Unfortunately, today Lucretia had potions as one of her classes. The whole time was agonizing; she could barely concentrate on what she was supposed to be doing.

Add toe of frog... then wait for it to come to a boil...

Professor Snape was busy yelling at Justin Finch-Fletchly for adding the powdered cat's claw too early. She couldn't help but stare at him, his black robes billowing behind him as he strode over to get into Justin's face.

He's so sexy when he's angry...

"Miss Morrigan why aren't you working?" he snapped at her when he felt her eyes upon him. She blushed a bright pink and continued working.

After countless painful minutes class was finally over. She amazingly had successfully concocted the potion correctly, as evidenced by the fact it glowed a deep blue color. She took a longer time than everyone else to clean up, to make sure she did everything right. Irritating Snape further was the last thing she needed right now. His glance caught her as she made her way out of the classroom, and there was something... different in his eyes.

Nearing the door, she noticed their usual icy stare was gone, and was replaced with something else she couldn't quite figure out. Either startled or distracted, or both, she dropped her books all over the floor. She blushed and bent down to pick them up, forgetting that her skirt would sometimes blow upwards, exposing her backside if she wasn't careful. He noticed this and suddenly started to feel his temperature rise... but to his subconscious slight disappointment, she scrambled out of the dungeon as fast as her legs could carry her.

At dinnertime she had found out that Wystaer blamed the explosion in the hall on Peeves the poltergeist. Filch, the school caretaker, had gladly accepted her excuse. He was constantly looking for a reason to convince the headmaster that that blasted ghost was nothing but trouble, hopefully ridding the castle of that annoyance. Sicilia had been hiding under a bed until all the fuss died down, and slipped away undetected. Lucretia had other things to worry about: her detention was in 3 minutes.

She hurried down to the dungeons where Snape's office was, begging the gods she wouldn't be late. It was bad enough she had been out of bed late at night; she didn't need to be tardy on top of that. She knocked softly on his door. "Enter," she heard his velvet voice reply from within. The door opened with a groan, and she stepped inside, standing with her feet slightly pointed toward each other. The door swung closed on its own, and he didn't even look up from the parchment he was writing on. "Um...Professor?" she said quietly to let him know she was still there. He looked up from his work for a moment and said, "Now... you will be dusting and arranging the potion ingredients and books on my shelves, in alphabetical order. And if I discover ANY amount of my ingredients missing, I will be sure that you are promptly suspended."

He went back to his work for a while, but it was difficult to keep his mind on the tasks at hand. He couldn't stop remembering the dream he had the night before. Unlike the nightly torments of flashbacks to his school years and torture at the hands of Voldemort, this dream had been different. Very different. Strange, exciting, and even pleasant, but most of all confusing. Red marks streaked across white skin, tangles of black hair, ruby red lips, sighs of ecstasy and waves of intense pleasure. Somebody screaming his name; someone who loved him? Who could possibly love mean, greasy, old, slimy Snape? He awoke feeling more satisfied than he had felt in a long time.

He was fighting a personal war of morals and emotion in his mind. He couldn't have such thoughts about this girl. It was totally inappropriate! She was his student, and he was her professor. Nothing more. Right?

"Sir?" her shy voice tore him from his mental maelstrom. "What?" he snapped back, sounding angrier than he meant to. "There's something I need to tell you..." she said, slowly approaching his desk. "Yes?" he asked coolly. "Um.... I just wanted to say that I... I really... like you. I mean—I admire you... a lot," she managed to get out. Disgusted, he raised his eyebrow in that very Snape-like manner and said, "This is not amusing! Get back to work," he said. She blushed and turned away to continue her work.

"Surely this has to be some joke. I'll bet Potter or her stupid friends put her up to this. I thought she would have a better mind on her not to fool around with and disrespect her superiors." He thought to himself. Her expression had been one of disappointment rather than amusement when she witnessed his reaction, though. "Was there a chance she had meant what she said? No. Don't be so stupid!"

While Snape was speculating, Lucretia was plotting and scheming in her head:

I need him to notice me... maybe if I get myself hurt? That always seems to work in the movies. Yes, then he would have to notice, maybe even accompany me to the hospital wing... maybe we'll be close if I'm lucky... well, it's now or never!

She climbed to the top of the ladder she was using to reach the higher shelves, and "accidentally" lost her footing. She fell to the cold stone floor with a thud, hitting a little harder than she had intended to... Ouch. She started to feel a little dizzy...