Chapter 7: Sorting Cloe

Cloe realized they were already at the Great Hall before Nessie could answer her question. "You can tell me later," she told her quickly as they walked into the room. Though she was curious to learn more about these strange vampire people chasing her, she was more eager to get this sorting thing over with.

"So, when are we going to get this sorting thing over and done with?" she demanded, stopping in front of the other two.

Genevieve looked up when the Cloe girl returned. From what she could remember, the girl wanted to be sorted. "We can do that right now if you want. Here, sit down," she stood up to offer her a seat and the blonde reluctantly sat down, "Uh, Cloe? How did you get the Sorting Hat?"

Cloe looked down to see the tip of the hat sticking out of her pocket. "Oh... that..." she said, almost forgetting she had taken it in the excitement, "Um... it just kinda came to me."

"You didn't steal it from Dumbledore's office, did you?" Ethan asked, realizing she must have, otherwise she wouldn't have it. He quietly wondered what kind of person she was if she could break into the headmaster's office successfully without any teachers searching for her.

Genevieve knew if they kept bickering, someone would catch them. "Never mind, let's get her sorted now and ask questions later," she stated, taking the hat and placing it on the girl's head.

Nessie watched the scene in front of her from where she stood next to her friend, not sure of what to make of the situation. Just as soon as the hat was pulled down over Cloe's head, it shot back up in protest and flew around the room, landing at her feet motionless.

"What just happened? Was it supposed to do that?" Cloe asked a bit worried.

Nessie took a deep breath. She had to feel sorry for the poor hat having to be placed on so many peoples' heads over the years. Sadly, she feared its days of sorting students might have come to an abrupt end.

"I think you killed it," Ethan told the blonde simply.

Cloe knelt down next to it and began to poke it curiously. "You can't kill a hat," she said matter-of-factly.

'You couldn't, right?' she wondered, noticing it did look kind of dead… or rather lifeless.

"Well, this one can see into your head, so..." Ethan began, wondering how the headmaster would take it if he found out. They had to have a replacement for it, right? It wasn't like it was the only one of its kind. What would the school do if something like this was to happen? They'd have to have at least a back up plan.

Cloe paused to think about that. He had a very good point. "Yeah... I think I killed it," she concluded.

Genevieve looked from the hat lying on the floor in front of them back to the others. "Well… maybe it just couldn't decide. Maybe you have too much on your mind right now. We could always try again tomorrow," she suggested thoughtfully, "Until then, I think it would be best if you hid in someone's dorm just to be safe. If someone catches you, you could get in really big trouble." The girl might scare her, but she didn't want her to get in trouble for something that wasn't entirely her fault.

"Okay... so, whose dorm should I stay in tonight?" Cloe asked curiously, looking around at the other two. It seemed like they were shying away, so she sighed and shook her head slightly. "I'll just stay with Nessie in Gryffindor. I was going back there anyway," she said partly to spare them the trouble and partly so she could spend some more time with her new best friend.

"Alright. Where should we meet up tomorrow to try this again?" Genevieve tried hard not to make it look like she was that relieved not to provide any hospitality to the girl, though part of her doubted a sleep over with the blonde girl would be at all exciting. And more importantly, there had to be somewhere less dangerous at this school where they could figure out what House this Cloe girl belonged to. The sooner they got this over with, the sooner the girl could return the hat to where she found it.

"Wherever you guys want to meet," Cloe answered, picking up the hat and standing up once again, stretching slightly, "But I'm keeping this... thing." She looked at the old battered hat, wondering why it hadn't fallen apart by now.

"That's not such a good idea," Ethan tried to warn her, though she cut him off before he could explain.

"If I were you, I'd keep my mouth shut, boy," she snapped back at him before realizing she had to remain calm, "I mean... Ryan." There. Using his name would help to make herself seem calmer than she really was. As long as she could keep this up, she'd be able to get by for a while longer undetected.

"Why don't I keep it? And I'll meet you both tomorrow night by the lake at 10:00," Genevieve suggested for the sake of ending the oncoming argument before it started so they could all just go to bed, "Will you both be okay until then?"

"Nuh-uh! I'm not letting you take this hat! I got it in the first place and I won't let you guys take it away," Cloe strongly objected. If anything, this hat was going right underneath one of the beds she knew would be in the house things with that girl's notebook and weird kid's noisy iPod.

"But you stole it from Dumbledore's office," Ethan said accusingly.

"Not true. I didn't even have to go into the office," Cloe admitted, allowing herself some pride at her accomplishment.

Genevieve sighed, her brown eyes wary. Their constant battle would be endless unless someone stopped it. "Alright. Alright. Cloe... just keep the hat, but you can't let anyone find it," she told the girl, who shrugged like she hid things on a regular basis, "Tomorrow night, we'll all meet by the lake again and we'll try to get you sorted, but remember you can't be seen. If it's absolutely necessary for you to leave the common room, borrow someone's robe so you'll blend in."

Just then, a noise outside the Great Hall silenced them as they stared at the door like deer in the headlights. Whoever it was thankfully walked away. "We'd better get back to our common rooms," Ethan suggested, not wanting to continue risking his neck and getting them all caught. The others agreed, silently left the room, and went their separate ways.

'I can't even imagine how the rest of the year will turn out,' Genevieve thought to herself, quite overwhelmed by her recent encounters at Hogwarts.

Cloe turned to Nessie as she led the half-vampire back to Gryffindor. "Um... you wouldn't mind if I borrowed one of your robes, would you?" she asked hopefully, not wanting to sound rude.

"Yeah, sure you can!" Nessie replied enthusiastically before saying the password to get into the House.

The painting of a rather large lady swung out of the way and they walked inside, heading into one of the big rooms. Nessie led Cloe into the bedrooms, which she overheard the others calling the girl's dormitory and the werewolf girl shook her head at what a strange place this was. Pictures following you in the halls, hats telling you where you belonged in life, and annoying people/pushy house guardians yelling at you for a password or else you won't be able to go to sleep in a warm bed at night; she could only get the feeling there was much worse things to come. When they made it to Nessie's apparent bed, the half-vampire handed her one of her blue robes.

"Thanks," Cloe stated as she held the robe out in front of her, shaking her head at it. It was so silly, she was embarrassed to have to wear it. After refusing a bed, she curled up on the floor and went to sleep, extremely tired from all the running.

(A/N) So, what do ya think of this chappie? Pretty strange how the hat didn't want to sort Cloe, isn't it? Well, all that will be explained later on. And after that, you'll be so surprised at what happens with the next twist. Let's just say that both Mason and Cloe are in for an uber big surprise! And don't forget little Alphonse. Of course, he's still there. And I do have to say, he's in for the scare of his life. But that's all I can say.

Reviews pplz! I don't write for nothing. Besides the sheer joy of being able to make my readers hang on the edge of their seats in anticipation, I write for the fun of it and it would be greatly appreciated if you would at least write a sentence about what you thought.

So, let us know. My peeps and I are waiting patiently. Luv ya, peeps! WOOT! You ROCK, you silly Goofy Goobers. XD Huggles! 3

EDIT:

Oh, goodness… It's now 12:16 in the morning as I finish typing my edits for the night… and I really should get to sleep due to the fact that I have school in several hours. Lucky for me, my Monday class starts after 1pm. Heheh… XD College is a love-hate relationship.

So, yup. Same basic changes were made. A few tweaks here and there for grammar, spelling, and formatting. Nothing all that spectacular. *sigh*

Well, I hope to get the next chapter posted soon… but I may have to just rewrite a load of it myself because… I lost quite a bit of the original roleplay when fanfiction decided it was new policy to delete all forums left for dead after nine months of being unused. And I couldn't save all the alerts from my email address… because the initial email account got deleted (I think). So, I may have to pry my peeps' minds to see if they remember what they wrote… or if they'd like to rewrite it again. O_o

Until then, my dear readers, this story is kinda… on standby. I apologize for the hold up. I'm trying to get the roleplay started up again. Maybe we'll just rewrite it from the point where I last collected data. XD Heheh… That sounds like a plan. And we get to introduce the new characters into the plot as well. *nods* Much more excitement awaits in the next chapters…

Stay tuned, viewers. It's an epic adventure you won't want to miss. ;D

Original Post: 10/10/09

Revised: 10/24/11

Reposted: 10/30/11