The Hagrid's son

Barnaby was upset, very upset at this moment. The night of the new school year had started well, although it was somewhat strange because he noticed the absence of Ron and Harry during the beginning of the feast.

Frieren and Lockhart were the real centers of attention during the meal.

The first because of her unique appearance, though after learning that she was related to him and would only be the temporary librarian, many calmed down.

And the latter… Barnaby had known Gilderoy Lockhart for five minutes, and he was already wishing he would leave the castle!

Oh, how right his charming girlfriend was.

Now, when Aunt Pomona came to seek his help just as he was leaving the Great Hall and he found out that those two had the audacity to crash a car (apparently modified by Ron's father) into the Whomping Willow, all his good mood evaporated.

He accompanied the Herbology teacher to assess the damage and treat the poor tsundere tree.

Why on earth didn't they use the express train like last year?

The worst part was that the magical car apparently went "wild" and got lost in the Forbidden Forest.

It better not harm any creature!

He would demand explanations from those two in the morning.

Or at least that was the plan, but when he saw the Howler in Ron's hands, he knew the youngest Weasley boy would already get his dose of punishment and shame.

A few terrible screams later…

Huh? So little Ginny was already attending the school; he had completely forgotten.

Poor girl, the letter wasn't for her, but she suffered the same embarrassment as her older brother.

Her face was completely red!

"Mm?" The fork that was about to spear a syrupy strawberry in the fruit salad bowl stopped abruptly, and Barnaby felt something was wrong.

The last time he had this feeling was when he met Quirrell, who later turned out to have Voldemort attached to his head, but it was much fainter and he couldn't pinpoint anything.

"Sanshi?" he asked through his link to his familiar.

"I feel something strange too," an image of the Ravenclaw table passed through Barnaby's mind. "That girl seems to have a problem!"

Barnaby examined the girl. Disheveled blonde hair, waist-length, clear eyebrows, and bulging eyes. Yes, she was a newly arrived first-year student, what was her name...

Luna Lovegood?

"Well, her sense of fashion is extravagant, even among wizards and witches," Barnaby had to admit to himself as he looked at the necklace made of butterbeer corks and the radish earrings.

Well, the earrings could actually be considered creative, but they weren't that bad.

Since Sanshi felt something was wrong with her, Barnaby scanned her from head to toe carefully and frowned as he identified the cause of the problem.

Reluctance, obsession, envy, anger...

"Everything okay, son?" Hagrid suddenly asked upon seeing Barnaby's expression. "Did you come across a sour fruit?"

"It's nothing, dad," Barnaby took the chocolate syrup to his left and generously poured it over the fruit. "I just forgot to sweeten the dessert a bit."

Hagrid nodded and continued eating as well.

"This is going to require some serious preparations," Barnaby thought as he chewed the fruit covered in liquid chocolate. "I think Ron mentioned once that his sister Ginny was a close friend of Luna, I should be able to use that."

Barnaby had to spend a few days tending to the Whomping Willow and in his spare time, he went around gathering some things here and there, finely grinding them in a stone mortar. Curiously, despite adding things like honey and mushrooms, the result was a cyan powder with completely dry violet traces.

When night came and he went out to let the powder absorb the moonlight, he only took a few steps before feeling that something was wrong, different from the other nights.

Why were there no noises?

And there was a faint smell of…

"Blood!" Sanshi emerged from Barnaby's shadow and began to circle nervously, growling softly while baring his teeth and searching for the source of the threat, protecting the red-haired teenager.

Barnaby's staff had appeared in his free hand at some point, but it didn't take long to locate the source of the smell. Following it, they both realized it came from the new chicken coop.

All the birds had been killed!

Neither Barnaby nor Sanshi let their guard down; they could both tell that if the protections Barnaby set up didn't block the intruder, then someone had done this deliberately, it wasn't any predator.

And from the traces left on the chickens, they seemed to have been killed by some spell barely an hour ago.

"The ground is wet," Sanshi commented. "There's more than just blood, it looks like water."

Barnaby also noticed this detail and seeing the mud mixed with the birds' blood, he guessed that whoever did this used a water bubble to trap and drown the roosters and hens, preventing them from making any noise during their death.

As for the blood, it seems that in the middle of the panic, the drowning birds scratched each other without realizing what was happening.

If it weren't for this, he probably wouldn't have noticed what had happened until the next morning.

"Vestigia Revelio," Barnaby cast a spell to reveal the traces of the culprit.

But the phosphorescent glowing footprints he expected didn't appear, there was only silence.

"Okay, it seems whoever did this came more than prepared," Barnaby commented as he moved to another approach. "Scenarium Visio."

Particles of light like fireflies came out of the staff, combed the area, and tried to form a figure, but it collapsed before having a clear image.

Barnaby was a little stupefied.

This is a spell used by Aurors and that Tonks taught him!

Was it necessary to be so cautious to kill some chickens?

"Alright, I didn't want to use this, but I guess I have no choice," Barnaby murmured, feeling that his chickens deserved justice. "Animae Indicare Culpam."

Dark mist fell and was absorbed by the dead birds. Translucent figures emerged from their bodies, all turning their heads in the same direction while opening their beaks in a silent scream of anger and resentment.

"The castle?" Barnaby sighed. "I hoped it was someone from Hogsmeade, but it seems some student has crossed the line."

He looked at the souls of the roosters and hens.

"Don't worry, I'll take care of everything," he promised before using one last spell that night. "Animarum Serenitas Pacem."

A soft light covered the aggrieved souls and their expressions changed to one of peace as they slowly faded away.

Barnaby looked at the chicken coop full of dead birds, feeling it was a tragedy and he needed to act quickly. He turned to Sanshi and asked:

"Do you want to practice preparing chicken dishes?"

Sanshi's eyes lit up at the idea.