A Christmas Gift

AN: Uhm yeah, Disclaimer and alme ame as before. The pretty blonde British woman owns all but the plot and the smut.

2.

In the days following his detention, Harry spent more time trying to actively be more cheerful. He dragged Ron outside for a snowball fight and teased Hermione about her affection for Ron and her love of books. Even during the holidays the girl still spent much of her time in the library. Although she had attempted to talk to Harry about his feelings for Snape, Hermione hadn’t gotten very much information as he was amazingly good at changing the subject when she brought it up. Ron, thank Merlin, had finally come around, more due to fear of a lack of sex than anything else. He did want his friend to be happy, even if, Merlin forbid, it meant he would be with Snape.

Many had noticed the change in Harry’s behavior, not the least of which was one Severus Snape, who still spent much of his time following the young man about. It was at one of those times in which Hermione caught sight of him, under the mistletoe in the open front door, watching Harry, a small smile playing about the corners of his mouth as he did so. Something had to be done about those two, and quickly. Harry deserved to be happy, and she was sure that Professor Snape was just the one to make him so. She looked over at Harry, horsing around in the snow with Ron and looked back at the Professor. He was gone, the spot where he had stood moments before as undibed bed as if he had never been there.

***

Snape prowled the hallways of the dungeons in an attempt to rid himself of the surprisingly arousing picture of Potter laying in the snow, writhing about on the ground making ‘snow angels’ whatever the devil those were. It was far too simple a matter for him to convert that image to the boy writhing beneath him, an image that came to mind far too often these days, whether he willed it to or not. Superceding that one was the vision of Potter bent over his desk, tight round rear naked to his gaze, delicious pucker available to his tongue…

Snape growled. Much as he disliked the idea, he would have to find someone to slake his lust on before he forgot that the boy was his student and loathed him as well. Lovely as thinking about what he wanted to do to the boy was, he had work to do, work that would hopefully take his mind off Harry bloody Potter.

***

Harry sighed as a wrist caught his on on his way into the Great Hall. He turned to face a rather serious looking Hermione.

“Harry hav have to talk. You can’t keep avoiding me forever.”

“I’m not avoiding you Hermione, it’s just that…” His voice trailed off at the look on her face. “Okay. I have been avoiding you. I don’t want to talk about this Hermione.”

“Honestly Harry, it’s not as if it’s going to go away. And I want to help, really I do.”

Shoving a hand through his already unruly hair, Harry looked around quickly before nodding. “Let’s go somewhere else,” he said finally, heading through the open doors towards the lake.

They sat in silence, staring at the lake, for quite some time before anyone spoke. Finally, Hermione broke the silence.

“Why don’t you just start at the beginning Harry?” she asked gently.

He sighed. “I guess it started the summer before sixth year, you know after Sirius…” he began, not noticing his companion’s soft hiss of surprise. ook ook a deep breath and continued. “Snape came by every once in a while, to talk to Lupin, I guess to give him his potion, but he always stopped long enough to see if I was okay.” Mione’s brow shot to her hairline at this. “It wasn’t ever …nice…but he always asked. Something like ‘I trust you are not being as much of a bother to the werewolf as you are to the rest of us’ or some such nonsense, but it felt…good I guess.”

He lapsed into silence for a while.

“Then…well, then I started having these…dreams. And he was in them.”

“What sort of dreams Harry?” She suspected she knew, but wanted confirmation.

“Um, you know…those dreams. Not um, bad ones anyway.” He looked slightly embarrassed and she suspected he was.

“Harry, how did you feel about that?” Looking directly at him now, she waited for the answer.

“Well, at first I hated it. I mean, what was wrong with me, dreaming about Snape of all people? And I tried to um, well, I guess forget it. It didn’t work though. And then I started thinking about how he was always there when I needed him, even when I thought he was working for Voldemort, and then I thought, well maybe it’s not so bad. And then school started and he was there and I noticed things like, his hands and his voice and…stuff.”

Harry’s voice had gotten steadily lower towards the end and was so quiet, she barely heard his last words. But she did hear them. She reached out and laid a hand on his shoulder before asking softly, “What are you going to do?”

“Nothing really. There’s nothing I can do,” he muttered bitterly. “It’s not like he’d ever feel the same now is it?”

“I don’t know about that,” she contradicted. “I’ve seen him Harry. I’ve seen the way he looks at you when you’re not looking and when he thinks no one else is looking as well. Although, he caught me once,” she grinned. Harry’s been in love with Snape for over a year, she thought, and hasn’t even noticed the man always following him, always watching. “I think you should ask him to the Ball Harry.”

He stared. “Have you gone barmy? I can’t do that! He’s a teacher!”

“Actually, that really doesn’t make a difference Harry. You’re over the age of consent and Hogwarts doesn’t have any rules against it.”

“But…but,” he stuttered. “I’m still a minor,” he came up with at last.

She smiled. “In the Muggle world maybe. But this is different. Here you’ve reached your adulthood already. Besides, it’s not as if a dose of Veritaserum couldn’t prove if any…contact, between the two of you was coerced.”

Harry shivered at the word ‘contact’. He doubted he’d have the sort of contact he wanted with the man. “Herm, he can’t even be nice to me without Dumbledore telling him to. He’d never want to go to the dance with me. He hates me.”

“I don’t think so Harry. In fact, I’m sure what he feels for you is completely different than what you think. Just think about it all right Harry. I’ll support whatever you decide.” She gave him a warm smile and left him sitting there, thinking about what she had said.

***

Head down, lost in his thoughts, he almost ran into Dumbledore as he re-entered the building. A strong hand reached out to steady him before he fell.

“Hello Mr. Potter. Got a bit on your mind today?”

Harry looked up at Dumbledore. The man’s merry blue eyes were twinkling as always. “Um…actually, yes sir,” he responded.

“Anything you need to tell me?” he asked.

“Um, no sir.” He was definitely not telling the Headmaster he had a crush on his professor.

“Well then, I won’t keep you,” he said, eyes twinkling more than before. “Must get a gift for Severus you know…he’s got a birthday coming up you see and I give all the teachers a little something when their special day comes.”

Harry was startled almost into silence. Rus’ birthday is coming! How could he ask about that without telling the Headmaster why he was asking? “Um, Professor Snape’s birthday sir?” Brilliant Harry. Bloody brilliant.

“Why yes Mr. Potter. It’s in two days, on the 21st.” He gifted Harry with a smile. “Now, I must be off. Be careful wandering around won’t you?” he added as he stepped around Harry and continued on his way, allowing himself a knowing grin once out of the boy’s sight. Oh this was fun indeed.

Harry just stood there, completely stunned. Suddenly he began running towards Gryffindor tower. I have to talk to Hermione. She’ll know what to do. That thought only spurred his feet to faster movement as he thought about what they had discussed and the new information he had just gotten. It never occurred to him to wonder why Dumbledore had been walking towards Hogsmeade when he’d never done so before.

***

Severus was seething. Bad enough that he was required to attend Albus’ bloody ball, now he had to find a date as well. When the man had informed the staff of this earlier in the day at the bi-weekly staff meeting, the reactions had been wide and varied. That oaf Hagrid had been pleased and the only person who had been as taken aback as he was Minerva. He smirked. The old bat probably hadn’t had a date in decades. Although there was that rumor about her and Albus…well, best not to venture down that line of thinking. Who in all Britain am I to ask to this fiasco? He ruthlessly squashed the image of limpid green eyes that immediately came to mind. Damn Albus and his ridiculous notions. Make the students more comfortable indeed. Mingle and make it more like a social event they would experience at home. What utter rubbish. That meddling old man had something planned. He was scheming, Severus was sure of it. He couldn’t help but be exceedingly disturbed as he thought back to the unholy glee in the man’s eyes when he’d announced that there was no reason that teachers and students couldn’t go together given the uniqueness of the situation. Scheming indeed. What are you up to you crafty old man?

***

Harry clambered through the portrait hole to be greeted by the sound of excited conversation. Quickly he scanned the room for Hermione, finally locating her at the corner table by the stairs to the girl’s dorm and surrounded by Lavender Brown and a giggling Parvati Patil.

“Can you believe it? I mean, teachers and students!” Lavender was saying in a delighted tone.

He ignored whatever she was babbling about and went straight to Hermione. “Hermione, I need to talk to you. Right now.”

“Harry, I,” she began. She took one look at Harry’s face and excused herself, dragging a clearly agitated Harry over to an empty corner.

“Alright Harry, what’s wrong?”

“I need your help. Ru, um, Snape’s birthday is in two days. What do I do?” he asked, oddly irritated with himself for his near slip. At least no one would know who \'Rus\' was anyway. It could have been worse, he could have said \'Severus\'.

“Harry,” she began and then paused, choosing her words carefully so as not to upset the boy any more that he already was. “What exactly are you really asking me? Are you asking if I think you should get him a gift or what I think would make a good gift or…” she trailed off at Harry’s enthusiatic nod and looked at him with the obvious wish for clarification in her eyes.

Picking up on the unasked question Harry blurted out “That last one. What should I get him?” He looked at her expectantly. Hermiuone always knew what do to.

Okay, this I can handle. Merlin males are thick! “I’ll be right back, stay here.” She gave him a last look before she went running up the stairs of the girls dorm.

Harry fidgited the entire time she was gone. Three minutes felt like three hours, the weight of his anxiety making him feel like the air in the room was too thick to breathe. He felt like every eye in the common room was on him as he heard snatches of conversation everywhere. He jumped when Hermione touched him on the arm to get his attention.

“Great you’re back. What took you so long?”

Mione rolled her eyes and held up the box she was holding. She dragged him to the nearest chairs and opened the lid, revealing the box to be filled with parchement.

“Remember when we thought Snape was working for the enemy and we did all that research? These are the notes.”

Harry smiled. He should have known. Mione kept everything related to knowledge. “So what have you got?” he asked, relaxing slightly.

“Well, we know he’s brilliant. And he obviously loves potions, so maybe you should get him some potions ingredients.”

“Mione! Potions ingredients?! But…that’s..I mean, anybody can do that. Come on, there’s got to be something else.”

She smothered her exasperation. Really for a rather intellegent person, Harry could be incredibly thick. “Harry, the man became a Potions Master while he was at Hogwarts. You can’t do that if you don’t love what you do. He may hate teaching, well, the students anyway, but one simply doesn’t excell at something like this without an innate love of the subject. So. Potions ingredients. Or something suitably rare. He collects rare objects,” she added looking at her notes. Looking up, a smile fairly close to a smirk flashed across her face. “Harry, are you listening?”

“Hmm. Yeah. Ah, thanks Hermione. I’ve got to see Dumbledore.” He gave her a quick hug and dashed back out the portrait hole.

I wonder what that’s all about, she thought as she gathered her research to return to her room.

***

The house elves were busy. Here as there as Harry walked through the corridors towards Headmaster Dumbledore’s office, he could see them hanging greenery and mistletoe. He smiled, wondering if he would ever share mistletoe with Rus. As he rounded the corner and saw the stone gargoyle, he remembered that the headmaster had gone to Hogsmeade and probably wasn’t back yet. He sighed. Rus’ birthday was on Saturday and since there were no classes, he had no idea when the headmaster would actually be back. He decided to wander the castle for a bit and think through his decision. Maybe there was something else he could give Rus.

His family vault had been made available to him when he turned seventeen over the summer and was ever so much larger than his own fault had been. It was roughly three times the size of his and more than half of it had been filled with gold. The rest of it was filled with things his parents thought he might want, photos and souvenirs from their travels before Voldemort, as well as things they had taken from Godric’s Hollow including the deeds to several pieces of property. Harry hadn’t told Ron or Hermione about that, mostly because he knew Ron still had a problem with how much more money Harry had in comparison to him and his family. Only Harry and the goblins at Gringotts knew just how much money he actually had. He suspected that he may have had a much as Malfoy’s family, but there was no way to check that. Dumbledore had told Harry that he was Sirius’ heir, but all his assets were being held in ministry custody. Until Pettigrew was caught, there was no chance of clearing Sirius’ name. Harry wanted that not so he could gain custody of Sirius’ belongings, but so that the name of the only family he had would be cleared, and that everyone would know what had really happened.

It had taken Harry the better part of the two years since Sirius’ death to stop blaming himself for his death, and for all the other things that happened in the Department of Mysteries. The death of his godfather still hurt, but not as badly as it did before, and having Remus to talk to helped immensely.

A loud rumble from his stomach told Harry he was hungry and he looked around, realizing his steps had brought he through the castle and back towards the Great Hall where dinner was about to begin. There was no sign of Dumbledore at the head table, and neither Ron nor Hermione were at the Gryffindor table. He sighed and made his way over to a seat across from Seamus and Dean and ate distractedly. He’d just have to see the headmaster the next day about Rus’ gift.

“Hey Harry, did you hear? Students can ask professors to the Ball and vice versa. Old Seamus here is gonna ask the DADA professor.”

Harry looked up startled. I could ask Rus, he thought before he remembered how much the man loathed him. “What are you on about Dean?”

“You know, the Christmas Ball? Well, I heard that Dumbledore is allowing the students and professors to go together if they want. We can even have dates that have graduated already if we want. Sprout asked Neville to go, can you believe it?”

Harry grinned. “Well at least she won’t make fun of him, and he’ll have somebody to talk to. But, isn’t this a bit, well, abnormal?”

“Nah,” came the reply. “Not really. It used to be done a long time ago. Neville said his grandmum told him about going with her Transfiguration professor when he was in her seventh year. Only seventh years can go with a professor though. Don’t know why it hasn’t been done since though,” he said, stuffing more food into his mouth. He chewed for a bit before continuing, “So whaddya think? Think Seamus here can get Professor Lupin to go with him?”

Harry shrugged, but internally he hoped so. Remus hadn’t been the same since Sirius died, and a bit of fun might actually be good for him. He’d been DADA professor for sixth year and was back again this year. I’ll talk to him about it, Harry decided.

“Don’t know really. Can’t hurt to try. But he’d better hurry. I think Parvati is planning to ask him too. At least, I think that who she was talking about. Wasn’t really paying attention.”

The conversation continued in that vein for the duration of dinner. Harry snuck looks at Snape whenever he thought no one was watching, but he never caught the man looking back. He was surer than ever that Mione had been wrong, but he couldn’t help hoping all the same. He also found himself wondering whom the man would be going with and if he was even going to be there at all.

***

Snape caught himself staring at the back of Harry’s head as he disappeared through the doors leaving the Great Hall. Gathering his robes and stalking to the side door the teachers used he headed for his chambers. He couldn’t help but wonder whom the young man would be taking to that blasted Ball. Probably some hair brained chit that would be all aflutter over going with the Boy Who Lived hoping for a romantic kiss under mistletoe or some Neanderthal prat of a boy with no true appreciation for the man Harry was. As he slid into the chair behind his desk, he couldn’t help but wish that it would be he who had the pleasure of kissing Harry under the mistletoe. Sighing, he took up the stack of parchment and prepared to grade what he was sure would be the most idiotic first year explanations of the properties and uses of truth serums.