A Year Abroad (Hermione/Viktor)

Problems with Boggarts

Hermione was awoken by a loud knock at her door. She groaned and climbed out of bed, pulling herself over to the door. Vlad was stood on the other side, awake and alert. He bowed to Hermione, thrusting a piece of fabric towards her. She took the garment quickly then nodded and closed the door lightly.

Hermione unfurled the fabric and stared at it in wonder. It was a long piece of material that had two arm holes and two ties. She understood the concept: the burgundy material would be wrapped around her torso and tied. But there was no way that she could tie them herself. She attempted several times, before huffing and opening the door a sliver. The large man looked down at her and chuckled. He then made quick work of the strings and tied her up. She felt tight and constricted, she felt as if she couldn't breathe and she wondered if this was what it was like for the men of Durmstrang or whether her womanly assets, however slight they might seem, caused the claustrophobic feeling.

Once again, Hermione had been adopted by Vlad's group. They seemed to find her strangely fascinating as they watched her eat and spoke over her head, knowing very well that she could not understand them.
"Do you think she likes us?" One of the men asked Vladimir over her head.
"How would we know? She doesn't speak a word of our language and I can't understand any of the words that she says." They chuckled together, their laughs booming across her head. She tried not to look scared, she attempted to chuckle along with them, but if she told the truth, she was terrified of them.

Viktor looked over to the English table and rolled his eyes. They sat, poking and prodding at their food, very rarely speaking to one another. He wondered if they were actually friends, or if they were just a group that had been thrown together. They stuck out like sore thumbs, even after having changed into their uniforms. They were nervous and refined and stiff. However, when he looked over at the other girl, the one people spoke about, she was different. She sat with the boys and did her best to try and fit in. She slurped on the soup, bringing the bowl to her lips and looked about, attempting to understand what the men were speaking about. Her hair was wild, tumbling around her shoulders in manic curls. Viktor smiled inwardly as she pushed the curls back from her face, only to have them spring back into place. He had not heard many stories about the war. Only that the staff at Hogwarts, with the aid of the students, managed to summon the many horcruxes of he who shall not be named and destroyed them, before fighting off the death eaters. It was a valiant tale and he was sure living through it mustn't have been easy.
"She is strange, isn't she?" Viktor's friend, Igor whispered to him. Viktor looked away from her and nodded at his friend, who pulled a disapproving face. Viktor made no comment, but found himself strangely fascinated by her.

Hermione was accompanied to her herbology class by Aage, the man she had met the night before. His moustache was freshly styled and he smiled down at her as they walked. He strode with such style that Hermione found it difficult to keep up with her short legs, not mentioning her ailment. Once they reached the classroom, Aage handed Hermione two pieces of wire, which looked like muggle hearing aids. She placed them over her ears and with a whisper of a charm from Aage they were activated. He began speaking in the language that Hermione could not understand. However, once it reached her ears, his words rung out in perfect English. Hermione had never read about such a device and she stared up at Aage in awe as she heard the conversations that surrounded her.
"I heard she's a mudblood." One of the students stated to a friend. This was not the most pleasant conversation to come in on, but the wonder of the translation devices astounded her so much that it did not bother her so much.
"I don't like the way she looks. She's too short and her hair is too curly." One of the boys moaned to his friend.
"I like the other girl, the blonde one. She is much prettier than the mudblood." Hermione looked down at her book and thought to herself for a moment. She was unsure how to feel. Part of her was glad that she would not be receiving any unwanted male attention, but somehow she felt less of a girl for not being perceived as attractive. She looked up at Aage, who smiled apologetically down to her, his moustache curling in a way that she found rather amusing.