- Chapter Sixty-Six -
"There's a fine line between love and hate."

SHERRY FELT SICK.

She hadn't thrown up and she wasn't going to. This was a different type of sick. This was anxiety. Everything she had always told herself and everything she had always thought she knew was soon to be thrown away in an instant. Like a pile of trash lying on the pavement waiting for the nearest racoon to climb inside of it. Satisfaction would be given, emotion would be shown and Sherry Opal's walls were going to come crumbling down.

A lot of nouns, adjectives, adverbs and different types of words had been thrown at her throughout the life she had been living as Sherry Opal: cold-hearted, apathetic, mean, bitchy, egotistical, self-centred, stoic...unloving. For a short while she had grown accustomed to hearing it and therefore began to believe it. That was who she was and who she had became, a bitch in high heels.

Then some kind of nuisance had arrived, some kind of fly that she couldn't seem to get rid of. Always around, always bothering her before she had had enough of it and slapped it away from her. Disabled just for a moment and then back again, buzzing around her whole entire life until suddenly it was gone. And it didn't bother her anymore.

If anything, she almost missed the incessant annoyance of the fly. It had become a constant normality, then it was ripped away from her and no matter how bothersome it had been for her, her life had become odd without it. Sherry Opal had always believed that she could adapt to anything, no attachments and no strings. Her time in England was going to be short, but that wasn't how it turned out to be.

England had treated her well, but also horribly. Her time there was long, tiring, stressful, crumbling, happy, memorable, there was no foreseen leave for her. She had two more years of school here, there was no chance that her mother would take her back or that her Headmaster would expel her. Everybody took pity, everybody knew her situation. Even if she hadn't wanted them to.

Sherry hated feeling new things, the newest thing was the worst. The emotion implanted by others and only noticed by herself the previous night' she had tried to run away from her problems but instead chased them out and it was put to her straight. She messed around, she treated people unfairly, she though that the world revolved around her and no one else.

Sherry Opal was cold-hearted, apathetic, mean, bitchy, egotistical, self-centred, stoic and unloving. But that just meant she had to meet someone who had a heart of gold, cared a lot (some might say too much), kind, gentle, selfless, considerate, caring and responsive. She hadn't even realised this person had come into her life because they clashed so much, but all the light shone through them and all the darkness drained from her.

She hadn't seen her mother in 4 months, she hadn't seen her father for 11 years, her first long-lasting boyfriend had been and gone in a flurry of emotion and hardship, her friendship with Amber had been tested, there was only one thing constant. The fly, the nuisance. Making things worse on her bad days, comforting her when she craved normality.

Everything was changing, Sherry knew she had to accept that, she just didn't want it to surprise her like it had. She was on a mission, to accept it once and for all. A certain someone had set it straight to her, given her a tough decision she had decided to make at risk of never ever being happy. This person could be her saving grace, the person who makes love the pure beautiful red colour it should be , the colour Sherry loves most.

They could be able to put her in a haze of soft beauty, make her feel like she wasn't a constant problem, a weird change but a fucking beautiful one, someone who kept her from feeling on her own, the answer to a question she had been longing to ask, the person to help her or protect her from revenge, someone who makes her whole world shimmer, somebody who helps her to fall in love again, protects her from karma, whispers sweet nothings to her. Someone who makes all the dominoes fall into place.

Her person.

A happy marriage was not what she had grown up with. Her crave for male attention came from the absence of her father because she hadn't really healed. She wanted a love as pure as the snow that covers the castle head to toe at Christmas time, as pure as the gold that Sherry wears around her neck. Something good, real and true. The Lupins were her new family, Sherry wanted a new life with them.

That is the exact reason why she was marching towards the Great Hall with a strong and purposeful gait the next morning. Slightly hungover, but she had been given lots of water after the scene that went down the previous night. A lot of people hated the Ravenclaws for throwing a party on their school night, but if it hadn't happened, Sherry Opal would not be about to make a life decision.

Amber had still been in bed when Sherry had gotten up and stared at herself in the mirror for a good half an hour deciding what makeup to wear and how to do her hair. Then the girl had joined her best friend in the bathroom and brushed the blonde tresses so they lay at the side of Sherry's face, naturally wavy and lay out some simple mascara and lip gloss on the bathroom counter.

"Natural." Amber whispered, adjusting Sherry's hair and the girl smiled at her friend through the mirror. She bore witness to the events at the party last night and they had yet to talk about it, but Amber probably knew her better than she knew herself.

Amber had then slipped out of the bathroom whilst Sherry stared at herself in the mirror, back in her school skirt instead of pants. But the rest of her uniform was normal as always. She made a small adjustment of her tie before following Amber out and taking a deep breath before she had exited the dorm room, she could easily turn back but her ambition kept her going.

So close to the Great Hall, she was almost in the doorway. Then all of a sudden she was there, looking into all of the other students who sat there not worrying about a thing. Checking their timetables, eating their cheerios, laughing with one another their jokes or just their simple anecdotes. A sea of attention, normally she would be walking in with Amber, Louis and Oliver but that day she was on her own and not looking for her normal spot.

She was looking for something completely different. Something that she had found on the Gryffindor table, not seeming as joyous as all of the conversations going on around it but just slowly eating without chipping into talk like it normally did. A deep breath, a shake of her head and then Sherry was walking.

"Potter." Her voice came out shaky and not quite ready for what she about to say. But he still perked up a little, the other around him looked up. She met eyes with Remus and kept the contact for a moment before looking away. "Can I talk with you...privately?"

He didn't say a thing, only paused for a second before digging back into his cereal. The rest of the boys looked at her sorrowfully as Potter carried on eating his food, Sherry panicked inside for a little second. Time had run out, she was way too late, he had fallen out of love because she had waited so long. But she stayed where she was anyway.

"Potter." She said again and he dropped his spoon, letting it clatter on the ceramic of his bowl. Peter was sat opposite him and he looked at Potter, then up at Sherry, back to his friend again.

"Are you gonna wait for me to confess my love then crush my heart into tiny little pieces again because you seem to enjoy doing that?" He asked, sipping his orange juice and paying very little attention to her. Sherry sighed and pursed her lips, glancing awkwardly around at the others.

Sirius was looking at her, as though trying to perceive something from her mind and Sherry just sighed and looked away from him, she couldn't bear his stupid face. She still had a grudge against him and he still held a grudge against her, but that wasn't going to get in the way of what she wanted to do today. A hope was in her heart and she didn't want it extinguished.

"James, please."

Then he paused for good, they all did. Remus raised his eyebrows high on his forehead and stopped in his chewing of toast and jam. Peter choked on his juice and let Remus pat his back to relieve him whilst Sirius twisted around to look at Sherry with his mouth slightly agape in shock that Sherry Opal had called his best friend by his name.

Slowly and to everyone's anticipation, James began to rise from his seat, leaving his spoon in his cereal and still not looking at Sherry before he started to walk out of the hall. The rest of the boys followed James with their eyes and then looked at Sherry who was watching him walk out the hall too, she quickly hurried after him and his powerful gait.

Another reason why she needed him. He balanced her, she wasn't used to chasing after boys. Boys chased after her. James was providing a fresh perspective.

His footsteps took them hastily out of the Great Hall because of his height, Sherry had to walk a little quicker to keep up with him. People turned around from their seats to watch the peculiar scene of Sherry and James rushing out of the hall with one another, but it wasn't long until they had come to a sharp halt outside of the large doors. James had finished walking abruptly and turned to face the girl standing nervously in front of him.

Between his small spark of anger and Sherry's desperation, there was a hint of confusion is James' eyes too. He surveyed her carefully, eyes travelling from the roots of her hair to the tips of her shoes. The changed stature, tone and attitude was more than enough for him to be wary about why she wanted to talk to him. She was going to tell him it was over, she was never going to love him and she didn't want to lead him on.

"You called me James." He stated and shoved his hands into his pockets, he had gone from not looking at her at all to pinning her with his gaze. Not looking away, she was glad she had his attention but also hated that his eyes made her shifty.

"I know." She sighed, smiling nervously up at him. James merely shook his head and did not return her emotion.

"Right then...talk." James said, gesturing for her to speak. It took a moment to even open her mouth because of the way her brain was reeling, but when she did James cut her off again. "Go on, what could you possibly want to say to me? I thought that I made it clear I didn't want you to mess me around anymore. You said you didn't love me."

"I know I did-"

"Then why are we here?" He asked, shaking his head at her, exasperated. Sherry frowned at him as he continued, talking down at her as a little more emotion began running through her veins. "This is what I mean by messing me around. Changing things like the things you call me, bringing me out for private chats, making me hope and then crushing it all because you don't-"

"Do you not know simple English skills?" Sherry snapped a little, halting his speech and James widened his eyes, backing up a little. She apologised softly, adjusting her bag where it sat on her shoulders and looked back at his face. "Didn't and did are past tense."

"What?"

"Just listen." Sherry pleaded. "We hated each other from the moment we met each other. Pranked each other, swore at each other, we had a massive food fight in the Great Hall my first month at this school. Hell, Dumbledore had to set up meetings every week and lock us in a room because it got that fucking bad. And...and when you were there at every minor inconvenience of my life, I just got so so annoyed. Like you were some sort of fly I couldn't get rid of."

"And then...then the whole thing which just absolutely ruined my life and whatever relationship we had with each other. Then you tell me you love me and to be fair and honest, I was shocked. You had never shown any affection or admiration at all, up to that moment we'd been arguing and arguing more than ever. I meant what I said last month, I didn't love you then. Right then. Then we didn't prank, talk, insult each other for nearly a whole month."

"It felt like...like some big thing was missing from my life. I was never satisfied, never happy. Because I was working on myself to get better but I had no release, I had no relieve and just a massive chunk of my life, my world, my normality had been just ripped out of my heart because of it. And-And I didn't know how to act so I got drunk and I acted poorly and I screwed you over but here I am."

"There is a fine line between love and hate." Sherry finished, out of breath after her rambling. All throughout her speech, she hadn't looked at him once, her eyes had been flitting around in every direction so she didn't gage his reaction but now she was staring straight into his eyes. "And I think that we've crossed it. So..."

Sherry looked up at him, smiling softly as the boy looked down at her with just his glistening eyes. It was a silence that she didn't particularly like, so she decided to fill it once more. "So I understand if you're done with all of this but I'm just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her. For real."

"That was one hell of a confession." James said immediately after she had finished, so she presumed she just needed to give him a few seconds of thinking time. His throat moved with a gulp and Sherry felt a flood of relief rush through her at the sight of a small smile from him. "Mine was much less heartfelt and more angry and you know, to be honest I thought you would be the angry one because-"

Sherry took one step forward, rising up onto her tiptoes to put her hand on the back of James's neck and pull him down towards her. Butterflies exploded in her stomach as she dragged him in to make their lips touch, he made a small noise of surprise but soon the both of them melted into the contact. It was odd and for a moment it didn't even feel real, but Sherry continued because whatever fantasy this was, it was amazing.

A spark of lust and then a bonfire of love ignited in all of Sherry's body, from her head to her toes it was pure exhilaration with her lips on James' and her her hands on his skin. This was different to anything before, different to Evan, different to Marlene, different to every boy she had been with. Different to Matt. Matt's love was so much more darker but loving James was red, bright and beautiful. Sherry's colour.

James' and Sherry's colour.

Kissing him was the most secure place she could be. Comfortable and safe, especially when his hands placed themselves on her hips and pulled her closer towards him. The hand on the back of his neck tugged him further as their lips moved together softly, a soft dance filled with emotion and love. A beautiful, beautiful thing she would have never imagined would happen.

But it was happening. It was truly happening. All of the confessions, the lingering looks, the arguments and the tears had all lead to this moment. James had fucked up many times, Sherry had been rude and mean to him many times. Both parties had their flaws, but when you looked at them in a larger light, their similar perfects outweighed everything. Their connection outweighed everything.

Slowly and closely, they pulled back by only an inch, foreheads leaning against each other and hot breath fanning across both of their faces. Sherry massaged the back of his neck with her finger as they looked at one another in their closeness, a shiver went through him and he pulled her closer. The two of them didn't kiss again but remained close, James moved his head and leaned it on Sherry's shoulder.

The girl moved her arms up and wrapped them around his neck, the two of them staying close in the corridor. Other kisses that Sherry had lead to intercourse or just a make out session but this was purer than anything she had ever felt, she didn't know what to do now. But as long as James was holding her, she didn't want to go anywhere.

He pulled back, the two of them separating from each other but James took her hand and held it in his as he looked down at her with a cheeky smile on his face. Sherry grinned and laughed a little, leaning her head forward to fall onto his chest whilst she laughed. His chest shook under her head whilst she blushed and grinned and for once, didn't know what to do next.

James squeezed her hand and from that, Sherry knew that whatever she did next, he would be there for her.

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A/N: AHHHHHHH