A/N: REVIEW ME!

This is a longer one, full of fluff! EW.

Revised and edited as of 6/8/14.

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

Chapter 14: Of Muggle Music, Fwoopers, and Proportions

Remus was getting impatient.

Two days had passed since he'd seen Rowan at Platform 9 3/4, and there was still no sign of a letter from her. He had rifled through the post the past couple of days as subtly as he could to look for her handwriting, but to no avail. He was beginning to think that perhaps he'd imagined their exchange, orr worse - that she'd been looking at someone else when she'd made that gesture. His chest constricted at the thought of her writing to another boy, but he quickly squashed it – getting jealous wouldn't help him here.

He had, however, received a quick note from Sirius, who had scribbled messily onto a small piece of parchment, scolding Remus in response to his lack of enthusiasm for their New Year's Eve celebration.

Honestly, Moony, get your shit together. Prongs and I have procured quite a bit of high grade firewhiskey, and if you're not there with your head between your knees drunk by the end of the night, I might have to put forth a vote for your expulsion from the Marauders. I'll see you on the 31st. OR ELSE.

Remus smiled amusedly to himself. He knew Sirius would never make do on his threat, and he was quietly grateful to his friend for his unique way of expressing concern for his recent behavior. Besides, there was no way he'd miss it, not with the promise of catching up with Rowan without the usual distractions of school.

On the third day of the holiday, Remus was lying flat on his back on his bedroom floor listening to a record that James had given him as an early Christmas gift – some sort of Muggle rock group… Lead something? Led? He couldn't remember and didn't feel like getting up to check the album cover. He was greatly enjoying it – this particular track was eerie and grating and the dark voice at the back of his mind responded so thoroughly to it. He felt the wooden slats of his bedroom floor beneath his fingers and imagined that his spine might melt into it.

He didn't know how much time had passed, but suddenly, he was woken up to a tapping sound. When had he fallen asleep? A new song was playing that he didn't recognize, and he realized that he must have dozed off. He heard the tapping noise again and jerked up from the floor, looking towards his window to see an elegant gray bird hovering outside of it. He identified it as Rowan's owl Anfa, clicking her claw at the glass with a small package clutched in her feet. He scrambled ungracefully to his feet, all arms and legs, and rushed to open his window.

Anfa floated in gracefully and dropped the parcel on his duvet before perching on the end of his bed frame. She then scanned him up and down with slanted yellow eyes. He always had the strange impression that Anfa was judging him, and he felt uneasy seeing her assess him once again.

The first time he'd mentioned this to Rowan, she'd laughed at him and said, "Well, she's quite the fashion snob. She's probably just judging your outfit. Don't you know that she picks out all of my clothing for me?"

He had mussed up her hair in response, to which she grinned up at him through her messy locks. His stomach fluttered a little at the memory.

Anfa let out a muffled caw at him and he reached to pick up the parcel from the bed, noting Rowan's neat but staccato handwriting on the front: To Remus. He had to stop himself from tearing it open and instead looked at Anfa.

"One second. I'll get you something to eat from the kitchen," he murmured before running down the stairs.

Leanna Lupin was in the kitchen preparing for supper. She turned at the sound of her son bounding down the stairs just in time to see him tearing into the kitchen cupboards, grabbing a handful of their owl Alastair's treats and a saucer of water.

"Everything okay?" she asked amusedly.

Remus nodded quickly before turning to run back up the stairs. "Yeah, owl from a friend. Thanks!" he called back.

Leanna stared up after him. A friend? She had never seen her son tear down the stairs like that at the arrival of a friend's owl. She thought for a moment and then perked up. A girl! She grinned. Her smile then faltered. A girl… She frowned. Lyall wouldn't be pleased about that. She supposed it made sense though – Remus was at the age where he would be interested in dating girls, and even though he had told them plainly that he had every intention of avoiding romantic relationships so that he wouldn't put anyone at risk, she knew it was easier said than done.

Turning back to her cutting board, she began chopping vegetables slowly. She would keep this to herself for now. After all, it could just amount to nothing in the end.

Remus returned to his room to see Anfa on his desk, peering over his things, and Remus' face screwed up with frustration at the embarrassment he felt at the owl's judgment. He placed the owl treats and saucer on the desk next to her, watching her begin to eat before turning to Rowan's parcel.

He looked opened the package and saw a thin box wrapped in red paper and looked over the letter tied to it carefully while sitting down on the edge of his bed, noting the little doodle of a fwooper on the bottom of the envelope. A little speech bubble was drawn above the bird's head that read, "Don't judge me!" He smiled fondly at her messy drawing, remembering her frustration the last time he tried to give her sketching pointers.

They had sat down on a grassy hillside to enjoy the sun during a rare lull in homework. It was a warm October afternoon earlier that year, and they had escaped the confines of the castle. She had stretched out on the grass with her limbs sprawling, while he had pulled out a small notebook from his bag to sketch the scenery around them.

He had been drawing for maybe fifteen minutes when he looked down to see her still on her back but staring up at him. "What're you looking at, Delacroix?" he glared playfully at her.

She grinned. "Your face. Your eyebrows furrow together and you get this little wrinkle above your nose when you draw, like this." She scrunched up her face and put her two index fingers over her own eyebrows, pointing them downward at an angle comically.

Remus glared at her again and smacked her on the stomach with his notebook, receiving a high-pitched grunt from her.

"Rude!" she cried out accusingly, but she laughed, one hand on her forehead and the other on her stomach. Remus grinned down at her before she sat up to peer over his shoulder at his drawing.

Rowan sighed. "Man, I hate you sometimes, Lupin. How did you draw that so quickly?" she asked admiring the small mountain scape on his page. "Every time I try to draw something, it comes out looking like a four year-old's wall scribbling."

Remus shrugged. "Practice I guess," he looked over at her again and saw her staring down at the drawing still, a look of concentration on her face, as if she were trying to memorize every line.

"Rowan, your gears are showing," he teased. She glared up at him, cheeks pink. "I can show you some tricks if you'd like," he offered.

At this, Rowan's back straightened, eyes wide and at attention. She scooted closer to him, face bright and hopeful, pulling out her own notebook from her bag. Remus pointed into the distance with his pencil.

"You see that mountain over there, the really big one?" he asked. Rowan nodded quickly and looked to where he was pointing. "Well, you need to be able to see it in relation to the other mountains. I think your problem is that you don't understand the proportions between one object and another, which is why your drawings always end up looking awkward." He looked down at her, and she grinned sheepishly up at him. "A good way to do it is to use your pencil as a scale." He raised his pencil vertically. "When I hold it out at arm's length and measure each piece of the scenery against it, I can get a good understanding of the proportions."

Rowan nodded her head enthusiastically and started using Remus' advice, quickly setting to work on her own drawing. He observed her from the corner of his eye, watching her squinting down her pencil in concentration and her teeth worrying her bottom lip. He smirked to himself before returning to his own notebook, suddenly inspired by a new subject, though about five minutes into it, he was interrupted.

"Forget it! I'm just no good at this!" she cried indignantly, throwing her notebook and pencil into the air. The pencil landed on Remus' head with a slight stab, and the notebook crashed in a crumpled heap a few feet in front of them. She growled and collapsed onto her back once again, huffing in frustration.

Remus laughed gently at her and slowly crawled forward to grab the notebook from its crumpled mess, smoothing out the pages that got creased in her outburst. As he sat back down, he looked over her drawing.

He could see what she meant. While he had to admit that it was better than her usual drawings, there was an awkward clumsiness to her lines, and he could tell that she'd been gripping her pencil too tightly at many points. While he knew that she could get better with practice, a part of him was smug knowing that he'd finally found something that he was just naturally more talented at than she.

"It's rubbish!" she declared dramatically, arms flailing around her head, staring up at the now reddening sky.

"Well, I don't know if I could compliment it," Remus began. She groaned in response, and he grinned ruefully at her. "But you've certainly improved. If you keep practicing, I'm sure you could get decent at it."

"Blah!" she said, sitting back up as he handed her back her notebook. "I've got no patience. Let me see yours."

Rowan grabbed his notebook and saw, not a mountain scape, but her. She saw herself in profile, engraved into the paper, arm stretched out in front of her and a concentrated look on her face. Her hair was a long dark mass, and she admired the wrinkles in her robes and the play of light and dark against her face. She was at a loss for words.

Remus watched her carefully as her face melted into a serene look. A quiet smile played on her lips, and he saw the corners of her eyes crinkle. She looked up slowly and beamed radiantly at him, eyes glowing with the light of the setting sun.

"Can I keep it?" she asked.

Remus nodded, taking the notebook from her and tearing the page out gingerly. She took it with gentle hands before taking out her large Potions textbook and placing it inside. "So it doesn't get damaged," she had said.

The two shared an amiable silence for a few more minutes before Remus heard a growl. He looked over at Rowan who was grimacing and holding her stomach.

"Hungry?" he asked mildly.

"Starving," she said grinning before standing. They both collected their bags and headed up to the castle, arm in arm.

Remus was brought out of his reverie by a squawk. He looked down next to him and saw Anfa staring up at him with her yellow eyes expectantly.

"Sorry, Anfa. I got distracted. Can you let her know that I'll write back tonight and send it with Alastair?" he asked the owl.

She hooted softly before looking at him with a gaze that he wanted to say was gentler, but he was probably imagining it. And with that, she hopped to the window sill and stretched her wings out, taking off into the late afternoon sun.

A/N: Just for reference, a fwooper is a magical African bird whose song can drive the listener to insanity. Scary, right?