Part One
On Saturdays Rowan would lie in bed and think of all the activities of the day, thoughts swirling through her brain like a swarm of buzzing hornets, streaming out of her skull and winding themselves through her quill, which was always pressed to a pad of crisp parchment. With each delicate scritch, ink slid over paper and a new thought would present itself. By the end of each day Rowan had a list to reference for all her jumbled ideas. A typical list might include the following-
What had happened in class that day
You-Know-Who and the Order
Remus Lupin
Lily liking James
The possible love connection between toast and the Giant Squid
Though these lists were incredibly pointless, the ramblings of a lovestruck, thoughtful adolescent girl, they had a calming affect over Rowan. Years later, when the baby was put to sleep and she had a moment to herself, she'd take the papers from the shoe box beneath her bed and laugh over how serious everything seemed, from her horrible new haircut to the possibility that Remus had not been smiling at her in the corridor, but in fact had been grinning at her horrible hair or a block of spinach in her teeth. Oh, the horror.
Yet whenever Rowan made a list, it had a point. Things she did always had to have points, she simply wasn't the type of person to do work that wasn't needed. (She was much too lazy for that) No, Rowan was a doer, a paranoid young woman with her feet anywhere but the ground and a cheerful disposition. What Rowan wanted to be done usually got done, she made sure of that, and it was on this Saturday afternoon that Rowan had settled herself on a cushion in the window seat, a fresh list propped up on her knees and quill clenched in teeth. Just as she guided her quill to paper a small, auburn head forced it's way into her box and with a friendly, bright grin shouted "Hey!" right into Rowan's face, causing her to drop the inkwell all over herself in shock.
"Dammit Lily, watch where you're poking that nose of yours, you could take a person out."
Lily laughed, her green eyes sparkling. "You know you loved it. Whatcha' working on, another list?"
The girls had been friends for too long not to know the other's smallest tendencies. Rowan sometimes would get sentimental and remember the first day they met, long haired and wild on the Hogwarts Express. Of course, things had been slightly different then, with Snivellus tagging around, wiping his nose on his frayed sleeves and his beady black eyes always hidden by that oily curtain of jet black hair. Funny how when Rowan found herself in that compartment with Lily, Snape, and the now semi-famous Mauraders she had felt anything but love to the whole lot of them. Lily seemed too bossy, James too arrogant, Sirius too demanding, Remus too dull, and Snape...he'd always seemed too creepy. But when given the choice between staying to have a lovely chat with four boys or sitting with one bossy redhead, well...Rowan always chose the thing most familiar, and Lily's company was just that. Despite not getting along very well at all (the first day in Potions Rowan delivered the first attack, purposely causing a cauldron to explode in Lily's face, while Lily sought revenge by contaminating Rowan's eggs with bobotuber pus) The other now knew each other so well it was like having a second self. Snapping out of her reflection, Rowan crumpled up the parchment and lazily tossed it over Lily into the rubbish bin by her feet, where it crumpled into a heap at the base, missing the target.
"Nice one." Lily said, smirking. Rowan laughed.
"Oh, shut it, you."
The sun was dazzling, high and bright in the warm September sky, not yet plagued by heavy gray clouds and the dainty V formations of southbound geese. Unusually warm the girls headed outside to the lakeside. Rowan marveled at the beauty of the ground's massive orange gold trees while Lily blabbered on about the idiocy of James Potter, who was cooling his feet at the water's edge with his friends in tow and throwing Lily furtive glances with every ruffle of his jet-black hair.
"Great, stupid prat. Who does he think he is, anyway?" Lily growled, staring moodily back at James, who grinned and waved. Rowan, who had only been half listening, smiled at this and popped a shimmering cube of Coconut Ice into her mouth, letting the gooey texture melt onto her tongue.
"I don't know. The fan-fuckingtastic King of Hogwarts perhaps?"
Lily laughed, eying her reflection in the cool ripples of water. "Thank god I can count on you to tell it like it is...and get that thing out of your mouth, you've already had ten this morning."
Rowan rolled her eyes, taking another cube from the bag and running her tongue slowly around it's perfectly formed corners, licking down the edges. "Look Lily, another one!" She swallowed the square whole and stuck another in her mouth, putting more in as she went. "And another! How DOES she do it?!" Lily laughed, swatting at Rowan with her quill.
"Stop that, you're disgusting...speaking of disgusting, does Potter keep looking over here? Distract me."
And so Rowan pulled a giant Arithmancy book from Lily's bag, opened it to the most difficult page she could find, and proceeded to quiz Lily on ever star in the galaxy until Peter dropped his shoes in the Lake and the gang retired to the castle early. So was the beginning of life at Hogwarts for seventh year Rowan Watkins.
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The next morning at breakfast the ceiling was a deep, lustrous blue, shimmering stars still reflected from the dark sky outside. Under it chaos reigned, as Lily dissected their new schedules while Rowan fussed over her owl, who had crash landed into her cereal after skidding on stupid Longbottom's jelly. Who ate jelly at six in the morn would puzzle Rowan for a lifetime, but at the moment she was in too bad of a mood to care as she tried to mop a soggy owl and listen to Lily complain.
"Potions first thing in the morning, wonderful, Slughorn might be in a better mood...ugh, Potter breezed by this morning and told me, with that cocky manner of his, that we've got Arithmancy and Ancient Runes together. Just when I thought I got rid of him!!" She cried, stuffing her schedule into her bag and latching it shut with an annoyed expression. "That boy will follow me to my grave."
The owl was now screeching madly, greatly opposed to having it's feathers siphoned off with a dish towel, but Rowan refused to give up.
"Gimme a hand with the rogue owl?" She grunted, as her bird squealed and made another bid for freedom. Lily raised a brow.
"That thing loathes you. Why don't you just use your wand?" What help she could be.
"I don't trust myself with magic around owls. Last time I tried anything half her feathers fell out, d'you remember that?"
"That was years ago, when we were supposed to be turning animals into tea cups!" Lily cried, falling into a fit of giggles at the memory.
"Good times." Rowan said, smiling a bit herself as she wiped around her owl's eyes.
"What's gotten into that bird?"
It was none other than James Potter, and he was beaming behind Lily, who stopped supporting the owl's other leg. Upon realizing the release of one of it's limbs, and a split second later that it's owner had notoriously poor reflexes, the owl let out a loud screech and took off for the Owlery, beating it's wings frantically and swooping low over people's heads, causing them to duck over their porridge.
"She's never going to come back." Rowan said, wiping away streaky jelly marks from her side of the table with the milk sodden napkin. Sirius Black slid into the seat next to her and helped himself to a piece of burnt toast, buttering it liberally before swallowing it whole.
"I wouldn't be too upset about that." He said pointedly, tossing his hair out of his eyes. "Last time you sent me a letter that fiend bit me. I wouldn't want a smelly owl that bites my friends, but then again that's just my humble opinion." Rowan yawned.
"Thanks for that bit of philosophy, Sirius, but I think I'll keep my owl." Sirius shrugged, buttering another burnt piece of toast.
"Suit yourself mate, but I'm Sirius Black...I know things. And that bird is going to eat you in the night."
A seat down, James was yet again attempting to charm Lily.
"Going out for Quidditch again this year."
"When do you NOT go out for the team, Potter?"
"Why sit out when you're as good as I am?"
"Your confidence certainly is admirable."
"Well, I--"
"Sarcasm, Potter. I'm going to be late for Potions."
"That class is bobbins, we should have dropped it years ago...hang on, don't look like that, I forgot it was your favorite! Listen, I like it a lot too! Slughorn's lovely, just.....wait, we have it together, I'll walk you there!"
"Because I need YOUR protection from all those pickled animals in the Dungeons." Lily snapped, her brilliant hair flying in a frenzied halo around her face. "The fact that I have a fully functional wand and seven years magical training doesn't mean a thing."
"No, thats not...I just...Wait! Evans!!!"
And with that they were off across the Hall, playing their ever going game of cat and mouse Hogwarts had come to expect year after year from James Potter and Lily Evans. Sirius watched them go, his head cocked to the side, then let out his sharp bark like laugh and slung his bag over his shoulders.
"Guess we better be getting going too. Come along, m'lady?" He asked, bowing and offering on hand to Rowan. From the corner of her eye, Rowan observed Remus quickly duck his head behind his thick Arithmancy book.
"Why thank you, good sir." She said, taking his hand with a smile. Together they crossed the Hall to the staircase that led to the Dungeons, the raised voices of Lily and James telling them they had reached their destination.
"How can they be fighting again?" Sirius asked in astonishment, his thick eyebrows pinching together in the middle of his forehead. Rowan shrugged, squeezing past Sirius into the room.
"It's Lily and James. I like to think of it as bonding for them." Sirius laughed.
"You still like to think James got a chance, eh?"
Rowan paused before answering this question. Year after year this scenario played out, and year after year James Potter still never got the girl. She'd tried countless times to convince Lily that Potter wasn't so bad after all, but all that got her was an icy stare, a curse narrowly avoided, or some snippy remark along the lines of "Then why don't you date the arse?" Truthfully, Rowan was getting tired of trying, but she couldn't say no to James's puppy dog eyes or the friendly attitudes of the Mauraders when she agreed to do a little persuading. 'I have to start saying no,' Rowan thought, tugging at her curls.
"I honestly think they've got as much of a chance as you and me Black." Rowan said, pushing her finger into Black's chest to distance him from her. "But James can still try."
Black's eyebrow raised, and he looked momentarily confused before snickering and giving Rowan's hair an affectionate tousle.
"Ah, Watkins." He said, shaking his head. "You think we'll never be together? Wrong you are, mate. I can see the desire in your eyes. Your fingers, they just long to touch this body." Rowan snorted.
"I think it's the other way around kid. Those hands of yours, they can't control themselves when they see these curves."
"Right you are, m'lady." Sirius chortled. "How'd you know?"
"Just a lucky guess. Now get in here, we're gonna be late."
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It was night, and after a hectic schedule, during which Rowan fell prey to no less than four trick steps, had a potion bubble over her cauldron, forgot her quill, singed off part of her hair and had another conference with James Potter, she was feeling extremely worn out. Surrounded in the warm glow of the dormitory, books and parchment spilled out onto Rowan's four poster and Lily's pushed next to it, Rowan finally set down her quill after completing a Transfiguration chart and rubbed her eyes.
"Blimey, McGonagall's working us to the bone already and term's barely started."
Lily came floating into view, illuminated in her white dressing gown as she un-braided her thick hair.
"I don't know what you expected, Rowan. This is our last year before we're out in the real world, and McGonagall is only being realistic when she gives us this much work. When we're actually working it won't be all fun and games, you know."
She tossed her hair over her shoulder and settled herself on her bed, packing away her books and quills and arranging them in perfect order. That was just the way of Lily Evans-order, order, and...well, more order.
"And we're aiming for Auror training. You shouldn't have taken Auror classes if thats not what you really are into doing." Rowan yawned, stretching her arms towards the ceiling.
"There's no way I'm skipping out now. We're joining the Order to do some good in this world, and hell, I say it'll work. It's just that I'm lazy, and a trip to the kitchens for a midnight glass of milk sounds pretty damn wonderful right now."
Lily raised a brow, then seized Rowan's hand and guided her towards the door to the common room.
"That sounds fantastic. Do you remember how to get in there?" Rowan smirked.
"Like I ever would forget. Do you have the shoe?" Lily smiled, pulling from behind her gown a long, purple pump.
"Already one step ahead of you, Watkins." She said with a wink. "Let's hurry down there."
It was exciting, the castle at night. Floors creaked and the paintings were sound, sleeping deeply in their long portraits. The stone corridors gave a feeling of unease, but Lily and Rowan had snuck out plenty of times before to know the routes to use. The quickest way to the kitchens was to use the stairwell near the third corridor on the Gryffindor tower floor, but that space was always prowled by Mrs. Norris, Filch's dusty cat. The next quickest route was patrolled ruthlessly by Filch himself, so the girls had devised a way of getting down to the kitchens from their first trip first year. The purple pump was Lily's, and was placed in the crook of the door at the beginning of every outing to ensure that the big, creaky oak door would not lock them out ever again.
"Is it just me or is everything darker than usual tonight?" Lily asked, blindly feeling around the walls as the two girls padded down the corridor. Rowan shuddered from the cold, taking Lily by the elbow.
"It's just you. Don't worry, I'm here."
They continued down the corridor at a snail's pace, pausing at every creak or groan of the castle with bated breath, pressed against the cold walls until silently signaling to the other it was safe to move on. After ten minutes of travel Lily grabbed Rowan's arm and pulled her to a dark corner, far away from any torchlight, and dragged her to the floor.
"What are you---?!" Rowan hissed, but Lily forced a hand over her mouth. "Sssh!"
"What are you doing, madwoman? I swear Lily, you're a nutter, what the bloody hell is--"
"I said sssh!!" Lily snapped, her bright green eyes shimmering ominously in the dim light. She removed her hand from Rowan's mouth and said, a little fearfully, "I think we're being followed."
"What?"
"That's just what I think. Let's...let's just stay here for a little longer to see what's going on, and if it's just the wind or something we can get going again." She whispered, pulling her dressing gown tight over her knees. Rowan would usually have argued back, she had proved herself decent at matching Lily's lightning quick temper and wit, but to be honest she didn't like the idea of being stalked by someone whom she imagined as humpbacked and fanged following her anymore than Lily did.
(Notes:That's all for now, I can only stay focused for so long before I've got a craving for a twisty cone or long to finish that Fender drawing lol. Hope you liked it. Be sure to check out my profile sometime, it's where you can find more than you ever needed to know about Rowan and a bit more on the story. Oh, and despite the flirtatious banter between Rowan and Sirius, she will NOT be getting in his pants...or even dating him. Comment lots...By the way, does anybody know how do put paragraphs on here? I tried but it's not letting me. Any help would be great, this stupid thing is so hard to read _)