Cast yourself (you are the spell)

Chapter 40

TW//Nonconsensual Removal of Clothes-Sexual Harassment

At once, half of the older students stand up from their spots and crowd the oblivious muggleborn, causing her and her sister to jump back in surprise. Elizabeth even pulls out her wand as the Slytherins start to pack the entrance, probably bracing for some kind of attack.

Hope watches with barely-concealed jealousy and a whole lot of shock. The only Slytherins that remain sitting down are Rose, Ethan, and the pureblood herself. Even Penelope, someone who has spent the last two months bullying the muggleborn, gets up. Hope shortly wonders what happened to the girl who swore she would die before spending a single knut on muggle clothes.

Ultimately, it doesn't matter, because now every Slytherin and their best mate have decided to become filthy hypocrites.

In fact, pretty quickly, most of the Slytherin table is deserted, save for everyone below fourth-year. One particularly suave fifth-year conjures a bouquet of flowers out of the tip of his wand, and a seventh-year even hexes his friend for a better spot in line.

It doesn't make any sense at all.

How can they so easily turn their backs on Sebastian and then line up to ask out a muggleborn? Do they not care at all? Has all of Hope's hiding been in vain? Has it been for no reason? How can they, how can they-

She sits up with fury raging through her veins, like a cold fire, freezing her blood to ice while somehow setting every inch to flames. The fire rages onward into her mind, catching on to every single thought until all she can hear are shrieks and screams, urging her to move and stop all of them before they can even spare a single word to the muggleborn.

Hope shoves her way through the crowd until she comes to stand in front of it. She grabs the sixth-year blonde trying to talk to Josie by the collar and sends her stumbling back to the group. Her eyes, very quickly, connect to Josie's, before she turns back to the crowd.

"None of you can have her," she snarls, her eyes darkening along with the steel tone of her voice. A sneer pulls at her lips and bares her teeth, and she sends a vicious glare to those who dare to meet her eyes.

The crowd falls silent like a ripple of water, and it rebounds across every single student in the great hall until even the staff's table hushes still. In the quietude, Hope can only hear the sound of her heart beating in her ears and her panting. Why is she breathing so hard? Why do her lungs suddenly feel so starved of air?

"Are you staking your claim, Mikaelson?" Penelope pulls herself to the front of the group, Maya right behind her. Hope shakes her head, her skull hammering against her brain.

Staking her claim? Like Josie Saltzman is property? Hope feels disgusted.

Yet, the truth is: a part of Hope had been this close to murdering all of them and growling, "She's mine."

None of them care about Josie, not like she does. They would only use her as a way to get into the ball, and then ditch her right after. None of them deserve her. Worst of all, Hope doesn't either, and it's for this reason that she can't go to the ball. Josie won't be safe that way.

"No." Hope's voice does not sound very much like her own, and her tongue feels like acid in her throat, but she manages to say the word. Penelope rolls her eyes.

"Get out of the way, then," she tells Hope dismissively, moving to pass the pureblood, who doesn't let her step even a foot forward, her hand a vice against the girl's arm.

"I said," Hope reiterates, the note in her voice final. Deep down, she knows that Penelope won't back down, six years of friendship or not. The two of them have always been far too stubborn for their own good, and together, it makes for a deadly combination. "You can't have her."