Barnaby Lee x Reader - Years 3&4

Should We Trust Her?

The next day, Lana met her friends in the library. Her and Tulip were going to tell the others about the incident with Rakepick and Snape. Lana sat in between Tulip and Barnaby, with Bill, Rowan and Ben opposite them.

"Them them what we heard, Lana Riviera." Tulip started.

"Rakepick and Snape found another sleepwalking student, and they think it's a curse caused by soon messing with a Cursed Vault. Also they don't seem to like each other much." Lana finished with a laugh.

"Professor Snape doesn't like someone? I don't believe it." Bill joked.

"What do you think about Madam Rakepick?" Rowan asked Lana.

"I do think she's quite cool. She's brave, powerful and confident. And you should've seen the way she handled Snape! But I still don't trust her very much. There's just something about her that I don't like..." Lana answered honestly. "We should keep trying to find the next vault ourselves." she added.

"We found a map of the Forbidden Forest inside of the last Cursed Vault, but it's hard to tell where it leads. Let's study maps of the Forbidden Forest and see what we find..."

Lana and her friends looked through heaps of books, trying to learn more about the Forbidden Forest. She got up to find another book on the creatures that inhabit the Forbidden Forest, and Barnaby came with her.

"What you looking for?" he asked her.

"Oh! Barny, hi!" she smiled at him. "I'm just looking for a book on the creatures inside the Forbidden Forest. But I the only one I can see is up there and I can't reach." Lana pouted.

"Aww don't worry, I'll get it for you." he said, kissing her cheek before easily reaching the book that she'd been after.

"Thanks, Barny." she smiled, taking his hand and walking back to the table.

"Centaurs and Trolls and Acromantulas? Oh no..." Ben worried as Lana and Barnaby sat back down.

"The creatures in the Forbidden Forest don't scare me as much as getting caught. Dumbledore will have our wands." Rowan told the group.

"If we enter the forest at just the right spot, we can be in and out before the creatures or the professors find us. Lana tried reassuring Rowan.

"I'm fairly certain we've determined the best place to enter, but that won't help once we're inside." Tulip added.

"Tulip is right." Bill said, "I went in there with Charlie once, and got turned around d. I'd still be in there if it weren't for him."

"Everyone should keep studying the forest to work out exactly what we'll need to prepare." Rowan suggested, "Come with me, Lana. We have another mystery to solve." She finished, giving Barnaby a look before getting up and walking away, but Lana didn't see it.

Lana was about to get up and follow her, when Barnaby grabbed her hand. "What's the matter?" she asked the boy, concerned.

"Did you not see? Rowan gave me a weird look. I'm not sure what it meant but I don't think she likes me very much..." he said, giving it some thought. Rowan noticed that Lana wasn't with her, so she turned around and ushered for the girl to follow.

"Right, I gotta go. I'm sure it didn't mean anything, ok?" Lana said, trying reassure him. "I'll catch up with you later, Barny." she finished, kissing his head and following Rowan.

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"What did you want to meet about, Rowan?" Lana asked once her and Rowan were sat in the Great Hall.

"I think Rakepick is the mysterious 'R' who wrote that letter to Ben, and drew the Forbidden Forest map." the spectacled girl replied.

"Why's that?"

"In addition to the obvious initial, the tone of the letter matched her tone during the start of term feast. We know she's interested in the Cursed Vaults, and that letter sent Ben to the corridor that led to the Ice Vault."

"I still don't understand why we couldn't talk about it in front of our friends..." Lana said.

"Because I'm not sure if Ben really is our friend. I still think he's hiding something." Rowan replied, making Lana roll her eyes in frustration.

"Come on, Rowan. We talked about this at the end of last year. There's no reason to believe that Ben is lying." Lana answered firmly, "That being said, I'll admit that Madam Rakepick does seem like the most likely suspect to be 'R'."

"The letter mentioned severe consequences for disobeying. What will happen if she finds out that we're trying to find the next Cursed Vault?" Rowan fretted.

"Try not to worry, Rowan. Let's just keep calm, and talk this through..."

The girls talked over a meal, discussing why not to worry about Rakepick. Lana managed to make Rowan feel better about it, explaining that everything will be ok.

"I suppose you're right, Lana. We shouldn't accuse Rakepick of being 'R' until we know more about her. I hope we can trust her - we could use her help to break the curse, and find the Cursed Vaults."

"From their conversation, it sounded like Rakepick and Snape used to be classmates. The other professors might know her too. I'll ask them all about her next time I go to class..." Lana told her friend, before walking out of the Great Hall to class.

another chapter up :)
this one had a bit more of Barnaby in it, but I promise that in the next one (which should be up in a few hours cause I have a shit tonne of ideas) he will be a lot more involved <3
so please vote & comment if you liked it and I'll see you soon!
byeee <3