Severus and his assistant had fallen into an easy routine of quietly sharing coffee in the morning. Professors were not required to make an appearance at breakfast. This morning, after the first cup, she cleared her throat nervously

"Last night I got a letter from Myron Wagtail...the lead singer of The Weird Sisters...and he wants me to come to their show on Friday night as his guest. He asked if I could meet him at the Leaky Cauldron at 8. I just wanted to make sure it was ok that I go..."

"Your evenings are your own as long as you do not have patrol duty that night, which you do not."

"Ok. Thanks"

"However, do you think it wise to go to a strange place with...strange people alone?"

"I can take care of myself"

"Please remember that you do not have Potter and Longbottom to... escort you back to your chambers. Keep that I'm mind"

Her face turned bright red. "I will"

"Also I have 2 students that received Saturday detention. They are go report to the classroom at 10:00 am. You will be supervising. I will leave a list of chores on your desk. They should be finished before the staff meeting at 3:00. Do not be late."

"I won't! I'm going to get the classroom ready for class"

She's been here for 2 months and already caught the eye of the most popular wizard rock band in Europe. Severus shook his head. Maybe he should ask Potter to follow her, just in case. No. He can't do that. How will that look? He certainly couldn't do it himself. What was he even thinking. Why did he even care.

Thursday and Friday passed uneventfully. Friday at just before 8 she stopped in Severus' office.

"I'm on my way out. See you tomorrow"

She was wearing tight black leather pants, a strapless black top and her hair was loose around her face all the way to her knees. Hopefully none of the students see her dressed that way.

Severus gave a brief nod and she left.

He took his whiskey bottle from his desk and poured a healthy glass. He had papers to review and would need the whiskey. After grading papers and busying himself organizing the ingredient storage (which was already organized), just after 2am he heard a faint clicking like the tip toeing of heels and a knock on his door

"What are you doing awake?" she asked quietly

"Grading, organizing ingredients..."

"...having a bit of a nightcap?" she gestured towards the whiskey bottle

Severus gestured to her chair and poured her a glass

"How was your evening" He must have had more to drink than he realized...initiating conversation...

"It was fun. I didn't know who The Weird Sisters were. I mostly listen to No-Maj music. But they were really good and they did play some covers I knew. They had me come up and sing one of the songs I knew with them. And Myron is actually really sweet unlikelike most musicians I know."

Severus nodded. He didn't really care all that much, but for some reason he just wanted someone to talk to him. He continued to fill her glass as she spoke.

"This has to be the last one. I have to cover detention in...6 hours now? I don't think anyone would appreciate it if I showed up still drunk" she winked.

"Ah. Yes. Detention. You had better be off then" 4am. He listened to her talk for almost 2 hours and he didn't actually hear a word she said. He quickly wrote out detention instructions, left them on her desk, and went to his own chambers. He downed a potion for Dreamless Sleep.