Hosie - Hogwarts Au (Harry Potter / Legacies)

Chapter 31

Ethan and Maya drag Hope along to the library after classes to help them with their homework. She isn't much help, of course. Her mind is far too scattered to concentrate on more than one thing at a time, and she commonly finds herself distracted.

When Ethan asks for help with Transfiguration, instead of helping, Hope remembers small instants of her time in the class—Penelope transfiguring Josette's shirt buttons into insects, the muggleborn performing spells better than her, arguing with her, whispering in her ear—

And when Maya and Hope try visualizing their happy memories for Defense, Hope almost tells the girl about Josette's memory instead of her own.

To say the least, Hope is very, very distracted. She almost doesn't notice when Rose walks in with a trailing Penelope, the girl's tail tucked between her legs.

Maya has to poke her with her elbow three times before Hope glances up to watch as Penelope walks slowly up to them like she doesn't want to be there.

She actually comes to a full stop and tries to leave before Rose grabs her roughly and pushes her forward.

"Hi, guys. How is everyone doing?" Rose asks sweetly, the look in her eyes making it clear that she is not sweet, and pulls Penelope again as she tries to flee a second time.

Rose doesn't let anyone answer before she continues. Dread pools in Hope's stomach. "Good. Penelope here would like to apologize to you, Hope."

Penelope stays silent. Hope stays silent.

"Isn't that right, P?" she prods, and Penelope nods but doesn't make eye contact with anyone. Maya starts shaking with laughter next to Hope, and she frowns. She does not need a forced apology on top of everything else.

Rose digs a hand into Penelope's back and the girl starts talking quickly enough. "Ah! Yes. I'm sorry, for earlier. I shouldn't have punched you like that. I was having a bad day—"

"Nope," Rose cuts in, smiling through clenched teeth. "That's not how we rehearsed it."

"Oh, right!" Penelope nods, no doubt motivated by the hand still digging into her back. "I mean to say, I'm sorry. There's no excuse for what I did."

Hope takes a long second to make the other girl sweat. She smirks, snark edging into her voice. "Okay. I will accept your apology."

Rose smiles.

"But only if you get on your knees and beg for my forgiveness."

Penelope narrows her eyes and jumps like she wants to pounce across the table Hope is sitting at and strangle her. Rose pulls her back and shoots Hope a pointed look.

She sighs. "Fine. I'm sorry, too. I shouldn't have started it."

"Great!" Rose beams, a completely different person now, and sits down across from Hope. Penelope begrudgingly sits down as well and the two nod civilly at each other. "So..."

She starts in on a small babble about Ancient Runes theories and Hope tunes her out in the knowledge that Ethan is hanging onto her every word anyways.

Her eyes catch Alyssa Chang by the library entrance a minute later, heading their way with something behind her back. She knits her eyebrows as the girl stops in front of their table. The library is mostly empty, which makes her being here even more of an anomaly.