Eternal Patience

Another Attack

"I'm guessing Valentine's Day went well?" asked Rowan in annoyance as she looked up from her notes to catch Barnaby miming a pinched-face Madam Pince Impression and Sarah stifling giggles for the third time. 

"Depends on what you mean by 'well,'" said Sarah. "I mean, the party was a total disaster and something happened that was bad enough for Lockhart to modify our memories and vanish, so I guess it could've gone better."

"I thought it was perfect," said Barnaby. Sarah grinned and looked away. 

Soon after, a third-year Gryffindor came up to their table and offered Sarah a scroll. "I'm supposed to give you this from Dumbledore," she said, before scurrying away. 

Rowan and Barnaby looked over curiously as Sarah unfurled and read the scroll. "I have to go see Dumbledore."

At the same time, Barnaby said, "What for?" and Rowan asked, "What have you done, now?"

"I mean, loads of things, but everything I've done with either Snape's or Rakepick's permission, so I can't be in trouble..."

She sounded like Barnaby giving Rowan a quiz answer. Extremely uncertain. 

"Well, good luck," said Rowan, as Sarah stood and shouldered her bag. She nodded and left. "Good, now we'll finally be able to get some work done," said Rowan. "We lost nearly two days of studying thanks this whole Valentine's Day nonsense."

********************

The next Saturday was the Slytherin vs. Hufflepuff quidditch match. It was an absolute bloodbath. By the end of the game, Barnaby wasn't even enjoying blasting bludgers at the other players. The final score was 210 to 30, which meant two things; Slytherin would be playing against Gryffindor in June for the cup, and Slytherin was the favorite to win. 

Barnaby had a hard time getting away from his fellow Slytherins for the next few days. Everyone wanted to congratulate him on the match and offer advice for the next one. He managed to pull himself away though, when Sarah asked him to meet in the courtyard after lessons one day. 

"Something to do with the vaults?" he asked. 

"No, just to hang out," she said. 

He was only slightly disappointed when he arrived at the courtyard to discover he hadn't been the only person Sarah had invited. Rowan, Ben, and Jae Kim were all there too. 

"This isn't something to do with the vaults, is it?" squeaked Ben when Sarah arrived.

"No, I just wanted to catch up," said Sarah. 

"Really?" asked Rowan, eyebrows raised. 

"Yeah. Remember when Dumbledore called me to his office the other day? He encouraged me to try to focus less on the vaults and spend more time being a kid and enjoying Hogwarts. I realized he was right."

"Really?" they all said together. 

She chuckled. "Yes, really. I've been obsessing so much over Rakepick and my brother that it's nearly driven me mad. And it's not getting me anywhere. I'm still going to find my brother, but I can't keep dwelling on that and forgetting about the great people I've got right in front of me."

She smiled around at them all. "so, what's everyone been up to lately?"

They spent a pleasant hour or so catching up. Barnaby started to realize Jae Kim wasn't as bad as he thought. He even told Barnaby how to get into the kitchens any time he wanted. That was a game changer. 

Finally, Rowan checked her watch and nodded. "Well, this has been really great, but Barnaby and I should get back to studying." She began walking back to the castle.