Barnaby Lee x Reader - Year 6

Madam Pomfrey?!

Lana woke up the next morning, still in Barnaby's arms. She turned around in his grip to look at him, just as his eyes were fluttering open.

"Morning." he said groggily.

"Morning." she giggled, "Thank you for letting me stay."

"Of course. Don't worry about it." Barnaby smiled, sitting up.

"I gotta go and meet Ben now. He told me yesterday to find him at the courtyard." Lana said, dragging a hand down her face in exhaustion.

"Is he still acting funny?"

"More than ever. Did you know he's been making frequent trips to the Forbidden Forest to purposefully piss off acromantulas?!"

"Ben? Ben Copper? No way." Barnaby said, shaking his head and getting out of bed and changing into his uniform.

"Yes way. Barnaby, he's not the same Ben I met in first year, and I don't like it. He claims he's only doing it to protect everyone, but it's gone too far." Lana sighed, also getting up.

"Did you want me to come with you when you see him?" Barnaby asked once he was dressed, moving over to her and circling his arms around her waist.

"No, it's ok." she sighed again.

"You sure?"

"Positive." she smiled.

"At least let me walk you to your dorm. Your clothes are back there." Barnaby chuckled.

"Thank you." Lana laughed.

They walked to the West Tower so that Lana could get into her dorm to change, joining Barnaby again 10 minutes later.

"So what does Ben want then?" Barnaby asked, taking her hand as they walked to the courtyard.

"I mean, he mentioned Cedric Diggory yesterday ..." Lana replied, lacing their fingers together.

"Isn't he the new first-year everyone's getting worked up about?"

"Yeah, him. He's a really nice guy, don't get me wrong, but I don't see what the fuss is all about. Merula will say I'm jealous that he's getting more attention than me now, but I don't care about all that. It's more the fact that my best friends are so preoccupied with some 11 year old that they're too busy to help me with more important things." Lana ranted, "Sorry, I didn't mean to—"

"No, it's ok. I understand - you've got a lot on your plate right now, and you need people by your side. It's not fair that they're choosing some kid over you." Barnaby told her, "I'll always be right here whenever you need me, you know that, don't you?"

"Yes, I do. And it's the same for me. I'm not going anywhere, whether you like it or not." Lana giggled.

"I wouldn't have it any other way." he grinned, kissing her cheek.

"I'll see you later then." she said as they reached the lower floor.

"See you later." Barnaby smiled, kissing her softly before she left.

"Lana." Ben's now cold tone rang from behind her.

"Ben, hi. What did you need?" Lana asked.

"I wanted to talk to you about Cedric Diggory."

"Ben, you don't need to show off your new friendship with Cedric to me." the girl rolled her eyes, "I should be focusing on figuring out what to do about this escaped wizard anyway. If he is after me and possibly the assassin my brother warned me about, he could attack any time."

"You've got me as your protector. All you need to 'do about him' is stick near me." Ben said confidently, smiling cockily.

"That's another thing. I'm still not sure I want you as my 'protector'. I already have Barnaby." Lana said.