- Chapter Sixty-Eight -
"So...my future, wow."

IT WAS DURING DOUBLE TRANSFIGUARTION WHEN SHERRY REALISED THAT HER LIFE WAS GOING NOWHERE.

The work was extremely tedious and very very boring, the whole class was looking forward to the twenty minute break they would have in between their second period and their third. Unfortunately, Sherry's third period was Potions which was supremely getting on her nerves because ever since she had stormed out of Slughorn's weird dinner party, he had been incredibly sour with the girl. It wasn't like she had ruined the party; James and Matt had done that with the fight afterwards.

Her E had very briefly turned to an A but she was continuously working harder with Amber to get it back up to Exceeds Expectations and then hopefully to an Outstanding in her N.E.W.Ts that she would take at the end of seventh year. When she had first come to Hogwarts, it seemed as though she would never sit those exams, she would be tossed out before she had a chance to sit at the desk. Now she was still strutting the hallways and the exams didn't seem so far away anymore: the content they were learning in each lesson was the things they needed for their N.E.W.Ts and Sherry wished her hand worked as quickly as Amber's who scribbled down notes before the teacher even finished their sentence.

However it didn't matter anyway, Professor McGonagall had let it slip quietly to Sherry that every classroom had glossy new textbooks in every right corner cupboard. Knowing this, the girl no longer had to blow dust off of each of her hand-me-downs, causing her desk partner to erupt into fits of repetitive coughs as she handled the crumbling book with utmost delicacy. Now she had books that she was perfectly able to read the required information...which she probably wasn't going to do anyway.

She knew that it was McGonagall's hope that Sherry would continue to score an O in Transfiguration but with the way her classwork was looking like in that moment, she knew the woman should be a little bit scared.

The class were about halfway through their second period and already practically falling asleep and drooling over their boredom. Sherry and Oliver were miming to one another across the classroom, attempting to lipread and gossip at same time although a couple of times they had to stop abruptly as someone they didn't want their gossip to spread to would turn around and be in their eyeline. Namely Anna from Sherry's dorm who had been a right dick that morning in the Common Room.

Sherry remembered it clear as day, she and Amber were entering the Common Room from their dorm, uniform on so they could sit and wait for Louis and Oliver to join them for breakfast. On the sofa, had sat Anna with her friend Jessica and the two of them were more than happy to be talking about her that early in the morning. Amber had given Sherry a glance as their conversation topic rang around the room and the blonde, resting against the small coffee table, simply watched the back of their heads.

Well, she watched until she decided to pour a cup of tea from the tray placed on the table behind her and take it over to the two girls. Sherry stood in front of them, smiling bitterly as their conversation cut short and they snapped their eyes up to her with straight faces. The girl simply tipped the hot tea all over their laps, watching as they screamed a little and stood from the sofa, fanning their skirts.

"Sherry," Amber had whined in disappointment as Sherry grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the room even before Louis and Oliver had joined them. Though she had to admit, she was a minute away from doing that herself for Anna had no right to be talking about Sherry like that...Amber would love to see Anna try and do a Double Eight Loop in Quidditch.

Oliver had been aghast when he learned the news, very clearly trying not to erupt in a fit of laughter when Sherry was mouthing it to him from across the classroom, nearly in laughter herself. Professor McGonagall had only cleared her throat twice to tell the two to stop but the two of them just continued after a thirty-second break from talking shit. Amber sat beside her twin, continuously seething at him to shut up when he occasionally gasped or slammed his hand on the table.

Transfiguration had been seated alphabetically, so unfortunately Sherry was far away from any of her friends whilst they were in G and S, she was stuck in O next to Reginald Nott who was a Slytherin, dedicated to hanging around with other stupid Slytherins such as Snape and his little group of greasy gits. Admittedly, Reginald wasn't that nasty during Transfiguration, mainly just complained about his older brother whilst Sherry pretended to be interested.

"And he wants to name his son Theodore, right? When he's called Theodore so it's so stupid like why would you name your kid after yourself?" Nott was ranting about his chosen conversation topic as Sherry took her attention away from Oliver after he was hit by his sister; Sherry hummed in fake interest at Reginald. "If I had a son, I'd probably name him something like...I don't know, that guy River in the year below has an interesting name."

"River Larsson?" Sherry raised her eyebrow, the name capturing her attention as she perked up a little. Reginald glanced at her, shaken by her talking but he nodded nonetheless. "What's his deal? Have you spoken to him at all?"

"Once." Nott shrugged, obviously not bothered. "He wanted to know how to get to the Hogs Head Inn, something about meeting his dad. Apparently they moved here from like Sweden or something, him, his dad and his mum. His dads looking for a job here. The boy likes to overshare."

"Like someone else I know." Sherry smiled simply at the boy beside who smiled back but his was extremely sarcastic with a small narrow of his eyes. Nott rolled his eyes and Sherry wondered if she'd finally gotten rid of his rambling.

"So as I was saying-"

"Ugh." Sherry groaned, her own eyes rolling as she let herself collapse onto her desk, burying her head into her arms that provided a slightly uncomfortable pillow. A clicking noise made her glance out of the gaps in between her strands of hair towards the entryway to the classroom.

At once, every student straightened up and appeared to be working harder than they had the whole lesson before. Even Nott stopped his talking and dived into his workbook, copying down the notes from the board. Sherry slowly sat up and looked around to Oliver who also had his nose in his textbook, Amber was still scribbling hurriedly and Sherry seemed to be the only one who didn't act like she had been doing something this whole hour and a half.

Professor Dumbledore stood in the doorway to the class made Sherry realise just why everybody had freaked out about their lack of work in their books; McGonagall even looked slightly confused at why Dumbledore had visited her during lesson time though she tried not to show it as she gestured for the man to speak and interrupt her class. Sherry only watched the interaction between the two for some sort of amusement.

"Terribly sorry for interrupting, Professor McGonagall." The old man apologised softly, his eyes glinting from behind his spectacles like they always did. Once McGonagall had waved him off, he scanned the classroom until his eyes landed on the blonde girl herself. "May I steal Miss Opal for a moment?"

Some scratching of quills stopped and quite a few students looked over at Sherry as she awkwardly glanced around at her fellow Ravenclaws and Slytherins whom she shared the class with. Oliver furrowed his eyebrows and glanced to Anna, who looked slightly smug as she turned back to look at Sherry. Nott whistled lowly under his breath but Sherry simply kicked his shin whilst collecting her bag that was deposited under the table.

"Take your time, Sherry." He requested passive-aggressively and Sherry slipped her books into her bag along with her quill and capped ink bottle with a roll of her eyes. Quickly, she weaved her way through the maze of desks to the door where Professor Dumbledore awaited her with his hands clasped behind his back.

With no words spoken between either of them and just a simple move of his head, Sherry and Dumbledore exited their classroom and let the doors shut behind them with a thud. Immediately, Dumbledore began walking down the corridor, leaving the girl to follow and try to walk as quick as she could in order to stay on his tail and not lose the man. Dumbledore did his usual ominous movement of keeping secrets and not giving her any information about what was going on; Sherry decided she would find out herself.

"Are you...setting up the Friday meetings again?" Sherry asked him, breaking the silence as a small smile made its way onto her face and she bit her lip to prevent it from getting too wide. She really hoped he was: James and Sherry had barely had any moment to talk since their kiss outside of the Great Hall.

It was all just lingering glances and flushes appearing on their cheeks when they had been staring at one another across the classroom for too long. Unfortunately for them, their seats in Defence Against the Dark Arts remained on opposite sides of the classroom since Professor Greene didn't allow them to change the plan now that she had it all written down and documented. Much to Sherry's dismay as now she had no issue with being placed next to James in a lesson.

In fact, she felt like encouraging it. Maybe they needed to fake a rivalry in order for all of their teachers to start forcing them to spend time together again. They had kissed, but nothing else had happened with that part of their relationship, there wasn't even a conversation about what they were. Both of them just sort of knew that when they eventually had the conversation, it would hurtle towards some kind of exclusivity.

She couldn't wait.

"No, no, no, you made it quite clear you were not to take part in them anymore." Dumbledore replied with a simple smile, glancing back at her slightly as she rolled her eyes and frowned deeply. The two of them turned a corner and were greeting with the Griffin at the entrance to the man's office. "After all, I wouldn't want to place that burden on you. Pepper Imps."

At the booming sound of his voice, the statue turned slowly, revealing the familiar stone staircase that lead up to the office she had become quite accustomed to at her time at Hogwarts. Dumbledore was quick for an old man and Sherry grunted as she had to go faster to keep up with him, she was very glad to have gotten out of Transfiguration but maybe she would rather be there than with Professor Dumbledore.

The office hadn't changed at all, it still had the same old desk upon a raised platform, the chairs that Sherry used to lounge on, the chess set that first ignited an admiration for James Potter within her and the square gap in the windows from where they had chucked the Rubik's cube out of the glass by accident. Sherry smirked, adjusting her bag on her shoulder whilst Dumbledore gestured to the chair in front of his desk.

Warily, the girl stepped up onto the platform and settled herself in a chair, holding the arms and getting flashbacks to the many times she had been in this position before. She wondered if other students even had an idea of what Dumbledore's office, everyone had seemed so worried and eager to make a good impression when he had come to the classroom. For Sherry, seeing him was almost like a regular occurrence.

"Miss Opal, believe it or not, I have not brought you out of lesson for your behaviour, your hatred or your defiance." Dumbledore said as he lowered himself down in his chair, Sherry raised her eyebrows in shock and readjusted her seated position, pursing her lips. "In fact, today is a meeting about your future and what you want to achieve. This was meant to happen with Professor Flitwick last year but unfortunately, the incident got in the way. So now it is with me."

"Yay." Sherry tilted her head, smiling. Dumbledore managed a half-smile at her false enthusiasm whilst he gazed at her over his glasses, she seemed to be in a very good and definitely non-irritable mood which was odd and different and almost scared him. "So...my future, wow."

"Yes, wow indeed. This meeting is to talk about any career ideas you might have to help you decide what subjects to choose. Since you've already started your subjects, we might be able to get your schedule changed if needed." Dumbledore collected some papers and took his quill off of his desk, dipping it into his ink pot before peering at Sherry. "Any ideas?"

Sherry stared back at him, blank-faced with pursed lips as she shook her head slowly.

"How about an Auror?" He asked interestedly and Sherry recoiled almost immediately, shaking her head with a small grimace. She would hate to go through all of that Ministry training before living out her life to capture Dark Wizards who were all probably gross and dirty. "Author?"

"Nope. Not very creative."

"Breeder?"

"Excuse me?"

"Journalist?"

"I do love gossip." Sherry nodded to herself, trying to imagine it. She would carry around a pen and paper all day, receive gossip from her friends in the Quidditch Team Louis wanted to join, the hospital that Amber wants to work at and the Auror Office that Oliver would be working at. "Put that on the list. Wait, no, don't- Wait, yeah. Wait, no. Yeah, just write it."

"Librarian?

"Ew."

"Personal Assistant?"

"Are you offering?"

"Actress?"

"I'd be taking after my mom too much."

Dumbledore sighed deeply, closing his eyes and moving a piece of paper to the side of his desk. Sherry peered at it but saw that it was just a list of jobs. Lots of them on there made her lip wrinkle in disgust but on Dumbledore's other piece of paper, there was only Journalist scribbled down with a line under it. Sherry bit her lip in worry, what was she truly going to do? Journalism only sounded slightly appealing and that was if she had the talent to even write about it.

"Well, to be a journalist there are no specific requirement or N.E.W.Ts you have to take so your timetable can remain unchanged. Unless you want to take up Muggle Studies." Dumbledore suggested but again, Sherry shook her head and passed. She already knew nearly everything about muggle culture. "Miss Opal, may I suggest taking some extra-curriculars that may point you towards another career choice? One you might like. I know you like Quidditch."

"Yeah but I don't want to be a professional one." She said, shrugging her shoulders. Quidditch was only her hobby, yes she was good at it but she never wanted to be in the spotlight for Quidditch. She wasn't a jock, more like a jock's hot girlfriend.

"What about working with animals?"

"Those freaks that Kettleburn has locked up in cages? With the...things and the...things?" Sherry went wide-eyed, mimicking a stinger of a Manticore and the characteristics of different animals. "No, no, no, no way. I've read Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them and to be unafraid of those beasts makes Newt Scammander some sort of god. No way."

"To get a job anywhere, you would probably need passes in all the core subjects at least." Dumbledore said again, bringing her back onto the subject of her future whilst scribbling down some notes underneath the lone Journalism. "That would mean bringing up those Astronomy and History of Magic grades. I'm sure Professor Binns would be more than glad to do a one-on-one session-"

"Hard pass." Sherry held a hand up, downright refusing as Binns was the only reason that she had gotten such a low grade in that class anyway. Him and his droning voice that sent her to sleep, it was often her and Oliver slumping over each other in a doze. "Are we done here?"

"We're done." Dumbledore nodded as the bell rang out, signalling the end of second period and the beginning of break, Sherry grinned and rushed out of her seat. But before she could go anywhere, Dumbledore folded up the paper about her career and slipped it inside the previous list he had been looking at. "Good day, Miss Opal."

"Yep." She snatched the paper from his hand, dropping it into her bag without a care whilst she saluted the man and exited the office as quick as she could.

Down the stairs and down the corridors she went. walking quickly and looking around at all of the people who were already milling around the empty spaces in little groups. She was hoping to find a bare window seat where she could sit away from prying eyes for a second, but everyone had gotten to them so quick with their friends and their little book clubs or homework clubs.

It was only when she had taken about five or six twists and turns that she found an empty space. She mumbled in relief, deposited her bag on the small stone seat and settled against the wall beside the windows before she reached forward and grabbed her bag. More specifically, she grabbed the pieces of paper she had taken from Dumbledore out of her bag, leaning back against the wall with them in her hand.

Looking around to make sure no one close to her was walking by, she opened up the career list and opened the paper Dumbledore had written on next to it. Scanning down the first and shaking her head many a times, she began to frown with every word she read that she didn't like and eventually, she just looked out of the window beside her, mulling over every weird career in that list; Journalist sounded fun but that's all it was...fun.

Amber wanted to help people, Louis wanted to make people smile, Oliver wanted to make the world a better place. Each of them had their hearts deadset on a career...Sherry did not. Sherry was just Sherry, but that day she realised that she couldn't be just Sherry forever. No matter how much she wanted to.

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