Finding the Magic (a Clexa hogwarts au)

Inside the House

Sorry for all the sporadic updates, life has been a little crazy these last few months. I hope to post quite often over the summer to work on my writing, so I want to thank all of you for sticking with me! Thank you for nearly 10k reads, as well as your votes. Your support has been critical in my desire to continue this story, even after the unfortunate end to the third season of The 100. As always, your comments and support are always appreciated. Enjoy this next chapter!

~Rose

Clarke felt her lungs expand as she guzzled a mouthful of air. Her head spun, almost unbalancing her. The thick ropes around her arms and legs, as well as the tight fist around her upper arm, kept her standing. She blinked as her vision returned. The three men still gathered around her, and Lexa's slumped form appeared at her knee.

"Take them to their quarters," the man waved his hand dismissively at the henchmen holding the two girls.

The other men nodded and began pulling Clarke and Lexa away.

"Oh but wait, where are my manners?" He spoke again, and Clarke's head swiveled to see his inky figure behind her. 

"My name is Cage Wallace, and welcome to your end Clarke Griffin."

Before Clarke's face could finish twisting into an expression of rage, her vision darkened and the world collapsed around her. 

Clarke woke to a hard surface at her back and a warm pressure in her hand. She opened her eyes to see Lexa peering down at her, perched on the edge of her bed. Well, to call it a bed would be an injustice. It really was a thin blanket spread out on what might pass as a cot, but felt like a wooden pallet. The pressure was Lexa's hand, knuckles pale against her own skin.

"I wasn't sure you would wake up," Lexa's face betrayed a smile, but a poorly rehearsed and horribly enacted one at that. 

"You can't..." Clarke's mind ran immediately to a joke. You can't get rid of me that easily. She couldn't bring herself to say it out loud. 

"I thought you were gone," she said instead, looking at Lexa green eyes through the dim light of the room.

"I thought I was, too. One minute I was rushing to breakfast late, and the next these men jumped out behind a statue and jinxed me! I woke up about an hour ago, how did they get you?"

"Well..." Clarke remembered her friends rushing down the tunnel, the hexes lighting up their faces, but courageous fire lighting up their eyes. "A few of us found out you were missing and went to look for you at Hogsmeade. We discovered a secret passageway and followed it. That's where we met your attackers, who returned the others safely to the school but took me."

"And here you are," Lexa finished, shaking her head. "Why?"

Clarke already knew what she meant. "Because I promised myself I would protect you."

"You put yourself in danger! You're the important one in this game, not me."

"Everyone's important, Lexa. Especially you. Where would I be if you hadn't been there to welcome me into this world? To help me learn magic? To show me the prophecy? Don't tell yourself you're not important because no matter what game they're playing, you're the queen in my game of chess."

Lexa didn't respond, but her answer was a soft kiss on Clarke's cheek. In that moment, despite the house they were in, despite the attackers lurking nearby, despite the hard bed beneath them, despite the magnitude of their impending doom, Clarke felt a little flutter in her chest. The flutter wasn't caused by fear, although the fear for Lexa's safety was prevalent and pressing, this flutter was caused by love. A deeply seeded attraction for the girl sitting next to her, who held her hand and led her back to consciousness. Lexa rested her head on Clarke's shoulder, who reached up to smooth down her hair, which was falling out of its braids.