New Staff

"Dad, I'm heading out!" Barnaby shouted as he left the cabin.

It wasn't a question; he was simply giving a reminder so his father wouldn't worry about his absence.

"It's cold tonight, don't be too late!" Hagrid's voice responded from inside the cabin.

Barnaby rolled his eyes with a smile and walked towards the Black Lake. After having dinner at the Great Hall and returning home, he took the materials he had prepared for his new wand to finish it tonight.

He carefully carved the wand, as the branch he obtained from the Whomping Willow was the oldest one he had. It wasn't difficult to convince the ancient tree after taking care of it with Aunt Pomona all these years; it might seem aggressive, but it was actually a sentimental softie.

The wand had a Qilin head carved on its pommel, a magical beast from China resembling deer with precognitive abilities. They could also look into a person's soul and determine if it was pure-hearted, in which case, they would bow.

Once Barnaby found a suitable spot near the Black Lake, he unpacked the bag and laid everything out on a flat surface. The cut hair was carefully gathered and washed, and the eyes of the wand's head were hollow, as he intended to place magical jewels in them.

He took a brush made of unicorn hair specifically for this night and, looking up at the starry sky, waved the brush towards the clouds covering the moon. The clouds blocking the moonlight disappeared or shifted as he delicately moved the instrument over them.

Satisfied to feel the moonlight on his skin, Barnaby proceeded to stick the brush into the ground a few meters from his spot by its handle and lit it with a bluish fire, establishing a field that would prevent unwanted interference.

Interestingly, the fire didn't seem to consume the brush no matter how much it burned.

Feeling that the conditions were right, Barnaby took the wand and carefully inserted each jewel into its hole, while starting to sing the melody he discovered in his blood.

The jewels began to glow faintly as his voice seemed to extend limitlessly across the Black Lake and beyond, ignoring physics, causing even the noisy crickets in the night to fall silent to appreciate the melody.

(If someone wants to listen to the melody, it's called: Iruna Etelero.)

As he progressed in his song, the wand floated upright in the air and absorbed the magic from the surroundings in the form of luminous particles, which contrasted with the night, making it look like it was drinking rivers of stars descending from the skies through the moonlight.

At the climax, the hair rose as if it had a life of its own and wrapped around the wand, pressing against it and bursting into nothingness, revealing how the wood had taken the color of the hair for itself and something more.

A profound connection resonated between the wand and Barnaby's soul.

The jewels seemed to contain their own galaxy, and for a fleeting moment, the Qilin head seemed to blink and take a breath as if alive. Fireflies in red and green jumped on the lake's surface, causing waves of luminous water before revealing in a whirlwind of lights female figures with pointed ears who danced joyfully among them, their laughter echoing like the tone of a silver bell.

So pure, so joyful, and so happy.

The surroundings of the Black Lake were filled with white six-petaled flowers with pink edges that bloomed to celebrate the creation of the wand, while wizards and witches around the world noticed a singular phenomenon that fascinated and horrified them in equal measure.

All magical creatures in the world, whether sleeping, hunting, mating, or fighting, all looked in the same direction and bowed for a full minute before returning to their usual behavior.

Within the walls of Hogwarts castle, students and teachers had goosebumps as their minds seemed to almost grasp something in the melody resonating through the walls that, for some reason, they could hear clearly, whose origin seemed distant but simultaneously close.

Even ghosts and house-elves had a glassy look when hearing the melody, like a memory of something precious from the past.

By the time the melody ended, everyone in the castle felt a sense of loss, as if they had been abruptly taken from the warm embrace of a mother, dropping a tear as they unconsciously understood that they would never hear anything like that again in their lives.

In the office of the headmaster of Hogwarts, the phoenix looked out the window towards the Black Lake and shed several tears with mixed feelings. Joy and sadness tinged its gaze, while the magical portraits of the predecessors in the position and the Sorting Hat seemed stunned.

"To think that such wonderful and pure things still existed in the world," Dumbledore wiped his tears with a lemon-patterned handkerchief. "I envy the young ones, Fawkes, being able to hear something like this at their age, perhaps it will inspire some." He sighed with great regret. "If Grindelwald had heard something like this back then, would things have been different? Ariadne..."

Lost in his thoughts, Minerva and the rest of the staff came to his office for answers to tonight's unexpected event. When they learned it was Barnaby, they could only sigh while showing a smile.

"Do you think... we could get the sheet music for the choir?" Flitwick asked, looking beyond with a longing gaze. "Even if we could only hear that melody once a year, it would be worth it!"

Everyone nodded, whether they were teachers, phoenix, or director without exception.

"I'm afraid that question will have to wait until tomorrow," Dumbledore said as he invited them to look over the balcony, from which they could clearly see the Black Lake. "It seems Barnaby will be busy tonight."

The teachers approached and looked towards the Black Lake intrigued by the words; even Snape couldn't help but stand on tiptoe behind everyone to see what was happening.

Although he generally ignored students as a rule, he had seen Barnaby grow.

"Is he... dancing on the water with someone?" Pomona squinted.

"Albus!" Minerva shouted with wide-open eyes. "Are those women elves?!"

But elves disappeared from the world centuries ago according to records!

"That seems to be the case..." the director responded with an envious look, not hiding it, just like the other men present, regretting not being able to get a closer look at the ladies dancing with Barnaby.

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Sorry for the delay. As I mentioned in the previous one, I lost the summaries that I used as a guideline and I will have to watch the movies again or something like that to remember a little.