Josie took the long route around the mostly-empty school, pointing out the most important room. Every now and then they came across a student, and Josie calmly reminded them of the curfew as they passed.

"Curfew is 9pm on weeknights and 10pm on weekends," she explained as an aside (more for Jenna's sake). "Obviously no one can make you go to sleep, but you do have to be in your room."

"Or someone else's."

Josie turned with a smile. "Curfew, Penelope."

"Well, you weren't in your room," Penelope said. "So I had to come and find you. Hi Miss Sommers."

"Hello again, Penelope," Jenna said. "I'd say just to call me Jenna but if I am going to work here, I should probably get used to it."

"I'll slip," Josie said.

"Yeah, well, she's probably going to be your stepmom," Penelope said. "You and Lizzie get a pass. How come you're doing a tour this late?"

Josie sighed. "Long story; I'll tell you tomorrow. This is Jade and Wendy. They're … old students returned after a long time away."

"I assume that's going to make sense tomorrow," Penelope said. Her eyes drifted to Jade, before leaning in and kissing Josie, perhaps a little more affectionately under normal circumstances. "Goodnight."

"Night," Josie returned. "Love you."

"Love you too," Penelope tossed over her shoulder.

"Did she really just hunt you down to give you a kiss goodnight?" Jenna asked with a smile.

Josie blushed. "It's one of her things."

"I think it's sweet," Wendy said. "Is she the one that doesn't play well with others?"

"Yeah, she has a circle of people," Josie said. "If you're not in it, she's a complete bitch."

They reached the staff quarters first, and Jenna bid them all goodnight, leaving Josie to complete the tour alone.

Wendy left them at one of the empty rooms. Josie retrieved sheets from one of the nearby closets, apologising profusely for the fact that the room wasn't already made up.

"Josie, I'm exhausted," Wendy said flatly. "I really don't mind making the bed myself. Goodnight."

"She gets a little short when she's tired," Jade said, following Josie away from the room.

"I think everyone does," Josie said. "Hope's on the next floor up."

"Are you sure she won't mind?" Jade asked. "She's Mrs Mikaelson's daughter, right?"

"She is," Josie confirmed. "One of the reasons she normally doesn't have a room-mate, but she won't mind."

"So had Penelope heard my name before?" Jade asked lightly. "Or do you just have a type?"

"Oh, I've definitely got a type," Josie joked. "I haven't mentioned your name to her, but I'm sure Lizzie has. Lizzie hates Penelope."

"That must suck," Jade said. "Although if we're going to clear the air - I think you're always going to be ten years old in my head. I mean, you were adorable, but …"

"I know," Josie said with a smile. "I got over that crush a long time ago. Penny and I … We're happy."

"Good," Jade said. "How long have you been together?"

Josie thought for a second. "This October will be … three years. It's June, by the way - June 2030." She stopped outside Hope's door and knocked sharply. "Hopefully she hasn't put that annoying spell up that keeps her from hearing anyone other than my dad."

The door opened, revealing a half-amused, half-annoyed Hope Mikaelson. "You know I can hear you."

"Well, sometimes you can't," Josie said. "Dad says can you take a room-mate? It's a long story, but Jade would rather not be on her own."

Hope looked at Jade for a long time, silently assessing her, before stepping back. "Yeah, of course, come in."

"Brilliant, thanks," Josie said. "I'd better get back to Lizzie. Goodnight."

"Night, Josie - thanks," Jade said, stepping into the room. "I'm sure we can figure something out if …"

"It's fine," Hope said. "I don't say things I don't mean. Not to mention, there aren't any vampires with space for a roommate."

"That's what Josie said," Jade said. "Um, where …?"

Hope frowned, turning to survey her room and the only bed. "Yeah, that's not going to work, is it? Hang on." She rested her hands on the footboard of her bed and closed her eyes, muttering under her breath.

A glow appeared in the space to the left of her bed, gradually forming into a copy of her bed, covers and all.

"There you go," Hope said with a grim. "Admittedly we now have matching bedspreads, so I'm going to suggest we go shopping tomorrow."

"Thanks," Jade said. "Do you … Do you want to know what happened?"

"If you want to tell me," Hope said easily. "If you don't, it's fine. Just to let you know, I am a werewolf now as well. It doesn't affect me at all; I won't be in here for the full moon, obviously - I'll either be down in the cellar or at home with my Dad."

"Okay," Jade said. "Anything I need to know about that?"

Hope thought for a second. "Same as the others, really - the morning after I am exhausted. Mind you, I've only had one full moon, so that might get better."

"I'll try and be quiet," Jade said.

Hope eyed her for a second and pulled out some pyjamas. "Here, these should fit for tonight."

"Thank you," Jade said again. "Really, I appreciate it."

"Any other questions?" Hope asked, getting into bed.

"Just one," Jade said. "When did we start getting human blood?"

"Ah," Hope said, grimacing. "You probably know that my parents helped fund the school and my mom's the admin - when she found out about the animal blood, she wasn't happy and had a word with Dr Saltzman. It's not his fault," she added. "Mom's best friend lives almost entirely on animal blood, so Dr S was under the impression that all vampires could. But Uncle Stefan does it for personal reasons and it doesn't really work - it's kind of like living on meal replacement shakes. Technically you get what you need, but sooner or later you're going to get freakin' hungry."

"Oh," Jade said quietly.

"Hit the lights when you're ready, would you?" Hope said.

Jade changed quickly, not worried about Hope seeing anything - six years of reliving the same day in a small space with two other people had robbed her of any self-consciousness.

Besides, Hope's eyes were already closed.

She turned out the lights and climbed into bed herself, staring at the ceiling in the darkness.

"I killed someone," she said after a few minutes.

Across the room, Hope shifted. "My dad's killed thousands of someones," she said sleepily. "I'm sure it was an accident."

"It was," Jade said round the lump in her throat. "It still sucks."

"I'll call Mom tomorrow," Hope said. "She's got one of those. Now, please, go to sleep."

Hope was woken the next morning by a knocking on her door, seconds before Landon burst in.

"Hope, I need your help."

Hope grabbed a pillow and threw it in his general direction. "Learn to knock."

"I did knock," Landon said, tossing it back again.

Hope sat up and glared at him. "Then learn to wait for someone to tell you to come in. One of us could have been changing."

Landon did a double-take, apparently only just noticing the second person in the room. "Oh … sorry."

"Yeah, apologise to her and not me," Hope grumbled. "Landon, this is Jade, my new room-mate. Jade, this is Landon, one of my best friends, unless he keeps bursting in like that."

Landon blushed a little. "Hi Jade. Sorry if I woke you."

"I wasn't really sleeping," Jade said. "It's fine."

"It's not fine," Hope said. "Alright, since it's so urgent that you had to come and find me - what?"

"I was floating when I woke up this morning," Landon said. "Do you think I can fly?"

"Landon, everything I know about phoenixes was in that book," Hope said, yawning. "I suppose it's possible; they are depicted as birds."

"Can you help me find out?" Landon asked. "I was thinking if I could get a high enough perch …"

"You're not jumping off the roof," Hope said flatly.

"I wasn't thinking of jumping off the roof," Landon said, before pausing. "I am now though."

"No," Hope said. "I don't care if you resurrect; I am not explaining that to Dr Saltzman. Plus we haven't seen any evidence of enhanced healing, which means if you don't fly and you don't die, you're left with several months of painful rehab - and don't think I'll take pity on you."

"Morning you is mean," Landon said.

"Morning me is only mean when you wake me up," Hope said, flopping back on her bed. "It's a Saturday and I didn't have to wake up. If that was all …"

"Actually, it wasn't." Landon shut the door and came over to sit on her bed. "I think I know what your magic did to me in Mystic Falls last month."

That caught Hope's attention. "You do?"

"I think it loosened my memories," Landon said. "The book said that the resurrections would start when I reach the time I should have been born, right?"

"Right," Hope said, glancing at Jade with a look she hoped conveyed a promise that she would explain later.

"It also said that when that happened, I might start getting memories of past lives," Landon said. "I think that's happening. I keep having these dreams, and … I don't think they're dreams."

"Do you recognise anything?" Hope asked.

"Not consciously," Landon admitted. "But I don't normally remember my dreams, Hope. And I've been having them almost consistently since we got back from Virginia. At first, I just dismissed it as, like, trauma or something? Not that I went through the worst of it, obviously, but …"

"Landon," Hope prompted.

Landon sighed. "I think I see flashes of faces I recognise, but I'm not sure, and … Last night … I saw my mother. A mother. But I … I remember her, Hope. Not her face, but the way … I don't know."

"I get it," Hope said quietly. "You could blindfold me and get a hundred people to hug me, and I'd know which one was my mother."

"I think she might have been the first," Landon continued. "Like, that was the original me. I just … Is there a way of telling?"

Hope pursed her lips, thinking for a second. "Probably not. I can go into your head and have a look at the dream, if you like, and see if I can tell if it's a memory or not."

Landon was already nodding before she'd finished. "Please."

Hope took his hand, whispering a few words that would take her into his mind, and the room faded around her, leaving her in a swirling vortex of sounds and images.

She had to focus and find the specific memory she was looking for - she had read horror stories of witches who had tried this spell and wound up trapped in the person's head.

A swirling thread passed her, much, much older than the others and she grasped it - this was either going to be a memory of a past life, or his first memory in this one.

Either way, she'd be able to tell him something when she came out.

Hope wound up in what appeared to be a small village, and this was definitely not in this lifetime. The air smelled clean, devoid of all of the pollutants that she was used to; the houses were not much more than timber huts, roofed with thatch.

In front of the nearest dwelling, beside a fire, a woman sat, a small child in her arms, singing softly to him.

Hope smiled, stepping closer, somewhat charmed by the tableau. This must be Landon - or whatever this incarnation had been called. She found herself studying the woman - the only memory he had of a mother - and committing her face to memory so she could reproduce it.

The more she looked, the more convinced she became that she had seen this face somewhere before, but she just could not put her finger on where.

The child didn't look like Landon, that much was true (nor had she expected him to, given the way she assumed reincarnation worked), so there should not be a family resemblance.

Shouting started inside the house and the child started, beginning to cry. His mother bounced him on her lap, murmuring something in a language Hope didn't know, concern crossing her face.

An older child - a boy - ran from the cottage and into the woods, and a man - she assumed his father - burst out into the open as well, shouting after him in the same language as the woman, words that Hope could not make out - except for one.

"NIKLAUS!"

Hope blinked, the spell ending abruptly. The village dissolved into her dorm room once more and she dropped Landon's hand like it had burned her, staring at him in shock.

"Henrik …"