A/N: Thank you so much for your alerts, support and reviews! And for the record, this story is rated M for language and violence once they get out of school, not smut. I don't write smut cos that's not my cuppa tea. Part I of this fic is their Seventh Year which is a coming of age story so I'll hope as we go on you'll find some instances where you can relate to. :) ANYWAY! Enjoy, read and let me know what you think.
Once settled into their seats Sirius tapped Rowan on the shoulder from across the aisle.
"What?" she whispered.
"You do know I can take care of myself right?" he replied.
"I know. But I figured after suffering through Double Potions you could use a little break," she answered.
Sirius smiled to himself. She was a good mate.
"All right. Now that we're sufficiently settled in these poor excuses for a chair…they're a bit hard on the rear end if I do say so myself…let me be all annoying and call out everyone names to make sure you're all here and I'm not dreaming this or anything…" Professor Villa said. The class tittered as his little ramble. He leaned against his desk and started rattling off names.
"Sirius Black?"
"Here," Sirius waved a hand. Villa nodded at him.
Sirius tuned himself out and took out his new Arithmancy book. Cracking it open he scanned the table of contents.
"Rowan Forlani?"
"Awake and conscious," she quipped. Some of the Hufflepuffs laughed. Sirius bit back a grin.
Rowan was eccentric, to put it mildly. When Sirius first became mates with her he wasn't quite sure if she was all there in the head. Sometimes she wouldn't speak to anyone at all and shut herself up in the library or the dormitory and isolate herself. Then sometimes she would go through these periods where she would engage in some highly reckless, but entertaining activities. During their fifth year she had shut herself up in the library and seldom slept for more than five hours in the last half of term whilst studying for the OWLS. Sirius wondered how she didn't collapse from her lack of sleep. If anything she just seemed more alert.
Her moods would swing wildly. Not just in matter of weeks or days, sometimes they would turn in hours. In the beginning of their friendship it had left Sirius completely confounded and then he gradually got used to it. It became normal for him to know how her moods swung hour to hour.
Sirius had spent enough waking hours sitting across from her studying, eating meals, engaging in conversation and in general, hanging out, to know that Rowan's eyes were the key into reading her. Her eyes dominated her face and were extremely expressive. Everything you needed to know, if you knew her, could be inferred from them.
James had first laughed his head off when Sirius accidentally said this thought out loud. Then Remus had gotten himself involved in this and had suggested for them to pay attention to her eyes the next time they spoke to her.
So they did and James had realised that Sirius' crazy theory was in fact not crazy. Sirius had felt a faint tug of pride when he realised he could read her eyes better than James could, even though she became mates with James first.
He snapped his attention away from her and focused on the teacher. Apparently he had been saying something. Oops.
"As I was saying…this year will be particularly taxing on you lot. N.E.W.T's are no joke, especially Arithmancy. It's going to take a lot of dedication, studying and practice to pass your N.E.W.T. Now all of you must have done reasonably well in your O.W.L's to have been continuing with Arithmancy to this level. Now if you could please open your book to Chapter One and take out your numerology chart…"
Sirius, Rowan and the rest of the class emerged at the end of class with a gobsmacked expression on their faces.
"He wants two numerology charts filled and for us to memorise the Agrippan chart?" Sirius said as they made their way down to lunch.
"No on said this year would be easy…"
"And you're an idiot! Why are you taking six N.E.W.T. level classes?" Sirius asked as he slid down a banister.
Rowan strolled down the stairs. "I'm not. I'm taking four. Muggle Studies and Alchemy aren't offered N.E.W.T. level subjects. Muggle Studies..well for the most part no one really takes it seriously…and Alchemy is an extremely specialised subject. So specialised that you can't be tested in it because you either understand it and can interpret the abstraction of it…or you can't."
Sirius just looked at her. Then he made an "L" with his thumb and pointer finger. "You are such a LOSER."
"I prefer the term geek, thanks," Rowan sarcastically replied. She lightly slapped the back of his head as she stepped off the last step.
After a hurried lunch with everyone else the gang sat through Defence Against the Dark Arts and Transfiguration. Both professors echoed the grim sentiments that N.E.W.T's needed serious practice, studying and application and more practice. The new professor in DADA, Professor Konstantin had begun the class by stating right off the bat that no, he was not a vampire hunter, and by the way, they deserve full magical recognition as well, after all, they had been witches or wizards once too.
Then they had proceeded to review non verbal defence spells. Sirius had a hard time waking up his sluggish brain from summer vacation. On the other hand, Rowan had no difficulty in sending a fellow Ravenclaw toppling backwards with one wave of her wand.
"Seriously, do you practice magic all the time?" Sirius asked exasperated as they sat in Transfiguration. They were reviewing Elenor Wimblebee's principle of object to species Transfiguration.
He pointed his wand at his goblet. They were supposed be turning their respective inanimate object into a rabbit.
So far he had been unsuccessful. Rowan spared him a glance. "Point your wand a little sharper, focus your mind."
"Well why don't you bloody do it?" he retorted.
She raised an eyebrow and without even looking at her teacup, she pointed her wand sharply at it. A rabbit appeared.
James sniggered. "Served!"
"I despise you." Sirius growled. He tried to focus his mind once more and pointed his wand.
"Well…it's a start…" Remus said encouragingly. The goblet now had a pair of ears.
"Screw you! Why did I ever sign up to take N.E.W.T. level Transfiguration?" Sirius threw up his hands.
"Because you wanted to be an Auror," James reminded him.
"No…that was you. I chose that because you told me too and said we would conquer the OWLs and NEWTs together." Sirius cynically replied.
"Oh. Well I figured it be better to fail in style, together." James said. He concentrated on his teapot and waved his wand.
"Not bad Mr. Potter," McGonagall commented as she passed them. James beamed. "Mr. Black I suggest you concentrate more on your Goblet and less on your friends." She sternly added.
Sirius waited until she had passed them and then scowled. He pointed his wand again at his Goblet and said "Lapifors,"
Well now the goblet had a pair of hind legs as well as a pair of ears. An improvement.
"Keep trying," Remus said encouragingly. He turned to his own goblet that had legs and a furry exterior. It still didn't have a face or ears yet.
"Miss Forlani…Transfiguration isn't to be used for pleasure reading…" McGonagall scolded as she passed them again.
Rowan looked up from her Transfiguration book. "But…I'm reading stuff…for this class…" she said a little bewildered. How could she possibly be getting in trouble for this?
"You should be concentrating on your teacup."
"You mean my rabbit?" Rowan asked cheekily.
McGonagall's lips threatened to upturn but she managed to keep her face stern. Her eyes twinkled though. "Well done. Now..let's see if you could revert it to it's original form…"
Towards the end of their Sixth Year, they had been covering Untransfiguration. It was an extremely tricky branch of Transfiguration and the students had driven themselves bonkers trying to understand the principles of it. Rowan herself had had some trouble in applying the concepts of it properly. Last May she had accidentally changed her bird that was originally a teacup into stone, and had accidentally fused it to the desk. When she tried to undo her mistake she ended setting the desk on fire.
McGonagall wasn't pleased.
Chewing her lip thoughtfully Rowan grasped her wand and studied her rabbit.
"Oh man she's going to set something on fire again," Peter said fearfully. He shoved his books in his bag in anticipation.
She ignored this and pointed her wand. "Sofipal"
The goblet reappeared, twinkling dully in the weak afternoon sunlight.
Lily grinned and Rowan idly tapped her wand on the Goblet. Then it turned into a rabbit again.
"Ten points for Gryffindor." McGonagall said with one of her rare smiles.
"Nicely done Ro," Remus commented. He pointed his wand at his teacup again.
"Show off, "Sirius teased. His goblet/rabbit ran off the desk and promptly shattered to the floor.
"Five points from Gryffindor!" McGonagall commented behind her back.
"Sirius!" Lily said reproachfully.
"What? It's not my fault she has eyes in the back of her head!" he protested.
"Careful Mr. Black, do you want me to take all the points Miss Forlani earned?"
"Sorry!"
"You're such a prat," James sniggered.
"You love me anyway," Sirius said waving his wand to repair his teacup.
"What do we have tomorrow? I seemed to have misplaced my timetable…" Rowan said at dinner that night.
"Already? Rowan, it's the first day!" Lily chided.
"Actually it's the end of the first day. AKA school is over!" Rowan corrected.
"I think...you may or may not have Muggle Studies…" Peter said through a mouthful of potatoes.
"You have Alchemy," a voice said.
Rowan turned to the side and saw her other roommate, Marlene McKinnion. The blonde smiled at her. Rowan returned her smile with one of her own.
"Thanks! You're gonna be ploughing through it too with me right?" Rowan asked.
"You betcha!" Marlene cheerfully replied. Remus bit back smile at her voice.
"How's the first last day treating ya?"
"Fine I guess. Fine as it could with Transfiguration, DADA and Ancient Runes in one day… what are you gonna do?" she replied.
"Throw yourself into the lake?" James suggested.
Marlene laughed and Lily tried very hard to not laugh. Then her eyes widened at this. Since when did she think James was funny?
"No…I think I'll do that at the end of the week…that way I won't have to turn in my Ancient Runes Essay then…" Marlene replied once her laughter subsided.
"Hey!" Marlene looked up and smiled at the newcomer. It was Caradoc Dearborn, her boyfriend of the last five months.
"Evening you lot," he nodded in the Marauder's direction. James and Sirius returned his greeting. Remus' eyes darkened however at the sight of him. Marlene waved goodbye to them and moved off to sit with Caradoc and his mates, leaving Remus looking wistfully at the back of her head.
"Remember the good old days when we were first years had nothing to do on the first day of school?" Lily sighed.
The group was situated around the fireplace in their favourite squashy armchairs.
"Remember when we were also first years and had Friday afternoons off?" Peter said wistfully.
"Remember when we were first years and we could never sit in these chairs?" Rowan grumbled. She looked at her DADA textbook woefully and yanked a piece of parchment out of her bag.
"Describe the Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Non Verbal Spells in Direct Combat," she wrote in neat cursive.
She stared at the parchment for a moment. Then she leaned against the chair and closed her eyes. It was only the end of the first day and already she felt exhausted.
"Man we have a lot of homework!" James exclaimed stacking his textbooks in a pile.
"Any theory on how we should accomplish all of it?" Peter asked secretly hoping he could copy off someone.
"Divide and conquer, then copy off each other?" Sirius supplied.
Lily shook her head. She dipped her quill into her inkpot and started to write across her piece of parchment.
"How about we actually do our own work, and then reference Lily and Rowan for corrections?" Remus offered. He grinned at the two girls. Rowan snorted inelegantly at this.
"How about instead of all that, we engage in some Exploding Snap, as loudly as possible to ensure maximum distraction for everyone…AND then tackle the mountain of homework." James said decidedly.
The boys looked at each other. Then Sirius nodded. "I like that idea!"
"Honestly…James you ought to know better…it's your last year and your Head Boy…" Lily said in a lofty voice.
James rolled his eyes. He agreed to himself to give her space. He did not, however, agree to change his ways entirely.
"I'm in," Rowan decided. She shoved her books off the table and Peter woo-hooed.
"Well I'm going to the library," Lily huffed collecting her things.
"Lily you're the smartest girl in our year, you can afford to take an hour off from your homework," James said in effort to change her mind.
"No, I can't." she replied shortly.
Rowan exchanged a look with James and felt a little bad to see him a little disheartened.
"Well Lillian, it's your loss. We're going to be engaging in an EPIC battle of Exploding Snap." Rowan said flexing her fingers.
"Yes well I'm sure that'll come in handy when you finally decide what you want to do with your life," Lily dryly said. She made her way to the Portrait Hole.
"At least I'll have LIVED some of my life instead of burying myself in books!" Rowan called to her back.
"At least I'll be more successful at life than you'll be!" Lily yelled back.
"Betcha ten galleons on it!" Rowan hollered.
"YOU'RE ON!" Lily screamed just as the Portrait Hole closed.
A/N: Recognise any familiar names? ^^ I would love if you reviewed! xoxoxo