I'll take a moment to recap what's going on here, in case you've forgotten. I went to meet Severus Snape to write a story for him. After telling him I had a mad crush on him, he forgot what he wanted me to write about and suggested I stay with him until he remembered. And now we shall return to our epic tale.

"Well, I was thinking… it would be a whole lot easier if you just stayed here for a while…"

There's a bit of a pause; he looks worried.

"I, erm… well… I guess…" I stammer, in disbelief.

"I understand completely if you don't want to…"

"No… I'll stay, it'll save me some Floo powder to get back here…" I grin.

"That's great." He smiles. "I'll take you to my room."

"What?"

"I don't imagine you want to sleep in the corridor, do you?" He looks worried again.

"No, of course not."

"You can have my bed, I'll kip on the floor."

"Oh no, I'll sleep on the floor, it's ok." I say, feeling my cheeks go red.

"Now what kind of a gentleman would I be if I made a lady sleep on the floor?" He takes my bag and opens the door. "Come on, right this way." He leads me over a couple corridors, into a large, but very cozy room.

"This is nice. Nothing like your office, is it?" I say, looking around at the various paintings and sculptures.

"Heavens no, that place is dreadful and cold. I spend as little time as possible in there." He places my bag on the bed. "You can sleep on here. There's a bathroom through that door on the left, and a small kitchen through the door on the right. If you get hungry, you can help yourself to anything in there." He takes out his wand and conjures up a sleeping bag and pillow for himself. "Wow, it's getting pretty late. I suppose we should turn in. I'll introduce you around tomorrow and show you the rest of the castle."

"You think you'll have remembered by then?"

"Remembered what?" He asks, with a blank look on his face. "Oh, that, right. I certainly hope so, wouldn't want to keep you here for longer than you have to."

"No… um, I didn't bring anything to sleep in…"

"Oh… well… you can borrow one of my robes to sleep in tonight. Hopefully, of course, I will have remember tomorrow… so you won't be needing to stay another night… but, if you do, we can go down to Hogsmead and pick something up." He smiles nervously and tosses me a long, dark blue robe from his wardrobe. "Might be a bit big."

"Perhaps." I grinned at his tense expression and went into the bathroom to change. I brush my teeth the best I can using just toothpaste and my finger, then re-enter the bedroom, practically swimming in the robe and sit down cross-legged on the bed to brush my hair. Severus comes out of the kitchen, holding a glass of water, and wearing a long, gray night robe.

"Here you go." He hands me the water. "In case you get thirsty during the night."

"Thanks. You know, I can sleep on the floor, it's ok, really. I feel bad for kicking you out of your bed."

"Don't say another word about it. I'm sleeping on the floor, and that's that. Besides, it was my idea for you to stay here anyway." He sits down on his sleeping bag. "Do you need me to get you another blanket or pillow, or something to read?"

"I'm great, thanks." I lay down and pull the covers over me. "I should get my beauty sleep."

"You're already beautiful."

"Stop it. Just go to bed!" I chuck a pillow at his head. He grins, flicks the light off and disappears into the sleeping bag. "You're not going to get in trouble for having me in here, are you?"

"No…"

"You sure?"

"Well, you're of age, aren't you? And besides, I'm just giving you a place to stay for the night."

"Right…"

"'Night, Mercury."

"G'night, professor." I hear a chuckle, and then everything is silent.

I don't fall asleep for a little while, as I feel slightly uncomfortable sleeping in Severus Snape's bed, with him less than three feet away from me. Eventually, my fatigue gets the better of me and I drift off. A little while later, a knocking on the door wakes me up. I crawl to the end of the bed and attempt to wake Severus.

"Hey, wake up! There's someone at the door." I say, shaking him slightly. I feel a bit bad, because he looks so adorable as he sleeps and I don't want to disturb him. He doesn't wake, so I get off the bed and open the door myself.

"Hello." I say to the tall, silver haired man standing in the doorway.

"Hello." He gives me a curious look.

"You must be Professor Dumbledore. Severus is sleeping at the moment, so is there anything I can do to help?"

"Oh, he's sleeping, is he? Pardon my rudeness, but I don't believe I know who you are."

"Oh, sorry. My name's Mercury, I'm here to write a story for Severus." I extend my hand.

"Writing a story for him?" He replies, shaking my hand. "First I've heard of this. If you don't mind me asking, what are you doing here so early in the morning?"

"I slept here last night."

"You did?"

"Oh, yes, but it's not what you're thinking. I came here last night, but Severus forgot what he wanted me to write about and suggested I stay here for the night until he remembered. You know, to save me a trip back."

"He forgot. That's rather unlike him. Well, I mustn't hang around for too long. If you could kindly tell Severus, when he awakens, that there was a staff meeting this morning. It would appear he forgot that too. It was lovely to meet you." He leaves very quickly and I go back into the bedroom. I look over to the floor to see Severus stirring slightly. I sit on the edge of the bed and watch him. Gradually, his eyes open and he looks up at me.

"What the… who are…what are you…?… I remember… don't do that!" He sits up and rubs his eyes.

"Don't do what?"

"Don't watch me sleep."

"Sorry, but you're just so cute when you sleep. Well, cuter than usual."

"Shut up."

"We've been over this before, you're hot, deal with it."

"You're going to have to give me a while to absorb that."

"It's not that hard to understand. You are attractive. It's pretty simple really."

"If it's so simple, why do you get defensive when I say the same thing to you?"

"Because… well… Professor Dumbledore came by and said there was a staff meeting you were supposed to go to." I say, trying to change the subject.

"What? Staff meeting? I completely forgot!" He jumps up and runs into the bathroom. Three minutes later, he runs back into the bedroom, fully dressed and darts out of the room, quickly shouting that he'd be back soon, leaving me sitting on the bed. I remain on the bed for a few minutes, thinking about what to do, whether I should stay there, go have some breakfast or go wandering. After a small amount of deliberation on if he would be angry if I meandered around the castle, I decide to get dress and go for a little walk. I get changed into the outfit I had been wearing the previous day and set off into the corridor.

The castle appears to be deserted, until I come upon a familiar face near the Quidditch pitch.

"Mercury! What on earth are you doing here?"

"Hello, Harry, it's nice to see you too." I say with much sarcasm.

"Shut up and tell me what you're doing here."

"Why don't you introduce me to your friends first, Harry, you are being rather rude."

"I know who you are," says the red haired boy next to Harry. "You're that weirdo who wrote that story about Harry."

"Congratulations, you are right. And you are?"

"Ron Weasley."

"Lovely to meet you, Ron."

"Whatever."

I turn to the girl on Ron's left side. "And who might you be?"

"Hermione Granger."

"Nice to meet you too." I smile, but she doesn't smile back.

"Mercury!" Harry draws my attention back to him, as he always does. "What are you doing?"

"If you must know, Harry, I'm writing a story for one of your professors."

"You're what? Which one?"

"Guess."

"No, tell me!"

"I told you to guess."

"Which professor would be fool enough to get her to write for them?" Harry pondered.

"Snape!" Ron pipes.

"Congratulations again, Mr. Weasley. I am, indeed, here to write for Severus."

"You're on a first name basis with him? Ew!"

"Grow up, Potter."

"How can you stand to be around him?"

"I happen to find him fascinating and attractive."

"ATTRACTIVE! Are you completely mad?" Harry shouts with laughter.

"Oh, come off it, Potter. I'm sure I'm not the only one. Perhaps your friend Miss Granger agrees with me?"

She shifts a bit, looking at her feet.

"Hermione, you don't, do you?"

"Of course she doesn't, Harry, don't be a prat." Ron says.

"Yes… of course I don't…" Hermione mutters.

"Hermione! You do! That's disgusting!"

"You see, I'm not the only one." I say, grinning at their shocked expressions.

"I mean… I…" Hermione stammers. "I'm not the only one, you know, and it's not like he's absolutely gorgeous or anything… I don't like him that much… not very much at all, really…"

"I'll have to leave you three to discuss it alone. Have a nice day!" I walk away from them, hearing Potter and Weasley shout at Granger about how nasty she was to even think anything like that. I stroll through some more corridors until I hear some rather loud voice coming from one classroom.

"Bad memory, indeed!"

"I've got a terrible memory!" It's Severus' voice.

"Then how do you manage to remember all those grossly complex potions?" It's a female voice.

"I don't know…"

"Minerva, I think we should give Severus a chance to explain himself." It was the voice of Professor Dumbledore.

"Albus, I think it's quite obvious what's going on!"

"Give him a chance. Go on, Severus."

"You see," he begins. "I heard she wrote a story about Potter, one that was quite amusing and I thought she might want to write for me. So, I contacted her…"

"What's this girls name anyway?" The woman snaps again.

"Her name is Mercury. As I was saying, I contacted her and she agreed to come and meet with me. So, last night, she arrived in my office and we started talking. Well… it gets a bit embarrassing here… she told me that… she found me… attractive… I became rather flustered… and must've forgotten what I wanted her to write about… quite understandable, really… so I offered to let her stay in my room for the night, until I remembered, you know, to save her the trip home."

"How old is this girl, Severus?" Asks the woman.

"I don't really know…"

"I don't think she could've been any older than nineteen." Says Dumbledore.

"Does it really matter? Nothing happened! She just slept in my bed, I slept on the floor. The fact that we were in the same room shouldn't mean anything!"

"Can't you see, Albus? He's all caught up in what this young girl said to him that he's not thinking!"

"There's nothing to think about! I just gave her somewhere to sleep!"

"All the same, Severus. She's young, and if it turns out she's not of age, you could get in trouble…"

"She is of age, I assure you!"

"You said you don't know how old she is."

"I know she's of age. She doesn't look younger than 17 and she's very mature."

'So mature that she told you she had a crush on you?"

"Don't tell me you've never had a crush on someone, Minerva, and you're 70!"

"That's beside the point, Severus!"

"Severus and Minerva, please calm down! I think the only way we're going to sort this out is talk to this young woman and get her perspective… and find out how old she it. Severus, could you go fetch her from your room?"

To be continued…

Oo-er! Wasn't that bad? I know it was quite a different style from the previous part. It's actually turning into a story! Heaven forbid! Well, turns out I'm not the only one with this sick obsession. Many Snape fans out there, and a few Alan Rickman fans too. I challenge anyone to see Truly Madly Deeply and not fall in love with him. Though, I must admit, I'm not a huge fan of that moustache… Anyhoo, I hope you like this one too. It's badly written, I know. It's got a weak plot, I know. It's completely delusional, I know. I'm just fulfilling my own little fantasies. To find out about my dealings with Harry, you'll have to check out some of my other work (don't ask what they're called, I can't remember). They should explain why he's rather angry with me. If you wanted to be really sweet, you could review those ones too…;)

Mother Mercury (who's sorry for the Big Brother delay. She's been very lazy lately)