Cast yourself (you are the spell)

Chapter 18

Hope enters the Slytherin common room after dinner, looking for her friends. Her Friday night detention got cancelled-Snape had pulled her aside in the hallway and had said something about a weekly staff meeting that they could not cancel for two "unpleasantly insolent" students. He had also said that she needed to find Josette and tell her, but Hope had never gotten around to it.

It's not that she hadn't told the other girl their detention was cancelled on purpose, it's just she'd been busy. That's all.

She jerks herself out of her guilty thoughts, finding Maya and Ethan playing chess by the stone fireplace. Rose sits on the arm of Ethan's chair, whispering advice into his ear; while Penelope is taking up the entire couch, laying down on it and waving her wand around randomly like she's inebriated.

"Hey, Machado, I need you to be my plus one to Slughorn's dumb dinner party next Saturday."

Both Machado siblings perk up. She swallows thickly.

"Sorry, I meant Maya," she clarifies, and Ethan pouts.

"Aww, Mikaelson, are you asking me out?" Maya drawls, a hand over her heart like she's sincerely touched.

"No, don't be silly," Hope says, her eyebrows furrowed. "Also, Rose, Slughorn invited you as well. I think you can bring your own date."

"So it is a date!" Maya yells, triumphant. Hope rolls her eyes.

"When did he say that?" Rose asks, playing with one of the chess pieces absentmindedly. Hope thinks it's a pawn.

"During first period," Hope answers, throwing herself directly opposite the couch Penelope's laying on.

"It's almost nine o'clock, H." Rose rolls her eyes, setting the chess piece down. Hope can see clearly now that it's a rook. "Why are you just telling me now?"

"Maybe because you screwed all of us over and left us to get detention," Penelope interjects, referring to the fact that the girl had worn muggle clothes the entire day, while the rest of them had each received two days of detention with Slughorn.

"I already told you earlier, Nicots don't get detention. My mother would have killed me," Rose says, not meeting anyone's eyes. Ethan watches her carefully, raising his eyebrows at her, and Hope observes the entire exchange quietly. "And we all heard Dumbledore during dinner, next week you'll have to serve a month of detention if you don't wear muggle clothes."

"Let's not change the subject," Maya interrupts before Penelope can say something else. "Mikaelson was in the middle of asking me out."

"For the last time, that was not what I was doing," Hope reiterates, but Maya waves her off, laughing.

"Why are you suddenly so interested in Slughorn's parties anyway?" she asks, a malicious glint in her eye. "You never were before."

Yes. Why are you so interested?

Hope swallows, her skin flushed where blood pools underneath.

"It's my sixth year," she states simply. "I need to start making connections."

"That's bull," Maya mutters, "but whatever. As long as I get to be your date."

She winks, getting up and leaving to her dorm room, complaining about not getting enough sleep the night before.

Hope smirks, and she's about to make a comment about Maya's snoring when she sees Josette Saltzman stomping over to her. Her smile slips off her face.

"Mikaelson!" the muggleborn calls, and Hope stands up. The Dreamless Sleep potion feels heavy in her pocket, and she smooths down her wrinkled uniform, looking up and directly into furious eyes. She feels her other friends stand up with her. "What is wrong with you?"