The punishment Barnaby gave Gunter for his attempted theft was to build a large ice igloo for the students to visit during Christmas, a curious spot that would disappear on its own once the temperature started to rise.
Gunter put on a tool belt (from some unknown place), and by the day before Christmas, the ice igloo was fully constructed.
Barnaby had a feeling this wasn't the first time Gunter had worked on something like this—his movements were too smooth…
In any case, it was curious that at some point during the construction, Gunter explained that his father had a habit of kidnapping princesses as a hobby.
Penguin family matters—better not get involved.
On another note, Barnaby managed to coordinate with Ginny to give her lessons on the Patronus Charm, but it was proving to be a bit of a challenge for the young witch. Not because she didn't understand the theory or struggled to put it into practice—Barnaby acknowledged that Ginny was diligent during lessons and had more talent than Percy or Ron—but the problem lay in using happy memories without any hiccups.
What happened in her first year at Hogwarts still affected her, and her Patronus only manifested as mist, which, while it could repel a Dementor, was still not good enough for Barnaby.
"Even if your Patronus can't take form, you at least need to be able to shape it into something more than just a stream of mist," Barnaby said to her while pointing at the target on the post. "Yes, it might be enough to ward off a lone Dementor, but I'm sure that's not the only thing you want to be able to do, right?"
"Ropes, shields, arrows…" Ginny recited quietly, trying to push herself further.
On the practice post, there was a real Dementor tied to the wooden post by a silver rope, which was the form Barnaby's Patronus had taken to restrain it. The Dementor was immobilized, its contact with what was, for it, pure acid, causing it to writhe in agony as it still had to endure Ginny's incomplete Patronuses.
But neither Ginny nor Barnaby felt any pity for such a dark creature.
As for the disappearance of the Dementor, Barnaby wasn't worried at all. There were still a handful of them floating around, dispersed enough that no one would notice one missing. And the rest of the Dementors treated the area around Calcifer as if it were radioactive, avoiding it completely since the Quidditch pitch incident.
But the curious thing happened at Christmas when Harry received nothing less than a Firebolt from an anonymous person. Barnaby was going to suggest he have it examined, just in case it was a trap from Sirius Black. But he was too late, as Hermione was present when Harry opened the gift and made the same suggestion, which, for reasons Barnaby still couldn't understand, made Ron angry.
Seriously, Hermione made a suggestion, and she gets shunned by her friend in return?
Even Barnaby approved of Hermione's concern regarding the broom!
"Ron probably got excited thinking Harry would let him borrow it and play with it. In the heat of the moment, he said what he thought without holding back," Ginny commented during her latest Patronus lesson. "Jealousy has always been a bad habit of his that comes out at the worst times, but I think it's because he still doesn't know who he is."
"What do you mean?" Barnaby asked as he tightened the silver rope binding the Dementor during that day's lesson.
"Charlie found his passion for dragons, Percy wants to get into the Ministry of Magic, and the twins are saving up to start a legitimate joke shop," Ginny explained as her Patronus formed a semicircular barrier with difficulty. "All the older ones in the family have their goals, but Ron… he hasn't even thought about what he'll do after graduation. Quidditch is impossible—I've seen him play since I was a child, and he just doesn't have what it takes. He'd need luck injected into his veins every day for that! There aren't any magical chess competitions that would let him make money, and the only thing he gets more excited about than those is eating."
"Has he considered studying cooking, maybe opening a restaurant or becoming a food critic?"
Ginny stopped casting her Patronus and looked him in the eyes.
"Ron HATES studying anything, as his grades clearly show. I don't think he could handle the multitasking required for a restaurant or its responsibilities, and I think for the last one, you need to have a fairly impartial judgment when it comes to food, along with manners," she said in one breath. "Do you think my brother has impartial judgment and table manners?"
Barnaby turned his head, holding back the response that a herd of wild boars had better manners than Ron when it came to eating. For starters, he had never seen Ron use a napkin to wipe his mouth…
If Ron were present with them and heard what his little sister thought of him, Barnaby was sure he could feel the sound of his heart breaking.
"Maybe he could become a farmer?" Barnaby suggested as an alternative. "He'd have food, work with food, make money from food, and with magic, it doesn't take much effort if you know the right spells."
Barnaby knew several suppliers of food for Hogwarts' kitchens, and many of them only had to wave their wand about five times a week at most to get the fieldwork done. And the house-elves in the kitchens only worked with the best produce the school could buy, so getting quality and quantity wasn't too difficult.
"That… actually sounds possible," Ginny said, her expression deep in thought.
Although things like land
and seeds were costly at the start, once the business was up and running, it could sustain itself with minimal effort if managed with magic and some basic guidelines were followed.
She knew this because she helped her mother with the small garden at the Burrow.
But at the end of the day, it still depended on whether Ron wanted to follow that path.
Though Ginny seemed to be considering how to nudge him in that direction…
As she imagined Ron wearing a red plaid shirt, jeans with suspenders, a straw hat on his head, and a stalk of wheat in his mouth, lounging in a rocking chair while overlooking a field of pumpkins, it was as if Ginny had just seen the perfect job for her older brother.
However, there was one big BUT in the matter.
"Ron has always been competitive and loves to brag…" Ginny commented with a tone of secondhand embarrassment. "I'm not sure a farm could give him that."
"There are agricultural competitions—with medals and trophies!" Barnaby pointed out. "If Ron wants to show off, there are countless fairs like that throughout the year, and if he puts in a bit of effort, it shouldn't be too hard to rack up a dozen awards in no time, satisfying his ego."
"Well, his practical Herbology grades aren't bad," Ginny said, narrowing her eyes unconsciously as she mentally noted to write to her mother to start indoctrinating Ron into the art of planting and harvesting.
She was quite sure her mother would enthusiastically support Barnaby's idea.
Meanwhile, Ron was up in the Gryffindor Tower and felt a chill run down his spine.
"What happened?" Finnigan asked from the other side of the magical chessboard.
"I think the twins are plotting against me again…" Ron replied instinctively, unaware that his future was already being planned by his little sister and his mother.