Hermione stared at Victor as though she had just discovered a completely new branch of magic.
"Victor, what the hell are you doing?" In all the years she had known him, she had never once imagined seeing him standing in a garden with a shovel in his hands.
Victor let go of the shovel and sighed. "Well, I was helping Luna with garden work since I have nothing else to do."
That answer somehow made the situation even stranger. Hermione looked around the garden before her eyes returned to him.
One thing she still didn't understand was why Victor was even staying at the Lovegood house. From what she had heard from Ron, the Lovegoods weren't the sort of influential pure-blood family the Malfoys normally associated with.
Respectable enough, but not among the powerful families Lucius usually mingled with. Yet here was Victor, living at their house, digging holes in their garden. Nothing about it made sense.
Before she could ask, Luna approached carrying a small box filled with seeds.
Victor gestured toward her. "Harry, Hermione, this is Luna Lovegood. She attends Hogwarts, a year below us."
"Hello," Luna said politely.
Harry recognized her immediately and returned the greeting. Hermione nodded as well, though part of her attention remained fixed on the mystery surrounding Victor's presence here.
Unfortunately, Ron chose that exact moment to make everything infinitely worse.
"And she's his fiancée."
Hermione's brain immediately short-circuited, her eyes moving from Luna to Victor and back to Luna again. Harry wasn't doing much better, his mouth opening slightly before closing again.
Victor closed his eyes, his expression suggesting he had already predicted this would happen the moment Ron arrived.
Luna looked completely calm. "Yes. That's correct."
That casual confirmation made everything significantly worse.
"Your... fiancée?" Hermione finally managed.
"Since childhood," Ron added helpfully.
Hermione felt as though someone had dropped a textbook directly onto her head.
"Ron, can you shut up your mouth for a second? What childhood arrangement? We are children, you idiot," Victor said.
He could clearly tell that Ron was trying to create trouble for him, and unfortunately for Ron, he was far too easy to read.
Ron looked disappointed that his attempt had been stopped so quickly.
Victor ignored him and continued. "As for the fiancée thing, it's a family arrangement. There's no need to focus on something that's set so far in the future."
The explanation was reasonable enough, but it did very little to reduce Harry and Hermione's curiosity. Victor noticed immediately and decided to change the topic before more questions appeared.
"So," he said, looking toward the trio, "why don't you tell me about your summer? Did anything interesting happen?"
Harry almost laughed. Interesting? Compared to arriving here and discovering Victor digging holes in a garden while apparently having a childhood fiancée, nothing that had happened during his summer felt particularly surprising anymore.
Still, he kept that thought to himself.
An awkward silence followed, nobody eager to continue the subject. Fortunately, Luna spoke up.
"Why don't we go inside instead?" she suggested. "Father made snacks."
Everyone immediately agreed, and the group followed Luna into the Lovegood house. Inside, Xenophilius Lovegood looked pleasantly surprised to see so many visitors.
"Wonderful," he said cheerfully. "Luna doesn't often bring this many friends home."
A few minutes later, snacks were placed on the table. Harry and Ron immediately helped themselves.
That turned out to be a mistake. The moment they took their first bites, both of them froze. Harry's expression became strained, and Ron looked personally betrayed.
The taste was so strange that neither of them seemed capable of describing it, and both boys spent several seconds desperately trying to decide whether swallowing or spitting it out would be the less painful option.
Across from them, Xenophilius appeared completely unaware that anything was wrong.
At the same time, Victor was facing an entirely different problem. Hermione had somehow taken the seat on his right, and Luna had somehow taken the seat on his left, neither showing any interest in moving.
'Sigh... teenage love is really messy,' Victor thought.
Hermione was definitely angry at him. That much was obvious, and he wasn't stupid enough to miss it.
The problem was that there wasn't really a good answer he could give right now, and more importantly, he definitely couldn't give one of those scumbag answers that would only make everything worse.
Trying to explain immediately would probably turn into an argument. Trying to joke about it would be even worse. At times like this, it was usually better not to say anything.
Hermione wasn't the type to listen when she was annoyed. It would be better to wait until she calmed down and then explain things properly.
With that conclusion reached, Victor decided to remain silent and continue eating as though he hadn't noticed anything at all.
"Victor..." Ron began, clearly about to say something.
Victor saw the grin on Ron's face and immediately knew where this was going. The idiot was about to bring up the fiancée topic again.
A slight flick of his wand beneath the table. Ron stood up. His chair leg caught on itself, and the next second he lost his balance and fell face-first onto the floor.
"Ron!" Harry said as he stood up and helped him.
Ron groaned while rubbing his nose. "I swear something tripped me."
Victor took another bite of his snack. 'Ron, you've already caused enough mess today.'
Ron looked around suspiciously, but nobody answered him.
*****
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