CH 5: HUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM.

Common sense flooded back to Morgana, and she let out a loud gasp before stepping away from Snape, who was clutching at his throat and staring at her with a look of mixed fear and confusion.

"Severus – I – I never –"

"Is this why you've been tempting me these past two months? Why you've been invading my thoughts…why you've been trying to seduce me?" he accused, drawing his wand and pointing it directly at her heart.

Whatever fear Morgana thought she had seen in Snape's onyx eyes had faded and was replaced with sheer fury.

"No! I never meant to harm you!" she cried, tears welling in her eyes.

"Then why did you kiss me?" he demanded.

"Me? You kissed me at the dueling club back in October!" Morgana yelled, pointing her finger at him.

Snape opened his mouth to argue, but knew it was folly to try. Yes, he had kissed her. But it was barely a kiss! He had hardly felt anything when their lips touched that night, how could she have made it out to be anything more than what it was?

"Severus, please……You must believe me. I would never do anything to intentionally hurt you or any other person in this building," Morgana pleaded, almost as if she was begging him not to go running to the Headmaster and report what had almost happened.

And I have half a mind to do it, too, Snape thought as he continued to glare at her.

You wouldn't! her voice echoed within his head.

"Morgana, get out of my head!" Snape screeched, his hands balling into fists of rage.

"Severus, please, listen to me. If you go to the headmaster and get me fired, it will mean my end. I can't go back into the real world, not anymore, not after what I've done to him," Morgana whispered, clutching at the battlements for support as all color faded from her face and she became faint.

Snape watched her, unsure if what she was doing was just another act, or if she was truly afraid of what might happen to her if she left the protection of Hogwarts. "What do you mean, what you've done to him?" he asked cautiously, calming himself down. His wand remained in his hand, albeit not at ready position.

"Not…not here………he might hear……" she whispered as she slipped down to the floor of the tower, her breathing ragged.

Snape was quickly becoming concerned about Morgana's health. "Er……Miss Cimmerii, you didn't happen to forget your dosage of blood for the night, did you?"

Morgana's eyes snapped open, and she nodded. "Yes, I did. That explains why……I have to get to the dungeon, quickly. If I run into any students they could be in danger," she explained, forcing herself up and rushing through the doorway to the staircase leading down the tower.

It was difficult for Snape to keep up with the fleeting half-vampire. Not because she was much younger than him – three years wouldn't make that much of a difference. But because of the speed she inherited simply by her breeding. Her father, being the wretched vampire that he was, had the ability to 'shimmer' from one place to another, appearing to Apparate at a moment's pause. Snape, of course, knew that Morgana could not be shimmering, for she hadn't enough strength left to unlock the padlock fastened to the rusted handle of dungeon thirteen. Sighing at her pathetic weakness, Snape turned the key and thrust the door open, hit by a sudden blast of frigid air.

"Dammit!" she muttered as she threw open the several large trunks lining the walls. Empty phials soon began to roll across the uneven stone floor; one found its way over towards the door and stopped with a light tap to Snape's boot.

"What's wrong now?" he asked, irritated at how cold the dungeon was.

Morgana did not answer; she was too busy chugging three, four, maybe even five phials of the crimson liquid and throwing them violently back into the trunks. Her eyes were terrifying, even to Snape, for now they were darker than his.

"There……there isn't enough left to finish the year," she said in a hushed, terrified voice. "I know I packed more than enough for the year…how could I be so stupid!" She kicked over an apparently empty trunk she was standing in front of in frustration, and glanced worriedly at Snape. "I could find a…"

"I will not let you harm one of the students!" Snape yelled, glaring at the half-vampire in disgust.

Morgana's face went crimson with rage. "How dare you presume to think I would go after one of my own students? Do you think me that immoral? That evil?" she retaliated as she ran her hands up and down her arms in an attempt to stay warm.

Snape sighed. "Come on, there's no use arguing in here. It's freezing. My chambers are down the hall, and are a good thirty degrees warmer than this place," he suggested, holding out his hand to the young witch strewn on the cold stone floor.

The woman stared at the pale hand for a moment, studying it. Rough calluses covered much of his palm, no doubt from the current job he held. There was something else about his hands, though…they were a far cry from delicate, and nowhere near gentle-looking…Morgana caught herself wondering how his hands may feel…

"Miss Cimmerii?" Snape asked, sending a puzzled look her way.

Morgana brought herself out of her reverie and took his hand, allowed him to pull her off the floor and close to him. She could hear his ragged breathing as she looked deeply into his onyx eyes and could only imagine what thoughts were rushing through his mind.

He led her in silence back into the main passageway and around the corner back towards his office. But instead of taking a second turn, as Morgana expected, they stopped in front of a cobweb-covered torch and an otherwise bare wall.

"Erm…Severus…you can't really expect me to explain my life story in the middle of a passageway," Morgana said, befuddled.

Snape rolled his eyes as he whispered a charm to unlock the wards on the seemly bare wall, and smirked, proud of the dumbfounded look on Morgana's face. The bricks rearranged themselves into an archway resembling what happened when one wanted to visit Diagon Alley, and a cool breeze rushed past them as the air in the room balanced itself with the hallway. Snape went first, waiting on the other side of the doorway for Morgana to step into the room.

"Are you coming or not?" he snapped.

Morgana scanned the archway of the door and took a deep breath before entering the Potion Master's chambers, preparing to pour her heart out.