- Chapter Thirty-Eight -
"Why must they torture us?"

"I CAN'T BELIEVE WE ACTUALLY DID IT."

"At least try and hide your shock." Nico crossed her arms over her chest, shaking her head amusedly at Flora Upton who was staring shocked down at the multiple vials before her which contained potions of each colour of the rainbow. A descending metal stand was stood next to it and all the group needed to do was slot the potions in the right place.

Flora grinned at Nico and looked around at their assorted group again. Stephen was grinning too, looking almost proud of them like a father would watching his child graduate; Snape was stood silently glaring at Potter like always but this time he had seemingly also resorted to glaring at Sherry too; Sherry glanced at him and scrunched up her nose in distaste from time to time, stood beside Potter and something almost like a smile on her lips as she looked down at the completed project.

Finally, she did not have to spend every lesson with Snape and Potter both in the same place, bickering with her in between them and the only saving grace being Nico Lawson who just found it all amusing and was now looking over the classroom to Amber a lot which Potter had noticed and asked Sherry what was going on in that very lesson.

She explained how she saw the blazing connection on the night of the incident and he attempted to apologise again, this time she listened and accepted it because she simply could not be bothered holding this grudge against him with the others she had piled up. Plus, O.W.Ls were starting the next week and Amber had Sherry knee deep in revision.

This should boost her grade along with her exam, but she never did well in tests at all, it was always too much pressure for her. She eventually had to be taken into another room to everyone else since other students were getting distracted from her pen clicking and her nails drumming on the surface of her desk, the conditions in there had been worse.

It was a library, so it was in absolute silence, pages being turned every now and then which made her want to turn around and rip the pages out of whichever book that was whilst she stared at a question about goblin riots and scribbled down 'i don't know' in the answer box. Her test scores were bound to be bad this year and there was no escaping it.

"Do you guys think this is gonna get us a good score?" Sherry asked, eyeing the vials and the bright colours inside of them that they had brewed over the weeks. "Cause I don't do so well with tests and I need this to really boost up my grade."

"I think this is gonna be the best in the class." Flora nodded approvingly and Sherry raised her eyebrows impressively as Stephen stepped forward and began to place the colours in the right slots before it became a descending rainbow.

"It will be if Snape doesn't find a way to fuck it up." Potter sneered, eyeing Snape with a scowl who rolled his eyes and continued to glare. "Any chance to stop me from succeeding, right?"

"Have you forgotten that you and Sherry tried to kill me?" Snape asked angrily and Potter scoffed but Snape continued to talk. "And that time you and Little Miss Perfect over there broke into my dorm and tricked me with a hair-raising potion which embarrassed me in front of the whole school."

"I did not try to kill you!" Sherry defended herself, pulling a face at Snape who huffed and crossed his arms again as Flora, Stephen and Nico looked in between the other half of their group. "First of all, I was the one trying to get you out of there. Second, I did not break anything, we are far too talented at pranking for that and third...stop being so defensive."

"Defensive?" Snape asked angrily and Sherry and Potter both shrugged with identical smiles and noises of agreement. "I'm not getting defensive, Potter tried to kill me! I always knew there was something going on with Lupin-"

"Shut your face." Sherry spat, shaking her head at him. "I have no idea which hair products you use that seep into your brain and cause you to be dumb as shit, but you better fucking abandon them cause they're not working. It might also fix that greasy mop too."

Snape glared and for once decided not to retaliate to the girl's words but instead decided to mumble out a word that made the whole group erupt in anger. "Slag."

"What did you just call me?" Sherry said in furious disbelief at the same time Potter said in seething rage: "What did you just call her?"

"Prick." Nico scoffed at him and Snape just looked around at them all, his lips curling into a sneer. "Just cause she managed to get a boyfriend and you're still chasing after the same girl you've been in love with since first year doesn't mean she's a slag."

"It really wasn't hard for her to score Rowley though, all she needed to do was get her tits out."

A large thud went around the classroom and everyone turned to see Snape lay on the floor, hand over his nose before he took it off and glared dangerously at the Quidditch Captain above him who had just punched him in the face.

Sherry had gotten her wand out but did not have time to cast a spell before Potter had delivered a blow to Snape's cheek in an instant, after the punch she just stood there with her mouth agape and glancing in between Potter and Snape. A small laugh came from somewhere in the classroom and Sherry turned her head to see Amber and Remus smirking to each other.

"What on earth is going on here?" Slughorn demanded and the whole group whirled around to see their short teacher stood before them. All of them scrambled for something to say, stuttering, and mumbling until Snape had stood and began talking.

"Potter punched me, Sir." He put on his best wobbly voice, sucking the pity out of Slughorn. Hus eyes then drifted down to the wand out in Sherry's hand and he spoke again with the tiniest delighted tilt to his voice again. "And Opal stunned me and I didn't do anything."

"Bullshit, you just called her a -"

"Mr Potter I want not a sound out of you." Slughorn began to say and Sherry opened her mouth to speak whilst pocketing her wand too. "Or you Miss Opal. Now, I want you both to take these to your Heads of Year, don't bother coming back because class is almost over."

He handed them both detention slips and smiled with a little "Cheerio" before telling Snape he could go to the Hospital Wing if he needed. Snape said he was fine and then proceeded to smirk at the pair as they left the classroom. Sherry led the way and Potter followed, bags in hand.

"I could've done that myself; you know, you didn't have to jump in and be the valiant hero." Sherry rolled her eyes and stepped over the threshold of the classroom door, turning to walk her way towards Professor Flitwick's office which was sadly only down the hall from Professor McGonagall's office.

"Sherry, he called you a-"

"I heard." She snapped as they walked, shaking her head. "I should've slapped him on the spot, but Louis has me and his brother on this weird anger management thing where we have strict sleep schedules and a magazine detox two hours before bed."

"I didn't know Simmons had a brother." He furrowed his eyebrows, quickening his [ace so he was walking beside her. The thought he had gotten at the Quidditch Match circled around his head as it had done every day since he thought it but he pushed it away again, he was just concerned because their arguing was more like banter now and he classed them as friends.

He couldn't like Sherry and he knew that because he still had feeling for Lily, his heart would still beat every time she passed and the flowers that she smelled of made him long to trail after just to let the sweet smell fill his nostrils all the time. The only thing he could smell them was once again Sherry's strong shampoo as her hair billowed behind her at the pace at which they were walking.

"First year." Sherry nodded, beginning to ascend the stairs of the dungeons. "He's in your house and he loves me, I mean who doesn't? But still, he's adorable and he has this really curly hair and he's just so cute."

"You know, I never would've thought you'd be one to like kids." Potter shook his head, smiling slightly and Sherry scrunched her face up, shaking her head slowly whilst they reached the top of the staircase and turned into a corridor.

"I don't and if you tell anyone about my love for Anthony, I will kill you." She turned to smile at him, it may have been a sarcastic smile. One that was meant to be sweet but also not as the person she was directing it to had just received a threat, but Potter couldn't help the small round of butterflies that erupted in his stomach.

"Fuck." He swore softly and she furrowed her eyebrows at him, her perfectly shaped eyebrows that he noticed were a beautiful dark colour of brown, the same colour as the very root of her hair, the centimetre of it that wasn't blonde. "Uh...fuck, I-I can't believe forgot how much of a bitch you are."

"Oh my god, I can't believe that either." She said to him, mocking him. He knew it was a terrible save but he hoped she would take it. "It's okay I guess; I'll just have to remind you by telling you that your hair looks like an eagle's nest today and that it is extremely obvious that your mom probably threw you into a wall instead of dropping you as a baby."

"There it is." He smiled and so did she, although it was more of an amused smirk and she paused in front of Flitwick's office, Potter walking further down to stand in front of Professor McGonagall's and the two of them knocked in unison.

Both doors seemed to open at the same time, Sherry peering down to face her teacher and Potter looking straight ahead as both gave them similar looks of disappointment at the sight of the slips in their hands. Sherry gave Flitwick a smile and awkwardly handed him the detention slip and he waddled into his office to go and write her a detention.

"Potter, if this involves who I think it does..." McGonagall poked her head out of her office, looking down the hallway and she sighed disappointedly at the sight of Sherry who gave a small wave, smiling awkwardly again. McGonagall retreated. "One moment."

"Here you are, Sherry." Her attention was brought back to the door by Professor Flitwick who held a new slip up to her and she took it to look at the details on it, groaning at what was written. Both office doors slammed close at the same time and Sherry faced Potter, holding up her slip. "Filch."

"Same." He held up his and she rolled her eyes at the knowledge they were going to be spending more time together than necessary.

"Why must they torture us?" Sherry sighed, walking past him to make her way to the Ravenclaw Common Room, Potter fell into step with her once more and they walked together. She resisted the urge to put her foot out and trip him over once or twice. "We spend enough time together as it is."

"I've learnt not to complain, they'll just set us up for more." He said and Sherry nodded slowly, that actually made sense. The two of them seemed to have every detention together plus their Friday evenings and of course Defence Against the Dark Arts where Mrs Greene had them sat beside one another. Maybe she should embrace it and they'll stop getting set up. "I mean, oof-"

As the two of them had turned a corner, a Ravenclaw first year was turning the same way and slammed right into Potter, his hands coming out to stabilise the girl who Sherry quickly noticed to be the same girl she had been seeing around a lot. Eleanor Zane and she didn't look any different, she still had tears in her eyes and red cheeks.

"Hey, is everything okay?" He asked concernedly and knelt onto one knee, Eleanor was small, and Potter was massive, so kneeling gave him the advantage to talk to her better. Sherry never would have guessed the boy with the giant ego and need to pester everyone could be so empathetic.

"Fine." She hiccupped and pushed past him, meeting eyes with Sherry for a moment and both girls had flashbacks to the time in the bathroom where Sherry had been crying too and Eleanor had come out after her and Nico's conversation, looking like she did no.

The girl slipped past them and Sherry glanced back for a moment, Potter waiting beside her for a moment as if he had planned to walk together. Sherry didn't bother to think on it and just stared at the back of Eleanor as she hurried through the corridor and wiped tears that had fallen.

Sherry put her lips together and whistled, the sound echoing around the stone of the corridor and Eleanor froze, slowly turning around until they met eyes again. The elder girl didn't do anything for a second and just stared at her, open-mouthed before putting her ego to the side for a moment and cocking her head to the left to tell Eleanor to come over to her.

Eleanor stared at Sherry apprehensively and as if she were remembering hearing the girl crying in the bathroom, which she probably was, she began to take tentative steps forward towards the older two people. They were intimidating, or at least the girl was, but Eleanor mustered up every single ounce of confidence to face the pretty blonde.

She stood before them, attempting to control her breathing and Sherry put an hand on her shoulder, beginning to walk as Eleanor followed and they left Potter behind.

He watched as they walked away from him, faintly hearing Sherry whisper a small question of what was the matter in a soft tone and he smiled to himself before biting his lip, groaning, stamping his foot a couple times like a toddler in a tantrum before he turned and walked back to the Potions classroom to meet his friends.

He could not believe he was beginning to admire Sherry Opal.

•*•*•*•*•