- Chapter Four -
"I could totally envision myself making out with him."

THE RAVENCLAW COMMON ROOM was a wide, circular room, airier than any ever seen at Hogwarts. Graceful arched windows punctuated the walls, which were hung with blue- and-bronze silks: By day, the Ravenclaws would have a spectacular view of the surrounding mountains. The ceiling was domed and painted with stars, which were echoed in the midnight-blue carpet. There were tables, chairs, and bookcases, and in a niche opposite the door stood a tall statue of white marble.

Or at least that's how Amber and Oliver had described it. They would probably be in their right now, laying across the chairs and the sofas comfortably whilst talking about whatever they wanted to talk about if it wasn't for Sherry arguing with the knocker.

"Listen here, you little shit, I've given you at least 10 different answers so take one of them or I'm going to blow this door down." She seethed to the bronze eagle that sat on the door.

"Incorrect." It said and the blonde inhaled sharply, straightening up and putting a hand to her mouth frustratedly. "Would you like me to repeat the riddle?"

"Yes." She took her hands away from her mouth and whispered her answer as Amber and Oliver waited behind her. "Repeat the riddle."

"You see a boat filled with people. It has not sunk, but when you look again you don't see a single person on the boat. Why?" The knocker asked.

"Oh, I'm blind!" She guessed.

"Incorrect."

"The people have the power to turn invisible!"

"Incorrect."

"They all tipped off of the edge and drowned!"

"Dark, but incorrect."

"That's it." She pulled out her wand and pointed it at the knocker, Amber and Oliver were quick to protest, putting a hand on her shoulder and pulling her back before she could blow the door to their common room to tiny little pieces.

"We should just...wait for Louis and the first years." Amber said and looked around the hallway around them. "Louis will know the password, he's the smartest one out of all of us."

"Who's Louis?" Sherry raised an eyebrow, leaning against the wall with a huff.

"One of the Ravenclaw prefects, the other is a girl named Dandelion, but I'm pretty sure I saw her go somewhere else." Oliver explained with a shrug.

"Her name is Dandelion?"

"Well, your name is Sherry." He retorted and she narrowed her eyes at him playfully. She muttered a small 'touché' and just decided to shake her leg and watched the flare of her bell bottoms flap about.

Minutes later, a mass of footsteps turned the corner and a very good-looking boy with tanned skin and beautiful hair that looked so deeply conditioned that Sherry would love nothing more than to run her hands through it, she was practically drooling at the thought as she bit her lip whilst staring. Oliver nudged Amber and gestured to her staring with an amused smile painted on his face.

Following behind this boy, was a group of smaller students, probably the first years. She could see that little blonde boy, Gilderoy, near the front and that little girl Eleanor there too. As they came closer, Sherry stood up straighter and faced Amber, who raised an eyebrow with a smile.

"Is that Louis?" She looked over her shoulder at the boy who was talking to the first-years as they neared the door.

"Pretty, huh?" Amber grinned and Sherry nodded fervently, running her fingers through her blonde hair and readjusting her red, spotty headband in her hair.

"This is the entrance to the common room." A voice said from behind her and she turned around to see Louis and the group first years right next to them. "The knocker talks." He smiled and poked it.

"Ow." It said and the first years all gasped in amazement as Louis grinned at all of them, opening his mouth to talk again but the knocker continued. "At least it wasn't as painful as the answers that American one was giving me."

Sherry gasped in offence and walked in front of it again, looking down at the bronze metal. "All of my answers were perfectly fine! Just because it's not the one you wanted doesn't mean that I'm wrong, you rusty little shit." She hissed down at it and straightened up once more.

Louis chuckled from next to her and she looked over at him, giving one of her charming smiles as his eyes travelled over her face for a couple of seconds. He glanced back at the first years before continuing his explanation with Sherry stood by his side.

"The, uh, the knocker asks a riddle when you stand in front of it and if you get the answer right, it lets you into the common room." He said and turned back to the knocker. "Can you repeat the riddle you were asking...Sherry?"

The blonde nodded at his uncertainty and his face broke out into a smile again as he faced the knocker.

"You see a boat filled with people. It has not sunk, but when you look again you don't see a single person on the boat. Why?"

"Oh, easy, all the people were married." Louis said after a moment of thinking and Sherry's eyes widened whilst she smiled bitterly.

"Correct." The knocker said and the door swung open, allowing Louis to walk in with the group of first-years following. Before the door could close, Sherry pushed her way in, with Oliver and Amber behind her.

The common room was even better than Amber and Oliver had described. Through the door, there was a big archway that led into the main seating area that had sofas and armchairs to each side and to each corner with a long blue carpet going through the middle, straight on towards another pair of doors. The domed ceiling was made out of transparent glass and lit up the room with the help of the other windows around the side of the wall. The walls lined with bookshelves.

God, there were so many bookshelves.

Sherry gaped at the setting as she stepped inside, no longer occupied with staring at Louis but instead watching a seventh-year climb up a long ladder to reach one of the taller bookshelves, before he shook his head and moved the ladder along the shelves, stopping when he reached a certain place. Blue and bronze silk curtains draped around the edges of the window, ready to cover them when it got dark. Now obviously she knows that this is a magic school, but this one really gave her a magic aura, especially when she saw the line of telescopes upon a balcony of some sort further up the wall.

"Holy shit." She spoke, twisting around to look at it all again. "This is where you hang out most of the day?"

"Pretty much." Oliver nodded as he looked around. "We read, sleep, talk nonsense, sleep some more, oh and play wizards chess!" He grinned and rushed over to one of the coffee tables that sat in front of a midnight blue velvet sofa. There was a chessboard sat in the middle of it, the black pieces nearer the sofa and the white pieces where Oliver was sat before it. "Do you play?"

"Do I play?" Sherry scoffed and took her place sat down on the black side, her back leaning against the sofa as Amber plopped herself down on it. "Of course I play, Horned Serpent raining champion, hello?"

"Horned Serpent?" Oliver looked up and raised an eyebrow.

"My house at Ilvermorny, I beat every single one of those suckers and looked good doing it." She flipped her hair and Oliver rolled his eyes before hitting the table twice and sitting up, challenging Sherry to a game. "You're on, González."

She won.

Of course she did, she's been playing wizards chess since she could talk. It was her father who first started to teach her, but then he claimed that 'the pressure of a child is too much' or 'i don't know if I can handle a teenage girl' so he left. And she played with her mother. Lena taught her different tricks, strategies and tactics, but still won every single time they played.

There was one time though, weeks before Sherry got on the plane to England where she beat her mother at chess. She remembers being in a state of shock for about 5 minutes before she started running around the house yelling in victory as her mother laughed whilst sat down near the coffee table, sipping on her hot tea. Unbeknownst to Sherry, Lena had let her win.

"Bishop to F5." Sherry said with a smirk and Oliver's smile dropped as he watched her bishop make her way over to his king. "Checkmate." She grinned as the king dropped it's sword down on the board in front of him. Waving her wand, all the pieces of broken stone forced themselves back together again.

"How can someone be so good at Wizard's chess?"

"I got it from my mom." She replied with a fond smile. "We do love each other, but sometimes I just get too annoying and she'd threatened to send me over here one too many times I think. So she did and then regretted it, but that Umbledure guy promised her that I'd be in safe hands. The Magical Congress had a lot of jobs for her anyway."

"You mean Dumbledore? Not Umbledure." Amber raised an eyebrow at her friend and Sherry just shrugged.

"Same thing." She said with a careless shrug, stretching her arms out to the side. "Oh my god, I'm so tired. The train ride here really made me question my life choices."

"That bad?" Oliver asked, resetting the chess board so the pieces were in the right place.

"I sat with that Potter guy from Gryffindor." She said and Amber winced, pulling a face whilst Oliver did the same.

"He's a wanker." Amber rolled her eyes. "Always running after my friend Lily. He's obsessed, not to mention a bully to Severus."

"Well, Snape deserves it, doesn't he?" Oliver argued, furrowing his eyebrows. "He's a right git, marching around with Mulciber and Avery whilst whispering under their breaths. Even Lily's not hanging around with him as much."

"Ginger Lily?" Sherry asked the twins, not bothering to ask them about the strange words that the use like git or wanker.

Both of them nodded and Sherry recalled how James sat up immediately straighter when she arrived at their compartment.

"She doesn't like him, whatsoever." Amber said. "I kind of feel sorry for him to be honest, she rejects him but doesn't put it to him straight. She's never said 'James, I don't like you' just said no to when he asked her on dates."

"Not surprised." Sherry snorted. "He's a little bitch. I would say no."

"Every girl says that," Oliver smirked, shaking his head. "And then he smiles at them or does one nice thing and they fall all over him."

"Well, that's not gonna happen to me." She gave him a tight-lipped smile. "Besides, his friends are cuter. The one with long hair has abs for days and I could totally envision myself making out with him."

"Sirius Black?" Amber asked with a laugh as she sat up straighter. "You can envision yourself snogging Sirius Black?"

"Yeah, he's well fit." She laughed and Amber chuckled along with her as Oliver raised an eyebrow. "His name is Sirius Black too."

"So?" Oliver questioned whilst Amber just burst out laughing, clutching her stomach whilst shaking her head at the words that had just come out of her friends mouth.

"He has a hot name." Sherry shrugged innocently at him and pushed herself up off of the ground. "So, where do we sleep because Merlin knows I'm tired."

"Oh, just this way. Night Oliver." Amber stood and patted her brother on the head before grabbing Sherry's hand and dragging her through another door and up some stairs.

"Night Oliver!" Sherry called back as loud as she could as she followed Amber in order not to topple down the stairs.

"Night, girls."

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