Umbridge caught on fast and less than a day after the meeting a decree had been passed banning all student organisations. Aubrey assumed this meant an end to Harry's classes before they'd even started but Fred assured her that with Hermione on his side, this wasn't the case. 

The woman must have had ears literally nestled in the walls, the speed with which she found information out was incredibly impressive.

Luckily, the observant yet possibly evil teacher still hadn't caught wind of Aubrey and Fred's plan to uncover her at least. They were a lot more sneaky though now, no longer using the Arithmancy classroom, keeping everything in their heads rather than parchment. In fact, she told nobody, not even Lexy of their latest development, pretending she and Fred were going for a lover's stroll. To the outside observer, it would have looked that way, with Aubrey's arm linked around his. 

"Aubs, I have something that you'll like," Fred said, playing along as he pulled some parchment from his robes.

"Merlin's Beard, could this be a romantic poem you've written just for me to make this romantic stroll even more romantic?"

He grinned, "Why of course," Before tapping it with his hand, whispering, "I solemnly I swear I'm up to no good."

"Beautiful poem, Fred," She murmured.

"Can't take credit, I'm afraid," He replied, looking at the map whilst Aubrey kept an eye out for peeping Tom's, "The Fat Friar's in the corridor near the Astronomy Tower ... he's just hanging out it looks like."

"Probably talking to a painting," Aubrey replied, "He does that sometimes."

"Well, to the Astronomy Corridor, it is!"

"One sickle says she's a Hufflepuff," Aubrey said, "I know a Hufflepuff when I see one."

"Oh, you're on, Aubs. Surprised to see you making bets after what happened to me last year."

"Well, unlike Ludo Bloody Bagman, I pay up..."

It appeared that night that Fred Weasley would be one sickle poorer and Aubrey, should she choose to accept them, would have gloating rights for the next few weeks.

"I remember her, I never forget a student," The Fat Friar shivered the moment they brought Umbridge up, "You know, she never smiled at me when I floated through the Hufflepuff Common Room, not once. Although I believe she didn't notice me, her eyes were always on a different target."

"So she was a Hufflepuff?"

The Fat Friar sighed, floating down a little way out of gloominess, "Yes, she was. I was quite surprised to see her return, most people never do when they had an experience like that."

The bet had now gone from Aubrey's mind, instead replaced by confusion at the usual cheery Fat Friar ... frowning. She knew full well Hufflepuffs could be tough but the Fat Friar was a ray of sunshine. He still managed to smile when Nick got petrified.

"Um, Fat Friar ... we actually need to talk to you about her, she's been acting weird - "

" - weirder than usual, we mean," Fred added.

"Let's not talk about her," He said quickly, "There are so many nice things to discuss and once you start talking about Dolores ... you go into other things. Things we choose not to mention at Hogwarts for the good of everyone," His face suddenly clouded, "I do remember her clearly, she was never evil ... a nuisance at times, a stickler for the rules most definitely but the evilness that ... came later."

"After what?" Fred prompted, "Was it to do with ... Merlin's beard, 'course I forget the name now."

"What name?" Aubrey hissed.

"The one she called Saskia ... began with a G but wasn't George."

The Fat Friar watched them with amusement as they discussed, although a faint gloom still clouded his face. Suddenly, Aubrey snapped her fingers, "Wait it was - "

"NICK!" She was drowned out by the Fat Friar, who quickly changed the subject, floating over to his Ghostly friend. Aubrey and Fred exchanged a look before quickly following behind as the two ghosts exchanged pleasantries. This meeting turned out to be a stroke of luck - the corridor they were now in was painting less.

"What are the chances we would both haunt the same corridor on the same night?" Nick was laughing.

"Hogwarts truly is a smaller castle than you think," The Fat Friar replied.

"GIL! IT WAS GIL!" It came out much louder than Aubrey had intended catching both ghosts by surprise.

"Umbridge called someone Gil, said something about her returning for her," Fred elaborated, "We think it has something to do with Saskia ... she's quite infamous too..."

Neither Ghost said anything but their faces gave them away. Even in Death, emotions were never any easier to hide: they both knew exactly who Aubrey and Fred were referring to.

"I'm ... I'm not leaving until we have an answer," Aubrey stumbled through what was meant to be forceful speech, "What happened to Dolores - "

"Umbridge?" Nick scoffed, "Awful girl, such a - dare I say it - pain in posterior all throughout her time here. The things people said about her in the common room, well ... I am usually a compassionate fellow but I must say they were spot on. Surely you know, Miss Jackson?" She raised an eyebrow, "No? Oh ... no wonder," Suddenly he felt silent just like the Fat Friar had done moments before, "I understand now why you wouldn't know. What happened is a touchy subject for all of them ... it's not my place to say anything."

"No, please! You can be cryptic!" Aubrey begged, "Just tell me about Umbridge please! She hates me - "

"I should think she would," Nick smiled fondly, "She was unchanging and unforgiving."

"Okay, maybe a little less cryptic than that," Fred cut in, "Perhaps a few names would be helpful?"

"Silence would be better," The Fat Friar murmured, "Nick, people don't want to mention what happened. After the Riddle fiasco, I'd daresay it's one of the greatest tragedies Hogwarts has ever produced."

"Umbridge?" Fred scoffed, "Sounds about right."

"No, not Umbridge," The Fat Friar said solemnly, "Although she was horribly embroiled in it. Although perhaps she was tragic too, when someone loses someone in such an awful manner ... you'd never be right afterwards."

"Gil?" Aubrey guessed.

"Miss Jackson, I cannot believe you are as woefully uneducated as you are on the matter ... that came across as rude but us Gryffindors are known for bravely saying what others cannot," Nick said valiantly, "To truly understand Dolores Umbridge you would have had to be there - "

"Seems like we're a bit late for that," Aubrey said dryly before Fred nudged her.

"Thank you, Fred," Nick said, his voice still pompous and grating on Aubrey's nerves, "I always like to think that there are two categories of people in the world, those with intelligence but no purpose and those with an abundance of purpose and ambition but simply no wit. Without each other, they do nothing. The wit is wasted and the ambitious merely grow stale, unable to be realised. Umbridge, for instance, was all ambition but her brain was lacking," At this, Fred couldn't help but snigger, quickly muffling it with his sleeve, "No wonder she never received any accolades or power of any kind whilst here, Dumbledore was wise on that one."

"It might have done her good," The Fat Friar countered, "Perhaps she wouldn't have fixated quite so much."

"She was already looking for her counterpart by that time though and she did indeed find her. Sadly, the witty girl she so desired was already paired with a greater force than Umbridge. The opposite side of the same coin as it were. It made her insanely angry, insufferably tedious also ... but even she didn't deserve to undergo what happened to her. The Second Greatest Tragedy of Hogwarts is bound to break anyone - "

"I should think that's quite enough, Nick," The Fat Friar suddenly cut in, looking pale even for a Ghost.

Nearly Headless Nick seemed to realise this, coughing slightly, "Ah yes ... I can get a little ahead of myself. I do enjoy reciting such tales though ... but it might be best to call it a night. I'm not the person to tell you this, Miss Jackson."

Both Fred and Aubrey were too in shock to say anything as the ghosts drifted away through the wall and out of sight.

"He was indeed cryptic," Fred said at last, "Think I got half of it ... did you by any chance get the other half?"

"I don't know ... probably about a third of it," She admitted, "What were they talking about? The Second Greatest Tragedy Hogwarts has ever produced."

"I feel like if there was another great tragedy, we'd know about it."

Aubrey thought back, gently shaking her head, "Not necessarily... the Ministry did cover up Cedric pretty well. If it was too tragic or it doesn't play with the story they went to tell."

"Or they did it," Fred added darkly.

"I ... I think I'm going to write to my parents."

"What?"

"Nick said I should know, maybe they witnessed it or something," Aubrey said firmly.

"Good plan, use who we have," He scratched his head, "Thinking of it, I'll write to mine too. George has been good about it but I sort of ... forgot."

It took Aubrey a few days to figure out what she wanted to say in her letter, it was hard to broach such a ... difficult topic with her parents especially considering her last letter had been a long description of the plant she was reering in Herbology. Eventually, she managed it, short but sweet.

Mum & Dad,

Hello.

You said I should write if I needed help especially considering my silence last year so I suppose that's what I'm doing in a sense. Although this year I don't think the stakes are quite so high, I'm curious nonetheless.

There's this Defence teacher, Dolores Umbridge and she hates me for no reason it seems. Somebody said I should know already and I wondered if you had any reasons why.

Love Aubrey x

She strategically wrote it when Saskia was distracted by a large history book, she wasn't risking the girl seeing it lest she freak out. Still, the girl noticed nonetheless.

"What are you writing, hon?" She giggled, "I stole your catchphrase."

"It's ... fine, I've stopped saying it so much anyway," Aubrey murmured distantly, "Just a letter to my Mum and Dad."

"Oh, that's very nice of you," Saskia lifted up the cover of her book, "I'm reading about other countries ..." She traced her finger across the page, "It's beautiful really ..."

Her face changed momentarily to one of sadness before a smile crossed her face. Still, as Aubrey smiled back she couldn't help but wonder if the smile was genuine, what secrets were lurking behind Saskia's demeanour of cheeriness. Her feelings towards the girl may have changed from irritation to something akin to friendship but one things stayed the same.

Saskia Cyrus was an enigma and the plot was only thickening from there...

• • •

In canon, Umbridge is a Slytherin but she's not in this as certain events led to her being incredibly dedicated towards a goal. Also it's hard to explain but there was an event during Grindlewald's war which led to this being an AU too which affected Umbridge and actually led to Fred and Aubrey meeting indirectly - E x