What is this Magic?

Clarke stuffed all the scraps of parchment she could get her hands on into her backpack and stormed across the empty common room. She rushed through the portrait hole and swung the portrait of the Fat Lady shut behind her.

"Easy there, Griffin! These hinges aren't what they used to be," The Fat Lady wailed after her.

"Sorry!" She called back over her shoulder as she got to the sixth floor staircase.

The lack of students on the stairwell was worrying. It meant everyone was already in class and that Clarke was even later than she thought. She rounded the corner of the second floor staircase, irritated that she still had so far to go when a flash of black hair appeared in her vision and she was unceremoniously dragged onto the second floor corridor.

"What the hell?!" Clarke yelled as she shrugged off the hands that had grabbed her by the hood of her cloak.

"Clarke! I've got it! I think it's time we tried it out!"

"Raven, can it wait?!" Clarke rubbed the base of her neck and darted her eyes around the corridor. "I'm already late for Herbology as it is and this isn't exactly the place to be talking about this."

"Ugh fine, you have a free period in two hours though, right? Meet me in the Room of Requirement, oh and if you could manage to sneak some Mandrakes out of Greenhouse Three that would be great!"

"Raven, I'm not comfortable stealing school property," Clarke sighed.

"We need them, Clarke! Please just try?" Raven begged. "If you don't get them then we're stuck with using ourselves as guinea pigs and I'm not too keen on that idea are you?"

"I'll do my best, ok? Now I really have to go but are you sure we're ready?"

"Hell yeah we are, nothing's gonna go wrong, trust me."

Clarke rolled her eyes at Raven's confidence and continued her dash down the stairs.

Clarke slipped into the back of Greenhouse 3 as quietly as possible and tiptoed over to her station to join Octavia who just rolls her eyes and pushes her book over slightly so that Clarke can see what page they're on. She pulled out her own book and a few scraps of parchment and opened the chapter on Venomous Tentacula.

"Don't think I didn't notice your late entry Miss Griffin, that'll be 5 points from Gryffindor," Professor Pike called out without looking away from the diagram he was drawing on the blackboard.

Octavia and a few other Gryffindor faces turn to Clarke who just shrugs back in chagrin. Pike catches her eyes and raises a brow before beginning to demonstrate the correct way to prune a Venomous Tentacula.

Clarke took down minimal notes, leaving that to Octavia, opting instead to draw an exact replica of the Venomous Tentacula with accurate annotations. They would then swap over later while working on homework in the common room.

"Alright, now I'm going to give out a Venomous Tentacula to each pair. Remember, I have not nullified their venom, you're 5th years, you should be able to handle them without getting bitten, but if you do Healer Griffin will be waiting for you in the Hospital Wing." Pike didn't seem confident in them as a class to get out unscathed. It was likely that he had already warned Abby to have plenty of Tentacula antidote at the ready.

Octavia carefully levitated their plant towards them, keeping well out of reach of their snapping vines. She had picked a particularly lack lustre specimen so that she and Clarke could chat idly without risk of the many venomous teeth making lunch of their fingers.

"So what's the excuse today, Griffin?" Octavia asked positioning the plant at the centre of the desk.

"No excuse, just late." Clarke shrugged.

"With what, though? I know for a fact you're not flying in your spare time, I'm on the pitch all the time and I only see you at practise." Octavia mused over the various possibilities. "It can't be with course work because we both know your grades are steadily dropping, and now you keep coming late to class? What is going on with you?"

"My grades haven't dropped that much," Clarke quipped defensively, clipping off the head of a dead vine.

"Enough for your Mom to have noticed and to ask me about it the other day."

Clarke sighed heavily and put down the clippers.

"Now she's keeping tabs on me? It's bad enough having her here at school but she could at least try and not stick her nose into all my business."

"She's just worried, I am too for that matter."

"Don't worry about it, O. If she asks again just tell her I'm fine."

"Look, if you're not gonna give me anything then naturally I'm going to jump to conclusions," Octavia teased in a sing song voice as she deftly fed multiple vines at once, floating the dead crickets near them so they could reach out and snap them up. "I noticed you've been hanging around with that Ravenclaw girl a lot lately…anything going on there? A secret relationship perhaps? You know I wouldn't judge, she's hot as hell."

"I am not in a secret relationship with Raven," Clarke grumbles.

"But you are spending time with her."

"Yes, we have History of Magic together, we got talking after class one day and found out we have a lot in common."

"A lot in common not meaning having a shared interest in putting your tongues down each others' throats?" Octavia said with a wink.

"Float me, Octavia! No! But if you're so interested I could tell her that you want to stick your tongue down her throat!"

A few heads turned to look at her in surprise after her unexpected outburst. Clarke and Octavia made quick work of looking incredibly focused and not at all distracted.

"Maybe…" Octavia said after people had turned back to their work.

"Maybe what?" Clarke asked in confusion, having forgotten their topic of conversation after embarrassing herself.

"Maybe you could tell her that, eventually, and maybe not in those exact words and you could probably just start with an introduction." Octavia was focused in on a certain vine that was proving difficult to feed as it seemed more interested in her fingers than dead crickets which gave her the perfect excuse not to look Clarke in the eye.

It slowly dawned on Clarke what Octavia was suggesting, her hand stilling in mid-air, cricket poised between her thumb and forefinger. Two Venomous Tentacula seized their opportunity and plunged their spiny fangs into Clarke's dragon-hide gloves. She groaned in frustration as the rest of the vine heads snaked their way through the air to try and latch onto her hand as well.

"A little help here, O?"

"Immobulus!" Octavia uttered quickly, with a sharp flick of her wand.

With the Venomous Tentacula frozen the two set about prying the fangs out of Clarke's glove, without causing any damage to the rare plant. Once freed, Clarke removed her glove to examine her hand for any bite marks and then checked her glove for any holes. When Clarke was happy that she hadn't been bitten she set the glove aside and looked back at Octavia whose brows were raised in a coy expression.

"So you're saying that you weren't jealous that I was hanging out with someone other than you, you were jealous about who I was hanging out with?"

"Not jealous, I just thought you were interested in her all of a sudden, romantically speaking that is, and I've kinda been crushing on her from afar ever since she surprised Hagrid by fixing his flying motorcycle last year," Octavia explained wistfully.

"I forgot she did that," Clarke replied, thinking back to how happy Hagrid had been, wrapping Raven up in a bear hug every time he saw her. "That put her on the map, everyone in the school knows who she is now."

"Yeah, but I can tell that that's not why she did it, you know? She did it because it would make him happy, not for any other reason." Octavia bit back a smile, poking at the frozen vine heads before her.

"You could have told me, O."

"That's rich, you still won't tell me what's going on with you!"

"All in good time, O."

"Ugh, I hate mysterious Clarke." Octavia bumped her shoulder into Clarke's playfully, knowing there was no point pushing the issue further.

"You hate mysterious everything, I swear had you been in Hogwarts when the Chamber of Secrets was still hidden, you would have been the one to find it," Clarke said seriously.

"Too right!" Octavia high fives Clarke happily. "Just promise you'll tell me what's going on eventually and that you'll introduce me to Raven soon?"

"I promise."

The bell went, marking the end of class. They tidied their station and the class began to trickle out of the room. Clarke grimaced when she saw that Pike was standing by the door waiting for the class to leave so that he could lock up the Greenhouse. She wasn't going to get her chance to steal the Mandrakes if she didn't do something soon. These days Alohamora wasn't enough to unlock doors in the castle.

Clarke turned to Octavia hurriedly to whisper in her ear. "If you do me a favour right now, no questions asked, I'll tell you what's going on and introduce you to Raven before the end of the week."

"Make it within the next two days and we have a deal."

"Ugh fine, deal!" Clarke muttered.

"What do you need?" Octavia asked in a hushed tone.

"I need you to distract Pike while I steal some Mandrakes." Octavia's eyes widened in surprise and her mouth gaped open. "I said no questions," Clarke reminded her.

Octavia snaps her mouth shut and exhales sharply out her nose.

"The things I do for you Griffin," Octavia grumbled. She marched over to the shelves with their still frozen Venomous Tentacula and put it back on the third shelf. "The things I'll do to get a girl," she then muttered to herself before holding her hand out to the other Venomous Tentacula to chow down on.

"Owwww! Professor Pike!" Clarke watched in horror as Octavia collapsed down on the ground, clutching her hand and Pike ran over to her from his position by the door. Clarke ran to the opposite end of the Greenhouse and opened her backpack, an extendable charm already in place so that she could carry around all her school books. She quickly but gently took three Mandrake pots and lowered them into her bag.

"Clarke, what are you doing up there?" Pike shouted from beside Octavia.

"I thought you might have some antidote in your desk!" Clarke responded, thinking quickly.

"I told you before, all the antidote is in the Hospital Wing. I'm going to escort Miss Blake there right now, you get to your next class immediately," he ordered.

"Yes sir." Clarke hurried out of the room

Clarke felt dreadful as she made her way to the North Tower for her Divination class. How was she to know that Octavia's idea of a distraction was throwing herself to a deadly magical plant? She always did have a flair for the dramatics but this was taking things a bit far, even for Octavia. Bellamy was going to have a fit when he found out but at least he would think it was a genuine accident. She would visit Octavia in the Hospital Wing as soon as possible, probably after she met up with Raven.

Clarke reached the North Tower only a couple of minutes late and climbed the ladder to ascend through the circular trap door into the Divination classroom. The usual incense assailed her as she entered, immediately making her a tad drowsy. Being late, there weren't many seats left and she glanced around to see if there was a seat beside a friendly face. Divination wasn't a popular class with Gryffindors, Clarke actually being the only one in her year to take it at O.W.L level.

A Ravenclaw girl with long, curly brown hair sat in the best spot in the room, in the comfiest armchair by the window, the seat beside her vacant but the atmosphere around her not exactly welcoming. Clarke didn't exactly have a chance to be picky as Professor Titus entered from the back. She scurried over to the smaller armchair across from the girl and sat down, carefully placing her backpack down under the table. The last thing she would need would be for the Mandrakes to tip over in her bag and start wailing, causing everyone to pass out.

Clarke watched as Titus took his time setting himself up at his desk and the class continued to chatter. She turned to look at the girl across from her who was gazing out the window, hair hanging down over most of her face. It didn't seem that she had even noticed Clarke sit down. That or she was intentionally ignoring her. Clarke turned in her seat to see what could be capturing the girl's attention but there was nothing but a cloudy sky.

Clarke cleared her throat and scuffed her chair closer to the table between them, hopefully alerting the girl to her presence. Still nothing. Clarke scoffed and leaned back in her chair folding her arms.

"You know it's rude to ignore people?" Clarke stated, not sure the girl would even acknowledge her when she spoke.

The girl across from her slowly sat up straight and turned to look at Clarke who felt two critical emerald eyes appraise her. The girl leaned forward resting her elbows on her crossed legs.

"Last time I checked clearing your throat isn't exactly the best way to introduce yourself to people." The girl smirked at her slightly, and quirked her brow before pushing her mane of curls back away from her face.

Clarke couldn't tell if it was another wave of incense that had hit her or the scent of the girl's shampoo. Clarke's mouth gaped open and she narrowed her eyes at this Ravenclaw girl that was currently baffling her. Clarke shook her head, closed her mouth and pointedly cleared her throat again before holding her hand out to the girl.

"Clarke Griffin." She introduced herself with a smirk and a tilt of her head, silently asking the girl if she was going to shake her hand or not.

"I know who you are, you're Healer Griffin's daughter." The girl didn't give away whether this meant she already had an impression of Clarke or not, her voice staying even and smooth throughout. She steadily shook Clarke's hand anyway before sitting back in her chair.

Clarke couldn't help but notice how soft the girl's hand was, letting it slide that she had brought up her mother. Clarke couldn't help it that her mother worked at Hogwarts and that everyone knew her because of it.

"Ok, so you know who I am, now do I get to know who you are?"

The girl looked at Clarke searchingly, possibly wondering why she cared. Why now, almost at the middle of the school year, did this girl suddenly decide to sit down beside her in class? The seat beside her had been free every class since the start of the semester, not a soul interested in taking it. She couldn't seem to find her answer in Clarke's eyes that grew more confused with every second that passed that she didn't offer her name.

"Maybe you can divine it before the end of class," she suggested with a sly smile.

Clarke looked at her in disbelief, both of them knowing full well that that was practically impossible. She didn't have a chance to answer before the girl had turned her attention to Titus who had begun the class.

They had to read each others' tea leaves, something Clarke hadn't done since Divination in Third Year but was something they were supposed to practise regularly in order to actually be any good at it. The upside to this activity was that they actually got to drink some tea and relax before they started trying to predict each others future.

Clarke watched as the girl poured them both some tea and brought the cup up to her full lips, blowing gently over the hot liquid.

"What are the chances my tea leaves spell out your name at the bottom of my cup?" Clarke asked playfully.

"Slim to none," the girl said with a laugh. "But if I'm a part of your future then I suppose there's always a chance it could happen."

Clarke mused over the idea of spending more time with the girl and thought she would actually thoroughly enjoy that.

"So, do you know Raven?" Clarke asked, trying to engage her in easy conversation.

"Everyone knows Raven," the girl replied evenly.

"Right," Clarke acknowledged. "What I meant was, Raven is a friend of mine and I was wondering if you two are friends as well? Do you have any classes together?"

"We've spoken briefly," she answered. "And Raven and I have numerous classes together, both being Ravenclaws. History of Magic, Transfiguration, Potions, a few others."

"Wait, I have History of Magic with Raven."

"Which means that you have it with me also, Clarke." She fixed Clarke with a look as she sipped her tea and Clarke withered with a little bit of guilt. That was two classes that Clarke had never noticed this girl in before, which now seemed hard to believe, how could she ever have missed her?

"I'm sorry, I kind of space out during class," Clarke admitted.

"I noticed."

Clarke looked up to see the girl's cheeks redden at her admission and fidget with her hair nervously. Clarke was glad to see that she could actually be phased by certain things.

"What have you noticed?" Clarke pushed for answers.

"I've noticed that we're both finished our tea," she said recovering her composure. Clarke looked at her cup to see that she was right.

"It takes me a while to make any sense of these, how about you read mine first?" Clarke asked, trying to bide herself some time.

"Very well," she replied taking Clarke's cup in exchange for her own. "Well, it doesn't spell out my name, that's one thing for sure."

"Dang." Clarke couldn't help but laugh. "And here I was hoping this would be easy. So, what do you see?"

"It actually looks like trees, a forest maybe." She started. "That means you could be lost in your future, directionless maybe, possibly just confused or faced with a choice. But this clump of leaves here looks like a sunrise behind the trees which suggests that you'll make the right choice, or get through your troubles and make it out the other side."

"These things are always so vague," Clarke huffed. "You're pretty good at it though."

"Like I said, it's hardly going to spell anything out for us Clarke. I suppose you should read mine now?"

Clarke had been so mesmerised listening to the girl read her leaves that she hadn't had a chance to prepare what she was going to say back to her. She jerked back and looked down at the cup still sitting in her palms. Clarke gasped and dropped the cup, rolling off the table and shattering on the ground. The girl jumped out of her chair, startled and began picking up the pieces from the ground.

"What did you see? And I swear if you say the Grim, I will hit you."

Clarke looked at the girl blankly, mind racing, deciding what she should say. She didn't want to tell her what she had seen but saying something generic wouldn't explain her intense reaction. The only things Clarke could think of to say were things that would make the girl feel terrible, like Dementors or Thestrals which weren't too far from removed from the Grim in representing death and loneliness.

"Ughh…I saw…it was…" Clarke's mind couldn't seem to stray far from the Grim now that she had said it. "It was a raccoon!" Clarke cringed. "But it looked like the Grim and I got a fright, that's all, I'm so sorry for dropping it."

"A raccoon?" The girl asked unconvinced. Clarke nodded her head overeagerly. "Alright, I guess? Suppose that means someone's going to go through my rubbish someday soon."

Clarke was relieved that the girl didn't seem too annoyed that she was clearly lying to her. But Clarke couldn't tell her what she had seen. She couldn't tell her that what she had seen was most definitely a Griffin, no mistake about it. A Griffin, mid-flight, wings spread. Clarke had never seen anything so vividly in tea leaves, to be honest they had always just seemed to be a lot of black mush. Clarke also knew that Griffins themselves could represent a number of things but she felt in that moment when she saw it that there was no doubt of what it meant: that she, a Griffin by name, was going to be a significant part of this girl's future and if she was being honest, the thought had scared her.

The girl allowed Clarke to get lost in her head until the end of class. Clarke was clearly shaken which concerned the girl a little, considering it had been her leaves she had been looking at but she couldn't find it in herself to care more about herself than for Clarke. She laid her hand down on top of Clarke's soothingly.

"Clarke, the class is over, we have to go."

Clarke's electric blue eyes snapped to hers, seemingly returning from some great distance.

"Shit!" Clarke yelled all of a sudden. "I have to be somewhere!"

Clarke gathered up her things and rushed over to the trapdoor.

"Wait, don't you want to know my name?" The girl asked, now eager to let Clarke know it for some reason.

Clarke's head popped back up through the trapdoor. "Next time." And with a brilliant smile that Clarke couldn't help but send, she was gone.

The Ravenclaw girl sat back in her armchair pondering what 'next time' meant. Next Divination class? Next time they had any class together? Next time they saw each other? It didn't really matter and yet the girl found herself already getting excited about it.