A/N: Some fluff and Marauder mayhem. Fun for everyone! Also a little bit of action and promises of more later!

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Chapter 25: Of Piles, Girl Talk, and Dark Promises

Once again, Rowan arrived second after Mina to the Three Broomsticks. She was seated at the same table as she had been the year prior, book propped open with a butterbeer. Rowan smiled at the sight before moving to join her.

"Winnie! How was Christmas?" Mina asked as she saw her friend approach.

"It was good! Peaceful – I got to see Remus about a week ago, which was nice, but otherwise just hung out at home with my mum and Alfred," she replied. "You?"

Mina grinned. "Chaotic – Will is a raging ball of crazy right now. He turns eleven in February and has been out of control waiting for his Hogwarts owl to arrive. Mum is about to murder him."

Rowan laughed. "I forgot he'll be coming next year. That's exciting. I can't wait to meet him," she said warmly. "Better keep him away from James and Sirius – I feel like that's a bad combination."

Mina stiffened slightly at the sound of Sirius' name, and Rowan raised an eyebrow. "What's going on with you two?" she asked cautiously.

"What?" Mina responded quickly. "Nothing. Why would there be?" Her answer was too rushed to be true.

"Uh-huh," Rowan said with a suspicious look but said nothing else.

Mina and Sirius hadn't spoken much all term, but she and Remus had both noticed the awkward stiffness in Mina's shoulders every time he was around her. He, however, had changed drastically in his approach towards her. Though Rowan still caught him stealing glances her way every once in a while, he'd basically completely left her alone all term. Even on the rare occasions when they spoke, he was nothing but polite, if not a little on the stiff side, as opposed to his previous tendency of throwing insults or inappropriate compliments at the brunette. He had also brushed off Rowan's inquiries, so she'd dropped it, but their strange behavior still raised questions that she wanted answered.

There was a flash of green light, and a series of grunts and thuds sounded from the fireplace. The girls turned to see both James and Sirius in a heap on the floor. James was draped over Sirius, face-up and back arched painfully, whereas Sirius' torso seemed to be twisted, forcing his face into the floor. They were both covered in soot.

Rowan burst into laughter at the two of them and walked over slowly to help them to their feet, still laughing. "What the hell happened to you two?" she asked.

Sirius groaned and rubbed his cheek, sitting up from the floor. "Well, we wanted to know what would happen if we flooed at the same time," he said, matter-of-factly.

"Yeah, not one of our best ideas. I think we might have touched parts during the trip," James admitted, shaking out his shirt of soot and ruffling his hair. They still sat on the floor, next to the fireplace.

Rowan snorted. "How charming," she said sarcastically. The two glared at her before there was another flash of green light, and Rowan jumped to the side just in time to see them collapse again to the floor, joined by a third figure, whom Rowan identified as Peter. He was sitting almost serenely on top of them.

"Oh, Prongs, Padfoot! What're you doing on the floor?" he asked innocently, looking around him confused. They both groaned, mumbling rude things under their breath. Rowan was beside herself with laughter.

"You know, Remus isn't here yet. It'd probably be a good idea –" Rowan started.

But then there was another flash of green light, and another figure collapsed on top of them, earning a shouting grunt from Sirius, who was on the bottom.

"What the fuck!" Remus exclaimed, wrenching his arm from beneath Peter's leg with a groan. "Seriously, you guys? What the hell is going on here?" He scrambled to his feet, noticing Rowan's heavy laughter.

"Seriously, get off!" groaned Sirius, flailing his limbs trying to maneuver himself from beneath the pile. Peter squeaked and hopped off of James, who inhaled loudly, gasping as Peter had been sitting on his chest.

"Oh, sorry, James!" apologized Peter.

"S'okay," he gasped, rolling off of Sirius who crawled a good distance from the fireplace before sitting up and collecting himself with a groan. "I think I might've broken a rib," he whined.

Remus rolled his eyes. "Oh, come on. Let's go!" he said, prodding James lightly in the side with his foot, who whimpered lightly.

Rowan's laughter had finally died down, and she looked back at the table to see Mina, who was gazing intently at Sirius with an indecipherable expression. Her eyebrows were furrowed, and she was biting her lip seriously, leaning forward. Rowan caught her eye and grinned at her, and Mina looked embarrassed at being caught, a surprising blush rising to her face momentarily before looking away.

"Thank god we'll all be able to Apparate by this time next year," Rowan heard a grumble. She turned to see Remus next to her, running a hand through his hair distractedly and looking disgruntled at his friends, who were quite a mess. His sleeves were rolled up, revealing sinewy scarred arms, and the smudges of soot on his face somehow made him even more appealing. She stood and admired him blatantly, not self-conscious of being caught, for once.

Finally, he turned and saw her staring at him. "What're you looking at, Delacroix?" he asked suggestively, raising an eyebrow at her.

She grinned. "You need a shower," she said cheekily.

He grinned slowly before wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling her against him. "Care to join me?" he murmured lowly, and a shot of heat flared through her.

"Ewww!" they heard a whine. They both turned and saw James, still on the floor, staring at them with a screwed up face. "Not in public, please!" he complained.

"Think of the children!" Sirius added in a high-pitched womanly voice, also still on the floor.

Remus laughed heartily but turned back and kissed Rowan soundly, earning groans from the two dark-haired boys. Rowan could feel his soft chuckles rumble in his chest, and she smiled against his mouth. When he pulled away, he had a grin that made her stomach flip, and he spoke lowly, "I missed you this week."

She grinned and replied, "Same." Then she scrunched up her nose at him and groaned, "You're getting me dirty! You have to take a shower before you touch me again!" She pushed him away, but he held tight, laughing, and pulled her back, rubbing his sooty face against hers. She squealed and tried to break free from his grasp, both giggling before James broke it up.

"Okay, you two. Save something for after the wedding!" he said, jokingly.

"Think of the children!" Sirius exclaimed again in his womanly voice.

Rowan rolled her eyes but smiled. "Up to the castle?" she asked, and the six of them moved toward the entrance, all hungry and excited about dinner in the Great Hall.

When they arrived in the Common Room, Rowan moved to take her things up to the dorms but felt an arm snake around her waist again. She looked up expecting to see Remus, smiling, and he grinned down at her. "Meet back here in an hour?" he asked.

She laughed and pushed at him playfully. "Of course!" she said, exasperatedly. "Now, go shower!"

He grinned boyishly at her before planting another solid kiss on her cheek and speeding off to the boys' dorms. She grinned after him and continued up to her room, grin still plastered on her face as she entered it.

Once again, her roommates hadn't come back yet, and she was glad for it – even though she often enjoyed their envy towards her about Remus, she felt that it would cheapen her happiness at that moment. She wanted to savor it. As she unpacked her bags, she heard a knock at the door and saw Mina smiling down at her, and she grinned at the déjà vu.

"You got something there," she said, pointing to her cheek.

Rowan reached up to wipe away at what she assumed was soot. "Got it?" she asked. Mina laughed and shook her head. She tried a few more times to Mina's amusement but eventually gave up, running to the bathroom to wash it off.

When she came back, Mina was lying on her bed, looking at the ceiling calmly. She noticed Rowan walking back, and she scooted over to make room for her. The dark-haired girl laid down next to her and they shared an amiable silence for a moment before Mina started.

"So you and Remus," she said open-endedly. Rowan was still looking up at the ceiling, but she could hear the smile in Mina's voice.

"Me and Remus," she responded happily. She was slightly embarrassed at her obvious delight.

"It seems you're doing well together," Mina continued.

"Yep," Rowan confirmed cheerfully, thinking about his soot-stained cheek and the boyish grin he'd left her with.

"Have you guys…" Mina asked slowly, and Rowan's face burned at the implication.

"No, no, not yet," she said quickly.

"But you want to…" Mina suggested, and Rowan's face burned more, knowing what her answer was.

"Yeah, kind of," she admitted. "We talked about it and agreed to go slowly, but it's hard. I can't keep my hands off him," she said with a light laugh.

"I hadn't noticed," Mina said lightly. Rowan could hear the smile in her voice again.

"What about you?" she asked, curious. "I know you dated Johnson last year, but I never asked how things actually went with you two." She suddenly felt apologetic.

Mina shrugged. "We did stuff, but I did more with Liam over the summer. Didn't go all the way though," she admitted matter-of-factly. "I don't think he was very good though, not that I have much to compare it to," she laughed.

Rowan laughed back. "I've never thought about it like that. My head goes completely blank when Remus touches me," she admitted sheepishly.

Mina smiled again. "I think that's a good sign," she said lightly.

They laid in silence for a bit more before moving to go back down the stairs, where the Marauders were already waiting, looking impatient.

"About time! I was about to send a dungbomb up the stairs to get you to come down!" James exclaimed, jumping to his feet.

"Wouldn't a dungbomb in the stairs just encourage us to stay in our rooms?" Mina asked smartly, raising an eyebrow.

Sirius suddenly let out an unexpected bark of laughter but then suddenly looked very embarrassed, as did Mina. Luckily, James didn't seem to notice.

"Yeah, I suppose that's true. I'll have to rethink my strategy for next time," James admitted thoughtfully. But then his face perked up. "Let's get food!" he exclaimed, rushing for the Portrait Hole, dragging Mina by the arm.

The other two moved towards the door more slowly. Rowan stood slightly to the side to let them pass as she waited for Remus to join her before setting off. He was clean again, except for a single smudge on his cheekbone, which Rowan noted was her favorite from before.

"You still got something there," she said cheekily.

Remus grinned. "Yeah, it wouldn't come off," he admitted before taking her hand in his and kissing her chastely, heading toward the Portrait Hole.

The party this year wasn't as raucous as the one before, but there were more people – about thirty-five. Rowan didn't stay by Remus' side the entire night - choosing to jump from person to person, as she was wont to do – but the constant feel of his presence and their occasional shared glances kept her comfortable throughout the evening and at a low but constant state of heat. She could tell by his clumsy posture and affectionate touches that he was slightly tipsy, and she teased him with suggestive touches at his hips or lower stomach the entire night, also uninhibited by her slight inebriation. Each time she'd graze him, he'd shoot her a heated look that said that he knew it was intentional, and a part of her could feel a dark promise whispered silently between them.

Mina had been receiving attention throughout the night from various boys, per usual, but Rowan noted that she only seemed vaguely aware of it. She'd spent the evening stealing quick glances across the room at Sirius, who had been carrying on drunkenly with the Marauders as he usually did at parties, and Rowan finally dumbly recognized the signs of blatant attraction. She mused sadly that Sirius didn't seem to share the same feelings anymore and thought of the cruelty of irony. It was too bad – she didn't know how well a relationship would've worked out between the two of them, but it would've been entertaining as hell.

When the Gryffindors gathered to start their countdown, Remus pulled Rowan tightly against him and grinned roguishly at her. She beamed at him and wrapped her arms around him, settling her hands dangerously low on his back. His eyes burned through her, and she knew she would probably be pushed into a dark corner sometime before the night was over.

When midnight struck, Remus kissed her slowly, deliberately, letting the heat between them linger, and when he pulled away, Rowan thought she might implode with need. He grinned at her suggestively then leaned forward to whisper in her ear, "Later," before letting her go, leaving her feeling cold and bereft.

People started trickling out about an hour after midnight, and Rowan found herself impatiently glancing at Remus frequently, wondering what he had planned. He would just smirk at her and let his gaze run over her slowly until her face burned red. Finally, the other three Marauders passed out, once again, in the Common Room, this time all on the floor huddled together closely. Mina went to bed looking slightly disappointed, and Rowan was left with a sobering Remus, who had pinned her against the edge of a table.

She bit back a moan as he slipped a thigh between hers and ground against her suggestively, skimming his lips up the length of her neck, though never quite touching. She was holding tightly to his waist – her hands had snuck up underneath his shirt to feel the smooth expanse of muscle there, and she suddenly wanted to follow that line of soft hair that she'd first noticed on his lower stomach exactly a year before.

"Spend the night with me," she heard his whisper darkly, and as she pulled back to look at his intense stare, she already knew what her answer was. She nodded shortly, and he grinned triumphantly, grabbing her hand suddenly before leading her up the stairs to the boys' dorm.