Barnaby Lee x Reader - Year 5

Nightmare

She had the image of Barnaby's dead body and lifeless face etched in her mind. She cried silently to herself until the morning came, then she had to get ready for the day.

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The morning went slow. Very slow. All of Lana's morning lessons dragged out, leaving her feeling even more tired than she needed to be. Her eyes were already droopy, she had bags and dark circles under them, and truth be told, she looked like shit. She felt like shit. She needed Barnaby.

Break time rolled around and Lana ran out of the classroom in search for the tall Slytherin. She finally spotted him, and he was talking to a few friendlier looking Slytherin boys. She didn't care. Lana just ran up to him as fast as she could. He turned around when he heard the footsteps and smiled warmly at her.

She jumped onto him, wrapping her arms and legs around him, clinging to him as tightly as she could. She felt his arms wrap around her and she just broke down. She sobbed into his shoulder and held onto him tighter. He was alive. She kept mentally telling herself this to break herself from the memories of her nightmare.

"Lana? Are you ok? What's happened?" Barnaby asked her, voice full of concern. The people who were talking to him slowly dispersed and let two be.

She was unable to squeeze out any words due to her throat being so dry, and the amount of tears that were pouring out of her eyes. So, she kept crying and held him tighter.

"Lana? Seriously! You're worrying me..." Barnaby said again, pulling away slightly to look at her face, "Lana..." he said softly, his heart breaking at the sight of her.

She tried smiling through the wall of tears, but Barnaby wasn't convinced.

"Do you wanna go somewhere quieter so you can tell me?" he asked gently, and she just nodded, still not letting him go, "You want me to carry you?" he asked, and she nodded again. "Ok." he chuckled softly. She leant her head in the crook of his neck, and he proceeded to carry her to the Artefact Room as it was private.

Lana finally let go of Barnaby and stood in front of him, wiping her eyes and sniffling.

"Lana, baby, you look terrible. What happened?" Barnaby asked again, taking her hand and sitting on one of the boxes.

She sat on his lap and wrapped her arms around his neck, hugging him again. She leant her head on his chest and began to tell him what happened. He stroked her hair and listened to her sniffling, trying to get out the words.

"Last night, I had a nightmare..." she croaked, "The Dark Wizard in the cloak was there, and they sent the killing curse at me, but you jumped in the way and..." she sniffled, "...and..." she couldn't bring herself to say it.

"I died?" he asked softly, cradling her in his arms. She started bawling again and he just rocked her back and forth soothingly, "It's ok, it's ok. I'm here. I'm alive..." he whispered.

They stayed like that for about 20 minutes, holding each other close. Defence Against the Dark Arts class was about to begin, and they had Rakepick so they didn't want to be late.

"I love you so much, Lana. I'm always gonna be here for you, ok? Nothing's getting rid of me anytime soon..." he told her as they stood up.