The secrets of Rowan Khanna (Y6 spoilers)

Trapped behind a pane of glass (Chapter 1)

That faithful day that everything started to go horribly wrong, Rowan was sitting at home, by herself.
It was a week before her sixth year at Hogwarts started and... she wasn't in the best of moods. 
Yesterday there had been a letter in the mail. 
A letter from R.
In it, she had been been advised to keep an extra sharp eye on Nonie, Jacob Scheinert's little sister, which was subsequently her best friend. 
After the events of the last year, them finding out that Rakepick was betraying them all along...
Everybody was really on edge.

Last year, Rowan had gotten a break from spying, because Rakepick had been watching over them.
She had finally gotten to experience a normal (Well mostly normal) school life, which she had really enjoyed.
Finally she hadn't needed to go behind her friends backs...
While she had originally made friends with all of them to deliver information to R, she did grow to like them... she liked all of them a lot...
Especially her roommates, and Barnaby.
She hated having to betray them, but she didn't have a choice. 

R was threatening to hurt her family.
Rowan wasn't worried about her parents safety, she knew that they could protect themselves, what really worried her was her little sister, Hazel.
Hazel had always been a sickly child, so Rowan was scared that she couldn't properly protect herself, or even just run away.
It was her heart that gave her trouble, so running wasn't really something she could do...

Rowans parents knew what was going on. 
They had tried everything to convince R to let them do something else, anything else.
Everything but dragging their little girl into their mess. 
They had been running from R for years, by the time they had Rowan and Hazel, they were convinced that it had all gone away. 
But they had been wrong. 
Shorty after Rowan had turned eleven, R saught them out once again. 
They had wanted to use Rowan to gain information about Jacobs Scheinert's little sister.
Now they were worried, that if  Hazel turned eleven, she would be used for spying as well.
For now, they tried to keep everything involving R far, far away from her. 
She didn't even know in how much trouble her family, especially Rowan, were in.
Worrying wasn't good for her, so nobody ever wanted to stress her out.
Hazel didn't like it.
She knew something was going on, but not what.

Rowan couldn't settle down.
Ever since that letter had arrived, she had been all figity.
She needed to talk to someone, but didn't know who.
Her parents...
They already blamed themselves so much, she didn't want to make them feel even worse.
Her friends weren't an option for obvious reasons...
If she had told them early on, that she was being used to relay information, maybe they would have helped her...
But now it was too late.
All this time she had betrayed them, they... wouldn't take it well, she thought.
With a heavy sigh, she looked at the picture of her and her roommates.
Sometimes she thought that life would have been a lot easier if she hadn't actually grown to like them.
But how could she not?
They were just so fun to be around.
And then there was Barnaby.
He was just... he was someone really special to her.

"And then the doctor said that with a little luck, I get to go to Hogwarts!" Hazel announced proudly.
Rowans family had just returned from a doctor's appointment, and Hazel was as happy as could be.
It had never been certain if she would be able to go to Hogwarts, and the idea of maybe getting to made her so happy, that she wanted to tell the entire world.
But... it confused her that her big sister didn't seem excited in the slightest.
She had just said: "That's great, Haze.", and had went back to staring into the book she was reading.
Rowan wasn't even really reading it, she was just staring at the pages. 
Her vision was too cloudy to even make out the words. 
She was off thinking about what the next year would be like. 
Last year, she had so much fun, just being a normal student, and now everything would start all over again.  
The thought of it made her chest feel tight, it got harder to take a breath. 
"Rowan?" Hazel asked, concerned. "Are you okay..?" 
She wasn't, but there was no way she was telling her little sister that. 
So she just closed her book, adjusted her glasses, and smiled. "I just got a bit... lost in thoughts, sorry." 
Then she got up. "We should see if we can help Mum with lunch." 
While the two of them walked to the kitchen, Rowan tried to take a few deep breaths, as to calm herself. 
Hazel still looked concerned.