Devotion

Chapter 7

Author's Note: I am putting an explicit content warning up for this chapter. While there isn't full sexual content, it's enough that I feel it is best to put a warning up. I will put a "***WARNING***" up to signal when that section of this chapter starts (it will go until the end of the chapter), so if you would like to skip, you're free to do so.

I sped down the halls, searching for the way to our rooms. It seemed the most likely place Draco would be that I knew of. If he wasn't there, I didn't know where I'd go.

In my haste, I didn't even notice until I walked straight into Professor McGonagall, nearly knocking the both of us over.

"Oh, I'm so sorry Professor, I didn't see you—" I stuttered.

"It's alright, but why aren't you in class?" she asked with a questioning brow raised in the air. But I didn't answer.

She sighed and said, "Well, I suppose it doesn't matter. I was looking for you anyway. We need to get you sorted. Come with me."

I trailed after her, confusion sweeping over me. The sorting hat couldn't sort me, as I wasn't a witch. The reason it could for the law was because it technically didn't matter for that. It was assigned to match people in the wizarding community, and I was now, so it worked. But that wasn't the case for sorting me into a house.

She took me into her office beside the transfiguration classroom, and my eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Professor, aren't you headmistress? Why are we in this office?"

She took a seat behind the desk and gestured me into the spot opposite her. "Yes, I am. But for one thing, it's a long, unnecessary walk to get up there. And for another, I prefer not to use that office if I can help it. Both Albus and Severus's portraits are hanging there and right now, it hurts too much to see."

"I'm so sorry Professor, I didn't realize—"

"It's alright my dear, it was a fair question. I will move up there entirely once we hire a transfiguration professor, if we can ever find one," she said with a sigh.

"Is it that hard to get one?" I asked curiously.

"More than you'd think, but now is not the time to discuss my staffing problems. It's time to discuss your sorting," she answered, shifting the topic of conversation.

"Professor, I thought the sorting hat didn't work for me. How can I get sorted?"

"And you would be correct. So I'm just going to let you pick your house. I know it's not the best method, but you know yourself best, and as we have no other option available, I suppose you should sort yourself. You'll just have to pretend like you got sorted, same as everyone else. We can't leave you unsorted, it would draw too much suspicion," she explained whilst I nodded.

"I want to be in—or I think the best place for me to be in—is Slytherin," I told her, picturing the faces of Pansy and Draco.

She just nodded. No fight, no persuasion to join another house. "Are you okay with that?" I questioned.

"Certainly. Slytherin is a fine house, despite what people say. If you feel it is the right one for you, I won't disagree."

"It is, Professor," I said, sure in my answer.

She smiled, and with a wave of her wand, my tie shifted from gray and black to green and silver. Welcoming me as Slytherin house's newest member.

~

When I was set free into the halls of Hogwarts, my thoughts slipped back into worries again. Did he even like me?

He had kissed me before, yes. But since then, we haven't even held hands. I knew it was all going fast, of course, but I didn't know where we currently stood in our relationship.