The week that follows is the longest of Hope's short life.
She begins to dread all of her classes, especially the ones with Josie in them. They don't talk much anymore, only when it's completely necessary and wholly unavoidable. And whenever Josie does talk to her-to ask about a potion ingredient, transfiguration spell, or an Arithmancy equation-she only answers with curt nods and blank expressions.
During Defense, Jade and Josie continue to make heart eyes at each other, and Hope continues to pretend she doesn't notice it. All the same, she can't summon a single whisp of something even resembling a patronus out of her wand. Oddly enough, it appears that the muggleborn is having equal trouble.
She tells herself it's for the best, but her heart sings a different story. It pounds against her chest as if to disagree whenever she's in the same room as the other girl. Sometimes it beats so viciously Hope thinks it's trying to escape her rib cage and jump into Josie's hands.
Especially when they're alone. Now, detention with Josie is cold and quiet. Detention without her is even colder. Even quieter. No detention at all is somehow worse. She had grown to actually enjoy her time with the other girl and now, now-nothing.
It only grows more awkward as the weekend comes and goes. Whenever Hope watches her, Josie's eyes become glued anywhere else. Yet, whenever Hope's sight isn't focused on her, she can feel the muggleborn's vice-like gaze like a hand gripping around her neck.
It makes breathing around the other girl that much more difficult. As a result, she distances herself in any way that she can. She sits with her back to Josie at the Slytherin table. She travels everywhere with her friends so the other girl can't approach her, but Merlin, does Hope want her to.
Her classes quickly become boring and monotonous. She can no longer find peace with her plants or anything magical at all, and quidditch practices are excruciating. She finds herself unable to enjoy flying, and she gets the feeling that her teammates are beginning to hate her for it.
On Monday, her final night of detention, she schedules a practice for the hour after. Her friends don't appreciate playing in the dark much, but they don't complain until Hope begins to schedule practices every morning, lunch break, and night of the week.
It's really only to prepare for the game they have against Ravenclaw on Saturday, but it's a welcome distraction for her nonetheless. It allows her to wake up early and go to sleep late every day, which deprives her of the energy to think about Josie and the huge error she made by trying to kiss her. During practice, she works her team harder than she ever has, and punishes every mistake. When Penelope drops her bat by accident, she makes her run a lap. On the field. With her feet.
When Ethan misses an easy interception, she has him use his broom as a pull-up bar and assigns him fifty of them. He breaks a sweat during the first ten. When Ryan gives her attitude after their third practice of the day, she makes him drop to give her twenty push-ups.
Hope Mikaelson has become somewhat of a tyrant.
And it's quickly getting on all of her friends' nerves.
She realizes that they've started talking shit about her when she joins them at dinner and they all immediately stop their conversation. Weirdly enough, Penelope has been the only one not to not say anything about it. Hope thinks that maybe she doesn't want to start another fight, and she's perfectly fine with repairing their relationship that way. So what, if she's become a hard-ass? So what, if she's devoted all her time and energy to quidditch so that they can win the Cup and make her family proud?
They should thank her for being so diligent and dedicated, but she knows that they're all starting to loathe her one way or another. Especially when she can't seem to stop talking about quidditch or school.
Whatever. She's just trying to keep herself busy, and they should as well. Her classes are all she has left. But even those have been riddled with insanity, now.
Much to the Mikaelson heir's annoyance, the prank war continues. The Gryffindors strike back on Monday, bewitching all Slytherin robes into colors of gold and red. Hope won't ever forget how horribly the red had clashed with her hair.
Still, the prank's not very clever since Hope and her friends figure out how to reverse it rather quickly, but Gryffindor gets a good laugh out of it and some pictures.
The very next day, Slytherin retaliate against both Gryffindor and Ravenclaw. They charm the Gryffindors to wear lion tails the entire day, forcing them all to stand during meals and classes. Then they curse eagle feathers to spew out of the Ravenclaws' mouths whenever they feel like talking.
It's not a particularly creative prank but the Slytherins enjoy it the best they can. Hope herself doesn't get any pleasure out of it, and she remains rather low-spirited the entire week due to...obvious reasons.
The weather and nature outside seems to mirror her mood. The rain rages harder than it ever has before. Every window she looks out of, she glimpses it harshly pouring out like sharp knives.
Sometimes she can barely think next to the sound of pounding rain hitting a window nearby. The wind seems to have taken over their quidditch practices as well, and the plants are particular snappy in her Herbology class. One day she decides to lay out in the courtyard to relax, but the wet grass is awfully pointy underneath her and she can't even sit down without being stabbed by it or soaked.
These conditions only makes it that much harder to concentrate on spending her time on school.
In fact, despite putting all of her attention into her studies, she can barely focus on her homework. She doesn't get one single assignment turned in the entire week.
By Friday night, Hope has become a miserable mess. For once, she chooses to sit alone at the Slytherin table, and for the first time this week she's facing Josie. She stares at her quite plainly, too exhausted to even think about putting on a show.
Her food remains untouched on her plate, her clenched fist shaking underneath the table. Her eyes hold a deep, unmasked longing as they fall upon brown waves and pouty lips.
She's laughing. Merlin-the girl is laughing. Laughing. How can she just giggle without a care in the world? How can she be so happy, when all Hope can feel is something akin to her heart being ripped out?
Hope only scowls, unaware that her fingers are digging into the table hard enough to bend nails.
The muggleborn then leans forward and pats the hand of the Gryffindor blonde sitting across from her. Hope nearly breaks the Slytherin table, nearly opens her mouth and lets a spell fly out of it to curse that annoying bimbo.
She finds herself completely regretting bringing up Jade to Josie. Would they be fine, if she hadn't? Would they still be talking, if she had just ignored it? Or was it something else altogether that Hope had said? What had triggered that horrid reaction from her? What had-
Hope must stare at her for too long because Josie's eyes suddenly snap up to her own. The brunette's laughter cuts off sharply as the brilliant smile on her face slips off.
Hope thinks that the abruptness of it has startled Jade because she turns around to see what her friend-girlfriend?-is looking at.
She searches in vain, however. Hope is already long gone.
-
"Ready for the game, Captain?" Rose bumps shoulders with her as she sits down. Hope glances around the great hall before replying.
"Yes," she says, her voice curt. The other girl raises her eyebrows curiously but gets the message. She sips at her pumpkin juice with a small frown, starting a conversation with Ethan across from them. Hope doesn't even have the energy to scold her for drinking anything but water.
She doesn't feel hungry herself, but tries to force something down her stomach anyways. It won't do any good to faint or fall off her broom during the game.
When she finally manages to swallow one measly pancake, she focuses her attention across the dining hall to one Josie Saltzman. She can't resist another look, not after she had spent the night with her dreams and thoughts plagued by her.
And surely, if Hope plagued Josie's thoughts herself, the girl would be looking at her right now as well, right? Yet, Hope stares for what must be minutes on end, and the muggleborn doesn't once look in her direction. She only continues to chit-chat and flirt with Jade.
The pureblood grows irritated and stands up too suddenly. Her teammates send her strange looks, but she shrugs them off.
"I'm going to the locker room early," she bites out, unable to hold back the venom in her words. Rose winces, and remorse fills her mouth just as easily. She gives a sweeping glance to all of them. "Be there in an hour, please."
Rose stands up as well as if to follow her, but Hope shakes her head. "I-I want some time alone, actually."
She can basically feel Ethan glaring into her skull.
Her voice comes out like gravel, and she rubs a hand at her nape. Why can't she seem to stop snapping at everyone? "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that."
She sighs. "I...I'll just see you later."
She leaves before Rose can argue again, ignoring Penelope's worried look and Ethan's angry one. Hope grabs some stuff from her dorm before making the short trip to the quidditch field and then the locker room.
She throws her bag against the wall of lockers and sits down on the bench, putting her head in her hands. She needs to stop. She needs to grab control of herself, she needs to shake herself, needs to get her head in the game.
All of this torment for...for a girl?
Her father would look down at her for being so pathetic.
Hope's hands shake as she removes them from her head to rub down at her eyes. No. She's just tired. She doesn't care about Josie at all, and certainly not enough to feel tormented about it.
Hope swallows hoarsely and begins to change into her uniform, fastening on all her protective pads slowly because she has the time.
"Hi." Hope jerks up at the familiar voice, and her eyes widen minutely. Her jaw clenches but she recovers quickly enough, only just succeeding in looking unaffected.
Josie Saltzman stands before her, leaning against a locker shyly, her hair wet from the rain and tangled from the wind. It only makes her appear even more attractive, and Hope forces herself to look away.
The feeling of meeting Josie's eyes after a week of nothing is a far-too welcome one for the pureblood. In fact, her skin is humming deliciously like she wants to reach out, and her bones suddenly feel restless with energy. She absolutely hates it.
"Non-quidditch players aren't allowed in here," Hope says coldly, strapping her gloves across her knuckles with barely-concealed anger and built-up frustration. She snaps the material against her skin twice to make sure it's secure.
Josie falters, looking almost...disappointed? Hope frowns. What does she expect, really? For the other girl to fall to her knees and propose? For Hope to beg for forgiveness, to ask for another chance?
"Right." Hope forgets her anger quickly as Josie talks. She thinks that the other girl's voice is so nice against her ears. Hope still feels drawn to it, still moves closer despite herself. Nothing has changed in a single week, and certainly not any of her feelings. It's not anything of great matter, though. She would fix this whole mess soon. She would make it go away. "I just wanted to wish you good luck."
Hope lets out a scoff before she can stop herself. She eyes the Gryffindor scarf wrapped around the other girl's neck. She briefly remembers how Josie has rejected the Slytherin one she had bought for her.
"Please," Hope sucks in a breath, turning away to gather herself. She pretends that she's buckling her boots instead of having a mild heart attack. "You can't wait for us to lose."
Josie sighs quietly, but it drifts between them with deafening speed to Hope's ears.
"Hope..." the muggleborn trails off sadly, coming closer. Hope finds it rather condescending.
"Don't say my name," she snaps, her fists clutching at air as she struggles with the pad on her right elbow. She then abandons trying to pretend to be occupied with something else at all.
Josie takes a step back at the obvious aggression in Hope's voice.
"Okay." She breathes. Hope wants to ask her if her friends know that she's here. She wants to ask Josie if Jade knows that she's here. "I guess I should get going anyways."
She turns away slowly and Hope's heart jumps into her throat. She holds a hand up, clenches it, opens her mouth, lets the same hand drop.
"Wait." She can't help herself. Hope almost says that she has been miserable without her. She almost says that she's lost her mind within the span of a week without her. Instead, she steels her gaze and grasps what's left of her willpower. She walks up to the other girl with a fury that bleeds with every step. "You can't do this. You asked for space. I gave it to you. I am not at fault for my actions when you can't honor that..."
Hope is suddenly right in front of the other girl, blinking quickly like she's trying to stop herself from doing something or nothing at all. Her hand comes up against the locker, gripping into the grooves as Josie presses herself back against it.
Hope finds that she cannot look away from the brunette. Her mouth parts as she trails off her sentence, not knowing quite what to say or maybe forgetting her words as she loses herself in the bright pair of eyes across from her. Anything she could say dies on her tongue as the muggleborn glances down to her...lips? Hope feels her chest plummet, and she leans in slightly with the thrill that Josie is doing the same. She wonders if they're about to...if Josie's going to let her...
Then, finally, the girl turns away. Hope's eyes fall shut with disappointment.
"I never meant-"
The pureblood explodes, backing away so suddenly that she almost trips over her quidditch robes.
"Well, that's just too bad, isn't it?" she snarks, hurt breaking up her words. Why is she so weak? She hates it. She hates it. She's hates-
Josie says nothing. "Go. I don't want to see you. Ever again."
It's a blatant lie but Hope wants her to believe it with everything inside her. When the other girl furrows her eyebrows before simply leaving, Hope thinks that maybe Josie does.
-
"I know that my behavior has been...unfortunate, as of recently." Hope looks around at her teammates, receiving many pointed nods and murmurs of agreement. She frowns, not expecting them to so openly agree with her. "I hope you can understand that it's only because I want the best for all of us. We..."
Hope tries to gather her words correctly. She wants to say this right.
"We don't have many years left together," she tells them. Maya laughs, but it sounds somewhat sharp.
"Getting sentimental, Mikaelson?" she asks, a rueful smirk against her lips.
"What did I say about interrupting me?" Hope growls falsely, and Maya raises her hands in surrender, still laughing. "But it's true. Victoire and Clarke are graduating this year, so let's give them one last winning season."
Everyone else seems to see eye to eye. Jo Victoire and Ryan Clarke appear touched as well. "It's not often that I do this, but I think I stand for all of us when I say that we'll miss you two..."
"We're not gone yet," Ryan interrupts, and Hope scowls.
"Correction-we'll miss Jo," she talks through him, earning a deep laugh from the boy. "All jokes aside, let's talk strategy. Machado and Park, you guys need to take out their star chaser as quickly as possible. Once Gangley is gone, it should be a fairly easy win."
Maya and Penelope high-five despite the fact that they haven't accomplished anything yet, and Hope rolls her eyes.
"However, we mustn't forget that Ravenclaw proved victorious against Hufflepuff their last match," she adds sternly. "They destroyed them, whereas we almost lost to them. I don't think I have to explain what that means, do I?"
Everyone shakes their heads. "Good."
Hope begins to usher everyone out as she hears Ravenclaw concluding their team's introduction. She then secures her goggles around her face and performs a rain-repellent charm on them.
She follows her teammates and mounts her broom with practiced ease, the last one out of the locker room but the first one to lead them around the quidditch pitch. Hope notices quickly that it's hard to see even with the charm she placed on her goggles, and her quidditch robes get soaked the second she flies out into the open.
She also hears thunder, mixed in between the sound of cheering and booing, and she knows that lightning can't be far off. This is about to be a rough game, indeed.
As her team flies around the pitch, her eyes-perhaps, without her permission-skim along the professors and students in the stands. She finds Josie pretty quickly in the Ravenclaw section, sharing a red and gold umbrella with Jade. Hope only increases her speed as she passes them, feeling hot despite the cold itching into her clothes.
"The players take their positions out in the middle of the field," an uninterested voice comes from the commentator's box. Hope recognizes Alyssa Chang even from the distance. "Hooch releases the quaffle and..."
Ethan fumbles the play to get first possession and Ravenclaw ends up with the ball. Hope huffs and hovers over them as the game starts. "Ravenclaw takes first possession. Slytherin should just forfeit now, if you ask me..."
The pureblood sighs as she doesn't catch a single hint of flittering gold anywhere in the pitch, the snitch nowhere to be found. "That's ten points for Ravenclaw."
Hope sneers, her eyes squinting to look down at the field. Merlin, how had Ravenclaw scored already? Had all their practices been for nothing?
The wind continues to whip uncomfortably against her face, strikes of lightning quite literally lighting up the sky, and Hope grows frustrated with her team as the score reaches 90-20, in Ravenclaw's favor, their only points scored by Jo and Ryan.
She can hardly blame her team, though. Hope herself is distracted beyond belief, her eyesight pinned to a familiar spot on the bleachers instead of what she's supposed to be doing.
"That's ten more points for Ravenclaw, increasing their score to 100-20. Seriously, Slytherin's captain should just call it now." Hope frowns, getting the urge to hit Alyssa Chang over the head with her broom. "Speaking of the Slytherin captain, she seems to be more focused on looking at the bleachers than on looking for the snitch. Searching for a special someone, Mikaelson?"
Hope can feel Rose's gaze on her from her spot at the keeper's post, and she rolls her eyes, glad that no one can see her blush from how high she is in the air or the density of the fog.
She looks around at the sky for one more glimpse of the snitch, and not finding it, she makes a quick decision.
She dives down to the action of the game, soaring to the hoops where the star Ravenclaw chaser is fast approaching with the quaffle.
He draws his hand back to throw the ball at the left hoop, but Hope is faster and catapults herself forward to steal it out of his grip. She passes him and the other chasers quickly, taking them all by surprise as she flies towards the Ravenclaw keeper on the other side.
"It seems as though Mikaelson's taking matters into her own hands now...is that even legal?" Alyssa wonders out loud, to which the professor next to her responds. "Oh, McGonagall says it is, then."
Hope dodges a bludger as it flies above her head, leaning down and faster as she approaches the hoops. She feints for the right hoop before sending the quaffle all the way to the left. It flies in, too fast for the keeper to attempt to block it, and Hope internally smirks.
"Easy, huh?" she yells in Ethan's direction-the boy had not yet scored-and he rolls his eyes at her. She turns around to fly back up over the field when Alyssa's voice reaches her ears again.
"Ten points to Slytherin," Alyssa huffs, and opens her mouth to make another comment. "Looks like I've hit a nerve. You're welcome, Mikaelson-"
Hope changes her mind and soars back to where Alyssa is. She shoots over quickly, almost as fast as the lightning above them, headed directly to the commentator's box.
Alyssa Chang screams into the microphone as she realizes that Hope's about to crash into her with her broom. The pureblood smirks as she comes closer and closer, pulling down on her broom handle and dive-bombing towards the box, and then...
At the last second, she pulls up just before she can hit Alyssa, causing the Ravenclaw to shriek in fear. Hope then loops around her with a taunting smile, while Alyssa continues to scream as though she's been hit.
"Foul! Foul! Foul!" she yells as the seeker floats way, grabbing nearby Professor Snape's robes to get his attention. "What do you mean it's not a foul?! She clearly tried to assault me!"
Snape shakes his head at Hope with amusement as he ignores the girl next to him. Hope only balances on her broomstick and lifts her hands up in surrender, focusing back on the game just as Ryan scores again.
She claps him on the shoulder as she passes him, gliding up high in the sky to look around for the snitch. Slytherin eventually begins to catch up to Ravenclaw. Twenty minutes later they're tied, 110-110.
Hope just needs to catch the snitch, and then they'll win and everything will be fine. She continues to look for it, her eyes periodically glancing to Josie despite her best intentions not to.
At one point, she stares for too long and catches herself just before she sees something strange. She spots a glimmer of gold by Josie's coat pocket, and then it disappears briefly. Hope almost writes it off as a reflection of the lightning above them, and then she sees it again. Could it be...?
Hope narrows her eyebrows and then smirks as she realizes what's happened. She begins to float down towards the direction of Josie and her friends at an almost leisurely pace.
The Ravenclaw seeker watches her with confusion and interest. He had been following her the entire game instead of looking for the snitch himself, much like Hufflepuff's seeker had done.
As she comes closer to the brunette, Hope knows immediately that this will be a Slytherin win. She continues to drift over until she's hovering just in front of Josie, who notices her immediately. Her friends swiftly do the same, and the other students around them begin to boo and hiss at Hope, which she replies to with a mocking wave at all of them.
"What are you doing?" Josie whispers, looking slightly panicked. Hope keeps the smirk on her face knowing that they have an audience, even though she feels like she's dying inside. Seriously, how is the sound of her heart beating louder than the pounding of the rain and the lightning combined? "I thought-I thought you were staying away from me."
Hope tries not to wince or recoil. She wants to fly away desperately, but her team needs this. She will not put herself or her feelings above them.
"I am," she tells the other girl quickly, the smile on her face wholly forced. She glances at the seething forms of Jade and Elizabeth, who are practically shaking in their rain boots. "It just so happens..."
She lowers her voice, and Josie's friends lean in under their umbrellas to hear it. "That you have something I want."
"Oh," Josie stares nervously, her cheeks and the tip of her nose rosy and beautiful from the weather or maybe from Hope being-no. That's not it. She watches as the brunette glances off to the side with apprehension and crosses her arms. The pureblood only dips her broom down and leans forward, her hand reaching out slowly towards the muggleborn's pocket. She can almost hear the snitch fluttering inside of it. How had Josie not noticed it yet?
Her eyes still locked onto the muggleborn's, she moves forward quickly and sneaks her hand into Josie's pocket, eliciting a gasp as the other girl freezes in surprise. Her fingers wrap around the snitch, which instantly stops moving in her hold, and then she shoots off backwards on her broom, gone before Josie can even blink.
"Damn it!" Alyssa Chang curses into the microphone, to which the professors around her all admonish her for. "Hope Mikaelson caught the snitch. What a fucking surprise."
Professor McGonagall makes a grab for the microphone, but Alyssa moves out of the way before she can get a hold of it and speaks hurriedly. "That brings the score to 260-110. Slytherin wins. Oh, what's that? Ravenclaw Beater Greeley Chase just picked up his bat. Merlin, that boy has always been hard of hearing. Can someone tell him that the game's over already? Oh no..."
Hope Mikaelson doesn't see the bludger coming, too busy celebrating with her teammates. She can only turn her head fast enough to hear a sickening snap and then...
Darkness.
-
Hope wakes up groggily, her head pounding. She tries to move but finds herself confined, particularly the lower half of her body. Her hair is dry, so she figures that it must be some time after the game.
Shit. The game!
The pureblood blinks her eyes open and immediately closes them again when warm light hits her irises. It only makes her headache worse and she groans quietly. She feels much like she had after the incident with that silly plant.
However, her pain soon becomes forgotten when a soft hand grips her own, and she attempts to sit up once again. Her eyes finally adjust to the light but her brain takes much longer.
"I think I'm dreaming." Her voice curls roughly along the words from hours of disuse and surprise, not quite believing the person standing in front of her.
Josie Saltzman shakes her head and laughs wetly, her bottom lip red and glistening, her eyes slightly moist. Hope swallows the lump in her throat, swallows the excitement and dread pooling in her mouth all at once. "I'm so sorry."
The pureblood drops her head back to the pillow underneath it, feeling dizzy from trying to sit up so quickly. Or perhaps her dizziness is coming from the sudden proximity to the muggleborn, Hope does not really know.
Why is she here anyways? She wonders. Doesn't she want me to leave her alone?
"Why?" The question comes out before Hope can shut her mouth, and Josie must not expect it either because she drops her hand from rubbing soothing circles into Hope's own and visibly pales.
"I-I should go," she says, looking anywhere else. Hope misses the contact immediately, and her fingers twitch with want. Josie holding her hand had distracted her from that awful headache. The absence only makes her hurt more. "I fear Madame Pomfrey has grown annoyed with me."
What does that even mean?
"No," Hope breathes, leaning forward as she tries to get up. It must be too much at once because her brain suddenly feels like it's splitting apart. She grunts as nausea shoves its hand down her throat, and she breathes deeply at an attempt to keep her stomach contents down. "Can you sit with me?"
Her voice sounds too desperate in all the wrong places, and it must show on her face because something flickers in Josie's eyes like a flame before it's put out completely.
Her face falls and then she takes a step back. Hope immediately regrets asking, and her head starts to pound with the urge to cry instead. The lump in her throat comes back full-force at the brusque note to the other girl's voice. "Your friends will be back soon. I'll see you later, okay?"
She feels humiliated at the blatant rejection. Hope had not even been thinking about her friends. She had not even noticed that they weren't here.
"I..." She wonders why Josie is even still here. She obviously doesn't want to be around Hope, so why is she acting like she cares? Why is she even waiting for Hope's response when it looks like she can't wait to get away from her? "Okay."
She bites the inside of her cheek and looks away, unable to watch Josie leave for the second time that day. It doesn't matter. It really doesn't. It does not matter if a tear slips unbidden through her eyelid, it does not matter that Hope's chest feels like it's been scraped empty, it does not matter that there's a large bump on her head.
Sometime later, Madame Pomfrey approaches her with a green, ugly-looking draught in one hand and her wand in the other.
"Good. You're awake." Hope is the only person here. Did she really just notice only now? "Drink this, please. You should feel much better."
Hope doesn't hesitate before throwing down the potion like a shot this time. She feels the effects almost immediately and sighs. Her head no longer kills her with every pulse.
"Do you know if my friends have been by?" she asks once she's done gagging at the aftertaste of the potion. Pomfrey does something that sounds a lot like a laugh.
"Do not worry, Miss Mikaelson..." The right corner of her lip upturns. Hope frowns. Does she think Hope's insecure or lonely or something? "Your friends did not leave you on their own volition. I kicked them all out for a small break. I confess, they were making something of a ruckus trying to wake you up. They should be back shortly."
"So I've heard," Hope replies unhappily, bitterly, to which she receives an odd look. Hope only shakes her head. "What happened?"
"Miss Saltzman didn't tell you?" Pomfrey looks at her with obvious shock, and Hope's heart rate skyrockets at the words. Had Pomfrey seen anything? Did she-did she know?
"No," she tells her, upturning her nose rather obnoxiously. "She did not."
"Took a bludger straight to the head, you did," Pomfrey explains. "Knocked you right out...and if that wasn't enough, you then proceeded to fall off your broom. Gave us quite a scare, indeed. You're lucky the headmaster was able to slow your fall, you were very far up..."
She then begins to rant about the dangers of quidditch and how much she dislikes the sport, which Hope tunes out. She catches some familiar figures by the entrance and heaves a sigh of relief. She's so happy that her whole team is here.
"Thank Merlin," she calls out to her friends, interrupting the matron's babbling. "Save me!"
Pomfrey shoots her a dirty look but gets the hint and makes herself busy.
"I'm not sure we're better company than Poppy, H," Penelope tells her right away, which causes Ryan to chuckle darkly.
"For the last time, it's inappropriate to call me by my first name and I do not give you permission to do so," Pomfrey reiterates across the infirmary. They all ignore her as if she hadn't even spoken.
Hope frowns as she fixes Penelope with a curious look. Why do all of her friends appear so...guilty?
"Well, why not?" she asks, her eyes narrowing with suspicion.
"Ask Rose," Maya grits out in the Slytherin keeper's direction, but her voice wavers nervously. Rose avoids Hope's eyes.
"Nicot?"
"Alright, don't get mad, but..." Her next words come so fast that they blur together. "I sent a letter to your parents to let them know what happened-"
"You what?!"
"I thought they should know!" Rose defends, raising her own voice once Hope does. "You didn't wake up for hours, it's nearly past the afternoon!"
Hope jolts up. "What time did you send the letter? Where's my broom? I can probably intercept it in time if I fly out now..."
She swings her legs over the bed and looks around frantically. Rose rolls her eyes.
"Don't be silly," she says dismissively, and Hope glares at her. "You're in no condition to go chasing after an owl. Right, Madame Pomfrey?"
"Sorry, sweetie, I wasn't listening," the matron shoots her head up, asking for clarification. They all give her a pointed look, silently asking her to drop the oblivious act. "Fine. No, you can't go flying. For one, you're not allowed off school grounds without permission, and two-I won't be willing to release you if you're only going to put yourself into another dangerous situation."
"What do you mean, willing to release me?" Hope's head swarms. "I can't leave?"
"Not until I check you over," Pomfrey says. "You have a grade three concussion. As your friend pointed out, you were unconscious for many hours. I would like to keep you overnight..."
"Overnight?!"
"Ooh," Ethan looks like he's been hit in the chest. He lowers his voice but everyone hears what he says next anyways. "That means you'll miss the party."
"Party?!"
Hope Mikaelson never misses a party.
"Yeah, Slytherin is throwing one to celebrate our win," he explains, and his teammates all shoot him pointed looks to stop talking. He quickly realizes that Pomfrey is in the room. "Ohh, not Slytherin. No. I meant to say Ravenclaw. Yeah...they're throwing their own party, you know, to commemorate their...loss."
The matron only walks away. "I didn't hear a thing..."
"Great," Penelope's eyes glint with mischief when the matron disappears into her office. "We'll sneak you out!"
Hope's own darken. "Alright."
-
Around nine o'clock, someone knocks on the infirmary door precisely seven times and Hope quickly understands. She rolls over in her bed and pretends to sleep.
"Mister Machado? I must say, this is quite the surprise. Visiting hours are over. Are you here to talk to Miss Mikaelson?" Hope clamps a hand over her mouth to stop laughing.
"No, actually. I wanted to see you...do you think we could talk in your office?"
"I don't see why not..."
When Hope hears one door swing shut and another open, she quickly gets up.
"Hurry!" Rose whispers from the doorway, her tie messily wrapped around her neck like she's already begun partying. Penelope stands behind her, pumping her fist lamely in the air like she's heavily intoxicated.
Hope places an disillusionment charm on her bed sheets to make it appear as though she's still there before she slips out with the two of them, leaving Ethan to deal with Pomfrey.
Once they get inside the Slytherin common room, Hope sees quickly that everyone is having very much fun, indeed. Penelope hands her her own bottle of Firewhiskey and throws herself on top of a couch as music thuds loudly around them. It's so loud that it nearly vibrates the floor and furniture.
Hope instantly notices that there are people from other houses here, namely Hufflepuff. In fact, Maya is making out with one in the corner near the fire.
"A Hufflepuff, Maya?" Hope questions when she passes her, a lazy drawl coming out of her mouth. Maya pushes the girl in front of her away before setting her eyes on Hope. "I thought we had standards."
"Hope! Hey!" Maya shouts over the music and hugs her, and the Hufflepuff behind her quite literally huffs with impatience. "I knew my rat brother would get you out!"
"Here," she hands Hope some sort of concoction in a cup despite the fact that the pureblood is already carrying her own bottle. "It's my own Hog's Head Brew."
She winks and gestures for Hope to try it. She smiles before tossing the drink down, and it leaves a burn straight to her throat and down her stomach. She almost coughs before gathering herself. "That was good, right?"
"That tasted like shit!" Hope tells her, but the girl only shrugs and starts dancing again as Rose and Penelope join them. The Hufflepuff girl stands forgotten in the corner.
Ethan comes back ten minutes later, his eyes wild as he looks at Hope. He yells unnecessarily, his voice much higher than the music. "Merlin, Pomfrey almost killed me for that crap I made up! You're welcome, by the way, she didn't notice a thing!"
By twelve o'clock, Hope is adequately plastered. Halfway through, someone passes around some kind of magical chocolate liqueur that Hope likes a lot, and she ends up switching that out with her Firewhiskey bottle every now and then. She tries to enjoy herself the most she can with her thoughts constantly being troubled by Josie Saltzman. Really, Hope looks around the common room for her much more than she would like to admit.
"I would like to make a toast!" Jo Victoire screams at one point, standing up on a table. Hope notices that half the buttons on her shirt are somehow gone. "To fucking Hope Mikaelson! She fucking won us that game! Fuck yeah!"
Hope laughs as everyone starts chanting her last name, raising her bottle of Firewhiskey and drinking with all of them. It makes her head buzz delightfully, and she finds that she feels much better after everything she's gone through today.
Then someone taps her shoulder and she turns around, catching a head of brown hair by the common room exit.
"Hey, have you seen Pen? The last I saw her, she was so drunk that she turned straight and started making out with a guy, but I haven't seen her since-" Rose rambles on.
Hope ignores her.
"Yeah, yeah," she says distractedly, patting her friend's arm. She raises her voice over the music. "I'll be right back!"
Her feet move on autopilot, somehow steps ahead of her fuzzy brain. She throws her clumsy limbs out of the common room door, swiftly matching Josie's steps in front of her with long strides.
"Hey, Saltzman!" she yells, forgetting there's no music outside of the common room. She lowers her voice as soon as she hears herself. "Leaving so soon? The party's barely even started."
Merlin, she's so beautiful. Hope sees that she's not wearing her school robes, but pajamas instead. The purebloood isn't sober enough to think about why she would be wandering the hallways in the middle of the night in her pajamas, so she barely picks up on it other than admiring the brunette's long legs left exposed by her pajama bottoms.
Josie halts her own steps and sighs. Hope finds herself loving the sound. "Yet you're already drunk."
Hope scowls. What did she do to deserve the attitude? And drunk? She's sure that she's only had a couple of drinks. "I'm not."
"You literally have a bottle of Firewhiskey in your hand," Josie deadpans, already starting to walk off again. Hope looks at her hand as if she needs to visually prove the muggleborn's statement, and she is almost shocked to see that it's true. She hadn't even realized that she had brought the bottle with her.
"Why are you walking so fast?" Hope mumbles as she rushes to catch up to her. Josie stops again and fixes her with an annoyed look.
"Should you even be drinking with a concussion?" Hope tilts her head, confused as to why the muggleborn sounds so exasperated. She tries to walk away again but Hope won't let her, wrapping a hand around her wrist and pulling her back. She underestimates her strength and they almost knock into each other.
Josie steadies them both with her hands on Hope's shoulders, hesitating slightly before letting them fall to her sides. The pureblood ignites at the touch, feeling her entire torso burning and then cooling to ice when Josie drops her hands.
"What's it to you?" she bites out, suddenly irritated herself. Why does she always chase the other girl? For no good reason? "I thought you didn't care."
Josie actually flinches.
"Of course I care," she tells her, so sincerely and angrily that Hope takes a step back. The muggleborn only steps forward. "I care so much. But you, you're just..."
She runs her hands through her hair as she tries to find the right words, worrying her bottom lip with her teeth in that very familiar way Hope knows all-too much.
"You care?" Hope asks, laughing humorously, not believing it. The smile slips off her face and she curls her lip. "Then prove it."
Josie smashes into her, an explosion of pouty lips and soft skin and fire. Their mouths collide much like two spells of a duel, and Hope doesn't wait this time before sneaking her tongue across Josie's lips and asking for entrance. The muggleborn grants her it with a soft noise and two hands clutching at the back of her neck.
It makes Hope feel disorientated yet clearheaded all at once, and her legs turn to jelly in seconds as heat pools in her stomach and scorches every inch of skin.
She places her own hands against Josie's waist without much thought other than the lingering one that they belong there. Josie leans into her touch immediately, matching the intimate contact with equal fervor as her fingers wander into the pureblood's hair.
Hope's heart jerks in her chest at the sensation, a shiver of warmth racing all the way down to her toes. She wants to stay in this moment forever, wants to never leave this barren hallway, wants to never hear anything ever again but the sweet sounds Josie is making and the muted music from inside the common room.
The spell is broken when the muggleborn steps back, her eyes clenched as she untangles her hands from Hope's hair.
The pureblood moves to follow but Josie doesn't let her, and fear fills her stomach just as easily. She attempts to catch her breath with the space between them, but her thoughts are too hazy and unfinished to let her inhale and exhale completely right.
"This-this was a mistake," she shakes her head, touching her lips like she can't quite believe what she's just done. Hope certainly doesn't. She stands across from the other girl with wide eyes and parted, swollen lips. "My sister is waiting for me. I'm late. I need to go. My sister-I'm late, I need to go."
Hope lets her.