When Aubrey and Fred reported back to their teammates, it was Lexy who reacted the most strongly, freaking out that Aubrey would end up dead. This was not helpful and only made Aubrey panic even more - inside, of course, she wasn't one for showy discomfort. This new information, of course, meant an entirely new plan had to be created, their old chalk lists replaced with a police-style web (which Aubrey and George had great fun creating). Everything was linked together, no longer could they pin things down to personal motivations alone.
Luckily, Dumbledore was still the number one suspect, in fact, it was even more likely that he was involved if anything. He was known for his slightly chequered past - if rumours were to be believed - and the letters she'd found from Grindlewald only seemed to confirm this. Whilst it was nice to have a lead, she kind of wished it was just Ludo or even Kenny, the idea of going up against her Headmaster was incredibly daunting.
For the next few days, the four made it their aim to find Jack and Charlie and continue grilling them but when they eventually tracked them down, the two boys were apart again. Both boys refused to say anything, refusing to say more than a simple hellow. Clearly, the great 'Crabapple' had done something to earn their silence.
Now that the threat had increased, planning was going a lot more smoothly, spurred on by a mutual desire to switch back as soon as possible. Whilst the prospect of detention had at first seemed like a negative, they were even starting to find a silver lining to that too. If they were lucky, the pair would get a 'sleeper' teacher, someone who didn't care and let them get on with their own thing. This would give them time to plan about who the Crabapple could be and meanwhile, Lexy and George could do a bit of tailing on their sly fox of a Headmaster, figure out if he was engaging in shady dealings with Ravenclaws.
Despite her earlier panic, the sense of control and order calmed her down, and by the time their detention rolled around, she actually was feeling pretty good about it. In her mind, detention was just writing lines and that could easily be faked. Sadly, detention at Hogwarts was a little more creative...
"We're clearing up a flood?" Aubrey asked, whilst Fred sniggered, "I'm confused, how did the Arithmancy classroom flood in the first place? It's just numbers, future telling numbers! There's literally no way there could be a flood..."
"W-well, there is," Professor Greenwood, an exceptionally short woman with constantly fidgeting hands stuttered back, "You s-see, the Fifth years g-got a little excited - "
"Merlin's beard, they must have been really excited to create a flood," Fred chimed in, laughing at his own crude joke.
"M-miss Jackson!"
"Sorry," He replied, suppressing his smirk.
"And th-they'd just learnt Aguamenti in Charms a-and you can see what happened there..." Professor Greenwood nervously laughed at the end; Aubrey did not look impressed.
"Will you be coming with us, hon?" Fred asked to which the Professor shook her head.
"Oh n-no, I've got l-little legs, I m-might get swept away," She tittered.
For a second, Aubrey looked like she was going to argue before Fred swooped in, putting his arm around her and guiding her out, "Thank you, Professor Greenwood, third floor, right? We've got this!"
Aubrey remained silent until they were several corridors away. Fred also noticed that she hadn't shrugged his arm off from around her shoulders, if anything, she seemed to be slightly resting her head on his so left it there.
"I can't believe we have to magically remove a flood, this is crazy."
"Eh, fairly standard for a detention," Fred replied, "Haven't you ever had one before?"
She grinned, "No, I told you, hon: Hufflepuff privilege."
"I really should use that more," Fred replied, "Anyway, this is brilliant, we'll be alone - "
"That is brilliant."
Something about her tone caught him a little off guard, taking him a few moments to recover, "Y-yeah... it is. But don't you see? She's not even bothering to come with us, it's better than a sleeper. Once we sort out this little flood, we can leave, maybe even join Lexy and George on their grand Headmaster spotting tour."
She looked down at him with an eyebrow raised, "You do remember this is the first of two weeks detentions, hon? We might not get so lucky next time..."
"True or ... we might."
The 'little flood' turned out to be a bit bigger than expected although it was nicely contained in one area. At first, it felt like an easy task until they realised that neither of them could cast the spell to reverse it. When he did it, there was simply no effect and when she attempted it, somehow the water level rose ... neither was ideal. There were many spells that could have been used but the pair were somewhat distracted by each other's company and came to the terrible conclusion that manual labour was the way to go. Fetching some buckets from the Herbology room, they decided this was the best way to maximise time: solving the problem by dumping the water outside and maybe bumping into Lexy and George as they walked.
"We're not very good Witches and Wizards, are we?" Aubrey laughed around the time of their third water run.
"Is that even a question?" He laughed, "I'm taking three N.E.W.Ts ... or you are..."
She looked around, "Maybe we should just openly talk about being swapped, perhaps the great and powerful Crabapple will overhear us."
"For all we know, Jack and Charlie were the Crabapples," Fred replied, "Ravenclaws are just as devious as Slytherins, they're just smart enough to hide it. Or, maybe Kenny's the Crabapple - "
"Kenny?" She laughed, "Why Kenny?"
Fred shrugged, "He glowered at me when I went with you on the boat back ... shifty fellow."
She laughed again, "I think he's just annoyed that I'm spending a lot of time with you. He thinks you ... or rather me ... are a bad influence on ... well, me."
"Maybe we are."
"I don't know," She shrugged, "I certainly have become a lot more open to spontaneity thanks to you plus I actually trust you to take charge now and then. In fact, I'd go as far to say that there is no power struggle anymore, we're a dynamic couple now - "
"Couple?"
"Duo, I meant duo," She said quickly, her cheeks going red. She wasn't quite sure how that had slipped out, perhaps it was because her possible feelings for Fred had been gnawing at her subconscious for days now. The two neared the back door of the castle and emptied their buckets outside, not saying anything for a little bit before Fred broke the silence.
"Do you think you and George would ever have worked even after you'd switched back?"
She gave a shrug, "Who knows, hon ... actually, I think I do know: we wouldn't. I don't know, it always felt like something was holding me back, I only really spoke to him to prove Ang wrong and as you revealed, I may have never really liked him at all, to begin with..."
"Yeah, yeah," Fred replied nonchalantly, deliberately looking away from her.
"I never wanted to talk about him in that way, it always felt quite ... down to business," She replied, "I never felt all the stuff you're meant to feel."
Fred casually agreed again and for the first time, she suddenly had a vague clue of what could be going on. Usually, Fred was always eager to chat with her but now ... he seemed unusually disinterested. Lexy, during her crush with Roger, had frequently pretended not to care about him ... perhaps this was the same thing. It was a long shot yet her newly found romance intuition was buzzing.
"You know would have made a weird couple?" She said, suddenly feeling surprisingly bold despite the sensitive topic, "Us."
At this, Fred turned to look at her before forcibly laughing, "Yeah ... weird. I mean, we've literally walked a mile in the other person's shoes ... very weird."
For the first time, she felt an odd yet pleasant feeling in her stomach almost like ... butterflies. The idea of continuing with this conversation didn't feel forced or rushed, in fact, she wanted it to carry on. She supposed this was how romantic pros felt all the time, and finally, she was starting to realise why people liked it so much.
"Very weird..." She agreed after a pause, feeling suddenly overwhelmed even though she was simply dipping in her toe into the hypothetical sea of love. As they continued walking, she noticed Fred's hand was empty, simply holding the bucket with one arm. Taking a deep breath, she inched slightly closer, brushing her fingers with his and vaguely intertwining them. It felt as if a tiny bolt of electricity had shot through her, the pair instantly springing away from each other.
"Aubrey ..."
And just like that, nerves overtook her so she looked away. It was a small start but it was enough, enough for him to realise she wasn't completely clueless at romance, it had just been with the wrong guy.
"We should probably discuss the case again, hon," She mumbled, her cheeks a new shade of scarlet, "The Crabapple won't solve itself... and we have plenty of time for ... whatever that was when we've changed back."
"So it was deliberate?" An involuntary grin had spread across Fred's face as she nodded.
"Perhaps ... but that's enough for today, okay? Baby steps," She replied and he nodded, in a strangely dreamlike way.
"So yeah ... suspects - " He cut off abruptly, "Wait, where are we?"
Looking around, Aubrey realised they were in an unfamiliar part of the school, the pair having been so preoccupied that they'd forgotten to look where they were going.
"Oh Merlin's beard, we're not just bad witches and wizards, we're terrible at direction too!"
"Yeah," He grinned, "That's why we got lost, despite having successfully made the trip two times before..."
"Oh shush," She replied, annoyed that her romance intuition had chosen now to emerge. At the far end of the corridor, there was a large, black door and walked over to it, hoping that there would be something she could recognise behind it. Putting down the bucket, she pushed at it, only to find it was locked.
"Try Alohomora ... or knock," Fred suggested.
"You say that as a joke but knocking can open some very big doors, you know," She replied, knocking three times to prove her point, "But ... not this one apparentely."
"Why are you trying to get in there anyway?"
"To figure out where we are," She replied, "You know, what we should just backtrack - "
"Or ... we break the door down," Fred replied with a mischievous grin, "I'll take a run at it - "
"MR WEASLEY! MISS JACKSON!"
Even though she should have been terrified, Aubrey couldn't help roll her eyes: why did every teacher feel the need to sneak up on them and bark their names? This time, however, a new voice had called them out, one that she recognised well: Professor Moody.
Although she was in his class, Defence against the Dark Arts had never really interested her and luckily, Fred had never paid much attention so neither did she. She simply did the set work and left it at that.
"Professor Moody..." They murmured in time, Aubrey instinctively moving towards Fred who's fingers gripped her arm.
"That's my office. Are you two breaking into my office because I'd damn well like to see you try," He snapped, well aware that the two were now rigid with fear.
"No, just ... admiring the door, that's a lovely shade of black ... ebony, is it? - " Fred began.
"We were just lost," Aubrey cut in, "You see, we have detention, clearing out the flood in Arithmance - "
"Flood in Arithmancy? How the devil did that happen?"
Fred grinned, "Excited Fifth years ... and Aguamenti, get your head out of the gutter, Moody."
Their teacher did not appreciate this but Aubrey interrupted before he could say anything, "And we got lost so we were going to get check inside to see where we were..."
Moody was now close to them, "Why are you using buckets? Not very good at simple spells, are you?"
"That would be a no," Fred replied, quickly adding, "Hon... that would be a no, hon."
"Well ... this is my office, now you know where you are, so be off with you."
"Thank you for the help!" Aubrey replied as he stomped past, taking a swig from his flask before unlocking the door with a series of wordless incantations. The two were rooted to the spot, watching him go before shutting the door in their face.
"Well ... we should go..." Fred said, only to notice Aubrey's eyes had doubled in size, "Fred? Everything okay, girl?"
Without saying anything, she suddenly grabbed his arm, breaking into a run, only stopping when her lungs gave out. Only then did she speak, revealing what had shocked her so.
"Please tell me you saw that."
"Saw what?"
"Inside his office, on the desk ... there was that book we found the spell in ... Magical mishaps, maladies and other miserable tales, I saw the cover," She whispered, her voice vaguely trembling.
"There could be a million reasons he took it out..."
"Fred, I remember the library stamp at the front, nobody had taken it out in about twenty years," Aubrey replied, "Unless of course he simply wanted to read the heartwarming tale of Henry Hummingbird but given what we know about him, I'm guessing it's unlikely..."