Cast yourself (you are the spell)

Chapter 18

She pushes against Hope's shoulders, but the pureblood doesn't budge. Hope only arches her eyebrow in confusion and smirks. Inside, she's screaming.

"Don't play dumb with me," the muggleborn pushes her again. Hope glances around to her friends, who are waiting for a signal to intervene. She waves them off, but they don't move away. "I waited outside Slughorn's classroom for nearly thirty minutes. Imagine my surprise, when he informed me that detention had been cancelled hours ago, and you were supposed to tell me."

"Oh, right..." Hope trails off, as if she's just remembered what she was supposed to do. In fact, she had never forgotten, and it had plagued her mind for much of the night. She swallows a rock lodged deeply within in her throat; her friends' eyes weigh terribly on her. "I must have forgotten."

"My bad." She shrugs, turning away. Had her heart always sounded this loud in her ears? Merlin, she thinks everyone in the room can hear it.

"I can't believe you," Josette whispers, just between the both of them, something akin to incredulity in her voice. She looks at Hope for a short moment before leaving the common room altogether. Hope's heart continues to pound long after the door shuts behind her.

-

Saturday morning holds the Gryffindor vs Ravenclaw game. Hope wakes up extra early-with much thanks to the Dreamless Sleep potion-and only attends for the sake of Pedro, who will be getting his revenge on Alyssa Chang during the match.

She had spent much of her time after classes teaching him a stinging hex, one that would create boils along a person's skin and gives the pigment a weird complexion. It was perfect for Pedro, as it was a simple, temporary spell and the Chang girl would know exactly where it came from.

He follows her through the stands, and they settle in the back as the game begins. He pulls out a red and gold-Gryffindor-flag from his pocket, and almost starts to wave it around before Hope hurriedly plucks it out of his hand and throws it off the bleachers.

It falls five hundred feet to the ground, and Pedro watches it go down the entire time.

"Why did you do that?" he asks, the corners his lips turning down. Hope sighs.

"Where'd you get that flag?" she asks, instead of answering.

"Jo gave it to me," he says. Hope waits until Pedro looks away to roll her eyes. Merlin, that girl was everywhere.

"Don't ever talk to her again, do you hear me?" Hope watches as his eyebrows knit together. She can't allow this to happen to him. If he becomes a blood traitor, his family would burn him off the tree, no matter his age. "She's a mug-"

"She's a bad influence," she says, because saying that she's a muggleborn doesn't sound completely right. It didn't sound like something Pedro would understand.

"But she helped heal me after what Ravenclaw did," he tells her. Hope frowns.

"I thought Ethan took you to the hospital wing?" she asks. Pedro shakes his head vehemently.

"No, he got distracted flirting with Rose."

"Oh," Hope breathes. "Well, I'm sure he didn't mean to forget about you. Rose and him...it's complicated."

"And what about you and Jo?" Hope almost snaps at him, almost tells him that he doesn't know what he's talking about, almost tells him that he can't keep calling her Jo if he doesn't want to get bullied, or worse, disowned.

She opens her mouth, and none of that comes out.

"It's complicated."

About twenty minutes later, Hope finds an opening in the game and signals for Pedro to try the spell. Alyssa Chang has been commentating the entire time-something Hope realized she was only doing for extra credit-and the actual game is quite intense.