chapter 14

During the rest of Hope's holidays she met up with the Greengrass' a few more times and discreetly flirted with Daphne, who was trying very hard not to react or blush. Sometimes Daphne succeeded in hiding her emotions, other times Hope was a little too direct or vulgar, causing Daphne's jaw to drop a few times in obscurity.

Hope also helped Daphne practise her wandless Magic by learning to sense other people's Magic so she can't be blindsided. Hope had Daphne practise sense reading on her since Hope knows exactly what her Magic feels like so she can confirm if Daphne can allocate the scents associated with her.

Daphne was able to sense Hope's Magic after three attempts as Hope's Magic almost knocked Daphne on her ass on the first attempt due to how powerful the auburn girl's Magic is. The second attempt had the blonde requesting they stop as it was giving Daphne a headache.

On Daphne's third attempt the Greengrass Heiress learned how to 'mute' the overwhelming waves of Magic coming off Hope. Daphne felt lightning, tasted blood, smelled the forest and she couldn't name the last scent but to Daphne it literally felt like Magic itself.

The blonde girl looked at Hope with a starstruck look as Daphne has never felt this type of pure level of Magic on anyone before.

Only Hope.

This was the first time that Daphne felt absolute adoration for Hope and wanted to wish for more, even though she knew that she could never be with Hope due to her Heiress status. So Daphne chose from this moment onwards to spend as much time with Hope as she can before her father forcibly removes Hope from her life.

Hope spent the rest of her time working with Nelle and sometimes Nic as they tried different potential cures. The universal-traveller came across a breakthrough when working with Astoria's blood.

Using Hope's own blood altered the Blood Curse and killed the Curse, but it didn't restore the oxygen levels in the blood. Meaning Stori wouldn't get any weaker then what she was at the moment, but she wouldn't get any stronger either.

So the Tribrid tried mixing her own blood with other variables until Myrddin hit her over the head with his wing and cried a few drops of Phoenix Tears on a sample that had Hope's blood in it for almost 3 minutes. The blood on the petri dish sizzled for a moment before it stabilised.

Hope ran some Diagnostic Charms she learned from Perenelle and whooped in delight as the test sample no longer had the poison from the Blood Curse. In fact any poisonous cells were altered by the Phoenix Tears and reverted back into oxygen cells. Hope had Perenelle go over her findings and they whooped in excitement as they found a cure for Astoria.

Unfortunately Hope didn't have enough time to meet with the Greengrass' again to cure Astoria before school started up. As much as Hope is beginning to trust Nicolas and Perenelle she doesn't want her blood bottled up this time.

Hope was afraid of her blood's effect on this universe. So she told Nic and Nelle that to cure Astoria she will need to be on-site to make sure no one gets any of her blood. Another thing Hope also insisted on was that Hope had to stay at the Greengrass' or at least with Astoria for the 24 hours directly after drinking her blood to make sure she doesn't die and come back a Vampire.

That would be horrible. Nic and Nelle agreed to Hope's conditions as they were for safety concerns for the world and Astoria, even if it did include some of Hope's paranoia.

However the couple suggested that they could invite both of the Greengrass girls over for a sleepover so that it could be used as part of the 24 hour time frame.

The other thing that happened during the holidays was the Thunderbird egg hatched. Hope asked her Phoenix for his opinion on what they should name the Thunderbird chick. They decided on Alexandria and Myrddin basically kidnapped the newborn chick, to give the Thunderbird a parental figure and teach the young bird how to survive.

Hope managed to surround the chick in Magic so it can release steady amounts of Magic to fuel its growth and health as Hope will be at school and the Thunderbird can't come to Hogwarts with her. The little chick would attract too much attention.

It also means that Myrddin will be with Alexandria the entire time to keep the chick in a safe environment. Myrddin informed the Tribrid that he wouldn't be able to Flame Hope anywhere for the considerable future until the Thunderbird is old enough to look after herself.

Hope looked up all books relating to Thunderbirds to learn how to take care of one, she learned that newborn chicks need consistent care. The Tribrid smiled as she realised having Myrddin look after the baby Thunderbird was the best scenario for the newborn chick that didn't involve carrying a baby bird through Hogwarts.

Hope also asked if Nic or Nelle could look in every so often. Which was something that the Phoenix specifically grumbled at as he could look after the baby bird by himself and doesn't wish to be under constant supervision from the Flamel's.

Another thing that was mentioned in the books is that when a Thunderbird hatches in the hands of someone with a Magical Core, the bird will bond with that person, creating a Familiar Bond. Since there is a Familiar Bond the Thunderbird needs constant Magic from its bonded partner, which is why Hope created a Magical sphere around the bird to feed Alexandria with enough Magic to ensure that she reaches her highest potential.

Once back at Hogwarts, Hope stuck by Susan as much as she could to get away from all the derogatory remarks from the Slytherin students. They have finally realised that they could still call her names without dropping to the ground in pain.

So all Hope heard from the Slytherins was 'filthy Mudblood', 'little bitch', 'Hufflepuff whore', 'Golden Boy's slut' and many more. Thankfully Hope could ignore all of the baiting by focusing her senses on Daphne. Ever since Hope taught the blonde girl how to use her Magic without a wand, Hope has been able to sense Daphne more clearly than ever.

Since Hope was able to remain calm throughout all the hazing her Magic stayed tranquil and peaceful so Daphne's new sensing ability didn't pick up any discord from Hope which allowed the Heiress to keep her Occulemeny barriers up without any problems.

Hope and Daphne learned over the holidays that they were able to sense each other's emotions if the emotion was strong enough. Once Daphne sensed Hope was depressed as she was staring at one of the Greengrass family portraits and Daphne felt a tear trail down her cheek in shock. She rubbed it away but Hope saw and Daphne was hit by a strong feeling of confusion that matched the look on Hope's face.

Since the girls learned of this interesting development they kept it quiet, never speaking about it but also learning how to ignore any foregin emotions until it felt natural.

They spent their free time learning control so that once they got to school the girls were able to keep their secret of wandless Magic from the rest of the school.

Hope went to her classes, passing all her courses without any major issues. The Tribrid still absolutely despised Flying class with a passion. Hope's self-studying in History of Magic was always interesting and educational.

However Hope has been noticing Daphne staring at her during most of her classes, tilting her head in intrigue at the spikes in Hope's Magical Aura, especially when Hope casts her spells. Daphne learned that Hope was barely touching her Magic to produce spells in class. Daphne chose to keep this information to herself and study her crush further in secret.

Hope showed up in Professor Babbling's classroom in the second week dragging a chair in front of the teachers' desk and sat down looking at the notes on the raven woman's desk. Bathsheda's eyebrows rose as she looked at the girl.

Hope looked the Professor directly in the eyes and flashed her veins at the woman.

"So have you figured out the problem?" Hope asked vaguely.

Babbling's eyes narrowed slightly before remembering the last conversation she had with the first year student about the listening charms in the rooms and the monitoring charms hidden by Dumbledore. "Honestly? I'm still trying to figure it out. But I would value your input over others so I trust you enough to help, but I would prefer to think about this a little longer."

"Fair enough." The Tribrid replied.

Hope's darkened veins disappeared but she decided to ask. "Do you still want me to pop around every so often to help out with your Runes?"

Bathsheda recognised that Hope cut out the speculative wording and the auburn girl is no longer talking with hidden messages and she was asking a legitimate question. "Sure. I don't mind you turning up to assist me with Runes. But today I just want to figure this Rune out on my own. Sorry for wasting your time."

Hope smiled genuinely.

"No worries at all. I'll let you finish your work then. It was nice speaking with you, Sheda. See you next week." Hope said as she stood up, returned the chair back to the desk, then she waved at the Profesor before exiting the room.

The rest of the school year passed by nearly the same as Hope had expected. Hope had gotten craftier at avoiding the House Quidditch matches, apparently being the lonely girl in her old school gave Hope the knowledge to find all the hiding spots in record time.

On the occasions Gryffindor wasn't playing she seemed to have the Weasley twins walk up to her even though she was cloaked. Hope had erected Wards to keep everything out around her during the games to avoid spells from other Houses, especially when they played Slytherin and all of the balls played with in Quidditch.

The Quidditch fans nearly spend more time trying to hex the other team's crowd when a bad call is made than actually watching the damn thing. Which is slightly funny considering the moment a Slytherin student tried to hex someone the wards knocked them on their asses. Hope was slightly confused why the wards weren't actually working on the Quidditch players since Slytherin plays dirty 100% of the time.

Maybe Hogwarts base ward allows for violence with a Quidditch match itself?? Who knows?

The only time she sat in the stands to watch a game was the Slytherin vs Ravenclaw match and Hope hadn't learnt to adjust her Wards to repel the Bludgers or any of the other balls used in the game. The Tribrid was studying and jerked her head to the right with quick reflexes, dodging a Bludger expertly as one of the Slytherin Beaters hit a Bludger at her.

Hope looked up after righting herself, narrowing her eyes in a glare as she noticed the other Bludger on the field heading towards one of the Beaters. So she waved mockingly at the Beater, distracting him causing the metal ball to slam into the back of that Beaters head. Hope smirked to herself as she watched the Quidditch player fall off his broom.

Almost 30 seconds after that debaticle Hope was once again brought out of her studies when something gold and fast shot past in front of her face as she was reading. Hope didn't even think, she just reacted again and caught the small thing flying past. After Hope felt the thing closing its two thin and fragile wings back within itself.

Hope opened her closed fist and saw the Golden Snitch.

"Fuck.' She muttered under her breath before pegging the small golden ball into the field with her wolf strength, not caring where the small gold ball actually went.

The Slytherin Seeker had moved in front of the throw and was hit directly between the eyes, causing him to fall off his broom. The Ravenclaw Seeker saw the Slytherin Seeker go down by the Snitch hitting his head and capitalised on catching the golden ball, winning the game for Ravenclaw.

Hope blinked once before shrugging in response to the end of game and left the Quidditch stands before all hell broke loose.

God Hope hated Quidditch or anything to do with broomsticks and flying.

Hope was ever so thankful that it was nearing the end of the school year and it was the day the Golden Trio went to stop 'Snape' from stealing the Philosopher's Stone. After dinner Hope went back to her Dorm for a moment casting 'Invisique' and walking out, closing her door behind her as she made her way to the 3rd floor corridor unseen.

Hope waited as she leaned up against the wall, sighing in boredom as she didn't know when the 3 Gryffindors would show up. Sea-blue eyes watched as Quirrell walked past her, opening the door and transfiguring a self playing harp as he shut the door again, locking it.

Hope heard him land on the devil's snare with a thud on something wet and solid, she heard the call of 'lumos' and the sound of shuffling as the snare retreated from the light.

Hope went back to tapping her foot as she waited for Harry, Ron and Hermione.

Finally after nearly 30 minutes since Quirrell turned up they showed up under the Invisibility Cloak. Hermione unlocked the door with an 'Alohomora' and they walked into the room with the sleeping Cerberus. They shut the door behind themselves as well and Hope could help but laugh when she heard Ron's disgusted remark as some glorified dog slobber landed on him.

The Tribrid heard the three scream as they jumped down the trapdoor.

Hope casted 'Visique' to become visible again and unlocked the door. The Werewolf Queen came face-to-face with the large three headed dog. The overgrown dog growled at her snapping his three jaws at her.

Hope closed her eyes for a second before channelling her Wolf completely, when she opened her eyes they were glowing gold and the Cerberus backed up in fear to a corner whimpering.

Hope walked up to the three headed dog slowly and scratched its centre head.

"You're okay. Everything is okay." She reassured the dog.

"You're safe with me. I'm not going to hurt you."

The Cerberus managed to calm down after the Alpha in front of him didn't wish to claim his life and sat down on all fours, the other two heads were whining at the inattention they were receiving.

Hope summoned three large steaks from the Kitchen located in Hogwarts near the Hufflepuff common room. The Tribrid told the dog that each head gets one steak each and not to steal from the others. All three heads nodded gratefully as Hope gave them the steaks before she opened the trapdoor and jumped down while silently casting 'lumos' from her wand.

Bypassing the devil's snare altogether and landing in an effortless crouch influenced by her Wolf instincts. Hope rose smoothly from her crouched position and made her way to the next room quietly.

Hope could hear the sound of the flying keys long before she could see them. Hope heard the constant clatter of metal hitting wood loudly then clanging as the keys that didn't stick to the door fell to the stone floor.

Next thing Hope heard was clinking as the keys bounced off the already stationary keys that knocked themselves out by slamming into the door. Eventually after 10 seconds the sounds finally stopped.

Hope entered the room cautiously. The first thing the auburn haired girl saw was all the keys embedded in the wooden door itself and the pile of keys in front of the door. Hope sighed and telekinetically moved the keys out of the way so she could reach the door.

Hope sensed the door, feeling Professor Flitwick's impressive charmwork and noticed that this door would only open to a specific key. Not a bad defence but still easy to complete, Hope rolled her eyes.

"Accio one-winged key." Hope called as she pointed her wand at the pile of keys.

An old fashioned key shot out of the pile straight into Hope's hand and used one of her spells to trap the other key before they became key-shaped missiles, "Prohibere."

All the keys that were moving stopped instantly at the restraintment spell. Hope unlocked the door with the key rather than blasting it apart, there was no need for such a powerful demonstration of power so early on. Hope threw the one-winged key back into the room once she walked into the next room.

The Tribrid caught up to the Golden Trio but took her time to appreciate the details given to the chess pieces and she gave a low whistle. The three Gryffindor students looked back to the entrance to this room and saw Hope.

All their jaws dropped but they all recovered differently. Harry seemingly accepted that if anyone would come down here it would be Hope.

Hermione stayed silent but a look of thoughtful reflection came across her face and Ron became red in the face while he shouted obnoxiously. "What the bloody hell is she doing here? I bet she's here to help Snape steal the Stone!"

Hope groaned at the red-headed boy. "Why on earth would I help Snape when he hates me?" She asks rhetorically before Hope remembered who she was speaking to and quickly added, "Don't answer that. It was a rhetorical question."

"Wha??" Ron asks with a truly confused look on his face before turning to Hermione.

Hermione sighed as she defined the idiom for Ron. "Rhetorical is when someone phrases a statement as a question as everyone already knows the answer to the question, therefore there's no reason to answer."

Hope slapped her forehead with her palm before muttering under her breath some choice words about Ron's stupidity and bigotry before removing her hand from her face. "You know what. I'm going to assume that since you guys are already in a game of chess and any outside interference would be classified as an instant disqualification. So I'm going to have a look around and stay off the chessboard. Have fun guys!"

Hope hopped off to the side where all the dead and broken pieces end up after they are destroyed on the chessboard. As the time-traveller walked around and over the broken stone chess pieces, Hope heard Ronald call her names while calling out moves after every third or fourth remark about her.

Harry and Hermione shared looks of exasperation before calling out to Ron.

"Ron! We are in the middle of a chess match that will literally crush us if a wrong move is made. Could you please ignore Hope and focus!" Hermione shouted at the red head.

Ronald still muttered under his breath about Hope but he did put more focus into the chess match. When Hope made her way to the opposite end of the chessboard she envisioned killing Ron nearly a dozen times, each one more creative than the last.

"He is so lucky I can't kill him." Hope silently remarked to herself as she hoisted herself up onto the platform behind the white pieces.

Hope looked on ahead and called back to the Trio. "I'm going to scout up ahead. I'll see you when you catch up."

Harry and Hermione spluttered in disbelief as Hope walked off before turning to one another and Harry mentioned. "Well that's one way to get past this obstacle. Go around it and skip the match altogether."

"How do you figure that? You have to play the match to get through. There is no way around it." Ron replied smugly.

Hermione groaned in exasperation. "Honestly Ronald. Did you not see Hope on the other side of the chessboard walking into the next section? She didn't have to play the board to get to the other side. She simply walked around the chessboard."

Ron had a look of pure horrification on his face. "But there's a chessboard. You have to play."

Harry shook his head with a small smile on his face. "Apparently you don't. Hope just proved that."

The red headed boy's face became a deep shade of red in anger before roaring out. "But that's cheating! She's just a slimy snake who cheats her way past anything. She's rotten I tell you. Absolutely rotten I say!"

Hope overheard the entire conversation the Golden Trio had as she walked up to the dead Troll and examined it. Dead by blunt force trauma to the head, there was blood on one side of the club the Troll had wielded.

Hope snorted to herself. Quirrellmort was smarter than she gave him credit for. He must have used depulso on the club when the Troll moved it in front of its own face when lifting it above its head for an attack.

A scratching of claws on stone caused Hope's head to shoot up with extreme speed, seeing glowing red eyes at the end of the corridor. The beast huffed and ran out to Hope with glistening sharp teeth showing.

Hope glowed her eyes at the large dog-like creature that reminded her of what she thought a Wendigo might look like, although more hound-like than human. The beast didn't stop at Hope's Alpha eyes. In fact her eyes made it angier, it howled at her as it leaped the last few metres, paws outstretched.

"Oh shit." The Tribrid exclaimed as she dodged to the side with her enhanced speed but wasn't able to move completely out of the way and had a claw lodged in her right hip.

Hope cursed in pain as fire coursed through her blood, dangerously heating her skin. "Fuck, that hurt you damn mutt. Incendia."

Hope's spell shot a fireball from her hand, the beast walked through the flames with a snarl and fire crawling through the hounds matted fur.

"Oh... I guess I need to check if Hellhounds exist in this universe. Glacius." Hope flicked her wand in her hand and blasted the spell directly to the hound as it pounced at Hope again but froze ice solid in midair.

Hope moved out of the way of the frozen dog sailing through the air causing the dog to hit the wall behind Hope, shattering into millions of tiny shards of frozen bones, muscle, fur and blood.

Hope straightened up after dealing with the hound but drew a gasp of breath at the pain in her side.

Hope yanked out the claw and placed it in her pocket before covering her wound with her hand, "Damn that stings. Episkey." She casted on herself but nothing happened.

Hope huffed. "Of course the damn thing can't be healed with a spell. The claw must have some sort of toxin on it... Eh, I'll live." Hope walked off towards the last obstacle. The potion logic puzzle.

A wall of fire separated the door to the next room from the other size of the room containing the potions off to the side.

Hope read the instructions Snape left and came to the conclusion the small vial will allow her to pass through the fire. "How can anyone think that was a logic puzzle? You literally just read the damn note it told you everything you needed to know… The sad thing is I can actually picture most wizards failing this. That's just sad."

She looked at the fire wall and called out a spell she learned a long time ago, "Adiuuatur."

The flames were instantly extinguished just like the fire that was covering the basement when she was with Dr Saltzman, Landon and Raf looked into a case involving an incinerated bus that was caused by a Human Dragon.

Hope sighed slightly. "Technically I can't blame the wizards from this universe for this barrier since I used a spell from another universe. But still it's a well known spell in my world that even a weak Witch could have achieved this."

Hope walked past the boundary of the fire wall and waved her hand towards the wall re-igniting the fire.

After summoning a medical bandage and wrapping it around her body focusing on the scratch on her hip. Thankfully there was no legitimate poison leaking out from the wound but the burning sensation was annoying her. Hope cast a cooling charm on the bandage giving her some relief as she exhaled a pleasured breath.

Hope cast her invisibility spell again and waited for Harry so he could open the door and she could enter without Quirrellmort knowing she was in the room as well.

Hope was ever so pleased when she heard Harry and Hermione at the potions table. It took Hermione about two minutes to tell Harry to drink the small vial to advance through the flames.

Harry finally popped his head through the fire with caution. Hope noticed that Harry walked with more stealth when he was on his own as if he was constantly looking for threats in every direction. The Boy-Who-Lived opened the door without a sound and pressed himself into the wall edging over to a shadowed area created by a column.

Hope entered behind Harry but walked towards the centre of the room before looking for a spot out of the way. Hope chose to sit on the steps at the bottom and closest to the left hand side of the room making sure to never look into the Mirror of Erised. Lady Emrys leaned against a column and watched the scene play out between Harry and Quirrell.

Hope felt a spike of Magic as Quirrell demanded. "What do you see, Potter?"

"I'm shaking Dumbledore's hand after winning the House Cup." Harry replied quickly, lying through his teeth.

A snake-like voice exclaims that the boy is lying and that he wishes to speak to the boy. Quirrell unwraps his turban to reveal a squished snake face with red eyes, no nose and thin lips.

Harry says that he'll never help the man that killed his family and tries to run away from Quirrellmort but flames erupted out from the second row of stairs. Effectively stopping Harry in his tracks as he looks around for another passage to escape.

Quirrellmort orders Quirrell to kill the boy and get the Stone. Hope threw her hands up in the air in exasperation as Quirrell doesn't reach for his wand, doesn't cast any wandless Magic like he did with the fire surrounding them currently.

No, Quirrell goes to grab Harry but is instantly burned from the protections Lily made on her son. Quirrell explains to Quirrellmort that his hand is turning to ash, that he is protected but Quirrellmort yells at his second face to 'get the boy'.

Since Quirrell literally told Harry how to defeat his opponent. Harry took the initiative to go after Quirrell by pressing his hands against any part of Quirrell's bare skin. Eventually Quirrell was in so much pain that he dropped to his knees and Harry was able to reach Quirrell's face and burn him, thus killing the two faced man.

Harry brought the Philosopher's Stone out of his pocket and examined the blood red stone, turning it in his fingers until he heard a screech from behind him.

A dark shade that looked like Voldemort decided to try and take out the person that killed him and attacked Harry. Flying through the young Gryffindor's chest causing Harry to scream in agony as he collapsed to the floor with a thud.

Hope travelled over to Harry reversing her invisibility spell as she made her way to Harry, she couldn't hear Harry's heartbeat.

Hope spotted the Philosopher's Stone and went to pocket it but nearly dropped it in shock as she felt Dumbledore's Magical signature on the Stone and not Nicolas'. Hope growled in anger as she encased this Stone in a Preservation Spell.

Protecting the enchantments on the Stone and making sure none of the runes on the Stone activate before she could give this to Nic, as there was an enchantment which would cause the Stone to crumble as soon as it left the Mirror room. The Heir Flamel then placed the Stone in her pocket next to the claw so she could show Nic and Nelle Dumbledore's deceit by offering the fake Stone to them before refocusing on a currently dead Harry.

Hope summoned her wand from her holster, placing her wand over Harry's heart before using a Spell that Helga Hufflepuff had created during her time as a Healer. Or so Perenelle informed the young Tribrid.

"Crucio." Hope whispered as she used the absolute minimum of her power through her wand, Harry's body jolted and Hope heard Harry's heart beat once with her wolf's hearing. Harry sucked in a breath of air but wasn't able to focus on anything and passed out from physical or mental exhaustion.

Hope sighed in relief as Harry's heart beated on its own accord. The Tribrid was glad that the Unforgivable worked as it was originally created for a Healer to restart a heart but Salazar's adopted son liked to overpower this curse.

Using a spell that once saved lives into a form of torture causing some of the worst pain imaginable in the Wizarding World. But Hope knew she could make the spell work as its creator, Helga Hufflepuff, intended it to be used.

The sound of footsteps drew Hope's attention to the door and she recast her invisibility spell, cloaking herself as Dumbledore glided into the room with Snape. Hope made her exit while they stood over Harry talking about Voldemort's imminent return.

As Hope made her way out of the obstacle course with relative ease. Hope entered her dorm room and pulled out the fake Stone hiding it in her belongings. Not wishing to send the fake stone to the Flamel's by fire message just in case her Preservation Spell breaks during the teleportation and Hope wanted to tell the Flamel's in person what happened.

As for the sharp claw she was sliced with, Hope transfigured a metal box to place the claw into before creating an ice pack to place over the wound before drifting off to sleep.

For the last week of school, Hope had to cut out her runs in the morning so she could perform some cleansing and healing spells on her scratch that just would not heal. Not by her accelerated healing or by spells.

The only thing Hope wasn't worried about was if she died she would come back as a full-blooded Tribrid. The auburn haired girl would have to talk to Nelle about this as soon as she sees her as the wound is starting to worry her slightly. It caused Hope to have a couple of dizzy spells but she convinced her friends and teachers she didn't need to go to the Infirmary.

Harry was let out of the Infirmary on the last day of school and Gryffindor won the House Cup due to some mass points that were given by Dumbledore to the Golden Trio and Neville Longbottom. Hope smirked at Draco's devastated look as she was forced to sit back at the Slytherin table, Hope no longer cared what the Slytherin students said anymore.

Hope even started laughing at some of the insults they came up with as no one knew anything about her life in her world nor anything about her life in this world. So none of the insults held any weight to them making them easy to ignore. The ones about her friends though, usually end with Hope glaring at the offending student before Susan or one of the Weasley twins would subtly hex the Slytherin student.

Hope clapped politely in congratulations for Gryffindor winning the House Cup and ate her dinner when it showed up.