"I'm tired."
Hope rolls her eyes. "You're tired? I've climbed fourteen flights of stairs in the past half hour."
"That's not fair. I don't do sports like you do," Josie whines, the soft pads of her socks thudding dully against the floor. Hope continues to pull her along by her hand as they finally reach the seventh floor.
Underneath her breath, the brunette mutters, "Why does a school even need to have seven stories, anyway?"
Hope pretends not to hear her.
"Why aren't you wearing shoes?" she asks, instead.
"I couldn't find my heels," Josie says.
"So you decided not to wear anything at all?"
"I'm wearing socks."
"With..." Hope pauses, stealing another glance at Josie's socks. "...Purple cats on them?"
"I didn't have time to change," the brunette tells her, simply. She even lifts her shoulders in a shrug. "And I didn't want to be late to meet with you."
Aww. How sweet.
"Obviously," Josie adds, voice lowered and tone a little snarky, "you didn't feel the need to share the same courtesy with me."
"I already told you," Hope huffs out, trying hard not to pant. She's a bit winded from all this walking. "I was climbing fourteen flights of stairs."
"What a convenient excuse."
Hope stops walking so suddenly that Josie bumps into her back. She stumbles around and almost slips, before the pureblood catches her around the waist.
She lets out a deep sigh and rolls her shoulders. Josie tries to pretend she hadn't just tripped over air. "Do you want me to teach you how to dance or not?"
Josie's lips down-turn into a deep pout, and she starts to look everywhere but Hope like some petulant child. Hope watches her and stays silent for a long moment, before intertwining their fingers again and starting toward the corridor she had found the ball room in.
"Okay, then." She smirks, just a little. "We're almost there."
Her smirk falls a second later.
"Aye, aye, Captain—"
Hope stops walking again.
She asks the same question.
Josie pouts once more.
She makes another joke and/or complaint.
Cycle on repeat.
After about another minute of walking, the two begin to approach the wall Hope had stood in front of not ten minutes ago. Except, the wall is blank and covered in the same tapestry it had been when Hope first passed it.
"Huh." The pureblood frowns, feeling embarrassed. She had all but dragged Josie up seven floors for something she had probably imagined. "It was right here, I swear."
To her surprise, the brunette doesn't look at her like she's crazy. She just seems concerned. Josie cocks her head to the side.
"Have you been getting enough sleep, babe?" she asks, eyebrows knitted in worry. Hope rolls her eyes but pinks at the affectionate pet name all the same.
"I...um, y-yes. Yeah."
The pureblood looks down at her feet and curses inwardly, but she doesn't have to feel embarrassed for very long.
"Wow," Josie breathes out next to her and disconnects their hands, startling Hope out of her self-pitiful thoughts.
Her eyes dart out back to the wall, and she relaxes her shoulders in relief when she sees that the door she had found earlier is now back and opening up again.
Josie invites herself inside, her hands falling dead at her sides as she marvels at the magnificence of the room.
Hope looks around herself, noticing that the neutral walls from earlier have turned pink. The crown molding and wall trim is much lighter, and the black piano is now white, but the keys are still moving on their own.
The muggleborn begins to hum quietly, before she seems to remember herself and turns back to Hope. "This is amazing," she says, a little breathless, eyes a little wet.
Hope has to agree.
"I know," she whispers, for some odd reason, as if talking in her normal voice might disrupt the silent beauty of the room. She grabs Josie's hand again and leads her near the piano, so that they stand directly across from each other in parallel.
"Ready?" she asks, softly.
Josie seems surprised.
"Oh." She blinks. "We're starting now?"
Hope smirks. "Do you need time to prepare? I can wait outside."
Josie blushes and shakes her head, but Hope swears the girl mumbles something like "asshat" underneath her breath.
"Alright," Hope starts, trying to talk louder so she can be heard over the piano notes. "Raichter is taller than you and doesn't know you very well, so she'll be expecting to lead. Therefore, I'll lead. You'll follow."
Josie frowns, almost confused. Something flickers across her eyes like amusement. It gives Hope pause. "But you're shorter than me."
The pureblood bites her tongue. How rude. "That's not...relevant."
"Why not?" Josie asks. "You just said—"
"Fine," Hope snaps, making the brunette giggle. "We'll switch off."
A pause.
"I'll start."
She steals Josie's right hand in her left, and attaches her own right hand to the other girl's waist. Josie gets the idea and places her left hand on Hope's shoulder without the pureblood having to tell her to.
"Good." Hope smiles, just the smallest hint of both corners of her lips rising. It grows wider when Josie smiles back, happy with the praise. "All you have to do is follow where this—"
She tightens her hold on Josie's side in emphasis. She pretends not to feel Josie shudder beneath her fingers.
"—Hand moves you. Okay?"
The brunette nods.
"Now," Hope says, "you walk backwards, I walk forwards."
She nods her head to gesture for Josie to move, but she doesn't.
"Wait." Josie drops her hands from Hope's body. She takes a step back. "Can you take off your shoes?"
Hope frowns. If the muggleborn keeps this up, they won't make it out of here until after midnight.
"Why?"
Josie simply pouts. "It'll hurt me if you step on my feet or something."
The pureblood leans back, kind of offended that Josie thinks she's so incompetent as to stomp on her toes like some brainless, idiot troll. She's fucking Hope Mikaelson. In all her years of dancing lessons, she has never once done that.
"I'm not going to step on your feet," she reassures Josie, unable to keep the arrogance out of her voice.
Josie just stares at her for long enough that all Hope can do is sigh and slip off her shoes, kicking them a few feet behind her. It leaves her in her grey, boring socks.
She swallows down her pride with a quiet cough. "Now," she repeats for the second time, "you walk backwards, I walk forwards."
Funnily enough, Josie is the one that ends up stepping on her feet.
"Ow," Hope yelps, all but pushing herself away. She glares at the other girl like a wronged toddler, resisting the urge to bend down and rub her foot in earnest. "That was intentional."
"No, it wasn't." Josie doesn't seem to care. "Let's go again."
Hope scowls, but steps forward with her left foot just as Josie does the same with her right. Their chests crash together, chins banging off of one another. To add, Josie somehow manages to step on Hope's foot again.
"Merlin," Hope mutters. She eyes Josie, her other toe still smarting from the first time. "You seriously don't know how to do a simple box-step?"
The brunette cocks her head to the side. "What's that?"
Hope swallows hard. Josie doesn't know what the box-step is?
She watches the other girl carefully for about twenty seconds to try to figure out if she's joking, but Josie remains unblinking and oblivious.
"This isn't going to work," Hope says, when the twenty seconds pass. Josie pouts and instantly makes her feel bad for it.
"I don't understand," she continues. She remembers Josie telling her that she had been lucky that night, but surely no one can be that lucky. "How did you fool me so well during Slughorn's party?"
Josie blushes.
"I thought it was obvious," she tells Hope, slowly. The pureblood still doesn't understand.
She furrows her eyebrows, fingers tapping against Josie's flank. The brunette fidgets and twitches her own fingers on Hope's shoulder.
"What is?"
Josie's throat bobs.
"I drank Felix Felicis," she confesses. "The night of the party, I mean."
Hope balks. Her face loses color, and she leans away before she can control her reaction. "Really?"
"I wanted everything to go smoothly," Josie explains, "and I guess I couldn't quite help myself, especially since it worked out so well."
Her eyes sparkle, then, as if recalling some old memory or another. Hope wonders if she's thinking about Slughorn's party, if she's remembering the way she and Hope had been practically flirting for half the night before it had all gone to shit.
Yeah, Hope guesses, it had worked out well for Josie. She had seduced and lured the pureblood in as easily as a snake does its prey, and at the end of the night, Hope had been the one left reeling from the potion's effects.
"It worked out well on my part, too," Hope blurts. Josie's eyes widen minutely, and she freezes in Hope's hold. "I don't think I would have danced with you had I not taken the potion."
"If I'm being honest," she admits, voice turning timid, shoulders drawing in, "The only reason I attended the party in the first place was to talk to you."
"Really?"
The two start gently swaying together, not quite dancing but not quite staying completely still at the same time.
"Yeah," Hope chuckles out. "I was going to give you a piece of my mind for embarrassing me the day before. Of course, everything changed when I realized that the girl I had been dancing with all night was you."
Josie laughs, giggles simmering down into a pout as she comes to some sort of realization. "So, you're telling me we only got together because of a silly potion?"
"Yup," Hope tells her, but she doesn't really mean it. They had gotten together due to bravery, not luck. "And it looks like our only hope now is to brew you another one."
Josie arches a perfect eyebrow in confusion.
"No offense, Saltzman," she emphasizes the last name, a lazy smirk on her face. She then gestures to her own feet, where Josie had been stepping on her toes almost nonstop this entire time. "But you can't dance for shit. You're hopeless."
Josie lets out a sigh that puffs against Hope's forehead. The pureblood inhales her scent and allows the tense muscles in her back to unwind.
"It takes weeks to make Felix Felicis," Josie says, almost begging now. "We don't have that kind of time. Just help me."
"Okay." Hope forces them to a pause, so that they stop swaying. She has to take a deep breath to gather her thoughts. It's almost impossible to think with the other girl this close to her. When she finally finds herself able, she asks, in all seriousness, "Do you know how to count to three?"
Josie shoots her a glare, which has the pureblood stifling a deep-bellied laugh. She simply smirks and looks away, somewhere over Josie's shoulder.
"I'll take that as a yes," she murmurs, moving them back into position. "On one, you step backward with your right, and I step forward with my—no, your right, Josie...your right. Okay, good, wait—you step back, no, back—"
They stumble around for about an hour like this, counting out a one-two-three pattern, with Josie blatantly disobeying Hope's instructions over and over again. After the music the piano is playing loops over for the fiftieth time, Hope pulls out of the dance.
"It's almost like you get worse the more I teach you," she says, causing Josie to blush. Surprise, surprise: she pouts again.
"Shut up," Josie tells her, pulling Hope back into her. She looks down at the ground as they continue to move back and forth and then to the side.
"And you need to stop looking at your feet," Hope adds, causing the other girl's eyes to flicker up. Josie loses her concentration and steps on Hope's pinky toe again.
The pureblood grumbles quietly in response.
"Where else should I look?" Josie asks, having not noticed a thing.
"At my face," Hope says, simply. "You need to get used to it. Think of dancing as a conversation. You don't look at the floor when you talk to people, do you?"
"How romantic," Josie mutters sarcastically, but she listens. Hope tries not to flare her nose and bristle from the remark.
Unfortunately, the brunette can't look her in the eye for more than ten seconds before she bursts out laughing and bends over with her hand clutching at her stomach.
"Forget it." Hope tries to stay strong and unwavering, but a small smile flickers at the edges of her mouth. "If you're too childish to make eye-contact, you'll want to look over Raichter's shoulder."
They continue to dance, with Josie looking over Hope's shoulder instead of her feet. It's only a small improvement, though, since the muggleborn still needs to count in order to avoid messing up her steps.
After another hour, Josie finally completes the box-step without having to count out loud. She immediately starts celebrating.
"Yes!" she cheers, clapping her hands together with an adorable beam gracing her lips. Hope watches her softly, since she doesn't want to ruin the mood or undermine the other girl's progress. "I did it! We're done."
"Hold on." Josie's smile falls. "Why aren't you happy for me?"
"I am, I am," Hope hurries to convince her, but at the same time, she has to be honest. "It's just—we've barely started. We still have the rest of the waltz. You need to be able to do the box-step while moving in circles and turns."
She pauses. "Did Beauxbatons seriously not teach you any of this?"
"Well..." Josie seems to think about it. "We had ballet classes, but that was really only for those with Veela blood. Lizzie got into them because of her blonde hair, but..."
She pointedly fingers a single strand of her own brunette locks, that had fallen out of her messy ponytail.
Hope laughs. "Right."
"Okay." Josie snatches her hand away from Hope's, stepping back to lean tiredly against the piano. Her eyes flutter closed. "Can we finish this next week? I'm exhausted."
Hope nods and settles back into the space next to the other girl, closing her own eyes and nodding off to the music. The soft sounds of waltz notes begin to fade to softer sounds of lullabies.
"Hey." Hope opens her eyes to find Josie already staring at her, an expression on her face she can't quite interpret. If she didn't know any better, she would say the muggleborn is about to suggest something not entirely appropriate. "You know what sounds good right now?"
Hope tilts her head curiously, eyes a little bleary. She briefly has the thought that she really needs to get some sleep. "What?"
Josie smiles wide. "A hot bath."
The pureblood nods her head in agreement. She could use a hot bath. Merlin knows her body needs it. "That does sound nice," Hope admits.
Josie's fingers crawl down Hope's arm and lightly skim over the even pulse of her wrist. Hope shivers, just enough for the other girl to notice it and smile.
"Wanna know what sounds even better?" Josie asks, leaning forward, to whisper in a voice like smoke, "A hot bath. Together."
Oh.
Hope's sleepy eyes are now wide open.
She no longer feels tired. No longer needs to sleep.
All noise seems to end. Hope thinks that she might not even be breathing anymore. Right on time, the piano keys abruptly stop tapping on their own.
Josie throws a weird look at the piano but turns back to Hope with something bright and hopeful in her eyes. It doesn't help that the beginnings of a blush are starting to paint the very edges of her cheeks.
Hope quickly stands up and pushes off the piano. Her fingers wrap around Josie's wrist and her eyes settle on the door with determination. She strides over to it and pushes it open in seconds, Josie stumbling behind her.
"Your room?" She looks back briefly at Josie to ask the question, still pulling the other girl along. She stops walking when Josie tugs her back with a quiet giggle.
"I only have a shower," she says. Her eyes dart out everywhere but nowhere all at once, almost shyly. "Maybe we could check out the Prefects' bathroom again?"
Hope swallows thickly. Flashes and images of her and Josie—naked Josie—making out in that bathroom a month ago appear in her mind like a private, little show.
How close she had been then.
How close she is now.
The pureblood nods enthusiastically, and from there on, it's a crazy and rushed dash to the Prefect bathroom several floors down.
Several times, they stop to press each other against corridor walls and stairway handrails, kissing with lips and tongue and teeth and grabbing clothes and hair and whatever else they can get their hands on. Sometimes they stop just to laugh. Neither of them care that it's past curfew and that, if they get caught, they'll get in a lot of trouble, nevermind the chances of their reputations being torn to shreds.
By the time they reach the floor the bathroom is on, Josie has already undone her ponytail and top. The pureblood takes a second to admire the way her slightly mussed hair trails down her shoulders and hangs in front of her face. She takes another second to admire the way Josie tucks it behind her ear.
A few inches below her ear is a small hickey sucked into the tanned skin of her neck, and below that is an even bigger one the color and size of a grape. Hope trails her gaze down and all over the rest of Josie's neck, admiring the love bites she left earlier, too.
She wants to reach out and run her fingers over them, but at the last second, she pulls away and only allows her hands to twitch limply at her sides.
As they come to stand in front of the door, Hope shrugs off her sweater carefully and starts to reach for the hem of her shirt.
Josie herself is trying—correction, struggling—to pull down her shorts, which are tied at the waist too firmly for her to unknot. She curses too quietly for Hope to hear and spares a glance at the portrait on the door, which is patiently waiting for the password to allow them to come in.
"Fizzing whizbees," the muggleborn all but growls, shorts finally coming undone and falling down to her thighs. She heaves a sigh of relief which is short-lived when the door doesn't unlock.
She knocks on the door to check if it might be occupied, but it's not. "What the hell?"
Josie repeats the password, but nothing happens.
Hope's fingers stop fumbling with her jeans, and she places a hand on the other girl's back to make room for herself.
"Maybe you're not saying it right." She approaches the door, and with her bossiest, most Mikaelson-like voice, she commands, "Fizzing whizbees."
Nothing.
"Fizzing whizbees."
Nothing at all.
Hope raps her knuckles against the door several times, all but cursing and hurling insults at the man in the portrait that has decided to now play dead for some reason.
"Hope," Josie calls softly, placing a delicate hand on Hope's shoulder to quiet or calm her or something. "There's nothing we can do. The password changed."
The pureblood slams her hand against the door.
Damn it.
—
The next morning, Hope wakes up bright and early for her trip to Hogsmeade with her friends.
And maybe, Josie, if the other girl is up for it.
Turns out, she isn't.
"You're coming to Hogsmeade, right?" Hope asks as Josie pulls her inside her room and closes the door behind them. She begins to babble a little nervously when she receives no answer. "I thought we could maybe meet up for lunch or something? Actually, I kind of jumped the wand and booked us a reservation—"
"Wait. Stop talking before I feel even worse about this," Josie interrupts, looking so sincerely apologetic that Hope can't blame her or hate her for it at all. The pureblood closes her mouth, taken aback. "I'm so sorry. I have plans."
"You do?" All the same, Hope tries to keep the disappointment out of her voice, tries to keep the crestfallen look off her face.
In truth, she had been excited for this Hogsmeade trip all week. Excited for the chance to go out on a real date with Josie.
"Yeah," Josie murmurs as she thinks about it, a secret smile on her face. Why does she look so happy about not going? Not going with Hope? "Honestly, it was the strangest thing. Lizzie completely changed her mind about us. She came and apologized to me earlier. She even asked if we could have a girls' day. You know, paint our nails, talk about classes, do some sister bonding..."
She trails off, looking so undeniably elated with the idea that Hope feels a smile bloom on her own face. Fuck. She's so glad that the two made up. She wasn't sure she could keep up with Josie brooding around all the time this week. She had been trying her best to keep the other girl happy, but without the help of Josie's twin, it was hard.
"That's amazing," Hope says, and means it.
Josie pinks, suddenly shy. She looks at Hope beneath her dark lashes, eyes dropping to the floorboards more often than not. "You think so?"
Hope draws her eyebrows together, genuinely puzzled. "Why wouldn't I?"
"Oh," Josie waves her off nonchalantly, but her rambling gives her away. "It's just everyone I've dated in the past always got mad that I would..."
She searches for the right words. "...Ditch them, or whatever, for Lizzie. They thought that I prioritized her over them too much. That's actually what ended most of my relationships."
"That's complete and utter bull—"
Hope cuts herself off and blinks to appear unaffected. Inside, she is simmering with indignation, teetering at the edge of showing it. She is fucking boiling. Steaming. Somewhere between being irrationally jealous that Josie had dated people before her and rightfully furious that they had the nerve to break up with her over something so silly.
"I mean," the pureblood corrects herself, shaking her head to dispel the jealous, angry thoughts running rampant. "I'm an only child, but I'm sure if I ever had a sibling, I know that I'd want to spend as much time as I could with them."
Josie beams, stepping forward to connect their lips chastely. "You're so sweet."
Hope had literally only said the bare-minimum, but okay.
The brunette then flits her gaze down to her wristwatch, eyes widening as she checks the time. "Oh!"
She reaches for her bag on her bed and pecks Hope again, but this time it's on the cheek. The spot where her mouth touched burns long after her lips are gone, almost as a subtle reminder that Hope is far too in love with Josie for her own good. "Okay, I gotta go before I'm late. I promised her I'd sneak something from the kitchens on my way over. I'll see you later?"
"Later," Hope promises with a short nod of her head, brain not quite caught up, yet. Everything is happening so quickly, and all her fastest thoughts are light years behind.
Hadn't she only stepped into the room just a moment ago?
Josie pauses by the door, poking her head out. It's only then that Hope realizes that the other girl is leaving her alone.
"Before I forget," she says, that same bright smile on her face. "Lizzie wanted me to ask you about your friend Rose."
"Yeah?" Huh. What would Elizabeth Saltzman ever want with Rose Nicot? "What about her?"
"Do you know what shade of nail polish she wears?" Josie asks.
Hope frowns. How on Earth is she supposed to know that?
"Oh, I don't know," she drawls sarcastically, "Pygmy Puff Pink?"
Josie grins. "Thanks. Bye!" She shuts the door.
Fuck.
Hope had been joking.
Hopefully Rose doesn't get too upset.
—
"You told her Pygmy Puff Pink?!" Rose all but shrieks as the two of them wander into the Honeydukes' candy shop at Hogsmeade.
Hope waits until her friend is done screaming her head off before uncovering her ears. "What's the big deal?"
Rose sticks up her hand to show Hope her nails. "This is Butter London. They're two totally different colors!"
"Whatever." Hope leans over to inspect the display for a new type of chocolate frog: seventy-two percent dark chocolate with spiced pumpkin. Hmm. She might have to try them out.
"Okay, so you can tell the difference between chocolate, but you can't between colors?" Rose asks, seeming actually annoyed about it.
Hope rolls her eyes and grabs three of the new chocolate frogs, making her way over to the other side of the store in search of something she had personally never gotten before.
In search of something for Josie.
Sugar quills.
She completely hates them herself, but after the muggleborn admitted that she loved them a few days ago, it's been on Hope's mind for far too long.
"What's up with you and Blonde Saltzman, anyways?" Hope says, not paying much attention to the conversation. She thinks that she might have spotted some sugar quills' in the far left corner of the shop.
"She has a name," Rose mutters.
"—Yeah, Saltzman—"
"And I've no idea," the halfblood continues as if Hope had not spoken. "I think we might be friends or something."
"Friends would imply that she likes you," Hope smirks. The smirk vanishes when she briefly wonders if Rose had been the reason Lizzie apologized to her sister. No. It couldn't be. "I haven't seen you talk with her once."
"To be fair..." Rose plucks a chocolate cauldron cake from a small bin. "She doesn't like anyone very much."
"True."
The pureblood raises her head higher and looks around the store for Ethan and Maya. They had followed her and Rose in here, but both had disappeared rather quickly.
"Where's Machado?" Hope narrows her eyebrows.
"Which one?"
"It doesn't matter," the pureblood supposes. She pushes a first-year that accidentally bumps into her, and only feels a little bit good about it. "They like sugar quills, right? Do you think they'd know where they are? Merlin. It's so bloody crowded in here."
Rose shrugs, but someone else speaks up.
"Near the chocolate frogs." It's the first-year that she had pushed a few seconds ago.
Now Hope feels completely bad. How is it possible, for her to feel sick to her stomach now, yet years ago she would get nothing but pleasure from bullying others?
"Thanks," she tells him, ignoring the fact that he's wearing a Gryffindor scarf. He smiles and skips off into some random direction, ignoring the fact that he just helped out a Slytherin. Even worse—a Slytherin who is also a Mikaelson.
Hmm.
Hope retreats back to the chocolate frog display, finding almost two dozen different flavors of sugar quills not a foot away from it. How had she missed them before?
"You're actually going to buy some?" Rose speaks up behind her, obviously surprised. "You hate those."
"Do I?" Hope says, a little distractedly, still examining the plentiful array of sugar quills.
Ugh. Which flavor would Josie prefer? There are so many different ones.
Hope guesses she'll just have to buy them all.
—
When the pureblood finally steps out of the sweet shop, snow is still falling from the sky at almost alarming rates. Her hair becomes littered with small pieces of it in seconds.
"Where to next?" Rose asks, trying to comb through the snow in her hair as well. Hope doesn't miss the way the halfblood eyes Ethan as he walks away to the quidditch shop with his sister and Penelope.
"Do you mind if we stop by Tomes and Scrolls?" Hope stuffs her hands in the pocket of her coat the best she can while carrying a bag of chocolate frogs on one arm and another of sugar quills on the other. "I put in an order earlier this week for a book and I'd like to see if it's ready yet."
Rose nods and they start the short trip to the bookshop, making small talk on their way.
"So, Ethan?" Hope tries slyly, the tip of her nose red from the weather. Rose laughs and shakes her head.
For a few seconds, silence drags between them. And then:
"Do you think I should ask him out?" Rose asks, her cheeks dark with a blush. "Not to the ball, I mean. Just...out."
"I think," Hope says, "that you'd be stupid not to. You should make a move before the semester ends."
Rose seems to think about that for another few long seconds. Hope watches her out of the corner of her eye with a frown. She wonders where all this hesitance is coming from.
"We kissed yesterday," the halfblood blurts out unexpectedly, wringing her hands together as she comes to a sudden halt. Hope stops walking and fixes her with a look of surprise.
"For the first time," Rose adds. "Not like a peck on the cheek. Like, an actual kiss."
"Really?"
Rose nods slowly, as if she can't quite believe it herself.
"It wasn't like we had much of a choice, though," she says. "We got stuck underneath one of those joke shop mistletoe spells that doesn't let you move until you kiss the person you're trapped with."
Oh, right. Hope knows exactly what Rose is talking about. Every year, the cursed mistletoe sprigs would be strategically-placed around the halls and classrooms of the school, and like clockwork, every year, Dumbledore would swear to Merlin he had no part in it.
Josie and her had been avoiding them the entire week. When together, they would purposely train their eyes several feet above them and to the ceiling to make sure they didn't accidentally stumble upon one.
"Remember when you had to kiss Dana Lilien last year?"
Hope scowls, a small shiver crawling up her spine as she recalls that moment. As she recalls Dana thrusting her long-ass tongue down her throat and nearly gagging her.
"I thought we swore we would never bring that up again," Hope bites out childishly, features twisted up in disgust. "She practically maimed me in the middle of the great hall and you all laughed at me like it was funny."
"It was," Rose laughs again, which has Hope's scowl growing even deeper.
"Oh?" Something sneaky flashes in the pureblood's eyes. "And did you find it funny when Machado maimed you?"
"He didn't maim me," Rose says quickly. A small smile takes over her face as she thinks over her words, but it drops as she seems to think about it harder. "He was...sweet. It was all very innocent."
She sounds almost—
No. That's not right. Yet...
Rose sounds bitter. Like there's a bad aftertaste in her mouth or something.
It makes Hope wrinkle her nose. "How boring."
The other girl punches her on the shoulder and the two of them laugh as they find cover from the snow in Tomes and Scrolls. The bells on the door tinkle as they walk inside.
Hope soon sees that the bookstore is warm and a little cramped, but not due to people. Instead, it's packed with bookshelves and tables. Hope has to watch the space in front of her very carefully as to not bump into one.
The shopkeep gives her a stiff nod as she walks in, but Hope misses the way his eyes widen upon recognizing her auburn hair. She tells Rose to look around while she talks to him.
"Miss Mikaelson," he greets as she approaches him. Hope spares a glance at his name tag, which reads Harold Fitz.
She almost sighs in relief. Great. This is the man she had been corresponding with through letters in the past few days.
"Hello," she says curtly. "I put in an order for The Tales of Beedle the Bard Wednesday morning. I was wondering if—"
"Oh, yes!" Harold lightens up. "I had no idea it was you on the other side of the owl! Though, I should have known by your companion. You have such a pretty owl, indeed. You keep his coat of feathers quite pristine, if I do say so—"
"So, the book?" she cuts the shopkeep off. Really, she has no time for small talk, and certainly no time for this grown-ass man fangirling over her. Honestly, this is the reason she had signed her letters anonymously.
"Right," the man nods, looking embarrassed about his rambling. "Lucky for you, it came in just last night."
He turns around and shifts through a couple of packages wrapped in brown gift paper. He tuts, "Uh-uh, here we go..."
He pulls out a small rectangular box, setting it gently on the desk between them. "An original copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, first edition."
He gently tears open the packaging and shows Hope a book bound in leather and encrusted in gems. She flips through the first couple of pages and closes the book, satisfied.
"Perfect." She almost smiles. Almost. "How much?"
"One thousand galleons," the man says, the tone of his voice even and almost casual. Hope nearly drops open her mouth.
She hasn't spent that much in months. Damn it. Her father might notice if a thousand galleons suddenly went missing. Probably not, though. He hadn't noticed when she spent hundreds on candy over the summer. Still, she needs to pay for the dress she had ordered for the ball at the boutique next door.
The pureblood's eyebrows pinch together angrily. Breathing out through her nose, she tries to calm herself down. It won't be fitting for her to throw a temper tantrum in some musty, old bookshop. Definitely not over some greedy asshole.
"We agreed on five hundred through our letters," she tells him. Merlin. She can't fucking believe she's getting scammed right now.
"Yeah, well," Harold chuckles out, looking nervous. "That was before Hope Mikaelson walked in my door."
Hope forces herself to stay calm. She really wants to give this to Josie, and she can't risk losing the book altogether. "Six hundred."
"Eight."
"Six."
"Eight."
"Seven."
"Fine." Harold smiles from ear to ear. The pureblood dearly hopes that he uses some of the money she's about to give him to buy a potion to fix his rotten teeth. "You have a deal."
Rose comes up behind Hope as she pays for the book.
"The Tales of Beedle the Bard?" she reads out loud, over Hope's shoulder. "Since when do you like fables?"
"It's not for me," Hope tells her, shoving the packaged book in her bag. She lowers her voice as the door to the shop shuts behind them. The bells tinkle again as if to mock her.
"It's for Josie, as a sort of...Christmas present," she confesses, a secret smirk making its way onto her lips. She can't wait to give it to the muggleborn.
"You got her a children's book?" Rose looks unimpressed. "That's lame."
Hope opens her mouth and closes it several times. Her eyes are wide in panic. Is this not enough to win Josie's affections? "How? She told me she loves reading."
"No normal girl wants a book for Christmas." Rose rolls her eyes like it's simple. A silent voice in Hope's head whispers that Josie is far from normal. "You should get her a necklace or a bracelet. Or something."
"Jewelry?"
Rose nods, before she points at the store in front of them. Dervish and Banges. "Oh!" She nearly squeals in excitement. "I've been meaning to go in here."
Rose holds open the door for Hope. "And, yes, jewelry."
The pureblood shuts the door behind her. "Isn't that a little too much? She didn't react so kindly when I proposed, remember?"
Rose turns back to look at Hope like she's stupid. "Proposing and simply giving her a necklace isn't the same, H."
Oh, right.
Still, Hope is reluctant. She doesn't want Josie to freak out or anything.
"I don't know," she says, "I don't want to seem desperate."
"Trust me," Rose tells her. "You're not—"
"No, really," Hope interjects. She suddenly feels insecure. Scared. What if Josie doesn't actually love her? "You know, I've told her that I love her twice, and she's only said it back to me once. Do you know how humiliating that is?"
"You're probably overthinking things," the halfblood tries to reassure her. Hope shakes her head, in part to deny it and in part to clear her maddening thoughts.
"Hey," Rose beckons, holding up a kaleidoscope to her eye. "Do I look cute in this...?"
"Hello!" A deep voice sounds from behind them, causing both girls to spin around. They calm down when they realize that it's only the store owner, Marvin.
"Marvin, you scared us." Rose places a calming hand on her heaving chest, right over the place where her heart should be. Hope isn't as affected. She simply frowns at the man.
"My apologies, girls," Marvin says. He even bows his head a little. "Can I help you find anything?"
"Actually," Rose smiles and sticks her thumb out at Hope. "She's looking for a necklace. Something elegant but not too showy. Do you think—"
"I have just the thing!" the man cuts in before she can even finish her question, and he scurries off to the back room.
Hope and Rose raise their eyebrows in amusement and look at each other, but they don't get to start another conversation before the man appears before them again.
He dangles an ornate, silver necklace with an oval locket in front of them. It seems not to be much, but when Hope looks closer, she can just barely make out the dark lines engraved into the necklace.
"Pretty, huh?" The little, golden flecks in Marven's eyes dance across his irises. "It's called the Talisman of Sound. It was created by a very powerful witch, who wanted to draw power from those that choose to not remain silent. To reward and empower the bold."
Hope scrunches up her face in interest, leaning forward for a better look. "What's it do?"
Marvin grins.
"In one way or another," he tells her. "It makes quiet things heard."
"Oh." Hope raises her eyebrows suggestively and glances off to Rose, a small smirk on her face. Rose doesn't seem so pleased. "So, like, in theory, that would include a love confession?"
The halfblood scoffs and shakes her head in disappointment, while Marvin tilts his own to the side, understandably confused. He relents after a moment and nods reluctantly.
"In theory."
—
Hope ends up giving Josie the necklace a day before the ball.
It's a Thursday afternoon and they're out on the Great Lake, sitting down on a couple of rocks. Hope's broom is strewn across the sand a couple of feet away, with both their robes in a pile next to it.
The only real reason they're relaxing like this is because the pair just finished their last finals of the semester. Dumbledore had decided to cancel classes on Friday—the day of the ball—to give the students more time to prepare for their families coming.
For Hope, that means more time to stress over seeing her father. This entire week she's been an absolute wreck. She's been jittery, on edge, shaking in her skin. She hasn't even been able to enjoy her time with Josie.
Well, that's not completely right.
Of course, she always enjoys her time with Josie. When she's around the other girl, she doesn't feel like she has to worry herself sick. Cliched or not, she feels like she can just be.
Like she can be herself without Josie judging her for it, but at the same time, she always feels the undeniable need to impress Josie and win her over. Especially during their dancing lessons, which have been going pretty well.
Josie no longer steps on Hope's feet, unless it's on purpose just to mess with her. The muggleborn is a fast learner, and now, more often than not, it's Hope messing up instead of Josie.
"Hope." Josie steps backwards and takes Hope with her, and then they step off together to the right. As they take their fourth step, the pureblood drops her right arm and spins Josie towards her left.
"Yeah?" Hope murmurs, not really paying attention. Her eyes are half-closed and drooping slightly, heavy-lidded in a combination of peaceful bliss and exhaustion. They've been at this for a couple of hours, now.
Josie leans forward as they begin the count again, not out loud, but in their own heads. Her lips brush against Hope's ear, a lilting note to her voice. Playful. "Does Raichter get to touch me like this?"
Hope drops her gaze down in search of what Josie is talking about—
Her right hand is not where it's traditionally supposed to be on Josie's waist, but a couple of inches down to her ass. Hope smoothly lifts her hand back up without batting an eye.
The rest of her isn't quite so smooth, and the skin of her cheeks grows flushed just enough for Josie to catch it.
"No," she answers, fighting down the blush trying to take over her entire face. One. Two. Three. Turn. "Only I get to touch you like this."
This time, when Josie spins back to her, the other girl drops her hand from Hope's and cups her jaw to seal their lips together in a soft kiss.
The kiss turns heated within half a minute and ends with Hope pushing Josie up against the poor piano and latching her lips onto the other girl's throat, intertwining both of their hands and pressing those against the piano, too.
"How do you think you did on the Defense exam?"
Hope snaps out of her thoughts, trapping her eyes onto Josie, who is sitting up from her rock and flinging off her grey vest. It hits the snow-covered sand silently.
"Sorry?"
Josie repeats her question. This time the words actually register in Hope's mind.
"Oh," she breathes out, watching Josie shimmy out of her skirt with her back facing the pureblood. Hope wonders what the fuck she's doing. It's freezing outside. Why is she undressing like this? "Which one?"
Josie turns back to her, just as her skirt falls down her long legs, leaving them bare. Her white uniform shirt is long enough to cover the highest points of her thighs, so Hope can't really see anything even if she was looking.
That is to say, she isn't looking. Totally. Not. Looking.
"Hmm," Josie hums, thinking about it. Finally, she cocks her head to the side. "Both?"
"I think I did well on the writing part," Hope says. Who is she kidding? The writing part had been incredibly easy. It's the practical part that Hope thinks went very wrong. "I'm pretty sure I failed the practical. I couldn't conjure a patronus."
Josie gives her a sad smile. It makes the pureblood feel even worse. She's the happiest she's been in months, yet she still isn't happy enough to conjure a patronus? She had been thinking about her best, cherished memories with Josie the entire exam, and still. Still she couldn't fucking do it.
The muggleborn must think she's a loser. Damn it. Hope knows that half of Gryffindor had been able to do the spell.
Gryffindors.
Those brazen idiots.
The exam rooms had been private, but Hope is pretty sure that she had seen Milton Greasley's patronus, and she is pretty sure it had been either a butterfly or a bat.
She had also caught a glimpse of Rafael Waithe's, whose patronus was either a black bear or some hairy kind of rhinoceros. The angle hadn't been completely right on that one.
Merlin. Hope is a fucking joke.
"I doubt Snape would fail you because of that," Josie tells her. It makes her feel a little better about it. "Besides, you're his favorite. Now, get up."
The muggleborn ushers her closer with a pointed look at the Great Lake. Hope absentmindedly thinks that it's a miracle the poor thing hasn't frozen over yet.
"What are you doing?" Hope calls after her, still sitting down on her rock. She watches Josie tiptoe around the snow and sand as she approaches the water. She dips a foot in and squeals at how cold it is.
"Swimming! Care to join me?" Josie calls back, giggling. Hope looks at her like she's crazy. Who swims during this kind of weather?
Obviously, someone that's gone utterly and completely mad. For Salazar's sake, they're well into December, now. If Josie wants to go for a swim, there's a high chance that she'll die of hypothermia or something.
"You do know that this lake is the drain for our school's plumbing system, right?" Hope yells, loudly enough for Josie to hear a couple of feet away. She chuckles as the muggleborn squeaks again and instantly moves out of the water.
Hope watches Josie come back to her with a smile, which grows wider as the other girl bends down and puts both her own and Hope's robe on and snuggles into them for warmth.
She continues to laugh when Josie makes the decision to practically throw herself in Hope's lap, rubbing her wet hands into Hope's hair and all over her clothes to dry them off.
Hope sighs, sits back, and lets it happen.
Nothing quite compares to the gentle weight of Josie on top of her, to the gentle weight of Josie in her lap.
"You're mean," the brunette tells her, wearing that same, old pout that never truly gets old. "And gross, but most importantly, mean."
"Come on." Hope bats her hands away and grins. "You love me."
"I tolerate you," Josie corrects, but she's grinning, too.
Despite trying not to, Hope's own smile dims somewhat. She had been hoping Josie would say that she loves the pureblood back. They haven't said those three words for about two weeks—and it shouldn't be a big deal, certainly not to Hope, but a deep part of her that would never admit it out loud craves the reassurance.
Hope's thoughts quickly go back to the talisman she had bought. The one that supposedly makes quiet things heard. Rose had gotten mad at her for actually purchasing it, saying that it was manipulative or too Slytherin-ish or something equally bad.
Though, the pureblood figures that that bastard Marvin had probably been lying to her about the necklace just to sell it off and make a profit.
Since then, Hope's been carrying it around with her for a couple of days, but she hasn't quite found the right moment to give it to Josie.
It's actually in the pocket of Hope's robe right now. The robe that Josie's wearing. Right now. Maybe right now would be a good time to give it to her. Maybe, if Hope gives the necklace to her right now, Josie might wear it to the ball.
Right now.
"Hey," Hope says suddenly, voice a little rough and huskier than it probably should be. If Josie asks, she can blame it on the cold. Despite the fact that Hope had performed a warming spell on both of them when they got outside. Whatever. It's wearing off. "Check your left pocket."
Josie tilts her head to the side and narrows her eyes in suspicion, but the pureblood can tell that she looks a little excited. She snakes her hand down the robe and to the left pocket, fingers wrapping around the small, black pouch that Hope knows is in there.
She pulls it out and looks at Hope curiously, but Hope just shrugs with an innocent smile on her face.
"What is it?" Josie asks. Maybe she doesn't like surprises.
"I don't know," Hope tells her, choking down a laugh when the muggleborn glares at her. Her fingers start to tug at the drawstrings and she opens the bag, allowing the necklace to fall into her open palm.
She stares at it for a long moment before snapping her eyes to the pureblood's.
"Hope." Her voice sounds dangerously thick with emotion. It makes a knotted lump form in Hope's throat. She watches Josie play with the necklace between her fingers, looking so touched and happy that Hope herself has to glance away for fear her heart might stop beating.
"Do you like it?" she asks, softly, eyes trained on her lap. Without meaning to, her fingers begin to gently stroke the hem of Josie's skirt. She plays with the fabric almost absentmindedly, willing her tired lungs to pull in air lest she stop breathing, too.
A hand tilts her chin up, forcing her to look into the other girl's eyes.
"I love it," Josie says, and then in a smaller voice, she adds, "I love you."
Hope gulps messily and nods, feeling a burst of emotion like relief grow tight in her chest and crawl up her throat. Her words aren't exactly her own when she whispers back, "I love you, too."
Josie parts her lips and lets out a shaky breath that fogs in the air. Hope watches it disappear into the sky. "Help me put it on?"
Hope nods more quickly than the first time and gestures for Josie to turn around. The brunette scrambles off of her lap and stands up, holding her hair away from her neck in one hand and passing Hope the necklace in the other.
Her fingers are suddenly clumsy and she fumbles with the clasp. Hope swears she can hear her heart pounding in her ears. Why does her face feel so hot? Like—like someone has just peeled off the first layer of her skin and has left her raw and exposed for all the world to see.
"Hope?"
"Sorry."
Right. It's unnecessary, to linger as long as she is. It's unnecessary, to think about leaning up and pressing her lips to the soft skin waiting for her.
Hope manages to still her fingers enough to fasten the clasp together. If she accidentally brushes the skin of Josie's nape, neither of them say a word passed the muggleborn's sharp intake of breath.
"Thanks," she murmurs, so lowly that Hope doesn't know if she actually heard it. She searches for something to say.
"It's not just a necklace," she admits, then chickens out when Josie turns around again and meets her eyes. She sits down next to Hope, who bites the inside of her cheek to stop herself from asking Josie to sit back down on her lap instead.
"I mean, I made it into a Portkey," she ends up telling Josie instead. "I did a linking spell on my ring..."
She twists the family ring around her finger nervously in emphasis.
"So you just have to say the word 'portus' while holding it, and it'll teleport us both to a location I picked out." She won't tell Josie yet that the location she picked out is the muggleborn's hometown of Mystic Falls. "I thought it'd be a good way to meet over the break, but—"
Josie kisses her soundly on the lips before she can finish her sentence and tell the muggleborn not to say the word on accident. She suddenly finds that it doesn't matter as Josie's chest molds perfectly against her own while their lips continue to slide against each other's softly.
Hope even shifts her head to the side to deepen the kiss but Josie pulls away before that can happen. Hope tries to chase after her with her mouth but the other girl seems not to notice and just looks down to her chest and plays with her necklace, blissfully unaware.
Seeing that Josie isn't going to kiss her anymore, Hope decides to keep talking.
"I, uh, actually got you something else," she adds, but she doesn't have time to explain herself.
"Wait." Josie puts her hands in Hope's, leaning forward. "Me first."
The pureblood furrows her eyebrows. "What do you mean?"
"Don't sound so surprised." Josie laughs. "I got you something, too. I just didn't think to bring it with me. Close your eyes."
Then Josie turns away and mutters something underneath her breath.
"Accio—"
Hope doesn't hear what comes after that, but she closes her eyes and takes the time to summon the book she had bought for Josie at Tomes and Scrolls. It comes flying over more quickly than whatever Josie had summoned, so Hope gets to hide it behind her back before the other girl notices.
"Okay, you can open them." Hope doesn't mention that she had never closed her eyes to begin with.
Josie turns back to her and she can't help feeling a little apprehensive as the brunette sticks her hands out with two neatly-wrapped box in them.
The wrapping paper has little dogs on them. Hope thinks she might be able to recognize the same, tiny pug wearing a hundred different costumes. She wonders why Josie wanted her to close her eyes if the gifts aren't even visible.
Hope takes the first box and feels a little bad when she rips the wrapping paper into shreds. Poor pugs.
She instantly stares down at what appears to be a pack of long sticks. Um.
"I noticed that you're always doodling in class," Josie explains. "These are muggle pencils. They're much better for drawing than quills. I also got you some different colors."
She points at another pack next to it, which are the colored pencils. Hope's heart blooms. She had always loved drawing, but she never really got a good chance to explore it.
Her father had introduced her to painting, but drawing was something different altogether, in her opinion.
"They won't show up well on parchment paper, so..." Josie continues, motioning for Hope to open the other box. She does, unwrapping what appears to be a stack of white sheets. "I also got you muggle paper. It's thinner and easier to write on."
Hope blinks fast to hide the way her eyes water. She had never thought Josie paid so much attention to her. She licks her lips when she realizes that the other girl is looking at her expectantly.
"I don't know what to say," she confesses, looking down at the pencils and paper. They seem to be very high-quality. Josie must have spent a fortune. "Thank you. I'll cherish them for as long as I live and until my last dying—"
"No, stop," Josie cuts her off, giggling. Obviously this isn't as big a deal to her as it is to Hope. She should really catch up on all things muggle. "They're pencils, not gold. They don't last forever. But, here, I have something else for you..."
She reaches behind her and places a plush, small dragon between them. "It's a stuffed animal. The other day when we were, um..."
Making out in your room, goes unsaid.
Usually they do it in Josie's, but the other girl had wanted to see a normal Slytherin dormitory when Hope had teased her about having a room to herself. One thing led to another and then suddenly one moment they were sneaking into Hope's room with a disillusionment charm and then kissing underneath the covers the next...
"Nevermind." Josie blushes darkly. "I saw that you don't have any for your bed."
Hope grabs the dragon and weighs it in her hand. It's quite light, and its scales are somehow soft. The spikes on its back are little balls of fluff. She resists the urge to rub the dragon all over her face.
"I charmed him to fly," the other girl says, a slight, rosy flush still painting her cheeks. "Just yank the tail."
Hope does as told and the tiny dragon suddenly becomes animated, flapping its wings into the air and flying around the two of them. Just when Hope shivers from the lingering cold, the dragon roars open its mouth and sends a burst of flames her way.
Josie points at Hope and laughs.
Merlin. The muggleborn and the dragon are both so fucking cute.
The two watch the dragon for a few minutes before Hope musters the courage to give Josie the book she had been keeping hidden behind her.
"Remember a couple of weeks ago when we were talking about our favorite things in your room?" she asks, a little out of nowhere, but the other girl doesn't seem to mind. It takes a second, but she nods.
"And you said that your favorite book was The Tales of Beedle the Bard?" she continues, getting another confused nod. Josie is probably wondering what this has to do with anything. "But you said you lost your copy so you haven't been able to read it in a while?"
"You remember that?" Josie seems surprised. It almost offends Hope.
"Of course," she breathes, her hand running down the leather of the book's spine with shaking fingers. She inhales deeply before revealing the book and presenting it to Josie.
Josie takes it reluctantly, looking down at the cover with wide eyes and blown pupils. She glances back up to Hope, lips parted. "For me?"
Hope nods. The muggleborn gasps almost silently as she flips through the pages.
"A first edition?" Josie shakes her head and tries to hand the book back to Hope. Hope doesn't take it. "These cost upwards of hundreds. This is too much. I can't possibly take it."
"Please?"
Josie swallows thickly, but Hope can see the way her eyes keep darting down to the book with excitement. She wonders if the other girl would read it to Hope later tonight in bed if she asked.
"Okay," Josie relents, smiling. Hope fights down a laugh. That certainly had not taken much convincing.
—
"Skirt or pants?" Hope holds up the two pieces of clothing, the skin of her face slightly flushed and the palms of her hands sweaty.
It's not an hour until her parents are set to arrive at Hogwarts, but the pureblood is only a minute away from passing out and dying on the floor of her dorm room.
"Skirt," Maya tells her, from where she's laying down on her bed without a care. "But wear the grey high socks so they don't think you've become a prostitute in the five months since you've last seen them."
Hope nods without truly hearing anything past the first word, flattening out the skirt with a cleaning charm and carefully pulling it over her hips.
A couple of nights ago, Dumbledore had informed the entire school that their families would arrive a couple of hours before the ball so that they had time to get settled in and be introduced to friends and classmates. This way, he had said, the students could give their families a tour of the castle if it was the first time they had ever been here.
The headmaster had also noted that he wanted everyone in their most pristine uniforms upon their arrival, as to make a good impression for the school and for the families alike.
"How are you not nervous?" Hope asks, wiping her palms on her skirt. This is a mistake that she instantly regrets, since the fabric of her skirt now has ten distinct, wet fingerprints on it. She lets out a sigh and delves back into her dresser to find a new skirt.
"I am," Maya says, easily. "I'm just doing a better job of hiding it. Now—"
She sits up, running a lazy hand through her hair that is now tangled since she had been resting her head on a pillow for the last half hour.
"Will you just relax?" She smirks as she stands up. "Or at least, pretend to?"
Hope nods and lays down next to Maya, if only to relax for just a moment. She sinks into the sheets underneath her, but can't quite get comfortable enough to enjoy it.
Now is definitely not the time to relax. Every bone and muscle in Hope's body seems to echo that sentiment.
The two stand up after a few minutes, spending the rest of the hour getting ready and perfecting their hair and make-up. With each passing second, Hope feels the nerves underneath her skin prickle and heat up. It feels a bit like she has a hot, coiled wire running through her blood stream.
While she might be ready on the outside, she is definitely not ready to see her parents on the inside. She can barely fathom her reaction when she finally does see them. Whatever. It doesn't matter. However she reacts, she'll just have to school her features to hide it.
Yet, after a long time of forgoing her expressionless mask with Josie and Rose, Hope now has to actively practice it in the mirror in order to live up to the high standards of her parents when the time comes. She spends at least ten minutes locked in the bathroom before Maya forces her way in.
Then, the two meet up with Rose and Penelope in the common room, finding Ryan, Jo, and Ethan waiting for them just outside. They walk down together to Hogwarts' main entrance, the gate to the castle.
When they get there, they find that most students are already gathered together. It seems that everyone wants to make a good impression, since Hope can't see a single person that has a wrinkle in their robes or even a frayed thread in their socks.
She can definitely see some sweat stains, though. The Hufflepuff boy that Hope can remember helping Landon the other day has a large damp spot all over his back. Landon is standing next to him with a similar stain all over his collar. She herself had placed a cooling charm on her group of friends so that wouldn't happen.
While some students look like Hope—dreading this day and wanting nothing more than to leave and hide in her room—most of them look quite excited.
Stefan and Damon Salvatore's kids are all huddled together in a group, nearly bubbling over in happiness at the prospect of seeing their families. Hope wrinkles her nose in distaste as she passes them.
"Hey, look," Rose says at one point, gesturing discreetly to three people a few feet away. "Your girlfriend and her sister are talking to Dumbledore."
Hope stands up on her tippy-toes to catch a glimpse of Josie over the large crowd, but she doesn't quite see anything but the back of her head. Rose and her share a meaningful look and start to make their way over, with Penelope and Maya trailing behind them.
They get close enough to eavesdrop. Close enough that they have to pretend to be in a conversation with one another so that they don't get caught.
"I'd be happy to hear out your proposal," Dumbledore tells the twins, eyes twinkling. "But, please, make it short. Your parents are set to arrive any moment now. I would hate to intrude on your time with them."
"Well," Elizabeth starts, glancing off at her sister. They both giggle like first-years. "We would first like to say that we appreciate your efforts with the mandatory dress code on Fridays, but we were thinking that students should be given a chance to express themselves on the other days of the week."
She gives Josie a pointed look to continue their little proposal. The brunette blushes. "Right. While school uniforms can create a sense of unity and reduce socioeconomic pressures, there are a number of disadvantages that they present."
"Are they crazy?" Rose whispers to Hope. The pureblood shrugs.
"For example," Elizabeth picks up, "it restricts the potential of showing diversity in classrooms. Many people rely on expressing their culture and style through clothing, which can't happen with a school uniform. It also forces everyone into one group instead of looking at each student individually."
Dumbledore hums. "You girls make a good point. Though, I'm not sure any of this lies in my jurisdiction or power as Headmaster. What would you like me to do?"
Both twins look at each other and smile.
"We understand that it might be sort of radical to eliminate the uniform altogether," Josie cuts in, "but we do think that it wouldn't be so extreme or far-out as to at least provide some variety. Wearing the same skirt and robe everyday isn't very tolerant."
"Or stylish," Elizabeth puts in. Josie nods.
"Basically," Josie finishes, "we would like your permission to modify the uniform."
Dumbledore raises his eyebrows and opens his mouth, but the gate to Hogwarts swings open before he can reply to the sisters. He turns his body away from them, appearing almost relieved at the interruption.
Both Elizabeth and Josie pout like hurt children but don't try to add anything, causing Hope and Rose to snicker loudly enough for Penelope to ask them why they're laughing.
"Oh, just a funny joke," Rose waves her off, still chuckling each time her eyes meet Hope's.
"What joke?" Maya perks up, but Penelope swats her in the throat and she starts choking.
"Wait," she says, eyes wide as she keeps hitting Maya to get her attention, almost completely unaware that she's doing it. "I think I see my father."
Maya finally looks over and makes a strangled noise at the back of her throat. "I think I see mine, too."
At that, the four of them sober up, and Hope and Rose sharply stop laughing, turning their heads to look at the crowd of adults passing through the gate and reuniting with their children.
The pureblood is vaguely aware of Elena Salvatore kissing the cheeks of her two children in greeting nearby, but all the world around her seems to stop dead as her eyes fall on Klaus Mikaelson appearing in the entrance.
Hope's heart sinks to her stomach. She's so fucking afraid. Afraid that her father will simply look at her and know about her affair with Josie. Afraid that she might simply glance in the muggleborn's direction and her father will be able to tell that she's a filthy blood traitor.
So. Damn. Afraid.
Even now, hours before the actual ball, her father's dress robes are immaculate and pristine. Although his suit is more casual than formal, he wears it as if he's in the company of the Minister of Magic.
He seems to come to a stop in the middle of the entrance, uncaring that he's blocking the people around him, his eyes roaming the entrance in search of someone.
Hope dreads to think that someone is her, yet all the same, she can't stop staring at him, can't stop willing him to meet her eyes, no matter how much the thoughts in her head are begging her to stop.
It's too late.
Nothing can quite describe the feeling of her father's gaze stopping onto hers. If Hope would try to, she might say it's like the vice grip of a thousand snakes squeezing around her neck.
The pureblood suddenly feels suffocated and sucks in a ragged breath, running her tongue along her teeth. She almost swears she can taste copper like crimson.
As if sensing blood like a shark in the water, Klaus smiles widely, the sparkle of the glowing Christmas decorations around them glinting off the whites of his teeth and the marble of his family ring.
Hope hadn't noticed before, but her mother hangs on his arm. Her mother, Hayley Mikaelson, who is also looking at her. She smiles at her daughter just like her husband, but her lips have never been so forgiving as to stretch without care.
Not even for her daughter.
Instead, a single twitch at both corners of her mouth is all Hope gets. No teeth, no mercy. But the ring is the same. Hayley's large, diamond ring—a family heirloom, for sure—glimmers brighter than any holiday light in the room.
Her father beckons Hope forward with his hand, but she moves not. He narrows his eyes at her but his smile doesn't dim, and he silently asks her to come over once more.
She moves her chin down a single centimeter in a nod. This time, she only gets a couple of steps in before she freezes a few feet in front of him, heart pounding in her stomach and causing acid to rise up her throat. It stings like the Cruciatus Curse, and she almost looks away.
But she can't. That would be showing weakness.
When Klaus finally realizes that she isn't going to come easily, he parts his lips and speaks directly at her. His words are showy and loud, enough for the few people around them to turn their heads and get a good look at a Mikaelson family reunion.
"Come, now, Hope." Her father narrows his eyes even more, a flicker of something between irritation and amusement at the corner of his lips, tilting his head to motion to the woman by his side. "Aren't you going to give your mother a hug?"
Hayley stands flawless and pale, much like the perfect delicacy of a white rose. Hope briefly imagines that the smallest breeze might make the woman fall over and wither.
Hope still doesn't move. She feels stricken to her spot, like wet cement had been poured over her ankles and had dried before she could take another step. Fuck. Why isn't she moving?
Her father doesn't seem to like it either.
Klaus lowers his voice, so only she can hear. The dangerous smirk on his lips makes her blood run cold.
"Or has the Mikaelson name not shouldered shame enough?"