Barnaby Lee x Reader - Year 6

Another Victim

After questioning the wizard from Mahoutokoro for a while, he proved useless. He wouldn't let up about who the mole or 'R''s leader was. Lana took it upon herself to go back to Hogwarts and call a meeting with the Circle of Khanna.

Entering the Hog's Head, she saw everyone sat patiently waiting for her arrival, talking amongst themselves. Barnaby's head shot up from his conversation with Charlie when he saw Lana enter the pub. He rushed over to her and she threw her arms around him, desperate to be as close to him as she possibly could.

"You're alright!" he breathed, face buried in her hair as his arms held onto her waist securely.

"I'm alright..." she said back, squeezing him tightly.

"What happened back there?" he asked her anxiously.

"I'll tell you all in a minute." Lana said, pulling away and smiling at him.

"I'm so happy you're ok." Barnaby told her, cupping her cheeks.

"Me too." Lana replied, chuckling anxiously, "I'm here now, so you don't need to worry." she smiled, kissing him softly before joining Ben and Merula at the front.

"Thanks for meeting again, everyone. Right back at the very place where we formed the Circle of Khanna." the brunette started.

"We have news..." Merula added.

"We finally did it - we finally infiltrated 'R'!" Lana grinned.

"With the help of many Circle of Khanna members, especially Penny, Tonks, Talbott, and Jae." Ben said.

"Great work, team!" Barnaby grinned, making Lana smile warmly at him.

"It's not all good news." Merula said, killing the positive atmosphere.

"Rakepick showed up at the meeting and almost took all of us out." Lana elaborated.

"How terrible! Were you scared, Lana?" Tulip asked.

"Definitely. She killed my best friend and this time turned her wand on me." Lana growled, "But we shouldn't let fear stand in the way of bringing her to justice. The Circle of Khanna came together to stop Rakepick and 'R' and avenge Rowan. So fear or no fear, it's what we'll do."

"Standing up to Rakepick is still very brave, Lana." Penny smiled.

"Tell them the even bigger news, Riviera." Merula encouraged, nudging Lana's arm.

"Right. We learned something quite shocking...'R' has a mole working for them inside Hogwarts." Lana explained, watching everyone's eyes widen.

"You mean an actual double-agent on the school grounds?" Diego asked.

"Exactly. We called you together because we intend to find out who it is." Merula nodded. The Circle discussed between themselves who they most suspected the mole of 'R' to be. They came to the conclusion that seeing as Rakepick was a professor, it could probably be another professor.

Hooch, Snape, and Filch were their top suspects, and they made plans to investigate and interrogate all three of them. However, Hooch and Filch were quickly ruled out, with it being obvious that none of them were the mole. Lana was finishing up talking to Snape when Barnaby burst into the classroom, looking out of breath and panicked. Lana placed her hand on his shoulder and gave him a concerned look.

"Professor Snape! Lana! Come quick—there's an emergency in the library!" he panted. Barnaby grabbed Lana's hand and led her and Snape to the library. He was silent the whole way there, so Lana assumed something must have been terribly wrong.

Entering the doors of the library, they were greeted with a large crowd of students all staring in the same direction - some with fear on their faces, others trying to see what the fuss was about.

"Alright, alright—give us some room." Snape ordered, parting a way through the mess of pupils, "Gawking with your mouths open like a fish never helped anyone..." he muttered. It was soon clear that yet another student had been petrified and turned into a statue.

"This is terrible..." Lana whispered, heart dropping at the sight of the poor victim, her hand still tightly holding onto Barnaby's.

"Another classmate falls to the statue curse." he said glumly, "Those cursed vaults are just filled with...with darn curses! It's right horrible, Lana!" he frowned.

"And here I was so focused on finding 'R''s mole...I almost forgot we're still suffering from the curse." Lana said, guilt washing over her.

"Madam Pomfrey is still petrified, now another student!" Barnaby said, eyes glued to the petrified girl.

"If only those mole interrogations went better maybe we could find the final vault." Lana sighed, "And break the curse!"

Barnaby looked down at her and noticed just how much she was affected by it all. He pulled her into a hug and leant his head on top of hers, heart breaking at the sight of her feeling so responsible for everything that had happened.

"I'm sure you're trying really hard, love. Maybe you'd feel better if you told me about it?" he asked her, feeling her shift in his arms and look up at him. She nodded, giving him a watery smile as she began explaining everything to him.

"So after my interviews, it appears Filch and Hooch are in the clear, but Snape may warrant another look." Lana told Barnaby quietly.

"Do you really think Snape could be the mole?" Barnaby asked in a hushed voice, eyebrows raised as his forest green orbs travelled over to the potions master.

"I'm not sure. I just can't rule him out yet." Lana replied, "But he was very cagey when I questioned him, and he's always trying to get me to stop searching for the vaults..." she added.

"Well, you are a student, Lana. Maybe he's just being sensible? Not that I necessarily know what's sensible." Barnaby suggested, "Sounds like if Snape is truly the mole remains to be seen." Lana nodded in agreement with him, she hadn't thought of that yet.

"Right now I'm more interested in Madam Hooch's comments about the mysterious flier at the black lake." she said, remembering back to her conversation with the flying instructor, "I just know it's the mole trying to get to the final vault before us."

"I suppose we're all looking for the same thing. And all believe it's in the water." Barnaby said.

"Still, seeing what happened here today makes it clear - the curse has to be broken. Which means I need to get to that bloody vault before anyone else." Lana said.

"But what about searching for 'R''s mole?" the Slytherin boy asked her.

"It'll have to be on hold." Lana sighed, "I don't think I have a choice. We want to protect the school and our classmates. And as long as the dangers of the cursed vaults are out there, none of us are safe. Which means we need to speed up plans fo search the depths of the black lake and get there before 'R' does." she explained to him.

"Well, that could take a while as it's a big place! So you'll need to be really good at holding your breath." Barnaby said, eyes wide.

"Hey, you know what could be helpful for that? The bubble-head charm! If you cast it, you should be able to breathe under water." Lana realised, a smile creeping onto her lips.

"Too bad we haven't learnt it yet." Barnaby sighed.

"But we have, Barny. In Filtwick's class!"

"Huh, really? Guess I've already forgotten it. That's not like me..." the boy frowned, making Lana chuckle at him.

"Well, I guess I could give you a...private lesson." she said, smirking up at him.

"What do you—oh..." Barnaby realised, a blush crawling across his cheeks.

"But in all seriousness, we need to review the charm. Let's go find Ben - he's good at charms." Lana said, and the pair of them headed to the charms classroom to find their friend.

hi friends! :)
how's everyone doing? i hope u enjoyed this chapter - i'm impressed with how i'm updating, considering my work load atm XD
also, who do u think the mole is? i haven't really suspected anyone fully, but i saw somewhere that Alanza's transfer to the school is pretty convenient...
anyhoo! tysm for reading and i'll see u in the next one!
byeee <3