16th Birthday Ⅶ

By the next morning, Madam Pomfrey had been persuaded to release Rowan that morning rather than later in the afternoon. She knew that James and the rest of the Marauders had stopped by last night according to Poppy to visit her, but she had been sound asleep. Madam Pomfrey absolutely would not permit them to disturb Rowan's rest.

Departing from the infirmary, Rowan still felt tired but was not about to return to the Slytherin common room. Nor was she about to protest Bethanie and Terry being the temporary Prefects. She would be forced to resume the role tomorrow with the start of the week again with Terry as her partner. And frankly, that terrified her far more than anything else.

By the time, Rowan climbed all the way up to the Owlery, she was out of breath. She had been forced to take several rests along the way, but she had finally climbed up the tower. She wrinkled her nose as she entered the chilly circular stone room. The soft rustle of feathers and sleepy hooting can be heard from the nesting owls. The floor is covered in fresh straw filled with bits of coughed-up bones and small mice skulls.

Taking a quill and parchment from the school bag that her friends had delivered the day before, Rowan writes a brief note that reads, "The ring tonight," and is addressed to Capricorn. She puts her things away, before gingerly crossing the straw-covered floor with fresh owl droppings, regurgitated skeletons of mice and moles, and fallen feathers.

Rowan carefully searches through the rows of slumbering owls, before finding two large Great Horned Owls nesting together. The larger owl was that of Nibby, Lily's female owl. However, rather large, but smaller is that of Owyn. The two owls' yellow eyes sleepily blink at her.

"I am sorry," Rowan apologized reaching up to rub Owny's smooth beak. Owny blearily hoots and gently nibbles at her fingers. "I need you to deliver to this Capricorn as soon as possible."

Owny lets out a disgruntled hoot but stretches out his leg to take Rowan's letter. At least, he would not be heading off too far away and soon could return back to his warm nest with his mate. Owny flutters his wings and hoots goodbye to his mate, Nibby, before spreading his large wings and flying out into the gloomy, cold winter's day.

Nibby hoots goodbye at Owny, before hooting unhappily at Rowan. "Yes, yes, I know, but I promise Owny will be back soon," she said reaching out to scratch Nibby under her chin. Nibby closes her yellow eyes in pleasure and hoots in contentment.

Rowan scratches Nibby for some time, before withdrawing her hand. "So, when are Severus and I going to be owlet grandparents? I mean the two of you are clearly mates and even have a nest," she pointedly said gesturing to the nest before her.

Nibby loudly hoots in embarrassment and flutters her wings. "What a busybody!" Nibby loudly hooted. The owl purposefully turns around with her feathers ruffled and closes her eyes.

Rowan chuckles, but she knew that the two owls wouldn't have owlets for some time. The two likely were waiting for something, but she didn't know what. And that was fine by her, eventually, there would be adorable owlets to coo over.

Departing from the owlery, Rowan makes her way downstairs to the library. She certainly could use the time to catch up on her assigned homework that she had not worked at all on while still in the infirmary. That and she still had a detention to serve next week that she had gotten out of this week due to her abrupt illness.

The sky is dark and gloomy outside the windows of Hogwarts. The flaming torches glitter brightly in the castle but flicker every now and again from an unseen breeze. The stone halls are chilly, but Rowan pulls the collar of her robes higher and wraps her emerald and silver-colored scarf more tightly around her neck.

The corridors are empty with the weekend and the gloomy atmosphere. Most of the students remain indoors in the Study Hall or in their house common rooms. The younger years enjoy their time with friends, while the 5th and 7th years use the time to prepare for the O.W.L.'s and N.E.W.T.'s.

The dark-haired prickly librarian, Madam Irma Pince seems rather quiet staring into space when Rowan arrives. She had heard just like the rest of the students that Caretaker Filch and the Hogwarts librarian had tied the knot during the winter holidays. Madam Pince had retained her surname for work purposes she was now, Madam Irma Pince-Filch.

Madam Pince-Filch's dark eyes startle at seeing Rowan. After the death of her new brother-in-law and his wife and child, Argy (Argus), her husband had revealed the identity of his brother's wife, Eileen as the former Eileen Snape and, daughter of Reginald Prince, Eileen Prince. And from what Argus had barely mentioned understood Eileen had been completely disinherited by her father not because of her marriage to Roderic Filch, but because of her two children and Sirsa Prince. It was a sore subject and one that Argy insisted was not his to speak about nor speak ill about the dead.

Madam Pince-Filch opens and closes her mouth. Rowan notices and pauses, before bowing. "A belated congratulations on your marriage to Caretaker Filch, Madam Pince-Filch," Rowan sincerely said. "I wish you both great happiness and joy despite your recent loss."

Madam Pince-Filch dumbly nods her head and only remembers to reply in passing, "And to you, Prefect Prince," Rowan does not reply, but she does nod her head as she moves past the prickly librarian.

Through the stacks of bookshelves, Rowan makes her way towards her usual corner in the library. She begins to hear the murmur of voices that grows louder until she turns the corner of the bookshelves. Their sitting down were all the marauders (with the exception of Severus). It almost felt like old times, but they'd grown and changed so much since their first year at Hogwarts.

Sirius's gray eyes brim with joy. "Rowan, Remy, and Peter won't tell me the finer medical properties of the (Abyssinian) shrivelfig," he complained. "And James is of no use either," he darkly added.

Sirus sighs and puts down his quill. "I mean I remember that we learned about them in Herbology in our second year about how to properly trim them, but I can't remember what potions they are used for."

Rowan glances at Remus, who merely rolls his eyes and returns to his essay, while Peter merely buries behind a book. She sighs and sits down, while James merely shakes his head silently. "Are you certain that you want to use your one question on this particular question?" She finally said causing Sirius to pause.

"I've been stuck on the question for ages," Sirius impatiently replied.

"Fine then," Rowan murmured pulling out her own homework. "The Shrivefig is used as an ingredient in the Shrinking Solution and in the Elixir to Induce Euphoria."

"Thanks, Rowan!" Sirius brightly said, before hurriedly jotting down the answer. "I've just been busy planning my dates with Tiffany and in preparation for the upcoming Quidditch match against Hufflepuff."

"Right," Rowan said causing everyone else at the table to make similar sounds of annoyance.

"You're not the only one who happens to be on the quidditch team and has a girlfriend," Peter drily grumbled. "And yet the rest of us mere mortals still manage to turn in all our assignments on time."

"But I'm the Quidditch Team Captain!" Sirius answered in a scandalized tone of voice.

"If Sirius had half the brain of Regulus, we wouldn't be in this situation," Remus drily mumbled under his breath.

"I'll have you know that Regulus is a bookworm and a nosey know-it-all!" Sirius indignantly retorted.

"Nosey know-it-all's must be a common shared family trait," Peter deadpanned causing Sirius to glower at him.

Sirius huffs, "Ingrates, the lot of you!" and proceeds to blatantly ignore them to the vast relief of every single one of them.

For some time, the only sound heard in their corner of the library is that of the scratching of quills and that of the rustling of pages being turned. After some time, James pauses and stretches out his arms. He carefully studies Rowan and though still a bit wane, she looked much better, when he had peeked on her in the infirmary the night before.

"I'm glad to see you out of bed," James sincerely remarked. "And what about Severus is he still asleep?"

"Severus had it much worse than me," Rowan admitted glancing up from her homework. "Madam Pomfrey believes he should come to in the next few days."

"Wait, what exactly happened that sent the two of you to the infirmary room?" Remus asked raising his warm gaze to meet Rowan's. "The two of you were fine last night and Terry said that he had left the common room on Friday night rather late and that Severus was just fine."

"It must have just been an abrupt stomach flu," Rowan half-lied because she really had thrown up several times during the past day. "Who knows, really," she shrugged.

"Well, I'm just glad that you're fine now," Peter sincerely said. "Quyen said that a lot of the younger kids including her protegee Rachel were asking about you and Severus. Apparently, the two of you are rather liked by the younger years."

"Nonsense," Rowan huffed, but the tips of her ears had a touch of pink to them.

Sirius largely pretends that he is not listening in and loudly turns the pages of his textbook. His friends all glance at him and sigh, before returning to their homework. It'd be lunchtime soon and they would all soon be heading down to eat with their friends.