Chapter 2
Hope walked out of the headmaster's office, followed by Landon and Josie. She'd let Dr. Saltzman go about things his own way, and with Emma and Dorian there to back him up, and with a clear goal - keeping the keys from Malivore - things hadn't gotten too out of hand, but now it was a gigantic mess, and some adult supernaturals who could take over and fix the mess were sorely needed, especially since the headmaster was gone and wouldn't be coming back. She hoped Bonnie would take over as headmistress - she knew that wouldn't really be fair to Bonnie, given that she'd left Mystic Falls and never come back for a reason - but things were desperate, and they had to turn to someone, any adult, and Bonnie just happened to be the first one that cropped up in Hope's mind. She hoped Caroline would come back, too, so that her daughters would have a mother again - Merge in the offing or not, Josie and Lizzie needed their mother more than ever. Things had to change around here. And she just wanted some peace, some happiness, and whatever semblance of a normal childhood she could have for the year or so she had left before she had to de facto become an adult and start thinking about colleges and whatnot. After all, even in Harry Potter, there were people who had a perfectly ordinary magical childhood, who grew up just having normal childhood experiences at Hogwarts and not battling every kind of monster in the world. Why couldn't she and her friends have that, or something as close to that as possible?
Landon had been thinking about something, because he touched Hope on the shoulder and asked, "Can I ask you something?"
"Sure." She responded quietly.
"You said my mom sacrificed herself to Malivore. And you also said you sacrificed yourself to him that night. Um ... Do you have any idea what happened to my mom?"
Hope was hit by a wave of regret. She had looked for Seylah in Malivore - in fact she'd looked all over, and used spells to tease out any hidden areas, which she'd then searched thoroughly too - but Malivore was vast and mysterious, and she wasn't sure that even if she'd looked every place there was to look, she'd have found Seylah. She feared Seylah was dead - even though she specialized in killing monsters and therefore would have easily managed to stay alive within Malivore - the absolute lack of any evidence that she was still alive caused Hope to despair.
"I'm sorry, Landon." She said regretfully. "I looked - everywhere I could possibly think to look - but I didn't find her anywhere. I know it's unlikely she's dead, but I don't know what to think. I just don't have the faintest idea. I'm really sorry."
"Don't be sorry. I kind of expected that. Thanks, though."
Hope smiled softly at him. Even though things were awkward right now, she still loved Landon deeply.
"Um, I need to go look for Raf." He said, casting about as if expecting Raf to appear. "He just wandered off, and since he's still a wolf - "
"I'll come with you." Hope offered. "I can turn him back." Landon looked at her, confused. "There's this device called a reverse kyanite ring - it can help wolves turn at will. Raf was being tormented by his emotions, so I told him he could work through them more easily as a wolf, but I'd need to turn him back - and then I disappeared and he probably forgot me, so ..."
"Well, I'll still need to find him first." Landon said.
"I'm a wolf. I can track him." Hope said quietly. "Why are you insisting on doing this yourself?" She questioned him, perplexed.
"I just ... need some space right now." Landon explained quietly. "I process things better alone, so ..."
"Ok." Hope said, although she shot him a curious look. "Just be careful. If a Malivore monster shows up or something ..."
"I know, I know, run in the opposite direction and catch hold of someone else." He said, somewhat irritably.
"That's not what I was saying." Hope said quietly.
"Whatever." He said shortly, looking around impatiently. "Where the hell did he go? Anyway, see you around, Hope." He said, stepping out the door and running off into the grounds. Hope looked perplexed and annoyed by Landon's behavior. She had insisted on protecting him last year, but she'd never told him to "run in the opposite direction and catch hold of someone else." In fact, she'd suggested he take fight training - after all, he needed something to be able to fight against the monsters without any supernatural combat powers. In fact, she'd been planning to find a magical artifact he could use - some, like the mythical Excalibur, made their wielder capable of taking on at least some monsters - and very few required any sort of magical heritage (after all, Kieran O'Connell and his niece Cami - one of her father's great loves - had managed to defend themselves at least to some extent against supernaturals using them). To be fair, he had forgotten her, and everyone else had probably insisted he take a backseat too, and she'd inadvertently revealed she was responsible for Raf's current state - so she supposed he had some justification for feeling annoyed with her.
Josie was walking silently behind her. Hope was unsure what, if anything, to say to the Gemini witch - given everything that was going on between them right now, things were awkward and she didn't really know what to do.
She walked up the stairs to her room, which, thankfully, hadn't been given to anyone else - although it was bare of her few precious belongings, which Dr. Saltzman had destroyed according to her wishes. She entered to find it much the same as she had left it that fateful night - although it had obviously been recently fixed up. She flopped down on the bed in exhaustion and stared up at her friend, who had a curious expression on her face.
The Gemini witch was clearly uncomfortable, shifting her weight from one foot to another and avoiding looking at Hope. Hope felt a pang of guilt seeing her like that. She had no idea how her erasure from existence had impacted Josie, but instead of being jealous, at all, when it was revealed that Hope and Landon had been together (not that she expected Josie to be jealous - her friend was kind even when it seemed difficult to be), Josie had tried her best to help Hope.
"Hey." She said quietly. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing." Josie smiled breezily.
"Jo, I know when you're uncomfortable. What's going on?"
Josie shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other again. She was clearly struggling to bring herself to say something.
"What were we to each other?" She questioned. "Before Malivore, I mean."
"I don't understand." Hope said, puzzled.
"When Penelope left, I felt the kind of pain I've never felt - the kind I'd never wish on anyone, not even my worst enemy. Since you disappeared that night, the pain I felt wasn't worse, but it was nearly as bad." She looked at Hope with an expectant expression.
Hope recognized what Josie was trying to convey.
"If we were in love like you and Penelope, my disappearance would be far more painful than Penelope leaving." Hope said heavily. "But even though it wasn't more painful, it was nearly as painful, so you can tell I was really important to you." Her voice broke in pain.
"So we were really close?" Josie questioned, with a hopeful tone.
Hope sighed. She was still in love with Landon, and Josie might've only started having feelings for Landon in her absence, but those feelings were there - and she couldn't talk about the past without feeling a weight threaten to crush her chest, anyway.
"We had a ... complicated relationship." Hope said heavily. Josie picked up what Hope was trying to convey immediately.
"It's okay. I know it's too painful for you to talk about, and I'm sorry for pushing you. It's been a long day and you're probably tired - I'll go."
Josie turned around and walked towards the door of Hope's room. But just when she began to turn the door handle, Hope was hit with another pang of guilt.
"Wait." She said softly.
Josie turned around to see Hope shifting uncomfortably on the bed.
"You deserve to know - but it's not an easy story for me to tell, and it won't be easy for you to hear either."
"That complicated, huh?" Josie asked quietly. "Okay." She sat down next to Hope on the bed.
Hope looked unsure as to where to start. She took a deep breath and then started speaking.
"I came here when I was 7 - and not in the best of circumstances." She laughed mirthlessly. "I had been possessed by a monster named the Hollow, and to save me, my entire family, except my mom and Aunt Freya, had to each absorb part of the Hollow. After that, they had to stay away to keep me safe - and I was simmering - because I'd just lost my father, who I'd barely gotten to know over the past year, and my uncle Elijah, who I'd gotten really close to. On top of that, it was practically necessary to send me to school here in Mystic Falls, so that no one would know where I was - there was no shortage of Mikaelson enemies who wouldn't hesitate to attack us in New Orleans while we were vulnerable, and while my mom and Aunt Freya could take care of themselves, I had to be somewhere else. I spent summers in New Orleans, but we were on high alert all the time, and it never really felt like a summer vacation. So, when I came here, I was in a really bad place - and on top of that, I had to keep my identity secret to protect myself and everyone else at the school, so everyone, including you and Lizzie, knew me as Hope Marshall. Your parents knew my real name, but they were the only ones. They tried to get me to be friends with the two of you, and vice versa - but it never worked, because I was convinced that anyone who got close to me would get hurt, so I didn't let either of you in, at all. The two of you thought I hated you, and I thought you hated me. And that was how it was for eight years - until some things happened last year."
"What things?" Josie asked.
"Well, you were having some issues with Lizzie, and while, up until then, I normally either stayed out of it or snubbed you both, I took a shot exclusively at her for once, and we started talking while we were at community service for that stunt at the football game. You pointed out that it looked like I was trying to sabotage any chance, however slim, of us becoming friends - and you were right - even though the problem wasn't that I didn't want to be your friend, or for that matter, Lizzie's friend, but that I didn't want either of you to get hurt. We ended up actually having an honest conversation and, well, it looked like we were one step closer to being real friends. We became closer and closer as the year went on, and then something happened that I could never have predicted."
Here, Hope stopped and cast her mind back to that day.
"You remember the mummy?" She questioned Josie.
"Yeah. But, obviously, I don't remember you being there." Josie responded.
"Well, that day, Lizzie seemed determined to bring up every grievance she had had in the past against me. It got so bad I was almost in tears trying to convince her that I didn't hate her. One of the things she brought up again and again was a fire that had happened in my room three years before then. She accused me of setting the fire myself to gain attention. I finally told her that I lost the only painting I'd ever made with my dad in that fire. Later on, you told me you'd had a crush on me and you'd written a love note, but you regretted it and tried to set the note on fire, and ended up accidentally burning down my room."
"That sounds like me." Josie said, looking like she wanted to kick herself. "Wait - weren't you and Landon together then?"
"Yeah." Hope said quietly. Then she realized what Josie was implying. "Hey." She said, taking Josie's hand in hers. "No. No. You didn't do it to sabotage my relationship with Landon."
"I don't know about that - I am the jealous type, after all." Josie said, holding her head in her hands.
"Jo, I know you." Hope said gently. "I know you'd never hurt me like that. You kept it a secret for three years - you didn't say anything during the entire time I was with Roman - trust me, I know that you only admitted it because you saw no other way out."
"Well, I still could've caused way too much damage." Josie said, tears appearing in the corners of her eyes. "I'm so sorry, Hope."
"Josie, if I had to choose between you keeping it a secret for the rest of your life and all the pain that comes with it, or you telling me, no matter how inconvenient the circumstances, I'd choose you telling me and freeing yourself of that burden. You're my best friend, Jo, and all I want is for you to be happy."
"We were best friends?" Josie asked, surprised.
"We are best friends." Hope said gently, caressing Josie's arm. "And I can't believe how lucky I am to have you by my side, especially when things are going so horribly."
"Thanks, Hope." Josie said, her voice a little hoarse. Then a thought struck her. "You didn't tell me whether you had a crush on me, too."
"So that's what's bothering you." Hope realized. She was momentarily silent, wondering how to respond.
"It's okay if you don't want to respond now, or ever." Josie said quietly, caressing Hope's hand. "It's been three years, and we've both pretty much moved on, I think. I'm just curious - I was 12, so if I remember correctly, that makes you my first crush." She smiled softly at Hope.
Hope smiled sweetly at Josie. I should probably tell her, Hope thought to herself. After all, she was my first crush, too, and even though I've only ever had lasting relationships with boys, I'm not straight - the fact that I had a crush on her proved that. But I won't even accept that in the privacy of my own mind - how could I tell her if I don't believe it myself?
Oh, get a grip, Hope thought to herself. Just tell her you don't remember - it's been three years, most people can't remember their relationships from an year ago if they're really happy with the person they're dating at the moment. She's not gonna kill you if she finds out later - she just said it's okay if you don't tell her, ever. What's a little white lie between friends?
No, Hope thought to herself. I'm not gonna lie to her. And I shouldn't even be thinking like that - she's my best friend, and the last thing I wanna do is hurt her. I'll just tell her that if I ever feel like letting her know, she'll know.
"I don't feel like it's the right time." Hope said quietly, her voice breaking a little. "But if I ever do ..."
"I know. It's okay, Hope. I'm just glad I got my best friend back." She smiled softly at Hope.
"I'm glad I'm back, too." Hope responded, smiling sweetly at Josie.
"Well, uh, it's getting late, and Lizzie's with my mom in Europe - we can only talk around this time because of the time difference, so, I'll leave you to it. I'll see you in the morning, Hope." Josie squeezed Hope's hand gently and left, leaving the Tribrid to process the events of the long, complicated day she'd just had.