[1] Lemons into Lemonade ✓ | FRED WEASLEY

Chapter Twenty Four

For once, Aubrey was first to arrive at the classroom, which was surprising given she'd almost tripped over Professor Dumbledore as he'd practically stampeded her in the opposite direction. He hadn't told her off for being out late but the encounter spooked her nonetheless and meant that she furtively glanced around upon entering to make sure she wasn't followed. Once inside, she slumped down onto a dusty desk, breathing deeply to calm herself down. Eventually, Fred showed up, about ten minutes later and she was dismayed to see that he still had a look of irritation on his face.

"Hey Fred, the boy who I've been living in for the past few weeks and taken such good care of ... " She garbled, leaping up from the desk, "How are you doing, hon? Good evening? Lexy and Angela still giving you a hard time?"

Fred raised a quizzical eyebrow at her, as he dumped his bag down, making his way to the front of the abandoned classroom, "That's a lot of questions, Aubrey, what's the occasion?"

For a moment, Aubrey considered the possibility that maybe Fred had somehow hit his head and forgotten he was angry, after all, stranger things had happened. But, there was something about the gleam in his eyes that ruled out this possibility and she watched him warily, the two engaging in an intense yet informal staring contest.

"Fred, you know the occasion..." She replied, earning a blank look from Fred, "You know, how George thinks I like you, or you like me depending on what counts as us anymore..."

Fred sighed wearily, "I'm not angry, it's just kind of annoying you know? It makes an already complex situation, a billion times more frustrating."

"Kind of sounds like you are a bit mad, hon..."

"I'm not really," He replied with a shrug, "I'm more annoyed at Kenny who keeps glaring at me for egging him on ... off topic, I know but I wanted to mention that. Overall, let's just say that I'm not annoyed at you but I'm annoyed by the situation. I'd also like it a lot if you didn't bring it up much."

"Of course, noted," She said quickly, "It was an excuse, at least it got him away ... sorry, I'll stop mentioning it. Did you read any more of the book whilst I was away?"

"Weirdly, I did," Fred replied, "I mean, I reread the tale of Henry Hummingbird a few times, that story is wicked, I don't care what anyone says."

"No arguments here, hon, I loved it."

"And then I reread the curious case of Balthazar Borgin and Jessie Day a bit and basically figured out one thing that we kind of knew already," He paused dramatically, but Aubrey was impatient.

"Go on."

"I was going on, Aubrey!" He replied, "Anyway, it has to have been cast by someone, somebody who had access to both of us. It doesn't really say how although I think it's a curse of some sorts. Of course, we shouldn't just blindly trust it but what else do we have."

Although part of Aubrey wanted to continue searching until they had everything perfectly laid out for her, Fred was right, they had to go on with what they'd got, "I agree but we still need to plan a bit, I'm not just leaping in blindly."

"I reckon we should start to spy on people - "

"But on who?" Aubrey cut in, walking up and talking the chalk off of him, "Which is why we need to plan. I say we start with a list of suspects and motives. I don't really like lists much, I'll admit that, hon, they're far too long and chaotic.
But I don't want this to go wrong and the enemy of my enemy is my friend - "

Fred sniggered slightly as he took a seat on the desk behind her, clasping his hands together, "What?..."

She gave a shrug as she began to draught up an Angela-worthy table, "I don't know, just sounded cool and I like little phrases."