The Black Queen | F. Weasley

2. Making friends

Salem ran through the barrier between platforms nine and ten, pushing her cart out in front of her. Her uncle Remus followed soon after. He put a hand on her shoulder and helped her steer her cart to the place where all the luggage was being loaded on the train by its personnel.

"Will Bobby be alright uncle Remus?" Salem asked her uncle while looking up at him. Her big grey eyes met with his green ones and he smiled down at the girl he considered his own daughter.

"Yes Salem, most certainly will Bobby be alright. They're taking the utmost care of him and will bring him to your chambers after you're sorted in a house."

She nodded in understanding and her hands went to her necklace, twiddling it through her fingers in a nervous gesture. Remus looked at her and took her hands in his, halting her movements. "What's wrong Salem?"

Salem sighed deeply and didn't meet her uncle's eyes. "What if I get sorted in Slytherin? I don't want to get sorted in Slytherin and turn out like Bellatrix or Lucius."

Remus tilted her head up by softly grabbing her chin with his fingers. "You won't turn out like them Salem, you shouldn't worry about that. I believe in that you know what is right and what is wrong and when you act by what you think is right, you can't go wrong...

"And if you're still worried and you really don't want to be sorted in Slytherin, than you can always ask the sorting hat to put you elsewhere. Sirius did that as well."

Salem's eyes twinkled at the mention of her uncle Sirius. Despite the obvious hate Kreacher always showed he had for the man, she was still very fond of him. Well as fond of him as one could be, seeing she had never met him before and she only knew the stories from before his arrest. "Really? Uncle Sirius asked the sorting hat to be sorted elsewhere?"

Remus nodded with a smile, thinking back on his old friend. "He really did, he told the sorting hat that he didn't want to be sorted in Slytherin and the sorting hat listened and put him in Gryffindor."

Salem looked at her uncle in awe, she didn't know that that was even possible. She would definitely try that out if the sorting hat was thinking of putting her in Slytherin.

"Come on, you have to board the train. It's almost eleven o'clock." He said and the smile that decorated his face turned sad. Salem looked up at him with watering eyes, she didn't want to leave her uncle. He had taken care of her since she was three  together with Kreacher and had been there for her every single day since. How was she going to survive without them.

She threw her arms around his middle and hugged him as tight as she could, not wanting to let go. "I'm going to miss you uncle Remus."

"I'm going to miss you too, sweetheart." He squeezed her a little bit tighter against his body before slowly letting go. "I love you, and I will write you a lot alright? Everything's going to be okay."

"I love you too uncle Remus! I'll write you as much as I can!" She smiled back at him one more time before boarding the train. She quickly looked for an empty compartment and found one very close to where she saw uncle Remus standing for the last time. She went inside and spotted him almost immediately. Salem opened the top window so she could still talk a bit with him and hear him as well.

The Hogwarts Express started moving forward at exactly eleven o'clock. She smiled and waved enthusiastically at her uncle one last time and yelled that she loved him until she couldn't see him anymore, because the train had moved too far away.

The door of the compartment opened and two red haired boys and one with dreadlocks stood in the door opening. They grinned brightly at her.

"Hi, can we sit with you perhaps? All the other compartments are full and it's a long trip," one of the red haired boys asked while shrugging apologetically.