Underwater
“This is stupid! You can’t do this!” said Octavia. The two girls were sat on one bed in their room at the Gryffindor quarters. “Clarke, you can’t swim.”
“I know, I know. But I’ll just have to find something that will help me swim and breathe underwater. Maybe a transforming spell…”
“Oh then we just have to ask professor Forest : ‘oh hi professor, I just wanted to ask you what spell could turn me into an aquatic creature so I can win a secret competition we’re having tomorrow in the Black Lake’.”
“That’s not a bad idea.”
“You’re kidding me right?!” said the brunette deadpanning.
“Lexa is pretty close to professor Forest, plus she doesn’t give a shit when students break rules if it’s to improve our skills.”
Octavia huffed loudly while she stood up from the bed.
“Ok. But if anything turns bad, don’t say I didn’t told you so” said the brunette widening her eyes.
“Deal, just one more thing; you don’t tell Lexa I can’t swim.”
“Because you know she’ll tell you not to do it!”
“Please?”
“Alright” sighed Octavia.
“I got this.”
Both girls left their room and walked through the castle, taking some detours due to the staircases being out of control like always. They made their way to the Slytherin common room and asked some student to call Lexa for them. One minute later, the brunette was coming out the Slytherin dungeons.
“Hey!”
“Hey!” started Clarke clearing her throat. “I kind of need a favor.”
“And what is it?” she replied raising an eyebrow.
“Could you ask Indra how can I change myself into an aquatic beast? I need something to breathe underwater and go fast.”
“What makes you think she’ll help?”
“I just hope so.”
Lexa waited for a few seconds, analyzing the situation and how she could possibly ask this. She stared at Clarke’s eyes and almost lost herself in a sea of blue before blinking several times to form a correct sentence.
“Fine, meet me here in two hours” Lexa said.
***
“Selkors!”
Lexa just came back from her talk with Indra. The professor had frown at first but when Lexa asked her not to ask any question, Indra agreed. They had always been pretty close since Lexa’s first year.
“What?” asked Clarke.
“This is the spell.”
“And what am I going to turn into?”
“A mermaid, similar to the ones in the Great Lake.”
“Oh that’s perfect, that way I will blend in. Even though I don’t even know what the test will be.”
“Yes, great!” added Octavia before glancing deadly at Clarke. “I’m going to bed, you coming?”
“I’ll be right there” Clarke answered.
Octavia smirked slightly before turning around and leaving.
“Thank you” said Clarke to Lexa with a big smile.
“No prob’” replied Lexa returning it.
The two girls stayed in each other presence without saying anything for a few more minutes.
“You want to come in?” asked Lexa.
“No, it’s starting to be late.”
They paused, waiting for something. Neither of them knowing what. But something. Clarke felt her heart clench a little but she didn’t find the strength to close the gap between her and the gorgeous brunette standing in front of her right now. So she took a step forward and placed a soft kiss against Lexa’s cheek.
“Good Night Lexa!”
“Good night Clarke!”
***
With the sun falling behind the horizon, the name of the lake takes on its full meaning. The water is dark and it’s impossible to see through it.
Clarke had never liked the water. When she was a child, her mother had tried to teach her how to swim but every time she’d touch the surface, she would begin a long crying session. Growing up, she stopped being afraid of it but she never ventured too far.
“I asked Gaten Smith to drop three red stones from above the lake with his broom. I don’t personally know him; you’ll be able to ask him after the test, he’s Hufflepuff. So, the first one to bring it back win. Easy enough for you?”
Ontari and Clarke rolled their eyes simultaneously before walking in the water until it was at chest level. Clarke turned around one last time to glance at her friends. Lexa was staring at her, arms crossed and nodding to her. Raven and Octavia were standing a few feet behind the brunette and were too staring at her but they had a look of worry and anger in their eyes.
The blonde winked with a chuckle. She turned back around and sighed. Clarke heard the ‘go!’ from someone behind and waited for the two others to plunge. She walked a few more feet forward and took her wand.
“Selkors!”
She felt a weird feeling in her legs and on her neck before falling underwater. She struggled a little before looking down at her legs which had now been replaced by a long tail. She smiled at the feeling of being able to breathe underwater. It was overwhelming; really soothing and satisfying. Suddenly she remembered the competition and dived deeper in the dark water.
She was really fast but she didn’t have any idea of where were the two others. Clarke saw a few grindylows and tried her hardest to avoid them. They had learnt about them during their second year at Hogwarts and she knew they weren’t the kindest. Grindylows weren’t supposed to attack the lake mermaids but you can never be too careful. The water was even darker as Clarke kept on swimming, deeper and deeper. She thought the spell might have improved her vision ; a normal human being would have felt blind in this situation. The tall dark green algae came into view. Clarke went down through them.
She reached the lake floor and started searching for the stones. She heard some noises and raising her head she saw Ontari swimming back towards the surface. The tension in her shoulders lessened as the deception hit her. ‘Second is fine’. She lowered her head and saw a little red spark. Clarke quickly grabbed it and began swimming up.
She knew she wouldn’t be the first one, she just wanted to reach the shore before Cage. But around six or five meters from the surface she felt a sharp jolt in her body. And when Cage Wallace overtook her, she watched as her tail and gills disappeared.
Panic overwhelmed her as she tried moving her arms and legs frantically. Clarke felt air leave her lungs, bubbles coming out her lungs through her lips. Her arms and legs went numb, her movements slowed down and the corners of her vision darkened.
***
Cage Wallace shook his head as he came out of the Great Lake, trying to dry up his long dark hair a little bit. He took a few steps forward stopping in front of Clarke’s friends.
“I guess Clarke won’t win this one” he said with an evil smirk on his lips.
“Did you see her while swimming back up?” cut Raven, her worry building up when she didn’t see her best friend emerge from the water.
“Maybe” he replied, his smirk never leaving his face as he walked passed them.
Everyone paused for a few second, the tension intensifying.
“What did you do Cage?” asked Octavia turning around.
“Well, I may have cast a ‘Finite Incantatem’ a few meters before she arrived.”
“You did what?” said Octavia.
“We didn’t talk about that in the rules.”
“You know that’s chea…” Lexa began but was quickly cut by Raven’s screaming.
“Clarke can’t swim!”
They all stood there in shock. Lexa took off her cardigan away and dived in the dark water. She swam as quickly as she could and spotted the blonde almost immediately. Lexa’s eyes widened painfully when she noticed that Clarke’s body was spread out and motionless if it wasn’t for the movement provided by the flow.
The brunette reached Clarke and placed one of her arm around her own shoulders as she made her way back to the surface as fast as possible. She dragged her friend towards the shore, seizing her under her armpits. She put her down gently and asked Octavia to position herself over the blonde’s head as Lexa placed both hands on her friend’s sternum.
“1, 2, 3, 4…” Lexa had never been this focused as she whispered the presses count for herself, “28, 29, 30. Go!” She signaled Octavia who bent over and gave her friend a mouth-to-mouth.
The seconds felt way too long to Lexa and micro-droplets of sweat were already forming on their foreheads. So she searched in her memories something that could help them and when an idea popped in her head, she stood up and motioned for Octavia to move over.
“Anapneo!” she yelled, pointing her wand at the still body of her friend.
A small cluttered cough left the blonde’s mouth before a consequent quantity of water went out abruptly. Almost everyone, even Cage let out a huff they didn’t knew they had been holding back. Lexa kneeled and pressed a strong hand against the blonde’s back to help her straightening up.
Clarke’s coughs lessened and she raised her head to be eye-level with Lexa. Tears were streaming down the blonde’s face due to the intensity of her coughing.
“Thank you” she said, her voice nearly inexistent. “Did I win?” Clarke joked.
Lexa said nothing as they kept staring at each other’s eyes. Clarke tried to read what she saw in the brunette’s eyes; worry, caring, relief… anger. The brunette stood up and left without saying anything. Clarke rose her head as she heard someone clear their throat next to her. She blinked several times adjusting to the brightness of the sky. After a few seconds, Clarke recognized her two friends Raven and Octavia standing before her, hands on their hips. Octavia bent over slightly.
“I told you so!”
***
It had been two days since the incident at the lake and Clarke had no news from Lexa. Clarke had understood by now that the brunette was avoiding her.
They fought later that day. Raven and Octavia had expressed their discontent and let her alone knowing they should have stopped her from doing this from the beginning. Plus she had just been reanimated and she had promised she would stop this competition, so they didn’t push it.
Lexa however was really mad at her, telling her she had been completely stupid to do the test when she couldn’t swim. She said she should have known it would be dangerous knowing Cage Wallace. And after a few minutes of arguing, the brunette had stormed away, again.
“Griffin, please stop that sad puppy face and join the conversation” said Raven sighing.
“Yes, sorry, what were we talking about?”
Lincoln, Octavia, Bellamy, Raven and she were all sat in the Gryffindor common room. They huffed in unison at Clarke’s question. The blonde didn’t talk to them a lot since her fight with Lexa, always lost in her thoughts.
“She’s stupid to avoid you for that!” Bellamy said, jealousy not so well hidden in his voice.
Octavia elbowed him in the ribs and he let out a small cry with a ‘What?’ while he raised his arms.
“Just go talk to her, already” said Octavia. “She can’t be mad at you forever.”
“She’s avoiding me. How am I supposed to start a conversation anyway?”
“Just circle her in a corner and get it over with. If you know what I mean” she finished with a smirk which everyone mimicked.
“Urgh! You guys are unbelievable” she replied, standing up from her chair.
“Where are you going?” asked Bellamy.
“I’m going to find Lexa, and don’t, look at me like that,” she said rapidly at her friends’ faces, “THAT won’t happen.”
Raven and Octavia huffed loudly, Bellamy rolled his eyes and Lincoln kept his usual warm grin on his face as Clarke closed the door from the common room behind her.
It was Saturday, the match Gryffindor against Slytherin was tomorrow and Clarke knew Lexa didn’t like to train the day before a match. That’s how she supposed she should be at the library. And she was right. As she entered she spotted the brunette sat around a small table. She was lost in her little world, scribbling something on her notes, her glasses falling slightly from her nose. She’s beautiful. Clarke thought.
The blonde gathered her resolve taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly. She closed the gap separating her from a certain hassle, but she wanted to do this. She needed to fix things with Lexa at all costs.
“Hey!” Clarke tried.
Lexa raised her head and just as recognition filled her eyes, she dropped it back towards her notes.
“Hi Clarke.”
The blonde shuddered slightly. She didn’t know if it was the familiar way Lexa had to click her tongue against her palate when pronouncing her name and that she loved, or the icy tone in her friend’s voice as she talked.
“Lexa, don’t you think it’s a little exaggerated?” said Clarke putting both hands on Lexa’s table and leaning on them to try and make Lexa look at her.
“I don’t want to talk right now; I have plenty of works to do” she replied without moving.
“I know you don’t. I know you’ve been avoiding me since the lake episode.”
“The lake episode” repeated Lexa. “It wasn’t just an ‘episode’ Clarke. You almost died right there.”
“But I didn’t.”
Lexa rose from her seat suddenly, gathering her stuff. Clarke let out a loud huff before following the brunette out of the library.
“So what? Are you going to avoid me for the rest of the year?”
“I don’t know yet.”
“You don’t know yet. Well that’s perfect.”
They were taking staircases after staircases and Clarke recognized the way towards the Slytherin dungeons. She continued following her in silence since she didn’t know what to say to make Lexa calm down.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m following you.”
It was Lexa’s time to huff. They kept on walking.
“I couldn’t have guessed it would happen, Lexa!”
“Yes you could.” Lexa turned around abruptly, stopping in her track in the middle of a dark corridor. “The test was in the LAKE and you didn’t know how to SWIM Clarke. And you didn’t even tell me. I went to talk to Indra to help you find a spell for this stupid competition. If I knew I never would have helped you do this.”
Lexa was talking frantically now, tears accumulating in her eyes. The blonde felt her heart break at her friend’s reaction.
“I wouldn’t have done it if I knew how this would go.”
“That’s not the question Clarke. This competition was stupid and you’ve been taking risks for it.” Lexa continued launching her anger at the blonde.
“Because I know the school will do better if Cage Wallace was called out.”
“There are other ways. There is no need to take dangerous and dumb risks just to…”
“But why do you take this to heart this much?” asked Clarke, her voice a little on edge.
“Because I care about you!” Lexa yelled this sentence at Clarke’s face and suddenly, everything went still.
All the sounds around them were muffled except for the beating of their hearts resonating in their heads.
Clarke opened her mouth but found nothing to say in return and she couldn’t have said anything anyway as the brunette closed the distance between them and connected their lips in a passionate kiss. They melted in the taste of the other and Lexa couldn’t help the rush of adrenaline travelling her whole body as she seized Clarke’s hips and pressed her against the wall behind them. The blonde raised her arms circling Lexa’s neck to keep her the closest possible. They stayed like this until they were both out of breath and disconnected their lips, pressing their foreheads together.
“I am sorry” said Clarke once again, cupping the brunette’s right cheek.
Lexa sighed lightly closing her eyes. She reopened them and nodded.
“I know. But don’t scare me like this again.”
“Ok.”
And with that they lost themselves in another soft kiss, both grinning at the same time.
***
Clarke was walking all the way towards the Gryffindor common room with a huge grin on her face. She said the password distinctly and pushed the door. Apparently, Lincoln had left to the Hufflepuff quarters and Bellamy had gone to sleep because only Raven and Octavia were sat disgracefully on the big couch.
They both stopped talking when they saw Clarke joining them and raised their gazes towards her as if to say ‘so, how did it go?’, frowning their eyebrows.
She didn’t stop walking towards the rooms.
“Well… maybe THAT happened.”
Her friend’s eyes widened and she climbed the stairs, the girls running close behind.