Katrina woke and went through her morning ablutions. She was seated at the window, thinking about Maggie, when the door opened. She rose as Voldemort strode inside. Seeing the fury on his face, she shrank back a couple steps.

She saw him stop and take a breath, his features becoming slightly more composed. "Your next lesssson," he hissed, "You are to kneel when your massster entersss the room and you are not to move until he tellsss you to."

Katrina did as she was told, knowing resistance would only earn her a painful curse and today, of all days, she didn't want that. She straightened her back and her head was down, her eyes on the ground. She listened as he placed the tray on the table and she heard the chair legs scraping the floor as he sat down.

"Come here," he said.

Katrina quickly did as he said, kneeling on the cushion. She listened to him eating his breakfast, her stomach growling. Occasionally, he would stop and mutter something. Apparently, a plan of his had been thwarted the previous night and a number of his followers had been imprisoned in Azkaban. She couldn't help a stab of joy when he muttered that Lucius Malfoy was one of them.

-- --

Severus watched in trepidation as his daughter put the hat on her head. Part of him was hoping she would be in Slytherin. Another, more honest part, admitted he wanted her anywhere but. He knew the nature of his house and the unpleasant truth of most of those sorted into it.

Many of his snakes were from terrible homes and they had learned to survive the best way they could, by being sneaky and cunning. If he was seen as biased towards his house, it was only because no one else cared. Very few concerned themselves with the lives of his students in, or outside, school.

It certainly wasn't easy being Head of House to such students. Add to that the task of trying to keep his students from joining Voldemort, while pretending to be a loyal Death Eater, and it was enough to give anyone constant migraines.

He held his breath as the slit of the hat opened and he let it out in a rush as the hat called out "Slytherin." Well, that was that. Minerva was giving him a guarded look but he ignored it in favor of watching Maggie removing the hat. "Well…" he trailed off, not really sure what to say.

"Congratulations, Severus," Minerva said carefully, in a strangely neutral voice.

"Thank you, Minerva," he responded, his eyes meeting his daughter's. Maggie was giving him an uncertain look, as though she was afraid he would be angry. He rose, took the hat from his daughter and placed it on Albus' desk. Turning back to face his daughter, he placed a gentle hand on her shoulder, "I am proud to have you as part of my house, Maggie." He could feel the tension leave her shoulder and he gave her a small smile before reclaiming his seat.

"Well," Albus said, waving the hat back up to its shelf, "Now that that is concluded, let us finish discussing where Maggie will be this summer…"