Standing outside her office she looked at the students that followed her to see if they could find any notes. "Now everyone I want you to check the wall out side the tower and in the tower around my office." She tried to think but her memory was having issues. Did the tower get changed out all during the 200 years that could have placed the wall differently than Crystal would have known it? She just couldn't think of any possibilities.

"I want everyone looking. Knock on the wall, if it sounds different you will find the right place." She had already forgotten the exact directions the Divination professor had told them and she left her paper in the spirit room. She headed into her office and started to knock on the wall. What did she exactly tell them, something about loose bricks? Was that it?

"If anyone finds something please yell out."

Aboli had followed Professor Kitridge closely as they made their way up to the tower. Her heart was raaaaacing, and she could feel it thumping against her chest. This was all soooo freakin' exciting and dangerous and idhwuiefhwiufhwgf!!!!

Nodding at Professor K's instructions, Aboli began tapping her useless wand against bricks outside her office. They needed to work fast, so if she didn't immediately hear something off she was moving on QUICK. "Will do, Professor!" she called out.

Claudine was more than pleased to follow Kitridge and Abiola to the Tower. She tried her best to keep up with them and everyone else because it would not help the situation if she got lost. For one thing, she didn’t remember where exactly the tower was located and for another, everyone’s transparency issues made it that more difficult to keep up with them.

Fortunately, Claudine was able to keep up and retain the instructions given. “Got you, Professor.’’ The Snakette decided that she would start with the outside of the tower. Using her wand and fists alternatively, she began tapping on every inch of the tower that she could reach.

She was happy that the girls were there to help. She continued to walk around her office tapping on the wall. What if the tower had changed since Crystal was there. No, she couldn't remember anything being changed in any books she had read, but her memory was not doing well for her lately. So she decided to check one of her books. Walking over to her bookcase she reached for a book, but her hand slipped right through it. She felt herself fade again.

Turning on her heel she headed toward the door and out with the girls. "We need to hurry and find something." More concern in her voice than she would like but right now she was so faded she knew the girls would only hear her voice and not see her.


As she headed back into her office her shoes came back in view and then the rest of her followed. Tapping on a few more bricks she knew it had to be somewhere, it had to be somewhere.

Even though Cassie had the right idea in her office it was the girls outside the office near the tower trap door towards the classroom that they would find the bricks loose. Once someone comes upon the bricks one would be easy enough to move to show a small opening where cobwebs wrapped around a old and dirty piece of parchment.

Claudine was in quite the bad mood by the time she had started her search. Sometimes she would drop her wand when her hand decided to fade out completely. Each time, she would resort to using her left hand to hold said wand so that she could continue tap-tapping the bricks. In time, the girl moved over to the tower’s trap door, and here, she was using her wand to tap each brick. She made sure to listen carefully and it soon paid off. Each brick sounded the same until they suddenly didn’t. These sounded… hollow. Heart pounding a little quickly, she used her hands {now mercifully not completely faded} to pry the bricks apart. They were loose enough so as to not require much effort.

“I’ve found something,’’ she called to the other students out there with her. Maybe the professor heard her too. Gingerly, Claudine stuck her hand in the space and shuddered. Cobwebs. Still, she was determined enough to retrieve the slip of parchment which she dusted off as best as she could before shaking it open.

“Future Hogwarts, I hope you have found this note. I won't take up too much time. I have found information that will help you. You will need to get to a place where you can find the eye of the storm and work together doing the spell tempore tempestatis fixus. Good luck everyone!’’ she read aloud.

Huh?

As soon as Heath knew he had a choice in which search group to join, following the group headed to the divination tower was a no-brainer! He knew that if he went with Thropp, he'd be too terrified of the headmaster to concentrate on looking for anything. Besides, that book they were searching for in the library sounded like it could be anything! At least he had some idea of what they were looking for here. He nodded at Professor Kenobi's instructions, but quickly remembered that she probably wouldn't see that. "Right," he replied, saying as little as possible lest his voice betray his emotions. Wasting no time, he joined Claudine and Amidala in tapping the bricks outside the professor's office, using both his wand and his fist at the same time. If he tapped on two areas at once, maybe they'd find the note they were looking for sooner!

Heath's head whipped around as Professor Kenobi told them to hurry. He definitely heard her, but he couldn't see her! They were running out of time… For the first time, cracks began to appear in his unaffected facade, and in a weird way, part of him was almost glad to be fading in and out. At least it would make it harder to see his trembling lip and panic-stricken eyes.

If they did fade away forever, would they all disappear at the same time or one by one? Who would go first? He'd spent his whole life fading figuratively; it didn't seem much of a stretch that he'd be first to fade literally. If he did go first and others were able to fix this before everyone in the school disappeared, would someone tell his mum that he went out trying to find the answers to save them? The thought crossed Heath’s mind to ask Professor Kenobi, but he was worried Claudine and Amidala would overhear if he did. Whatever he felt, he would not upset or distract the girls with it, especially not at a time like this!

Despite his overwhelming emotions, Heath never stopped tapping the bricks until Claudine’s voice jerked him out of his thoughts. He sidled over to her, standing behind her to see the note for himself as she read it out loud. For the first time since everyone faded in the spirit room, he had a glimmer of hope that they might survive this, but soon the answer contained within the note raised yet another question. “Okay, so does anybody know where the eye of the storm actually is?” he wondered out loud.

Tap tap!

Tap!

Tap tap tap taaaaaap!

Aboli kept it up, only stopping to glance over at Heath and Claudine every so often. They seemed to be making zero progress, and it was disheartening just a little bit. Professor K said they needed to hurry in such a concerning tone that Aboli felt her heart quicken in a very real, gut-wrenching fear. She began to tap more quickly and furiously as she went along, but when she suddenly heard Claudine say she found something she gasped. "REALLY WHAT?!" she cried as she ran behind the girl, peering over her shoulder at the note. She read it silently in her head as the younger snake read it aloud...


WhaaaaAAAaaat?

"Eye of the storm...the storm going on outside, Professor?" she glanced upward. "But we can't do magic! It won't work!" and she couldn't hide the panic in her voice as she glanced down at her practically useless wand she had gripped in her hand. "Do you think we can see the eye of the storm in one of the towers? Somewhere high? In the owlery?" ANYONE?

She had been still searching through her office when she heard someone yell from the corridor. Which one of the students had been yelling? Was something wrong? She hurried out of her office, "What is going on out here?" Was there fighting or just some confusion about something? As she looked around she noticed bricks missing and it hit her what they were doing.

"Did you say you found something? Moving closer to the students and looking at each of them as they started to ask questions. "Eye of the storm?" She said aloud as she thought. "Some storms have an eye, it is usually the center. So yes a tower could be an option." As she continued to try to sort it out with her foggy memory she gave another glance.

"We need to get this to the headmaster. Let's head to the library and find the rest of the group." Turning she motioned the group to follow as she headed to the library.

Was it bad that hearing the panic in Amidala’s voice made Heath feel slightly less ashamed of his own fear? He blinked, lost in thought; overthinking things was the only way he could distract himself from his emotions. Amidala was right about their inability to do magic, but he doubted Professor Divine would’ve left them that spell if there was no way for them to perform it. Then it occurred to him. “Maybe something about the eye of the storm itself is magic,” he mused, trying to recall if he’d ever heard or read anything about magical weather phenomena. Nothing came to mind, but that was the only thing that made sense. If they got to the eye, maybe they could harness its magic!

The question still remained: where was the eye of the storm? Heath was unsure what to make of Amidala’s suggestion. She had a point about looking for the eye from a high vantage point, but did they really have time to go running all over the castle based on a hunch? Then he remembered they already were in the divination tower! If Amidala was right, they might be able to see the eye of the storm from a window in the classroom or Professor Kenobi’s office.

Before he had the chance to point that out, Professor Kenobi was leading them to the library. Heath started to follow her but hesitated for a fraction of a second, looking back at Claudine. There was something he had to tell her before they ran out of time, and he’d rather not say it in the library in front of Thropp and a mob of other students. “Claudine?” he said, keeping his voice down in hopes that Amidala wouldn’t overhear. “Just in case I d-” His voice broke as he tried to say the word “disappear”; he tried again. “-you know, thanks for being my friend.”

Wasting no more time, he followed Professor Kenobi, looking back every so often to make sure the girls didn’t fall too far behind.

“... a place where you can find the eye of the storm…” made Claudine immediately think of the Astronomy tower. How she arrived at that thought, she wasn’t sure. Abiola’s panic did not quite lift her spirits but only discouraged her slightly, despite the clue that had been located. But the professor’s suggestion of the library gave her something to be distracted by. Great. At least they could still attempt to salvage the situation and save themselves.

The girl folded the note carefully then slipped it into her pocket. No doubt they’d need to refer to it once more. She was about to follow everyone else when she heard her name being called softly and looked up to see Heathen hanging back. “Yes?’’ she asked, puzzled as to why he was speaking so quietly. It all made sense a second or two later. “Oh.’’ Claudine was momentarily taken aback. No one ever thanked her for being their friend, and she had had it stuck in her head that she wasn’t a particularly good one though she could not remember why. “You’re welcome, Heathen, but no one’s going to disappear today or any day.’’ She gave him an encouraging smile, which she hoped that he could see then actually started following the group. His words had cheered her up quite a bit.