[1] Lemons into Lemonade ✓ | FRED WEASLEY

Chapter Three

Although Aubrey was usually at least somewhat calm and measured in situations, the moment she saw Angela and Kenny, she ducked behind a pillar leaving Lexy laughing alone.

"Oh God, Aubrey, you know you've literally just made it a million times worse," She giggled, "They saw me so they're coming over anyway, now it's going to look so weird whether you emerge from the pillar or stay put," Aubrey ignored her, refusing to even peer out, "I literally don't even see why you're hiding this, if Kenny got me the chance to see Roger, well. I would be there in a second."

"Well, hon, you're you and I'm me ... frankly, that's how I like it," Aubrey hissed.

"But you said you wanted to talk to George!"

Aubrey cursed under her breath at her past self for backing her into this corner, "Well, I didn't - "

"Mean it?" Kenny's voice interrupted and Aubrey scowled, slumping down against the stone.

"I did mean it but not in this way. I guess imagined it to be romantic, like Lady and the Tramp... maybe, I'm just bad at this," Kenny and Angela gave her blank looks and she shook her head, "Never mind."

"You wanted to share a bowl of spaghetti with George?" Lexy giggled, "You weirdo... although admittedly that would be sweet."

"Come on, Aubrey," Angela said, "Otherwise, I'll never believe you mean anything ever again."

She folded her arms and looked away in an irritated fashion. Although Aubrey pretended other people didn't matter, she was the most easily influenced person alive and Angela's condescending looks were getting to her. Slowly, she stood up from the pillar, making sure to keep her features contorted into a scowl so it was clear she didn't want to go.

"Good, good, you're up," Angela clapped her hands, "Now, you go off with Kenny somewhere so me and Lexy can hang out."

Kenny gave her a welcoming smile and she slowly started to follow him away, glancing back at the two girls who were already engaged in avid conversation.

"Why do I get the feeling they wanted me to leave really badly?" Aubrey asked, catching up to Kenny with a little run, "The moment I left they began chatting, what do you think they're discussing?"

"Roger or me, without a doubt," Kenny replied, "That's not just me being arrogant either, Ang actually said that she had stuff to tell Lexy regarding our relationship. Don't be too mad though, Lexy doesn't roll her eyes and awkwardly undermine even small romantic achievements like an owl... even if it was just about the potions homework."

It became clear which incident Kenny was talking about and Aubrey folded her arms, pouting her lips a little, "That was small and it's just not exciting. I mean if she'd snogged him then I would be excited - "

Kenny raised an eyebrow at her, "If I remember correctly when Ang first kissed me and told you, all you did was send an owl with only two words on it: 'Awesome, Aubrey."

"No... not true, I put a kiss at the end! Three words, not an apathetic two! ... Stop judging me this isn't my forte!"

"Liar, you didn't put a kiss! I saw the letter and actually felt chills because you were so cold!" Kenny laughed and Aubrey glared, "The last part's true though, you're not great at the whole romance and being excited for others thing in general. You've never been one to jump up and down, squealing at some extended eye contact and that's fine, it just means you're not the best person to talk about stuff like that." He glanced down at Aubrey who had a strange expression on her face, "Oh, don't do that face! You get to hang out with me instead, isn't that great?..."

"I guess." She replied blankly.

"But maybe if you are going to talk to Fred and George try and be a bit more... excited? I mean don't force it but George's last girlfriend, I think she was called... Paula or something? She was quite chirpy so I guess that's his type," Kenny shrugged, "Just don't make it obvious you don't want to be there, is what I'm trying to say."

"Easier said than done," She let out a short sigh, "God, I never asked for this stupid crush, it's just inconvenient."

"Eh, crushes aren't a bad thing," Kenny replied, stopping next to her, "Sometimes you get Ang out of it."

She shot him a weird look, "I don't want Angela out of this, at this point I don't even know if I want George or it's just my stupid brain telling me I do. Dumb brain."

With that, she got up and marched forwards. It took Kenny a few moments before he summoned the courage to tell her she was walking in the wrong direction.

Fred and George had agreed to meet the pair of them in a near-abandoned arithmancy classroom which was rumoured to be the home of a dust monster after the years of disuse. Nobody went in there unless all the other rooms were full which is of course was why the twins had taken it over.  The message that they'd given to Kenny regarding their location was so cryptic it had apparently taken him all of Divination to figure out. In the end, he'd given up and passed it to Professor Trelawney in the hopes that she could make sense of it and after several minutes of rambling, she'd succeeded in interpreting it.

Even though Kenny seemed a little frustrated about the whole thing, it had surprisingly lightened Aubrey's mood from how it was in the courtyard. Although she hated having a crush on George, any story that included him did make her involuntarily smile as she could imagine how cute he would have looked, laughing over his plan with Fred.

"You nervous?" Kenny asked, peering in the door then evidently spotting the twins as he quickly darted back, "Because if you want to turn back, there's still time."

She raised a quizzical eyebrow at him, "Feels like you're more nervous than me at this point."

"No..."

"Scared of the dust monster?"

Kenny's mouth opened and closed like a goldfish before he finally caved, "Fred said it bit off a finger!"

"Hon, it obviously didn't otherwise he probably wouldn't come back here," Aubrey said, stifling a laugh at his naivety, "As you admitted that, I think I owe you a secret, hon, don't you? I am nervous and I do want this to go well ... so I can prove to Angela and myself wrong by showing I don't completely suck at this."

"So I guess stakes are high for both of us."

"I mean with me, it's my whole love life and with you, it's proving a dust monster doesn't exist..."

"It's a big deal, okay!" Kenny snapped before quickly adding, "And we actually have another purpose here, in case you forgot: try and make ourselves older so we can enter the Triwizard tournament."

"I really don't care about that though," Aubrey admitted, "Complete one of my goals and prove 'Aubrey is right' is my goal... hey! A goal within a goal ... goal-ception."

"I feel like we're stalling now," Kenny muttered, his hand hovering over the doorknob.

Aubrey shrugged, tying her brown curls into a ponytail, "We need to be ready. Hey Kenny, when the going gets tough, the tough get going... are you tough?"

"Hell yeah!"

"I can't hear you!" She yelled back and Kenny scrunched his nose up in a show of comic 'toughness.'

"HELL YEAH!" He punched his fist up when suddenly the door opened from behind him, revealing one of the twins, a mischievous grin on his face.

"Afternoon, Kenny," He said, looking between the two. Aubrey tried to casual study him just so she could figure out which one he was, "What were you shouting about?"

Kenny opened his mouth, intent on saying actual words but was instead met by silence, simply looking down before meekly walking inside. Aubrey quickly followed behind, giving him a playful nudge with her shoulder.

"That was really tough, Kenny."

"Oh shut up!"