Disclaimer: Jo Rowling is my GOD.

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And I never wanna say goodbye
But girl you make it hard to be faithful,
With the lips of an angel

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"Herm-own-ninny," A voice called her from behind, and she flinched. Viktor.

Ron continued to speak, oblivious to the presence of the figure behind her. "Y…You."

She panicked. In circumstances better than these, her choice would be to break down crying and to ask when they could schedule their next date, but with Viktor behind her…it suddenly didn't seem like such a good idea anymore.

Do I just hang up?

No, too confusing for him. He'll try to call back again, and then Viktor might answer.

"'Mione?"

"Don't try to kid me, Ronald." She kept her voice as emotionless as possible, hoping that neither Viktor nor Ron would notice the slight wobble to it. She wanted to keep talking to Ron; there was no explaining it, but just hearing his voice, even over the phone, was soothing, almost letting her forget all that she'd been upset about. Maybe she'd call him back later. Probably.

She placed the receiver back into its holder and turned around to face Viktor.

"Yes, Viktor?" She smiled at him weakly, but his expression didn't change. It remained as unfathomable as ever, looking down at her blankly. "Viktor?"

"Herm-own-ninny, that was the Weasley, was it not?"

"Well, yes."

Viktor pursed his lips, and his gaze was avoided her face her face. He looked first at the clock on the wall (to Hermione's surprise, the Krums also had a clock just like the one the Weasleys did – who was she to know that he had two sisters and a grandmother living with him?) and then to the marble floor. Finally, he spoke up. "What did you talk of?"

"Uh…he was going to get a new err…couch, yes, a couch, for Christmas, so he called me to see which one I thought he should get." She attempted a hopeful grin, but Viktor simply rolled his eyes.

"Herm-own-ninny."

He doesn't buy it.

"What I meant was –" she paused and quickly decided to piggy-back on the excuse Ron had made to Lavender. Making a mental note to apologize to Harry later, she began to speak once more. "He…err…told me that Harry, you know, the black-haired guy with glasses –"

Viktor nodded. "The Trivizard boy, yes?"

"Yes, that's him. Well, I…err…didn't want to tell you this before because this would be terribly embarrassing for Harry, you know, but Ron was telling me that Harry planned to ditch Ginny for…Dean, yes."

He looked up. "Vat?"

"Odd, this, isn't it? I didn't believe it at all myself, so I got upset with him, you know, for making a joke about something like that, so I told him not to kid me, and..but now that I think about it, it seems perfectly logical. Harry and Ginny have been having a lot of fights recently –" I'm sorry, Harry, I'm sorry. Ginny, too. "— so now this explains everything." She let out a forced giggle.

She was rambling again, and she knew it.

Anything to keep Viktor from guessing at the truth.

This always happened when she got nervous or upset, and both Ron and Harry knew it from all the times that she had fought with Ron. The two of them, Ron and Hermione, were unstoppable once they got riled up, and Harry reckoned that that was what prolonged their fights most of the time. She never would have managed to trick Harry or Ron like this, but with Viktor, perhaps he wouldn't know her well enough to guess. Perhaps.

He furrowed his brow in slight disgust, but an amused look came over his face. "Ah, zat is strange. But not unexpected, I think, because fighting brings out the oddest in people, no?"

Hermione nodded encouragingly, hoping that he would retreat to his bed, leaving her free to call back Ron and explain the abrupt end to their conversation, and then to maybe...no. She mentally scolded herself after thinking this.

You know, technically you're still Viktor Krum's girlfriend. Just because you're not his fiancée doesn't mean you can go around calling other guys. Especially a guy you've kissed. Especially the guy who keeps drifting into your mind every time you go on a date with your supposed boyfriend.

Viktor, completely oblivious to her internal struggle, stood there for a while, contemplating on what he had just said, when suddenly, his face became downcast.

"Viktor?"

"You still do not decide on our marriage?" He looked up at her hopefully, as though thinking that she would have made up her mind within the last, what was it, two or so hours, and had decided that yes, she would marry him, and would jump into his arms squealing. As if.

Shooting him an apologetic grin, she gave him another one of her well-rehearsed comebacks. It would have been a lie to say that she hadn't seen this whole proposal thing coming—quite on the contrary, she'd been expecting him to ask her for a few days now. She'd already known that she wouldn't be able to reply to him straight away, because she couldn't give up the hope, that Ron would…what was the word, "come to his senses?" No, that wouldn't be right. They'd broken it off, and she had agreed, however unwillingly. "Come to his senses" wouldn't be the right expression. But anyway, she'd thought that maybe if she waited long enough, he would come back to her. In the end, though, it was the opposite. She'd ended up calling him, crying about Viktor's proposal.

His proposal hadn't seemed so frightening when she'd thought out the scenario ahead, but when Viktor had come out and really asked her, the realism of the whole thing had really hit her, and she hadn't been able to prevent herself from breaking down into tears.

"Viktor, I'm sorry, but I still need some time to think over it. Marriage is such a huge thing for me."

His face fell, but he quickly recomposed himself. "Okay. I will go to bed now. Goodnight, Herm-own-ninny."

Your eloquence amazes me, she thought to herself as he shuffled out of the study. "I will go to bed now"—really, what a brilliant choice of words.

Turning back to the desk, she eyed the black antique phone sitting on its surface. Her fingers reached for it, but she pulled back almost instinctively.

Hermione Granger, technically, that is cheating on your boyfriend.

She heaved a sigh.

Yeah, it would, wouldn't it.

Pushing her chair out from under her, she stood up, stretched, and followed Viktor's footsteps out of the door and into her own room. She'd refused point blank to share one with Viktor. "Sorry, it's a religious thing," she'd told him. But that hadn't been quite true. Not really.

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My chapters just keep getting shorter and shorter :(
oh well, I hope you liked it!