The Missing Marauder: A Harry Potter FanFiction

Chapter 4

Rowan had left them to go back to the common room alone, while they dealt with Snivelly. She had always found herself trying to be nice to the boy, knowing that he had enough trouble as it was, but after that incident...she would never try to help him again.  

She noticed, as she was leaving, how they all kept looking back at Sirius, who couldn't stop grinning. Not really a happy grin, or an evil grin, but sort of a mix of the two.  

Still dripping wet, she entered the common room, only to receive stares from pretty much everybody in the room. Ignoring them to the best of her abilities, she rushed up the stairs to her dormitory.  

Reaching into the chest at the foot of her bed, she pulled out her favorite pair of jeans and a tank, switched into them and hung her wet clothes to dry. She knew that she could probably flip through her spell book and find something that would dry it immediately, but she didn't have the time or the energy to look.  

Slipping on some sneakers, Rowan left the dormitory in hopes to get to the library and finish some other homework. However, the moment she was down the steps, she was bombarded with questions from a bunch of girls, half of whom she didn't even know.  

"What happened?"  

"Where were you last night?"  

"Why is your hair so wet?"  

"Were you actually with Sirius Black all night?"  

A familiar voice saved her from the interrogation. "Rowan!" Lily called from over the noise, waving at her, "Come over here!"  

Relieved, she pushed past the swiftly-formed crowd and sat down beside her friend. "Thanks for saving me," she whispered.  

"Not a problem," Lily said, "You looked like you needed to be saved."  

"Do you want to come to the library with me?" Rowan asked, hoping she'd say yes. She didn't want to have to go alone and face all of that.  

"Sure," she replied, "Just one question."  

"Oh, no. Not you, too!"  

"Well, I'm sorry Rowan, but what everybody's saying has a bit of truth to it. You were last seen carried off by that pompous thug. You didn't come to bed last night. You can't really blame them for wanting to know more."  

"If you must know," Rowan said, "I can tell you right now that what everybody thinks happened isn't true. Sirius doesn't think of me that way. We weren't alone, either. James, Remus and Peter were with us."  

"But they came to bed last night," Lily reminded her, "They actually got back around seven and told everybody that you guys were 'out.' We all expected you to come back but you never did."  

"We were out, but not like that."  

"Then what was it like?"  

"I don't know how to explain it, really. But it was nothing romantic, I assure you. We were just having...fun."  

Lily sat back exasperatedly. "I can't understand why you're friends with that... that..."  

"Monster? Jerk? Fiend? Bully?" Rowan suggested.  

"Sure. I mean, honestly he is so mean! He and his friends, especially that Potter, just go around hexing random people just because they don't like them or they get in their way or even just because they're bored!"  

"Well, it's mostly just Slytherins..."  

"Mostly isn't only."  

"I understand that!"