Is This What Love Is?

Chapter Seven – Intermission

“Please, I know she’s alive… I just know it, Krum. Don’t ask me how I just do.”

Viktor Krum, the once upon a time Seeker for the Bulgarian Quidditch team looked down his large, curved nose at the youngest male Weasley. His black eyes were harsh in their appraisal of this small man in front of him. “Too much blood was found, Weasley, along with her wand. She is dead. What do you not understand about that?” Krum muttered harshly to the younger man. He was mad, madder than hell at this man begging on his hands and knees before him.

“NO! I know she’s alive.” Ron Weasley practically yelled at the much taller and much larger man. His green eyes were bright with what he considered hope. He didn’t know how to explain it, but he knew Hermione was still alive. That she was living and breathing and alive but she was hurt. He knew she was hurt, but he could not tell anybody how he knew this. No one wanted to listen to him. He could still recall when Hermione and he had gotten split up during the Battle of Hogwarts. He could still recall her scream of pain and a bright green flash before he could reach her. When he did reach where Hermione had screamed from, there was blood, so much blood,  and her wand, but there was no body. No mark of a body had been on the ground, and Hermione’s wand was broken in two. Because there was no body, he knew she must have been alive.

What Ronald Weasley thought was hope, Krum knew was more along the lines of insanity. Krum shook his head, his eyes narrowing in anger. “No, you are a pureblood traitor and your little mudblood whore is dead.” Krum said loud enough for the other inhabitants of this hovel of a tavern would hear. He felt sorry for this pathetic piece of shit man, how he was now and a little bit of what he could have been if he hadn’t been tortured. Softly, he whispered: “She is dead, but I will bring you the proof you need, Stupid Boy. Grow you. Two years have gone by. Find some muggle, marry the bitch, and get on with your life.”

With those final words Viktor Krum stood and left. Not looking back at the puny man who had somehow won Hermione Granger’s heart. He had spent so little time with her, but he felt like it had been enough for him. He had fought against Voldemort’s people because he thought that Dumbledor’s Army and the Order of the Phoenix would win, but they hadn’t.  Too many people had died during that time. Way too many people that he had known unfortunately it had mainly been blood traitors, like himself and the Weasley’s and Longbottoms, and mudbloods, like Hermione Granger. The purebloods that had survived were allowed to live but were forbidden to do any form of magic unless they swore fealty to Voldemort, which Krum’s family had quickly and without hesitation done.

The Weasley’s on the other hand, had had their wands taken from them and broken in numerous pieces. The men who had survived or hadn’t been captured by Voldemort for whatever damned purpose that mad-man wanted to use them for, had been broken and the women had been used as slaves, especially that pretty little Ginerva Weasley, the little bitch who had, for a few brief moments, had known the love of the now deceased Harry Potter. The little magic that they were allowed to do daily was monitored very closely.

He felt sorry for the bastards, all the purebloods did, but the Weasley’s had made their decisions. And though they were bad decisions, they stuck to their principles that they had had before the Second Wizarding War, and they had chosen a dead boy over a living God. Viktor’s dark eyes shimmered with tears he refused to shed as he pushed back those few brief months he had spent with Hermione during the Triwizard Tournament.

Using a public Floo fireplace, he would Floo to Draco Malfoy’s flat in the heart of London. If Hermione was anywhere, it would be in Voldemort’s Castle. If anyone knew where Voldemort’s Castle was, it would be Draco Malfoy. The only way to get an invitation to Voldemort’s castle was through known Death Eaters, Voldemort’s right hand men and women. He didn’t want to do this, but he knew if he didn’t do something for Ronald Weasley, than the idiot would find someone else to do it for him and the Weasley’s would lose another son.