You've waited, and its here!!! The newest chapter of RTLA!!!

Disclaimer: there was this awesome chinese buffet that I went to last night, and I definitely own the doggie bag full of moo goo gai pan, and mushu beef, and chicken fingers, and pork-fried rice that I brought home. But everything else, meh. no.

There is a torture scene in this chapter, so don't say I didn't warn ya. Do not read if you are easily disturbed or whatever.

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Severus Snape waited for both his ward, and his breakfast in a rather irritated mood. The girl had woken him up four in the morning, crying and screaming, and generally carrying on in a loud manner. She had probably woken everyone up, and now Snape was tired, and counting the minuets on the clock until eight o'clock. As it ticked towards seven fifty-seven, the pounding of a small someone running down the stairs was heard throughout the kitchen.

"Miss Mortacrin, do not run!"

The pounding immediately slowed, and before long a rather flustered looking girl traipsed into the kitchen wearing an impolite scowl.

"I wasn't running, professor."

"What were you doing then?"

"Walking quickly."

"Which is the definition of running. Now sit down, and try to utilize some of the manners I know you must have learned at some point."

The girl sat down and smiled with an effort.

"My apologies, professor; good morning, how did you sleep last night?"

"My sleep was interrupted by you and your nightmare, so my temper is rather short this morning."

A look of confusion settled across the girl's face.

"My nightmare…?"

Snape rolled his eyes, "Don't tell me I woke up and comforted you for an hour just to have you forget?"

Suddenly embarrassment, shock and shyness took their place simultaneously on the girl's face.

"I'm really sorry, professor."

"I'm glad to hear that. You can make it up to me by informing me what plagued you so in your dreams that you saw fit to scream as if you needed to be committed to Mungo's."

"I can't tell you. I just can't."

Snape opened his mouth to reply, but at that moment, Melda entered bearing fruit, warm buttered toast and biscuits, juice, coffee, eggs, and sausage. Snape let the conversation pass, unresolved, as they began to eat. The girl had very polite manners at the table, at least, she asked for everything with 'please' and 'thank you', and was reasonably quiet throughout breakfast. After the dishes had been cleared, and put into the sink, the girl got up to begin to wash them, but Snape waved his hand and the dishes disappeared.

"You don't have to do them this morning. You will, however still write that essay, but for now, let's go into my Potion's lab."

"Thank you, professor."

He watched the girl shrewdly for a moment, to try to detect any sign of rudeness, but finding none, simply nodded, and led the way. Severus Snape loved his lab. It was meticulously built, and positioned towards the morning sun, so as to let in the most light during the day. Large windows that had dark green draping curtains graced two complete walls, while the other two were devoted to shelves upon shelves of almost every potion and ingredient imaginable. Snape had been able to procure some of the very rare and unheard of ingredients, and his store was unrivaled in most of the wizarding world. He stepped in and walked to a large table in the middle. He looked up to see the girl staring up at his shelves with a silly smile on her face. She was in rapture. Snape felt something tug at the corner of his mouth, and angrily bit his tongue. He was not happy. He was just pleased that someone other than himself took delight in a well-organized, well-equipped potion lab.

"Miss Mortacrin, please come to the table. I don't want to wait all day."

The girl, with a barely contained grin on her face came and almost eagerly looked at the recipe that Snape had prepared.

"Please be careful when creating this one, Miss Mortacrin, and follow the directions exactly. I wish to observe you work."

The girl would have snatched the directions from him, had he not given them to her right away, and she almost ran to the shelves to begin collecting the ingredients. When she had what she needed, she came back, and assembled the ingredients in the order she would use them in. She took a medium-sized black cauldron, and began to mix the potion. Snape had chosen a rather hard one for her, but he was confident that she would be able to complete it without too much trouble. She was very advanced in Potions already, and this was a sixth-year level Potion she was performing now. The Potion he had selected was a personalized endurance potion. The recipe called for a small portion of the creator's blood, making it so that only the person who had made the potion could use it. She followed the directions well, mixing and measuring perfectly. Snape stood behind her as he watched her stir.

"Not so fast, or you'll induce bubbling. In this potion, its important to stir at a medium speed, and to retain it; not going faster or slower as you add ingredients."

The girl nodded, and complied with his directions. It came time to add blood to the Potion. It was the perfect pale yellow color, and by adding blood, the potion would turn a perfect deep orange. Snape handed the girl a knife.

"Cut the back of your hand; that will give you the least amount of pain."

She looked up at him. "How much blood to I need to add to the Potion? It doesn't specify."

"It varies, depending on the size and weight of the person. For you, you should probably but in about two tablespoons."

"Two tablespoons of blood is not going to come from the back of my hand."

"You may need to cut more than once, but there aren't as many pain receptors on the back of your hand, and it will be much less sore."

The girl looked at him for a moment, before taking the small knife. Holding her hand and arm above the cauldron, she neatly and quickly sliced open her wrist. Her face did not change the slightest as she cut her wrist open. Snape angrily controlled his temper, and instead watched as she carefully let her blood pour into the mixture until she had about two spoonfuls in it. She gave the cauldron one last stir with the wooden spoon, and scooped some up with a vial. She corked it, and set it on the table. Snape grabbed her hand, and ran his finger along the incision, healing it quickly.

"You little brat. I told you to take the blood from the back of your hand."

"There's not a lot of blood there. It would be pointless to repeatedly take blood from the back of my hand, when a cut in my wrist would afford the most blood."

"Why do insist on defying me?"

"I'm not trying to."

"What bilge. I detest the fact that you obviously do not hold your life in very high regard, as you are willing to endure all kinds of pain for no reason, when it can easily be avoided."

The girl was nearly spitting mad.

"It didn't hurt that bad! Considering what I've gone through!"

"Ah, so you lied to the headmaster when you told him that you had cast a Memory Charm on yourself."

"Of course I did! Do you think I want to repeat all that happened to me? It was horrible and disgusting, and it still gives me nightmares! What do you expect?!"

Snape drew himself up to his full height and angrily stared down at her.

"I expect for you to stop yelling, first of all, and secondly, I expect for you to allow the people who can help you to do their jobs."

"Fine!"

The girl took her wand, and tapped it to her forehead, drawing out a memory She let it swirl into the bowl, and gestured violently at it, pain and misery written in her face.

"Would you like to see some of what I went through? Come now, it will be so much fun. A little trip down torturous memory lane."

The sarcasm in her voice was singularly disgusting, but Snape was determined to get to the bottom of this, so that the impudent girl standing in front of him would once and for all stop constantly acting like she was about to be hurt by someone. He lowered his head into the silvery mass of memory, and found himself in a dank, dark dungeon. The girl appeared at his side, and she gestured around the dismal place.

"Behold my old home!"

Even as she spoke, a younger version of herself was dragged into the room by a tall Deatheater. He was followed by two others who also bore children. These two were boys and looked vaguely familiar. The younger version of the girl was tied to a chair, and the older of the two boys was chained to a wall. One of the Deatheaters raised his wand and pointed it at the youngest boy. Turning to face the girl, he smirked.

Tell us the secret to your power, or he gets it.

The younger girl began to cry. Beside him, Snape could see that the present girl was trying to hold back tears as she angrily looked on.

I don't know! I can't tell you! Please don't hurt him!

With a maniacal laugh, the Deatheater pointed his wand at the young boy in the ground.

Crucio!

The boy began to contort and scream. Even as he did so, other Deatheaters plunged short, sharp knives into the boy on the wall. They stabbed hi over and over again, until blood ran down his arms and legs, and he was weeping in pain. One of them, seemingly growing tired of torturing him, went to the girl in the chair, and untied her. She tried to go to the boy on the floor, but he lifted her up, and threw her against the wall. He smashed her face repeatedly into the floor until her features were nearly indescribable with bruises and blood. Blood flowed from her nose and mouth, and her eyes were swollen shut.

Tell us, and we'll stop. It's that easy.

I don't know!

Stupid witch.

He kicked her while she was on the floor, and then pointed his wand at her.

Crucio!