A/N: Thank you for all your alerts, favs, and reviews! I appreciate them so much.


Too soon the last week of term ever dwindled down to the weekend and Lily stared at her trunk, tears in her eyes. She suddenly burst into tears.

"Oh god Lily what's wrong?!" Rowan asked concerned as she shoved some more books into her trunk.

"Nothing….we're….we're…we're…LEAVING!" Lily sniffed. She blew her nose and Marlene swore as she felt herself tearing up.

"Seven years….seven years of being together," Marlene said emotionally as she sat down next to Lily.

"You guys…we have a whole life time ahead of us of being together!" Rowan threw her hands up in the air.

"But not like this!" Lily protested.

"You lot are too emotional," Rowan rolled her eyes.

"You're not emotional enough!" Marlene retorted. "Why are you not more torn up about this?!" she demanded.

"Because. I'm not." Rowan replied shortly. She retied her hair back into its bun and resumed her packing.

Marlene muttered something. Lily however appraised her keenly. "Something's up. Fess up Ro,"

"Pardon?"

"There has to be a reason why you're not so emotionally wrenched over leaving school. What is it? Are you really that excited about going on a cross country trip to America?"

"Yeah, I am," Rowan immediately replied thinking of what the next two months had in store for her and Sirius.

"Some best maid you are," Lily stuck her tongue out.

"What's there in America with you that's not with you here?" Marlene threw her hands up.

"Sirius," Rowan quietly answered.

The room went very silent.

"Sirius?" Lily echoed.

"Sirius?" Marlene squawked.

"The one and only," Rowan replied solemnly as she shoved some clothes into her trunk.

"You and Sirius are going to America? For two months?" Marlene asked sceptically.

"Yeap,"

"Are you sure that's a good idea? I mean…you two…it's you two. I don't think you should keep stringing him along Rowan. It's been long enough." Lily said very serious.

"I'm not stringing him along," Rowan sharply countered struggling not to get mad at them because they didn't know.

"What do you mean by that?" Marlene asked shrewdly.

Rowan whirled around and placed her hands on her hips. She seemed to struggle with what she wanted to say. "Sirius is not being strung along. So don't worry about him."

"Rowan Forlani what are you implying?" Lily narrowed her eyes.

Rowan chewed her lip and then sighed. "Sirius and I. Hell I can't do this." she swore a blue streak and stomped out of the dorm.

Lily and Marlene looked at each other and then promptly waited thirty seconds before dashing out the door after her.

"ROWAN FORLANI GET BACK HERE!" Marlene bellowed thundering down the stairs followed closely by Lily.

The marauders twisted around in their seats and momentarily looked up from their plans they had been looking at. Rowan winced slightly and Sirius gave her a confused look.

"Mate I'm sorry to cut our time together short but don't be surprised if I die now," she muttered.

"What the hell did you smoke?!" Sirius mumbled back eyeing her roommates warily.

"Something amiss?" Remus inquired.

"You could say that Remus," Lily growled. She marched up to Rowan and tugged at her t-shirt.

"Grow up and tell us!" She shouted.

"I'm not good at these kind of things!" She protested.

"Good at what things?" Peter asked raising an eyebrow.

"Sirius is it true that you and Rowan are going to America for two months?" Marlene rounded on him.

"Hell yeah we are! Lily's not going since James had to go and ruin his life and propose to her,"

"HEY!" James protested.

"Kidding mate, really happy for you," Sirius grinned.

"Wait, so you two are going to America. Even though it's you two?" Marlene asked doubting this entire thing.

"What is it with you and the fact that it's Rowan and I? Lots of couples go on holiday!" Sirius exclaimed throwing out his arms.

"Couples?" James repeated.

"Holiday?" Peter asked bewildered.

"COUPLE?" Remus shouted jumping up. He rapped Sirius sharply over the head.

"Ow! Hey! What the hell was that for?" Sirius cried.

"The most important thing in your life has finally happened and you didn't even bother to tell us?" Remus growled.

"I'm with Mooney on this one. We're your goddamn roommates!" James rounded on his Sirius.

Peter started laughing his head off and Rowan and Sirius sighed wearily. "Why are you laughing Wormtail? This isn't that funny."

"Your level of stupidity astounds me," Peter chuckled.

"You sonofabitch! You guys are together and you didn't tell us? You're a huge sonofabitch!" James stood up rumpling his hair.

"Wait, are you guys together together?" Marlene asked anxiously. The entire group looked at them anxiously.

"If you call being together….I don't know how do you define being together?" Sirius asked Rowan frankly.

"I don't know? Just being with you?" she shrugged. Sirius slapped a hand on her knee. "That's good enough for me. Then yeah. I guess we're together." He replied carelessly motioning with his hands.

"FINALLY!" James shouted throwing his hands up.

Marlene and Lily began shrieking and converged on Rowan who disappeared under them. Remus grinned and clapped Sirius on the back and Peter gave him a thumbs up.

"You lot…calm down. It's not as if we're getting married or something," Sirius rolled his eyes.

"You guys should!" Came Marlene's muffled response as she hugged Rowan.

Rowan's eyes met Sirius' and they exchanged a short telepathic conversation that went like this:

Sirius, if you ever decide that you want to ruin your life permanently, warn me that you're going to propose so I can run in the opposite direction to save you a life time of misery.

Rowan I am nowhere near ready for marriage let alone a serious relationship. We'll be lucky if we don't muck this up.

Wait, this is a serious relationship?

I'm not sharing you with anyone.

"Yeah Lils…we ain't getting married any time soon," Sirius shuddered.

"Blimey it only took you…a million years to get here," Peter shook his head.

"We got here as fast as we could," Rowan argued feeling exhausted.

"Well at the end of the day we're all very happy for you two," Remus quickly concluded.

"And Merlin forbid you fuck this up, but Padfoot mate, if you do screw things up I'm going to have to off you," James frankly said.

"And if you screw things up Rowan we're gonna have to bury you six feet under as well," Lily told Rowan sternly. Sirius had to smile at this.

"Don't we have such good mates?" Rowan asked Sirius sarcastically.

"Yeah. We have the best." Sirius grinned.


In the wee hours of the morning on Sunday, Rowan met Sirius down in the Common Room for one last stroll throughout the castle. It was five in the morning.

"Too. Bloody. Early," she grumbled still sleepy.

"Morning to you too," he yawned kissing her and dragging her out of the Portrait Hole.

The castle was very quiet as the students continued to sleep and the pair of them leisurely meandered throughout the Castle remembering about all the good and bad times they had over the last seven years here.

"Isn't this the classroom you blew out?" Sirius pointed out as they passed a classroom.

"One of the many," she agreed. Sirius chuckled.

"Are you as sad as the rest of our lot about leaving?" Rowan asked curiously lifting her head to study him.

Sirius thought about this for a moment. "I'm sad, because it was my home for the last seven years and I've had some of the happiest times here…and I know this sounds really

Lame and cheesy, but I got you lot…and you're essentially my family. Well. Except you. Cos that'd would just be weird."

Rowan smiled. He continued, "This place was my real home. My home wasn't a home at all. Not for me, anyway. So yeah. I am quite sad that we're leaving. But there's nothing I can do about it. This is life. We grow up, we move on."

"That we do. Or at least we try to." Rowan agreed.

"Apparently you're not torn up about this at aaaalll. Or so Lily tells me."

"I'm sad yes, but I don't feel the need to cry about it. Besides. I'm excited to leave."

"Why?!"

"Cos. I'm excited for what's coming next. I'm excited because…I'm excited to be with you and whatever is up ahead for us." She said evenly as they crossed the threshold and went outside.

Sirius felt pleasantly surprised. He wrapped a hand around shoulders and brought her closer to him. He highly enjoyed the new found freedom that he could put his arm around her whenever, wherever, kiss her, have her close to him whenever he damn well pleased him.

He wasn't a clingy person at all and he wasn't touchy feely all the time with girls, but he had spent so long combating his feelings for her that he couldn't help but want to just enjoy her closeness to him.

Still, he felt the need to tell her this, that he wasn't a crazy, clingy boyfriend, that he was merely savouring that the universe worked out in his favour for once.

"Rowan, this is going to sound really stupid, but I'm not this touchy feely all the time," he said glancing at her.

"I'm confused," she replied sitting on the edge of the lake with her feet pulled up against her.

"Well. Erm. I know you like you're space and everything. You can take care of yourself and I'm not gonna try to take care of you,"

"Sirius sometimes you really are daft in the head, c'mere," she ordered patting the space behind her.

Sirius obliged her and shifted behind her and she promptly leaned against him between his legs and rested her head against his check. She stared broodingly out at the water in front of them.

She started tracing patterns on his knee and then said, "Sirius, correct me if I'm wrong, but from what I glean from everyone else, this year wasn't all that rainbows and sunshine for you. I believe you told me that you 'had the misfortune of falling in love with me,'"

Sirius cringed. "Sorry about that. I was a little…frustrated at that point in time."

"Exactly my point. Sirius I'm sorry I made you go bonkers this year, and now that we've finally gotten on the same page…I don't know. I like being close to you ok? Besides, I know you're not going to suffocate me, smother me, or squash down my independence. You know, it's kind of funny. Lily once asked me how'd I describe my ideal bloke, and I said, someone who gave me space, could hold his own, passionate, reckless and someone who could take care of himself. That's all you. At the time I didn't realise it. She did, she pointed it out and I laughed my head off. But looking back on it…yeah. That's you mate."

"Cheers love," Sirius grinned laughing in her neck. He felt her squirm beneath him and tightened his grip around her.

"Don't' get so cocky 'bout this, I could easily dump your ass," she warned.

"I don't think so," Sirius said.

"Oh yeah, says who?" she retorted.

"Because it'd be a lot harder to walk away from me as a boyfriend, you'd have to walk away from me as a mate and that's a pretty tough thing to do when we've known each other for nearly four and half years now," he reminded her.

"Survival of the bloody fittest," was her reply. Sirius narrowed her eyes and he pressed his lips against her ear. "You want to know why else you're not going to be able to dump me as easily as you would with other blokes?"

"Why?"

"'Cos we're right for each other, and deep down, you know it," he growled as he bit her earlobe not so gently.

Rowan felt a shot of pleasure shoot down her spine and internally swore a blue streak. "Fuck you Sirius," she mumbled as she twisted around to meet his lips with her own.


A fair amount of the Seventh Year girls were sobbing a bit as they ate their last and final breakfast that morning. Marlene sniffled as she sipped her tea and Remus exchanged a bewildered look at James who just shrugged. Beside him, Lily was also red-eyed and he had no clue what to do about it.

"Happy last bloody day in here, EVER!" Rowan announced as she and Sirius joined them. This caused Lily and Marlene to burst out in fresh waterworks.

"Smooth Rowan, real smooth," James glared. She shrugged and bit back a smile as she tucked into her breakfast.

"Aren't you lot just a little bit excited for the next phase of our lives? I mean, you two are getting married for crying out loud!" Rowan exclaimed.

"Yeah we are…" James grinned.

"Have you lot set a date yet?" Peter inquired through a mouthful of bacon.

"As soon as possible," he promptly replied.

At this Sirius and Rowan burst out in a loud protest saying they were going to America for eight weeks and that they would have to postpone it until they got back.

"You lot know it won't be a proper wedding without your two best mates," Sirius pointed his fork at his mate.

"I know…but there's so much to do. And we when the hell do we start the Order stuff? I want to get married and have a little time to actually enjoy it before running around with a death wish…"

"September," Lily spoke up.

"Pardon?" Peter asked.

"September. I want the wedding to be in September," she repeated.

Rowan grinned. "Excellent."

"Why September?" James asked wanting to know.

"Because it's not that far away, but it still gives us about two months to plan the wedding and believe me, from what I've heard, wedding planning can be a real bitch," she replied.

"Don't worry, you've got me,' Marlene said brightly kissing her cheek.

"Marlene's gonna win Bridesmaid of the Year," Rowan said to Remus who grinned.

"So what about you? What part do you play?" Peter asked.

"Make sure that James doesn't do anything stupid ten minutes before the wedding starts," she replied.

"I thought that would be the best man's job," Sirius said miffed.

"Mate, knowing you two, you'd be the one telling him to do said stupid thing!"

"Hey…."

"Tis true, I wouldn't put it past you…or you to do something stupid," Remus agreed referring to James.

"Thanks for having faith in us Mooney," Sirius said sarcastically.

"No problem mate. Any time."

Too soon they found themselves being hustled out of the Great Hall in order to pick up their bags and things before leaving the castle for one, last time.

"Jesus I can't believe we're leaving…" Peter said as they walked through the Castle Doors for the last time.

"Bye house," Sirius said quietly as he took one last look at the place he had called home for the last seven years.

"Bye house," Rowan echoed softly wrapping an arm around Sirius' waist.

"One last picture! For the road! PLEASE!" Marlene cried taking out her camera.

To her surprise no one groaned or moaned at this. Instead they all grouped around the steps outside and Marlene asked a nearby fifth year to take the picture.

"Smile!" she said grinning. She stood behind Remus and flung her arms around his shoulders. James and Lily stood next to each other with their arms around each other, Peter stood in the centre and Sirius and Rowan stood off to the side, Rowan's head resting on Sirius' shoulder. Sirius gave a thumbs-up in the air and the flash went off.

"I want a copy of that picture as soon as you get it developed Marzly," Lily told her as they once again started to make their way down to the horseless carriages.

"Of course."

"Any last words for this place?" Remus asked as they began riding away from the castle.

"It's been fun making home improvements on you on a weekly basis," Rowan saluted.

"Thanks for letting me get my wife," James said.

"Thanks for removing the stick up my arse and letting me get my future husband," Lily grinned.

"Thanks for being my home for the last seven years," Sirius blew a kiss to the castle.

"Thanks for educating me and not failing me completely. Hopefully." Peter crossed his fingers.

"You're going to do fine, I'm sure we all did fine," Marlene assured him.

"Thanks for accepting me for who I am," Remus said significantly. James exchanged a look at him and smiled.

"Thanks for every crazy, wacky, chaotic, emotionally distressing moment you've ever given us," Marlene finished.

"Cheers!" Rowan grinned.


The last train ride was as uneventful as the one they rode nearly nine months back was. The seven of them crammed themselves into the last compartment and nearly brought the Sweet Trolley Lady out with the amount of food they purchased. Sirius ended up falling asleep on Rowan's lap for the latter half of the trip and was mildly surprised to find them arriving at the train station so quickly.

"Well…" Sirius said stepping onto the platform with his messenger bag slung across his shoulder. He shoved his hands in his pockets and studied Rowan who adjusted her scarf.

"Well…" she mocked.

"This is stupid," he said feeling foolish. It wasn't the final goodbye. He wouldn't have to say that, hopefully, forever, to her.

"I know."

"We're going to see each other…in less than a week." He went on.

"I know that too."

"So why do I feel like a prat?" Sirius tipped his head up and studied the ceiling of the platform.

"Because you are one?" she teased.

"Shaddup. You're the maniac who sends herself to the Hospital Wing every other day."

"I'm gonna miss that Hospital Wing," she sighed.

"C'mon you lot, last kisses and hugs before we see each other again," Marlene said flinging her arms around the both of them. Rowan laughed and kissed her cheek affectionately as did Sirius.

"We'll see each other soon," Lily hugged Remus. James clapped Peter on the back and tousled Remus' hair.

"Bet your parents will be glad this is the last time I'm gonna be crashing with you until I find my own place which will be as soon as possible." Sirius grinned and waved to the Potters. They smiled and waved back at the pair of them happily.

"They'll miss you mate, I'll miss you. It's nice having someone around to goof off with," James said feeling a little sad that things were changing so fast so much.

"I'll miss you too Prongs. But hey! You get to move in with a girl! And it'll be your wife!" Sirius clapped his back reassuring him.

"I know. I just never thought it'd be so soon. I always thought you and I would room together or something after school, go through Auror training…"

"Yeah well. Life's a bitch and it has mood swings. Deal with it." Sirius replied.

"Ok well, there's my parents…oh good Petunia isn't with them. She's probably with that thing she calls her husband…Vernon…more like Vermin in my mind but whatever…" Lily said getting her trolly and going to her parents.

"There's Kol, I've gotta run too Sirius," Rowan said spotting her brother. She turned around and looked at him with soft eyes.

"I still feel as stupid as I did five minutes ago," Sirius exhaled facing her.

A crooked smile appeared on her face and she came closer to him and put her arms round his neck, one hand brushing the hair out of his face. Sirius relaxed his stance and he pressed his forehead against hers.

"I'll see you really soon, you know that right," she said softly.

"I know."

"Besides, we've got a lot on our plates to sort through before we go off to America," she said.

"Like what?" Sirius teased.

"The Baranbus Finkley Competition…where the hell I'm going to live, where' you're going to live…how I'm supposed to support myself…you know. Real world, boring, stuff."

Sirius smiled at this. Then he closed his eyes as he felt her soft lips on his and savoured the kiss for as long and as appropriately as he could in public. Too soon though, she broke away. Then she kissed a light kiss on his forehead and smoothed a finger over his brow.

"You know this isn't good bye Sirius. This is just the beginning. I'll see you very soon." She repeated.

"You better," he warned.

She laughed and stepped back from him shaking her head. "I promise you, I will,"

And with that she turned away and collected her things. Sirius watched her walk away with him and smiled fondly at her retreating back. She embraced her brother and the pair of them made their way towards exiting the platform. Just before she vanished, she turned and winked at Sirius before slipping through the barrier.


A/N: Phew! Essentially part one of this fic is finally DONE! I can't believe I made it this far...anyway. Big days ahead I think. I'll be going on a little holiday starting Thursday so I don't know if I'll have enough time to bang out another chapter before then, but who knows? Be good and review! xoxoxoxo