The secrets of Rowan Khanna (Y6 spoilers)

Future plans (Chapter 15)

Rowan was sitting in the library with some of her friends, studying. Their NEWTs were creeping ever closer, and they wanted to be prepared.
Everyone seemed to know what they wanted to do after school. Barnaby wanted to be a magizoologist, Tonks wanted to be an Auror, Chiara wanted to be a healer and Jae wanted to... well, continue doing what he was doing right now, sell illegal items on the black market.
Only Rowan didn't seem to know what she wanted to do with her life. She had wanted to be Hogwarts' youngest teacher, but that dream seemed so far away now...
She didn't know what she wanted to be anymore, if she was even still cut out to be a teacher...
To calm her rising anxiety, she pet Barnaby Jr. that was sitting on her lap.

Barnaby had let her keep him for over two months now. It had been a big help, but she still felt bad about taking his pet away from him.
In a further effort to distract herself, she looked up from her book, at her friends.
Suddenly she realised that one of her friends had never known what they wanted to do after graduation... it was Nonie. She had always been conflicted on her future, maybe she still was?
But with how eagerly she was staring into her book, Rowan doubted that.

"Nonie, what job are you aiming for?" she eventually asked.
Nonie smiled, a bit nervous. "I... want to be an Auror. After... what happened I just want to help protect people..."
Rowan sighed. So even Nonie had a driving passion now.
She was about to bury her nose back in her book, when Barnaby nudged her, asking her what a word in the book he was looking at meant.
Rowan explained it to him, and again wanted to stick her nose back in the book, when he asked her if she wanted to maybe have some butterbeer with him later.
A little taken aback, Rowan said yes. Nobody had asked her to do something like that in a while, to leave Hogwarts grounds... And even though she had felt inclined to say no, she knew that she needed to start living again. She was trying her hardest to get back to normal these days.

Well, maybe a new normal, but it was better than the constant state of fear she was stuck in before. It was already getting a little better, she felt like she could freely move around Hogwarts without being scared at least. Especially because all of her friends kept her company where ever she went, so that she didn't need to be alone.
Even Myrtle hung around her more, even though students gave her odd looks when she did. At first she had kept in the background when Rowan was with her other friends, but quickly realised that they didn't judge. Because of this she often hung around with the others now. Rowan was actually quite happy about this, Myrtle really needed some company it seemed.

Hogsmeade was quite lively this hour of this day.
It was a Saturday afternoon, and many students had went out for butterbeer or to one of the many shops the little wizarding village had to offer.
Rowan pressed Barnaby Jr. against her chest as she followed Barnaby through the crowd.
There were so many people here, what if one of them worked for R? What if-
Barnaby looked back at her. "Are you okay..?" he asked, looking at her, concerned.
She nodded, saying that she was and quickly tried to compose herself.
They walked on to the three broomsticks, Barnaby keeping closer to Rowan now. He could tell that she was scared, so he wanted to make sure she knew that he was there to protect her. Because that was what he truly wanted to do. He had promised after all, nobody would never hurt her again. He would make sure of that.
"You'll be fine Rowan, I'll keep you safe!" Barnaby said excited, and grabbed her hand, pulling her along. She let it happen, just glad that he was there with her.

They soon sat in the three broomsticks, drinking butterbeer. It was actually quite fun, it felt just like in the old days, Barnaby thought.
And... Rowan felt the same. Doing normal things again... others would take simply having a butterbeer out in public for granted, but after all that had happened she thoroughly appreciated it, especially because social interaction and going out didn't come as easy to her anymore as it used to. So getting to do it now, it felt... special...