Barnaby Lee x Reader - Year 5

Peter Pettigrew

Penny and Lana were in the Grand Staircase. Penny went there everyday to visit Beatrice, talking to her even though she wasn't sure if it was worth it. They asked the other paintings about the curse, and heard them mention 'Rakepick', 'Gryffindor common room', 'a vault portrait', and 'apparition'.

Lana recalled that Jae had said Badeea knew how to apparate, so she'd make sure to pay her a visit at some point, but she had to see Rakepick first. Penny would ask Bill and Charlie to search the common room for any clues in the meantime.

"I was hoping Rakepick would be here..." Lana said, when she entered the DADA classroom and found Badeea instead, "She said we'd expose whoever used the Imperius Curse on Ben and Rowan, but I haven't seen her since I got back..."

"Maybe we should have a look around..." Badeea suggested.

"I don't know if it's right to go looking through Rakepick's things when she isn't around..."

"She would look through our things if we weren't around." the Ravenclaw stated.

"Good point. Let's see what we can find..." Lana laughed, as they began their search.

Nothing was really out of the ordinary, but Lana came across a letter from Kettleburn.

"The closest thing I found to a clue is this letter from Professor Kettleburn." she told Badeea, "Most of it if just rambling on about cats..."

"Sounds about right." Badeea chuckled.

"I should probably have a look. Maybe she went to see him."

"We should study sometime, Lana. Not for our O.W.L.s, but something fun. You do so much for everyone at Hogwarts, the least I can do is return the favour." the Ravenclaw smiled, "What do you want me to teach you?"

"Aw thanks, Badeea. Well, you're the only person in our year who knows how to Apparate. I'd love to learn..." Lana smiled.

"Who told you I knew how to Apparate?"

"Jae."

"Ah, right. He bet me an easel that I couldn't Apparate, so I fooled him into thinking I could with an Invisibility Cloak." Badeea smirked, "I'll let you borrow it sometime. It's not the best quality, but it does the trick. Good luck, Lana. I hope you find what you're looking for."

Lana waved goodbye to Badeea and headed down to Care of Magical Creatures to see Kettleburn before class started.

"Excuse me, Professor Kettleburn..."

"Lana! I feel like I haven't seen you at all this year!" the man smiled as the Gryffindor girl approached him, "You have been here this year, haven't you?"

"I have, but I'm here now because I wanted to ask you about Professor Rakepick."

"Did she purchase 142 cats?!" he grinned.

"Huh?"

"Turns out the castle has something of a rat problem, so I suggested she purchase 142 cats. One for each staircase in the castle. They'll stand guard like furry gargoyles."

"Why would Rakepick care about a rat problem?" Lana wondered.

"I was too interested in the cat solution to give it much consideration." he then looked behind him at something, "If you'll excuse me, I need to stop Mr Lee from feeding Fizzing Whizbees to the fire crab. We can speak further after class..." he smiled, before hurrying over to the scene.

'Oh, Barnaby...' Lana thought, chuckling to herself as she watched Kettleburn take the sweets from Barnaby and shut the fire crab back in the pen.