The secrets of Rowan Khanna (Y6 spoilers)

The final confrontation (Chapter 23)

Rowan felt sick to her stomach.
There was a huge fight at Hogwarts, death eaters had stormed the castle...
She had gotten the news after just finishing out a history class, and wanting to send her young students home. There had only been a few of them left, most parents had indeed taken their kids out of school at the start of the new year...
But Rowan had continued to teach the seven students that were left, with the same enthusiasm she had when there were twenty.
When she had just dismissed the little ones, when Barnaby had come rushing through the door, telling her not to let the little ones go.
" It's not safe!" he had yelled.
When Rowan had asked him why, he had told her about a huge battle that had ensued in Hogwarts. Death eaters were attempting to get into the castle...
The order of Phoenix had been called together to help, and Barnaby was ready to go.
" I love you." he told her. " Whatever happens, I love you."
She felt like she couldn't breathe. " I love you too-" she said, and then tried to argue that she would come with him. Barnaby shook his head, telling her to keep her own students safe.
He gave her one last kiss and then vanished.
Rowan stood there, not knowing what to do.
How could he just leave her like that? What if he..?
She tried to get those thoughts out of her head. Barnaby was a good fighter. He would be fine. Just fine.
She looked back and saw her students look up at her. They looked terrified.
Rowan took a deep breath to steady herself, and then decided to initiate the emergency plan.

About two hours later her and her coworkers had all students gathered in the cafeteria.
Out of originally 245 there were only 49 little ones remaining at the moment.
Right now that was a good thing. This way they weren't so crammed...
Rowan couldn't stay calm. She pretended to be, she tried to put on a brave face for the children, but it was so hard. She was so worried about Barnaby, about her friends...
Her coworkers were doing a little better, and tried to keep her calm.
Then they motivated the students to maybe begin doing their homework or something like that. Anything to keep the little ones occupied, so they wouldn't worry so much.
" Are you okay..?" one of her coworkers asked. " Do you need some air? You can go out for a minute, the rest of us will watch over your students."
Rowan thanked him, and went outside for a minute. She tried to take a deep breath.
All would be fine, she tried to tell herself. All would be okay.
She had just managed to breath in a normal manner again, when she heard someone approaching her...
She grabbed her wand and whirled around, pointing her wand at them.
But with a sigh of relieve she lowered it again, realizing that it was a familiar face.
Tonks came walking towards her, hands up. " Don't hurt me, it's just me. Barnaby sent me."
She explained that she had been at Hogwarts with the others, but people had wanted her to go home, because she just had a baby. But she said that she was unable to just sit at home while everyone was making themselves useful...
So Barnaby had suggested that she should go here, to help with protecting the kids.
Rowan thanked her, but then immediately asked her how the situation at Hogwarts was.
Not good. It wasn't good.
Death eaters had blown a hole in the castle wall and had broken through; there was fighting everywhere-
" I'm kinda glad to be out of there, but I'm worried about Remus..." Tonks confessed.
Rowan nodded. She knew what it felt like, she worried about Barnaby too...
Her friend looked her up and down. " You want to go fight too, right? Please, be careful... go to the divination classroom, it's our safe spot. Cast Periculum on the hatch twice, and they'll let you in."
She pulled Rowan into a hug. " Good luck."
Rowan hugged her back. " You too. Protect my children, okay?"
Tonks promised that she would.

The destruction was worse than Rowan could have ever imagined.
The castle was destroyed... there were holes in the castle, some of the upper floors were caved in... but she somehow made it to the divination classroom unscathed, even with all the fighting...
She followed Tonks' instructions and and cast Periculum. Once, twice-
There was some ruckus coming from the classroom, and suddenly someone poked their head out. It was Jae.
Once he saw who she was, he let the ladder down.
Rowan quickly climbed up. Many of her friends were up here. They all looked a little worse for wear, but okay...
" Rowan!" Nonie was the first to acknowledged her presence. She hugged her friend, asking what she was doing here.
She explained that she just hadn't been able to stay away, to leave them all fighting here and do nothing. Then she asked where Barnaby was.
Nonie grimaced. " Liz and him went to the care of magical creatures classroom to save all the smaller creatures. They've been gone for a while..."
Rowan sighed. She couldn't imagine anything that was more him than that... she could just hope that he was alright...
To keep herself from worrying, Rowan asked how she could help. Nonie told her that she could help tending to the wounded that they had brought up here.
Chiara was in the back, caring for wounded Aurors and even a couple of students...
Rowan jumped in to help.