Sooo I haven't posted in about 2 weeks…it's been buuuusssyyyy so sorry! Yesterday I was busy curling up in my sock drawer because I wasn't at Leakycon to see AVPSY… I cannot WAIT until Starkid gets it up on youtube because I am DYING right now. So I decided I'd write another chapter today to cope with HP/Starkid withdrawal (just kidding. Not really.) I was waiting to try to put out a chapter in Harry's POV, but I don't have enough outlining done for his part of the story yet, so for now it's just Victoire :) BUT there will DEFINITELY be more going on in this chapter than the last. Diagon Alley chapters are always boring, but it had to be done :/ ….hopefully this one's better :) I should really stop my rambling…enjoyyyy

Victoire's POV

That night, Victoire sat in the Gryffindor common room, playing a well-thought-out game of Wizard's Chess. Unfortunately, she was losing to her eleven-year-old cousin Albus, who'd been very much relieved to be sorted into Gryffindor house.

"Bishop to f6," he said with a smirk. Vic cursed under her breath as her knight was thrown from the board, destroyed by Albus' white bishop. "Check mate," Albus gloated.

Vic examined the board as closely as ever, making sure there was no possible move she could make to get out of the trap Albus had set for her. Finally, she sighed in defeat. "You win," she said, throwing her hands up in the air. "I'm done."

"Sore loser, Vic?" Rose Weasley strolled over to the two opponents, having overheard the conversation.

"No," Vic raised her chin. "My mind wasn't completely in the game, is all."

Rose rolled her eyes. "Of course it wasn't."

"It wasn't!" Vic defended. "I've had my mind on other things."

"Oh?" Rose inquired. "Like what?"

Vic hesitated before saying, "I don't think I should talk about it."

Rose's eyes narrowed. "Right," she said, obviously not believing a word Vic had said. Rose turned her attention to Albus. "C'mon, Al. It's almost curfew. We should get to our dorms."

And so Vic was left to sit alone on the sofa by the fireplace, her legs curled next to her body, a somber look on her face.

The truth was, she really had been thinking of other things. Important things. Things that eleven-year-olds should not have to worry about. Things that even she shouldn't have to worry about.

"Vic?" a voice said from across the room. Vic turned her head around to find Ollie already halfway up the stairs to the boys' dorms. "I'm heading to bed. Are you alright?"

Vic nodded her head and gave Ollie a thumb's up. Ollie bid Vic goodnight, then retreated to the dorms. Vic looked around the eerily empty common room. How long had she been sitting here like this? It had seemed like mere seconds since Rose and Albus had headed to bed, but it had to have been much longer than that for the room to have emptied out.

She'd been thinking too much. How could she not, with Uncle Harry, Aunt Ginny, Uncle Ron, and Aunt Hermione gone to who-knows-where? With the Death Eaters at the Granger house? With Teddy's stories of his internship at the Ministry? With Lily and Hugo being left at the Dursley's? With the dementor attack? How could she not be thinking too much? And then there was that word. Horcrux. Where had she heard it before? She knew that all of these things were connected, knew that something big was coming.

Vic didn't even want to get her mind going about her engagement. It was the best thing in her life right now by far, but there was the matter of telling her family, then the wedding planning. Oh, it was all too much to think about at once! She wished she had Teddy here.

"Victoire?" a timid voice came from the direction of the stairs. Vic snapped her head to the source of the sound as James Potter stepped into the dim light of the common room. "Do you know what time it is?"

Vic shook her head, not caring how exhausted and pathetic she must look.

"Vic, it's three o'clock in the morning. You know you have classes tomorrow?"

"So do you, James," Vic's voice came out slow and raspy.

James fiddled with the fabric of his pajamas, something he did when he was nervous. "You've been thinking about it, haven't you?" he asked.

Vic shifted on the sofa. "About what?"

"The dementor attack, right?" James guessed, sitting criss-cross style in front of her on the floor.

"What makes you say that?" Vic proceeded with caution.

James snickered. "You've been curled up on a couch all night, staring into space."

"True," Vic commented.

A long silence ensued, but James broke it by saying, "I've had a lot on my mind, too."

Vic scoffed. "Oh, yes," she said. "I'm sure the perfect James Sirius Potter has had loads to think about."

James' eyebrows furrowed. "I'm trying to get along here, in case you hadn't noticed," he snapped.

Vic and James weren't the best of cousins. She loved him, of course, but they'd never seen eye-to-eye. "Fine, then," Vic placed her feet on the floor and rested her elbows on her knees. "Tell me all about your problems, Jamsie-poo."

The corner of James' mouth twitched. The nickname Vic teased James with had never ceased to bother him.

"I've been thinking about my parents," he admitted.

Vic's expression softened a bit. "James, I'm sure they're fine. You'll see them at Christmas, I promise."

James shook his head, "You don't know that for sure, Vic." The boy's lips began to quiver. "You didn't see…you didn't see my dad when he came to the Dursley's with Lily." Vic remembered Harry's story about his encounter with the Death Eaters. She could only imagine what he'd looked like, fainting on the porch of number 4, Privet Drive. "If that happened to him when he was so close to his family…. Vic, what if my dad doesn't come back for Christmas? What if he doesn't come back ever?"

"He'll come back, James," Vic slid onto the floor beside James, giving him a reassuring squeeze on the shoulder. "He has his two best friends from Hogwarts and your mother with him. Not much can go wrong with the four of them. They defeated You-Know-Who together."

James' mouth curled into a tiny smile. "I suppose you're right."

"Is that all you had on your mind?" Vic asked.

James swallowed hard, an expression of pure terror appearing on his face. "When Mum was taking Albus and I to the Dursley's house, I saw something in the bushes," he whispered. His eyes stared into space, as if he was reliving the entire memory inside his mind. "I'm not even positive what it was. But it was scary. It was huge and black and hairy. And its eyes glowed."

"Like an animal?" Vic asked.

James nodded. "Like a wolf, maybe. A big, black wolf."

A big, black animal. Maybe a wolf. Big. Black. Animal.

"…all I saw was a big black dog…"

Vic's eyes widened. "James," her voice was so quiet that it was nearly inaudible. "A wolf. Could it have been a dog?"

James became immediately suspicious of Victoire. "Why would it have been a dog?"

"Just answer the question!" she begged him.

"I suppose it could have been a dog. Sure. It was absolutely terrifying. I was—"

"Do you know anything about a Padfoot?" she interrupted.

"What?" James was confused. "No, what's a Padfoot?"

"I don't know! That's why I was asking you, obviously." Vic was onto something. She knew it. There was a long pause before she said, "Do you know any spells that can get us to the library without being seen?"

"Why would we need to go unseen?" James asked, beginning to stand.

"Because we're going to go right now, and we'll be in the restricted section."

James' eyes wided and a grin appeared on his face. "I've got just the thing." James ran upstairs as quietly as he could while Vic waited by the fireplace. When he returned, he was carrying a silky fabric in his hands.

Vic gaped at it. "Where did you get that?"

"Family heirloom," James smiled. "Dad says it's traced all the way back to Ignotus Peverell."

Victoire scoffed, doubting the truth of that statement. "So then I guess we're all set for the library?"

James nodded.

Nearly an hour later, Vic and James had leafed through the index of about fifty books for anything that suggested a Padfoot. They'd found nothing. "This is useless!" Vic fumed. "How are we supposed to find anything in this place?"

"Calm down, Vic," James hissed. "Do you want Filch to find us here?"

Vic didn't reply.

"Is there anything else we can search for?" James asked, and suddenly Vic had an idea.

"Lumos," she spoke. Her wand lit up, and she began scanning the titles on the spines of books. After ten minutes or so of silence from the duo, Vic had found something. She removed the book from the shelves, dusting off the front cover with her hand. "Dark Magic: Curses, Jinxes, and Horcruxes," she read aloud. "The author's name is scratched out."

Vic looked up at James, who stood with the invisibility cloak in one hand and his wand in the other. "What's a horcrux?" he asked.

"I don't know," Vic smiled. "That's why we're here."

Just as she began to open the book, a nagging voice came from the end of the isle. "Students!" Peeves wailed. "Students out of their beds! In the restricted section! Gryffindor students!"

"Peeves," Vic pleaded. "Please, Peeves, please don't tell. Please. We need information."

"Students!" Peeves shouted once more.

"We need to know about horcruxes!" Vic squawked.

That shut him up. Peeves floated over to James and Vic until he was inches from Vic's face. "What did you say you needed?" He whispered.

Vic gulped. "Horcruxes."

"If you're making one of those," Peeves' voice became darker than she'd ever heard it, "there isn't any reason you should be at Hogwarts right now."

"We don't want to make one," Vic said. "We don't even know what it is. That's why we're trying to find out."

Peeves narrowed his eyes and poked a finger right through Vic's chest. She let out a small yelp. "You have a heart in there," he said. "People with hearts don't need to be learning about horcruxes."

With that, Peeves turned and floated away.

"That," James whispered, grasping Vic's hand as hard as he could, "was so scary."

Vic and James would have stood there for eternity, had it not been for the pitter-patter of footsteps behind them. They gave each other a knowing glance and made a run for it, not bothering to put on the cloak. They exited the library and sprinted down the corridors, all the while hearing Filch's footsteps behind them. "Ruddy students!" he yelled. "Out of bed! Past curfew!"

James turned down an unfamiliar corridor and Vic followed without question. He opened the only door that seemed to be unlocked and pulled Vic inside after him. The two caught their breath and waited until Filch's footsteps couldn't be heard to move. Vic let out a sigh of relief and sank to the ground.

Glancing around, Vic saw that the door had lead to another corridor, one that ended in a wall that looked much newer than anything else at Hogwarts.

"James," she asked gently, "Where are we?"

James shook his head slowly. "I don't know. The hallway looks like it's been closed off for awhile."

"It looks new to me," Vic said.

"It looks restored," James corrected. He paused. "Mum and dad would kill me if they knew I were here."

Vic snorted. "You think Harry and Ginny would be mad? Try talking to my parents about it. But you'll be fine. Filch didn't catch us. So no one will know."

In front of the pair, a whispy figure began to appear. James would have screamed, had it not been for the hand Victoire cupped over his mouth. In the next moment, a lanky ghost with a freckled face squatted in front of the two, eyeing them carefully.

"Yes?" Victoire prompted, clutching James' hand.

"You look like someone I used to know," the ghost said cautiously.

"I'm sorry," Vic said, "but I don't think I know you." That wasn't altogether true, though. The longer she looked at the young man, the more she recognized his features. She didn't know anyone who'd died, though. She couldn't have possibly known the ghost.

"You said some names that I'm familiar with," the ghost said timidly. "Harry and Ginny. I knew people with their names."

"Probably coincidence," Victoire said, reaching behind her for the door handle. "They're common names."

"What about their last names?" the ghost pleaded.

James was the one to speak. "Potter," he said confidently.

A tear trickled down the ghost's freckled cheek. Could ghosts cry? Apparently this one could. "I knew Harry Potter," the ghost said. "And I knew a Ginny Weasley."

Vic's fingers trembled. Who was this man? "Weasley was her maiden name."

The ghost smiled as more tears ran down his colorless cheeks. "I'm her brother," he said. "I'm Fred."

OKAY so the chapter didn't turn out EXACTLY how I wanted it to, but I hope it's still okay. So far I haven't drifted from my outline, so let's hope that I keep on track :D Review please! It keeps me MOTIVATED.