Author's Note: This chapter's song is Hot for Teacher by Van Halen .

September 5, 1992

Danielle showed up at Severus' office the next afternoon. She knocked softly and heard him call to her to enter. Severus was at his desk correcting paper and didn't even look up as she came into the room.

"Ready for a break?" she asked.

"In a moment," he said, his eyes still focused on the essay he was correcting.

Danielle took a seat across from him, watching him work. After last night with the girls, she tried to see Severus as a stranger would see him. He was without a doubt tall, thin, and pale, though she knew from when he wore more fitted clothing that he had a pretty nice body hiding under those voluminous robes. His collar length ebony hair was now shiny from the shampoo Danielle had swapped into his bathroom, though she would never admit it to him for fear of him getting annoyed with her. He did have a nose that was out of proportion to the rest of his face, but Danielle felt it gave his face character. But without a doubt, Severus' best feature was his eyes. They were dark and intense. She briefly pictured an expression of desire in them, and it sent a shiver down her spine.

At that moment, Severus looked up and saw Danielle studying him.

"What?"

"You have very long eye lashes. Why do guys always have long eyelashes? Women are always putting on mascara to make our lashes look prettier, but guys always have them naturally. Why is that?" she asked.

Since Severus had never paid much thought to his eyelashes, he just shrugged. He guessed Danielle had just sort of complimented his looks, which he never got complimented on (to his face, that is), and felt oddly awkward.

"So are you done?" she asked again.

"I suppose I am whether I want to be or not," he said giving her a meaningful look.

"Good. Let's get out of here," she said rising gracefully from her chair.

"I thought we were playing chess," he said, gesturing to the table in the back of the room where he had set up his set.

"I think it would be nice to get some fresh air. And I promised Hagrid I'd pay him a visit this weekend, so I thought we could stop by."

Severus looked less than excited about the idea. In truth, to be social with most people took a tremendous effort on his part because he was at heart rather shy. He hid behind his imperious manner and cold, calculating exterior, but in reality he felt nervous and awkward around most people. Danielle was one of the few people whom he truly felt at ease with, and even then there were moments he felt awkward. When she wanted to include other people in their interactions, Severus always had to give up some of the comfort he felt in Danielle's presence, and he loathed that. But in truth, Hagrid was not too bad to be around, so Severus agreed to go.

As they walked down to Hagrid's, they noticed a commotion at the Quidditch pitch. Severus turned to Danielle to ask if she knew what was going on, and she shrugged, not really remembering anything important from Chamber of Secrets, although in fairness, it was her least favorite book in the series.

When they reached the pitch, they were shocked to see both the Slytherin and Gryffindor Quidditch teams looking ready to kill each other and Ron Weasley vomiting slugs.

"What's going on?" Severus asked in that coldly authoritative voice that instantly silenced all the students in the vicinity.

"Sir, did you give Slytherin permission to use the pitch this morning? I had booked it over a month ago for Gryffindor," Oliver Wood started.

"I did, and I don't see how that has to do with the ruckus you were causing just now," Severus said, refusing to admit that he had done any wrong.

"Well when the Slytherins showed up, they started the trouble," grumbled Fred Weasley (or at least Danielle thought he was Fred).

"Their Seeker called Hermione Granger a nasty name," George added (it might be George Danielle thought).

"And what did you call her, Mr. Malfoy?" Severus said in his softest, silkiest, and most threatening voice. Draco mumbled something under his breath that no one could really make out.

"Speak up," Severus commanded.

"I called her a Mudblood, sir," Malfoy pronounced in a defiant tone. Severus' eyes flashed at this, but the rest of his face remained impassive.

"Go to Filch at once for a detention," Severus barked.

"But sir," Malfoy whined.

"You should know better than to use such offensive and disgusting language. No go, or you will serve two detentions," he said with a harshness that impressed the seriousness of his words. Malfoy left in a huff. Then he turned to look at Ron. "What happened to Weasley?"

"Please Sir," Hermione began, "he was only trying to stand up for me."

"But the idiot's wand backfired," snickered a Slytherin in Beater's gear.

"I would suggest the Slytherin team leave the pitch now. I revoke your permission," Severus told them. The Slytherins left looking very disgruntled. They were used to preferential treatment from Professor Snape, but in the last year there had been far less of that, and they wandered why the sudden change.

"So Mr. Weasley tried to curse Mr. Malfoy, but because his wand is damaged, he ended up cursing himself?" Severus asked Hermione, who nodded. Ron could only belch and upchuck another three slugs. Severus looked revolted, but raised his wand and murmured a counter curse. Ron promptly stopped vomited slugs and looked beyond relieved.

"Thank you, Professor," he said woozily.

"You can thank me by doing a thorough job cleaning cauldrons in detention with me tomorrow," Severus told him. Ron started to protest, but Severus cut him off. "Although I agree that what Mr. Malfoy said was inappropriate, it still does not give you the right to curse him. So tomorrow after lunch."

Severus and Danielle continued on to Hagrid's. Hagrid was overjoyed to see Danielle, nearly crushing her spine when he hugged her, and flabbergasted to see Severus, who in his eleven years teaching at Hogwarts, had never paid Hagrid a visit. Still, Hagrid proved to be a gracious host, pouring cup after cup of tea and offering them some of his rock cakes, which Severus learned the hard way that it was not smart to bite into them without care. Severus had to admit that when Danielle was around he felt more at ease with other people, even people he had not always been comfortable with.

After passing a pleasant afternoon, the three of them headed back to the castle for dinner. Afterwards, Danielle went to her classroom to meet Harry and Ron for their detentions. She had temporarily been using an empty classroom on the second floor, but now it was time to clean up the mess from the Pixie disaster and get her room back. But when she reached the door to her room, she found only Ron waiting there for him.

"Where's Harry?" she asked him, unlocking her door.

"He was coming, but Professor Lockhart came and told him that he was to do detention with him instead," he told her, not really meeting her eye and blushing furiously.

Danielle felt very annoyed, not at Ron, but at Lockhart. She had volunteered for the detention mainly so that Harry would be spared having to help Lockhart with his fan mail and listen to the moron prattle on about himself for hours on end. She sighed, knowing there was nothing she could do now without picking a fight with a colleague in front of two students.

She also felt annoyed because the mess would be too big for Ron alone and she would have to help instead of work on her writing project. Danielle had not really written anything when she arrived at Hogwarts more than a year ago. This was mainly due to the difficulty in transitioning to the magical world, planning and prepping for a subject she had never taught, and trying to prevent Voldemort from getting his incorporeal hands on the Sorcerer's Stone. She'd been far too busy to write. Now that she was more in synch with her surroundings and no longer writing all her lesson plans from scratch, she again had time for creative writing projects, and had started writing a mystery novel this past summer. She had hoped to write tonight, but that looked like it wasn't happening now.

Ron audibly gulped when he saw the mess the Pixies made of her classroom. They'd shoved books from shelves, ripped down posters, knocked over knickknacks and projects from last year, and swept all of Danielle's supplies from her desk.

"Professor Lockhart's Pixies got in here and made quite a mess. You and I are going to clean this up," she explained.

"Blimey," Ron muttered, looking at the chaos around him.

"Why don't you start by picking up the books," Danielle told him. "If they're a novel, I alphabetize them by author. If they're a non- fiction book, use the labels on the bookcase to help you."

Danielle decided to tackle the mess that had been her desk. She worked on returning all her belongings to it and putting things back into their places. As she was working, she glanced at Ron and noticed he didn't appear to be moving.

"Mr. Weasley?" she called to him and he jumped, dropping the book he was holding. Curious, Danielle walked over and glanced at the book he was scrambling to pick up. It was a book on Muggle automobiles.

"You like cars?" she asked him.

"Yes," he told her. "My parents have, well had, a Ford Anglia that could fly."

"The car you and Harry Potter arrived here in?" she asked wryly. Ron nodded, looking embarrassed.

"Well, if you're interested, why don't you take the book with you when you leave tonight?" she asked him kindly. Ron looked shocked.

"Really?" he asked.

"Really. That's why I have all these Muggle books, so students who are interested can read about things they are interested in."

"That's wicked," he told her sincerely, causing her to laugh.

"Lots of teachers back in America keep their own small lending libraries. We try to stock them with cool books that at least vaguely relate to what we teach. I'm lucky that Muggle Studies covers a lot of different things," she told him.

"They don't do that here," Ron observed.

"No, but I think they should," Danielle told him.

"If Lockhart had a library, it would be full of even more of his books," he stated, making Danielle laugh, although she desperately tried to cover it with a cough.

"Now Ron, please don't talk about your teachers like that. It's not very respectful," she scolded him gently. Ron had the grace to at least look abashed by his comment.

"I'm sorry," he apologized.

"It's okay. I won't tell him you said it, and you won't say it again," she told him.

"Okay," Ron said happily.

"So, if you don't mind me asking, what was it like riding in a flying car?" Danielle asked, genuinely curious to know. For the next half hour, they cleaned and Ron told her all about the Ford Anglia. He seemed to really be fascinated with cars, and Danielle smiled to herself, imagining him enjoying the book. To be honest, Ron reminded her a great deal of her younger brother Brian when he was a kid, and being around Ron made her feel a little bit like she was back with him, teasing him about how he broke their neighbor's window playing baseball. But then she had to turn to more serious matters.

"Just so you know Ron, you should have waited for your parents when you couldn't get to Platform 9 ¾ . They would have found a way to get you to Hogwarts," she told him.

"I never thought of that," he said, obviously wishing he had.

"Seemed like a good idea at the time, didn't it?" she asked. Ron nodded sadly. "A lot of things seem like a good idea at the time, but turn out not to be."

"Yeah. Why is that?" he asked her.

"I don't really know. But don't feel too bad, Ron. If I had a knut for everything I ever did that seemed like a good idea at the time and turned out not to be, I'd be very rich by now," she said with a laugh. For Ron, who had never heard a teacher admit to their failings before, this was an amazing revelation. It made the gorgeous goddess of a woman before him seem so much more…human. He had felt nervous and tongue tied at the beginning of his detention, but now he felt comfortable. Professor Katz was an easy person to spend time with, even if she was a professor and incredibly pretty. Ron never felt intimidated by her ever again.

"Well, Ron, I think this place is back to where it needs to be, so you can go back to your common room," Danielle told him.

Ron was surprised. Although he had been there for two hours, it had seemed like only minutes.

"Okay." He paused, looking confused. "Detention with you doesn't really feel like a detention," he told her.

"Well don't you worry, Professor Snape will make up for it tomorrow," she said as he groaned at the reminder of his less present detention tomorrow.

"Which reminds me," she said. "I know Mr. Malfoy said something terrible, and he was purposely trying to provoke you and everyone else there, but please don't try to hex him like that. You're a good kid, Ron, and I don't want to see you in any more detentions after this. Okay?"

"Okay," Ron promised her, returning her kind smile.

Danielle had no idea that Ron would spend the rest of the night talking about her to Hermione (as Lockhart kept Harry until past midnight at his detention), and that he gushed over what a nice lady Professor Katz was. Ron's crush was still in existence, but he no longer was afraid of the woman he adored. He was surprised that she liked him too, at least as a teacher liked a student, and he was just happy she didn't think badly of him. And without either of them knowing it, Danielle had set herself up to be a positive influence in Ron Weasley's life.

AN: This song could be from the perspective of Ron Weasley (although at 12 I think he has far more innocent feelings for Danielle), Gilderoy Lockhart (who obviously wants to get into Danielle's knickers), and maybe without even realizing it, a certain potions professor who is not that in touch with his feelings. But I thought some fun, rocking music would be appropriate. And don't worry, Danielle would never get romantically involved with a student. But she likes Ron, like she said he reminds her of her brother (Ron reminds me of my childhood best friend). She'll want to help Ron build his confidence and not be so overwhelmed by Harry's fame. Hopefully, she will succeed. Review please!