Finding the Magic (a Clexa hogwarts au)

Stranger

Clarke couldn't listen any longer. She shot to her feet. 

"We're going to end them."

Bellamy looked up at her but didn't rise. His somber eyes had coals burning in them, but the fire wasn't fresh.

"I really hope we do, but it's going to take a while."

"Bellamy, I'm really sorry for your mom. For everything. Thank you for telling me, but I really have to go."

She left Bellamy sitting by the stream, his legs folded in beneath him. 

Clarke's blood was boiling by the time she reached the owlery. This time, Echo wasn't haunting the cramped tower and Clarke headed straight toward Keryon's perch. It was empty. Turning around, Clarke faced an owl twice her size and covered in pitch black feathers. It held out its leg and Clarke unfastened the string that held a letter attached. As soon as it had dropped into her hand, the owl took off again. Clarke unfolded the letter gently, hoping against all hope that it was from her mother.

You did a good job, Clarke Griffin. You've followed the rules quite well. You didn't tell anyone, although you came very close to revealing things you shouldn't have to Echo. Don't slip up so obviously next time or there will be repercussions. 

I have more rules for you. Tonight, you must go to the astronomy tower at midnight. Tell no one where you are going and bring no one else. Don't get caught on your way or fail to show up. You face more than suspension if you don't follow my rules. Is it answers you seek? You shall find some tonight.

Until next time.

Clarke read the letter again. Then a third time. They knew she had tried to get Echo to come clean about the letters. Who besides Echo and Harper knew she had done that? The sender had deigned not to include their name, yet again. But this time, Clarke was going to meet them. Or their messenger, Clarke wasn't sure. Either way, she knew no person, teacher, student, or Phoenix member, could stop her from getting to the astronomy tower tonight. She would be getting her answers even if she faced getting kicked out of school. 

The sun cast lengthening shadows on the grounds of Hogwarts. The haunted voice of Bellamy Blake invaded Clarke's brain as she pondered the past few days' events. ...Like a hurricane wind...Dead in hours...Dropped off her head... Was the same fate awaiting Clarke when she went to the astronomy tower? Would they blow through the room and take Clarke away? How would they even get into the school without being caught?

Clarke groaned and stifled her brain, resting her arms on the stone window that the owls flew in and out of the owlery from. Whoever had written the letter had promised answers. Maybe they wouldn't answer all of them, but they might at least begin the picture and give Clarke the tools to finish it. She was good at finishing pictures. 

Finally the sun dipped below the horizon and Clarke knew she should wander to the Great Hall for dinner. She didn't much feel like allowing hundreds of eyes to follow her motions, but what the hell, it may be the last time they saw her anyway. She lifted her arms from the sill and turned right into Echo.

"Watch where you're going, Griffin, or it will be the last thing you do." Echo glared hard at Clarke and took a step back, but the normal light burning in her eyes had gone. In fact, Echo looked dead tired and ready to keel over.

"What are you doing here?" 

"Sending a letter. Does it matter?"

"To who?"

Echo stopped and turned around to face Clarke. Clarke recognized a hint of fear in the other girl's face as she lowered her arm and hid the letter she was carrying in her robe pocket.

"None of your business. Now get out of here before I push you out the window." The fear dissipated as her natural sneer took its place. 

Clarke hurried from the tower, but watched as Echo's owl flew from the window and off across the grounds. Maybe Echo had sent those letters, but a sneaking suspicion told Clarke her sender was much more dangerous, and that Echo's penchant for the owlery had its own consequences.

At dinner Clarke ran through the questions she would ask that night in her head. The clear sky shone above her as the enchanted ceiling sent dappled starlight onto the student's heads. Clarke wondered if she could wish upon these stars, or if they would simply stare down at her, unmoving, a magical adornment meant to give students a greater hope than they were universally allotted. 

Dinner tasted like cardboard, the few bites that Clarke could manage to eat sliding uncomfortably down her throat. Her fellow slytherins had stopped trying to sit with her after a few sullen meals shared in silence. Clarke wanted to befriend them, but the past few days hadn't exactly been easy on her psyche. Hopefully they would try again after all of this was over. She couldn't bear not having any friends in her house besides Lexa, if Lexa survived. 

Clarke wove through a maze of thoughts, each one ending in dark thoughts and uncomfortable questions. Each time she reached a dead end, she would begin anew. Finally Clarke couldn't stomach it anymore, and she left the Great Hall to wait in her dormitory until the time came.

As the clock creeped toward midnight, Clarke slipped from the covers of her bed and put on her shoes. Echo had never retired for the night, so she didn't have to worry about waking or avoiding the ice princess. She padded through the common room and reached the hallway without running into anyone. 

Taking a deep breath, she continued down the hall, cursing the elaborate structure of the school that made it so echoey. The one positive would be that if anyone else were to traverse the halls, Clarke would hear them, too. 

Clarke threw herself into an empty classroom the moment she heard another noise. She peeked around the corner to figure out who was there. No one appeared. After a few moments, Clarke poked her head out of the room. She could barely hear over the sound of her own heart slamming into her chest, but the lack of shadows moving down the corridor told her it must have just been her own brain tricking her. 

Rounding the corner, Clarke ran straight into Echo. 

"I knew it! You are the one who's been sending me letters!"

Clarke stared at Echo, whose face lit up with triumph.

"I've been getting letters, too..." Clarke whispered, checking over her shoulder to make sure no one had come along during Echo's outburst. "I thought you had sent them."

"You've been getting letters too?" Echo's voice lost its gleeful tone. 

"They said to meet at the astronomy tower at midnight."

"And also to tell no one else and not to get caught, which you both have failed." A voice came from inside the classroom Clarke had just hidden in. 

A black robe engulfed the person so well, they seemed to be blending into the shadows around them. With a hood covering their face, anyone could have been standing in that room. A wand poked out of their sleeve, releasing a small halo of light. Clarke realized it wasn't so the stranger could could see, but so Clarke and Echo would see they were armed and ready.

Clarke and Echo were finally going to meet the person who had been tormenting them with threats and letters, but Clarke found her stomach bottoming out. 

Was she ready to meet this person or learn the information they had to share?