- Chapter Twenty -
"Miss Opal, now please."

SHERRY LET OUT A HORRIFIED GASP.

She had woken up Monday morning in high spirits. It was cold, the sky was dark and she was buried under piles of blankets because of the wintry breeze that floated relentlessly around the room but on top of all that, it was Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving has been an annual tradition in the United States by presidential proclamation since 1863, it was a celebration of the blessings of the year, including the harvest and every year, Sherry and Lena invite Stephanie, Michael and Connor's families around for a large meal.

It was one of Sherry's favourite holidays since she got to spend it with her best friends, her mother and her friend's parents who were like her second parents. They would spend an hour or two at the Massachusetts Thanksgiving Parade before reconvening at the Opal household to either start cooking dinner or having a large chat. Sherry knew that in Britain she wouldn't be able to do all of that and she hated to admit it, but she was excited to see what the English did to celebrate Thanksgiving.

She seemed to be up before the rest of the girls so instead of waiting for them to wake, she changed into a loose, long-sleeved white blouse and slipped a ginger coloured cord pinafore dress over it with some ankle boots on her feet. When she had finished, the girls in her dorm still weren't up and not being able to deal with Anna's snoring, she had gone downstairs and waited in the Common Room.

Louis and Oliver had come down from the boy's dorm first, dressed in their full school uniform and stopped in front of Sherry with furrowed eyebrows at why she hadn't gotten changed into her altered school uniform. She was wondering the same but the other way around, why were they in uniform? Her gasp had come out when she had asked them so and at their answer, she had jumped up from the blue sofa she was sat down on and she stood alarmed before them.

"What do you mean there's no Thanksgiving?" She exclaimed, outraged and horrified, she just couldn't pick which one to act like so she just settled on gaping at the boys in front of her. They exchanged glances at her emotion and shrugged back at her.

Amber had come down the stairs at that point too, dressed in her own uniform too as she bounced up to them and eyed Sherry's outfit with a disapproving glare. Sherry had tried one too many times to not wear a uniform to her classes because she 'didn't like it' and although Sherry would surely try it again, this was not one of those times.

"Sherry, what are you wearing?" She asked exasperatedly as the girl in front of her gaped helplessly at the boy's before she turned to Amber with the same look on her face.

"What do they mean there's no Thanksgiving?"

"We don't have Thanksgiving here." Amber shrugged her shoulders and Sherry's shoulders slumped in disappointment of the new revelation. "It's an American holiday, not a British one."

"Oh, you English people make me sick." Sherry scowled before walking to the stairs towards the dorm room again to grab her school bag seeing as her three friends already had them in their hands. However, there was no way she was going to get into her uniform, the teachers would just have to respect her tradition if there wasn't anything else going on.

Amber, Louis and Oliver who were all downstairs whilst she was grabbing her bag all turned to look at each other with raised eyebrows. Amber was smiling sadly, knowing how Sherry still hadn't adjusted to the life in England and how it was going to take a bit longer before she realised that she was here for the next three years and things were different. Oliver was close to laughing but with a glare from Amber, he shut his mouth.

"It's not funny, Oliver." She said and he raised his hands in surrender as Louis sighed. "She's still adjusting. Thanksgiving is a big holiday in America...I think."

"Yeah, she's probably celebrated it all her life." Louis agreed, nodding his head. The three of them were used to Sherry's British slander when she didn't like a certain rule, law or word that wasn't known in America. They didn't find it all that degrading, just amusing at the creative insults she comes out with because they knew she didn't mean them necessarily.

"At least she didn't insult us this time." Oliver reasoned too. "What did she call Potter the other night? An infuriating, elitist, derogatory, bitchy little British asshole, was it?"

"Something like that." Louis nodded his head, smiling as Oliver hummed and Amber sighed before the grumbling of Sherry returned and she hopped off of the stairs and into the common room.

Amber shook her head at the sight of the lack of uniform still, but Sherry just walked past them with her bag slung over her shoulder. They followed her out of the common room not saying a word, when Sherry was in a bad mood (especially in the morning) it was practically a rule to never provoke her in any way. She was like a sleeping bear, poke it and you're dead. There was a tell, Amber had noticed, where they could tell the difference between angry Sherry or upset Sherry who just acted angry.

When she was actually angry, she stood up straight and strutted with her head held high, just a scowl on her face. But when she was upset and acting angry, her shoulders were slightly slumped than if she were actually angry. It was hard for many people to tell the difference but for Amber, who spent every day with the girl, could definitely tell the difference.

That's why she found it odd when Sherry came back from her little Friday evening thing with Potter with slightly slumped shoulders, she was...upset...but had then proceeded to angrily rant about the boy to her friends through a game of Wizards Chess that she won. Amber had decided to leave it and supposed it was just because she had missed out on the victory party and then had missed out on the rising of the full moon from the telescopes.

On Saturday morning, it was like Sherry hadn't even gone to Dumbledore's office with Potter as her mood was as fresh as ever. The group had ventured down to the grounds where they sat under a tree with a blanket underneath them and wisely wrapped up in coats due to the cold air, they just sat and talked whilst Sunday they started and finished homework pieces that were due for the week ahead.

Monday, she was upset again, though this time Amber knew why. The Great Halls lack of decoration made Sherry groan but continue to the Ravenclaw table anyone, just with angry steps. But before she got there, she had spotted someone at the Gryffindor table and let out her second gasp of the morning.

"Remus, what the hell happened to your hand?" She was looking down at Remus who had attempted to hide his hand under the table and turn the other way when she had started to approach him but she caught the sight of the bandage on her hand.

"I just cut myself, it's nothing." He shrugged, though he still looked a bit tired. Less then he had when she had seen him in the corridor that one time but he still looked out of it as his friends sat around him.

"Sure." Sherry said sarcastically, raising her eyebrows at the boy below her who gulped.

"I don't believe that this is any of your business." The voice of Potter cut through the air as she began to turn back around to the Ravenclaw table but she paused and glared at him, she spent a lot of her time in the bathroom wasting time after their argument in Dumbledore's office and only went out when Potter came in for the bathroom.

Then she hid in the food place but didn't eat any of the sweets no matter how tempting, she just sat there and waited for Dumbledore to come and save her. Which he did, an hour later. Potter had practically ran out of the room with a rushed 'thank you' but he didn't go up the right staircase that split right and left, one to Gryffindor Tower and one to Ravenclaw Tower. She hadn't questioned why but instead made her way back up to her own Common Room.

"I don't believe I was talking to you." Sherry retorted to the boy with his spoon in a bowl of Cheerio's; he went to reply but glanced to Remus once and just bit his response back whilst aggressively digging into his cereal.

"Why aren't you in uniform, Sherry?" Peter piped up from next to Potter, smiling slightly as he glanced her up and down. Everyone had seen or at least knew about how she had outsmarted McGonagall in a Transfiguration lesson about her improved uniform and had grown accustomed to seeing that on weekdays.

"I thought it was Thanksgiving and we had a day off." She admitted with a roll of her eyes, gripping the strap of her bag. "I only found out you Brits don't have Thanksgiving this morning and there was no way I getting changed."

"Us Brits?" Potter scoffed as he looked up.

"Yeah." She smiled sweetly before waving at the four of them and turning to the Ravenclaw table and walking down a bit to where her friends had seated themselves on either side of the bench. "So, what do we have first?"

"Uh..." Amber trailed off as she rooted through her bag for her timetable, she found it and snatched it out of her bag with an 'aha!'. "Defence Against The Dark Arts."

Sherry shrugged, she didn't mind Defence Against The Dark Arts, she got to sit next to Oliver because the teacher was behind on nearly everything and her lesson plans were all over the place meaning she hadn't even thought of a seating plan yet. Amber and Louis sat at the desk in front of the two and were constantly shushing them when they talked and laughed over the smallest things. They, sadly, had it with the Gryffindors and it was almost unbearable seeing Potter act all cocky about his skills when he was asked to demonstrate.

Breakfast went quick, the four of them just ate and Sherry felt her sadness about no Thanksgiving slowly slipping away. They all acted as though it was a normal day and although it was odd for her since in the back of her mind she knew it was a holiday, it didn't bring her down too much.

Mrs. Greene, their teacher for Defence Against The Dark Arts, had been standing in the doorway of the classroom when the four of them arrived. She greeted them as softly as always and moved slightly to let them in whilst she waited for other students. Walking in, Sherry furrowed her eyebrows at the sight of Lily, Marlene and the other girls in their dorm stood at the back of the classroom.

"What's going on?" Sherry asked as she walked up to them, her friends behind.

"Miss has finally got her shit together and has a seating plan." Lily explained, smiling slightly as Sherry groaned and faced Oliver with a look of dread. he did the same, Amber and Louis slouching their shoulders in disappointment. "It's good for me, now I won't have Marlene distracting me."

"Well, hopefully we'll be put together again." Marlene put her arm around Lily's shoulders as more students entered and stood at the back with them, similar expressions when they realised Mrs. Greene was assigning a seat plan. "How would you survive without lil ol' me?"

"Quite well." Lily smirked and Marlene pulled back with her face showing plain offence. "I wouldn't be distracted in class for starters so I'd get higher marks."

"Bullshit." Marlene scoffed, Sherry laughed but quietened again when Mrs. Greene stood at the front of the class with a paper in her hand. "Here we go." Marlene sighed quietly.

"Okay." Greene called out and caught everyone's attention, the classroom immediately started. "We'll start at the back, shall we? Top right corner, Evans and Simmons. Top right middle, Henderson and Rogers. Top left middle, Burn and Warrell. Top left corner, I'll have Potter and Opal, please."

The small murmurs of people being happy with their partner or sad that they couldn't sit next to their friend silenced at the sudden proclamation. Louis and Lily, who had moved to the top right corner both let paused in the middle of sitting down and couldn't choose which part of the pair to glance at. From behind Sherry, Oliver slapped a hand to his mouth and Marlene guffawed quietly. Mrs. Greene looked around nervously at the sudden silence and just wave her hand as if to encourage the two to sit down at their assigned desk.

Potter was nearer the desk, right next to it even, but he took slow steps anyway as he grimaced slightly and sat down in the chair. Peter and Sirius were smiling awkwardly and Remus was soothing his head but with a small swear under his breath. But Sherry just didn't move, staying in her place as she looked at Amber.

"Miss Opal, now please." Mrs. Greene requested. Sherry felt Amber's hand push her out of her place slightly and the tension rose drastically as she toom slow steps towards the desk and sat herself in the chair.

The two sat at the desk both shuffled their chairs to the very edge, as far away from each other as they could get. Sherry angled her body to face her friends on the other side of the room whilst Potter just looked up at his friends. Mrs. Greene thanked them softly and awkwardly before carrying on with the seating plan.

Sherry glanced to her right and James glanced to his left, the two of them meeting eyes with a raging fire of anger and annoyance burning inside them before they both looked away with their hands very clenching into fists on the surface of the desk.

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A/N: ah, classic