"Thankfully, no one is here..." Lana said as her and Jae entered the common room, ready to search for the map, "Let's search for clues about the vault portrait and Marauder's Map before anyone comes back..."
"Make sure you look under everything. Gryffindors aren't exactly known for their cleanliness." Jae said.
"Good idea. We don't want to miss anything..." she said casting Lumos to add more light.
After searching for about half an hour, Lana gave up.
"Did you find anything, Jae?" she asked her friend.
Just then, Percy Weasley approached them, looking mad.
"You've found serious trouble is what you've found!" he told them.
"Percy?" Lana asked, "What are you doing here?"
"I'm searching for Scabbers if you must know. I should be the one asking the questions..." the boy replied, "Why are you breaking the rules?" he huffed.
"What are you talking about?" Jae asked.
"It's against the rules to use magic outside of class!"
"It was only Lumos..." Lana told him.
"Lumos is magic! I expected more of you as a prefect, Lana. What will we become if we don't take the rules seriously?"
"Fun?" Jae joked, making Lana chuckle.
"Bill and Charlie really like you, Lana, but I can't stand idly by, and watch someone break the rules..." Percy added, "What should I do with you?"
"I wish you'd just pretend like this never happened, but go ahead and do whatever you think is best." Lana shrugged.
"I will!" the younger boy huffed, "I'm telling the Headmaster, and Professor McGonagall, And Mr Filch, and writing a letter to the Ministry, and-"
"Hold on, Percy." the girl said, stopping his rant, "What if we help you find Scabbers?"
"I am quite worried that Mrs Norris might have got him..."
"If we find Scabbers, will you promise not to get us in trouble?"
"...I suppose. Though I'll never get a good night's sleep ever again."
"You go and search the dormitories while Jae and I scour the castle for Scabbers." Lana told him.
"If you find him, be gentle. He's quite fearful." the boy added, walking off to the dorms.
"The castle is massive. How are we supposed to find that mangy rat?" Jae questioned.
"I have an idea." the girl answered after a few seconds, "Let's go and see Hagrid!"
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Jae and Lana walked down to Hagrid's together, scouring the grounds for Scabbers as they did so.
"Lana an' Jae! Welcome ter me hut!" the man beamed as the students walked through the doors.
"Thanks for having us, Hagrid." Lana smiled, "We need to ask a favour..."
"Ah! Yer abou' that age! I'm sure yeh wan' me teh tell yeh everythin' I know abou' romance!"
"That's really nice of you, but I actually just wanted to see if we could borrow Fang." Lana chuckled.
"Well, yer missin' ou' on a wealth o' romantic knowledge, but have it yer way." the man laughed, "Why deh yeh want teh borrow Fang?"
"We need to find Percy's rat Scabbers, and I know Fang is good at tracking things..."
"He's startin' teh get good, but he's mostly jus' a big baby. I can' have 'im gettin' inteh anythin' dangerous..." Hagrid said, "Yeh'll 'ave teh let me know what yeh have in mind..."
After a little while of convincing Hagrid to let them borrow Fang, they were granted permission.
"Alright, Lana. I tru' yeh." the man smiled.
"What about me?" Jae asked.
"I'm not too sure abou' yeh, Jae..."
"You're a smart man, Hagrid." the boy laughed.
"Does that mean you'll let us borrow Fang?" Lana asked hopefully.
"I think an adventure abou' Hogwarts could do 'im some good. What deh yeh say, Fang?"
"Woof! Woof!"
"That's his 'no' woof, but I'm pretty sure he's jus' jokin'..."
"Thanks, Hagrid!" the girl grinned, "C'mon, Fang! Let's go find Scabbers!"
"Woof! Woof!" the dog barked, and with that they left the hut and began their search for the mangy old rat.
They agreed to meet Torvus in the Forbidden Forest, so Lana and Jae headed to the forest grove to meet the centaur.
"Thanks for helping us search for Scabbers, Torvus." Lana smiled.
"Of course. I wouldn't miss an opportunity to see Fang." the creature smiled.
"Woof!" Fang barked happily.
"Did you find what I asked for, Jae?" Torvus asked the boy.
"I'm working on it. Did you get that thing I asked for?" Jae replied.
"I should be able to get one soon..."
"What are you two talking about?" Lana asked them in confusion.
"It's probably better if you don't know, Lana..." Jae told her.
"You don't have to tell me. All I care about now is finding Scabbers..."
"It's a good thing, Lana. Just knowing what Torvus and I are dealing in is enough to get you sent to Azkaban.
"It's actually quite tame." Torvus said.
"Fine. I was just trying to sound cool and dangerous..." Jae mumbled.
"This is not the time to be impressing girls, Jae..." Torvus told him, earning a confused frown from Lana.
"The faster we find Percy's rat, the faster we can get back to finding the vault portrait, and the Marauder's Map." she said, "You ready, Fang?"
"Woof!" Fang barked in response.
"Alright. Let's find that rat."
They searched high and low, trying to find Scabbers for Percy. Lana almost gave up, when Fang barked, catching her attention.
"Fang found some footprints!" she exclaimed.
"Rat footprints?" Jae wondered, moving next to her.
"Maybe. They're from something small..."
"Those are definitely rat tracks. And they lead to human shoe prints..." Torvus added, examining the tracks.
"Was someone else out here with Scabbers?" Lana wondered.
"Could Percy be tricking us?" Jae added.
"It doesn't seem like something Percy would do, but let's see what Charlie has to say..." Lana said, "Thanks for your help, Torvus." she smiled.
"Anytime, Lana." the Centaur replied kindly, "Let me know when you find that thing we discussed, Jae."
Lana and Jae left the forest, and headed back to Hogwarts.
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Jae told Lana that he had some 'business' to attend to, so he left her walking to the castle by herself. It was raining quite hard, and she was already soaked when she'd got outside the Forbidden Forest. She ran as fast as she could back to the castle, and she finally reached the doors to the Great Hall.
Lana spotted her friends gathered round a table, and walked over to them, shivering due to how soaked she was.
"Lana! Merlin, you're soaked!" Rowan exclaimed when she saw her friend.
Barnaby spun around to look at her and his eyes widened. She sat next to him and he immediately took off his cloak and placed it around her shoulders. He wrapped his arms around her in an attempt to warm her up, and she snuggled into his body, absorbing his heat.
"Thank you." she said quietly, still shivering slightly.
"Are you ok?" he asked, looking down at her.
"I am now." she smiled.
He kissed her head and pulled her closer, not caring how wet her hair and clothes were.
"What've you been doing, Lana?" Ben asked.
"Jae and I were in the Forbidden Forest trying to look for Percy's rat, Scabbers." Lana answered.
"Why?" Barnaby asked.
"Percy caught us in the Gryffindor common room looking for the Marauder's Map. I was using Lumos to make the search easier, and he threatened to tell on us because we were using magic outside of class." she explained, rolling her eyes.
"He sounds a bit like a teacher's pet..." Andre told them.
"Just a bit." Tulip added.
"Anyway, he'd lost his rat, so we offered to find Scabbers for him if he didn't tell on us."
"Have you had any luck so far?" Barnaby asked Lana.
"Not really, although we did find some rat and human footprints..." she answered, "Anyway, we're gonna ask Charlie when Jae gets back to see if he knows anything."
"You need to dry off and warm up first." Barnaby said, stopping her as she stood back up.
"I'm fine, Barny." she said, but straight after, she sneezed loudly.
Barnaby looked at her as if to say 'I told you so'. He sighed and stood up, taking her hand. "C'mon, I'll walk you to your dorm." he smiled.
Barnaby took Lana by the waist and they walked through the castle together. Once they reached the West Towers, Barnaby sighed.
"What's wrong?" Lana asked him.
"I do worry about you sometimes, Lana..." he chuckled.
"What do you mean?" the girl asked with a slight grin, looking up at him.
"You're getting into dangerous situations, you know? And I just want you to be safe, that's all." he told her, pulling her closer.
"I know you do, and I really appreciate it." she said, kissing him lightly, "But I think we've all established by now that I'm always going to find myself in trouble."
"I'm not sure what 'established' means, but ok." he laughed, "Well, we're here." he said as they reached the portrait hole.
"Thank you for walking me here, Barny. It was really sweet of you." she smiled, wrapping her arms around Barnaby's torso and looking up at him.
"It's what I'm here for." he smiled, holding her waist.
She placed a hand on his neck and pulled his head down, leaning up to kiss him. He smiled into the kiss and pulled her closer to him. Lana still got butterflies in her stomach whenever they kissed, and it made her fall for Barnaby more. When they broke apart he looked at her and sighed again.
"You best head inside then." he said reluctantly.
"I guess I should..." she mumbled, "I won't be long." she smiled.
She kissed him shortly again, making him smile, before saying the password for the common room and climbing through the portrait hole.
Barnaby waited outside for about 20 minutes, until Lana finally emerged from the portrait hole, wearing Barnaby's spare sweater that he gave her with a hand-sewn Gryffindor crest on the front.
"That looks good on you." he smiled, pulling her close and kissing her temple lovingly.
"Thank you." she giggled, "Right. I need to find Charlie..."
so that was the next chapter!
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thanks so much for reading!
byeee <3