In the last chapter:
McGonagall asks for everyone in her Transfiguration class to pick a partner to practice their ballroom dancing.
Victoria was approached by Harry and while unexpected, she had accepted to be his dance partner.
As the two are practicing, Harry asks what she really knows about Sirius Black.

Chapter Fifteen - A Step Closer

Victoria’s breath caught in her throat as she felt Harry’s warm breath against her cheek. “You know of him?” he asked for the second time after she abruptly stopped in her tracks.

She did not mean to stop, she should have not stopped, but she did. How could she not when the question came out of the blue, a question that was so similar to that of Hermione’s? She could already feel her hands dampening with sweat, a signal that her nerves were growing inside her. With a chuckle she had to muster from deep within, she pulled herself away from Harry’s touch. “I-I was just…no…it was just a curiosity thing.” Letting out a quick laugh, she brushed it off, “Let’s continue, should we?” There was no way around it, Victoria had to play this through.

“You know something,” he stated, his emerald eyes set upon her own brown ones, clearly ignoring Victoria’s question. “You became agitated when I mentioned Sirius Black.”

“Did I?” she asked coolly. “I was just taken aback by the way you asked the question, a question similar to that of one Hermione had a week or so ago.” She took this time to look around for the girl, whom she soon found dancing on the other side of the room. “Funny thing really, Black is just another common surname.”

“Really,” he said after a couple of seconds of silence—music—hanging in the air. “I suppose it’s more common in America than it is over here.”

Victoria brushed a strand of hair away from her face as she nodded lightly, turning her sight away from him and towards the dancing couples. “Yes; d’you suppose we should continue with our practice or wait for the bell to ring?”

“I do—” The sharp sound of the bell rang through.

Saved by the bell…cliché and oh-so-good! Victoria thought as she gave Harry a slight smile. While she was not exactly thrilled of what just happened, she didn’t want to seem weird. “I guess that’s it. I guess then I will see you around,” she said to him, and with a curt nod and a simple “okay” on his part, Victoria walked away.

X…….x…….X

“I don’t know, Harry; I think we should make sure before we ask that of him,” Hermione said across the table where Harry sat, Ron beside him looking over one of the textbooks he was working with. “I mean, we aren’t completely sure that girl in the picture is Victoria and Padfoot her father. For all we know, she might have found that picture in one of the books sh—”

“That really doesn’t make much sense,” Ron interrupted with a yawn.

“Really, Ron, where are your manners?” Hermione pointed out, and then continued on her previous thought, “I was just telling Harry abo—”

“That’s the thing,” Ron interrupted again, this time Hermione letting out an audible sigh. Ron ignored her. “She said she found the picture in one of the books from this school library. The question is, how could she? That’s unless one of the professors knew those in the picture and used it as a bookmark, which is very unlikely.”

“There’s Dumbledore and Snape,” Hermione pointed out.

“Really, I doubt either of them—had they a picture to begin with—would have used it as a bookmark and forgotten to take it out before returning it,” Harry quickly offered.

“So she’s lying about the picture then.”

“Exactly.”

“Which means she knows about him and her connection.”

“Had I been told I’m related to someone—wait—who everyone paints as a bloodthirsty killer, I too would not be so keen in being related to him,” Ron said in a hushed tone.

“Honestly Ron, as amazed as I am with your analytical thinking concerning this subject, I would have expected you to do the same with your studies,” Hermione mentioned casually, as a result causing Ron’s face to blush. “Really…”

“See,” Harry noted, “the more reason I should write to him. I mean, wouldn’t he want to know that his dau—”

“You cannot just do that Harry; we have to be sure it is her. As it was said, this can be a coincidence and eve—”

“Didn’t I just tell you what happened during our practice, Hermione? She hesitated. Had she become annoyed by the reference with her surname, she wouldn’t have acted that way,” Harry accosted, pushing aside the textbook he had been looking over. “Besides…I think it’s only fair that he knows…”

“I wonder why, then, he hadn’t mentioned his family to you,” Ron pondered.

“Being inside Azkaban for so long, I’m sure he must have thought them gone.”

“Oy, Harry!” The three turned towards an incoming Seamus. “I have a question to ask.”

“What is it?”

“Dropped a good word or two to Victoria about me?”

“Eh…”

“She’s still dateless—hard to believe, really—so I’m sure with time she’ll come around and acc—”

“I’m not really a matchmaker Seamus…” Harry interrupted with an awkward smile. “But I’m positive with your charming ways she’ll eventually agree.”

AN: Sorry if the ending of this chapter was so... abrupt. :(