Hosie - Hogwarts Au (Harry Potter / Legacies)

Chapter 13

“Hate who, Josie?”

Josette looks up suddenly. Hope doesn’t think she meant to say that. She ducks slightly when she realizes the muggleborn might be able to see her.

“Hate who?” Anna repeats, and Hope watches in slow-motion as the other girl answers. She can’t believe her ears.

“Mikaelson,” Josette tells her, and Hope can’t completely swallow right passed the lump in her throat. Tears build up unbidden in her eyes. Why had she thought this was a good idea in the first place? Did Josette actually hate her? But, of course she did. Was it really such a surprise to hear it out loud? “S-she read the letter. And now she’s going to tell everyone, and my parents are going to be so angry with me.”

“She might not, Jo,” Anna attempts to soothe her. “And I reckon your parents should be angry with themselves for saying such horrible things to you. If it gets out, they ought to be embarrassed, not you.”

“No,” Josette tells her, her head dropping as she continues to cry quietly. A frown splits Hope’s lips, but if one were to ask she would call it a sneer. Her chest hurts, and she thinks maybe it’s because her heart has stopped beating. Why does she feel so bad for a mudblood? The answer was too easy. “No, my parents are right; I humiliated our family. Have you ever heard of a muggleborn in Slytherin? No wonder they’re mad...they think that, that I’m...evil.”

A sharp sob escapes her throat, and Anna rubs calming circles into her back. Hope manages to take a step back, but her body doesn’t let her do much else. Every time she breathes, she feels flames ignite in her throat. She gets the sudden urge to grab her family ring from her finger and throw it off the tower. To hell with being a Mikaelson. She never knew it could feel this awful.

Yet, she could blame her lineage all she wanted, but this was all her if she thought about it. She was the one that was mean to the girl, after all.

“You’re not, though! We’ve only just met days ago, but you’re the kindest person I know!” Anna reassures the witch, to no avail. Josette ignores her.

“You know, I begged the Sorting hat not to put me in Slytherin. Literally anywhere else, I asked,” Josette says, humorlessly. “And my parents—they wouldn’t even buy me a spare robe, nevermind a scarf or tie. My dad says he’s working on talking to my mom about it, but I know he’s just pretending.”

Hope decides that she’s heard enough.

With a heavy heart and lungs like fire, Hope retreats down the staircase with small footsteps. The sound of Josette crying follows her all the way down, and she can still imagine it as she settles back into bed.

She doesn’t sleep much the entire night, her eyes open wide to the ceiling, her ears attuned to tears that have long stopped. Foolishly, she had thought hearing the contents of the letter would make her feel better. Now she had even more questions. Her dreams once again plague her, except for this time memories of the summer are added into the mix.