Panting from her morning run, Lorelei walked toward the doors to the Great Hall. Unable to stop herself, she halted to gaze inside. As usual, Severus was sitting at the staff table drinking his coffee and reading the Prophet. He looked up and observed her staring at him in the doorway. His eyes became hooded as his lips curved in a predatory smile. Deliciously alarmed by the fiery look in his eyes, she ran. Looking back over her shoulder, Lorelei gasped. He was chasing her. His black hair and robes rippled as he closed the distance between them. Catching her wrist, he pulled her to him. Pressing her between the stone wall and his muscular body, Severus lowered his lips to hers. Mouths open, tongues clashing, they strained against each other. He released her wrist to run his hand down the curves pressing so ardently against him. She clenched her fingers in his silky hair and said . . . .

.

GOOD MORNING . . . WAKE UP . . . .

.

"AAAAHHHH" Lorelei snatched up the alarm that shrilly projected the song about Sailor Moon, an anime character who fought evil by moonlight and won love by daylight, and threw the charmed Muggle clock across the room. The loud tinny voice silenced as it hit the wall. It was irritating to have to cast Reparo on the blasted thing every morning, but the perky pain in the arse was the most effective alarm she'd ever had- Muggle or Wizard made.

"Device of You-Know-Who," Lorelei grumbled as she headed for the bath. "Ruining my favourite dream...making me take a cold shower...why did I ever think you were...Ack!" Lorelei adjusted the cold water to warm and got ready for her first challenge of the day.

.

Severus felt unwell. He was never ill, so the uneasy feeling must be a result of the insidious pattern that had somehow evolved over the last few weeks. At the beginning, one small change in his normal routine had not seemed insupportable. Severus considered himself to be a flexible man. He had thought that he could ignore the slight disturbance to his usual habit and carry on as before.

He had been proven wrong.

For more years than he cared to admit, Severus had made a concentrated effort to rise early enough to dine alone in the Great Hall. The solitary time he spent reading the paper and enjoying a leisurely breakfast helped him endure the rest of the day. His morning meal was still quiet, but now a bigger distraction than noisy students or nosy colleagues ruined his peace each morning.

"Good Morning."

Ah, here was the distraction now. Professor Lorelei, more alluring than a serious educator had any right to be. Every day, she said the same greeting with the same lilt in her voice. How surprising. Well, if it was predictability she wanted, he would oblige.

"Is it?" Severus said coolly, raising an eyebrow. As always, the look he gave the impossible woman should have depressed her pretensions. It didn't.

"It is now." The impertinent wench had the audacity to wink at him before moving along to her place near the end of the staff table.

The wink was something new. The siren was becoming bolder. She probably thought that since he did not explicitly reject her overtures, it meant that he covertly welcomed them. Irrational woman. If she wanted to consider his responses as more than polite indifference then that was her folly. Pursing his lips as he pretended to read, he told himself to quit trying to analyze Lorelei's changed greeting.

Usually the siren just smiled before seating herself. He reached for his coffee, using the movement to conceal his sideways glance. Yes, she was up to her usual antics. Tilting her head to the right as she read the Prophet. Did she think her sidelong gazes were undetected? If so, she was badly mistaken. She may have hidden her interest from others, but Severus sensed every clandestine glance Lorelei threw his way. Resolutely showing no interest, he continued reading and eating as though he were blessedly alone.

"Bye."

With a carefully contrived glance of mild inquiry, Severus looked up into Lorelei's face. He raised both brows, saying nothing. He watched a smile twitch her full lips and inclined his head in barely civil dismissal. Her midnight eyes gleamed with suppressed laughter. He turned his attention back to his paper. Daft woman- was there no discouraging her?

Do you want to discourage her?

Where did that thought come from? Of course he wanted the woman to stop watching his every movement. Even more, he wanted to stop feeling compelled to watch hers. Severus found himself secretly observing her expressions and listening to her conversations. It was troubling. If only she were not so indecently attractive. If only she was not attracted to him. He was so tempted.

No. He was not tempted. Even if he were, he would do nothing about it. Lorelei would soon turn her attentions elsewhere. Severus told himself he was pleased at the prospect and glared at a hungry student who had dared enter the Hall.

As he headed to his classroom, Severus' brisk march gave his fluttering robes the appearance of bat-like malevolence. Students fell over each other to get out of his way. Upon reaching his dungeon, he opened the door with such force that the reverberations caused several jars of pickled creatures to crash to the floor. An early Gryffindor student entered the room and immediately started to gag. With malicious satisfaction, Severus watched the boy lose his struggle to ignore the smell and keep the contents of his stomach. Humor restored, Severus used Evanesco to clear the mess and proceeded to deduct a record number of House points.

.

Hours later, Harry, Ron, and Neville sat in the dungeon classroom, quietly talking about Quidditch and feeling cheerful that this was the last class of the day. Snape was uncharacteristically late, and they didn't care if he ever showed. Hermione was dividing her attention between Hogwarts, a History and the door.

Malfoy and the rest of the Slytherin students were starting to get loud and unruly. No one protested, because it wouldn't do any good. Slytherins got preferential treatment in Potions class.

The door opened and Harry was happily surprised to see Professor Lorelei enter the room.

"Good afternoon class. I'll be filling in for Professor Snape today. If we haven't met—" Her mouth curved briefly as she glanced at the Gryffindors in the back. "—I'm Professor Lorelei. We'll be using my classroom equipment, so please leave your cauldrons and follow me."

Harry and Ron grinned at each other as they followed Hermione and Neville toward Dungeon five. The class filed in and stood looking about in astonishment. The light, airy space was a dramatic change from their usual dungeon chamber.

"Take a seat, take a seat." Professor Lorelei directed, swishing her wand at the blackboard. A list of ingredients and instructions appeared. "You can see that cauldrons are already placed between your tables. The ingredients needed are in the large red cupboard at the back." She paused and said gravely, "Today, you are making the Draught of Peace. It's a difficult, exacting potion. As you may remember from fifth year, made incorrectly this potion causes death." Professor Lorelei looked directly at each student. "Measure accurately, add each ingredient in correct order, and follow every direction to the letter." She smiled reassuringly. "I have every confidence that with concentration and precise effort, each single potion will be emitting silvery vapor by the end of class. You may begin."

Out of habit, Neville turned to Hermione for help.

"If you have a question, please ask me, not your neighbor, Mr. Longbottom."

Neville's face grew even rounder, amazed that the rebuke had been so mild. After getting an answer to the questions of what level the cauldron flames should be and how many times to stir anti-clockwise, he turned to Hermione. "I wish she could fill in for Snape forever."

Hermione could prepare the potion without effort, so she divided her attention between her work and Lorelei. She noticed that her fellow students were really concentrating on following the directions in an exact manner. When the professor asked Malfoy to re-measure his powdered moonstone, the normally surly boy agreed politely.

Harry and Ron looked at each other in disbelief.

"You think she's using that Jedi voice again?" Ron asked.

"I wish she would," Harry whispered back. He imitated Lorelei's low, smooth voice. "You...are...a...prat"

Ron pretended to be a dazed Malfoy. "I am a prat."

"I'm sorry to hear that." The professor said silkily from behind Harry's shoulder. She told the wide eyed boys, "Concentrate, please. You were about to add three drops of hellebore, Mr. Potter. It only requires two." She chided gently, "I know you can read." She went to help another student.

At the end of class, every cauldron had silvery vapor rising from its depths. Professor Lorelei beamed. "Well done! Just fill a flagon, label it, and place it on my desk. Don't forget to pick up your cauldrons from Professor Snape's classroom when you leave."

"Don't we have any homework?"

Groans followed Hermione's earnest question.

"No, Ms. Granger. Professor Snape distinctly said that in the unlikely event of every student preparing the potion correctly, the class would be excused."

Ron teased Hermione on the way out of class, "Cheer up, Hermione, I'll be glad to let you do my Divination homework."

Harry said goodbye to the professor, catching up with his friends in time to hear Hermione say, "I see a hex in your future, Ron."

.

After dinner Lorelei brought a potion to Professor Snape's quarters. The painting guarding the entrance revealed a medieval couple on a boat. A castle and Cornish looking cliffs stood in the background. The woman wore a fine red gown and wimple and gave a chalice to a dark haired knight in armor. On the bench behind them was flagon filled with a red potion. The couple broke off staring in each other's eyes to smirk at Lorelei. They weren't admitting her without a password.

"Tristan and Isolde with the Potion." Snape's voice was a raspy whisper behind her.

"Oh!" Lorelei startled. She turned to see the professor. He looked tired, with glassy eyes and a reddened nose. He shivered. She handed him the flagon. "Dumbledore asked me to give this to you."

"Pepperup Potion. My favourite."

Was he joking? He really was sick. She would go and let him get some rest—in a minute. "That's a lovely painting," Lorelei said.

The couple preened.

"It's an example of Dumbledore's asinine humour." Snape's lips quirked slightly. "My painting's almost as puerile as yours."

Lorelei glanced down the corridor to the painting guarding the entrance to her own quarters. The Siren displayed a woman with long dark hair sitting on a rock above the sea. A man in the water placed an outstretched hand on the rock, as if to pull himself up. The couple looked over and waved. Lorelei was quite familiar with the painting. Collecting this type of art was a pastime in her family.

"Paintings like that give Sirens a bad name," she said.

"Do they?" Snape's gaze was intent. She wondered if he could perform Legilimency without a wand. He asked, "Have you read the poem Die Lorelei?"

"If it's in German, no." Lorelei said.

"I'll translate," Snape said. "In throes of desire and love, he's blind to the reefs that surround him. He sees but the maiden above. And now wild waters awaken, then the boat and boatman are gone. And this is what with her singing, the Lorelei has done."

She was stunned. For a long moment, she searched his fathomless eyes. Finally, she shook her head in disbelief. "Are you saying...you honestly believe...I lure men to their doom?"

"You have the ability," Snape said, before murmuring his password too faintly for Lorelei to hear. Pausing in the doorway, he whispered, "I've heard your singing."

.


A/N: the paintings are both by the British artist John William Waterhouse. The poem was written by Heinrich Heine. Sailor Moon is the ultimate silly girl superhero...of sorts...and if you've ever heard her theme song, you know why it would awaken anybody, anywhere, anytime! As always, Lavish Praise and Thanks to my Brilliant Reviewers- your encouragement is the best ward against Writer's Block known to man or wizard!