A Year Abroad (Hermione/Viktor)

The Garden Party

Hermione stood on the platform and huddled into her coat.
"I wish I had spent more time with you." She sighed, looking down at her feet.
"It is okay, ve have time later. You needed time." He brushed his fingertips against her cheek. Hermione wished that she could have skipped the grief, skipped the crying and spent more time with Viktor. She knew that she would lay awake in her single bed at Durmstrang and think of the moments when she could have held him, or kissed him, moments that she had missed.

Viktor knew that he would miss her. But it was short term. She would be back before he could properly miss her. But he worried for her. She was going through a hard time and she would need support, support that he could not give to her because he could not be there. He decided that he would write to her as much as possible and train as hard as he could and he was sure that the time would fly by.

The train pulled up and Hermione looked around, wishing she had a moment more.
"I have to go. I love you." She told him, kissing Viktor on the cheek, before picking up her bags and boarding the train.

Viktor watched her go. He thought he would be okay, but when she left, he felt an emptiness in his stomach that he hadn't prepared for. They had broken up and he had survived. But he felt like this was going to kill him, being away from her. He felt overwhelmed with the urge to cry. So, he apparated back to his house and stood in the shower, allowing himself to sob.

Hermione sighed as she watched the world go by. She wished that she could have stayed, but she knew that she had to finish her schooling to be able to start her mediwitch training. The more she dwelled on the idea, the more she knew that it was right for her. She wouldn't need an intense job, as her glass blowing money would cover her expenses. She thought that she might volunteer and help those in need, or maybe she would research cures for illness. She didn't know, but she knew that whatever she was going to do, she was going to help people.

She smiled as she came back to Durmstrang, for what she realised was the last time. Her return was bittersweet because she loved this place, but she knew that she could be with Viktor once she finished.

Seamus was counting down the days until school finished. He wanted to be with the owls at the Ministry. He wanted to start work. He was done with his studies, he wanted to move into the real world.
"Only you would be going from one school straight into another." He chuckled to Hermione over dinner.
"I am so excited, I cannot wait. I feel like it is my true calling in life, like your owls are for you." She told him and he smiled, knowing that she was right.

Hermione felt at peace in the first weeks of her last term. She drifted through the halls and many would hear her humming to herself from time to time. For the first time in her life, she didn't have to worry about what was coming next, she could be content in the now, and that made her so blissfully happy.

She missed Viktor, so much. She felt lonely when she laid alone at night. She had never wanted to be his wife more than now. She wished that she could run away and marry him in the forest and have no one know. But that was not how this was going to happen. She knew that it was going to be a spectacle, the event of the year. She wished that they could be just normal people. But they were not just normal people.

She would cry when she thought about her Father. It wasn't often, but when it happened, it got her down. She wished that she had had more time with him. She wished that she could have told him she loved him more. Death was cruel. But she was sure that life had a little to do with it too.

Viktor's birthday was coming up. And after last year's disaster, Ada allowed her son to sit in on the planning process.
"I want a party in the day, I think." He told her and she had to repress her horror.
"I want people to play games, have fun, eat good food and drink good wine. I want it to be less of a Krum party and more of a Viktor party, you know?" He asked his Mother and she sighed, with a smile.
"How did I raise you to have such tastes?" She asked and he chuckled, shaking his head.