"Where are we going?" Lizzie wrinkled her nose at the dirt Hope was leading her through.

"You are obviously in need of a release," Hope said instead of answering. "Usually, I come out here and wolf out. You can't do that, but you can do something similar."

"What? Howl at the moon?" Lizzie scoffed.

"Close. You know that feeling inside, like a balloon constantly filling up, always on the verge of popping?"

Lizzie arched her eyebrows. Now those were some familiar words. "Maybe."

"Let it pop." Hope shoved her hands in her pocket. "Scream as loud as you can."

Lizzie sighed. So this was what it was like to be on that end of it, someone staring at you expectantly while they politely waited for you to explode. Lizzie knew this trick. She invented this trick. She balled her hands into fists and let it go in one, ear-splitting cry that bent the tree trunks away from her.

"Wow." Hope blinked a few times, eyeing the destruction. "You're a lot stronger than I thought."

Lizzie smiled half-heartedly. It was all the magic she was holding so that no one knew she was a siphoner, but she couldn't tell Hope that.

"That felt good," she admitted instead.

"See? I told you." Hope smiled triumphantly. Lizzie let her have her moment. "I've had a few too many outbursts in front of everyone. Learning to control it ... didn't really fix anything if I'm being honest, but it made me feel better."

Hope held the door for Lizzie, and from the second they walked in, Lizzie could feel the stares. Except ... this time they weren't only at her. The closer Lizzie paid attention, the more she realized half their eyes were on Hope and half the whispers had the Mikaelson name hiding behind their hands.

"Oh look." Josie appeared in front of them with a smoothie in her hand. Next to her, Penelope took a sip from an identical cup. "The two psychos found each other."

Penelope laughed, struggling to keep smoothie from flying out of her nose long enough to throw in her two cents. "Crazy attracts crazy, I guess."

"What's wrong, Hope?" Josie tilted her head at Hope's dark expression. "Feeling a rage attack coming on?"

"I feel a rage attack coming on!" Lizzie said, lunging forward.

Josie jumped back, shielding her smoothie from Lizzie and pretending to be scared before she dropped the act and started laughing. Hope just set a hand on Lizzie's shoulder.

"Come on."

"Careful," Penelope said, linking her arm in Josie's. "They might get murder-y." She eyed Hope when she said it.

Josie clicked her tongue in mock sympathy as they strolled away. "At least Hope the Great Evil has a friend now. Probably the only one she could make."

The witches around them erupted into giggles at that.

"Why do you let them do that?" Lizzie asked, her face screwed up indignantly as Hope took her down an empty back hall.

"Why do you?" Hope countered easily with a flick of her eyebrow.

"But - Well - You're way more powerful than all of them. You could shut them up," Lizzie argued.

Hope stopped and looked at her. "Wouldn't they be right, then?"

Lizzie's face fell. She had a point. If Hope blew up at them in true Mikaelson fashion, she'd only be proving their taunting right, that she was a villain waiting to explode.

"Besides, you're powerful too. I saw what you did out in those woods."

Lizzie shoved her hands deep in her skirt pockets, anger rolling around deep in her stomach. The anger slowly boiled down to guilt.

It was her fault after all. She was the reason Hope was being treated like this. This didn't happen before she went and fucked everything up.