The next morning, Aubrey was up at the crack of the dawn. Discussing the events of the day before with Fred would have to wait (if Lexy didn't get to him first) as she was a girl with a mission: find McGonagall.

However, it appeared she wasn't the only one with that idea. When she arrived at the office, the sound of raised voices could be heard, a jolt going through Aubrey's stomach as she realised one of them was Umbridge and they appeared to be discussing her.

" - this is no coincidence, Minerva, I can assure you that," Umbridge's voice was shrill, making no effort to hide it probably because she suspected that nobody else would be up at this time, "I suspend her boyfriend from the team for perfectly valid reasons and the next day, a letter from her parents arrives, telling me my behaviour towards the girl is unacceptable. It's clearly blackmail of sorts, she wants him to return to play but won't say it outright ... this is exactly the sort of thing Jasper would do all the time, surely you see the connection, he was in your house after all! I won't tolerate this!"

"Professor Umbridge, I'm still not entirely sure why you're here. The letter was clearly addressed from Mary Jackson, not Jasper," McGonagall replied. A sudden warmth spread through Aubrey as she realised her Mother hadn't just let the issue go passively. It was a little bizarre that she didn't tell Aubrey though but right now, that wasn't the main issue.

"May I remind you, Dolores, that you were the one who pushed for the suspension. Are you now asking me to reverse it or merely hear to vent about a parent complaint which I'm sure you're more than used to equipped with dealing with. "

"You know this letter is more than that though! Look at this ... the little flower, perfectly drawn, she's taunting me. And it mentions things from the past to back up her wild accusations, read it again and you'll see!"

"Once was enough. Whilst I do believe some of the things she mentioned were a little unnecessary, Mary's hardly a student here, I don't really see what you expect me to do. Nowhere in the letter does it mention Fred Weasley nor the suspension, Mary was merely expressing concern for how you appear to be treating her daughter - "

"No doubt she planned this though, it's far too much of a coincidence. Jasper did this sort of thing, you know that just as much as I do!" Umbridge hissed, "His little stunts would be publicly for the cause of one thing, a big issue people would rally behind but in reality, it would all be for some deeply personal issue usually against me. Gil ... Gil used to stop him but right now ... she's ... she's here, he's clearly - "

"Dolores, not this again, please. I can assure you Gillian is not back as much as you might want it," McGonagall replied firmly, "You know as well as I that the return of Gillian would be impossible - "

"They were rumours, Minerva, unconfirmed rumours."

"That Fudge himself personally believes. If that's not enough for you then frankly I don't know what is," McGonagall's voice suddenly became slightly softer, "And ... and even if she did, she'd be the same age as you by now. Perhaps it's a distant relative, I believe she had an aunt - "

"I don't know how, but it is her. She knows things, Minerva! Things that only Gil would know, she ... she called me 'Dolly' and it was a sign," Umbridge murmured, "It's got to be her... she came back for me - "

"Dolores, I have a lot of work so unless you're here to discuss the suspension or advice on dealing with the complaint from Mary Jackson, I see no further reason for you to be in my office," Minerva replied coolly, "Dolores, I know she meant a great deal to you but to place such a title on Sas - "

"IT IS GIL!" Umbridge screamed back, "It is her and I'm sure what you're saying, this vehement denial of the truth is just ... vengeance for suspending three members of your Quidditch team."

A silence befell the office before Aubrey suddenly heard the screeching of a chair being pushed back followed by a stern whisper from McGonagall. It took Aubrey a few moments to realise Umbridge was leaving by which time it was too late to run away. Instead she merely pretending to be walking away but clearly Umbridge wasn't convinced.

"MISS JACKSON!" Umbridge's face paled, "What are you ... you were spying weren't, you ... you nasty child!"

"Me? No, I was just ... um, well Fred wanted me to ... no, not Fred! Angela ... Angela needed a paper and - "

"Dolores, what are you - " McGonagall suddenly appeared at the door, her eyes flaring before she spotted Aubrey, "Miss Jackson."

"McGonagall. Um, Angela was wondering if you'd marked her late homework for her," Aubrey said. This was a lie and both of them knew it but McGonagall clearly wasn't in the mood to expose her. 

"I'm afraid not yet," She replied, "Dolores, don't you have somewhere to be?"

For a moment, Umbridge froze and Aubrey felt her gaze drift down to the letter. Umbridge quickly picked up on this, holding it behind her back but Aubrey managed to catch the first few words.

Dolly,

It's been a while, that was a choice although I'm not sure whether it was yours or Jasper -

The words by themselves said very little but what was more curious was something in the top right corner: an artful sketch of an orange blossom, the same one Saskia had conjured on the hillside. It was the same one, right down to the identical vivid shade of sunset orange and curves of the petals. Mary enjoyed drawing, illustrating her cooking books with little cakes and doodles but she'd never been known to draw on letters before.

Umbridge, clearly rattled and angry, sniffed slightly before primly walking down the corridor. In a wild turn of events, Aubrey was suddenly in a good mood, even when McGonagall didn't want to talk to her, excusing herself politely. Firstly, it was nice knowing her Mum had actually done something for her, even if for some reason Aubrey hadn't been informed which was most likely intentional. And secondly, Aubrey now had a lead. Of course she now felt more confident about asking her parents to tell her when the holidays came around in a few weeks but for now, she had another source of information.

Aubrey was going to get that letter.

• • •

Fred's anger and glumness continued throughout the night although it did brighten his day to see a Saskia-less Aubrey approaching him the next day. Oddly, she looked surprisingly happy, helping get him out of his bad mood with ease.

"I think I'm done with old magic for now," He said, towards the end, "Could you tell Lexy for me? Not forever but it just seems a bit hopeless. I s'pose I could ask Saskia but I don't want to really, I'll just look like an idiot if I di."

"You don't have to, hon," She replied, "I was actually rather hoping you'd help me with something."

"Oh, did Angela speak to you too?" Her brow furrowed and he quickly shook his head, "Nevermind. Is it to do with ... Gil or whatever her name was?"

"Her name was Gillian actually and that's not all I've heard..." Aubrey replied excitedly, quickly telling Fred what she'd heard that morning. Once she was finished, his smile was significantly wider.

"Are you suggesting what I think you're suggesting?"

She smiled slyly, "Steal the letter from Umbridge?"

"Good, we're on the same page then..."

Aubrey's plan came at just the right time, tapping into a desire for vengeance against the awful professor who'd wronged him the day before. It took up his mind for the next few days so when Lexy came with a suggestion, he wasn't the most attentive.

"Fred," She caught up to him in the corridor, "Hi."

"Hi, Lexy."

"So ... I've been thinking about what happened at the match," She said, "I saw what you tried to do, use old magic, right? George said you were trying to summon a beater's bat."

"Something like that," Fred replied, "Look, I dunno if Aubrey told you but I'm taking a break from it. Me and her we're stealing a letter - "

"No, wait, this won't take long," Lexy pleaded, "Saskia was pretty useless so I figured we need to see her do it, get George and Aubrey to analyse it for us or something. We could use a pensieve but those things freak me out. I say we lure her into organically using magic, catch it on film - this boy a few years below us uses one so I know they work - and then we can analyse it. George said he found someone in the Daily Prophet who claims they made a video camera that works in Hogwarts so we could get that."

"So that's what he was doing!" Fred exclaimed, "I thought he was doing the crossword, almost teased him and everything."

"That's not embarrassing though," Lexy shrugged, "Anyway, we could order that and analyse it. We will do it Fred - "

"Lexy, I have an idea. How about you and George do that and I'll plan theft with my girlfriend," Fred said, "Look, I still want to continue with it but right now, the whole thing with Saskia and old magic just ... I dunno, I want to take a break, focus on Aubs - "

"You know Saskia doesn't like her in that way," This made him stop, turning back to look at her, "I've seen people with crushes before and well, I don't think that's it. There's definitely something weird though but I don't think she wants to shag her or anything ... it's weird though, don't get me wrong - "

"Either way, I don't really wanna do it. If you come up with something, I'll help but right now, I wanna focus on Aubs," Fred shrugged, "You and George work on your thing, we'll work on ours and then hopefully finish them both before term ends."

"So it's a competition?"

"I'd say yes but Aubs probably won't think so."

"Hm ... guess you've already lost then!"

As it turned out, Aubrey wasn't too competitive about it ... until the four of them began working side by side in the Arithmancy room over the next few weeks. Fred and George were fairly jovial about it, tossing quills back and forth which amused and annoyed the girls to no end.

From what Harry had said, Umbridge's office was full of cats, so many cats that the woman seemed to use as a messenger system to ensure nobody broke in. Initially, Fred had figured one of them could do a detention with her and the other would create a diversion but they quickly found out from an agitated Hermione what detention entailed ... neither was in the mood for writing lines in their own blood. It did occur to Aubrey that perhaps Umbridge would go easy depending on what Mary had said in the letter. Aubrey vaguely considered asking her mother what had been said but she probably wasn't meant to know about it seeing as Mary hadn't mentioned it all since.

Eventually, they came up with a vaguely slapdash plan involving misdirection, invisibility cloak and Charlie's temporary stunning spell. It was risky but Fred was oddly looking forward to it. It was a few days before the end of term and Fred was pretty sure him and Aubrey would win the competition. George had given nothing away so Fred foolishly assumed the plan wasn't going anywhere. How wrong he was.

"Hey Fred, are you doing much this evening? The DA meeting's tomorrow so you should be..." George mentioned.

"Well, me and Aubs are planning to spy this evening but - "

"What about the afternoon? Straight after class? That's when Lexy wants to do it .... bring Saskia too."

Fred raised an eyebrow, realising what this was about, "Do I have to?"

"Well, she's kind of essential."

"George," He paused, "Does this mean you beat me?"

"It was never a competition, Fred. But yes. Yes, I did..."

• • •

I'm at a festival for the next week so I shall love you and leave you with this - E x