I've recently become quite invested in the idea of a demisexual McGonagall in a relationship with Hooch. This is an exercise in exploring that. I don't know yet how many of these I will do, but each chapter will be able to stand on its own, though I hope they will all flow together.

Minerva distinctly remembers the beginning of the term, when she had proudly boasted about Harry Potter being sorted into her house. Rolanda had replied at the time that he simply didn't have the brains for Ravenclaw, but Minerva could tell that she was slightly jealous. She thinks back on that, and glowers as Rolanda laughs at her story (Rolanda isn't even angry that Minerva has woken her at nearly two in the morning to complain about students out of bed).

"It's not funny," she barks, arms crossed over her chest. "They were completely reckless! Absolutely no regard for the rules!"

"What did you expect?" Rolanda gasps as she tries to catch her breath. "He's James Potter's son. Of course he's going to get up to trouble." She's shaking with laughter, and Minerva's frown deepens. "Oh, I remember how pleased you were at his sorting. What was it you said to me? 'It's a pity there had to be a choice, but obviously it would be Gryffindor.' Merlin, you were so smug, and look at you now. The boy is losing house points left and right! At this rate, you'll be in the negative by the end of term."

"Well, if Severus had any kind of fairness-"

"Severus? Minerva, please. You were the one who lobbied to let a first year play on the house team," Rolanda reminds her. "I was all ready to give him a month of detention, but you go and appoint him Gryffindor seeker and buy him the best broom on the market. Snape isn't the only Head of House who participates in favoritism." Rolanda's eyes sparkle as she says this, but the words strike something very uncomfortable inside Minerva.

"That's completely diff—Albus agreed with me that the rules could be bent," she snaps. She's always prided herself on being impartial. She thinks the events of the evening prove it. One-hundred-and-fifty points from her own house. They will most certainly lose the house cup because of it, but she has her integrity to think of. She's no Severus Snape, thank Merlin.

"Different because it was quidditch?" Rolanda asks knowingly, and Minerva hates that she's right.

"It's been five years since we won!" Minerva snaps. "Last year's season was atrocious, I've never been more humiliated."

"Hearing you talk, one would think you're out there on the pitch, not a bunch of teenagers."

"It's the principle of the thing," Minerva sniffs. "House rivalries."

"And how long have you been holding this grudge?"

"You know very well."

"I don't know if you've realized, but the parents of most of these children weren't even at Hogwarts when you lost the cup-"

"I didn't lose it! It was stolen from us! It was a bloody foul, completely unsportsman like—" She breaks off to take a deep breath. "Jo King had it out for me, and they targeted me specifically. Disgusting."

"So good to know that you're the forgiving type."

"Sod off, Ro," she barks, pushing herself off the couch. She intends to go back to her own quarters, but Rolanda catches her arm.

"Min, come on. Don't go." Rolanda tries to pull her back in for a hug, but Minerva stands stiffly. "You were complaining about Potter and Granger. Not quidditch. I shouldn't have brought it up. I know it's a sore subject for you."

"I shouldn't have snapped," Minerva mumbles, because Rolanda is not wrong and because Albus is always telling her she can be harsh at times and that perhaps she could manage a bit more softness. She's not so sure. It always makes her feel weird, like someone else is speaking through her mouth. Empathy, she has plenty of. But the ability to express it? Not as much. "I just really thought…I had thought Potter wouldn't be quite so…troublesome. And Miss Granger! I never—how unlike her to break the rules in such a way!"

"Unlike her? Isn't this the same girl who thought she could take on a mountain troll on her own?"

"Well, yes, but that was less defiance and more overconfidence in her own abilities," Minerva says. She feels the need to defend Hermione Granger, who reminds her so much of herself at that age. "But tricking Draco Malfoy into getting in trouble? Leading him to believe that they had a dragon? I would never have guessed it of her. The whole situation has me questioning my own judgment."

"Oh, Min, that's ridiculous." Rolanda touches her cheek very briefly. She knows Minerva isn't comfortable with affection, and she is always mindful of that, but sometimes she feels the need to remind her partner that she's not alone in all this. "Your judgment is just fine. Better than most peoples', I'm sure. Why, you have a reputation of being the fastest amongst the staff at spotting trouble. The students all know they can't pull any fast ones on you."

"If I think for one moment, Rolanda Hooch, that you are patronizing me—"

"Wouldn't dream of it." Rolanda smiles at her and steps up on her toes to place a quick kiss to Minerva's lips. It's almost platonic, it's so chaste. Almost. "Why don't you stay here tonight?"

"Ro, I'm really not in the mood for—"

"I know that, Minerva." Rolanda's voice turns just a tad brittle, but she quickly recovers her brightness. "I haven't been with you for four years without knowing when you are and aren't in the mood."

Had she not already been irritated and frustrated by her students' misbehavior, Minerva would have remembered that on her own. She knows that she isn't nearly as interested in a physical relationship as most people seem to be, and she's always aware that Rolanda would very much like more intimacy between them. But she respects what Minerva can give. Instead, she seeks her physical needs elsewhere. Minerva doesn't ask who, and Rolanda doesn't share. They talked of it several times in the beginning, when they were figuring out how this would all work, and Minerva gave her encouragement. She wants Rolanda to feel fulfilled, and she always worries that she's not giving enough. But Rolanda never complains. Never pushes for more, and never makes Minerva feel guilty, whether inadvertently or purposefully.

And it is true that Rolanda is always very much in tune with what Minerva is comfortable with at any given time.

"I'm sorry, Ro," she says, sighing heavily. "I keep snapping at you, and you're not even the one I'm angry at."

"Stay tonight, love."

She knows that Rolanda Hooch is irrevocably in love with her. She doesn't know if she feels the same, if she even can feel the same (she's never loved anyone like that, not even Dougal and certainly not Elphinstone), but she does think that what she feels for Rolanda is as close to that as she can manage. Their arrangement is untraditional, but it seems to work well enough for them both. And Minerva finds that she quite likes having a….well, a whatever Rolanda is to her. Platonic life partner, Pomona jokes. But it is more than that, Minerva knows. It's basically what she's always wanted.

Rolanda is still waiting for her answer, and she smiles, relaxing.

"All right."