Barnaby Lee x Reader - Years 3&4

Back to School

The summer was a long one. Barnaby was coping at home, but just barely. He missed his friends a lot, but he missed Lana more.

They wrote to each other everyday, and Barnaby managed to get Lana to send her owl to his window so his grandmother wouldn't see and ask questions.

It was August 31st, one day until everyone boarded the Hogwarts Express. Barnaby had already packed his trunk a few days earlier out of excitement, and he told his grandmother to drop him off 2 hours before the train left to Hogwarts so that he could meet Lana earlier (but of course he didn't tell her that) - they'd discussed it in their letters that they'd meet by the platform at around 10am.

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

Lana was in a rush - her parents woke up an hour before they had arranged to leave, and she couldn't find her wand!

Everyone was rushing around the house trying to find it for her, with 5 minutes before they had to leave!
She finally found her precious wand, and by the time they'd got into the car, it was past 10am!

Lana felt so upset because she knew that Barnaby would've been waiting on the platform for her, but she had no way of telling him that she had a late start.

They eventually made it to the platform, and after saying goodbye to her parents, Lana ran onto the train, trying to find a compartment to sit in, hopefully with all of her friends.

She walked down the corridor of the train, peering into every compartment in hopes to see the familiar faces she loved so much.

After a couple of minutes, Lana spotted a familiar head of red hair - it was Bill! But he was with a few other friends that she hadn't met before, so she knocked on the door of the compartment.

"Lana!" Bill greeted with a wide smile, getting up and hugging her.

"Hi! I'm so sorry to interrupt, but I ran a bit late this morning, and I can't find the others!" the younger girl fretted, pulling away from him.

"Hey, it's ok - you can sit with us, don't worry!"

Lana was grateful to her friend, and sat down with him and his older mates.

The train came to a stop, and Lana woke up from sleeping for most of the way.
She bolted up, and walked off the train with Bill after changing into her red and gold robes.
They got to the castle and waited to enter the Great Hall for the start of term feast.

"Lana! There you are!" Lana heard Rowan's voice behind her. She turned around and quickly hugged her, apologising for not sitting with them and explaining why.

"Everyone was so worried!" she continued, "Barnaby didn't say a word the whole journey. He just sat and stared out of the window. It was really strange..." she finished.

Lana's heart sank at the thought of leaving him there alone. She'd have to find him as soon as she could and explain everything.

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

Lana saw Penny in the Great Hall before everyone was seated and Penny practically jumped on her, hugging her.

"Lana! It's so great to see you, how was your summer?" she asked excitedly.

"It was great thanks!" Lana replied happily, pulling away, "I'm excited to catch up with everyone and find the next vault."

"You might wanna talk to Ben first. You know how he gets, but I haven't seen him this scared..." Penny said, worriedly and looking over at the blonde boy.