The Black Queen | F. Weasley

9. Dementors

Salem walked along the small corridor of the train and looked inside the compartments for familiar faces. Well, she was secretly hoping to find her uncle Remus since he was going to be teaching Defence Against the Dark Arts this year.

She eventually found him in a compartment where Harry, Ron and Hermione were sitting. They appeared to be deep in conversation, Hermione and Ron were staring at Harry glumly. Salem shrugged and opened the door grinning.

"Hi guys!"

Harry looked up startled, but brightened immediately when he saw who it was that had opened the door. Him and Salem had grown close over the years and he regarded her as an older sister. She had told him many stories of his parents and all the mischief they had been apart of. He loved those stories and Salem dearly. He stood up and hugged the girl before sitting down again and observing how his friends hugged his sister.

Salem sat down next to the sleeping man and quirked up het eyebrows. "You were deep in conversation before I interrupted, is it something I can help with?"

The golden trio looked at each other, communicating without actually talking. Salem noticed that they were wary of telling her, so she looked directly at the biggest tattletale of them all and asked her question again.

"Ron, what's going on? I can help you guys, you know that."

The poor boy looked like a deer caught in headlights and she heard Harry sigh disgruntledly. She barely managed to suppress the triumphant smirk that was trying to creep its way on her face when she switched gazes with Ron for the messy haired boy.

"We were talking about Sirius Black."

Salem blinked. Well, she understood now why they were so reluctant to tell her. "So? I talk about my uncle a lot, what's it he's done this time except for the obvious escaping Azkaban?"

Harry tightened his jaw while looking out of the window for a second, he felt uncomfortable about telling her what Mr Weasley had told him.

"Mr Weasley wanted to talk to me privately yesterday. That wasn't necessarily concerning, but what he wanted to talk to me about certainly was. He told me that Sirius Black had escaped, which I already knew, but he also told me that he was one of Voldemort's followers back in the days. They believe that he escaped Azkaban to finish the job...to find me...and to kill me..."

It was eerily silent in the small compartment, Harry dared to look at Salem and noticed that she was frowning while looking at the window.

"The train is slowing down," she mumbled quietly. Ron, who was closest to the window, looked out of it and let his eyes wander over the dark surroundings. Harry stood up and walked to the door, sticking his head outside the compartment to look if he could see if anything was going on. He noticed several other heads sticking out of their compartment to do the same, but they all remained without answers.

"There's something moving out there..." Ron whispered fearfully. Harry turned around to look at his friends, he made eye contact with Salem and knew that nothing good could come from this.

The lights in the train flickered until eventually dying out, earning surprised and fearful yelps and shouts from all throughout the train. The air had turned colder, the four of them were shivering and their breaths would turn into small clouds each time air would leave their lips. The filled water bottle, which was standing on the small table at the window, had turned to ice.

"Something is stepping aboard the train..."

Just as the words had left Ron's lips the train shook violently with a sudden jolt making Harry crash back into the couch. The door glided open and someone fell inside with a loud thud. Hermione cried out in pain when the person crashed into her and apologies filled the compartment profusely.