Have Faith

Hope's throat suddenly parched. "I…hurt you?"

Teg whimpered a little and tried to move behind a shelf of hanging pans, but they swung and hit him as he went, making him move faster, which only resulted in the pans crashing to the ground.

Quickly, she followed, but at a distance. 

"Teg, wait…" she frowned. "What do you mean I hurt you? When?"

He paused in his scrambling and looked over at her. "This morning, Miss."

"This morning." She repeated, thinking back to when she'd had blood and left the kitchen. She didn't recall seeing any house elves on her way, which, now that she thought about it, it was a little strange. They were usually always here in the kitchens.

"Yes, Miss. You were very angry about the blood and…" he whimpered, rubbing his reddened eye, "and Teg didn't know the answers, Miss."

Hope swallowed hard, sitting back on her heels as she tried to reign her storming thoughts in. "I hurt you this morning because you couldn't tell me about the blood?"

Teg nodded slowly, rubbing his sore eye again as if the memory of it made it ache.

"I'm sorry, Teg. I don't remember that…"

"Teg should have known the answer, Miss."

"No, Teg, you should never have gotten hurt because you didn't know the answer." She sat down on the stone ground, staring blankly at the parchment clutched in her grip. "I'm so sorry." She murmured.

Teg slowly emerged from his hiding spot and, clutching his hands to her chest, approached her cautiously.

Hope looked up, meeting his moon eyes.

"What else have I done?"

Hope carefully closed the door to Albus' study, cheeks pale. She noticed Newt's suitcase on the floor but didn't simply walk over it as usual. Instead, she walked to it, aware of Albus watching her from his desk, and knocked on it.

"Hope?" Albus asked. "Is everything alright?" He carefully stood as if afraid to approach her. She didn't blame him.

Newt opened the lid of the case and peered out with a grin, but it dropped as soon as he saw the expression she wore.

"What's wrong?"

Hope swallowed back the lump in her throat. "We have a big problem."

Settling around the fire, Hope relayed what had happened in the kitchens a half hour prior. "Apparently, I've been going into the kitchen every morning, opening the blood supply, getting angry, and leaving. Teg said I was initially annoyed, but it's been slowly getting worse. Today, I threw a bag at him, hurting his eye." Hope rubbed her hands up and down her face. "I don't remember doing any of that. I remember going into the storage, taking a bag, drinking it, and leaving. That's it, but he says I stand staring at the bag only to put it back and get angry."

"Hope-" Albus started.

"I can't remember anything like that. What I remember isn't what they remember, and now they're all terrified of me and…"

Albus raised his voice a little. "Hope."

Hope turned to look at him, forcing herself to unclench her jaw. "What's wrong with me?" She breathed in a whisper as dew touched her eyes.

If it wasn't one thing, it was another. She was getting whiplash from every problem coming at her at once. Hope simply couldn't keep up with it all.

Would her life ever be quiet enough to simply enjoy?

"I don't have answers, Hope," Albus murmured, taking her hand gently, "but I do know that now we can be more vigilant of the things that are happening."

Hope glanced over at him. "You haven't seen anything, have you?" She asked, watching Albus exchange a look with Newt.

"Nothing too concerning until now," Newt offered, "we simply noticed that there are times you tend to sort of leave the conversation."

Shaking her head, she tried to remember these times. "Like, daydream? I mean, I always have a lot on my mind."

"I suppose so; we assumed it was that anyway. We know you don't always like to offer your thoughts, so we never really pressed."

Hope rubbed between her eyebrows and sighed. "I felt so much better when we were away," she looked over at them, "it's too much. The mirrors and Thomas and Alice…" she pulled at the roots of her hair. "Time travel and the poachers. It's all too much…"

In the next moment, Albus offered a cup of tea. "I know it's a lot, but it will get better," he murmured, "we have to have faith that it will."

Glancing up at him, she couldn't help but feel that twinge in her heart. "I'm sorry about earlier. I…lost my temper. Again."

"Hm," Albus nodded with a slight frown, "it's alright. It is a lot, and if what Teg said holds true, you've been angry a lot. Do you remember feeling angry recently?"

Hope slowly shook her head. "I assumed it was just frustration, but that seems more related to everything happening so quickly. Whenever I turn around, something else goes wrong, and I'm just…"

"Overwhelmed," Newt finished for her and took her hand in his, "it does seem never-ending, doesn't it?"

Hope leaned against him, letting him wrap his arms around her torso and pull her close. She sipped her steaming tea as they sat in silence, thinking.

"How do we end it?" Hope asked softly. "I'm tired of chasing our tails and ending right back where we started."

"I wish I knew," Albus answered solemnly. "I haven't found an answer yet. I've visited each mirror in the castle. At least the ones not hidden from me. I can't seem to find any answers."

"What if-" Hope paused, meeting their stares, and bit her lip.

"Go on."

"What if I…have to go back?"

Newt frowned. "Go back where?"

Hope looked at them both before finally biting out the answer. "What if I need to go back to the Mirror Dimension?"