Just another cloudy, cold day in England. Danny sighed, wiping his hair back away from his face, turning down a side street as he kept jogging. He had another few streets to head down before heading back, and he was damned if gloomy weather would ever get in his way.

He really had to wonder what made him decide to live here, of all places - he could live reasonably anywhere in the world, hot or cold, and he chose some place where he couldn't see the sun at all. He really had to question his own sanity, at moments like this.

After a second, he shook his head, picking up his pace slightly as he decided he'd been in England too long. This was probably the hundreth time he'd complained to himself about the cloudy weather this summer. Maybe I should give Australia another try.

He turned another corner, going off the street and over a paved path through... well, he assumed a park. It might be someone's yard. England could be like that, sometimes. He shook his head, being sure to watch where he was going over the winding path, noticing the smell of fresh lavender wafting up over the area. There was a little trick about this path, and he planned on using it to the fullest like every morning.

The path meandered near a creek, along the back of a set of houses carefully set on the other side of rows and rows of fences. Most people could just make a gate coming out the back and with a bit of pushing through brush make it out to the path. With a quick looked over ether shoulder as he slowed down his jog, he pushed off the path and intangibly through the bushes.

He landed with a clack, completely invisible on the other side - he was now in a dead end street, old and littered with trash cans. He wrinkled his nose, regaining visibility. He'd never understand the need to put out the trash on a Monday Morning.

It only took a few minutes until he finally came back on his house, slowing to a stop and taking a few deep gasping breaths before finally approaching the front step.

Danny looked up to his front door, only to fall short at seeing an old, bearded man, dressed in a long robe. He shook his head, taking the last step up the steps.

"Hey Al." He said, still gasping for air. "You should... should have told me you where coming." He said, going forward to open the front door. "Could've started breakfast earlier, done something nice. You want some tea?"

"Of course." Dumbledore said, smiling amicably as he stepped into the cottage. "I would love some."

"Got ya - tea, coming up." He said, laughing as he grabbed a towel to quickly wipe down his face. "Give me a second to wash up, and I'll grab us some."

"Ah." Danny turned, confused at the sudden sound of dissent, only to see Dumbledore shaking his head. "I'm afraid I don't have too much time, old friend - perhaps it would be better if we simply cut to the chase."

Danny blinked, frowning. He took a deep breath, steadying out his pounding heart slightly, before sighing harshly and shaking his head. "Okay. Okay. Let me call in sick and you can tell me what the bloody hell that means."

"Well, I can't say I'm surprised." Danny said offhandedly, putting down his teacup with a tiny clink. They were currently sitting around a thick wooden table, set between the kitchen and leading into the dining room. It worked as both a kitchen table and a workbench, and Danny tried to ignore the open computer he 'd set to the side as he looked at the old man across from him. "You knew he was planning some way to come back - you just didn't know how."

"I had no illusions about his return, that is the truth." He sighed. "However, I never imagined it would involve any of my students - not like this."

Danny frowned. "I'm sorry to hear about what happened. Did you manage to keep the school open?"

"Yes, yes - there was always the chance of death, during the trials." He said gravely, suddenly looking haggard. "Unfortunately I fear that also means the Ministry means to not take this warning seriously. The fact that he was able to infiltrate the school as he had... it doesn't bode well, for the coming years."

"Albus." Danny turned, looking at the man. "Why are you here?"

The old man was silent for a moment, before placing his cup down back onto the saucer. "You need to come with me."

Danny raised an eyebrow. "And here I was expecting you to ask me back into the order."

Dumbledore looked at him seriously. "You can't keep yourself hidden anymore - Voldermort will be looking for anything he can use to his advantage, and while you've remained hidden well enough over the last few years, now that he is active again there's no telling how long it will take until he finds you and uses you." He said, voice grave. "You can't face this alone."

"And what do you want me to do about that, huh? Hide me away like James and Lily, maybe?"

"No, old friend. There's a bit too much going on at the moment, and too little I can do while we wait. What I intend to do is offer you a job."

"...Uh." Danny blinked, eyes glancing to the side. "Not to say anything about it, but I mean." He motioned to the house around him. "I've kinda got that covered for the time being. Isn't this a bit of a bad time to be giving out job offers?"

"Don't pretend you don't know how much safer you would be, at Hogwarts." Danny's eyes narrowed, turning to stare down at the rugged carpet. "You can't pretend that it isn't true - you're vulnerable here. At Hogwarts, you will be protected, shielded."

"And I'll be there if someone breaks into the castle again."

"Precisely."

"And how exactly do you plan this to work out, huh?" He said, frowning. "What, do you have an opening in the astronomy tower?"

"Not exactly."

"Then how are you going to make that work? I'm not exactly up to becoming groundskeeper. Or even a teacher for that matter."

Dumbledore raised an eyebrow. "I thought you enjoyed the idea of teaching magic?"

"I wasn't being that serious." He said, rolling his eyes "Besides, I've done enough teaching to last a lifetime without getting involved with a magical world I barely know about. I'm not exactly qualified, you know."

"Mr. Fenton." He said, simply. "I'm not looking for someone qualified - I'm looking for someone to teach them how to survive."

Danny was struck for a moment, silent, realization dawning on him. "...Yeah, I doubt many of the kids at your school are going to be exempt from this war, one way or another."

"That's what I suspect, yes." Dumbledore reached over, carefully pouring the tea into his coffee cup, steam billowing up towards the ceiling. "Do you accept?"

"...Alright." He sighed. "One year."

Dumbledore tilted his head. "I suppose a trial run is in order?"

Danny rolled his eyes "don't act like I didn't hear about that 'cursed teaching position' of yours. You get one year, and one year only. Agreed?"

"...Agreed."

He fiddled with the spoon, watching the light glitter off the silver a moment contemplatively before placing the sugar into his tea. "A year, then. Okay. I can do that." He sighed, forlorn. "I don't suppose you have any ideas for lesson plans, do you?"

A/N: Hi.

So, explanation: I got bored and a thing happened. The End.

But really, I just wanted something fun to do at random, so I took up martian-general-bookworm's challenge for Older!Teacher!HP!Danny. Probably going to have to dig my Fifth Harry Potter book out of storage to get much farther in this, but it promises to be fun, no?

Also, kinda-sorta-sometimes working on Timekeeper again, between chapters of Shadow Wall. It's a bit weird, since all the writing seems dated to me, but there will eventually be another behemoth of a 10k chapter out there. It just takes a long time to edit it and sew the bastard up, know what I mean? He'll get there. Eventually.