Cast yourself (you are the spell)

Chapter 30

No. She knows.

Josie had regretted it.

-

Hope slathers cream cheese angrily on her bagel, the restless chatter of the great hall only aggravating her irritation. Her muscles are still sore despite the bath she had taken after Josette left, and she had not slept well at all, her thoughts completely and utterly violated by the frustrating muggleborn. The frustrating muggleborn who she had kissed just a couple of hours before.

To make matters even worse, someone had healed Penelope's black eye, and now Hope can't even get any enjoyment out of seeing that.

"Can you stop being so gross?" Maya whispers across from her, eyeing the bagel in her hand with disgust as Hope angrily takes a bite out of it and glances at Penelope. Their friend group had remained awkward the entire morning, no one talking about the fight but the hundreds of gossiping students around them.

"How am I being gross?" Hope asks, seething. She should have punched Penelope harder. The still-present throb in her bruised knuckles was not worth it. Maybe she could have Josette heal-

No.

"You're eating a bagel with mayo," Maya deadpans, lifting up a spoon of oatmeal. Hope chokes and drops the bagel. She had not even noticed that she had grabbed mayonnaise instead of cream cheese. Merlin, she was so out of it. She hadn't tasted the difference at all.

An ear-splitting shriek allows Hope to focus on something else. It comes from the Gryffindor table, close to where Hope had been watching Josette for the last ten minutes.

The students all turn in their seats to watch, some even swaying dangerously in their seats to get a better look.

Hope's eyes set on Milton Greasley, a red, animated letter in front of him, screaming as if it's a real person.

"MILTON GREASLEY!"

Oh. A howler. Thank Merlin her parents are above such public embarrassment. They have a reputation to uphold anyways.

However, Hope Mikaelson is not above watching others embarrass themselves.

"I CANNOT-CANNOT-BELIEVE YOU! GETTING INTO A FIGHT WITH ANOTHER STUDENT?" the letter shrieks in, what Hope imagines, is Milton's mother's voice. The boy shrinks back with humiliation. "WHEN HAVE I EVER, EVER, TAUGHT YOU THAT VIOLENCE IS THE ANSWER? I AM COMPLETELY REPULSED BY YOUR BEHAVIOR. I HAVE HALF THE MIND TO FLOO OVER RIGHT THIS INSTANT, IF NOT FOR YOUR SICK, AILING FATHER, WHO IS EQUALLY DISAPPOINTED IN YOU. NOW, YOU WILL APOLOGIZE TO THAT POOR BOY, OR YOU WILL LEAVE ME NO CHOICE BUT TO THROW OUT YOUR CHUDLEY CANNONS COLLECTION! UNDERSTOOD?"

The scared boy nods, his head almost falling off with the hysterical movement. "YOU BEST BE NODDING YOUR HEAD RIGHT NOW!"

Milton only begins to nod quicker, and Hope thinks he looks very silly, indeed.

The letter then leans back, as if to say goodbye, and explodes into ashes that fall all over Milton's breakfast and soils his morning soup.

The great hall erupts into laughter, and even Hope snickers along with her friends. She meets Penelope's eye on accident, who is also snickering, and the two laugh together for a small second before realizing themselves and dropping their smiles.

Hope looks away and back to the Gryffindor table, her eyes unwittingly searching for Josette's own reaction. She finds that the girl has her head thrown back, giggling at her friend's expense.

She calms down a moment later and meets Hope's eye from across the room. Something in the pureblood's stomach jolts and she sucks in a breath at having been caught staring. Hope watches as the brunette's cheeks tinge with pink before she gives a slight wave with her fingers, and Hope nods imperceptibly before focusing back to her disgusting bagel.