Chapter Fourteen

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"Are you sure nobody's going to walk in?" Aubrey asked, following Fred into a room where he'd promised nobody would ever find them in.

"Absolutely," His words carried little reassurance for her, "Trust me, you would know."

"What do you mean, I would know?" Aubrey asked, glowering at him as she slowed her pace to let him catch up, forgetting that she now had 'legs for days'. Somehow the day had only just started yet it was already more interesting, than the rest of the year combined - just not in a good way. Strangely although the body swap was a definite shock, the worst part had probably been Fred finding out about George within the space of an hour or so. The body swap could be reversed (probably) but irritating knowledge could never be erased from someone's brain - well you could, but she had morals. No doubt he'd bring it up if she ever did something he deemed annoying; there was a reason only a few people knew and that was reason was people like Fred.

"Well, you've been there," Fred explained with a smirk.

"What... oh no. Oh Fred, hon, NO!" She huffed loudly as they turned the corner revealing none other than the dusty arithmancy classroom.

Fred snickered slightly, vaguely enjoying Aubrey's discomfort. It didn't seem malicious, he was simply mischievous by nature and this was technically mischief, even if it did lean dangerously close to cruel territory. Just one look at the door already shot a strange nostalgic blend of discomfort and excitement through her, so much so that she was hesitant to open it lest she become completely overwhelmed.

"Well, George might come in here," Aubrey said, folding her arms tightly.

"Nah, he's in lessons."

"He might bunk," Aubrey said, "He offered to do it with me, he thinks I'm sick. You know what, he's already suspicious, I don't know if this will work."

"Eh, George won't bunk without me... you... me. Whatever, you know what I mean," Fred brushed it off quickly, "Even if he does, this is our place, he'd never expect me to come alone so he won't come here either."

"Hon, your talking nonsense," She said dryly.

"Nope, it all makes sense," He assured her confidently, opening the door fully and ushering her in. As he did so, a cloud of dust swarming out sparking a minor coughing fit in the both of them, only making her fret even more.

"Promise me there aren't anymore vomiting pills in here?"

"There might be... but I won't give you any," Fred promised, although she still craned her neck just in case he was crossing his fingers or something .

"I feel like such an idiot," She murmured, "As that old phrase says, fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. Feel like I'm about to be shamed big time."

Whether Fred heard her or not was debatable but if he did, he showed no signs of it, making a beeline for an old blackboard. She couldn't help feel a twinge of annoyance that he rubbed it down with his sleeve, or rather her sleeve that she had spent a lot of money on and had been specifically instructed to take care of her by her overbearing mother. The whole thing was deeply unnerving especially since she could probably handle it a lot better with total control of the situation.

"Still think we should go back to the library and check again. If we can get ourselves out of this mess, then that's surely a be a better usage of our time than learning about each other," She said, taking a seat on the desk as Fred stubbornly shook his head.

"Nah, you saw it wasn't there," Fred said.

"But there might be other ones we could read, Madam Pince said she didn't know all the books in the library," Aubrey moaned, kicking her legs back and forth idly.

Bunları da beğenebilirsiniz

          

"It can't hurt to do this, once you master the art of pranks and talking in unison, that's all there is," Fred said, "I'm a simple fellow, they truly are the ABCs of me."

"Was not being able to memorise the alphabet the C?"

Fred drew his attention from the blackboard, raising an eyebrow at her, "What?"

"You know, because you only said two things, so that was the A and the B," She said, quickly regretting her vague attempt at a joke. Clearly irritation and impatience had got the better of her, she was usually a lot better at words than this, "You won't get it, carry on."

"Nah, I'm intrigued now, what did you mean?"

"Hon, you won't get it," She snapped, "Now we only have an afternoon to do this so let's make it snappy."

"Okay, fine," Slowly he took a step back from the blackboard which now had two white bubbles drawn on it, each one containing a name, "So we need to figure out what we're like and then try and teach it to the other person, I guess. So, come on, give me some of your personality traits."

This was met by an awkward silence as Aubrey's brain stubbornly refused to cooperate all of a sudden. If Angela or Kenny were here, they could probably give Fred over a hundred things but right now, she couldn't muster even one.

"Um... I call people hon?"

"That's not really a personality quality but I'll put it on the board, hon," He said, giving her a grin, already putting it into practice, "What else?"

"I think... I think that's all," She said after a long pause.

"That's all?" He sniggered, "There must be more, nobody's that boring. Go on, tell me the things other people say about you when you're not around! We need bluntness."

"Well, funnily enough I don't know that as it's said behind my back, genius!"

"I thought you said you called people 'hon' not genius!" Fred said with a grin but she wasn't too amused.

"I can do both!" She replied, "Well, Angela once said that I'm a hard worker in things that don't matter. I don't particularly like school work or going for things I want yet I'll become obsessed with hand sharpening pencils to perfection."

"So master procrastinator?"

"No, that's not what I'm saying, I don't just ... do things... you know what, never mind, hon, this makes no sense," She said, "Oh and apparently, I don't have a temper, just a kind of dull annoyance. I don't make a huge deal of things like some people."

"Me?"

"Well, yes but I was actually referring to Lexy," She admitted, "You'll meet her soon... and that's another thing! Friends! Home lives! We have no idea about each other's friends or our hobbies or even NEWTs, what NEWTs do you take? I haven't the faintest idea."

"Charms, Defence against the Dark Arts and Transfiguration."

"CRAP! I literally take none of those," She exclaimed, scowling at him.

"Don't worry, I'm pretty rubbish at them, you'll probably be better than me just by attending," He said, with a smile, "What about you?"

"Herbology, Muggle Studies, Ancient Runes, Divination and Arithmancy," She replied glumly, "And I'm not even half bad at them too although I bet my marks will plummet now."

"Hey, I could do alright if I try!" Fred retorted, defensively, "The problem is I don't care but if dropping exam results will give the game away, believe me I will. Besides, won't we hopefully be switched back before it can have that much of an effect?"

Aubrey shrugged, feeling a little down about the whole thing, "Yeah, hopefully but my optimism is fading, reckon it will be weeks at this rate. Urgh, I hate this! No offence to you, hon, but I don't want to be in your body or your house or just anything really."

"Well, I'm not a fan of this either but we have to make it work," He said, staring at the board, "Okay, we've got some good starts but we need more as it goes on. Plus, we can learn along the way," He whipped around, only to see her sitting with her chin in her hands, "Hey, cheer up a bit! You seem to like those little phrase things, idiots, is it?"

She shot him a snarky look, "Idioms not idiots. Idiots is what I would use to describe you or me, for letting that book get out of our hands."

"We still don't know it had the answers in."

"Yeah, but it could have done, it was our best bet!"

"Perhaps but back to idioms. What's that phrase, when life gives you lemons you squeeze them - "

"Make lemonade," She cut in, "Merlin, are you getting those wrong on purpose?"

"No, I'm not. Anyway, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade, right!"

She rolled her eyes, "Yeah, I suppose. But in this case, these lemons are going to need to beaten down with a mallet if we're ever going to get anywhere..."

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