Harry Potter and Voldemort's
Vengeance
Chapter five: Victoria de
Guzman
"Sirius, who was that?" asked Harry.
"That was Victoria de Guzman." answered Sirius. "I already told you."
"Yeah, but we want details." insisted Ron.
Remus and Sirius sighed and looked at each other. "It's a very long story." said Remus.
"And we're listening." said Hermione.
Harry stared at her. "What, she's not in a book or something?"
"I haven't even heard of her till now."
"Really." said Ron.
"Oh." said Sirius. "Victoria is one of the best Aurors that the Ministry has got. Very powerful, that girl. Captured two Death Eaters at once one time. Came out with minor scratch. Wasn't even hit by the Unforgivable Curses. Oh, and very smart."
"She's best friends with your mother." Remus told Harry. "Much like Sirius and James. Two peas in a pod. Never see one without the other. And she's always having a screaming contest with Sirius here." He elbowed Sirius.
Sirius smiled. "Yeah!" he said. "Always shouting at me. Man, that girl has got one set of lungs!"
"Why does she shout at you?" asked Harry.
Sirius and Remus grinned at the memories. "Plenty of reasons." said Remus. "Usually, it's because Sirius here was playing pranks on her all the time. She's his favourite target you know ... well, a close second."
"Who was the first?" asked Ron.
"James." said Remus and Sirius together, then laughed.
"He also wants to see her reaction to the prank he played on her." added Remus. "The most usual is the screaming, then a hex, then a hands on fight."
"And that girl can fight pretty well." said Sirius.
"Who usually won?" asked Ron.
"Vicky." said Remus matter of factly. Sirius nodded in agreement.
"Vicky?" said Harry, jaw hanging open.
Sirius nodded. "That was her nickname. Hated it from the start. Her real name is Margarita Andrea Abigail Victoria Jessica de Guzman. Most people call her Victoria. She used to pound anyone who would call her Vicky."
"You lost to a girl?" asked Hermione.
"Yep." said Sirius.
"Oh, and he loves her." added Remus slyly.
"I do not!" said Sirius, blushing red.
Everyone laughed except Sirius. Just then, Victoria came in. She looked much nicer now than a while ago and her gaze was warm. She smiled at everyone. Everyone smiled back, except Sirius who turned an even deeper shade of red. The rest of the group tried very, very hard to contain their laughter.
"What, no smile?" Victoria asked Sirius, with mock hurt and disappointment. "Why was everyone laughing?"
"We were telling them your adventures here with Padfoot when we were young and had small minds." said Sirius.
Victoria smiled, then frowned. "Are you telling me that I have a small brain? I spent half my life in that library!" She sounded serious, but she was only playing, but she did spent half her life in the library. The rest was classes and pranks.
Harry and Ron looked at each other, and then at Hermione, who was gazing at Victoria with interest.
"Yeah, and we had to drag you out of there to make you eat and help us with the pranks." said Sirius, recovering his voice. "I had the feeling that you were going to be the new teacher, Vicky."
Victoria glared at Sirius. "Not Vicky, Siri."
Remus and the other three had to stifle their laughter at Sirius' nickname. Remus grinned at the both of them and then laughed out loud, not able to contain it anymore. His laughter was contagious. Soon everyone was laughing.
"How did you know that it was me?" asked Victoria, recovering her voice.
"Who else got all the OWLs and the NEWTs in Hogwarts? Who was a girl? Only you and Lily ..." Remus trailed off, sensing embarrassment at what he said.
But Harry didn't mind. "My mum got all the OWLs and the NEWTs?" he asked in awe. "What about Dad?"
"Same." said Sirius. "In fact, everyone here got all the OWLs and the NEWTs. But we didn't cheat. So you have one heck of a job with you this year, Harry."
"But Vicky here was the top girl." said Remus.
Victoria turned lightly pink, but all the same glaring at Remus. "Remus, if you don't want to have six broken bones before you even catch sight of Hogwarts, you better stop calling me Vicky." she threatened. "And besides. I wasn't top at everything. Lily was on Charms, you on Defence Against the Dark Arts, James on Transfiguration, and Sirius here on Potions."
"And you on everything else." Remus and Sirius said together.
"And you came second in Transfiguration, third in Defense Against the Dark Arts, second on Charms and third on Potions." added Sirius. Remus nodded in agreement.
Victoria raised her eyebrows at Sirius. "Why, Sirius, you know my grades better than I do."
Remus looked at the two of them. They'd make a great couple. he thought. Then he turned to Harry, Ron and Hermione. Harry and Ron were looking at Victoria with awe and Herione was looking like she wished to be like her in the future. "Do you know these three, by the way?" he asked.
Victoria nodded. "Dumbledore told me all about you three. Told me you three were a right group of adventurers. She looked at Harry. "I did love your parent so much." she told him. "They were the nicest people. They hated each other from the beginning and i took the three of us here to et them up till they realize that they love each other."
"What did you do?" aked Harry.
"Told them we're having a group picnic by the lake and when they got there, there was just the two of them. We were watching the whole thing and then they fought, then talked, then ate, then kissed. It would have been ok, if Sirius here didn't laugh out loud." said Victoria.
"We had to pin him to the ground to hut him up." said Remiss. "But your parents caught us anyway."
"I even have a picture ..." said Victoria. She pulled a picture out of her pocket. There was another picture that fell but he didn't notice and Sirius quickly picked it up.
She handed Harry the picture. It was the day Victoria mentioned and his parents were kissing. James looked an awful lot like Harry in the picture, with the same untidy hair. Harry wanted to keep the picture but reluctantly, he returned it.
Victoria shook her head. "Keep it it's yours. I have copies." She turned to Ron, but Sirius spoke up.
"Victoria, you kept this?" he choked. He showed the picture to everyone. In the picture, there was him and Victoria. Sirius was tickling Victoria to death that they almost fell on the lake.
Victoria quickly snatched the picture from his hand and turned red. She quickly hid the picture and turned to Ron.
"You're Ron Weasley, right?" she asked. Ron nodded. "Your father's really nice to me now. Used to shout at me for ages for pulling a prank that Sirius did."
"It was you who did that!" retorted Sirius.
"Ha! Me? Do a prank? On Lily? You wish!" Victoria answered back. "Anyway, he was head boy with your mother when we were in our fourth year. Always shouted at us and gave us detentions. Never deducted points, though. Used to bombard Lily with questions about Muggles."
She then turned to Hermione. She smiled warmly at her. Hermione smiled back. "Hermione?" she said. Hermione nodded. "Dumbledore tells me that you reminded him of me."
"Really?" said Hermione, her lips forming a little smile.
Victoria nodded. "Said you were brilliant and you can be found either in the Gryffindor Common Room doing homework or -"
"In the library." Harry and Ron finished for her.
Victoria grinned at them. "He also told me that you're very brave and been to many adventures." she said. "That's all well and good, but I just want you to tell me where you'll be going and don't do anything stupid ... like search for Voldemort."
Harry snorted. "Why would we do that? We're not dumb."
"Didn't you say that when Sirius was on the run? You told the Weasleys you won't search for him, but you did." Victoria challenged.
Harry turned red because he knows that she's right.
Finally, she stood up. "Gotta go." she said. When she was by the door, she turned around. "By the way, ever thought of becoming Aurors? You three will make a great team. Not all of us end up with a face like Moody's you know."
With that, she left. The rest were still staring after her, frozen.
"Great woman, she is." said Sirius, breaking the silence. She took out a picture from one of his pockets. It was the same picture of him and Victoria.
"So you do have that picture!" explained Remus. "Now I'm positive you're still crazy in love with her."
"And I have a feeling she feels the same way." said Hermione.
"Guys, shut up!" said Sirius, turning red.
Remus turned to the three of them. "He dated many girls at Hogwarts, but only Victoria touched him in the heart, I'm sure of it."
"I do not even like Victoria!" shouted Sirius.
Harry snorted. "Yeah, right. It's so obvious Sirius." he said. "You have a picture of you two in one of the rare time you get along, you tease her, you turn red whenever she's in the same breathing pace as you. YOU LOVE HER!!!"
"Look, you four. I don't love her. She doesn't love me. So forget it!" said Sirius.
"Sure, Sirius!" they
all chorused.