[2] The Great Orangenie | FRED WEASLEY

Chapter Eighteen

Aubrey had never been in relationships before, that was much was obvious but now she was starting to realise it wasn't just blushing and snogging she was ill-equipped for. There were darker elements to romance such as fights and she had no clue how to handle it. They'd fought before but it had never stuck and she'd never felt this scared of losing him. When people fought, they often broke up and she would not let that happen. Sadly, she felt that if their conversation reignited, that's what would inevitably happen so instead she did the only thing she could think of.

She avoided him.

Sadly Fred had other plans and only a few days later, after near unbearable separation, he came to speak to her at supper. Lexy, sensing the couple probably needed to be alone, wandered over towards a girl from her Care of Magical Creatures class under the pretence of asking for homework, dragging Saskia with her. The last few days had been incredibly difficult, she'd been antsy in class and couldn't even focus on her extra research without him. George had informed her that Fred had been quite similar, accidentally eating a Ton-tongue toffee because he'd drifted off.

Perhaps it was for the best, she decided as he took a seat. Maybe they needed to talk it out.

"Hi, Aubs ... how have you been for the past few days?"

She shrugged, tentatively reaching forwards and linking her fingers with his across the table, "Horrible really, you?"

"Not great," He admitted with a laugh. They fell into uneasy silence before he pointed out, "Lexy and Saskia are watching us but pretending they're not..."

She laughed weakly, "When are they not?"

"Yeah... so should we talk about what happened a few days ago or something?" He suddenly went a little pink, "I mean, we don't have to ... but George reckons we should - "

"Then let's not," She cut in before she could help herself, "We're fine. We've fought before ... I think - "

"Yeah, we have. Beginning of last year when you erm ... fancied my brother."

This was a sore topic for the couple, "Yeah ... that. So anyway, we can still do things without talking about like ..." Their investigation drifted over her mind, "... um, revise together?"

He blinked a few times, clearly understanding what had gone unsaid, "Yeah ... sure ... or you could come and help me and George with Wizards Weasley Wheezes."

"Yeah ... yeah ..." She agreed, "Glad we've figured it out, hon."

"Yeah ... me too."

Both of them knew deep down that it hadn't all been figured out but neither particularly wanted to confront the problem so by all means, the problem was solved. Still, even if she assured her friends later that they had worked past it, the fact that tension still remained became very evident just by watching them interact. Before conversation flowed far more naturally but now Aubrey found herself second guessing everything she said lest it spur an argument. Her studies continued to get worse to the point where she absent-mindedly snipped the one bloom from George's plant in a moment of distraction. Things were not going well.

It actually came as a nice break from dwelling on it when Saskia reminded Aubrey of a promise she'd made a few weeks before, during the day by the tree: to help Saskia with her levitation spell. The girl brought it up one day as they sat together in the library, Aubrey idly flicking through pages and Aubrey was more than happy to oblige.

"You still haven't learnt it yet? I would have thought you'd do it without me," Aubrey remarked as they walked through the corridor.

"I was waiting for you to teach me," Saskia admitted, "But when you weren't bringing it up, I thought you'd most likely forgotten."