Cast yourself (you are the spell)

Chapter 17

By Thursday night, after Hope's detention, news of Slytherin's involvement in Wednesday morning's events breaks out in the castle.

As a result, Ravenclaw joins the prank war, and Hope thinks that's probably due to Alyssa Chang being in the house.

Hope is notified to Ravenclaw's newfound participation when Pedro comes sobbing through the common room door, ugly boils across his face and a large lump on his ass. On his back, a message on parchment paper is taped-

Don't mess with us again, Snakes.

"Man, he's only a first year," Ethan murmurs as Pedro runs up to his room crying.

"This means war," Hope nearly growls, her teeth clenching so hard it hurts.

"Ethan, go grab Pedro and take him to the hospital wing," she tells him, and the boy nods quickly and jogs up the stairs.

"Pen, Maya, come with me," she bites out, not mad at her friends but with Alyssa Chang. It's not her fault the Ravenclaw had gotten hurt in the crossfire, but it was certainly her responsibility to make sure Alyssa knew who she was fucking with.

Both girls get up and take our their wands, prepared for a duel or a fight or something, and Rose quickly stops all three of them before they can leave the common room.

"Are you three absolutely insane?" she whispers-yells, crossing her arms and positioning herself directly in front of the door. "It's like you're asking for an expulsion."

Hope huffs. "Come with us or get out of the way, Nicot."

"No, I won't," the girl says. "And none of you are going anywhere either. What do you think you're going to do? Storm the Ravenclaw tower and fight all of them?"

"No-"

"Really? Then what's your plan?"

Hope's eyes drop to the floor. She hadn't gotten that far.

"Exactly."

Damn the girl for having such a clear head.

Hope clenches her fist, crinkling the parchment paper she had been holding into a ball.

"They can't get away with this," she mutters, her shoulders deflating. She had sworn to Pedro's parents that she would protect him, and that no harm would ever come to him. And she could not even do that.

Rose places a hand on her arm.

"And they won't."

After that, Rose sends them all up to their rooms-"Fine, Mom"-and Hope ends her restless day with a restless night. She tosses and turns in her bed, shutting her pillow over her head to block out the sound of Maya snoring loudly.

It doesn't work, and throwing the pillow at the girl does nothing either.

She lays awake the entire night, her mind exhausted with thoughts of her awkward detention-where Josette had barely talked to Hope at all, no mention of the prank they had planned together-and thoughts of a tearful Pedro.

In fact, it was the second night in a row where she had not been able to get much sleep. And she was positively frustrated. The whole thing irritated her in the extreme, so much so that she finds herself biting her nails down to the bed and destroying her hair through repeatedly running slim fingers through it.

Hope gets up late on Friday morning, and chooses to skip breakfast, not trusting that Alyssa Chang won't try and poison her or something equivalently awful.

She walks to Potions alone, the corridors empty from everyone being in class, and she attempts to throw the classroom door open quietly. She cringes as she sees that Professor Slughorn is in the middle of talking, and freezes when she also sees that half of the students in the class are wearing muggle clothes.