Rowan Stark was sitting in a comfortable compartment on the Hogwarts Express. It was going to be the start of her fifth year at Hogwarts, and she could feel the difference already. The last couple of years Rowan had cruised through her classes, getting good marks with minimal effort and spending most of her time knocking about and hanging out with her friends. With the threat of O.W.L.'s and Lily's new position as Prefect, Rowan kind of figured that all of that was all going to change.

The red-headed Lily Evans was currently sitting across from Rowan, talking to Marlene. Rowan would have talked with Alice, but the girl was daydreaming – probably about Frank Longbottom. Rowan smirked.

Alice jumped back in her seat as the compartment door viciously flew open. Seeing the familiar silhouettes in the doorway, Rowan quickly rolled from her seat and onto the floor. The harmless hex aimed at her head innocently hit the window; the window frame turned from an elegant gold to an angry shade of neon purple. Merlin, Rowan thought to herself, the guys weren't messing about. Rowan had been apart of the Marauders' life since her first year at Hogwarts. They had a perfectly healthy love-hate relationship. The boys were extremely close, but they occasionally included Rowan in on their antics. Most of the time, they used her as an outlet for their boredom.

"Oi! Marauders!" Rowan caught the boys attention over Lily's shrieking reprimands. Only Sirius saw Rowan's hex coming. Dropping to the floor, Sirius laughed as his mates fell down in result of the jelly legs curse. Usually, James would have dodged the jinx as well, but he had been too busy sweeping a graceful bow to the livid Lily Evans. Rowan was laughing – it was too funny, seeing James suddenly hit the floor while trying to impress her friend. Taking advantage of Rowan's hysterical state, Sirius leaped to his feet and threw a curse at her. Rowan didn't even see it coming. The curse hit her straight in the chest. The compartment quickly fell into silence. Rowan looked down at her once pale hand; it was now green.

Sirius fell to the floor laughing, joining his friends. "Got ya, Stark!"

Rowan was too busy staring at her puke-colored hands to respond to the boy's taunt. She turned to look at Lily. "Is it all like this?" Lily nodded her head, confirming that Rowan's face was as green as her hands. Rowan turned to look at the Marauders. By now, all four boys were back to normal, sitting in a heap on the floor, silently chuckling at their victory.

"Haha, very funny boys, now change me back." Rowan was now in a foul mood.

The boys immediately became silent. Remus looked at his feet, while Sirius and James exchanged one of their looks. Peter giggled quietly.

"Black, I swear, if you don't fix this right now, I'll have Lily report you." Lily raised an eyebrow at Rowan's threat.

"Padfoot!" James nudged his friend, urging him to explain.

"Prongs!" Sirius nudged him right back, smirking. His smirk fell as he saw Rowan twirl her wand in her hand threateningly. He lazily stood up, leaning against the compartment door. "Well, first off, if you report us, which you won't, we'll just have good old Moony here counter report you."

Rowan turned to look at Remus Lupin; a Prefect badge adorned his cloak. He shrugged his shoulders helplessly.

"Secondly, there isn't a counter curse," Sirius paused to help his friends up from the floor, he grinned and turned to look at the tight-lipped Rowan, "you're just going to have to wait it out."

Rowan leaped at the Gryffindor, ready to slap the stupid grin right off of his stupid face. Sirius was already out the door, running down the aisle, followed by the other three boys. Poor Lily had to restrain Rowan from going after them.

"This means war, Marauders! War! And let me tell you, Sirius Orion Black, I'm after you!" Rowan didn't care that other students were coming out of their own compartments, curious to see what all the yelling was about.

"Wouldn't have it any other way, love!" Sirius called back, still laughing.

Lily struggled to get Rowan back into their own compartment; Marlene had to help.