- Chapter Forty-One -
"You had no right, you asshole!"

JAMES POTTER AND SIRIUS BLACK SCHEMED INTO THE DEAD OF NIGHT. Remus and Peter had joined the mischief early on, the former making sure they didn't plan anything too drastic and the latter just happy that the others were coming up with ideas instead of him who would most likely suffer the consequences from Sherry of she ever found out it was his idea anyway.

Eventually Remus and Peter had gone to bed when they realised they were never going to decide anything for that night. James was about to go to bed too, but Sirius stopped him and cast a silencing charm with the curtains pulled around his bed. Sirius had a plan; it was terrible and that was exactly why he needed Remus to go to bed before he proposed it in front of him.

"I'm not sure, Pads." James had grimaced after his friend explained the plan to him, excited eyes and a shining smile. But James' instincts were flaring in alarm, telling him he should stray far away from this idea. "Isn't that like...way too far?"

"Don't ruin the fun, Prongs." Sirius groaned and stuck his hand out of the bed curtains to grasp something on his bedside table, he returned into the confines of the curtains with a camera in hand and James eyed it with a frown. "When have we ever felt sorry for someone?"

"Don't you think she'll be upset?" The other boy asked again as Sirius reached out once more and pulled in the marauders map with a grin as he stared down at it. "This is big stuff."

"Yeah they are." Sirius snorted and James rolled his eyes at his immaturity. His friend glanced at him and sighed, sitting up. "Prongsy, we don't ever back down. We're Marauders for fucks sake and you've recently lost your prank game. This will bring us back to the big leagues and then you and Sherry will be back to your flirty pranking banter as soon as possible. And we better move quick because look..." He pointed her name out on the map. "she's already on her way up."

If James knew what the outcome would be, he would've ripped that camera right out of Sirius' hands and told him off for even thinking of doing such crude things. But alas, his friend had persuaded him and James went along with the plan that ruined everything.

•*•*•*•*•

Sherry Opal and Amber González walked down the corridors of Hogwarts arm in arm, held tightly together like always in their obviously differing uniforms. A rule follower and a rule breaker, there couldn't be more perfect a match. Back when Sherry started at Hogwarts, she had intended to rule it and have every passing set of eyes being trained to her as she outsmarted staff and made their lives hell, surrounded by troublemakers only.

But that plan had been erased as soon as the González twins had introduced themselves and taken Sherry into their friend group, every thought of being surrounded by troublemakers gone as she found herself enjoying the time she spent in Amber and Louis' company.

They were both sticklers for the rules but Sherry thought that made them all the more awesome, she knew her American friends would judge the two of them and find Oliver annoying but the Hogwarts year went on and Sherry found herself forgetting almost their entire existence. It had been scary, when she realised how important these people became in her life, but after one sleepless night and another morning in their company, Sherry deduced that it wasn't so bad.

The troublemakers were the ones she had wanted to avoid anyway, Potter and his friends. And even now she had to admit that Potter and Remus, especially Remus, had become important in her life too. Not as important to her as her friends but still crucial: Potter was her way of filtering her mean out and having that rebellious side to wade through when she wanted and Remus was...Remus.

He was sweet, kind and he cared for Sherry with that brotherly concern he gave to his closest friends. There was no other way to describe him except for him just being Remus.

As for teachers, she hated to admit it but Professor Flitwick had become less like a teacher and more like an uncle. A little, cool uncle whom she could trust with nearly everything and who supported her throughout everything. For example after their Defence test, when Sherry got back to the Common Room, he had checked in on her, made sure she understood everything, he made sure she was okay.

And not only Flitwick made her feel cared for but also oddly enough, the Head of Gryffindor House could pull the most softest part of her from deep in her soul with one glance over her glasses. If Sherry didn't have a mother, McGonagall would be a fine substitute, the woman was someone that Sherry felt she could go to for anything. No matter how big or small.

Every time she thought of these things, yes her head would become a scrambled mess and she would probably be on the verge of crying because of it, but also a smile would appear on her face. A small one, but one would be there.

"What's that smile for?" Amber asked her as they walked down a suspiciously empty corridor but Sherry couldn't be bothered mentioning it as she was just focused on getting to the Great Hall for some breakfast she so desperately needed.

"Nothing, just thinking about..." Sherry trailed off as the two girls turned the corner, her expression turning into one of confusion as she surveyed the happenings of this corridor. It wasn't empty like the other one, but everyone in the corridor seemed to be crowding around one particular thing.

They were laughing. It was more like giggling, sniggering, the kind of laughs that bullies would do after teasing an innocent victim and Sherry furrowed her eyebrows whilst her and Amber's steps got slower. There were people around the wall and then people around another part of the wall further on in the corridor. Amber mumbled something under her breath and Sherry shrugged, beginning to walk on before someone from the nearest crowd turned and stared at her with a glint in his eyes.

Sherry tilted her head, a feeling of anxiety rising up in her stomach as the boy turned and whispered to his friend before he turned to face her too and they sniggered again. Her body weight shifted and she gulped, glancing to Amber who shrugged again and then they began walking again but they didn't get far before the crowd turned heckling.

"Nice tits, Opal!" One of them yelled and both girls froze in their tracks as both groups congregating in the hall erupted into laughter and all turned to face her. The boy who had yelled it turned back to face the wall, still laughing as Sherry looked at him fiercely.

"Excuse me?" She snapped. He did nothing, just smirked and Sherry separated herself from Amber whilst she strut forward towards the group and they continued to giggle at her arrival, some jaws dropping and the anxiety bubbled worse.

She pushed her way through the whispering crowd or maybe they weren't whispering, everything seemed to be muffled now because of the nerves roaring in her ears and deafening her to anything else except her thoughts as she shoved past shoulders and made her path more clear. She made sure to shove that boy extra hard before she saw what exactly they were staring at.

And her whole world crumbled.

Every roaring nerve got louder, the anxiety bubbles in her stomach popped to release a poisonous gas of panic, her face went pale and her mouth went dry. No words come could come out of her and no thought could swim her mind as she stared at the five-second sequence on paper taken by a wizarding camera of Sherry in her dorm before bed, taking her bra off and turning around so her bare chest was on full display.

The curtains around the beds had been closed, it was pitch black outside and she had locked the door. It only would've been possible to take through the window which was then again impossible because she was high up in Ravenclaw tower at that time of night.

It didn't make sense, none of it made any fucking sense and Sherry kept on staring at herself and staring and staring and staring until she felt a warm drip travelling down her cheek and put a finger to her face, feeling the tear she had now wiped off. The laughing became clearer again and the whispers became louder, the ones around her and the ones in her head.

Telling her to run away, find out who did this, make them pay. But also to run away, change yourself again, move school and take on a new persona. She had already been through that once and never was she going through that again.

So instead she ripped the picture down, scrunching it up until it was enclosed in her fist before she turned back around and pushed through the crowd again, harder this time with more force. Everyone was still laughing and still sniggering as she walked back to Amber as quick as she could whilst trying to control her rapid breathing.

"Sher, you okay?" Amber took one look at her shaken form and met her in the middle, putting a hand on her arm and glaring back at the crowd around the wall who began to disperse now. It was then that she noticed actual tears in Sherry's normally bright blue eyes. "What happened?"

Sherry said nothing and just opened her palm, letting Amber gently take the picture and unwrap it, jaw dropping at what was inside before she looked back into the dull eyes that Sherry had traded for her bright ones. She was truly shaken and her confidence was crushed, Amber thought it was a scary sight and she didn't know what to do.

"Who would do this?" Amber whispered gently, massaging Sherry's arm up and down before beginning to walk her down the corridor and past the stares but also guarded her, she would guard Sherry with her life if she had to.

"I don't know." Sherry hiccupped, a catch in her throat and the blonde raised a hand to it, her own eyes widening at the hitch but she said nothing else of it as they walked and nearly bumped into two familiar faces as they were turning the next corner.

Louis stood before them, looking shocked and angry, lights like fires raging in his eyes and looking far from being extinguished. But like Sherry's face was some kind of water, the boy let his eyes go softer at the sight of her and Amber's eyes caught the sight of another scrunched up piece of paper in Louis' hand.

"How have you got that?" She asked, face contorting into confusion and Sherry's head snapped up from where she had been facing the floor and an odd sort of strangled gasp came out of her mouth as she saw the paper in Louis' hand and slapped a hand over her mouth as more tears threatened to spill.

"It was around the corner and..." Louis trailed off, gesturing behind him and to the corridor he came from. If Sherry listened closer, she could hear laughing from that direction too and she faced Amber brokenly and the girl continued to rub her arm. "This isn't the only one is it?"

"They're all over the school." A new voice joined the conversation and they all turned to see Oliver González catching up to them from the way Sherry and Amber had come, another scrunched up piece of paper in his hand and Sherry's breath hitched again.

She felt almost weak in the knees as she grabbed onto Amber for some kind of support and stammered. "I-I don't-"

"Calm down, it's gonna be okay." Louis said and Sherry faced him with disbelief as Amber gave him a look and he looked slightly scared of the crying girl before him.

"How can you say that?" She asked, more worked up now as it all settled in and her voice became shaky, hiccups interrupted her sometimes. "Pictures of me fucking naked are all around the fucking school and people have fucking seen them and-"

"We're gonna report it-" Oliver tried to help too, him and Louis sharing looks of helplessness as Amber shook her head at them.

"I just don't who could've..." Sherry sobbed but trailed off slowly as she turned her head and looked out of the window and over to the Quidditch Pitch where she saw seven red blurs flying around on brooms in the air. Anger mixed with her emotion and the gas of panic in her stomach became even more deadly at the sudden realisation.

Her chest started to have with heavy breaths and her eyes were not dry by any means but if there was a fire in Louis' eyes then there was a conflagration in hers. And anyone could've seen the shift as her frown went to a small, unbelievable smile and she scoffed out a laugh before walking purposefully away from her friend and down to the Quidditch Pitch.

Running would've been an option but Sherry didn't want to bring any more attention to her breasts then she had to. And everything was a blur on her walk down, not just her vision.

It was a windy day and her hair blew back from her face, the breeze stinging her eyes more than the tears the chill was drying on her cheeks. Though Sherry didn't need tears for people to see she was upset and pissed beyond belief, people knew right away when they looked at her and the other Gryffindor players weren't an exception as they slowed to a stop at the sight of Sherry marching forward.

She wanted to scream. And so she did.

"Potter!" Her voice almost ran raw as she yelled it, attempting not to break down before she had a chance to put the boy in his place. But she kept on crying, sobbing, trying not to but failing whilst her whole face turned red and wet with tears.

She spotted him almost immediately, that stupid hair drooping over his stupid Quidditch goggles as he flew down and met her with a stupid small smile on his face. He dismounted his broom, took the goggles off of his face and that stupid smirk dropped as soon as the emotion on her face was recognisable and he had realised the consequences of his actions; His mouth opened to speak...but he didn't get to.

Sherry slapped him hard across the face, the sound echoing loudly and she heard Amber wince from behind her.

"Ow!"

"I hate you, you son of a bitch!" She sobbed, throat straining as she yelled in his face and he stared straight back at her, brown puppy eyes drooping in sorrow. A pink hand print was on his cheek but he made no move to rub it better, all of his attention was on Sherry. "You had no right, you asshole!"

"I-" Potter stuttered, looking back towards his team who all eyed the conversation curiously and he looked to his best friend who nodded at him once with a raise of his eyebrows. The Chaser turned back around and gulped at the sight of Sherry crying again. "It was...It was just a harmless prank."

"Harmless?" Sherry laughed incredulously before nodding her head slowly, sniffing and wiping her nose and beginning to mimic a lower pitch of voice with wide eyes still bloodshot and full of tears. "Nice tits, Sherry. Show us your tits, Sherry." She laughed again, angrily. "This isn't a fucking prank!"

"It is a prank!" He spluttered determinedly, looking panicky back to Sirius who nodded and urged him on. He turned back around, looking less sure of himself as he continued to stammer over his chosen words. "We have a prank war between us! You do the same to me!"

"And you think that justifies this? This, Potter, this." She shakes the crumpled up piece of paper in her hand as she cried and sniffled again, wiping at her nose angrily. The embarrassment was not to go on any longer. "I would never, ever, ever do this to you! Ever!"

"Sherry-"

"Take-" Sherry's hand slapped his cheek again and his head flew to his left but the slaps never stopped coming. "My-" Again. "Name-" Again. "Out-" And again and again and again until his cheeks were red raw. "Of your mouth!"

A pair of arms wrapped tightly around her waist and pulled her backwards; Sherry struggled forward, driven to keep slapping him but someone was holding her back. She started to hit their callous hands, hands over the roughness of them whilst she pushed them away but it was no use, they had a very tight grip and she continued to sob.

"What is going on here?" Remus' voice was right next to her ear and she quickly realised he was the one holding her back and against her better instincts, she crumpled back slowly into him and let him take some of her weight.

"See for yourself." She choked out, pushing away from him and slapping the crumpled up piece of paper onto his chest as she glared at Potter, eyes bloodshot red. Remus opened up the piece of paper with furrowed eyebrows before he looked down at the picture, eyes widening before he looked away with a small exclamation of 'oh my god'. "They are all over the school."

"Prongs, is she serious?" Remus turned on Potter, his eyes narrowing into angry slits whilst the picture in his hand scrunched into something smaller than what Sherry had turned it into. Potter gulped at the anger on both of their faces.

"It's...It's harmless." He said again, more sheepish this time and everyone was silent for a second before Remus advanced forward in a flash and swung his arm through the air, sending Potter to the ground with a split lip.

"Moony, what the hell?" Sirius stepped forward, walking to shove Remus away from Potter on the ground who groaned and winced in pain whilst he touched his split lip and pulled his bloodied fingers away.

Remus shoved Sirius back. And Sherry took her chance to attack Potter again, everyone else distracted by the other two best friends fighting and she flipped him over onto his back and punched him just as Remus had, crying about how she hated them; she only got two punches in before Amber came over and pulled her off of him.

His face was almost unrecognisable, covered in blood from his lips and his nose. And he stayed down. Remus pushed forward and let his hands shove Sirius again who tripped over his feet and then tripped over Potter and onto the floor once more, the Gryffindor Quidditch Team gasping and putting hands over their mouths as their two best players fell to the floor.

Sherry broke free from Amber again and went towards Potter, not hitting him again but grabbing the front of his shirt and pulling him up so his bloodied face was in her tear-stained one and he looked right back into her dim, broken eyes.

"I hate you." She whispered venomously and he opened his mouth to speak but she cut across him again. "And if you ever bother me, speak to me or look at me again, I will make your life hell just like you have made mine. You are a bitch beyond belief and you will realise that when Karma comes around and bites you in the dick."

She put him down roughly, standing strongly before she kicked her foot in his side and she was pulled away again. It was no longer her friends, but instead Madam Hooch who looked between Sherry and Potter fiercely with her yellow owl eyes. It didn't look good for Sherry but there was proof of his own attack on her all around the school.

"What on earth is going on here?"

Sherry stared at her, face wet with tears and red with humiliation. Though the fire inside her was burning angrier than ever.

•*•*•*•*•
A/N: :)