A/N: The Black Brothers have always fascinated me, especially Regulus and his story and I've had this story in my head for a loooonnng time (three years and counting and have finally gotten the time to actually write it out) and have decided to put it up for you lot to read. This story was inspired by the song "Protectors of the Earth" by Two Steps from Hell, if you want to get an idea of what the feel of this story is going to be like, give it a listen. (No this isn't a song fic) So, here we go! I would love to hear what you think and please review!
"Haul ass! You're going to miss the train!" a voice shouted.
Rowan laughed and ran towards a door one of the train carriages. It was 9:50 in the morning, too bloody early in her mind, and the Hogwarts Express was due to live in ten minutes.
She dragged her heavy trunk behind her and stumbled through the narrow hallway of the train. She nearly tripped over a person's foot before she looked up to see Lily Evans, one of her best mates looking at her with a sour expression.
"Geez Lils! Seventh year hasn't even begun yet and already you look as if you've been forced to clean the bedpans in the Hospital Wing!" Rowan said.
Lily rolled her eyes and turned on heel. "C'mon, we're all sitting here," she moved down the hallway. Rowan followed in suit and a big grin spread across her face when she saw the gang nicely situated in a compartment all the way at the end.
The four Marauders were lounging in their seats and looked at the newcomer.
"Hello you lot!" she exclaimed dropping her trunk with a thud. She hugged and kissed each their cheek. "How were the rest of your holidays?" she asked tousling Peter's hair who blushed and muttered something.
Lily rolled her eyes and took a seat next to Remus. Rowan waved off the hands of Remus Lupin and James Potter as she hoisted her school trunk up on top and then whirled around to face her mates.
"Well after the eventful two weeks, when all of you were at my house, the holidays were pretty quiet, minus the occasional explosion now and then," James remarked. Sirius burst out in a fit of laughs remembering said explosions.
"Well of course your holidays would be quiet. And besides, I never meant to accidentally blow up your fireplace," Rowan replied.
"How do you even manage to blow up a fireplace?" Lily asked amazed. She had only spent one week at the Potters, having left earlier to go on a family holiday. Evidently she had missed out.
"Well Lily, what do you get when you put Exploding Snap, some of Zonko's firecrackers and Rowan's imagination when it comes to developing new magic?" Remus asked his red-headed mate.
"Oh." Enough said.
"Hey! I will have you know that I have finally finished working out the kinks to that particular spell," Rowan protested.
Sirius didn't say anything but scooted over to make room for her. Rowan plopped down next to him and stared out of the window. After a moment she rummaged through her bag and took out a worn spell book. Immediately she began rifling through the pages and took out a pen.
"Is that a pen?" Remus asked interestedly.
"Yeah! Lily gave me a whole bunch of them! Much easier than quills. Imagine having to take out a pot of ink and quill every single time you needed to right something. Bloody annoying that is. Pens rule. You know what's even better? PENCILS." Rowan dug into her bag and triumphantly waved around one to prove her point.
"Oi! Watch where you wave that thing!" Sirius exclaimed ducking his head. Lowering the pencil Rowan rolled her eyes and began to underline things in her book.
Sirius smiled faintly at the sight of his mate underlining things and writing things down in spell books, regular books, and pieces of parchment. She was forever writing things and creating.
Lily and Remus were deeply immersed in a conversation about a mutual book they had both read over the summer, Jack Kerouac's On the Road. Rowan had stumbled across that book in her Sixth Year and claimed that it had changed her life. Curious, Lily decided to take a crack at the book herself and found herself unable to tear her eyes away from the text.
"It's completely revolutionary!" she declared. Remus rolled his eyes.
"No. It's a sloppy written book written by a man who was jacked up on caffeine for three weeks and wrote about his cross country trips he took with his crazy, drunk ass mate. All they did was drive back and forth across the country in different cars!" Remus ranted.
"But it's different from every other thing we've read or what people do! This is about grabbing life by the horns and doing something unpredictable, it's about living!" Lily countered passionately.
"It has a naïve, idealistic view on people, especially African Americans and it treats girls pretty shoddily. And by the way, has Mr. Kerouac heard of a thing called, I'm not sure…EDITING?" he threw up his hands.
Lily laughed. "Okay," she gave in. "I will agree on you on that. There are a lot of rambling paragraphs."
"IT'S ALL ONE BIG RAMBLING PARAGRAPH!" Remus lost his composure.
Sirius and James burst out laughing at this. They had been watching the pair argue for the last ten minutes and to see their best mate loose his cool, something he rarely did, was entertaining.
"You know what you ought to read Remus, if you aren't fond of the rambling paragraphs?" Rowan asked without lifting her eyes from her own book.
"What?" he huffed.
"Ernest Hemingway's "Fiesta". Brilliant. Terse, explosive sentences, good punctuation." She replied.
"And where, might I ask, may I obtain a copy of this?" he asked.
"My trunk. I'll give it to you once we get to Hogwarts,"
"Fine. I need something proper to cleanse my eyes from that rubbish that Kerouac wrote," Remus grumbled.
The train ride was uneventful as it could be. It dawned on them that it was their last train ride towards school to begin a school year.
Lily sentimentally unwrapped a Cauldron Cake that she bought from the Trolley Lady. The Marauders of course had loaded up on sweets and began swapping pastries. Rowan unwrapped a sandwich from her bag and shook her head as Peter offered her a Pumpkin Pastry.
"Nah, I'm good."
"Oh come on, it's our last train ride towards a new school year!" Lily said.
"Lillian, please. Hold yourself together," Rowan rolled her eyes.
"Just one bite," she coaxed. Rowan stared at her with flat eyes.
To solve this problem, Sirius grabbed her jaw and shoved the pastry into her mouth. "One bite," he said.
She glared daggers at him but bit off some anyway. Satisfied, Sirius leaned back and then took a bite himself.
"I hate you lot," she mumbled. They laughed.
"Not true, never true," Peter said.
"Love, you couldn't live without us," James added.
"Don't I wish I could?"
Lily and Rowan had become best mates from their start of their first year. They had been paired up with Marlene McKinnion and Emmeline Vance as the first year Gryffindor girls of their year.
The year had been 1970 when they had first met, a small dark haired girl and a fiery red head girl who was unusually tall for her age. Lily had caught her struggling to get through a book titled "The Wizarding Idiot's Guide to the Muggle World". She found it strange.
"That's some serious reading," Lily commented shyly. She was startled to see a pair of enormous blue eyes stare back at her. The girl lowered her book and her lips turned upwards.
"I just want to know…everything." She simply replied.
"Everything?"
"Everything." The girl replied solemnly.
Her eyes had struck Lily like a lightening bolt. Lily was suddenly unsure of what to say. She wish she hadn't said anything at all.
The girl placed the book off to the side and cocked her head. Then she stuck out a hand. "Hi. My name is Rowan Forlani."
"Lily Evans," Lily shook her hand. Rowan smiled at her and settled back into her seat.
"I like your hair," she commented.
Lily unconsciously fingered her red locks. "Thanks. I've always kind of hated it. I always wished I could be blonde."
"Nah you don't. It wouldn't go with your eyes. You look like a fairy," Rowan decided.
Lily felt a ridiculous feeling of pride go through her. She had never thought of herself like that. She had always felt so self-conscious about her red hair. She was forever being teased in primary school.
And just like that, they became the best of mates. The stars must have aligned properly as they had both been sorted into Gryffindor.
And now six years later and they were still stuck together. Over the years they had their ups and downs, fourth and fifth year was an utter disaster as they spent weeks crowding with the other girls in front of the bathroom mirrors moaning at the unsightly spots that had suddenly appeared on overnight.
They had bumbled together in their first foray into dating, conversing with each other about the mystery of boys. Then during fifth year Rowan entered her first serious relationship with Gideon Prewett, who was a Sixth Year, and Lily had entered her first serious relationship too, vicariously through her. Lily had steadfastly ignored James with a resolve that impressed Rowan.
Too bad she just happened to be mates with James.
Lily and Remus had managed to become quite good mates in their third year. They had been paired up for a Transfiguration Project and Lily found herself quite liking the quiet, polite mannered boy. Too bad he was friends with the three boneheads of the school.
Okay, so Sirius wasn't a total bonehead. Actually he was quite the opposite of what Lily often perceived him to be. And Remus wasn't one either to be fair. She then assumed that it was James' pigheaded acts that overshadowed his mates, something that didn't work in his favour.
James and Rowan became mates in a slightly less traditional way.
They had met each other in detention.
It was during their fourth year and James had pissed off Filch to new heights. He may or may have accidentally set off a whole package of Zonko's firecrackers in the Potions dungeon. Something that had caused utter disaster.
Filch and Professor Slughorn had sentenced him to polishing the school's awards and pledges by hand, no magic. Sirius also had detention, but he was forced to scrub the Hospital bedpans. Slightly bummed that he was to be separated from his best mate, James had trudged up the school's trophy room and had glumly waited for Filch.
Time was beginning to pass and James wondered briefly if some big cosmic joke had been played on him and he wouldn't have to serve his detention. Then he heard a great big racket.
"I said I was SORRY!" A voice protested.
"SORRY? YOU FILTHY LITTLE, YOU INFLICTED GREVIOUS DAMAGE TO THE CASTLE." Filch roared.
The voices began to become louder as they argued and then his eyes widened as he saw Filch tug a dark haired girl by her robes. He jerked her forward and his jowls quivered.
"For your antics Miss Forlani, you'll be cleaning the School's trophies and awards by elbow grease, NO MAGIC." Filch shouted.
Her eyes lit up. "We get to clean the muggle way? Awesome."
James didn't know if this chick was seriously off her rocker or not, or maybe she was being sarcastic. He wasn't so sure.
Filch's eyes nearly bugged out of his head when she said this. "Depraved, wicked girl. Thinks muggle ways are amazing…poor excuse for a witch…" he muttered as he stomped flat footed away from the them.
The girl rolled her eyes and grabbed a rag and a funny looking bottle with a nozzle and a handle. She energetically sprayed some of the cleaning formula on her rag and studied the puff of liquid with keen eyes.
"Here," she handed it to him.
"Thanks." James began to slowly run the damp cloth over a Special Service Award. She began doing the same with a big hunk of a trophy.
"What are you in for?" he asked after a moment of silence. It was rather dull to clean things without magic.
The girl pursed her lips and slid him a look. Then she resignedly said, "I may, or may have not done some home improvement to the castle and might have caused a huge hole to appear in Professor Trelawney's room."
James just looked at her and then he started laughing. The girl bit back a smile and then after a moment giggled herself.
"How the hell did you manage to do that?" he asked catching his breath.
She shrugged. "I was….experimenting with my wand I suppose and well…shit happens."
"Right, experimenting."
"So what are you in for?" she asked.
"Sirius and I set off an entire package of Zonko's firecrackers…in the dungeon." James replied.
She shook her head and grinned. "You and Sirius. Always keeping things interesting. He's your best mate no?"
"Yeah. How'd you know?" James asked surprised.
Her eyes twinkled. "You two are joined at the hip. Always together, even during class time. I'm actually kind of surprised he's not here too,"
"He's serving his detention in the Hospital Wing. Bedpans."
"Yuck." She wrinkled her nose.
"Yeap." He agreed.
They continued to scrub for a while. Then James remembered he hadn't introduced himself to her.
"I'd offer you my hand, but it's contaminated with cleaning fluid, I'm James Potter." He said.
"I know," she simply said.
James felt a little foolish at this. This girl looked familiar but he couldn't place a name to her face. He had seen her in the Common Room,; she was always with Lily.
She smiled and swiped a stray lock out of her face. "It's okay. I'm Rowan, Rowan Forlani."
"Lily's best mate?"
"And Destroyer extraordinaire," she finished grandly. James laughed.
Since then James and Rowan had talked to each other more often at the Breakfast Table, or in the Common Room. Then the talking turned to hanging out in the Common Room pulling all nighters on some homework. Couple some more detention sessions they had the pleasure of serving together and a friendship had been formed.
Sirius had not been too pleased to find that his best mate was spending more and more time with someone else, that too, a girl. Remus often teased him that Sirius was jealous that James had other friends other than him and Sirius used to mutter oaths about her.
Then one day he came up to his room to find James and Rowan hanging out listening to music very loudly.
It just happened to be his favourite band, The Velvet Underground.
He knew that James didn't really favour The Velvet Underground. So why on earth would he be listening to them?
There was only one explanation. She must happened to like them too.
Interesting.
"Hey," he said dropping his bag on the floor with a thud.
"Hey mate. How's it going?" James replied sitting up on his bed.
"As well as any bloody Thursday can get," he replied shortly.
"At least tomorrow's Friday," Rowan said from her seat on the window.
Sirius just looked at her and she gave him a shrug. Then she increased the volume of the gramophone.
"So you like The Velvet Underground huh?" he asked after a moment of awkwardness.
Rowan turned and looked at him. Sirius felt startled by her eyes. She had such big eyes.
"Yeah I do," she replied. "But I'm more a fan of The Clash and The Ramones."
"Didn't quite peg you as someone who'd be into punk," he commented easing himself against the window jamb that formed the window seat.
"What did you peg me for?" she asked bluntly.
James looked at them interestedly. This ought to be good.
Sirius fumbled for words. Then he ran a hand through his hair and said, "I don't know. Hi, my name is Sirius Black and I have this bad tendency of saying stupid things."
He stuck out his hand.
Rowan's eyes laughed as she shook her hand.
And just like that, they too became mates.
The year was 1976 now and the four golden boys of Hogwarts, affectionately known, (well three golden boys and Peter who was thought as of something akin to silver) as the Marauders and Rowan and Lily had become a close bunch of mates. Each of them had their strengths and weaknesses, and somehow, they all complimented each other in some way or another.
After many studying sessions, record listening, some magical mishaps and intense conversations about every topic under the sun, the group continued to get closer and now here they were entering their last year of magical education.
Sirius smiled at this thought as he studied Lily's face. She was asleep, her head nestled in Rowan's lap, and Rowan was asleep with her head on Peter's shoulder. She often claimed that Peter was perfect for leaning someone to lean their head on as he wasn't as tall as Sirius or James and didn't give the person a neck crick.
"Stop staring at my girl!" James jokingly said.
Sirius rolled his eyes and adjusted his seat to look at his mate. "So, remind me when's the wedding date again?"
"Shut up. This year I'm going to actually manage to convince her to see me as a proper human being. Capable of speaking in full sentences and everything."
"And how, may I ask, do you plan on doing that?" Remus asked sarcastically.
James leaned back against the seat and tapped his wand idly on his knee. "I'm just gonna give her space. Deflate my head a bit and hopefully, maybe she'll come to realise I'm not all that bad."
"She doesn't think you're bad," Sirius replied mildly. James gave him a sceptical look. He shrugged. "Rowan told me that Lily once told her that she didn't think you that terrible. She just finds you…"
"Childish? Immature? Pig headed?" James supplied.
Sirius didn't say anything for a minute. "I was going to say a little egotistical but it looks like you pretty much covered it,"
James chucked an empty sweet wrapper and him and Sirius grinned at his mate good-naturedly.
"I'm serious Prongs. She doesn't hate you. She just doesn't fancy you." Sirius added.
"But I'm head over heels in—"
"DON'T SAY IT!" Sirius warned loudly. He clamped his hands over his ears. Remus snorted.
"What? What's so bad about it?" James asked.
"James, you're not doing yourself a favour by admitting that you have bypassed fancying her to flat out being in love with her. You're just going to freak her out and then you're NEVER going to be able to talk to her. At least she talks to you, kind of…I guess, now."
James sighed and slumped down in his seat."I don't 'love' her, I just really, really, really like her," he protested. Sirius messed up his already messy hair affectionately. "Don't' worry mate. Just…do what you said before, give her space, and maybe who knows? She may just change her mind about you."
"And if she doesn't?" James asked glumly.
"Then she's an idiot," Sirius replied loyally.
A/N:So there you have it! I hope you liked it, please review. xoxoxo