The Other Marauders

Brother Troubles

ROWAN/PLUMI POV:

Over the next few weeks, Sirius starts acting very strange. He won't leave my side-only when I go into my dormitory or the bathroom-and he's always looking over his shoulder. The same thing goes for James and Remus. Not so much Peter, he disappears on a daily basis. No one really notices or cares, though. I feel kind of bad for the guy. 

"Sirius are you okay?" I eventually ask as he tenses up when his brother and his friends walk by. 

"Yes, I'm fine, love." I'm not convinced, but I let him put his arm around me as we make our way to Herbology. I barely listen to Professor Higglepomp as she's telling us about our exams at the end of the year. I keep giving Sirius sideways glances. He keeps looking back at Lucius and his friends, glaring and mouthing stuff. 

"Ms. Keith," Professor Higglepomp says, bringing me out of my daze. "If I were you I'd be paying close attention. These exams are very important if you want to succeed!" 

"Sorry, Professor," I mutter, blushing a little. She gets back on with the lesson, and I try my best to pay attention. Sirius keeps scooting closer to me and sending annoyed looks at the Slytherin boys in the back. When he turns back to the front, however, his face is contorted in a mixture of fear and worry. 

By the end of class, Sirius is absolutely and totally avoiding my eye, yet he stays close to me. 

"Sirius, are you going to tell me what's wrong or not?" I ask finally, annoyed at his behavior.

"Wrong? Nothing's wrong!" He says quickly, glancing over his shoulder again. I just roll my eyes and go to talk to Lily and Katie. 

                                      **********************************************************

I decide to take a little walk  while Sirius is up in his dormitory. And since he had barely left my side for a couple of weeks now, I think I deserve the break. I even asked Katie and Lily to leave me alone for a while, but they begged to come and I eventually said yes. We walked along the grounds randomly, avoiding all the places people would normally go. 

"Have you guys noticed the boys have been....er....clingy lately?" Lily asks. Katie and I nod in responce.

"Yeah. Remus seems very agitated and odd," Katie adds, running a hand through her wavy, brown hair.

"They've even stopped pulling pranks!" I say worriedly. "And Sirius said they had a bunch of them planned for this year!" Katie and Lily nod, both of them staring worriedly into the distance.  

"Whatever. Let's just be getting back," Katie finally says, starting to walk in the direction of the common room. We stop however, when Lily freezes up suddenly and falls backwards to the floor. 

"Lily!" I exclaim, rushing to her aid. She was stunned with a spell, and now I know who did it. I look down the hallway to see Sirius' brother Regulas, along with Lucius Malfoy, Bellatrix, Snape, and another I don't recognize coming at us. I quickly do the countercurse, and Lily gets up, rubbing the back of her head. "What the hell was that for?!" I ask, pulling out my wand and standing in front of my friends. 

"Oh, just a little payback for Potter's dumb pranks," Bellatrix says casually, sneaking a glance at me while twidling with her wand. 

"Yeah, and this is for my dumb brother!" Regulus says, pointing his wand at me. "Stupefy!" It comes to quickly and I can't do anything, so I just let it hit me. I go flying to the ground and land painfully on my back. I wince from the pain. 

"Rowan, are you okay?!" Katie says, rushing to help me up. 

"Fine," I reply, straightening up and rubbing my back. "Now just leave us alone, I've already got detention tomorrow so I'm not fighting you." It's true, though, I got detention for taking the blame when Sirius blew up our cauldron in potions class. Lucius says a spell I don't know, which hits Katie, causing a long gash to run across her cheek and start bleeding.