388 Milady's honour!

The next day during Reima and Ciri's morning run Krum joins them along with a few other students who seem to have been motivated by their daily exercise.

Reima doesn't really mind Krum being present but he seems to be glancing at Ciri way more often now, he wonders to himself why for a moment before returning his concentration back to running while levitating Snuffles.

Additionally, today they even had a surprising extra. Harry and his friend Neville had asked to run with them, which they had accepted without any qualms.

The group of Reima, Ciri, Krum, Harry, Neville and a wild Fleur who appears from the long grass run around the lake at a good pace. Though Reima can already see the sweat gathering on Neville's forehead, the boy is pretty chubby which is probably why he's having trouble so quickly. As they pass they hear an occasionally cheer from Luna who's watching as they run, as had become a normal occasion since they had inducted her into Gryffindor.

Neville ends up having to stop first immediately after the first lap, laying down on the grass breathing heavily. Next is Harry who had done better than Reima had actually expected, followed by Fleur and then Krum who reluctantly drops to his knee's while watching Ciri and Reima continue to run laps around the lake.

Once Ciri collapses next to everyone else Krum approaches Reima and asks will still breathing slightly too heavily. "Is it true? Vat you did to those Slytharins?"

Reima shrugs, "Yeah? They attacked first though."

Krum shakes his head, "I heard differently from various people." he says, glaring daggers at Reima.

Reima "... I'm not really sure what you want from me? You want me to say sorry for not dying when I'm told to or something?" he asks confused.

Krum "You should not act like a brute, especially towards ladies." he says, unconsciously glancing at Ciri.

Reima scratches the back of his head, "Er, ok? Thanks for the advice... Yo guys, get dressed, it's almost time for breakfast." he says towards the exhausted group before making his way to his dorm to get changed, noting that Krum is still glaring at his back all the while

They make their way down to breakfast and he immediately feels the harsh gaze of the rest of the school on him, he catches a bundle from the air and opens it, knowing it'll probably be the Daily Prophet. He sighs to himself when he reads the title, "Brutal assault on son of Wizangamot member in Hogwarts!"

...

Reima "The fuck?" he quickly reads it and finds it's from Rita Skeeter, the only way possible for her to find out about this is either from the students themselves of the rumour mill of the school as he'd been keeping an eye out for a blue beetle lately. His suspicions are only confirmed by the lack of photo's of the event on the paper, something that'd be so common on Rita's work that she could have trademarked it.

Over in the Slytherin table Krum slams the paper onto the table and marches over to them, Reima feels as if he's about to get punched but it never comes...

Krum "Miss Rivia, vill you accompany me to the Yule ball?" he asks loudly, causing the rest of the hall to focus their attention on them.

Ciri's about to answer when Reima interrupts.

Reima "Sorry mate, but she's coming with me." he says, realising he hadn't actually asked Ciri yet.

Krum watches as Ciri's expression changes from confused, shocked and then neutral. He feels rage boil up inside as he see's his cruch being taken advantage of in-front of his eyes by this violent brute. "Reima Ludvig! I challenge you to a duel to take the lady to the ball!" he exclaims, forgetting that his Headmaster had explicitly forbid any of the students from attempting to duel someone from another school.

...

Reima/Ciri "What?"

Krum "I can see you are forcing her to accompany you! You are a coward and I vill not allow you to continue!"

Karkaroff "VIKTOR! What are you doing!" he shouts from the teachers table where they all are watching this with interest, especially Professor Flitwick.

Krum "I am challenging this лайнар, говно to a duel!"

Karkaroff scowls deeply at his protege, this wasn't Bulgaria and there were laws to prevent honour duels in England.

Dumbledore "Perhaps you should prevent your student from doing something unfortunate Karkaroff?" he says quietly but with a hidden force behind it.

Flitwick "Now, now. I believe if these young men wish to have an honest duel for the opportunity to bring the lady to the ball, they should be able to." he says, loud enough for th rest of the hall to hear.

Krum, taking this as permission to continue presses on, "Vell? Vat say you Reima!?!"

Reima looks at Ciri who's smiling smugly at him.

Ciri "Go on, fight for my honour lover." she says while trying to not burst out into laughter.

Reima "Fine, but I won't forget this." he says before standing up and looking Krum in the eye. "I accept, just don't regret this later." he says, causing Flitwick to clap in excitement, "The duel will be held in a week inside the great hall!! Oh I'm so excited, we haven't had a good duel since the duelling club was shut down!"

Dumbledore just strokes his beard while observing everything that's happening, he'd tried to prevent Karkaroff's student from challenging Reima for his own safety... He was one of the only people around with mage-sight and he knew no one else was aware of this boys ridiculous level of power... Hopefully nothing drastic would happen and draw the attention of the Ministry or god forbid the school council.