since the Final Battle, it might have something to do with the fact that she saved his life, but who knows.

“Once you’ve had enough of that you will be brought to the Dragon Reserve and will experience first hand what it’s like to play with Horntail babies.” Charlie said a little too cheerfully.

“And after you’ve gone through all that we will drag you kicking and screaming to the Ministry where we will use our connections to make sure you get thrown into Azkaban for life.” Kingsley was the last of the adults to make their threats.

Viktor stood there knowing now was no that time to say anything. He stood in a circle of stone cold stares. After a while the men went inside one by one until the only ones left were Harry and Ron. The three stood there for a long while without a word. It was Harry who broke the silence.

“You know what will happen if you hurt Mione and they find out. You’ll be lucky if they’re the ones who catch you. We’ll let you use your imagination about what happen if we got to you first.” Ron nodded his agreement. “But threats aside we talked about it and thought you could use some ‘Hermione Hints’.” Harry said with a smile on his face.

“Hints?”

“Yeah, mate. We’ve known Hermione for years and after talking we decided that you need to know some things about her.” Ron said.

“Like vhat?”

“Well first of all never try and get her to eat cheesecake. She hates it. I tried to get her to eat it a piece one day and she hexed me so badly I couldn’t sit down for a week. And never think for one moment that you can ask her to wash dishes. It can get ugly…fast!” The Weasley boy said leaning on a wall grinning.

“Believe it or not she likes teddy bears. The cuter the better. She keeps it secret because she doesn’t think it will help her keep up a mature image. Still she has a ‘secret’ collection hidden somewhere. If you looked hard enough I’m sure you could find it.” Harry joined Ron in the wall.

“She claims her favorite color is red, but it’s really violet.”

“Never make a comment about how small her feet are.”

“Don’t mention her old cat Crookshanks. He died while attacking a Death Eater during the Final Battle.”

“She loves to eat Mexican food. If you take her out for tacos one night she’ll be putty in your hands.”

“That’s how we got her to help us on our recent potions work.”

“She hates small dogs, but doesn’t seem to have a problem with big ones.”

“She has a favorite quill that she always carries with her. It’s a silver thing with an eagle feather. Never ask to borrow it because the answer is always going to be no.”

“Never get her a book as a present. It will only lead to a wonderful argument about how rude it is to assume that all she does with her time is read.”

“And finally don’t be shocked when you find her tattoo.”

For the whole time Viktor had remained quiet, but the last statement did in fact shock him. “Vhat tattoo?” He asked looking at the pair.

“We all got one a few weeks after the Final Battle. It was just to take our minds off…well off of everything. I have a Snitch, Ron’s got lion, and Hermione has hourglass. It’s on her left hip.” Harry clarified. “It symbolizes her Time Turner she used third year.” The Boy-Who-Lived-Twice gave his fellow Seeker a hard pat on the back. “Hope all of that helps.” Then he went back inside to see if there was any dessert left. And then there was two.

“You’re no good enough for her.” Ron told him bluntly.

“And here I thought you vere going to polite from now on.” Viktor sighed running a hand trough his hair.

“I am being polite. Honesty is a type of politeness.” Viktor just grunted. “I’m saying it because it’s true. I don’t think there is a man out there who could possibly deserve her. Do you have the slightest idea what she did for me and Harry? For the whole war effort? You should talk to her about it sometime. I’m going to be nice for her sake, but that doesn’t mean I like it. She deserves enough happiness to last ten lifetimes and I don’t think you can give her that.”

“And vhat makes you think that.” Viktor was getting the urge to use Ron as a punching bag again. Although he was pretty impressed by the fact that the young man was acting like an adult for once. He even sounded like one.

“You don’t love her.”

“How do you know that?”

“I just know. You don’t love her. You care about her a lot, respect her, and you want her to be happy. But you won’t be able to make her happy because you don’t love her. She needs someone to love her. She will need that person even more when all of use got to Hogwarts and she ends up all alone.” Viktor raised an eyebrow clearly thinking about all the family members who didn’t go to school plus the Order Members. It was hard to believe she would be alone. “She will be alone. Even with Mum and Dad and all the brothers are here. She’s going to feel alone. She’ll need a special kind of love that you can’t give her yet.”

“Vait. You said yet.”

Ron paused and then nodded, “Yeah, I did.” Finally it was his turn to go inside leaving Viktor alone to process all that he had heard in those few minutes.


A/N: Well what did you think? Funny? Sucky? Strange? Cake? I love to hear from you so please make your thoughts known. See ya next time. :)