Ah Christmas. Such a delightful holiday, made more so by the snow now piled along the streets and drifting from the skies in soft, large flakes; a white Christmas, as the muggles used to say. For Morgan, it was bittersweet. There were both good and bad memories for this day.

A cold breeze stung her face as she walked down the street, stomping through the fluffy white, unmarked snow. Beside her, Su looked around excitedly, jumping into large snow piles, making balls to throw around, face flushed and eyes bright. Both of them had warm clothes, scavenged from a nearby muggle clothing store, blunting the edge of the biting chill.

Morgan was glad to see Su could still be so childish, despite the… altercation with her previous bullies. She worried that she may have been affected by such a heavy level of violence, but once the initial reluctance was passed, Su took to it with enthusiasm.

Su, at least, would not be making the same mistakes she had.

She also noticed the fond way in which Su played with the golden necklace around her neck - a Christmas present from Morgan - and the smile she had whenever she glanced at it. It made Morgan rather happy to see her gift appreciated in such way; the necklace spelling out her name had cost quite the pretty penny.

Likewise, Morgan glanced down at the red scarf winding around her neck, the warm material sitting comfortably around her neck. A gift, from Su. It wasn't an expensive thing, but it was nice all the same.

The evening sun was setting, they'd spent the day at a muggle library, now a comfy place for them. They only came back to the orphanage to pick up food and spend the night.

The streets of London weren't the safest at night.

Just as she was thinking that, a scream sounded throughout the clear air, stabbing her ears with its shrillness in the quiet city.

Su stopped, eyes wide as she listened, before she turned to Morgan, eyes pleading.

Of course. Su was still a child. It was only natural for her to want to help someone, she still didn't have the life experiences to understand just how evil the world could be. She understood much more than the average child, but that still wasn't enough yet.

Her hesitation must have shown on her face, for Su stood up straighter, feet stubbornly set in the snow.

"W-we should help" she said, with all the conviction of an ignorant child.

Morgan sighed. "And what would you have me do, Su? Fight an adult sorcerer? They'll reduce me to ash the moment they see me."

She had a gun on her, it would be foolish not to, but all it would take is one missed bullet to destroy her. She had no idea of the sorcerers skill level, a simple summoning charm would disable her, leave her helpless to their powerful wanded magic.

But Su was stubborn. "You helped me. You can help them too." Seeing that Morgan was unmoved, she softened a little, eyes glancing at her feet, the fur rimmed boots embedded in the snow. "You said you would make the world better" she mumbled, downcast.

Morgan grit her teeth so hard she could almost hear the grind of tooth against tooth. She did say that, told Su that one day she would take the world, break it and rebuild something better, happier.

She'd even shown her, taught her how to deal with trash so they never again hurt anyone else and Su had followed along, hesitant but convinced that her bullies deserved it.

It was hard to have those words thrown back at her, the silent accusation of 'Were you lying?' shown in Su's posture. But wasn't she right? How could she dream of ruling the world, of stamping out the trash, of destroying the worthless that watched her world die, if she didn't take risks?

Was this all she was, empty words and boasts, cowering when true danger showed, like all the failures of the wizarding world?

Would she have stood by when Voldemort ravaged the world?

Her hand twitched and slowly, she pulled out the gun in her coat pocket, the black metal cold in the winter chill, shining with the snows reflected light.

"Stay behind me, be quiet and don't let anyone see you. Stay out of sight, behind a building or something. Should anything happen, run. Are we understood?" Her tone made it clear that Su either understood or this ended here, and Su frantically nodded, smile back on her face.

Curse children and their belief in the invincibility of their guardians. And she cursed herself.

As she always did.

She moved with haste now, not the slow, languid walk they had been enjoying previously. A lot of time had been wasted with her hesitance, right now an attacker could be forcing himself upon his victim, or have finished the murder, or any number of terrible things.

She sped down the street in the direction of the scream, coming to a stop at a corner beyond which she heard a mumbled voice, masculine in nature.

Right shoulder to the wall, she peeked around into the dark alley, gun held at the ready.

What she saw took her breath away.

A woman was held up against the wall, restrained with unseen magic as she grimaced, glaring at the wizard pointing a wand at her.

And she was beautiful. Black hair and eyes, a stunning face and body, with clothes that merely accentuated her figure, a short grey skirt and black top that just hinted at cleavage. Morgan couldn't take her eyes off her, the tears streaming down the woman's cheeks not even slightly marring her beauty.

She was entrancing, captivating, a dark allure that promised pleasure and warmth, that would indulge her every desire should she just reach out and take what was so willingly offered. And it had been so long… It took all her will not to charge her down and take her right there. Her breath hitched and a warmth she wasn't even aware she could feel yet spread through her lower half, her breath fogging the air and her eyes lidded in lust.

She was only half aware of the voice of the man, reminding her of oils and cheap aftershave and con-men, a slimy voice that hinted of… undesirable things. His black hair was slicked back, his stomach round and bulging, wearing an expensive ink blue suit. A sickly smell filled the alley, reminding her of overly sweet drinks.

"Do you think I'm stupid?" he asked, glaring at the woman. "Did you think I would just give you more power, just like that? I bet your running on dregs right now, aren't you?"

The woman glared at him, eyes fierce in hate, as though she could kill him with but a glance. Then, she just seemed to give up, the fire fading from her eyes as the resistance seemed to leak from her, taking her strength with it. She hung there, arms spread against the wall, and sobbed, quiet heaves racking her body.

And suddenly, Morgan could breathe again. The devastating beauty, the longing she'd felt for the woman, it all faded. She was still remarkable, but now she could easily appreciate her figure without such thoughts invading her mind.

"See, things would have been so much simpler had you known that before you started this whole thing. Where would you have gone, anyway? Whored yourself for some scum, dredging around these ruins? Boss gave you and your kind shelter, food, anything, and this is how you repay him?" he said, face impassive. His eyes roved over her body in a way that made Morgan's skin crawl. "Such a shame. You'll be an example, I think, to discourage any others from running. You brought this on yourself. Crucio."

The screams were worse than anything she had ever yet heard; she was surprised the unbroken panes of glass around the alley didn't shatter from it.

A flinch at her side, and Su fell onto her backside, eyes wide as she stared at the unfolding scene.

Morgans heart almost stopped in her chest as the wizard suddenly spun, spotting Su at the mouth of the alley. She'd forgotten about Su, too caught up in fantasies and desire.

She stepped into action, pulling the trigger as fast as she could. The gun cracked in her hands, the sound bouncing off the crumbling walls of the alley as the gun jerked, almost deafeningly loud.

A bullet slammed into his bulging stomach and another into his chest, crimson blood spreading down the white shirt beneath his suit jacket. His eyes widened, gasping in pain as the bullets slammed into him. The others went wild, the recoil simply too strong for her to control with her childish arms.

Unfortunately, that wasn't enough to take him down, a fact she only had a brief moment to regret before a white jet of light slammed into her, throwing her away from the mouth of the alley, over Su and into the snow, the gun flying from her grasp.

Her chest hurt, her back hurt, her hand hurt, and she could barely breath.

This was going swimmingly.

God, why had she ever agreed to do this?

Oh, right, because she was a fool. Time and two deaths had yet to change that, apparently.

The man stumbled from the alley, coughing blood into his hand. With a flick of his wand, Su was sent flying into the wall; he didn't even spare her a glanced. Instead, his furious grey eyes were fixed upon Morgan, struggling to stand in the snow.

"You… You mudblood…" he wheezed. "Do… Do you know what she is? Prac-practically an animal… Stupid filth…"

Morgan couldn't help herself, she hacked out a laugh at her attacker. "And yet, you look like much more an animal than her. Almost piggish. At least she's attractive, what do you have?" she taunted.

She couldn't help herself, she wasn't one to show fear in the face of death, not anymore. She only had the vague hope that Su would take her advice and run, and bitterness, that she would die so early, with her ambitions unfilled.

It filled her with an unbridled rage, fiery and destructive, yet she was incapable of doing anything other than watch as the wizard limped towards her.

His face was a picture of rage, sneering down at her. "Crucio" he spoke, then, with a twist of his wand and a flash of orange light, her world was pain.

Words were unable to describe it. Knives stabbed her, flames burned her, men raped her, it was pain of the like she had never even conceived of, had never knew was possible. Her bones were ground into dust, her skin flayed, every nerve singing a song of agony as she lost her senses of the world, an eternity of pain all she knew.

Slowly, she could feel her mind losing its grip on sanity, diving into the embrace of madness, a dark hole that she was rapidly speeding towards. She knew her fate should she succumb, but she didn't - couldn't - care about that right now.

She was such a fool.

Then, the pain stopped. She lay there, her senses returning to her slowly. Her throat felt raw and her body throbbed with pain. Twitching her finger, she gasped as pain shocked through her body, spreading and cascading before fading, leaving a sharp ache in its wake..

How pathetic, to be reduced to this state. She should have shot the man the moment she saw him, instead she had been enthralled by the womans beauty, no doubt some magical trick. What use was she if she could barely resist something like that?

Ah, self-loathing, there you are. It had been a while.

Lifting her head slightly, she saw Su, standing and shaking as she held a gun, her eyes wide and scared. It was pointing at the wizard bleeding out on the ground, another two wounds leaking blood across his back. It looked like she'd managed to get his lungs, judging by the wet gurgling and pink froth bubbling around his lips as he gasped for air in the ruby snow.

"E-excellent work, S-Su" she said, picking herself up to the protests of her body. Every movement sent fresh sparks of pain through her body, but with an iron will she pushed through it, standing upon shaky legs.

Never in her wildest dreams had she thought the Cruciatus would be so bad. She couldn't have been under it long, but even that was enough to finish her. In a duel, getting hit by that would be a death sentence.

Her hand clenched in anger and her eyes narrowed as she glared down at the bastard that had caused this, this filthy low-life tossing crucio's at children. She was an adult, luckily, but what if he decided to hit Su with that? Her childish mind would have broken instantly.

He was rabid, feral.

Unworthy of life.

She stumbled over to Su, who was still staring at the wizard with wide eyes. Throwing an arm over her shoulder, she leaned in to her ear, voice low to prevent more throat pain.

"Finish him" she rasped.

That shocked Su out of her daze, her brown eyes coming round to meet Morgans unyielding orange gaze.

She was hesitating, conflicted. It was understandable. She had yet to learn that when it came to scum like this, you couldn't give them another chance. You had to strike and crush them, no forgiveness could be allowed, for they would merely bide their time until they could attack you again.

And this was an excellent opportunity to hammer that home.

She turned Su towards the still shivering woman, suffering the after effects of the cruciatus upon the dirty alley floor. "Tell me Su, if we weren't here, what would have happened to this woman? That's right, she'd be dead and forgotten about, her body feeding the rats. How many others do you think he has hurt, or will hurt if he leaves from here? What happens if we're not there next time?"

Seeing that Su still looked concerned, her eyes flickering nervously between the woman, wizard and gun, Morgan leaned in closer, her voice silky and persuasive, soft and reassuring upon her Su's hearing. "Didn't you want to help this woman? Think of all the other woman you could help in the future, just by stopping this worthless trash. Remember the bullies? They don't bother you anymore, do they? The only difference this time is that he wont stop if we let him go. He needs to be put down, theirs nothing wrong with that."

Morgan wrapped her arm around Su's body, pulling her tightly into aware side embrace and walking her over to where the wizard was still clinging to life. She gently moved the barrel of the pistol until it was pointing towards the wizards head. "Go on."

Su's arms shivered, the gun quivering in her grip as her finger twitched upon the trigger. "I… I can't" she said quietly. "He- he'll die."

He was going to die anyway, but Su probably wasn't aware of that.

"You tried to kill him earlier, why not now?"

"B-but, he was hurting you, you were screaming so badly…" she whimpered, eyes distant.

"Then think about that. If we let him go, he'll come back after us, come back after me. Is that what you want? We might not defeat him a second time."

Something within Su broke at that, her eyes hardening and her arms steadying.

She pulled the trigger, the wizards head exploding in a flash of red and pink, brains smearing the ground.

Morgan had a satisfied smile on her face. Her molding of Su was going perfectly. While she would have preferred this entire experience to have never occurred, she was never one to miss an opportunity.

Patting her on the back, she whispered encouragements into her ear and slowly, a smile appeared upon Su's face, small but there.

Stooping, Morgan picked up the wizards wand, disappointed when it too failed to react properly with her. If anything it was worse that the ash wand, with that she had possessed it for a year and was somewhat used to it, this wand just felt disgusting to hold.

It was made of some dark wood, scuffed and scratched from hard use and about 10 inches long. Placing it into her coat pocket, she turned to the woman shivering in the alley, now watching them with wide, despairing eyes.

She could leave the woman here, now that they had saved her, but… The woman apparently only had a short time to live, no doubt something due to whatever species she belonged to. It couldn't be vampire, the evening sun ruled that out, but it was probably something predatory, using desire to lure prey.

Taking the woman with them represented a significant risk.

Then again, she supposed it was Christmas and she was feeling in a giving mood after Su's success.

If things went wrong, she had her gun.


She lead Su and the woman - still shivering and casting furtive looks at them - to one of the safe-houses she had set up. A small house with the windows covered by old newspaper and curtains, a living room with a comfy armchair and sofa, as well as unused electrical appliance scattered around the house.

"Now then, why don't you take a seat" she said, pointing to the armchair. She and Su sat on the sofa opposite, watching their visitor carefully. Morgan retrieved another gun from a nearby drawer, placed their just in case, and kept hold of it carefully. The other gun was probably running low of bullets.

"Well, first, why don't we introduce ourselves? I'm Morgan and this is Su."

"Maria" she spoke, tonelessly. Morgan couldn't help but think it was as though the girl had given up inside, as though she had no hope left. It made her frown slightly.

"Maria" Morgan said, smiling gently at her. "Why don't you tell me what led to such… unfortunate circumstances."

Morgan could smell a soft scent of lavender in the room, coming from Maria, and it was beginning to have some rather uncomfortable effects upon her body. It wasn't anywhere near the level it was previously, but it made her wary, knowing that it wasn't normal.

A peek at Su showed that she was unaffected, so was it just because of her adult mind? It was unintentional, what she was doing then, since she should have no idea that Morgan was anything but a child.

Maria looked at her blankly, before shrugging. "My boss wanted me to keep doing something I disagreed with. I ran away when he tried to force me."

"Oh? And what exactly did he want you to do?" She had an idea, but you never know; magic ruined any predictions a person could have.

"Sex" she stated blandly. "For shelter, clothes, food and life force, we had to do anything he wanted us to."

Of course. But life force… That was particularly telling of her non-human status.

"Life force?" she asked sharply, gun raising slightly and pointing at Maria, ready to fire should she show any hostile intentions.

That sparked a bit of interest in Maria's eyes. "You don't know? I'm a Morrigan" she said, as though this was obvious knowledge.

And perhaps it was, but the orphanage was not exactly conducive to learning.

"Assume I have no idea what a Morrigan is. Enlighten me."

Maria raised an immaculate eyebrow, face quizzical. "Well, you are children… We're a race much like Veela, supernaturally attractive, with our own unique magic. And we feed on sex" she mentioned, as if that was a minor afterthought.

"Life force" Morgan repeated, a dangerous undercurrent to her voice. Feeding off sex was all well and good, but if she was capable of fucking people into husks, then she needed to add a few points onto her dangerousness.

"Think of it as taking energy. It doesn't hurt, permanently, it just leaves a person tired out for a while" she said, voice tired. "It was never a problem for us, until now…"

"Ah, your kind used to feed on muggles, I presume? And now that they're gone, you have to feed on wizards, who obviously aren't too happy about that…" It made sense. She couldn't see the xenophobic magical public accepting their existence when they couldn't even accept muggles. It was the same with werewolves and - now that she thought of it - vampires too. All the species that used to feed on muggles, now feeding upon magicals…

The implications were frightening. At this rate, Voldemort would have a huge army upon his return.

She wrenched her thoughts back, vowing to think on that later. "What did he mean, running on dregs?"

Maria slumped, eyes losing the spark of life they had just regained. "We need life force to use magic, so they would force us to use shoddy wands and cast spells to keep our reserves low so we couldn't run."

"Oh? And yet, here you are, having run anyway."

A snarl worked its way onto her face. "I'd rather die than be that bastards personal toy for the rest of my life" she growled.

Morgan was quiet for a while, the sun finally setting beyond the covered windows, the room darkening to a dull grey. With a snap of her fingers and muttered Incendio, a candle upon a table lit up, illuminating the room in a dim orange glow.

Maria's eyes were surprised, flickering between her and the candle.

"What to do with you…" Morgan mumbled. Su, sitting next to her and quiet throughout the conversation, perked up.

"We should let her sleep here" she mumbled.

Morgan looked at her incredulously. "Sleep near us? Did you no-" ah, Su had no idea what sex was, nor the lengths a person would go to survive.

"It's dark out, you said the city wasn't safe at night" Su said. Seeing Morgans hesitance, she widened her eyes, lip trembling as she said "Please?"

Curse Su's kicked-puppy expressions, and curse herself for giving in to it, fool that she was.

"Very well, you may spend the night here, but any suspicious moves will be met with force, understood?"

Maria shrugged, resigned and uncaring. It rather annoyed Morgan, to see her just give up like that. She'd been gaining some respect for her after hearing how she ran, despite the risk of imminent death, but seeing her seemingly give up at the first obstacle just ticked her off.

Keeping a wary eye on her, Morgan lay on the sofa, Su next to her and the gun held in her hand. Not safe, but she was wary. Their was a reason she stayed at the orphanage at night. The workers might all despise them, but they at least deter criminals. An orphanage wasn't an attractive target either. Attacking children was one way to end up being served with the Dementors kiss.

Nerves still fraying from the cruciatus, she slowly fell asleep with Su cuddling up to her.


She woke up. The candle had gone out at sometime in the night and something was setting her nerves on edge, a low whisper in the air, a chill in the room and the scent of curdled milk tickling her nose.

Her hand gripped the gun tighter in her hand, her eyes flickering around the room. Maria was still within the arm-chair, sleeping it seemed, she wasn't what set her nerves frazzling and teeth clenched. This… This was a more primal feeling, of being hunted in the night back when the human race was still swinging from trees, the sort of feeling you get when you wake up, feeling like you were falling and grasping for a branch that wasn't there; it was instinctive.

Maria's eyes opened and met hers, their alarm showing to each other.

Yes, something was most certainly not right.

A shadow in the corner, deeper than the others, seemed to twitch; with a burst of movement, the shadow leapt for Maria, flying through the air.

It was nailed by a bullet, Morgans gun firing with a deafening crack, bucking in her hands.

A shrill scream pierced the room, followed by screaming from Su, woken by the commotion.

With a wrench of her power, the candle re-lit, revealing the attacker, a pale, sickly looking man, red eyes glaring at her spitefully, fangs depressing his bottom lip and wearing rather scruffy clothing.

A vampire. Her heart thudded in her chest, almost audible in the room, the thumping of blood in her veins never more obvious than now. Adrenaline buzzed through her body, jolting her to full awareness as her neurons fired danger danger danger. She didn't stop to think, her finger pulled the trigger once more, the bullet punching through the vampires eye.

Maria was moving, bolting out of the chair as the vampire screamed. To Morgans horror, she saw the vampire stand, his eye leaking dust even as she poured more bullets into the supernatural monster. Su was crying, trying to huddle behind her as she fired, the noise causing her to flinch and shiver violently.

The gun clicked empty, the last bullet casing ejecting into the air as she felt her heart stop, aware that there was now nothing more between her and the vampire, that was looking extremely upset right now, body leaking dust from various wounds.

"Wand!" came a scream from beside her.

Wand?! Right, wand! The wand seemed to almost jump into her hand from her coat and she quickly threw it towards Maria's voice as the vampire leapt towards her, mouth wide and fangs shining.

His hands wrapped tightly around her neck, but she managed to get the barrel of the gun into his mouth, preventing the fatal bite. He snarled in her face, choking off her air as her eyes bulged.

His hands loosened with a hiss as she levered her power, his hands burnt slightly, before they were back on her, squeezing even tighter.

She was terrified, struggling not to die, and yet… The adrenaline, the rush and thrill, she couldn't help the gruesome smile spreading across her face. She felt alive, dancing upon the knife edge of life.

"Avada Kedavra!" came a scream, and with a flash of emerald light, Morgan felt death brush by her. She was well acquainted with death, she knew its touch better than anyone, and that light felt like death made physical.

There was a brief moment of shock in the vampires eyes, before his eyes went blank and his body slumped boneless to the floor.

Now that the danger had passed, Morgan could think clearly again, still gasping from the close encounter with death, blinking away the after-images of the killing curse.

That had been… Far too close an encounter with death. Twice, in one day, she had been saved from death by someone else. It gave her something to think about.

Ah, she gave the sexual predator a wand, didn't she? Of course she did. And her gun was empty.

Her head spun, looking for the Morrigan around the room, only to spot her gasping on the floor, face pale as she clutched the wand like a life-line.

And suddenly, she was buffeted by the same desire as before, but this time she resisted, aware that it was an outside source. But it was still distracting.

Morgan was weary, but given that Maria had just saved her life, she was inclined to… trust her, especially as it seemed she had chosen to do so at the cost of her own.

"Why did you use the killing curse? That's a powerful spell, in your condition…"

Maria turned onto her back, breathless as her eyes stared at nothing. "Vampire. Don't know any anti-vamp spells. And I figured…"

"Figured?" Morgan prompted.

She let out a short-breathed laugh, chuckling weakly. "Figured if I was gonna die, I was gonna do it saving some brats." Her voice was raspy, a scratching sound as she spoke. "I guess he was right in the end. What was I planning? To whore for some druggy? I could have stayed for that. At least I did something useful…" A tear trailed down her cheek, quietly weeping. "I just- I just wanted to do something with my life, you know? I didn't care what, just… Something worthwhile. Ha, serves me right, I guess."

Something worthwhile… Morgan could understand that. And now, Morgan was actually looking at her, not as a potential threat, but as a girl who had saved her life at the expense of her own, just to give her life some meaning.

Morgan didn't believe in fate, refused to accept the idea that people somehow weren't responsible for their own actions, but she did believe that a persons choices were what led them and that sometimes coincidences happened. Maria had made the decision to leave today, in time to meet Morgan, then have her life saved and return the favour.

Their was a certain alluring power to that sort of thing.

"What if I told you that you could do something worthwhile? Live beyond this… Untimely demise."

Maria's eyes showed disbelief, incredulity written across her face.

"Don't believe me? That's fine, I wouldn't expect you to, but I'm sure you can listen, yes?" Receiving a nod, Morgan smiled. "Excellent. Then, since we don't have much time, I'll be brief."

"I want to rule the world" she said, with no hesitation and a voice of iron, her orange eyes directly meeting the black of Maria's. "It must sound silly from your perspective. A child, dreaming of ruling the world? How laughable. But I assure you, it is no joke."

"Silly? It sounds ridiculous" she huffed. "You're just some kid, you have no idea what the world is like. It'll chew you up then spit you out."

"Perhaps. But I am far more than an ordinary child." A gleam entered Morgans eyes as she sat astride the Morrigan, smile wicked. "Witness" she breathed.

And the room lit up, unseen candles, previously unneeded, lighting with a brief spark as she spun her spell. Her face showed no sign of the strain doing such a thing took upon her.

"Do you know what I think of this world?" she asked, face lit with the flickering light of candle flame, shining in her black hair, partially concealing her left eye. "I despise it. From its roots to its greatest heights. From Lord Voldemort to Albus Dumbledore. I will burn it to the ground, then recreate it anew." Something very ugly shined from her eyes as she spoke. "A world where a genocide like this can never happen again."

Maria gaped at her, face seemingly more alive than previously. "You're crazy if you think you could do that. It takes more than lighting candles to do that."

"Perhaps, but it is a start. Rome wasn't built in a day, as they say. And besides…" she whispered, leaning next to her ear. "You're about to die. What do you have to lose?"

Morgan heard a gulp from Maria's throat as she swallowed. "Even if I do, how can you save me. You're just a human child."

"If I was just a child, would your power work upon me?" She was met by an incredulous look, that gaped with disbelief as Maria took in her red cheeks, heightened breathing, the way her hips minutely moved beyond her own power as the Morrigans power fueled her lusts to almost uncontrollable levels.

"That's impossible…" she rasped, but even still, Morgan still saw the light of hope within her eyes. To someone that had been so determined to live a meaningful life, there was no way she would so calmly accept death, not when a means to life was so close to her.

"We live in a world of magic. Nothing is impossible. Now, choose. You don't have long left."

Maria stared at her, exhausted and pale, before her eyes shone with determination. Lifting the wand, she spoke, a flash of pure light dazzling Morgans eyes to accompany the vow she made.

The rest of the night passed in a blur.