[1] Lemons into Lemonade ✓ | FRED WEASLEY

Chapter Fifty Six

When Fred and George left Mad-Eye's office, they were surprised to bump into Aubrey and Lexy just moments later, Aubrey tackling Fred into a flying hug.

"Hello, what do you we have here?" George grinned, wiggling his eyes at his brother who, after realising what was happening, wrapped his arms around the girl, returning the tight embrace.

"Aubrey, I'm not complaining about the hug but why - "

"I was so worried," Abruptly, she let him go, instead taking his forearm in hers and starting to pull him, "Come on, we need to go, right now ... new information to tell you but we can't say it here."

Behind them, George and Lexy exchanged a grin as George said, "You're welcome to drag me along too."

"Tempting," A shaken Lexy murmured before drifting after the other two, "Very tempting."

The meeting with 'Mad-Eye' had gone well, Fred would even venture further and call the encounter 'nice'. Compared to last time, it was as if a switch had been flicked, Mad-Eye's temper had been quelled and he bluntly told them what he needed them to do: keep tabs on Cedric Diggory and report back how prepared he was for the Third Task. However, when they told this information to Aubrey in the Room of Requirement, she quickly shook her head. Judging from her and Lexy's frequent nervous looks and constant fidgeting, Jack and Charlie had given them quite a story to tell.

"Don't do back to him," Aubrey stated firmly, cutting so eagerly, it was clear that she'd been desperate to speak for some time, "We ... we need to stay switched for as long as possible and then ... and then..."

"And then what?" Fred prompted, his eyebrows slowly knitting together.

"I don't know, alright?" She admitted, "W-we found Charlie and he was under the Imperius Curse, I think and he ... and he - "

"Kept rambling on and on about old magic," Lexy cut in, lying back on the floor, "Said it had conflicted with the new magic, wouldn't stop screaming for something to get out of his head."

"The only reason Mad-Eye got them to talk to him was so he could bring them together willingly to switch them back," Aubrey explained, constantly curling and then promptly unfurling her fingers to tame her nerves, "And then when they were switched back, he put them under the curse, he never intended to give them their freedom. But it backfired, locked Jack in Charlie's head and Charlie in Jack's ... old magic conflicts with the new."

"What's old magic?" George asked to which the girls simply shrugged.

"He didn't tell us but we can't go back to Mad-Eye - "

"We go to Dumbledore," Lexy cut in firmly, "We tell him Mad-Eye's an imposter and he's threatening students - "

It was Aubrey who had the most objection to this. This would initially seem a curious standpoint for her to have but now that Fred knew of her father's petty tiff with the ministry, the subtle distrust of authority instilled in her made a lot of sense.

"Absolutely not, girl," Aubrey cut in, "We've handled this before and now we know what we're dealing with: a man meddling with spells that even he doesn't know about, we can come up with something. I don't feel as scared as I was before either now I know he's clueless as well. You're forgetting, Dumbledore could still be involved too, how else would you explain how the imposter's getting away with it when he's imitating one of Dumbledore's oldest friends ... allegedly? Collusion has to be happening, the man's an oddball with murky motives and not to mention, he's pretty useless. I mean, come on, he's trying to protect Harry Potter apparently and the boy ends up close to death almost every single year - "