The match against Hufflepuff was the topic of conversation for much of the following week, and not only amongst Ravenclaws. Students from other houses were constantly congratulating Antigone on a terrific match, claiming her performance was 'historic'. Clara felt the guilt burning in the pit of her stomach that she had essentially missed her friend's fantastic performance. She still had not told Antigone about her…episode… during the match that had caused her to miss the entire thing. She was worried it sounded more than a little crazy.

J.R. had not let up on the issue, either. Clara had tried avoiding him, but the look he gave her was one of care and concern, and not accusation. She didn't feel like she could put off telling him for much longer, and she decided she should tell him and Antigone together to get the mess over with.

With all of the excitement Clara had almost forgotten that her parents were due to visit the coming Saturday, Halloween. She hoped she could prove to them that Ravenclaw was where she belonged so they would not worry as Rose had. The school was beginning to look towards the Halloween match between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, and Clara was relieved she could comfortably cheer for her siblings' team until their inevitable match against Ravenclaw.

Monday stretched into Tuesday and Tuesday turned to Wednesday, and before Clara knew it she was walking with Antigone and J.R. to Charms class on Friday. She had yet to gain the courage to talk about the strange connection with her wand, and at this point was secretly hoping the feeling was a one-time event and she would not have to divulge anything to her friends. They were all just now beginning to find where they fit at Hogwarts, and Clara did not want to ruin her easy friendship with the two.

The nerves Clara felt when she entered Charms was beginning to be a common occurrence. Ever since her impressive skills were demonstrated in Charms Club, Flitwick had been asking her to demonstrate each charm the class learned. The fact that she managed every spell without practicing seemed to amaze not only her fellow students, but the professor as well.

Flitwick had taken to giving her charms to practice outside of class that were a much higher level than the ones her classmates were learning. She surprised herself with how easily they all came to her. It was almost as if she simply had to think the charm and it happened. In fact, she found that most spells were the same way, not just charms. With such a high success rate, Clara had drawn attention to herself, and not always the positive kind.

"I wonder what our Charming Clara will be asked to perform today," Gwen sneered slightly as they took their seats, "Tell me Clara, did you attend another school for magic and fail so horribly that you decided to pretend to be eleven and start again at Hogwarts? It makes sense as to how you know so many first year spells… maybe the Weasley family just took pity and adopted you, you don't even look like them…"

Antigone had reached for her wand and J.R. had opened his mouth to retaliate, but Clara laid a hand on each of them. Gwen was mean, but she was also jealous and Clara recognized this.

"I'm sorry you think that Gwen," She said calmly. It was strange, but the tension with her petty roommate had managed to distract Clara enough to calm herself. That, and her friends' readiness to defend her brought warmth to her heart.

Antigone still looked like she wanted to curse Gwen, and J.R. had to bite his lip to keep from chewing her out, but the two calmed down measurably as Flitwick began the lesson.

"Alright everyone! Today we will be working on the locator charm. This charm helps you to find lost objects if they are close by!"

Clara perked up. Had the locator charm been what she had performed inadvertently when she found her wand? She wasn't quite sure how she could have done so without the wand itself, but it was worth looking into.

"When you perform a locator charm, your wand will lead you to the object you have misplaced," Flitwick explained, and the memory of dirt and bugs the size of Volkswagens came to Clara's mind. Her wand had certainly led her to its location, but not in a very conventional way. Surely the locator spell was not so…imaginative.

"Professor?" Clara found herself raising her hand, "How do our wands lead us to the missing object?"

"A very good question my dear, why don't you find out first hand?" Flitwick beamed and Clara inwardly cringed, realizing she had walked right into this demonstration. Picking up her wand, Clara waited while Flitwick took her charms book and hid it on the other side of the room.

"Now Miss Weasley, the incantation is…"

"Why could we not just use 'accio'?" Gwen interrupted Flitwick, "Doesn't that deliver the object straight to us?"

Flitwick was not off put by Gwen's interruption, but instead clapped his hands in excitement, "A good question Miss Davenport, but not every object can be summoned. Some objects may be under magical wards, or trapped to where they cannot free themselves to answer a summoning charm. If your book was in a locked trunk, for example, do you think it could simply unlock the trunk and fly to you when summoned?"

Gwen slumped back in her seat; clearly disappointed she had not outsmarted the more experienced wizard. Clara turned her attention back to Flitwick as he demonstrated the wand movement.

"All right Miss Weasley, the incantation is 'Ducere I sequetur'," He said, and demonstrated the wand flick again.

Clara raised her wand and flicked it up and back down, almost whispering "Ducere I sequetur".

Suddenly Clara's mind was filled with the image of a dusty wooden room with a wall missing. Where the fourth wall should have been there was a view of several giant chair legs and what appeared to be giant human legs wearing Ravenclaw stockings.

Clara blinked back to reality and scanned the room. She did not notice that Flitwick was staring at her with a befuddled expression. On the other side of the room she noticed a wall of wooden cubbies just behind the last row of students. Clara pocketed her wand and walked over to the wall, bending down to inspect the row closest to the floor.

"Here it is!" Clara announced, straightening with her book in hand. She felt relief at knowing the locator charm had indeed been what had led her to her wand. She determined that in her distress she must have cast the spell wandlessly, an impressive feat but not impossible.

Her classmates applauded politely after her demonstration, still unaware of their professor's bewilderment. Clara returned to her seat and Flitwick seemed to find his voice.

"Alright everyone, you know the charm and the motion, split into pairs and hide one another's charm books until you have mastered finding them," he instructed in an even squeakier voice than usual, "Your wand should pull you to the object. Miss Weasley, a quick word in my office while they are practicing."

It was Clara's turn to be confused as she followed Flitwick into his office off of the classroom. The space was decorated similarly to the Ravenclaw common, with blue velvet draperies and walls full of bookshelves. Flitwick sat down in a blue wing backed armchair behind his desk and motioned for Clara to take a seat opposite him.

Try as she might, Clara could not figure out what she had done to warrant a private conversation. She noted that her professor did not look angry, but rather amazed.

"Tell me Clara," he began, "what happened when you performed the locator charm?"

"Well," Clara said nervously, "I said the spell and an image of the inside of the shelf appeared in my head. Was…was that not supposed to happen?"

Flitwick did not answer immediately, which in itself was concerning coming from such a chatty wizard. Instead he lifted a book off the shelf behind him and flipped through the pages quickly, barely reading the page he stopped on before snapping it shut.

"Has this ever happened to you before my dear?" the wizened old man smiled kindly at her, but Clara did not miss the excited sparkle in his eye.

"Um, yes, it happened last week," she said, taking a deep breath, "but it was when my wand was taken from me, so I couldn't have said the locator charm. My wand, it, well it sort of told me where it had been hidden."

There was a pause, and then Flitwick clapped his hands together – startling Clara – and beamed.

"Amazing," he said, " Well I suppose you accomplished some wandless magic, and at such a young age! Though with your skill I shouldn't be surprised! Let us rejoin the others, hmm?"

Clara was startled at the sudden dismissal, with hardly any explanation other than achieving wandless magic, though she supposed it was the most logical answer. Even if it did not explain how she achieved a spell she had not even learned yet.

"Oh, and Clara?" Flitwick stopped her just before they reentered the classroom, "Let's just keep this quiet for now, wouldn't want everyone knowing how far ahead you are now would we?!"

This warning made the situation all the more peculiar, and made Clara want to speak to her friends about it more than ever. The situation was too strange to keep to herself.

When she returned to the charms classroom she discovered a few students had managed the locator charm. They did not, however, seem to be reacting as Clara had. Instead, they followed their outstretched wand as if the object were magnetized to it. J.R. had just retrieved his missing quill when she reached their table. Antigone looked up at Clara in curiosity when she arrived.

"What did Flitwick have to say, then?" She asked. J.R. shifted his weight back and forth, and Clara noticed he was looking on in a mixture of interest and concern.

"I'll tell you after class," she replied, and then added when she noticed her friends exchange worried looks, "Don't worry, it's nothing bad."

I think.

Later that evening, when most of the Ravenclaw common room had emptied, Clara, Anitgone, and J.R. found themselves seated in a corner half hidden by one of the large bookcases that populated the room. Until now, J.R. and his friend Ben had been playing a relaxing game of wizarding chess while Antigone and Clara looked on. When Ben announced he was going to bed, however, the mood shifted from easygoing to anticipating in seconds.

Clara looked up to find both Antigone and J.R.'s eyes on her. She took a deep breath, trying to organize her thoughts in her head before divulging them to her friends.

"I know both of you want to know what Flitwick said. And J.R., I know you have been very patient with me about the incident a few weeks ago," she began, J.R. nodded while Antigone furrowed her brow in confusion.

"It all began when Scorpius took our wands. Throughout the whole match I had this odd feeling, like I was surround by dirt and bugs, it wasn't pleasant," she chuckled, but her audience was silent as they took this in, "Anyways, I tried to concentrate on the match, Antigone, I truly did, but my mind kept going to that place and I figured out my wand was calling me to it. When the match was over I completely blacked out and felt as thought I was my wand, buried in the dirt. I saw exactly where it was. That's how I was able to find them so quickly."

"Why didn't you tell us this when it happened?" J.R. asked after a moment. Clara blushed.

"I knew it would sound crazy," she answered, "I didn't want to lose the two friends I had."

"Clara, that would never happen!" Antigone insisted, and Clara was glad her friend was not angry at her for missing most of her first match.

"So what happened with Flitwick today? I noticed when you performed the locator charm you reacted differently than the rest of us." J.R. said.

"He asked me what happened when I performed the locator charm, and as you may have guessed, the same thing happened as that day in the forest except I was seeing where my book was rather than my wand." She went on to tell them how she had told Flitwick about the first experience and his odd reaction to it. When she mentioned he thought it might be wandless magic, Antigone nodded excitedly but J.R. held a reserved expression.

"I know," She directed her comment to him, "I doubted that too."

"But why?" Antigone asked, "It's logical, isn't it? Extremely impressive, but logical."

"But Clara didn't even know the locator charm yet," J.R. responded, and Clara nodded in agreement, "I think Flitwick may be hiding something, but he may just not be ready to tell you what all this means yet."

Clara felt nerves bubble up in her stomach, "I'm afraid to know what it means."

While J.R. and Antigone offered their thoughts on the matter, Clara had an internal discussion going on in the back of her mind. She was already so different from the rest of her family, was there really something else going on that would make her different from everyone else as well?