Author's Note: Enjoy!

Disclaimer: The following characters belong to J.K. Rowling, and this story derives from her original works, storylines, and world. Please do not sue me, I can barely pay tuition.

Warnings: NA

Stacked with: MC4A; Not Commonwealth; Shipping War; Hogwarts

Individual Challenge(s): Hola, Bonjour, Jambo; Durmstrang MC; Gryffindor MC; Winter Wonderland; Seeds; Golden Times; Old Shoes; Themes & Things A (Reflection); Themes & Things B (Alienation); Ethnic & Present (Y); Rian-Russo Inversion (Y); In a Flash

Representation(s): Professional Quidditch player Viktor Krum

Bonus challenge(s): Second Verse (Not a Lamp); Chorus (Tomorrow's Shade)

Tertiary bonus challenge: NA

Word Count: 579

Shipping Wars

Ship (Team): Hermione Granger/Viktor Krum

List (Prompt): Summer Big List (Dancing)

Hogwarts Submitting Info

House: Ravenclaw

Assignment: Assignment #1, Muggle Music, Popular Genres in Music #3 Dance - Write about asking someone to dance.

Out of All People

He could have been coming to sit at her table for any number of reasons, and so Hermione didn't automatically suspect that something was afoot when Viktor came to sit with her in the library. Especially not since he was holding a book in his hands—an anthology of English poetry.

"Hello," she said.

"Hello," he said. When he didn't say anything more, Hermione turned back to her studying and he cracked open the book. She was happy to find one of their comfortable silences, which could settle between them and stretch for hours upon hours.

Eventually Viktor sighed, frustrated, and shut the book with enough vigor to draw her into focus.

"Is everything alright?" she asked.

"Yes," he said. "I am sorry to disturb you. Your studies are important."

"Don't worry. Are you sure you're okay?"

"I am… frustrated. I thought my English would be good enough to read poetry, but this is not the case," Viktor sighed. "I don't understand what any of this means."

"Poetry's difficult," Hermione sympathised. "Besides, your English is better than my Bulgarian or Roma ever will be. Do you want me to look over something for you?"

"It wouldn't be appropriate for me to ask you this," Viktor said. "You see; I wanted to be romantic and use poetry to ask you to accompany me to the ball."

Hermione knew her jaw dropped, but she was too out-of-body to feel it.

"You want me to come to the dance with you?" Hermione asked, double-checking to make sure she had heard right. As soon as the words left her mouth, fear that she had misheard or misinterpreted him and that Viktor would have to correct her struck her very core.

"Yes," Viktor said. "Out of all the people I have met here, you are by far my… my favourite."

Hermione blinked again.

"You… want me to be your date for the ball?" Hermione asked. As she said it, her cheeks lit up. What a ridiculous idea.

"Is that unacceptable to ask?" Krum asked.

"No!" Hermione said. "No, not at all. It's just… You'd really want to ask me?"

"Yes," Viktor said. "Is it really so… what's the word… outlandish?"

Hermione chewed on her lip.

"Out of all people?" she asked again. She knew for a fact that if it got out that Viktor Krum was looking for a date, the line would stretch out the castle doors and into the lake.

Viktor nodded. "You have been very generous with your time in helping my English. You have been kind to me. You have shared the quiet in the library with me. You are very interesting to talk to. You are very intelligent—I could not outsmart you, even in Bulgarian. You are also beautiful."

She flushed more and more, not sure how to process any of these. Least of all that one word beautiful.

"Is that so hard to believe?" Viktor asked.

The question stung a bit, in just how broad and unanswered it was. Was it?

"I suppose not," Hermione said slowly and carefully. The words didn't quite sit right in her mouth as she said it, as if she didn't believe it. But Viktor's smile when he heard her… well, that did. And so she smiled back.

"I'd love to come dance with you," she said. And he smiled even more brightly.

"I am glad you will not hold the lack of poetry against me," he said.

Hermione laughed. "You didn't need it."