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"Viktor, please," came a soft voice, reaching her delicate hand out to place it on his arm. "Please, open your eyes."
Reluctantly, Viktor Krum opened his eyes, meeting the gaze of a witch with an engaging green gaze.
She found herself alarmed, at the pure blankness of his dark eyes.
"Viktor, I need you to talk to me, please," spoke the woman, enough desperation in her honest voice to coax a response out of the wizard.
He blinked once, his eyes gaining some coherence as he sighed deeply. "I'm sorry Phoebe."
The woman, Phoebe, shook her vibrant red hair in frustration. "Viktor, do I look upset? I need you to talk to me, please, otherwise we can't get anywhere at all. I think you need to start from the very beginning," she spoke softly.
At age nineteen, Viktor Krum took a reluctant sigh, gestured for Phoebe to come in and sit beside him, and started his story with the moment he lost his freedom.
"Igor Karkaroff vas a vindictive man, one in vhom I had originally placed my trust when I lost my parents. It vas only my second year of school when I lost them, and he took me under his wing while I vas vulnerable, aiming to thrive off my success."
Young Viktor Krum sat in the corner of the cold castle of Durmstrang, carefully polishing his broomstick, a gift from his parents when he started school at age eleven.
"Ah, Viktor," spoke Karkaroff, striding towards him with careful footsteps, and a leering gaze, though Krum did not look at him for more than a moment, before returning to his broom. "I was hoping to run into you today. I have got you a place in a Quidditch training camp for the summer - very intense and it shall not be easy, but well worth your time."
Krum's strong brow furrowed. The boy, who had so recently lost his parents, had been somewhat looking forward to spending the summer with his aunt and uncle, any sort of family ready to provide comfort to the staunch young child.
However, he looked up and met the strong eyes of the Head Master, and let himself submit to the fear he had of the man, nodding his head quietly.
"This happened every break I had for years. I started to fall behind in the parts of school he didn't believe to be so important because I vould be told to train instead, not that I minded, as I loved the game of Quidditch.
It just continued in this spiral that I vas oblivious to. I vas completely under his control - I only found some part of freedom when Bulgaria vanted me on the national team. The independence I had there, Phoebe I'd never felt anything like it before. And then ve vere at Hogwarts," he spoke, shaking his head.
"I cheated on the first task. He'd found out vhat it vas and told me, gave me an unfair advantage over the rest. He said the Conjunctivitis Curse was the only vay to go, but I vould have rather died than hurt those eggs or that dragon.
