Of course, the moment Aubrey agreed to go to Lexy and George's plan, Saskia came along too. Even though they both Fred and Aubrey knew that neither nor George and Lexy would ever try to kill them, when they announce that their plan was commencing in the forbidden forest, it was hard not to be a little apprehensive.

"Maybe the competition drove them mad," Fred whispered to Aubrey as Saskia and Lee cheerily walked ahead, following their rival couple along the path, "Perhaps this was the only way to truly win..."

"Why would they bring witnesses though?" Aubrey managed to joke before admitting, "It would be nice to know where we're going though... do you think Lexy would tell me if I asked?"

They glanced over at the girl who was leisurely levitating a large video camera behind her, not even bothering to hide it.

"I hope she thought this through," Aubrey murmured, shivering a little as she looked up at the grey sky, "Umbridge or anyone could walk in on ... whatever this is. Plus she's not even concealed the camera and brought Lee along..."

"She had George with her as they planned and he's pretty sensible," Fred replied, "Not to mention, we're experts, he'll have thought it through if she was being rash."

"Lexy's a pretty strong force to be reckoned with though," Aubrey replied, "You know that as well as I do..."

Eventually, they arrived at a clearing, fairly ordinary other than it's large size. Only now did Lexy put the camera down, setting it up whilst George stepped forwards.

"Alright, you're probably wondering why we brought you all here," George said, "As some of you know, Fred and I were banned from Quidditch some weeks back but we've never been one to follow the rules."

At this, Aubrey turned to her boyfriend, "Fred, what is happening..."

Having finally got the camera level,  Lexy turned around, "So we thought we'd have a little match here to stop you two dying from Quidditch defiency! It's going to be so fun especially without any Slytherins around for once ... and the camera is here as it took us forever to find this bloody clearing so I'd damn well going to record it," She added quickly.

"Lexy, are we going to be playing - "

"An extravagant woodland Quidditch match? Obviously. We only have a few days until the end of term and it's not raining, when else?" She stepped forward, George stood behind, leisurely leant against a tree.

"She hasn't thought this through," Aubrey murmured to Fred "We don't have any of brooms, balls ... nothing," She decided to voice her concerns, "Lexy, what are we going to be playing with exactly, hon? Enchanted branches and balls of dirt?"

It suddenly occurred to her that Lexy very much had thought this through, the smirk exchanged between her and George suggesting this was intentional, "You tell me, Aubs."

"Huh?"

"Um, tell us what we need to play Quidditch," George elaborated.

"Hold on, I see what's happening..." Fred muttered under his breath, exchanging a smile with his brother before glancing back at Saskia who was stood dead straight, her hands anxiously clasped.

"Er ... I suppose we'd need..." She paused to think, "Um, six brooms ... one of those golden balls - "

"The snitch," Fred put a hand on her shoulder, leaning down to whisper in her ear, "One snitch, one quaffle and two bludgers."

Aubrey nodded, repeating his words whilst also adding her own at the end, "I still don't see how this helps ... I mean, we'd need to break into Umbridge's office to get their brooms and we're doing that this evening so you could have tagged along then - "

"Aubrey..." An exhausted voice came from behind them. They all turned to see Saskia on the ground, practically buried in a pile of Quidditch equipment. It suddenly occurred to Aubrey why Lexy had done this and it was annoyingly smart for something she hadn't had an inch of control in. For once, Saskia looked in a state of genuine exhaustion; clearly, this was quite a feat of hers.

"Cheers, Saskia," George grinned, summoning the equipment to him with his wand. It appeared both twins were powerful were bad at controlling summoning spells and the equipment slammed into him so hard, he fell onto the soft earth below.

"Bravo, George!"

"Fred, you can't talk, you've done that twice now!" Aubrey scolded, looking back over her shoulder to see Saskia still sat down. Whilst Fred and Lee were distracted by their friend's tomfoolery, she dashed back to the girl, "Saskia, are you alright? That was very kind of you but you don't have to use your old magic just for me - "

"No," Saskia panted, "Didn't Fred tell you what I ... er told him? I have to - "

"No, you don't," Aubrey replied firmly.

"I do, Aubrey, I have to," she insisted, pushing herself back to standing. As she did so, her hand grasped Aubrey's shoulder and Aubrey couldn't help but notice it looked almost ... see-through, a strange turquoise hue to the translucent hand. They turned around in the nick of time as Lexy had assembled the equipment and taken a step forward, to announce further instructions to their illegal Quidditch game.

"Alright! As the sun sets quite early and somebody's bound to have seen the six of us traipsing into the woods, this will be dulled down Quidditch! We'll play for as long as we can and if nobody's caught the snitch, we count how many goals were scored!" Lexy announced. Usually, her voice was quite shrill and squeaky but today she'd managed to conjure a certain formidable tone to it which took Aubrey by surprise.

"There'll be one Beater, one Seeker/Chaser and one Keeper!" Lexy shouted, clearly getting into it, the dramatic part of her enjoying being the announcer. Well, Aubrey supposed she deserved it; this was quite a complex plan and they had 'won' the competition.

"Fred, George, you two will be our beaters! Me and Aubrey, as we both suck at Quidditch, will be the keepers. Lee and Saskia, you two can be the Chasers/seekers - "

"OH YEAH!"

"But I suck too!" Saskia pleaded, her hand having regained it's normal colour again, "I can't ride a broom either, I barely understand legs!"

"Neither can I," Lee chose to chime in at the right time, "But I'm bloody excited by this. I mean, I had no idea this was coming but it will be nice to play rather than commentate .... this was a great idea!"

"I know! It will be three-a-side, teams are decided" Lexy said, standing in the middle of the grass, a beaters bat slung over her shoulder like a baseball player. George was stood next to her, Aubrey suddenly realising the pair wearing matching caps from the golf course Lexy's father went to. It was an interesting look.

"Alright! Fred, Lee and Saskia you're on one team," George called. Instantly Fred and Aubrey's eyes widened.

"Oi, that's not fair!" Fred heckled, casually fist bumping Lee as he did so who darted over to the brooms.

"No comments until after the announcements please!" Lexy yelled, "And on my team will be me (of course), George and Aubrey!"

"So you two get to be on the same team yet me and Aubrey are split up?" Fred grumbled, "This whole match is rigged."

"Yeah, it is," George winked for fun, "We organised it."

"No, it's not," Lexy snapped quickly, "What sort of Hufflepuff do you think I am?"

"A corrupt one," Fred murmured.

"I can swap..." Saskia offered but Lexy shook her head.

"No, the teams are set, no further discussions!"

"But - "

Lexy raised her arms, "I said no further discussions! On your brooms, let's play!"

This whole plan felt incredibly risky and Aubrey had a bad feeling about it but felt it would be rude to back out now, especially as it didn't interfere with their later plans and seeing how Saskia did things could be crucial later on. Not to mention, there was a camera filming and if it caught her stropping off, nobody would ever let her live a tantrum on film down.

When she was watching other people play, Quidditch looked so easy but it took her a while to take off. At last she managed it, only to see Saskia still on the ground, glumly not even trying. Lexy raised an eyebrow and Aubrey knew what was expected of her.

"Saskia, it would be really nice if you could fly with us!"

The effects were instant, Saskia's broom flying up to join the others. Giving her the permission to fly was turning out to be a deadly mistake as her flying skills quickly surpassed that of even Fred and George once the match had started, scoring a goal with the quaffle within a few minutes. This surprised even Lexy and George who had been pretty ready for anything although they didn't look down about it: the more that happened on camera, the better their old magic work would be.

It quickly became clear however that Lee didn't stand a chance. The bludgers were a little slower than usual along with the other balls, as if Saskia had summoned the cheap Poundland kind rather than Hooch's handmaid quality ones. Lexy decided it was fitting to swap around a few of the roles, Fred would take Saskia's duty and Saskia would take the comparatively less vital role of Beaters.

Sadly, this too had unforeseen consequences.

Fred managed to dart around the opponents, the quaffle in his hand but suddenly came to an unexpected stop at the goal.

"Fred, hon," Aubrey tilted her head which led to her broom chaotically veering a little, "Shoot!"

"How am I expected to play Quidditch when there's a literal goddess in the goal," Fred grinned.

"I don't know, close your eyes?"

"And stop seeing this vision of - "

"STOP FUCKING FLIRTING AND PLAY!" They turned around to see Lexy, Lee and George watching them, with quizzical expressions. Behind them, lurked Saskia, a frown on her face

"Alright, I'm playing!"

"Don't hit me, Fred" Aubrey giggled.

"Maybe you should move out of the goal then?" Fred suggested, the quaffle remaining in his hand.

"And let you win? Never," She gripped the broom tightly, "Do your worst, Fred."

He raised his arm as if to score but suddenly lowered it, "I can't ... I'd never forgive myself."

"Oh, you don't think I can handle it - "

"Aubrey! Fred" George called but they were in their own little world by now.

The other four came to a standstill, watching the dalliance unfold with knitted brows.

"How do we get them to stop?" George asked.

Lee shrugged, almost unbalancing but catching himself, "Beats me. I flirt with everyone so I'm not an expert at turning it off..."

"He does flirt with everyone," George confirmed to the two girls, "Even Umbridge."

"You know, I think that fish was biting."

"Probably literally," Lexy countered, her eyes suddenly gleaming, looking between Saskia and Aubrey, "Um, George, how strong are these bludgers?"

"Pretty slow. I got hit in the leg with one and I doubt it will even bruise," George admitted, "Slow too ... why?" His eyes turned to the couple in the goal, "That's mean, Lexy."

"It won't hurt them, I'd never hurt Aubrey. If it was going to, I wouldn't do this, honestly," Lexy replied, leaning down to take the Beater's bat from George.

"It could!" Saskia suddenly cut in, "Lexy, human skulls are fragile, even a slight knock could cause damage."

"Saskia, you're - " 

"NO, I WON'T LET YOU!"

The shout alone was enough to alert Aubrey and Fred to the situation but it wasn't what held their attention. A strange shadow began to darken over Lexy but it wasn't just a trick of the light. Several of the large trees surrounding the clearing were suddenly starting to lean as if being pulled by an imaginary hand. Then all at once, the trunks seemed to snap. For a moment, Lexy stayed there in shock before George quickly swooped in, pulling her off her broom and onto the ground with him as three large trees crashed onto the ground.

"Holy shit..." Lexy murmured, all six of them in stunned silence as they glanced at the fallen trees. The cuts on the bottom were clean, as if they'd been sliced in one fell swoop.

Nobody said a word as Aubrey and Fred descended, quickly rushing over to the fallen pair.

"Merlin's balls..." Fred murmured, "That was ... that wasn't like anything before," He glanced over at Saskia who was a little way away, "She's ... she's getting stronger, it has to be."

His remarks made Aubrey look up to see Saskia down on the ground too, slumped against a tree, her face pale. For a moment, she almost got up to help her when something made her stop dead. Saskia's entire arm was translucent, turquoise smoke-like patterns swirling on her skin.

Then just like that, she disappeared altogether.

• • •

Double update because I felt like it!  I feel like Lexy does have a dark side to be honest, she purposefully insulted Aubrey to get the secret our of her and now she constructs a Quidditch to get what she wansts. Whilst I may prefer Fraubrey, I think Gexy is the actual power couple even if it was unintentional - E x