Does Viktor Krum become an important character?

[delwynmarch]

No: HPFGUIDX 118848


Ces wrote :
" I do not like Krum at all, nor do I trust him.  He is one character
I wouldn't cry any tears over if JKR killed him off.  I think he's a
nasty piece of work."

Del replies :
Oh !? But... Why ??? I'm not criticising you or anything, I'm just
very surprised. What makes you dislike Viktor so much ??

Ces wrote : 
"I know he expresses admiration for Harry, but that could just be a 
cover-up.  While I don't think he particularly liked Karakoff, I can
see him as a junior DE, just like Malfoy.  He could be using Hermione
 to get as much information on Harry as possible."

Del replies :
Do you have any canon to back up your suspicions ?
I personally think that for a Durmstrang and a world celebrity, Viktor
acted very decently in GoF.
We've seen Draco do lots of nasty stuff, but I can't remember seeing
Viktor do anything even remotely bad.

Ces wrote :
"I also had problems with Hermione playing a part for him in GoF.  Why
 pick a student from Hogwarts to help a student from Durmstrang?  That
 doesn't seem quite like fair play in my book.  I'm sure there was 
someone that Krum had known much longer and cared for than Hermione."

Del replies :
But Hermione didn't *help* Viktor ! Quite the opposite in fact, since
she was tied up and away during the whole Second Task. And she didn't
*volunteer* for that part either.
As for there being someone that Viktor cared more about : well, yes,
maybe there would be someone in Bulgaria (I doubt he had any close
friends among the Durmstrang students, since he fairly often hanged
out on his own in the library). But bringing in Gabrielle from France
(if she was indeed in France at the time) was already quite a stretch.
Bringing in someone from Bulgaria would have been downright
ridiculous. Especially since it was *very* obvious that Viktor was
indeed quite taken with Hermione.

Ces wrote : 
" My other pet peeve about Krum is the way he pronounces Hermione's 
name.  For crying out loud, the guy is supposed to be an adult and 
can't pronounce her name after months?  Having a hard name to 
pronounce myself, I know most people take time to learn the correct 
pronounciation after only a few tries.  Krum doesn't seem to make an
effort."

Del replies :
Don't be so hard on him. He's a foreigner remember ? I happen to be a
transplant myself : there are names in this country I have a very hard
time pronouncing, and many people have a hard time pronouncing my
name. My in-laws even had to invent a more local-sounding variation of
my name, because they just couldn't get it ! There are different
sounds, different spellings, and so on, and all of those can really
create barriers.
Viktor strikes me as not being particularly gifted on a linguistic
level (well, pretty much all foreigners seem to share in that weakness
in the Potterverse - I mean, Fleur didn't even figure out the use of
the letter H in English after spending several months at Hogwarts !),
so I would think we could cut him some slack.

Del, who likes Viktor Krum and hopes to see a bit more of him in the
future