Author's Note: This chapter's song is Forget You by Cee Lo Green.

January 1 – February 8, 1994

Danielle woke up the first day of the New Year deciding to take matters into her own hands. She was sick and tired of being miserable. So she hoped out of her bed and went to her desk in the sitting room. She dug through it until she found a spare piece of parchment. She was going to make some New Year's resolutions to kick the year off right. She immediately started scribbling her ideas down, and this is what she came up with:

Be happy. If needed, do things to make yourself happier.

Practice shooting and dancing. You want to stay good at them, so do them!

Eat healthier.

Do not let grading pile up.

Push Dumbledore some to keep working on getting you home.

Try to figure out how to save Cedric Diggory.

Put invisibility cloak to good use.

Learn something new; martial arts, how to knit, a new language. Doesn't matter what!

Teach Puppy some tricks.

Most importantly, DO NOT LET HIM GET TO YOU!

Danielle looked at her list, satisfied with what she came up with. She hoped she could keep most of them, though the eating healthier one was the one she wasn't holding much hope for, as the House Elves were more concerned with flavor than calorie counts. Danielle wondered what her cholesterol count must be, and she was sure it was frightening. But she hoped she could accomplish one and ten, as they were the most important to her.

The following day, the teachers and students returned to Hogwarts for the next term. At dinner that night, Severus completely ignored Danielle, for some reason having a long conversation with Minerva. Danielle took a screw you, I am perfectly happy attitude and spoke with Remus, not even looking in Severus' direction. She would allow her new friend to help fill the hole in her heart as much as she could. One thing Remus told her was that he would be spending his Thursday evenings working with Harry on the Patronus charm. Danielle decided to use that time for item two on her list.

The first day of classes, Danielle notice something was up. Ron and Hermione were seated on opposite sides of her classroom. The two of them always sat together, so she knew immediately something was wrong. She decided to question Ron immediately after class. It turned out, Ron was angry at Hermione for causing an uproar over Christmas about Harry's new Firebolt. Danielle had almost forgotten about the whole overblown drama about the frigging broomstick. Danielle chastised Ron, pointing out plenty of people always wanted Harry dead, so why would he accept a fancy gift from an unknown sender without thoroughly checking it out first. Ron also told her about Crookshanks constantly attacking his rat. Danielle told him cat's just do that. And while Ron wouldn't listen to the same argument from Hermione, he would listen to it from Danielle, and by the next time Danielle saw them together the whole argument had blown over.

Danielle let Puppy spend most of his time outdoors, as it was cold but sunny. Dobby or Lulu would bring him inside when it was dark by Apparating him. If Danielle had company, he'd nap in her room. Danielle had no idea that Puppy had asked Claudia to look for Wormtail for him, so Claudia took to wondering the halls of Hogwarts searching for him, but as Claudia had no idea what the Gryffindor passwords were, she had no luck. The only thing that came of her wonderings was that she would occasionally see Severus, her purring man. Severus was surprised to see her, but he gladly accepted her company. He would pet and play with her between classes, and he was always in a much better mood after spending time with Claudia. She made him feel closer to Danielle, who never even said anything about the cloak, which had disappointed him terribly. His evenings, in particular were lonely.

Meanwhile, Danielle spent most of her evenings with Remus. He turned out to be a tremendous comfort in Severus' absence, and she continued to grow closer with the werewolf. On Thursday nights Remus would work with Harry, and depending upon Danielle's mood, the Room of Requirement would transform itself to either her shooting range or a dance studio. In fact, the dance studio was particularly cool because Danielle could wish for albums that didn't yet exist, and they would appear! So she could dance to music from Lady Gaga, Green Day, Florence and the Machine, Bruno Mars, The Killers, Madonna, and U2 that wouldn't exist for years to come. It was so much fun, and it made her feel more at home. She wished she could share this with someone, but the only person she wanted to share it with wasn't speaking with her, so she remained silent.

Quidditch took a special interest at this early part of the term. Slytherin narrowly beat Ravenclaw, and the upcoming Ravenclaw vs. Gryffindor match was all anyone could talk about. The students and the teachers both were obsessing over it. Danielle already knew the outcome, but it was especially comforting to hear from Remus that Harry was making excellent progress with his Patronus and from Minerva that they found nothing wrong with the Firebolt and had returned it to Harry.

So at last, the match came. Danielle hated to say it, but Quidditch was so not exciting, at least to her since she knew most of the results. She liked when it was the games not described in the book, because the outcome was actually more interesting. But she knew exactly which matches Gryffindor won up through Harry's sixth year, so she really didn't care other than the other things happening at the matches. And as Harry was going for the Snitch, Cho Chang screamed and pointed at a group of hooded figures in the stands. Harry easily shot his Patronus over his shoulder and caught the Snitch.

Danielle admired the lovely stag cantering through the stands after it knocked the "Dementors" over. It kind of gave her an idea what Severus' Patronus would look like just smaller, more feminine, and lacking antlers. Then she mentally kicked herself for finding a way to associate any little thing with Severus Snape.

But soon she didn't need to use the Patronus to remind her of Severus, for he was making his way up into the stands to deal with Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, and Marcus Flint, the Slytherin Quidditch captain. Danielle had to get closer to hear what was going on.

"…and your actions were dangerously irresponsible and unbecoming for members of Slytherin House! Do you have any idea what would have happened if all the people in this stadium saw you sooner? They would have panicked and stampeded! You know how many people get killed in riots or fleeing dangerous situations! You could have killed your friends and classmates! I can't believe students in my own House would stoop to such pathetic tricks! I really am teaching the biggest bunch of dunderheads this school has ever seen, and they apparently all got sorted into Slytherin!" Snape shouted, not once stopping for breathe as he ripped a new one for the four dazed boys picking themselves up off the floor.

Danielle had to chuckle. Severus was doing a great job. She seemed to remember Minerva being the one to chastise the boys in the original book, but in Danielle's opinion this was a positive change. Not only that, but Severus punished the Slytherins much more harshly, taking 100 points from Slytherin rather than fifty and sentencing them to more demeaning detentions, helping Poppy clean the bedpans in the hospital. Danielle offered him a smile as he walked down the stands afterwards. Severus stopped and looked at her in such surprise, as if he had never seen her before. And Danielle remembered they weren't speaking. They stood there awkwardly for a moment, then Severus continued down the stairs and walked to the castle.

Danielle walked back to the castle, feeling like shit. She knew she wasn't doing a good job on numbers 1 and 10 from her New Year's Resolution list. But it hurt that Severus couldn't even accept a smile from her. She decided to take a nap in her quarters. Danielle fell into a deep sleep until dinner. That night, she enjoyed a quiet evening with Remus. She had rented Beetlejuice, and she was pleased that he found it just as funny as she did. Remus told her he thought the lip-synching dinner party was the funniest thing he had ever seen, especially the shrimp surprise at the end! Danielle almost agreed with him, but stopped. In truth, the she had a hard time figuring out if the time she and Severus had "assisted" Quirrell to the Hospital Wing or when Severus humiliated Lockhart at the Dueling Club or when those dwarves delivered their poison pen letter to Lockhart was the funniest. But in truth, all three memories were funnier than any movie she had ever seen, because she got to be there and experience it. However, each one was so deeply connected to Severus, she was unable to laugh. So she simply smiled and nodded at Remus.

But after Remus bid her goodnight, Danielle went to her bedroom and noticed that Puppy wasn't there. Danielle felt very worried, as Puppy had been keeping her feet warm each night since November, and she wondered where he was. She called Lulu and asked her and Dobby to look for Puppy, please. Twenty minutes later, Lulu and Dobby both returned, and they had not seen hide or hair of Puppy.

"Oh no!" Danielle said, slapping her forehead. Tonight was the night Sirius tried to get Peter, but just ended up scaring the crap for Ron and everyone else! "Dobby, Lulu, search the castle. I think Puppy is wondering around. If you find him, get him back here and make sure he stays put. I'm going to look for him too."

Danielle went to her closet. She figured now was as good a time as any to try out the Invisibility Cloak Severus got her. She put it on and checked herself out in the mirror. She couldn't see any of herself there, so she supposed it would be fine. She then set out to look for Puppy.

Danielle made a beeline to Gryffindor Tower. But Puppy wasn't there. So she went back down and looked around for him. Nothing. Maybe history had been changed. Maybe Puppy had been outside and he had encountered a Dementor. If that happened, they would never be able to use Grimmould Place for the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix, and that the Locket would remain safely there and Voldemort would never be defeated. Crap, she really needed to find Puppy!

Danielle continued to search the Castle. At one point, she almost bumped into Severus. She managed to stop short and get out of his way, preventing an utterly awkward moment between them. Danielle watched him go on his way, too worried about Puppy to feel terribly bad about Severus at the moment. It was all about priorities, and Puppy's safety was much more important at the moment.

Then, the castle's emergency alarm was rung. Oh shit, Danielle thought. She quickly backtracked to Gryffindor tower, where she saw a frantic Sirius running through the portrait hole. Danielle followed along after him. He turned the corner and when she made it around, she saw he was already transformed into Puppy. She continued to follow him, and when he wasn't looking, she removed the Cloak. Then, she approached him.

"Puppy! Where have you been? I've been worried about you?" she cried, running up to him and kneeling down to hug him. She then draped her Invisibility Cloak over him, which he did not like. He whined, but she shushed him. "I know you hate this, but I'm not really supposed to have a dog in the castle and I don't want anyone to catch us. Come on, let's go back to my quarters."

They walked down and were almost there, when they ran into Severus. Danielle again stopped short of running into him. She prayed Puppy would be a good boy and stay quiet, though she was sure he was fighting a desire to take another chunk out of Severus' leg to match the one Fluffy took two years ago.

"What's going on?" she asked him, the first time she had directly addressed Severus since their fight. She didn't want to, but she had to act like she was confused since she was running in the opposite direction as him.

"What, you didn't know Sirius Black was in the castle?" he asked her in his most sarcastic manner.

"Where?" she asked.

"Gryffindor Tower. Apparently, he slashed the curtains on Ron Weasley's bed," Severus said.

"Great. This means a whole lot of extra security," Danielle muttered. This would make getting Puppy in and out so much harder.

"Well, didn't you know?" Severus asked suspiciously.

"I was fuzzy on the details," Danielle said, hoping Sirius wouldn't pick up on what Severus was saying to her.

"Well, as enlightening as this conversation has been, some of us have work to do," Severus sneered, and in a billow of inky robes, he was gone.

"Bastard," Danielle said with a sigh. She and Puppy continued to her quarters. "You stay here Puppy, I need to see what else is going on."

Puppy was more than content to sit this one out. He lay down at the foot of Danielle's bed. Claudia came in, looking incredibly pissed.

"I hope you're happy, Puppy. This little stunt was a big waste of your time," she hissed.

"No shit, Sherlock," borrowing a phrase he had heard Danielle utter and he had taken a liking to.

"Excuse me, but it was a colossal waste of time. I ran into one of the Gryffidor's Kneazles, a fellow by the name of Crookshanks. He told me the rat took a powder just the other day. His owner and her best friend, who Wormtail happened to be living with, had a huge fight because he's convinced Crookshanks ate the rat," Claudia informed him with a huff.

"Shit. I really screwed up on this one, didn't I?" Puppy said sadly.

"Yup. You're lucky that Danielle found you when she did, or you'd be in even worse shape," she said.

"So the rat is completely gone?" Puppy asked.

"I doubt it. I am sure he just wanted to get somewhere harder for you to find him. But he's a wizard, so he wants to be somewhere he can keep abreast of things," Claudia stated airily, as she already knew from listening in on Danielle's conversation with purring Severus exactly what would happen for the next couple of years. But Puppy didn't need to know that.

"Then I had better stick around too," Puppy decided.

"You'd better. Danielle lost one person she loved this year, she wouldn't do well to lose you too," Claudia warned him. For she knew Remus and Puppy were the things helping Danielle keep herself together in Severus' absence.

As Danielle well knew, security was tightened. The security trolls were creepy and probably as dangerous as Sirius was imagined to be. And Neville, who had mistakenly left his list of passwords out and was found by Sirius, got a Howler from his grandmother. Danielle felt bad for the boy, and wished she had thought to scoop up the scrap of paper she had seen Sirius drop. But she had been so worried about her Puppy, she didn't think about the paper. Oh well, too late now she thought.

And so Danielle made it through the first month of the new year, sticking to all of her resolutions except number 10. Because no matter what she did, Severus Snape was always haunting her thoughts whether she wanted him to or not.

AN: I love Forget You. It's a song that expresses what Danielle's trying to do. She's trying to leave Severus behind and live her life, but the truth is she just can't. I mean, if Cee Lo had to write this song, he obviously didn't forget the girl he wrote it for, how could Danielle forget Severus? So they're getting into 1994, and Danielle is struggling with her resolutions as many of us do. I always write a list and never, ever stick to it. Except this year with the writing more resolution I made. So review this, and I will see you Monday!