The Black Queen | F. Weasley

22. A bit of a snake after all

The group of them were currently backtracking through the tunnel. Crookshanks was strutting on the fore front of the line, followed by Ron, Pettigrew and Remus, behind them was a floating Snape whose head lolled from side to side and occasionally bumped against the low ceiling of the tunnel, Sirius was right behind Snape alongside Salem, both of them didn't really care about the fact that Snape would probably have a headache in the morning, the line was closed by Harry and Hermione at the back.

Apart from the occasional whimpering from Pettigrew the lot of them were walking quietly. Sirius suddenly gasped as he remembered something and looked at his niece with an accusing glare.

Salem felt how his eyes bored into the side of her head and glanced curiously at him. "What's wrong?"

He glared at her some more before finally relenting. "You could squash me like a cockroach if you wanted to?"

The girl looked surprised for a second, but within seconds a mischievous twinkle could be seen in her eyes and a smirk graced her lips. "Most definitely."

Sirius scoffed loudly making Remus glance over his shoulder to look at Salem questioningly. She simply winked at him which earned her a roll of his eyes, but she noticed how he had slowed down a bit to catch the rest of their conversation.

"You could not! You really wouldn't be able to get rid of me that easily!"

"I can confirm that that's indeed true-" Remus perked up from the front, "-seeing that I've tried several times and failed."

"See, told you," Sirius said while looking smugly at Salem who looked all the more amused.

"It's cute how you managed to turn that insult into a compliment."

Sirius glowered at the girl, but the hint of a smile played around his lips. "Shut up, Salem."

"Shut up, Pluto."

"You know-" Remus called out as he regarded the bickering couple who looked up at him curiously, "-I can see why the two of you are related..."

He let his words sink in, noticing how both they were smiling shyly at each other now. Remus gloated on the inside, as he imagined the moment their expression would change when he would finish his sentence. "...you're both full of shit, all the time."

Salem's eyes widened and she whipped her head back around to stare at him in disbelief. Sirius, in the meanwhile, had gasped loudly and an offended noise left his mouth. Remus barked out a laugh at seeing their expressions, it was even more satisfying than in his imagination. Salem heard Harry snicker from behind them and Hermione and Ron's chuckling filled the narrow tunnel as well.

The girl observed how Sirius tried to look over his shoulder unnoticeably at Harry, but was failing miserably. She slowed down in her step a bit, switched places with the boy allowing him to talk to his godfather and listened to their conversation quietly.

"You know what this means?" The man asked as he glanced at Harry. "Reporting Pettigrew to the ministry?"

Harry nodded with a smile. "That you'll be free again."

"Yes..." He agreed. "But - I don't know if anyone has told you - but I'm your godfather."

"Yes, I knew that," Harry said and continued to look at Sirius expectantly. Salem had an inkling about where her uncle was going with this, and a happy feeling filled her chest at the thought.

"Well, they appointed me as your guardian in case anything would happen to them..." he started and twirled Snape's wand between his fingers nervously. "...I would completely understand if you'd rather stay with your aunt and uncle... but... I mean, think about it for a while... if you would ever want to stay somewhere other than with them..."