Author's Note: This chapter's song is.

July 1992

Severus and Danielle continued to spend time together as the summer passed. They would take walks on the grounds, starting slowly with short ones as Danielle regained her strength, and eventually taking longer rambles when she was ready. They continued their chess and card games, and would sit by the fire reading in the evening. Both were somewhat amazed just how good the other's company turned out to be.

But Severus began to notice something. Danielle would often disappear for a couple of hours after breakfast in the morning. He'd noticed when he had wanted to return a book she had lent him, a really fascinating Muggle crime novel called The Black Dahlia. He had spent a whole morning looking for her, before finding her at lunch.

"I was looking for you this morning so I could return this," he said as he passed the paperback to Danielle.

"Did you like it?" she asked.

"It was…unusual. The way the author writes with such dense prose and so much Muggle slang. I've never read anything like that before," he told her, not quite sure how to convey how much he actually had enjoyed the book. But she seemed to sense it and grinned.

"I'm glad you liked it. If you want, I can lend you the next book by Ellroy, The Big Nowhere."

"That would be fine," Severus said. Then he frowned. "You were very difficult to find this morning. Where were you?"

"Oh, just wandering around the Castle," Danielle said. But Severus knew she was lying. Even without using Legilmency on her, he could see it written all over her face. Severus Snape was a man who was very good at catching liars, perhaps because he was such a consummate liar himself. So he drew his eyebrows together and scowled at his friend, as she calmly loaded her plate with chicken from the platter in front of her.

Severus began to try to pay attention to Danielle's routine. He realized he never could find her between breakfast and lunch anymore. He wondered where she was disappearing to, and resolved to find out.

So the following morning, once Danielle had finished her breakfast, Severus intended to follow her. He allowed her to finish eating first and give her a short head start. Then, he swiftly followed in the direction she was headed. She headed out through the entrance hall and Severus gave her time to get ahead so she would not see him coming out of the doors.

Soon, he was following her across the grounds to a very secluded section on the far side of the lake, where a low stone wall formed the boundary of the Hogwarts grounds. Danielle went to a tree that turned out to be hollow and removed a sack. She took it to the wall and began withdrawing empty bottle of butterbeer and placing them at about one foot intervals along the wall. She then returned to the tree and withdrew a long object wrapped in an old blanket. Severus was shocked to see her withdraw an old fashioned rifle. She was starting to load it up with ammunition from a small pouch she had wrapped it with. Severus attempted to get a closer view, when he stepped of a twig that snapped loudly.

Danielle leapt up looking surprised. Severus cursed under his breath, knowing he was caught.

"Who's there?" she called out. Not knowing what else to do, Severus sighed and stepped into view.

"Severus? Did you follow me?" she asked accusingly. Severus just glared back at her, not backing down for a minute.

"And what exactly are you doing out here, playing with Muggle firearms?" he asked her in his dangerous, silky tone. At this, Danielle at least had the good grace to blush and look sheepish.

"Practicing," she muttered.

"For what?" Severus asked.

"For when we have to go down into the Chamber of Secrets."

"Explain," he commanded.

Danielle sighed and sat down on an old fallen tree, gesturing for Severus to join her. Adjusting his robes, Severus sat next to her. He looked at her with an inquisitive expression on his face, but Danielle sat silently for a while as if gathering her thoughts. Finally, she began.

"The other day, Dumbledore told me that I wasn't going to go down to the Chamber of Secrets this year," she started.

"After the fiasco with the Sorcerer's Stone, I am inclined to agree," Severus stated. Danielle looked annoyed.

"Well I think that's bullshit. You wouldn't even know how to find the Chamber if it weren't for me, let alone what's in it," she snapped.

"Yes, and just how are we supposed to protect an innocent Muggle from a giant fifty-foot killer snake?" he asked sarcastically.

"You're not. I'm trying to protect myself," she said glancing down at her antiquated rifle.

"With that thing? You've got to be joking," he spat.

"Just watch," Danielle told him. She proceeded to load her rifle and got off the log, taking a stance and looking down the gun's long barrel. To Severus' utter shock, she then in an exceedingly efficient manner blasted each and every butterbeer bottle to smithereens. Despite himself and his self professed loathing of all Muggle inventions, he was impressed with Danielle's skill.

"Where did you learn to do that?" he asked, trying to recall if Danielle had ever mentioned being a gun enthusiast and drawing a blank.

"Self taught this summer," she answered.

"You expect me to believe that you learned to shoot that well in just the past month?" he sneered. Danielle sighed.

"When I was a kid, we had the first Nintendo gaming system that came out. There was a game on it called Duck Hunt, which was literally just shooting at animated ducks as they flew by. I was the best player in my family and my neighborhood," she admitted sheepishly.

"You learned to shoot playing a Muggle video game?" Severus asked incredulously.

"Considering stranger things have happened to me, I wouldn't make a big deal about it," Danielle told him. "Hey, watch this."

And she took a butterbeer bottle from her sack and tossed it into the air, quickly aiming the gun and shooting it. Severus let out a low whistle admiring her aim. If she could only use a wand, he had no doubt she'd be a skilled duelist. When she turned to face him, he looked at her intently for a moment.

"You really are serious about going down into the Chamber of Secrets?" he asked softly.

"Yes. I just want to be prepared to help kill the basilisk," she told him. Something in her expression told Severus that nothing short of Stunning her the day they chose to go down there would stop her.

"So what can I do to help?" he asked, sounding like he didn't really want to do it, but knew he had no choice. Danielle looked at him skeptically.

"Are you sure you want to do this? I don't need to be an Occlumens to see that you really don't want to."

"I seem to remember you saying that friends 'try to help each other through their problems.' You have a problem, and I, as your friend, am trying to help."

Danielle groaned. There is nothing worse than when someone takes your own words and twists them to use them against you, although in fairness Severus was doing it to be good friend. So she took a deep breath and a small leap of faith.

"Okay. I'll accept your help."

So Severus became her extraordinarily reluctant helper. Every day she went out shooting, he wondered if he was making a terrible mistake, but he knew that Danielle would fight him tooth and nail to get her way. Sometimes dealing with that girl was like trying to stand upright in hurricane force winds, and he started referring to her as Hurricane Danielle.

Danielle's first problem was privacy. Severus had already proven that her attempts to avoid being caught were pitiful. So Severus took to going out with her while she was shooting and casting Silencing Spells and Notice-Me-Not Spells to keep the Hogwarts staff from discovering Danielle's new hobby. Now she could reveal her skill at the proper time instead of having another difficult confrontation.

Danielle's next problem was her equipment. She had found the rifle in The Room of Requirement, not far from where she had found Ravenclaw's Diadem. It was slow to load and somewhat unwieldy. Severus suggested just going into a Muggle town and purchasing a better gun, but Danielle pointed out that technically she was an illegal alien. She had never officially entered the United Kingdom, nor did she have a passport, visa, driver's license, or any other form of identification. And considering the UK had far stricter gun control laws, she had no chance of actually obtaining a gun through any legal channel.

Snape solved this problem by transfiguring object into guns and ammo for her. It took a few tries before he was able to turn a tree branch into a working pair of pistols, similar to Lara Croft in the Tomb Raider video game series. It took a bit of practice to master the smaller guns, but Danielle soon grew as adept with them as she was with a rifle.

Severus also thought she should practice with moving targets, and he created an enchantment where bull's-eyes would fly through the air and she could shoot at them. This eliminated Danielle's need to scrounge for empty butterbeer bottles and left no mess after practices were done.

Oddly, Danielle did not like guns. Prior to handling the rifle she had found, she had never touched a gun in her life. Her entire shooting experience was from videogames like Duck Hunt and Goldeneye. In fact, Danielle was for gun control! But then again, when faced with the fact that she wanted to help face down a fifty foot venomous snake with eyes that could kill you by looking at you, she knew she needed to be armed with something more than a hope and a prayer.

Although she knew Severus did not really agree with or like what she was doing, his support meant the world to her. She knew Dumbledore or another staff member would have found her out sooner or later if not for the spells Severus cast to keep the others away. And she certainly appreciated her new equipment. He'd even Summoned two pairs of the earmuffs that Pomona usually used for her Mandrake lessons so they could protect their ears from the noise the guns made. Somehow, Severus had unwittingly Summoned a hot pink and a turquoise pair, and it made Danielle smile to see him sitting on the log, reading a book while sporting a pair in such a ridiculously feminine color.

But more than that, Severus Snape had taken an equally large leap of faith to support Danielle. She knew it went against everything he stood for to help her like this, but he did it anyway in the name of their friendship, new as it was. Danielle was a person who had many friends, but few of them had ever stood by her in such a meaningful way as Severus was. Who would have ever thought that Severus Snape would prove to be such a true or loyal friend. There really was so much more to the man than meet's the eye.