Christmas passed peacefully, with a delicious feast prepared by Sanshi. Barnaby spent quality time with Tonks, and he returned to school in better spirits, despite fewer Christmas gifts sent by owl this year and the continued presence of Umbridge.
By chance, Barnaby found a coin under a bench while passing through a corridor. When he picked it up, it warmed and changed its surface. He could have pursued a complex investigation out of boredom, but instead, he simply unraveled the enchantment and "magnetized" it with similar coins, intending to return it to its owner.
It was a bit surprising that he ended up discovering something much bigger.
"And?" Barnaby looked at all the people present, who seemed caught red-handed and didn't dare meet his gaze. "What is this supposed to be?"
It didn't help anyone that a large sign in the Room of Requirement read: Dumbledore's Army.
Was this the headmaster's idea, or had the students lost their minds?
"Harry?" He specifically called out the one who seemed to be leading this "army."
"We're learning to defend ourselves for real!" Harry explained with a determined look. "Umbridge isn't teaching us anything useful, so…"
"No, I already knew that," Barnaby interrupted him midway through what was surely going to be some sort of speech. "I've known about your 'secret' study group for months."
"You knew?" Cho asked, surprised.
"Yes, I'm surprised that the group of Slytherins helping Umbridge hasn't caught you yet," Barnaby affirmed. "Though you've tried to be discreet, not all of you are talented at it."
Sanshi had found out about it by chance, and Barnaby applauded the initiative to learn properly; in fact, he had actually helped them a few times without them realizing.
But while the coin was a decent idea for secret communication, for someone like Barnaby, it was a massive vulnerability, an easy thread to pull and unravel the whole operation.
"So what are you getting at?" Ron asked, confused.
The group itself was the secret; beyond that, they had nothing to hide.
"Setting aside details like why you didn't ask me to teach you…" Barnaby raised his staff and pointed at the banner. "What kind of rubbish name is that?" he asked, indicating the main issue.
The idea of training what was essentially a group of child soldiers to die for someone was repulsive to Barnaby, even more so when he realized it seemed like something they initiated themselves, rather than a plan from the headmaster.
He really would have preferred the latter.
"What do you care about the name?" Hermione snapped like a cat whose tail had been stepped on.
Barnaby looked at her for a moment.
"I see, it was your idea, obviously." Barnaby rubbed his face in frustration with his free hand, as if he was dealing with unintelligent people too often.
Hermione didn't like Barnaby's reaction one bit, and to everyone's surprise, she silently cast a spell at the redheaded man from behind, wanting to teach him a lesson and bring him down a notch.
She had been wanting to do that for years!
The surprise in everyone's eyes only grew when Barnaby "batted" the spell away with his staff as if he had been expecting it, returning it at double speed toward Hermione. Not only that, but he also cast two additional spells in quick succession without blinking.
Hermione managed to block her own spell and was prepared to counter the other two, but she didn't expect both enchantments to swerve and attack her from both sides simultaneously.
Dumbledore's Army practice didn't include real battle experience, and that moment of confusion resulted in her being hit, flipping twice in the air and landing face-first on the floor with a sickening crunch that made many wince.
"Stop!" Harry stepped in and pointed his wand at Barnaby as Ron checked on Hermione.
"Seriously?" Barnaby acted as if he didn't see the wand aimed at him. "She attacked me first, and no one here helped me defend myself, but when I hit back, that's too much?" The disappointment was written all over his face.
"Weren't you too hard on her?" Ron asked.
Even though he knew Hermione was wrong, she was now unconscious, with a broken nose and legs like jelly. It was a common jinx at Hogwarts for pranks, but no one here knew the counter-curse.
"Actually, I saved her."
"Saved her?" Ron didn't understand, until he followed Barnaby's finger to his shadow.
What looked like two feminine hands were halfway out, with nails sharp enough to reflect the light, and from the trembling of the hands, it was clear that whatever was there was furious with Hermione!
"What is that?" Cho swallowed before asking.
She had a deep knowledge of nails (any girl who takes care of herself does, in her opinion), and she was sure those could shred a block of granite without a problem, no matter how delicate those hands looked.
But what amazed her most was that no one had noticed when they appeared or that there was something else in the room; it scared her a little.
What if there were more?
"My familiar," Barnaby responded, knowing that he couldn't keep it a secret after today, while Sanshi's hands slowly retreated back into the shadow. "If I hadn't dealt with Hermione, I doubt she would have left here alive."
And Barnaby wouldn't have stopped it…
"Isn't that an overreaction?" Ginny asked, frowning.
"I suppose you don't know anything about magical familiars, do you?" Barnaby looked around and confirmed the question himself by seeing everyone shake their heads. "It doesn't matter. As for your question, Ginny, what would you have done if you had been present when what happened to your father occurred? I don't doubt you would have attacked the snake with everything you had."
Ginny looked at him, not understanding for a second, before raising her eyebrows and putting on an expression of comprehension.
"Hermione would be the snake, you would be my father, and your familiar would be me?" she said hesitantly.
"That's… correct," Barnaby felt the wording of the sentence was strange, but the essence was correctly understood in the reassignment of roles.
"Can we see her?" the youngest Weasley asked, intrigued.
"No," Barnaby was firm, leaving no room for discussion. "She's not a circus animal."
Besides, he did it for the sake of the confidence and self-esteem of all the female students present. Their egos would suffer a devastating shock if certain comparisons were made…
"I think we'll have to leave this matter for later; you should go now."
"You can't kick us out!" Harry said indignantly.
"I'm not." Barnaby turned toward an exit that materialized on a nearby wall. "But I recall Marietta should be part of this group, right?"
"What about her?" Cho asked, worried about her best friend.
"When I was coming here, I saw her heading towards Umbridge's office." With those words, he walked through the door, giving one last glance back. "I don't think the High Inquisitor will be happy if she catches you here." He closed the door and disappeared as if he had never been there.
Cho paled when she heard Barnaby's statement.
Could it be…?
The tremors in the walls soon seemed to confirm her fears.
"Bombarda Maxima!"
BOOOOM!