- Chapter Ten -
"You said butterbeer?"

IT WAS A COLD MORNING AT THE START OF OCTOBER, leaves from trees and bushes outside the castle had been shed onto the ground and they had become crisp from the temperature. The girls in the Ravenclaw dorms had it bad, Ravenclaw Tower was (as its name says) a tower, so it travelled upwards meaning it got colder nearer the top. They lay with their covers pulled up to under their chins and extra blankets lay over them, the curtains around their beds closed to keep the warm air inside their bunks. The temperature had largely differed from what is was at the start of September when Summer had just come to an end.

Sherry's summer was the best summer she'd had in years, Summer 1975 was definitely one to remember. She had spent her days running through fields and riding around on bikes with her friend group, they were all muggles so it was all unbelievably exciting. New music, new films, new clothes and her mother finally trusted her to go out on her own since she had turned 15 in the middle of February. Stephanie Hopper was her ride or die back in America, sneaking out late hours of the night or early hours in the morning if one of them needed the other.

Connor Fletcher and Michael Rojas were the last members of the group, two boys so they made the perfect balance. They were each others ride or die, even if they didn't want admit it, but it was a great bromance. Michael was actually Sherry's first kiss at his family's New Years Eve party in third year, they were both blushing messes afterwards but never brought it up again which worked well in the sense that their friend group wouldn't be ruined by awkwardness.

There was one special moment in the summer of 1975 that made it the best, Connor had proposed that they should hike up a mountain one day. At first, Sherry was very reluctant but Stephanie had managed to convince her and decked in comfortable clothes with her hair tied back messily, Sherry met up with the group one day and they all went hiking.

The actual hike wasn't the special part though, it was when they reached the top that made it a moment they would never forget. It overlooked the whole of their village, they could see hills and mountains bumping over behind it and the sun shining high in the sky above them. Although they were all sweaty and their legs were aching, they were amazed at the wonderful view before them.

"Woohoo!" Connor had stood near the edge, careful not to fall down and screamed out over the mountain whilst holding his arms up victoriously. His brown hair sat messily on top of his head, strands of sweaty hair almost sticking to his red forehead as the rest of the group looked over at him and laughed. The scream echoed through the air wildly and for a long silent moment, they were just teenagers at peace.

"Yeah!" Michael joined him with a laugh, running over to stand next to him on the edge. Stephanie was next and then Sherry joined, all of them yelling with victory over the edge of a mountain. All sweaty, all hot but at peace.

"Guys, a quarry." Stephanie pointed out and they all looked over to see a smaller cliff with a round pool of water below. It rippled calmly and the ledge beside it was smooth and had surrounding, stable rocks. "I could do with a cooling down." She laughed.

The group of four had walked to the smaller cliff and stripped down to their underwear, a couple of teases here and there but when the time came, they all took a leap of faith down into the quarry, arms and legs flailing and joyous laughs coming from them before they landed with a splash in the water and felt the cool chill all over their bodies.

Sherry wished she could reverse time and just be better for her mother so she wasn't made to move to Britain. Of course she might miss Amber, Oliver and Louis, but no matter how kind they had been, it couldn't make up for her years of friendship with the others. Hopefully at Thanksgiving or Christmas, she could go back to America for the holidays and spend it with her mother and her friends.

"Sherry!"

But first she had to get through October and most of November.

"I'm sleeping." She mumbled, turning over in her bed so her back was facing the side where the voice came from and her head was facing the other curtains. Amber had a very distinctive voice so she could tell when she was waking her up, but this wasn't Amber, it was one of the other squeaky-voiced girls in Ravenclaw.

"No, you're not. You just talked."

Her eyes opened slowly, still facing the curtains and a small sigh came from her lips. She clearly doesn't want to talk to whoever this girl is behind her bed but no one ever seems to get that. Deciding to pretend that she was actually asleep, Sherry didn't respond and only tried to snuggle deeper into the pillows.

But with a small whooshing noise, the curtains behind her were pulled open and an immediate light came through, making her groan and pull her pillow over her head.

"No!" She shouted into the pillow, shaking her head but the pillow was quickly grabbed and she was made to look at the girl who had woken her up. She had lovely dark skin and her curly hair was pulled up into a ponytail at the back of her head, but her beauty didn't excuse the fact that she was being annoying at that moment in time.

"Come on, Sherry, it's Hogsmeade weekend!"

"No thank you, Amy." Sherry attempted to pull her blue curtains back closed on the right side of her bed. She wasn't that bothered with going to Hogsmeade, what kind of a name is that anyway? Britain seemed to be literally obsessed with Hogs which is apparently another name for a pig, Sherry didn't really care what the school was named after.

"It's Anna."

"I don't care." She sung mockingly with a sweet smile and managed to pull them closed, the darkness covering her again as she gave a delighted huff and fell down back against her pillow. It was silent for a couple of seconds and Sherry relished in it, smiling to herself as she buried her head back into the soft pillow.

"James, get away from Sherry's bed!"

With a thud, the blonde rolled sideways off of the mattress, nearly tangling herself up in the curtains as she tried to scramble away from her bed. The thought of Potter being near her bed only meant one thing, a prank, and she did not want to be pranked on a perfectly good Saturday morning where she could sleep most of the day.

However, when she managed to untangle herself from the curtains and stood up abruptly to catch Potter in the act, there was no one beside her bed but her. Her mouth fell open and she looked around at the dorm mates before her eyes zeroed in on Amber who had a small smile on her face as she pulled a floral blouse over a black tank top.

"Amber!" Sherry groaned, stamping her foot like an impatient toddler. Amber only laughed at her and rolled her eyes playfully. "Not funny, especially when you know that it's his turn to prank me."

"Calm down, Sher." She smiled and grabbed a folded pair of socks that she had put on her bed. "I just needed a way to get you out of bed, its the first Hogsmeade trip of the year and it'd be good to introduce you to British wizarding culture."

"Tempting." She deadpanned, walking in the direction of her bed again but Amber slid across the room and stopped in front of her. The girl had the same expression as she did when playing Quidditch and that was never a good sign, so the two friends just ended up in a staring contest before Amber eventually caved with the pressure of Sherry's piercing blue eyes staring into her brown ones.

She groaned as she blinked and Sherry smirked, flipping her ponytail cockily as Anna and another girl in their dorm rolled their eyes playfully.

"Please, Sherry!" Amber begged, walking closer. "It's so fun! There's a sweet shop, a joke shop, a clothes shop, a pub with butterbeer. Please, please, please, it'll be so fun with you!"

Sherry only looked at her once more, her poker face coming in handy as Amber gave her an unsure smile. The smile reminded Sherry of her mother's, she would always give one when she was telling Sherry something about work that she probably shouldn't but knowing that she spent her days with no-maj's, she wasn't worried about it getting out. Lena Opal clouded her daughter's mind and the younger of the two remembered exactly what she had been sent to Britain to do in the first place, to sort out her behaviour and the sooner she did that, the sooner she went back.

It was silent for a moment in the dorm before she spoke.

"You said butterbeer?" She muttered with a small smile finally making its way through and the grin that grew on Amber's face was worth a day of guaranteed torture.

•*•*•*•*•

"Miss Opal you cannot go to Hogsmeade."

After getting changed in record speed and doing her hair and makeup as quickly as possible, Sherry had left the dorm with Amber and met up with the boys in the Common Room who were delighted to see that she was joining them. Their excitement had lit a spark in Sherry but she would never admit it, never give anyone satisfaction, even if their your friends. But when they got down to the entrance hall, Professor McGonagall who was authorising the trip, delivered this news

"Why?" She asked with her hands in the pockets of her beige trench coat. She was pretty sure she was holding up all of the others whilst talking to McGonagall but the elder woman didn't seem all that bothered by it. "I got out of bed and dressed for this."

"I can see that and I must say, you certainly have a knack for style." She said impassively whilst glancing at the white turtleneck sweater under the unbuttoned coat which she had tucked into a mini skirt with tights underneath and a pair of her less valued wedges on her feet. "But you cannot come to Hogsmeade because you don't have a permission slip to enable you to do so."

"Okay, well how do I get a permission slip?" She asked, tilting her head at the woman in front of her.

"It came in the third-year school letters-" She started and watched as Sherry's eyebrows furrowed up in anger slightly and her mouth fell agape. How was she supposed to get one then? She wasn't here in third year and her mother sorted everything out with Dumbledore about her transfer. "And I know that you weren't here that year but without it I simply cannot allow you off of-"

"Professor!"

McGonagall turned to see where the yell had come from and Sherry looked over her shoulder too to see Remus running towards them with a slip of paper in his hand. Potter, Peter and Sirius were jogging behind him, obviously all late but managing to slip into the group before they left. Sirius and Peter both smiled as they walked past, Peter's being a little bit more nervous and James just glared. Remus, however, stopped beside Sherry in front of McGonagall.

"I have Sherry's permission slip, signed by her guardian." He said breathlessly, holding the paper out. Sherry raised her eyebrows at it, glancing between the parchment, Remus and McGonagall. A faint scribble of 'Lyall Lupin' was at the bottom of the paper and the blonde girl smiled at it and then to Remus who was grinning back down at her, his chest heaving from his run.

"Very well." McGonagall stuffed it in the inside pocket of her cloak and Sherry perked up hopefully. She could've sworn a small smile flickered onto McGonagall's face at the light in the young girl's eyes. "Now, I think we've delayed enough for today." She said and walked past them both.

Sherry grinned and whirled around to look at Remus, who was still smiling.

"Thanks." She said gratefully, her eyes twinkling as he nodded at her.

"No problem." He waved it off and ran a hand through his hair before his grin grew wider and he reached up to flick her bakers boy cap that was perched on the top of her excellently curled blonde hair. "Nice hat."

Sherry snorted and adjusted it again, glancing back at Amber, Oliver and Louis who were waiting for her to join them so they could walk to the village together. "Thanks, Remus." She patted him on his arm and strutted back over to her friends as he turned and went to his.

James' glare was prominently fixed on Sherry, but she was so preoccupied with laughing with Oliver that she didn't notice.

•*•*•*•*•
A/N: I just know that if Sherry lived in the 2000s then she would idolise Britney Spears and Gwen Stefani.

I also really liked this chapter for like no reason, it's not even that interesting, just some bonding between Remus and Sherry which I'm so excite to write more of later!!