I know! Ron x Viktor and Chudley Cannons 😍 give me anything!
The words that came out of Viktor Krum’s mouth seemed to float in the air above all the people on the table, and the silence stretched for a bit longer than usual.
“Come again?” Ginny asked, her face splitting into a smile that Ron didn’t appreciate one bit.
Viktor finished swallowing. “I have just been bought by the Chudley Canons,” he repeated and shrugged one shoulder. “I know they have been very bad in the past, but they’re replacing the entire team and offered me the position of captain and a large sum of money. So I accepted. I like Britain anyway.”
Ron was pretty sure his face was the color of the grilled tomatoes on his plate, and even more so when everybody (except Viktor) turned to look at him.
Sunday lunch at The Burrow was usually a rather boring affair, but he never missed a chance to see his family now that he had moved in with Harry to a flat in London. Harry and Hermione usually tagged along as well, and this time, Hermione had decided to invite her dear friend and newly retired Quidditch Star.
“But I read in the press that you’d retired?” Harry asked Viktor, taking his eyes off Ron.
“From big cups and national teams, yes.” Viktor nodded and smiled warmly. Ron shivered. “I vant to play in a smaller team and not vorry too much.”
After that the conversation changed thanks to Percy and Hermione, who started discussing the latest antics of the new Minister for magic. Ron never thought he’d be glad to hear their boring bureaucratic rubbish, but now the attention was not on him, which meant he could return to sneaking glances and Viktor when he wasn’t looking. Oddly enough, Ron could feel someone’s eyes on him when he looked away from Viktor, but he didn’t want to get his hopes up.
“Time for pudding, everyone!”
Bill and Fleur helped Ron’s mum remove the dirty dishes from the table and replace them with plates of thick slices of pie. Ron started eating as he nodded along to something George was saying, but then his eyes fell on Viktor again, and his heart dropped when he saw him talking to Ginny. He couldn’t hear what they were saying, and that made him all the more worried because Ginny had that wicked look in her eyes that could not mean good news for Ron.
They stopped talking after a while and Viktor ate his pie quietly. Ron attempted to send Ginny death glares several times, but she was determinedly looking anywhere else.
Conversations grew less animated every minute, now that everyone was full and slowly making their way to the garden to enjoy some leisure time under the late afternoon sun. Ron was about to follow Harry and Hermione outside when suddenly Ginny’s voice rang louder than necessary.
“Hey, Viktor, would you like a tour of the house?”
Ron spun around rapidly, dread spreading coldly through his body as he saw Ginny patting Viktor’s broad shoulders amicably. Viktor smiled at her and nodded politely.
Ron rushed to stand in front of them, trying hard not to blush as Viktor looked questioningly at him. “Uh, Ginny,” Ron said in a very obviously forced, casual tone. “He’s probably too full to be climbing all those stairs right now. why don’t we all go outside?”
“Don’t be silly,” Ginny dismissed him with a wave of her hand. “He’s an athlete. I’m sure Viktor will be just fine.”
Viktor smiled again. “This house is very interesting. I vonder how many rooms it can hold.”
Ron didn’t know what kind of things Ginny had told Viktor, but it didn’t seem to be a way out of this without making a scene, so Ron merely nodded and started leading the way. “I’ll go with you, then.”
The three of them walked up to the first floor, where Ginny showed Viktor her bedroom whilst making odd comments about the dull color of her walls and lack of decoration. Ron pinched her hard in the arm when Viktor wasn’t looking, but she simply pointer her wand at him menacingly until he backed away. Ron had left his wand downstairs.
As they went up to the second floor, Ron tried with all his might not to stare at Viktor’s backside as he climbed up the stairs, but he failed miserably.
“Percy used to share a floor with Fred and George?” Viktor asked with amusement. “They must have drove him mad.”
There wasn’t much to see in Bill and Charlie’s old bedroom on the third floor, but as they continued their way up, Ron’s apprehension increased. He should have asked Harry and Hermione to create a diversion downstairs so they had to come down. Or he should have tried to steal some Peruvian Darkness Powder form Fred and George’s old room so he could activate it as soon as they reached the fifth floor.
“This is mum and dad’s bedroom,” Ginny told Viktor. “As you can see they don’t have anything on their walls. No pictures or posters of any kind. Much less a Quidditch team.”
Viktor looked like he found this information strange, but he nodded anyway. Ron stepped on Ginny’s foot as hard as he could, but she zapped him with a slight electric shock from her wand and he had to retreat.
As Viktor stepped into the first stair leading up to the fifth floor, Ron called out his name, desperately. “You should see my dad’s garage! He keeps all of his muggle experiments down there. I’ll show you.”
Viktor looked interested and Ron’s heart lifted, but then Ginny stepped in between them. “There’s only one room left! And then the attic of course, but that’s not as interesting.”
Ginny grabbed Viktor’s arm and started pulling him away from Ron, who followed quickly and envisioned many ways to make Ginny miserable in the future, as soon as this was over.
“Ron’s room,” Ginny said as they neared the door. Viktor looked over his shoulder at Ron and smiled at him. Ron felt his knees weaken.
“Old room!” he corrected. “Ancient, really. I haven’t been here in so long, I hardly remember what it looks like.”
Ginny put her hand on the doorknob. “You’re being too humble, Ron. Yours is truly an spectacular and unforgettable room.”
Ginny pushed the door open and led Viktor inside. The orange glow hit Ron’s eyes and he deflated so much he wondered if it was possible for the floor to swallow him and spit him out somewhere else. Ginny called him and he slowly dragged his feet towards his humiliation, thinking that it was probably less pathetic than running away.
As soon as he stepped inside, Ginny perked up. “I think mum’s calling me!” And with a loud pop, she disapparated.
Viktor was taken aback for a moment, but then his eyes kept roaming up and down Ron’s room, which looked like it hadn’t been a day since Ron finished decorating it when he was ten years old. All the posters were in perfect condition because they were magical, the orange of the walls looked brighter than ever, and Ron’s mum had even kept all the orange bed clothes exactly the way Ron did when he lived there. He know realized how ghastly everything looked, especially with the addition of his own orange hair and bright red face.
Ron tried to laugh it off. “Yeah, I don’t know what I was thinking.” He cleared his throat and looked out the small window at his family and friends downstairs. “It’s really stupid and-”
“Wow,” Viktor interrupted him, and Ron turned back to look at him, expecting a mocking fit of laughter to erupt at any moment now.
But Viktor didn’t look like he was about to laugh, nor did he seem like he thought Ron was the most pathetic man on earth. He was looking at Ron with a mix of surprise and acknowledgment.
“I feel so embarrassed,” Viktor said.
Ron frowned. “What? Why?”
Viktor rubbed the back of his neck. “Every English person has told me that the Chudley Canons are bad, but I have never vatcted a game myself. I have been saying bad things about them and now I can see I vas mistaken.”
Ron didn’t know what to say. Why would Viktor feel embarrassed about this?
“If you like them, they must be a good team.”
Ron’s eyes widened in surprise. “Well, they’re…they’re not that bad,” he stammered. “They’ve had some pretty amazing matches, even if they don’t win.”
Viktor nodded. “I vas a very bad professional by accepting to enter a team I don’t know.” He stepped a bit closer and Ron’d heart pounded. “That’s why I’m embarrassed.”
“That’s alright. The Canons have a bad reputation, but a very interesting history,” Ron said, unbelievably glad that the attention wasn’t focused on him or his extreme fanaticism for the team.
Ron watched in slow motion as Viktor’s hand reached up and landed on Ron’s shoulder.
“I need someone to teach me.”
With a swift movement, Viktor stepped in next to Ron and threw his arm around his shoulders. “And maybe later ve can come back up here and put my face on your valls too.”
Ron laughed nervously, thinking that there were probably already a few posters of Viktor hidden in between Chudley Canon’s players. Before Viktor could reply or look more closely at the room, Ron started leading them out, one hand bravely on Viktor’s back.
“You could start telling me about the canons as you show me your father’s garage,” Viktor suggested once Ron had closed the door behind them.
With the feeling of Viktor’s arm still around him, Ron couldn’t help his next words, “For starters, you’re probably the best player they’ve ever had.”
Viktor’s smile was brighter than Ron’s entire room.
