One night at Hogwarts.
"I told Dad to remember to take his toothbrush, but he forgot again!" Barnaby muttered, exasperated, while at the cabin after his father asked him to bring the toothbrush, as it would be a quick round trip for him.
Why didn't he have a spare one in the room they'd specifically assigned him?
"At least he remembered to tell you before dinner," Sanshi laughed, helping him look for it. "Imagine finishing dinner, getting into pajamas, only for him to come asking for it."
"Missing a night of brushing won't kill him," Barnaby grumbled. "At least he remembered to bring Fang."
"Did you see Grawp's look?" Sanshi lifted a towel from the bathroom. "I think he's considering getting a pet to help herd the mammoths. Do we have anything like that?"
"Hmm." Barnaby paused for a moment to consider. "The Behemoth would be too large, Doshaguma isn't tame enough… maybe Matatabi would be interested."
"That big blue fire cat with heterochromatic eyes?"
"Yeah, there's this guy, some kind of druid who uses trees, I think, who's tried to capture her a few times." Barnaby finally found the missing toothbrush and stowed it. "I know you shouldn't give cats milk, but she's not exactly an ordinary cat. Maybe she'd like mammoth milk. And my uncle seems to be a cat lover."
"Didn't he have like eight siblings?" Sanshi suddenly remembered. "Not sure there'd be enough milk; maybe they'd have to make less cheese."
"I'm not bringing her siblings." Barnaby shook his head. "Aside from the fact that they apparently haven't spoken in years, none of them are cats like her. In fact, I think they're different species with some mixing, like a bull-octopus or something."
"Yeah… I think I don't want to know what her parents look like," Sanshi made a face at the indescribable image she imagined for those two.
"I agree with that idea," Barnaby wasn't interested in that part of Matatabi's life either. "I'll mention something tomorrow and see how things go. Now, there's—"
Sanshi and Barnaby froze, frowning, as they moved closer to the window. They were startled to see a Dark Mark cast above the Astronomy Tower.
"Great, what a wonderful way to brighten everyone's night," Barnaby sighed, quickly leaving the cabin with his staff in hand and Sanshi slipping into his shadow.
He immediately contacted the Tonberries, Susuwatari, and other creatures in the castle to find out what was happening inside. Even the Muk that slept in a pot in the Potions classroom wasn't exempt!
"Death Eaters?" He almost stumbled from the feedback he was receiving. "Are they the real deal?"
How did they summon the courage to attack while…?
Wait a second.
"Where's Dumbledore?!" Barnaby's eyes connected with multiple creatures at high speed, but he couldn't locate the headmaster amidst the chaos; only the professors were defending the students as best as they could.
The Death Eaters seemed to have significant trouble handling the Tonberries, who had already taken down several based on the state of their small knives. Some of his other creatures were also helping, but they were only stalling the attackers.
There were also students who were trapped, hiding, and/or injured, as they couldn't reach the groups being defended by the professors and were frightened.
"There are also feral werewolves," Barnaby grimaced, recognizing one of them, Fenrir Greyback, a werewolf infamous for his tendency to infect young children with his condition.
"What should we do?" Sanshi asked. "The narrow corridors and potential hostages leave little room for maneuver. Even if I try to take some students to safety, they'll just panic in this situation."
Barnaby kept gathering information relentlessly, and once he had a clear picture of the castle's situation (thankfully, no one had died yet), he had a rough idea of who to call upon.
"Tokage!" he called out firmly. "Save the students and our friends in trouble. Take them all to the room on the seventh floor; you know how it works. You can devour the Death Eaters and… anyone assisting them."
From the night's darkness emerged a large black snake with slit eyes and a forked tongue, which hissed in acknowledgment. It shifted from a solid to a liquid state, dividing into multiple droplets that dispersed rapidly within the castle.
"That guy always gives me goosebumps," Sanshi said, rubbing her forearms. "He has a bigger appetite than everyone in the castle combined!"
"He's a Phantom Beast with a capture level of 295 for a reason," Barnaby said while applying various wards to himself and Sanshi. "His clones are exactly what we need right now."
"Where are we headed?" Sanshi asked, seeing they had a fixed destination.
"We'll help anyone we find along the way, but our immediate target is Greyback," Barnaby pointed out as his body radiated magic. "With his sickening tastes and in a school full of children, he's the primary threat we need to eliminate. Otherwise, he'll ruin who knows how many lives for fun."
"No prisoners?"
"No prisoners," Barnaby wasn't Dumbledore, and there was more than one reason why he wasn't part of the Order of the Phoenix—he preferred to permanently eliminate problems at the root.
Tch, if the attack had taken place at another time, he could've gathered more creatures to…
"So it did seem strange; that's what's going on…"
"What's happening?"
"Greyback seems to be limiting himself to a specific area," Barnaby said as he snapped the necks of two Death Eaters who hadn't seen him coming. "A Susuwatari just discovered the reason—he's guarding the door they entered through."
Barnaby grimaced as the Susuwatari had been crushed underfoot.
"So they used the runes on the wall?"
"No, they literally applied runes to a door," Barnaby shook his head. "It seems they realized they could use other surfaces for the runes."
"Which door did they use?"
"The dragon dung storage room door next to the greenhouses."
Sanshi was momentarily speechless. On one hand, it was a clever choice—no one wanted to go near it because of the intense smell, and only Sprout had the key. Plus, the storage room was used infrequently and hadn't been cleaned in, well, ages.
On the other hand, putting a werewolf with an enhanced sense of smell to guard that place was just evil…
She didn't feel sorry for Fenrir, but there was no doubt the werewolf would be severely irritated and aggressive in these conditions. His "favorite dishes" were so close, but he had to act like a chained dog guarding the invasion's entrance.
"We'll take the opportunity to eliminate the Death Eaters' entry point," Barnaby added. "Too many have already entered, and we don't want any more enemy reinforcements."
"Speaking of reinforcements, has Dumbledore's Order shown up yet?"
Barnaby quickly reviewed the shared vision as he bisected a Death Eater who tried to ambush him. At the same time, Sanshi pounced on another hidden Death Eater, swiftly disemboweling him.
"No, none," he replied. "When we entered the cabin, there was no Dark Mark, so this attack has been going on for three or four minutes tops. If they're coming, they shouldn't take much longer."
"Maybe you should notify Tonks?" Sanshi suggested. "We don't know if this is the only place they're attacking; they might be making moves elsewhere, and she probably still thinks we just went for Hagrid's toothbrush."
"Good point," Barnaby hadn't thought of that. "If we take too long, she might realize something happened and could come. Let's speed up, and when we're done here, we'll go find her parents too."
Where the hell had that old coot gone?!
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