Barnaby Lee x Reader - Year 6

Another White Quill

Lana learnt that the wizard in white robes was an ex-student from the Japanese magic school, Mahoutokoro. He was the Azkaban escapee, the one who was out to kill her. Lana and Beatrice were given detention for sneaking out, scrubbing pots and pans in the kitchens.

Penny arrived in the kitchens to tell Lana something, but demanded to know why Beatrice was in detention. Beatrice stormed off, and Penny sent Lana to the owlery to find Talbott. She had a feeling that Penny was mad at her for potentially endangering Beatrice, but she'd get to that later.

"It's not often you reach out to me. Whatever you need to tell me must be important." Lana said as she approached Talbott.

"It is. I think I found the white owl you were looking for a little while back." Talbott said, "It's a white-eagle owl, right?" he asked.

"Yeah, is it here?"

"No, it got spooked as I entered the owlery and flew off. But not before it dropped the letters it was clutching all over the owlery."

"That explains what these letters are doing on the ground." Lana said, looking down at the messy floor, "I just assumed the owls got sloppy."

"I remembered that the white quill was a transfigured secret message threatening to kill one of your friends. So I thought the letters might be important." Talbott told her.

"More than you know."

"What does that mean?"

"Sorry, Talbott, but I can't tell you any more. You see—"

"You don't have to explain. I know the importance of keeping certain things secret."

"But I could use your help looking through all these letters. And just think, the faster I finish, the faster you get your owlery back to yourself." Lana smiled knowingly.

"Then let's get reading." Talbott chuckled.

They split the huge pile of rogue letters into two, each taking a smaller pile to look through. However, Lana didn't find anything if interest.

"I've combed through my share of the letters, but nothing stood out to me." she told Talbott.

"Same here, though I couldn't read one of them. I think it was in Japanese."

"Did you say Japanese?" Lana asked, widening her eyes, "Dumbledore told me the missing dark wizard is a former students of the Japanese wizarding school!"

"So you think this letter is to or from him?" Talbott asked her.

"It has to be. I didn't tell you this earlier, but he attacked me at the lakeshore. Apparently he's after me."

"Does every dark wizard wanna kill you?" Talbott asked dryly.

"Talbott, this is serious." Lana said firmly, "If I can definitely prove this letter was written to or by the same guy, I can confirm the sus position I have regarding who he's working for and what his motives are. But the only way to do that is to translate this letter, which probably won't be easy." she sighed.

"Sounds like you could use help."

"Am I imagining things, or did you volunteer to help just now?" Lana asked him.

"I know what people like this dark wizard are capable of. After all, I saw what can happen firsthand when my parents were murdered by Death Eaters." Talbott said, "I wanna become an Auror to stop people like him from doing anymore damage. Helping you might help put this dark wizard in Azkaban faster. That's worth sacrificing a bit of alone time for."

Lana was shocked at his offer, but thanked him nonetheless.

"Thank you, Talbott. I know you're not doing it for my sake, but I really appreciate the help." she smiled.