Hosie - Hogwarts Au (Harry Potter / Legacies)

Chapter 19

"Did you really think I would fall for this?" She raises the scarf up in her hand, something Hope hadn't noticed she'd been holding until this moment. Hope shakes her head again. Merlin, this is all going so wrong.

"I don't know what you're playing at, Mikaelson, but..." the muggleborn trails off, looking up as if trying to make sure the tears gleaming in her eyes won't fall. She throws the scarf and it hits Hope's stomach, falling to the floor limply. It weighs next to nothing but Hope feels it like a rock.

"I'm not..."

"Mikaelson, you forgot your bookbag!" Hope turns around at the sound of Penelope's voice. She freezes at the sight of her.

"Park—"

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" Penelope interrupts, swaggering over with a smirk on her face. Why does Hope feel like she's been caught doing something she shouldn't be?

Penelope coos slightly as comes to a stop five feet away from Josette and right next to Hope. She hands the pureblood her book bag and turns back to Josette. She doesn't notice the scarf on the floor.

"Nothing of your concern," Josette says pointedly, the tears in her eyes gone. Penelope glances at Hope, a silent question in her eyes, are you handling this?

Hope nods just barely.

"Alright," Penelope says, smirking slightly, her nose upturned in a derisive manner. Hope doesn't know how she can master sneering and smirking all at once. "I thought I would just say hello."

"Well," the muggleborn born narrows her eyes, frowning. "You've said your hello, now go away."

"What would be the fun in that?" Penelope smiles wickedly, and Hope can see the tip of her wand pointing out of her sleeve. She needs to disrupt this quickly, or else the three of them might start a duel. Yet, she can't bring herself to say a word. There's a reason she wasn't sorted into Gryffindor.

"Just leave me alone," the muggleborn says, not really a request, but Hope thinks she seems defeated. Her eyes sweep over Hope, almost like an afterthought. Hope's blood runs hot underneath her gaze. "The both of you."

The bell rings, and the hallway begins to quickly fill with students. She loses sight of Josette somewhere between the mass of teenagers and allows the scarf to remain on the floor. It gets buried underneath mindless feet, stepped on and stomped over repeatedly. Hope imagines that the scarf is her heart because it certainly feels bruised.

She misses Josette in both Potions and Transfiguration, but the girl makes an appearance in Arithmancy. She steadily avoids Hope's constant glances, though, and after a little while, Hope tries to pretend that the muggleborn doesn't exist as well.

"What did you get for the last problem?" William murmurs to her while Professor Vector is teaching. She does not even hear him.

By the end of the day, Hope is definitely not looking forward to detention. She'll be sharing it with much of her friends, but that does nothing to make her feel better about it.

She, Ethan, Maya, and Penelope arrives at Slughorn's classroom together. When they get there, Hope quickly notices that most of the other sixth-year Slytherins are there. There are only two people from any other houses waiting outside the classroom—Rafael Waithe and Milton Greasley. Hope doesn't immediately understand why they're here, but she doesn't really care. They're both talking to Josette, who looks up slightly when Hope and her friends come into eyesight.

"Come in, come in." The door swings open, and Slughorn ushers them all inside. He tells everyone to sit down, and Hope eyes her usual spot with Josie before moving to the back.

"Right..." He looks over all of them nervously, small beads of sweat on his face. "Your detention will last an hour. Your punishment is to sit here in silence and think about exactly why you've found yourselves in this position. I will not be here but do not think that that means you can fool around. This—"

He raises a crystal cylinder, setting it on his desk. "—Will notify me if the room's volume exceeds a certain level. If you feel the need to talk, I suggest you keep your voices to a mere whisper. If not, you will leave me no choice but to assign more detentions."

Hope thinks it's weird that he just told them how to get away with talking, but she definitely doesn't mind. Slughorn gives them another last hurried, anxious glance before leaving. She misses the way his eyes linger on herself and Josette specifically.

There's about a second of silence after he leaves before the room breaks out in small whispers. Some people choose not to talk, carefully watching the crystal cylinder in front of them. Hope is one of them, her eyes catching the way the cylinder fills with water, reaching the top but not spilling over as people continue to talk.

Sebastian sits next to her, doing the same, but she can't ignore the glaring looks he's sending to Milton Greasley every once in a while. Hope doesn't mention anything to him or question it since she's doing the same to Josette.

Ethan is also silent, having no energy to talk to anyone at night if it's not to flirt with Rose. She watches as Penelope and Maya banter about one thing or another, before turning her attention to somewhere else.

"You guys really didn't have to do this for me," Hope overhears from the muggleborn.

"And what? Leave you to the snakes? Of course, we had to," Milton tells her, smiling crookedly. Hope wonders if he thinks he's charming.

"Getting detention was a little over the top, though," Josette says, her cheeks pinking.

"Anything to protect you, Princess," Rafael chimes in. His voice is too soft, and it irritates Hope. Merlin, did everyone the girl talk to just fall in love with her? It was starting to get ridiculous.

And did they seriously get detention just so she wouldn't have to be here alone? They had to be either terribly stupid or painfully loyal, and the girl had only been here for about two and a half weeks. Hope thinks it must be the former option. What kind of pet name was Princess, anyways?

At one point, twenty minutes later, Milton accidentally glances in their direction and catches one of Sebastian's menacing stares.

"What are you looking at?" the Slytherin hisses, sitting up in his chair.

"Nothing impressive," Milton replies easily, a confidence Hope had never seen before. It did not suit him.

Sebastian stands up so quickly his chair scrapes against the ugly flooring. The room quiets as the two of them exchange a heated look. Hope deeply wonders why the pair was suddenly so hateful towards each other. She chalks it off to Slytherin-Gryffindor rivalry.

"What did you just say?" Sebastian spits dangerously. Hope eyes the magic cylinder absentmindedly.

"I said," Milton breathes, standing up as well, "you're nothing impressive."

A pause stands between them both before Sebastian's face contorts with even more aggression.

"You're going to regret saying that, you dirty little blood traitor—" The next thing Hope knows, Sebastian's running at Milton and the two of them fall to the floor as he tackles him. He brings his fist back and hits the other boy three times across the temple. Blood spurts down the Gryffindor's mouth and nose, painting the Slytherin's knuckles bright red.

Ethan and Hope react first, standing up and pulling Sebastian's left and right arms back. They bring him up to a stand and tightly grip his elbows as he tries to lunge again. The cylinder spills with water, flooding the desk around it.

Josette restrains Milton herself, grabbing him by the back of his robe and wrapping her arms underneath his own and around his waist. Rafael stands up, too, pushing him back with his hands against his chest.

"Do you want some of this? Huh?" the boy yells foolishly, and Hope rolls her eyes. She wants to comment that Sebastian already got some of that, as Milton's blood is still streaking the floor in small spots.

Sebastian himself struggles again her own hold, but he doesn't dignify the bait with a reply. Milton does the same in Josette's and she tries to calm him down. She looks at Hope when she says, "It's not worth it."

No, Hope thinks, her eyes meeting the muggleborn's. It isn't.