Sleeping with Professor Snape was risky, but staying the night with him was even more so. Thankfully, she didn't think anyone noticed she was out of bed. That would warrant a much worse punishment than the one she was currently serving.
Filch sentenced her to clean out one of the many storage closets—without magic. Lucretia had never done a day of real work in her life, having been very spoiled as a child. It might not have been very bad for most, but she found it quite unbearable.
The large closet was filthy, and from the looks of it, hadn't been opened in years. Cobwebs and dust ebbed and flowed in the darkness, covering every surface. In the corner she spied something that appeared to be an iron maiden (or maybe it was just her imagination?); she knew better than to touch it. After dusting the various brooms, torture devices, and spare cauldrons, she came to a large cabinet. She wasn't sure if she had to clean the contents within, but curiosity got the best of her.
For the past few weeks, Wystaer and Sicilia noticed some strange things about their friend. Well, stranger than what was usual for her. She had scratches and scars she couldn't, or wouldn't, explain. She had been serving detentions, and disappearing quickly after eating dinner and lunch, sometimes skipping it entirely.
Tonight was the third time she skipped dinner this week, and her friends noticed.
"Have you seen Luci lately?" Wystaer asked Sicilia after dinner.
"No... do you think she's okay? I'm worried about her." Sicilia stared at her shoes and sighed.
"Maybe she's in some sort of trouble? We should find her and ask her what's going on." Wystaer said, and they went down the halls searching for her.
After a quarter of an hour of searching, they stopped in their tracks when Sicilia heard something, "Do you hear that?"
"Hear what?" Wystaer asked.
"Someone crying..."
"How would you be so sure?"
"I just know so!" Sicilia said, and dragged Wystaer toward the noise. It led them to a door at the end of a dingy hallway. They opened it slowly, and saw Lucretia crying hysterically. Running toward her, they noticed she was kneeling over someone lying on the floor. Professor Snape was dead! But how? Why? Wystaer had to grab Lucretia's shoulders and shake her back to sanity, "What happened?!"
"I don't know! I... j-just found... him when I...opened this c-cabinet...and..." She whimpered out through her sobs into Wystaer's shoulder. "The cabinet..." Sicilia murmured to herself, struggling to piece fragments of reason together. "Riddikulus!" She said, pointing her wand at Snape's cold, lifeless body. To her friends' surprise, in his place appeared a crocodile wearing his clothing. Sicilia tried to shove the large reptile into the cabinet, but he was heavy and refused to budge an inch. "Help me out here!" she yelled. Wystaer got up to push him back in, while Lucretia sat on the floor, rocking back and forth slightly.
Finally managing to slam the doors shut, they tried to coax an explanation out of their friend. "I...don't really want to talk about it," she said, drying her tears with her robes. The cabinet continued to shake as the crocodile flailed about inside. "I have to go," she said, and stood up and left.
She ran through the dark castle corridors, desperate to find him. The true him, not the nightmare illusion. She needed proof he was alive, here, and hers. She needed confirmation, consolation... something real.
Her knees felt like they would give way any moment. Clawing through the emptiness, she felt blind, deaf, and dumb. The cold was scorching, the silence was too loud. She ran towards where his office was. Where is my salvation?
Suddenly she ran into something solid.
"What's going on here? What are you running about the castle for?" Professor Snape said, clutching the distraught student in his arms.
"I was looking for you," she panted.
"Why?..." he asked. She stood on her toes and leaned in for a kiss, but he pushed her away. "No! Not in the middle of the hall, don't be so foolish!" he snapped, and dragged her back into his classroom.
Tears turned to sighs as kisses turned to caresses. Touches intensified as he traveled south, his adept fingers pushing her closer to the edge of ecstasy.
The door shot open with a loud creak, and a bang as it slammed against the wall.
