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"Well," Mrs. Weasley said, giving Harry the chance to tear his gaze away from Attica who was still watching him. "I should probably get some dinner going. Aren't we expecting Minerva tonight?" She directed the question towards her husband.
"Yes," Answered Mr. Weasley. "She sent word last evening that she'd be stopping by tonight."
"Wonderful. You three," She said, turning to Harry, Ron, and Hermione. "Make sure you wash up before dinner. Oh and you'll be staying in the room you did last summer Harry dear."
The three of them turned to go upstairs, Harry dragging his trunk along behind him, it thudded loudly on each step. They reached the landing his room was situated on and went in. After making sure no one was on the stairs, he turned to Ron and Hermione, pulling the parchment with the paw print out of his jeans pocket.
"Here," He said handing it to Hermione who had taken a seat on his bed. "What do you make of it?" Ron was staring at it over Hermione's shoulder, his mouth was hanging open again.
"Harry," Hermione began but hesitated when she saw the desperate look on his face. "Do you have any clue where this came from?"
He stared at Hermione thinking that he had no idea where Hedwig had gotten this particular letter. Someone had to have given it to her directly, otherwise it would have been sent to him by another owl.
"No." He finally answered. "Hedwig came back the other night, I don't know where she got it." He felt a small bubble of despair at not knowing the origins of the paw printed letter. He had been so sure it was from Sirius.
Ron was still staring absorbedly at the letter as if trying to solve a rather difficult jigsaw puzzle. Hermione though was watching Harry with a look of pity in her eyes.
"Didn't Sirius send you a letter like this once, just a muddy print?" Ron asked, suddenly looking up from the parchment.
"Yeah." Harry said. "It was during the Triwizard tournament in fourth year."
Just then someone banged on the door making them all jump. Harry cracked the door and came face to face with Ginny Weasley.
"You showed up and no one told me?" She said with a small mischievous smile, her resemblance to Fred and George being enhanced.
"I had to take my trunk up here." Harry answered, not quite sure why he wasn't going to tell Ginny about the letter.
"Well anyway, Mum told me to tell you that dinner is ready and Professor McGonagall is here too." Then she closed the door and left.
Twenty minutes later found them all packed into the cavernous kitchen of Grimmauld place. Professor McGonagall wasn't the only one to show up for dinner, they were soon joined by Tonks and Kingsley Shacklebolt.
Dinner turned out to be a noisy affair, everyone enjoying themselves. Harry was finding it hard to get involved in any conversation, his mind was still on Sirius's supposed letter which was now hidden inside a book in his trunk upstairs. Harry found that he wasn't the only one who didn't have any interest in the happy conversations around the table. Attica Arias was staring fixedly at the fire, a contemplative look on her face. She turned and her gaze met Harry's, she smiled and then immediately engaged Professor McGonagall in talk.
It was at that moment that Harry remembered something of the Daily Prophet article about Arias. "Rumored to have relations with Sirius Black…" Could she really have known his Godfather? Harry watched her chat politely with McGonagall, a idea slowly forming in his mind.