"Burning Day," Albus said softly, contemplating the Phoenix across the room. Around the large circular office, the portraits of former Heads of Hogwarts hung in places of honour. The Headmasters and Headmistresses nodded in agreement.

He chuckled at the sight of the moulting bird. "You look like a half plucked chicken."

The Phoenix burst into flames, and then disintegrated into a pile of ash. At the same moment, three sharp raps were heard.

Appreciating the irony, Albus said, "Enter."

White-faced and steely-eyed, Severus sat stiffly in a chair facing the Headmaster's desk. Albus listened attentively as Severus proceeded to give his account of Professor Lorelei's actions. After he ended his report with a demand that the unsuitable woman be sent packing at once, Severus relaxed almost imperceptibly. He seemed positive that his carefully crafted speech would hold sway.

Severus Snape was an expert at presenting an inscrutable facade, but his nonverbal cues were easily read by a wizard who had been using all six senses before the younger man was born. As he sat down, Severus had first crossed his arms defensively before placing his hands palm down on the arms of his chair. During his impassive recitation of Lorelei's unsuitability, he had gripped the chair arms tightly in anger. At the end, although he appeared relaxed in every other way, the fingers of Severus' right hand tapped out an agitated rhythm on the chair.

Albus had no intention of getting rid of a woman who could make the unflappable Professor Snape seethe with emotion. He tried to break the news gently. "Toffee, Severus?" He offered the crystal jar, only to have it impatiently waved away.

"Sweets are not the cure for life's ills."

"I understand your reservations," Albus said. "However, I will not dismiss Professor Lorelei merely because she is an attractive and competent teacher. I personally approved her curriculum and she was not lying about her spotless record." He enjoyed Severus' look of incredulity.

"How can that be possible?"

"I don't know," Albus said. "Perhaps it's magic." He leaned forward. "I feel compelled to share two additional reasons for hiring Professor Lorelei." All amusement gone, he added, "In strictest confidence."

"Of course."

"First," Albus said, "Lorelei's mother is...an old friend of mine, and I would not willingly hurt her daughter without cause. Secondly," he said with a brief hesitation, "her nomination came directly from the Ministry."

Severus' nostrils flared. "I thought after Umbridge, the Ministry no longer had influence at this school. Evidently, sentiment and self interest have clouded your judgment." Severus made to leave. At the door he turned and sneered. "Thankfully, my judgment cannot be clouded. I will be keeping my eye on the Professor. If she steps one foot wrong, she will regret it."

In the silence following Severus' departure, a small cry was heard. Fawkes had been reborn from the ashes. Albus shrugged. "Ah, well. It is Burning Day."

.

The ceiling of the Great Hall glittered, enchanted to resemble the night sky. Above the four long House Tables, thousand upon thousands of magicked candles illuminated the students talking and eating below. Outwardly calm, and internally smouldering, Severus appeared to concentrate on his dinner. His eyes did not scan the chamber for misconduct. He currently did not give a rat's arse which student was doing what with or to whom. His attention was fixed on the staff table. He shot a covert glance at the end where Professors Hagrid, Lorelei, and Tonks were conversing.

He heard Dumbledore comment to the woman on Severus' left, "Professor Lorelei seems to be settling in well." Severus looked up to see Minerva McGonagall purse her lips in disapproval.

"So it appears," McGonagall said dryly. She sniffed. "That young woman needs a lesson in proper grooming."

Severus' gaze flickered down the table to Lorelei. Her upswept hair was a mass of curls, and several small strands had fallen to frame her face. He gazed back to McGonagall, currently smoothing her severely drawn black hair back to her no-nonsense bun. For an instant, his eyes met Dumbledore's. Immediately, both men looked down and began eating. Severus decided prudently to consider the question rhetorical.

The sound of merriment drifted along the table. The siren had obviously wasted no time beguiling that hairy oaf and the over-exuberant Tonks. Even Professor Flitwick was smiling unctuously at the troublesome creature. Severus' upper lip curled. How easily weaker men were ruled by their baser instincts. Lorelei looked past Tonks and met his stare.

An exasperated voice broke the connection. "I've asked you a question twice, Severus. What do you find so fascinating that you cannot attend a simple conversation?" McGonagall challenged with a lift of her brow.

"Nothing," Severus said curtly. "There is nothing I find fascinating in any way whatsoever." He stood. "I have work to do."

.

Lorelei observed Professor Snape's abrupt departure from the Hall. That brief, eternal, moment when his dark eyes had stared so intensely into hers had acted like a Memory Charm. She had forgotten everything except the overwhelming awareness between them. Then he left without a backward glance. Lorelei remembered what had seemed so unimportant, compared to his extraordinary eyes. He didn't trust her. He considered her unsuitable. He was trying his best to get her sacked. Was that bad? Yes it was, she told herself firmly, shaking off the last remnants of dreaminess. It was alarming that she found Snape so abso-bloody-lutely attractive.

"Don' be worrying about Snape," Hagrid said gruffly, watching Lorelei frown as Snape strode away. "He's always like that, the ruddy bat."

"It's the broomstick up his arse," Tonks chimed in, grinning wickedly.

Lorelei smiled at her new friends. Sitting at the end of the Staff Table might mean being on the low end of the totem pole, but she didn't care about school politics. She was relieved to be sitting by the friendliest people on staff.

Tonks seemed happy to have a natter with another woman under thirty. She was irrepressible and had broken the ice by asking, "So, what's it like being gorgeous?"

"What's it like being cheeky?" Lorelei had shot back.

They had grinned like naughty schoolgirls looking forward to pissing around with a new friend. Dinner with Tonks and Hagrid had been mad. Hagrid had so many Magical Creatures gone wild stories, and Tonks could make the weather sound hilarious. Then Lorelei's eyes had met the Potion Master's. Oh, bugger. She needed a distraction.

"Want to come out for a bevvy?" Tonks raised her brows under her electric blue hair, waiting for Lorelei's answer.

"Where?"

"Hogsmeade. The Three Broomsticks."

"Sounds good."

Hagrid declined their invitation to come along. He was anxious to get back to the fire-dwelling lizard he had left smouldering on his hearth. Confiding to Lorelei that living in a wooden home had its drawbacks, he said goodnight and hurried off.

Tonks and Lorelei made their way to the village, speculating whether Hagrid would have a new creature gone wild story to tell the next day.

.

When they reached the Three Broomsticks, Tonks took off her cloak and told Lorelei, "Let's go get a drink at the bar. I want you to meet Rosmerta."

On this weeknight, the pub was only half full. Tonks noticed a group of warlocks at the bar giving them the eye. She made sure her expression was anything but encouraging. Some twonks thought every woman who came into a pub without a man was on the pull for one. Well, she had a man and he was a real animal when it came to blokes who tried to chat up his woman. Smiling at the hidden meaning in her silent statement was a mistake. One of the brawny warlocks took it as a personal invitation and met Tonks halfway to the bar.

His glassy leer raked over them before he slurred, "Would ye fine burds like a drink?"

"Would you like a knee in the goolies?"

Lorelei snorted in laughter.

The wally didn't find Tonks' reply nearly as amusing. He drew himself up to an intimidating height and nodded to the friends who came over to see what the hubbub was about. "These here cheeky bints don' wan' ter drink with us, mates."

The group of men looked suitably offended.

Preparing to use her wand at any moment, Tonks' rash actions were interrupted by Lorelei's oddly compelling voice. "You are a complete wanker. Apologise to the lady."

The men looked entranced. The one who had caused the scene nodded. "I'm a complete wanker. I'm sorry."

"You will go finish your drinks and not mess with women who can't be arsed," Lorelei said.

"Let's go finish our drinks, mates, they can't be arsed."

Seeing was not believing. Tonks had just seen her friend use some kind of compelling voice against those warlocks, and she was having trouble believing the whole thing had really happened.

"Are you coming?" The bloody woman was doing a piss poor job of trying to look innocent.

"How could you do that?" Tonks said.

"What's that? Use vulgar language, or make those gentlemen leave us alone?"

"Gentlemen. Ha—that's a laugh. The voice thingy!" Tonks' voice was rising.

"Hereditary ability. Can't use it for anything good like making men fall madly in love, just for defence, sad to say."

A less sad woman Tonks had yet to see. Lorelei looked like she would crack up at any moment. And she had the nerve to call her cheeky. "Yeah, well, all right, then." Raking a hand through her short spikes, Tonks looked her friend straight in the eye. "For holding out on me, and using language unbecoming to a posh princess, you'll be buyin' tonight."

"Deal, but if you start calling me 'Posh', I'm going to call you 'Sporty'."

"Cor!" Tonks said. "Who would do that to a mate?" Hearing the answer, she scoffed, "Barmy Muggles."

Laughing, the women finally found their way to the bar.

.

Humming softly, Lorelei watched Tonks wave her arms to express her thoughts as they returned to Hogwarts.

"Butterbeer!" Tonks exclaimed. "I bring my new mate out for a bevvy and she drinks Butterbeer?"

"Sorry to disappoint." Lorelei laughed. "But I think you drank enough for the both of us."

"Yeah, right. You drove me to drink with that voice thingy." As they approached a side entry, Tonks blurted again, "Butterbeer! Sorry, mate, that's just sad." She walked into the castle and stopped. She started to sniff. "I'm sad too."

"What's got you sad?" Lorelei asked, "Besides a half dozen pints?"

"Aw, I'm just missing my boyfriend." Tonks sighed. "Remus is the best."

"What makes him 'the best'?"

"Aw, everything...his smile, his face, his beautiful eyes."

Lorelei smiled at the besotted expression on Tonks' face. Was it the man or the drink or both? She made an Mmmm sound encouraging her friend to continue.

"Remus Lupin is the kindest, sweetest, smartest, bravest, most wonderful man in the world!" The fervent voice raised in volume with each superlative.

"Sshhh! Sshhh! For Merlin's sake, I believe you...Remus is a god—not the God, but a god amongst men," Lorelei choked out between fits of giggles.

She sobered when Tonks said plaintively, "He always gives me a song when I'm plastered." Her smile wobbled.

"I'll give you a song if you'll belt up." Taking a breath, Lorelei started to sing Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again, a plaintive melody about wishing someone was somehow here, somehow near.

"Why'd you stop?" Tonks asked as the song faded away.

"I just remembered. The rest's depressing. Not what you need right now."

"Well then, sing me something else before I go crash. You've got a luv-er-ly voice. You should be a singer."

"Thanks." Lorelei sang the haunting lyrics of the Music of the Night. She closed her eyes and poured herself into the song which coaxed the listener into closing theirs, to pretend that the world was the way they thought it should be.

"Remus would never sing that, but he'd like it." Tonks' smile at the song's end was no longer wobbly. "What's that from?"

"A Muggle musical. Phantom of the Opera. It's romantic and sad."

"There's Muggles for you," Tonks marvelled. "Thinking a phantom is romantic. That is sad."

As they said goodnight and went their different ways, neither noticed the dark figure listening in the shadows.

.


A/N: All songs in this chappie are Andrew Lloyd Webber's- a wizard in any sense of the word. Also, couldn't help using a Bill Murray line from Groundhog Day. ; )