Hope sat on her bed drifting her legs over the black bed frame. The room was pitch dark, except for the reflection of the light of the moon coming through the window. There was dark red candles placed around the interior of the room. The candles were lit as Hope chanted a spell. She was practicing using her witch power, however this wasn't really a challenge for her. She was considered young to be able to use her magic, but it was something that always came naturally to her. She used to practice simple spells similar to the candle spell when she was little even though most witches at that age, had not even begin to notice their magic.
Despite that, she had noticed that as long as she could remember her parents never wanted her to do magic. They discouraged her to try any complex spells and sometimes they wouldn't let her do the simplest of spells. She once thought it was because she was so young but she was now 13. Witches typically started practicing magic at this age, yet she was now in her room chanting spells, after using sage to sound proof the room so her family wouldn't hear what she was doing.
Hope looked around at the candles that lit up the room. Her room was full of decorations and things from almost every century. She had always loved hearing her family's stories about the decades and centuries before she was born, and had kept everything that was given to her from an earlier time period around her room on nightstands and shelfs. It gave the room an old type of feeling but also was filled with new modern electronics and furniture that made it the ideal room for a teenager.
One of the newer things that occupied the room was a full stand up mirror in the corner near where the majority of the candles were. The mirror reflected Hope as she pulled her legs up off the edge of her bed to be being completely on the purple blanket that covered the length of her bed. She had grown to slightly look more like her father than her mother, even though she still had mother's dark brown hair. She lifted her covers to grab a journal where she had written spells, that she had learned or copied from other grimoires. Some of spells she had gotten from her family's library when they weren't looking, other's from grimoires that she had manage to find. Hope opened the journal. The sage would eventually wear off, she needed to practice while she still had the privacy to do so.
She flipped through the newer pages looking for a spell that wasn't some simple training spell that any witch can do. She knew she had the power to do any of the spells if she was given the chance to learn, but every time she had asked her parents to help her with magic, they would end up in some argument. Hope eventually just started trying to figure out the spells by herself and practice them without her family's knowledge. She was still starting out but had already realized that she was meant to be a powerful witch, something her parents obviously didn't want her to have knowledge of.
She was angry at them for refusing to talk to her about magic and her being a witch. She knew they weren't telling her everything. She had always gotten along well with her mother and father and she probably had a stronger relationship with them than most people did with their parents. They hardly ever fought, except for when she would bring up magic, her father would argue that it was not the time to talk about it but never gave a reason for ignoring the subject. Her mother never said much about it and always looked nervous and a little ashamed when Hope went to her about it. Now finding out how much she loved her magic and that it was a talent of hers, the frustration grew about why no one wanted her to know about it.
She thought in a world full of vampires, her family would want her to be powerful, especially after the stories they told her of her life as a baby. She glanced through the pages once more, finding a cloaking spell that she had been meaning to try. She read over the latin words a couple of times, memorizing the words in her head. She had put the book under her covers and was about to start chanting the spell after grabbing the elements that were needed off some shelves, when she heard someone walking by the door. She threw her supplies back where they were and said a word in latin for the candles to be unlit. As she assumed, the door, seconds later crept open.
Klaus walked through the door, observing the room. The lights were still off and Hope was standing by the drawer looking towards her father. "The sage might keep vampires from hearing inside, however that doesn't mean we can't tell when it's being used.", Klaus raised his eyebrow, as he flicked the light switch. The room lit up and Klaus walked to where the sage was burning in a cup and blew out the fire which had activated the spell. Hope watched his movements but didn't say anything, hoping her father would leave before he found the journal. He looked in Hope's direction, "Where did you learn that spell?"
Hope looked at the cup with the sage in it trying to come up with a story her father would believe. She had found Ester's grimoire in a hiding spot a few months ago and had learned new spells including this one out of it. She obliviously couldn't reveal that she knows where the grimoire was, or that she had spells from it tough. "I saw one of witches in the quarter using it.", she answered quickly.
"And what would be the name of this witch?" Klaus asked suspiciously. Hope panicked for a minute at the question but tried to not look nervous. She hardly ever lied to her father and she was almost certain that he can tell when someone was lying to him. He had lived a thousand years, he had to had figured it out by now. "I don't know her very well. I just saw her doing it and it looked like a simple spell to try. She kept it burning in her store."
"I'm not going to fall for your false stories, Hope." Neither said anything for a moment, finally Klaus broke the silence between the two by repeating his first question but now it sounded more threatening. "Where did you learn that spell?" Hope considered coming up with another story but eventually gave up on the lie. "I found Ester's grimoire and learned a few spells from it, including this one.", Hope said quietly. She looked towards the bed where the book was hidden, a least she did not mention that part.
Hope saw as her father suddenly seemed more anxious than before, like he was worried about something. "My mother was an extremely powerful witch, those spells are dangerous!", her father yelled at her. She was sick of fighting about this. She was a witch, she should be challenging herself to try new spells. All the other witches her age, in New Orleans were encouraged to try spells and get better at their magic, yet she wasn't allowed to do any magic.
"Why can't I do the spells? You never have given me a reason for not using magic! I'm a witch, you should have taught me how to do the spells, instead of me having to secretly steal grimoires!", Hope yelled back.
"You're not a witch, you're a hybrid!"
"I'm still a witch. I'm never have trigged my werewolf curse and I'm not a vampire. I should a least be able to try to use my magic until I become a werewolf or a vampire."
"You're not going to. You're not allowed to do any spells or magic. " Klaus walked out of Hope's room ending the argument. Hope walked over to her bed and picked up the journal underneath the covers. She looked around her room for a better place to hide it before deciding to put it under some other books underneath her nightstand.
"That argument lasted as well as the last hundred did.", she said to herself. Why did it matter that she was a hybrid or tribrid or whatever? They had nothing to do with her witch powers, if they did, she wouldn't be able to use her magic in the first place. She no longer cared what her father or mother thought about it. There was either no reason for her not to use magic or they were lying to her. She could find a witch and ask her about it. She doubt Divina would help but New Orleans was full of witches.
