Five years later...
Peter Pettigrew had barely grown since, not even a head taller, though he was definitely much stouter. Holding all of his books under one arm, he raced from his final class of the day-Potions-to try and meet Rowan as she left her final class-Ancient Runes.
Peter couldn't stress enough how much he'd been desperately trying to find the right time to express his feelings for Rowan, but he figured she wouldn't even look at him that way, let alone think of him. He was short and overweight and he had long hair, compared to Sirius with his devastating good looks and James with his brains and persistence. Even Remus could beat him out on the subject of girls!
She was the most exquisite creature he'd ever set eyes on, with long, reddish-brown hair and murky green eyes and an hourglass figure. She was smart and funny and brave and would make the most loyal of companions.
He knew he had absolutely no chance of ever going out with her. She was almost a foot taller than him...
But he had to try, otherwise he would never know if they could've been the couple everybody wished they could be like.
He caught Rowan leaving the Ancient Runes classroom, halfway down the long hallway. Racing as fast as his little legs could go, he was gaining on her, when suddenly she stopped and he slammed right into her.
At the speed he was going, anyone his height would've fallen over with him, but instead he bounced right off of her, landing on the floor. She dropped all of her books and lunged forward a bit, but was otherwise unharmed.
"What the-?" she exclaimed, turning around angrily. She saw the small boy sprawled across the floor and lightened up a bit. "Oh, Peter, please don't do that ever again," she sympathized, bending over to pick up her books, only to find that they were already picked up. She gazed around when suddenly there was a tap at her shoulder, and she turned to find Severus Snape holding her books out for her.
"I believe you dropped these," he hissed, "Either that or you threw them at me." He didn't look at her, only held the books out for her, hiding behind his mass of greasy, black hair. She snatched the books out of his hands and said, "Thank you, Severus."
He nodded and walked on. Rowan never really took a liking to how her friends treated Severus, but she wasn't going to do anything to stop them. Gryffindors and Slytherins were practically sworn enemies.
Finally, she turned back to Peter, who was still collecting his books without the help of anybody passing by in the hallway. Rowan offered her hand to him and he took it, only to be all but lifted off his feet.
"Thanks," he muttered, "Sorry about that. What did Snivellus want, anyway?"
"Only to give me the books that I kindly threw at the back of his head," Rowan explained, "That's something I never would've expected him to do. Now I've seen everything."
"Right," Peter agreed. She turned away from him to go and he had to speed up to match her pace.
"So, um, I was, um, wondering, um..." he stuttered incoherently, "If you, um, would, I don't know, like to get some books, um, with me?"
She stopped suddenly yet again, and turned to face him. "What?"
"I was just wondering-"
"If I'd get some books with you?" she asked, "Like, down at Hogsmeade?"
Peter's heart began to race. Was...was she saying yes to him? "Yes, down at Hogsmeade, we could buy a few books, get a butterbeer..."
"That's fantastic!" Rowan suddenly exclaimed, "We could bring the rest of the gang! We'd have a blast! Great idea, Peter!"
She patted him on the shoulder and continued on walking.
Peter suddenly felt like he'd been punched in the gut. She wanted to bring the gang on their date? Why?
Because she didn't think it was a date...
"Hold on, Rowan!" he called, as she was already at the other end of the hallway. She stopped to wait for him as he hurried on over to her.
"I was thinking, you know," he said, "That we could just go, well, um, together?"
"Right," Rowan agreed, "Together, the five of us."
"No, um," Peter tried to explain hopelessly, knowing he shouldn't have taken this shot at all and just let it be. "No, I was thinking we could just go together, just the two of us." Well, he'd at least gotten it out without throwing up, hadn't he?
She stared at him. "Like on a...date?"
He nodded sheepishly.
She turned on her heel and continued walking, obviously expecting him to follow so they could "talk" about it.
"So," she said, "You want to go on a date with me?"
"Yes," he replied quietly, "Is that...is that stupid?"
"No, Peter," Rowan sighed, "No, it's not stupid. That's just the third date request I've had to turn down today."
"Oh..." he mumbled, "Okay. Could you at least tell me why you're turning me down? Is it my height? My hair?" His hand automatically went to the top of his head.
"No, no, no!" she insisted, "No, I'm not really like that. I dated a guy who was shorter than me last year, and I've had tons of dates with guys who had the strangest hairstyles imaginable."
"So, what is it?"
"Well," she said a bit shyly, "It's just that, I sort of have my eyes on somebody else, at the moment."
As she said this, they arrived at the Gryffindor common room and somebody was just coming out, so they walked right in. She looked over at the two boys sitting in the corner. James, tall and skinny, with black hair and circular glasses hiding hazel eyes, and Sirius, equally tall but with much more build, black, untidy hair and grey eyes, were sitting at a small, round table in the corner with their books open and their quills out. As she gazed over at them, Sirius looked up and, seeing her, grinned. James looked up as well and smiled, waving with his eyebrows raised.
"Who?" Peter demanded, standing right in front of her.
"What?" Rowan asked, snapping out of her reverie and quickly turning her gaze back to him, "What?"
"Who do you have your eyes on? Is it that Ravenclaw boy you've been hanging out with a lot recently?" His beady little eyes narrowed with anger and jealousy.
"What? No! No, I was just talking to him because I needed some help with my Ancient Runes homework, that's all."
"Then who is it?" he persisted.
Now it was her turn to get mad. "That is none of your business!" At that she turned on her heel and walked over to the table James and Sirius were sitting at. She pulled another chair over and sat down with them.
"What are you two working on?" she asked, a hint of anger still audible in her tone of voice.
"We just finished Potions," James replied, "Moving on to Charms-"
"I thought we didn't have any Charms homework," Sirius stated a little sleepily, "And even if we do, we didn't learn anything new today so we don't have to do anything."
"We're supposed to work on Silencing Charms," James reminded him, "Flitwick specifically said-"
"You want to work on the Silencing Charm?" Sirius asked, "Fine. We'll work on the Silencing Charm." He pulled out his wand, pointed it at James and said, "Silencio."
James glared at him and tried to say, "I didn't mean on me!" What came out, however, was a puff of air and a whispery silence.
Rowan and Sirius both burst into laughter at the same moment as James repeatedly tried to speak, but couldn't get anything out. Eventually, he, too, laughed in silence.
"Shh!" Handrel Gezen, another fifth year, hushed, "Shut it before the Head Boy catches you!"
"What's he gonna do?" Sirius asked, still laughing his barking laugh, "Yell at us for having fun?"
"No," she replied angrily, "He'll yell at you for taking away Potter's voice." Handrel was a pretty girl, with long, dark red hair up in a ponytail, chocolate brown eyes, and a pointed nose. She had a tendency to forget to put on her robes and only wear her skirts and shirt, which wouldn't necessarily be a problem for most teachers, who'd just let is slide, but the Potions Master would always take five points away from Gryffindor if she forgot.
"Well, what do you recommend doing?" Rowan asked, "We don't know how to get his voice back. We haven't covered that yet."
"I suggest," she said, turning in her seat, "That he goes to see Flitwick immediately."
James mouthed, "That's probably a good idea." He picked up his books and rushed to the portrait to leave the common room.
Just as he was exiting, Lily Evans walked in. They stopped to glare at each other for a moment before she hissed, "Potter."
He mouthed, "Evans."
She looked at him with an expression that was both confused and mad, so she pushed past him with some friends following. He stood there, staring after her for a moment, before sighing and continuing out the portrait.
"Hey, Lily!" Rowan called from across the room. She picked up her stuff and stood up, only to have Sirius grab the sleeve of her cloak. She lurched sideways a bit before straightening herself and glaring down at him, snapping, "What?"
"Are you actually going to leave me to do all this work by myself?" he asked incredulously, not even really looking at her.
"I thought you said you were done," she said, "And besides, you can come with me if you want to."
"Why in the world would I ever willingly go with you to her?"
"Maybe because you don't want to be left alone to grovel," Rowan replied, "And I have to get my homework done."
"It's Thursday," Sirius reminded her stiffly in a final attempt, "Whatever homework you have isn't due tomorrow, and you can't possibly have that much because I can see you working during class. You have the whole weekend to do whatever work you need to."
"I'm not a procrastinator," she said, "And I'd rather get it all done so I have the weekend free."
Sirius groaned and banged his head against the wall. "Why do girls have to be so responsible?"
Rowan rolled her eyes and giggled as she walked towards Lily, who greeted her as she sat down.
"What did he want?" she asked, glancing over at Sirius, who had his feet up on the chair Rowan had been sitting on, and his hair had fallen into his eyes to give the impression that he had fallen asleep out of boredom.
"He didn't want to be left alone without anybody to be a jerk to," Rowan replied, "Maybe he should go outside. That would be fun." At the moment she said that, there was a flash of lightning followed almost immediately by a crack of thunder.
"Yeah," Lily agreed, "No one could possibly get bored out there."
"Have you finished working on Astronomy?"
"No. Want to work together?"
"Absolutely."
About fifteen minutes later, Rowan had finished all of her homework and was in deep conversation with Lily when James walked back in, heading straight for Sirius. She could hear Sirius practically shout, "Thank God, you're finally back!"
"I was only gone for fifteen minutes."
"Felt like fifteen hours to me."
At that very moment, Remus came in, soaking wet. He was tall and a bit peaky, but otherwise he didn't really look much different besides his height.
James and Sirius looked at each other for a moment before rushing over to him, one on each side.
"Hello there, Remus," James said, "How have you been?"
"Same as I was yesterday, only sopping wet," he replied stiffly, "Why do you ask? What are you planning?"
"Oh, Remus," Sirius said, "How could you think that we'd only care about you if we were up to something?"
"I never said that," he reminded him, "I merely heard the way you asked the question and figured it out from there."
"Well, boy were you ever right about the fact that we are up to something," Sirius agreed.
"What if," James explained, "I could make it so you wouldn't be so lonely, up in the Shrieking Shack with your furry little problem?"
"I'd say that you've been trying to figure a way to become Animagi for the past three years."
"What if," Sirius said, "We think me may have finally figured it out?"
"We've finally gotten the recipe for disaster brewed," James said, "And now you won't have to sit all alone with your furry little problem."
"You make it sound like I have a pet rabbit with... issues."
"Follow me," James said, grabbing Peter's sleeve as he passed him and dragging him along, "Padfoot, get Rowan."
Obediently, Sirius scanned the room for her and found her by Lily. "Oh, shoot," he muttered to himself. He observed that her robe was thrown carelessly across the back of the couch, and she was just wearing her white blouse, grey skirt (that was fairly short, he noticed) and a striped scarlet and gold tie, with her heels on the floor beside her bare feet.
Sighing and rolling his eyes angrily, he stomped over to them, leaned over the couch and whispered into her ear, "We're going."
"No, that's alright, you can go without me," she murmured back to him, continuing her conversation with Lily.
Cursing the heavens to himself, he stood back up and said, "You leave me with no choice."
He stepped to the side, leaned over the arm of the chair, and swiftly slid his arms into a position that allowed him to very quickly lift her up and carry her away, ignoring her shouts of surprise.
"Hey!" she screamed, "Put me down!"
"Not gonna happen," he replied, grinning evilly.
Lily stood up and yelled, "Put her down, Black!"
"Not gonna happen!" he yelled back to her, trying to hold down laughter and not succeeding. He had gained all the attention of everyone else in the common room, and Rowan was blushing uncontrollably.
At the entrance to the common room, he put her down finally, only to be slapped across the face.
"Ow," he said, a hint of annoyance in his voice.
"Do not ever, ever do that to me again!" she screamed at him, "What exactly is so important that you had to pick me up just to get me to go along with you?"
"You'll see when we get there," he said, then adding to himself, "You'll be needing your shoes, and your cloak." He held out his hand and they came right to him.
She stared at him, an expression of astonishment and disbelief on her face. She stuttered, "How did you-"
"I'm just that good," he replied, "Now, come on, or they'll start without us."