𝐆𝐑𝐘𝐅𝐅𝐈𝐍𝐃𝐎𝐑'𝐒 𝐃𝐄𝐒𝐂𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐀𝐍𝐓|𝐇𝐨𝐩𝐞 𝐌𝐢𝐤𝐚𝐞𝐥𝐬𝐨𝐧

𝟐𝟒. 𝐀 𝐃𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐓𝐲𝐩𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐖𝐚𝐲

"Neither am I. So far she's just a jealous teen stuck inside an older woman's body."

Draco laughed, pulling her further into him, placing a kiss where his lips touched. "Just be careful, my little witch." Hope stilled at this, wishing he had called her what she truly was, but still, she was too afraid to tell him what she really was. She huffed out a laugh and nodded while pulling away from him.

"Don't underestimate me, Malfoy."

The wizard shook his head firmly, "Never, Mikaelson."

"Stupefy!" Another week of classes and the students were beginning to make progress with their newly learned spells. Harry was helping Neville and Cho with their spell stupefy, while Hope was on the other side of the room helping Ron and Hermione with their levicorpus spell. For the next few days of the week they worked on the spells they had the most trouble with, while Umbridge was coming up with more ways to keep them down.

It was Wednesday afternoon right after lunch when Hope and her group of friends at the Gryffindor table heard the banging of a hammer against the stone wall again. Hope was the first up, wanting to know what the new rule was. Harry, Hermione, and Ron followed behind her along with Apollo and Luna from the Ravenclaw table.
As they neared the wall they saw that Draco was already standing there looking up with Blaise, and a few other Slytherins. The Slytherins were smirking, while Draco looked conflicted between smirking along with them and giving his girlfriend a look of concern because of what the new rule was.

Just as Hope eyed the rule, the high-pitched voice of Umbridge rung throughout the school halls, "Those wishing to join the Inquisitorial Squad for extra credit may sign up at the High Inquisitor's Office."

As the students looked at the wall they saw that there was more than just a few new rules, and as Hope read them all, Draco glanced at her from where he stood. Blaise elbowed him slightly, pulling him out of his trance and pulled him along with the other Slytherins back toward the great hall for lunch.
Still, Draco turned to look back at the tribrid, who was staring back at him with the same conflicted look on her face. They both wanted to run toward each other and be in each other's arms. Draco wanted to tell her that she could do anything she set her mind to, and Hope wanted to rely on someone else.

But like fate would have it, they were both pulled in different directions.

"Diminuendo!" The charmed object going toward the Ravenclaw suddenly shrunk and ran away. Hope smiled at the boy and nodded her head telling him he had done a good job. She moved on from the boy and went to see if the others needed help. When she saw they didn't she decided to go stand near the entrance to the room, looking over everyone and smiling shortly. She was so lost in her own thoughts she hadn't even realized Harry coming up next to her with his hands behind his back.

"You know, you could be a really good professor one day."

The tribrid scoffed, "Yeah right. You, maybe, but not me." Harry raised a brow, "And why not?"

Hope shook her head, "I don't think I'd be good at it, honestly. Sure, I'm okay here, but these are my peers. It's different."

Harry nodded, stepping next to her and scanning her distressed looking face. "You okay? You seem out of it somehow."

The tribrid shrugged, glancing at him and then back at the students all practicing their spells. She had always longed for friends like them, loyal to a fault. It was always her who was the upmost loyal, and now she could see herself gaining friends just like that. For some reason it scared her more than it excited her, and she didn't particularly know why.