Cast yourself (you are the spell)

Chapter 24

"Would you like to go to Slughorn's party together, then?" She glances up from the fireplace to light, anxious eyes. Hope raises her eyebrows. "I'm not trying to get into your knickers-I swear on my family's honor."

She turns away and rolls her eyes. Sebastian had always been so dramatic.

"Why?" she asks him.

"I..." It appears as though he had not expected her to question him. "Does it matter? You need a date, don't you?"

Hope finds herself perfectly fine with the fact that Sebastian was trying to keep his secrets. Deep down, she knows she could take anyone, but honestly, she did not feel like doing this with someone she could barely tolerate. She just could not go alone-that was too much humiliation for one night. Sure, she could hang out with Ethan and Rose, who were going together, but she would be a third wheel the entire time.

"True." She stands up from the chair she had been sitting on. "Whatever dress robes you wear, make sure they're dark. We're being vampires."

She waits for him to comment on how cliched her choice was, but he only grins. "Come to the common room early so I can get your make-up done."

Sebastian pauses, choking slightly. "Make-up?"

"You don't like make-up?" She frowns, trying her best to look serious.

"No! It's fine," Sebastian tells her in a hurry. She begins to walk up the staircase, and he calls out to stop her. "Actually, you know, I love mascara."

-

Hope sleeps in on Saturday until the afternoon, and then wakes up to get ready. She swings her legs over her bed and digs through her book bag, finding a small vial filled with molten-gold liquid. She pockets it, her fingers nearly trembling. She had decided last night that she would use it today for the party.

She and Rose then start to do their hair together in the bathroom as Penelope and Maya watch them.

"It's just not fair," Maya rants, a sugar quill between her lips. "I only laughed, but you almost started a duel. How are you still allowed to go?"

"What can I say?" Hope smirks. "Snape adores me."

"You should tell your father what he said," Penelope chimes in, holding a Witch's Weekly magazine. "The audacity of that man...he ought to pay for it."

"Don't move," Rose tells Hope, waving a wand around the back of her hair. It curls the strands beneath it into soft ringlets. Hope bristles but listens. She had never really cared for stuff like this.

"Hey, Mikaelson!" Hope hadn't realized Penelope had still been talking. She looks back and moves half her body, causing Rose to slap her. "If I didn't have detention, you would have picked me first, right?

Hope doesn't dignify that with a response, and Penelope and Maya start arguing.

"So, you're taking Ethan?" she asks Rose, barely able to hear herself over her bantering friends. Rose shyly smiles.

"Yeah, he's really excited," she says, not meeting Hope's eyes.

"And you?"

Rose hesitates just enough that Hope catches it. "I heard a lot of people were going," she states simply, changing the subject. Hope wonders if that was her way of answering.

When they're done with their hair, they move onto their dresses. Hope puts on a pretty dark grey one that brings out the blue in her eyes and complements her curves and figure. It runs attractively down her legs, not exactly tightly but not flowing wildly either.