The secrets of Rowan Khanna (Y6 spoilers)

Christmas (Chapter 4)

"Hazel wait!"
Snowflakes twirled around Rowan, as she was chasing her little sister over the Christmas market. Their mother had send them into town to get some groceries, but of course Hazel had gotten distracted by the Christmas market, by all the people and the carousel that was set up...
And now little Hazel was slipping through the crowd like it was nothing, while Rowan struggled to keep up. " Wait-"
And suddenly, Hazel had just dissappeared from her view.
Rowan felt panic rising up inside of her.
Otherwise there will be consequences.
The last sentence of R's last letter echoed in her head.
What if they were watching her? What if they saw that Hazel was alone, and would snatch her or...
Rowan shook her head, trying to get rid of those thoughts.
Then she hurried to find Hazel.
Minutes felt like hours, Rowan felt like she couldn't breath.
She had done all this to protect Hazel, if R had taken her...
Suddenly everyone started looking like Rakepick, smirking at her, looking as ready as ever to destroy her life.
"HAZEL!!!" she yelled out, desperate, scared. She felt everybody staring at her, but right now she didn't care.
And then her sister came around the corner, asking what the matter was.
She was just joking around, she hadn't expected Rowan to freak out like that.
Rowan grabbed Hazel by the arm.
"Don't ever do that again!" she said, maybe a bit harshly. "Let's go!"
She dragged her little sister behind her to the grocery store.
"But Mum said we could get hot chocolate!" Hazel complained.
Rowan disregarded her sister's complaints.
Her heart was still beating awfully fast, she couldn't settle down.
The idea of losing Hazel, it was.... she couldn't bear it. And it would have been her fault, which somehow made it feel even worse.
Suddenly, a shiver ran down Rowan's spine. "I can't always protect her." she thought.
R could come for her family anytime, even when she was at Hogwarts.
"Rowan..?" Hazel asked, tugging on her jacket. "Are you okay..?"
Rowan nodded, and forced herself to smile.
Then she took the grocery list out of her coat-pocket and unfolded it.

Hazel and Rowan walked through the isles, and picked up all the stuff they needed.
The grocery list was long, they were out of a lot of stuff.
Their mother hadn't been feeling very well recently, and their Dad had been very busy on the tree farm. It was Christmas time after all, everybody wanted to buy pine trees.
While the Khannas weren't rich, Rowan and Hazel always got amazing Christmas gifts, due to the yearly upswing in income that took place in winter.

Hazel happily skipped along the isles, always keeping a bit in front of Rowan, that was focused on the shopping.
She was looking for a moment to steal away, to buy her big sister a Christmas present.
Her parents present would be taken care of later, the two of them would buy them something together, but Hazel still needed one for Rowan.
But after the way her big sister had freaked out earlier, she wasn't sure sneaking away was such a great idea, even if it was just for fifteen minutes to find a nice book Rowan would like.

"Hazel, do you want chocolate-chip cookies, or peanutbutter-crisp?" Rowan asked, a little lost in thoughts, not noticing what intentions her little sister had right now.
She still had to get a gift for her little sister as well. But she had an easier time finding one, as she could leave the house anytime she wanted, while Hazel still had to ask.
Also, Rowan already knew exactly what she would gift her sister.
There were some colourful pencils Hazel had wanted for a while, so that was what she would get her.

"Choclate-chip, of course!" Hazel said, turning around to Rowan. "Row, can we go get Mum and Dad's present now? Pretty pleeeease?"
Rowan crossed 'cookies' off the still very long shopping list, and said that she wasn't sure if they would have time for that today, because Hazel would need to take her nap in a little, so they should finish their shopping and hurry home.
Of course Hazel complained, and wondered what had happend to her cool older sister that had helped her sneak out during nap-time, to go look for creatures in-between the tall trees...
She was wondering what had happend to her sister in general.
After Rowan had left for Hogwarts, Hazel had looked through her room, in hopes of finding anything... but she hadn't. Rowan had gotten rid of everything incriminating.