The sky was dark and gloomy, the stars that once glittered and winked, bright as fairy lights atop their crushed velvet blacktop swallowed by big, puffy clouds full to bursting with rain. Rowan scurried down to the Lake beneath them, the collars of her robes turned up as the wind whipped at her hair. The sweltering heat of the day had long melted away with the sun to a light, balmy temperature, and it was perfect condition for night time meetings, with the ominous backdrop and increasing wind. The Lake was rolling, large grey clouds reflected eerily in it's black, mirror like surface. A dainty curve of onyx water rolled forward to the shore and Rowan caught sight of a long, pearly white tentacle gleaming beneath the jet black waters before it slipped out of sight. Unnerved, Rowan pulled her robes tighter around her body as lightning crackled through the sky, long yellow arms reaching out in zigzagged motions towards the Castle, bursting with soft rumbles of thunder. She slumped against the cool bark of Jame's favorite oak and crossed her arms, scanning the grounds for any sign of Lily. Patches of dim moonlight sprawled over the grounds as patches in the thick clouds widened, but they didn't last long enough for Rowan's comfort. After the moonlight faded away the grounds became a great expanse of black, so dark that even Rowan's wand, glowing faintly under a weak Lumos spell, didn't make much difference.
And Rowan was horribly afraid of the dark.
"Come on, Lils!" She muttered, her temper rising as the moonlight faded once more and she was cloaked in darkness. "Where the bloody hell are you?"
"Right behind you, nutter."
Rowan jumped so high she hit her head on one of the oak's thick branches.
"Dammit, Lily!" She cried, her temples throbbing. She knelt on the ground and began to feel around for her wand, which was still glowing feebly in the tall grass. Her fingers closed around the warm, sweaty wood and she pocketed it. Eleven inches, hawthorn, billywig stinger, sturdy. Never failed. She turned to look at Lily but she was already by the water's edge, her long red hair fanning out around her as she gazed up towards the stormy sky.
"Looks like it'll be a good one." She said dreamily, smiling up at the clouds as another bolt of lighting cut across them. Rowan seized her wrist and pulled her back towards the safety of the oak, shoving her to the ground.
"I just saw that Giant Squid and storms probably make it hungry." She said, moving in front of Lily to deter her from heading back. Lily rolled her eyes.
"Ro, the Giant Squid does not eat people. Alice comes down here and feeds it bagels, for goodness sake."
"Yea," Rowan said, her hands falling to her hips. "But whatever happened to little David Lewis in second year? Came down by the Lake between lessons and they never found him again!"
"That's because his mum came to fetch him and they moved to France."
"Ah, that's just what they told us." Rowan said, shaking a finger at Lily and moving to sit underneath the oak. "At such a tender age we were much too fragile to know the truth."
Lily said something in response, but luckily was drowned out by a loud rumble of thunder that sent Rowan diving into her knees for safety.
The wind was picking up now, sending Rowan's curls whipping about her face, getting caught in her eyes and mouth. Beside her Lily was staring serenely out at the water, her glassy emerald eyes hard and dark in the little light. They didn't speak for what seemed like the longest time, letting the silence grow between them until, after minutes of staring out across the storm tossed Lake, Lily turned to Rowan and smiled a little sadly.
"You can probably guess why I dragged you out here tonight."
"Actually, I can't." Rowan said moodily, pulling the hood of her robes over her curls as rain began to fall. "Do explain." Lily looked like she would love nothing more than to place her hands around Rowan's neck and shake her until she was blue in the face, but she restrained herself and instead cracked her knuckles idly, smiling down into the grass.
"Well, I'd have thought it would be obvious, but…" Another bolt of lightning shot across the sky like an arrow and soared past the Astronomy Tower, setting the sky ablaze. Rowan, upon seeing it, began to seriously question Lily's sanity.
"But I needed to talk to you about…You…You Know Who." Rowan looked at her.
"I beg your pardon."
"Rowan, be serious for once!" Lily snapped. "I'm trying to have a decent, intelligent conversation with you here and you insist on being ridiculous!" Rowan narrowed her eyes.
"Ridiculous? It's not my fault you're much too sensitive for your own good! Who drags their friends out in the middle of a storm just to talk to them about You-Know-Who? Why couldn't we just sneak to Myrtle's toilets or something, that's always safe—but oh, no, we're doing things the Lily Evans way tonight. It's story time under the stars!" She paused as an loud clap of thunder rumbled through the grounds and it began to rain harder. "Oh wait," She said quietly, lifting her face to the sky, "There aren't any."
Lily's fingers were tightening around her wand.
"Oh, I really don't want to have to hurt you tonight." She grumbled. "I really, really don't want to." Rowan knew Lily would sooner eaten a bowl of Jelly Slugs than hex her, but when Lily was looking so alarming (and the fact that the thunder rumbling overhead would surely mask any screams) she relented.
"Okay, okay." She said, holding up her arms in mock surrender. "What did you want to talk about?" It was though Lily had planned this conversation, for she cleared her throat in a rather matter of fact way, paused, then launched into speech.
"Dumbledore's speech…" She said slowly, eying Rowan to make sure she was listening. "You heard the man. You-Know-Who is in England and this war is only getting worse. You know that, I know it…hell, even Alice knows it and though I love her, she's incredibly naive." She paused again to look at Rowan, who looked back miserably from underneath her hood, curls waterlogged and stringy from the rain. She continued.
"Though he's very good at hiding it, I can tell he's worried. If he wasn't he wouldn't be cautioning us like that, it's not like him." Rowan looked at her.
"But he specifically told us he wasn't worried."
"People always don't say things they want to, Rowan. Imagine if Dumbledore actually admitted his concern." She stood up, rain lashing against her thick hair, robes stuck to her skin, and extended her hand to Rowan.
"There would be chaos." She said as she pulled Rowan to her feet, "Mothers would be pulling their children from school even though in times like these school is probably safer than most their homes. People would panic. Everyone respects Dumbledore, I honestly have no idea why he isn't the Minister of Magic by now…" She looked to the sky, her face illuminated by another streak of lightning.
"I'm just worried about what this means…Dumbledore's worry, You-Know-Who being so close…I'm worried, Ro, about what this means for us." Rowan smiled weakly, moving closer to Lily and wrapping her arm around her shoulders, which were shaking with cold.
"Lils, I'm worried to." She said softly. "Worried that one of you will be killed when we join the Order, worried that something will happen, something terrible…to any of us here, it doesn't have to be a friend. Lisa Reynolds never came back after Christmas Break last year, do you remember that? Death Eaters murdered her and her mother a week before we were due back. The whole thing was awful, but what really scares me is how easily they found her mother…and how quickly they did it, without any remorse. They just left them there, their father came home and-well, her mother wasn't even in the Order. She just worked under the Minister and found out too much. If they track down government officials and kill them, think of how much more danger we'll be in in the Order, fighting against them all."
The rain was falling fast and hard now, a watery haze over the tall windows which glowed warmly with torchlight up at the castle. The girls were sopping wet as they stood under the oak, the storm raging overhead as they carried out their conversation. Rowan's shoes were filled with water, her stockings so soaked her they made squelching noises against the rubber of her shoes every time she wiggled her toes in a vain attempt to warm them. Her curls were frizzy and dripping down her sides, Lily's mascara was running all down her face and yet she still insisted on standing out in the rain.
"Rowan," Lily said, now sounding very serious. "You're the best friend I've ever had. Even though it was pretty rough in the beginning, with all the sabotaging we did, I wouldn't skip that part of our friendship for the world. I knew Lisa…not very well, y'know, but…enough. I was partners with her in Herbology a lot when you were with Remus, and we chatted over DADA homework more than once. When I heard she died it was…horrible. I just kept seeing her over and over again in my mind, laughing, talking. Smiling. Living. And then I went over what I'd said to her before the holidays, desperate to make sure I hadn't said anything horrible. I said goodbye but that was it…just yelled it over the crowd as we got on the train. If I felt that bad about losing Lisa, who was only an acquaintance, I…I don't ever want to know what it's like to lose someone close like you. Or James." Rowan smiled at her.
"You really do love him, don't you?" Lily looked down towards the water then back at Rowan. She buried her face in her hands and even though it was impossible to tell in the dark light, Rowan swore her face had turned bright red.
"Oh, Rowan I do!" She said. "I was so stupid before and so was he…if we had just settled our differences like adults we could have been going out long before this. Fifth year maybe, if he would have accepted his arrogance. I was only mean to him because I couldn't and didn't understand why I liked him so much. He is the perfect example of the man I never thought I could care for and now look at me." She chuckled, pulling her hair behind her ears.
"I'm a lovestruck fool in the rain worrying about our future."
The rain began to lighten, a heavy sprinkle rather than a full out down pour, and Rowan shook out her curls, ringing them into the soft, spongy soil beneath the tree. She looked up at Lily as she shook her curls dry, her eyebrows raised.
"Is this still the same Lily Evans, swooning over a certain bespectacled someone?" Lily rolled her eyes.
"I would only be swooning if I told you I'd written Lily Potter in all my books…which I haven't!" She cried, as Rowan moved towards her bag to check.
Rowan raised a brow but didn't pursue the matter further. Instead, she stopped wringing her hair as the storm moved North, carrying the last few storm clouds along with it. The half moon shone across the grounds as the last wispy gray clouds drifted after the larger ones, and Rowan could, upon looking at Lily, see that she was smiling now.
"Enough with the mushy stuff." She said, swatting Lily to bring her back to earth. "I have to confess."
"Proceed." Lily said eagerly, her eyes bright in the half light. Rowan cleared her throat. Was she really going to tell Lily everything that had been on her mind for the entire year? She debated for a moment, considering the feeling of getting everything off her chest versus the feeling of guilt she would surely get after, then, after a look from Lily, made a split second decision.
"I don't know if I want to be in the Order anymore. I'm a coward. I used to like James and for a short time hated you because of how often he went on about Lily Evans. I don't really like Quidditch. I think I failed my Charms N.E.W.T. Things haven't been going that great with Remus. I'm starting to have feelings for Sirius again. Marlene McKinnon needs to get hexed and whoever does it needs to make it a good one. I'm so scared that you, Alice, James, Remus, Sirius or Peter will die if we join I've had more than one unpleasant dream. I still wear the owl pendant Sirius gave me under my robes. I made fifty lists in the past week. My hair isn't naturally red. Hogsmeade didn't have my favorite chocolate. Lily Evans I think I'm going insane."
There was a long pause. A raindrop slid from Lily's forehead down her nose, sliding off the tip and onto her bottom lip as she stared at Rowan, open mouthed, eyes wide with shock and disbelief. A gentle rumble of thunder echoed throughout the grounds and Lily crossed her arms, scratching her head awkwardly.
"Uh…well, that's…" She said slowly. "It's…well, it's not okay…you aren't going insane but…it's okay you liked…I don't-" But she didn't seem to know where to go from there and after a few moments of gaping soundlessly at Rowan she nodded and looked at her shoes, standing there in her soaked robes and shivering from head to foot. Rowan felt her face grow hot.
"I'm sorry to pour all that onto you at once Lils." She said miserably. "I just never find the time to tell you anything anymore." Lily smiled a little sadly.
"It's alright Ro. Really." She said, placing both her hands on Rowan's shoulders. "We've all been so busy lately…though that hair part could have been mentioned as early as second year, when we stopped torturing each other long enough for form a decent friendship." Rowan giggled.
"Alright, yea…I guess I should try talking to people more instead of making so many damn lists."
"That sounds like a decent idea."
The stars were beginning to appear in the sky as the last of the fluffy clouds made their exit, shining brightly overhead as Lily gave Rowan's hand a squeeze.
"Whatever happens we'll always be together." She said. She raised her hand towards her face and for one frantic moment Rowan thought she was going to strike her before she noticed the silver charm bracelet glittering there.
"Bonded forever by this thing." She shook her wrist, causing the little charms to bang and clink together. "Mainly because I can't take it off, but also because I don't want to." She eyed Rowan's wrists. "Still wearing yours?" Rowan pulled back the sleeve of her robes.
"Right here." She said, holding her wrist up to Lily's. The little charms shone brightly, mirrored in the others bracelet on the highly polished silver.
"Spell book that opens and closes, a commemorative to our first Potions lesson."
"Which was a disaster." Rowan said, opening and closing the tiny charm.
"A broomstick, for our first pro Quidditch game." Lily continued, smiling fondly at it.
"Nearly got taken out by a Bludger…" Rowan muttered.
"Ah, one of my favorites." Lily breathed, holding the little charm between her fingers. Rowan looked down at it and grinned, finding the identical one on hers and comparing it to Lily's.
"A miniature lion for Gryffindor and a diamond S for sisterhood."
"Exactly." Lily said. She stepped forward and hugged Rowan, pulling back to survey her at arm's length.
"S for sisterhood, which means we'll be together no matter what happens."
The night sky had never been brighter.