A Young Slytherin: A Barnaby Lee Story -Hogwarts Mystery

Entering the Vault

It was near dusk by the time Barnaby returned to his common room. Merula and Ismelda were laying on the floor playing exploding snap.

"Where have you been all day?" asked Merula.

"Hogsmeade."

"And who gave you permission to go to Hogsmeade?"

Barnaby sighed. Today had been a good day, but he knew things were about to take a turn for the worse.

"Merula, I don't want to help you look for the cursed vaults anymore."

She stared at him. "What?"

"I don't wanna help you anymore. I'm going to look for the vaults with Sarah instead."

They continued to stare at him, an exploding snap card still poised in Ismelda's hand. "Ouch!" she shrieked, when the card exploded. She stuck her thumb in her mouth.

Merula sprang to her feet and stood staring up at him so that they were less than inch apart. "You've been talking to her? You idiot, she's filled your brain with a bunch of rubbish, hasn't she? Told you a sob story about her poor, stupid brother. This is why I don't let you speak to people!"

She prodded him in the chest. "She's a liar, Lee. She only cares about upstaging me. That's why she's stealing all my help. First Tulip, now you."

"Sarah's not a liar, she's nice. She actually treats me like a friend. You've just been using me to get what you want."

"Well some friend you are! Turning on me the second she flutters her eyelashes at you. You don't think she's using you, too? Then you're even dumber than I thought!" She stormed off, stopping just outside the door to her dormitory. "You know what, this actually works out great! I was about to fire you anyway. At least now you'll be holding Spellman back instead of me!" She left, slamming the door behind her.

Ismelda stood up. Popping her thumb out of her mouth, she hissed, "You're dead to me, Lee. You better learn to sleep with one eye open."

"How am I supposed to do that if I'm dead?"

She shot him a dirty look before taking off after Merula.

On the whole, he considered, that had gone much better than he'd been expecting.

Despite everything, Barnaby still wanted to be friends with Merula. He could see that she was going through the same things he had been. Merula, however, wanted nothing to do with him. So, he tried not to worry about her too much.

It was a while before Sarah was ready to enter the next vault. Boggarts were running rampant through the school by then. Everywhere he went, some poor student was being attacked by a giant spider or  bloody ghost. In one instance, he came across a second year Slytherin running from a boggart version of Barnaby himself.

It took him a minute to realize what was going on, that he wasn't actually attacking anyone, before running after them and casting Riddikulus. The Barnaby boggart shrank. Barnaby became the size a mouse, running around and cursing in a tiny voice until it disappeared with a loud crack.

"Thanks," said the boy, looking up gratefully at his rescuer. Seeing Barnaby, he gasped and made to run again.

"No, it's okay!" he said quickly. "I'm not a boggart." This did little to help matters. The boy cowered against a wall, shaking uncontrollably.

"I'm sorry," he said, backing away from the boy. Barnaby didn't even recognize him. What had he done to become the thing this student feared the most? "I'm not...I'm sorry." He hurried away.