The next day, Aubrey decided, would be spent doing two things: death staring Harry Potter at every damn opportunity and trying to figure out what the hell was causing her headaches. Since the announcement of the Champions, her head had suddenly felt like it was being hit with a mallet every few hours, leading to a bad night's sleep which had only heightened her bad mood.
Angela had joked that perhaps house pride was to blame whilst Lexy had an alternative theory that Aubrey was now psychic and she'd predicted Harry stealing the limelight once again. Kenny reckoned she was hungover (despite not drinking) which had earnt him a sport on her death staring list for the day.
"Aubrey..." Lexy approached tentatively as Aubrey was hunched over the desk, her curls wild and untamed like a lion's mane. Appearances were the last thing on her mind today, if anything the manic hair would help terrify Harry Potter if he dared to come near.
"Hon, I am warning you to stay away right now," Aubrey groaned, her quill moving quickly as she scrawled down another idea she remembered for headache cures, "I will bite you. Not for definite but there's a high chance."
"I'm going to sit down anyway," Lexy took a seat opposite her, lying her head down so she was level with Aubrey and tried to catch her eye, "Are you sure you're not hungover."
Aubrey's head slowly rose, her fingers tightening around the ink pot in a vaguely threatening manner, "I will throw this at you."
"Woah, calm down," Lexy leapt up quickly, only returning to her seat once Aubrey had put the pot back in it's rightful place, "I'm just trying to help because if you are and Kenny was somehow right, then I know some pretty good cures."
"So do I, not that I've ever had to use them," Aubrey snapped, the pain suddenly pulsating again. She closed her eyes tightly, waiting a few seconds before it had eased to continue, "Everyone does, it's basically common knowledge. Girl, seriously I am not in a good place right now."
Lexy gritted her teeth in an awkward smile, "If it makes you feel any better, I saw one of the twins in the hospital wing earlier, reckon he's still recovering from his beard."
"Why on earth would that make me feel better?" Aubrey asked.
"Um... knowledge on your crush and the fact that it's sort of revenge for him making you vomit everywhere?" Lexy suggested.
"I already saw him get catapulted into the air, I think that was enough," She put her quill down, resting her head on the parchmenr, "I'm just so angry right now. Darling Harry Potter couldn't resist being in the limelight again. Like the boy needs to give it a rest, you know?"
"I do know," Lexy replied, gently patting her back, "Everyone seems annoyed, Roger got very vocal about it earlier in class - nobody's happy. But Aubrey, oh my God, he looked really cute, stood up and everything, it was insane."
"I bet the Gryffindors are happy, did you see Kenny and Angela's faces? They were hiding smiles, one upped us again. I hate it, we're such a joke to them," Aubrey moaned, "It feels like this rage is never going to go away."
Slowly, she lifted her head up a fraction and Lexy looked vaguely horrified at the slightly manic gleam in her eye.
"Lexy, you know the phrase every cloud has a silver lining?" She asked, "Well, maybe this really, really awful Potter-shaped cloud has a silver lining too."
"Which is?" Lexy asked, raising a quizzical eyebrow at her friend.
"Girl, I'm going to need your full support on this, I'm channeling my rage into something positive," Aubrey said, slowly standing up from the desk.
"Hmm."
"What?" Aubrey asked, taking a step forward, "Are you not in?"
"I mean, I'm not saying no but I don't know what it is yet. Like if you want me to kill him... oh God, we're not going to murder him are we? Oh my God, please say no," Aubrey shook her head and Lexy breathed a sigh of relief, "Okay, that's good. Secondly, silver linings doesn't seem like the right thing for it... what are they called? The little phrase things that you use sometimes."
Aubrey shrugged, "Why would I know?"
"Nevermind, I feel like there's another one better for this, like making bad things good - "
"When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade?" Aubrey suggested and Lexy nodded, "Well, that's not appropriate because in this case we're not going to make lemonade, we're making vengeance."
With that, she power marched towards the door, Lexy hastily in tow, "Or we could make Lemonade! Aubrey, can we please do that instead?"
For the first time in the day, there was a smile on Aubrey's face as she strutted down the corridor, her wand held firmly grasped in her hand. Lexy trotted behind her, clearly worried about what the tired, crabby girl would do yet too curious to leave. Aubrey was a whirlwind even after eight hours sleep and when tired she was pure angry chaos - Lexy knew it was probably best just to let her walk it off anyway.
"Aubrey, where are we going?" Lexy whispered as she followed Aubrey who stopped suddenly, gripping her head tightly as her face contorted in pain, "Aubrey, if this is your head, you should go - "
"It's just a headache," She said, breathing out as the pain subsided again, leaving a numb void that was quickly overtaken with anger, "Come on, we're going to the Gryffindor dorms. I have a little message to give Potter."
"Oh Aubrey, that's not a good idea, what are you going to do? Tape it to the portrait outside?" Lexy balled up her fists, "This isn't what lemons into lemonade is about, you're misusing it. It's about making something nice out of bad things! Not that lemons are bad, they're so tangy, whoever made that was bonkers."
"Well, then I'm making a fire out of a spark," Aubrey replied as they entered the corridor leading to the Gryffindor dorms, "Better?"
"Not really... what if Kenny and Angela see?" Lexy asked, nervously as Aubrey stopped opposite a blank section in the wall. It had clearly once contained a painting due to the faint rectangular light patch on it but that was long gone, leaving it perfect for Aubrey's plan.
"I'm making fire," Aubrey repeated, wincing dramatically as a sharp jolt of pain crashed through her head again.
"Are you going to write 'Potter stinks' on the wall or something?" Lexy asked, folding her arms, "Because that's not fire, that's just kind of making Filch's job harder, the poor sod."
"Wasn't such a poor sod when he gave you a detention for sneaking out to spy on the Ravenclaw Quidditch practice, was he?" Aubrey reminded her as she tried desperately to remember the incantation that allowed her to write a message.
Lexy's cheeks went a deep red, "That's... that's not even relevant! Aubrey, you're exhausted and this isn't really a very good plan. You'll feel better in the morning."
"But I want to do something crazy because I'm angry now," Her fingers curled into tight fists as another jolt went through her head, "And what in Merlin's name is going on with the MY HEAD!"
She staggered back a little, gripping her head in her hands.
Lexy gave a pitying smile, before placing a comforting hand on her back, "Come on, Aubrey, I think you need to go to bed. Hopefully it will be gone by morning so you'll feel better too. Look, I'm annoyed about Harry too but it's done, the cup chose him and I'm sure Cedric will beat his scrawny butt anyway."
The pain trickled away again, this time leaving her minutely calmer, "I guess... I guess you're right. It would be fun to write something on the wall though, just to show them that we're done with Gryffindor always having to be number one, you know?"
"I get that but graffiti won't help," Lexy said, "Let's go back to the dorms, you sure you don't want to go to Madam Pomfrey?"
Aubrey nodded, "Maybe if it still hurts tomorrow I will but for now, no. I hope you're right about it being gone, another day of this would be utter hell."
"I'm sure you'll be fine tomorrow morning," Lexy said.
Looking back, Aubrey would probably say this had jinxed it although really the problems that were about to cloud her life had been brewing for a while. Still, the term 'famous last words' was very appropriate as things were, in fact, 'not fine in the morning'.
At least Aubrey's headache had gone.
There truly was a silver lining to everything.