His Happy Christmas

I would like to give a big hug and kiss to Madbrilliant for the beta-ing of this Fic!

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Chapter 8 – His Happy Christmas

The house was filled with general merriment and everything was splendid – everything except for the mood of a certain Headmaster and his Deputy.

It pained Minerva and Ginny to see the two of them so quiet that morning while everyone was excitedly ripping open presents and chatting. Ron even seemed to notice that both of them were forlorn, and he had tried to cheer Hermione up. By then, he had caught on and realized that Hermione was in love with the greasy git, and even though he didn't like it, he loved her like his own family and would do anything to see her happy and smiling.

For Hermione, it didn't really seem to excite her too much that it was Christmas day. All of the joy had been lost when Severus had not said a word to her the night before or ran after as she had walked away. She had been totally disheartened and just figured that he could never be interested in her romantically. Unfortunately, Minerva had managed to get her hopes up, and she now saw what a mistake it had been, if the silence of Severus that morning was an indicator.

Meanwhile, Severus was wondering how he should approach Hermione to apologise for rejecting her the night before with his silence. He wanted to go to her, but he wanted to give her space before he executed his plan to seduce her and make her his own. Somehow, Severus had come to the realisation that he was actually in love with her. He had open consent from Potter, Minerva, and everyone else who was even remotely close to her, to claim her.

He just needed a little longer.

Sighing, he looked across at her sad expression and felt his heart ache. Severus knew that he couldn't just leave her like that all day. He stood resolutely and came to sit beside her, noting the surprised expression on her face when he settled in comfortably.

'Happy Christmas,' he said softly.

She smiled sadly and nodded. 'Happy Christmas to you, Severus,' she replied.

'Have you received everything you wished for this holiday?' he teased lightly, searching her face for a reaction.

She laughed softly at that. 'Not quite, but I did get a lot of books, as per usual,' she answered, gesturing at the growing pile of them.

'I understand,' he murmured. 'I, too, always receive books; mostly because people are unaware that I have other interests than simply reading.'

Hermione's eyes widened and she stuck her hand in the direction of the doorway and muttered something under her breath. A wrapped parcel soon flew into her hand, and she turned it over nervously for a moment before holding it towards him.

'I knew you get books all of the time from people, and I went looking for something a bit different, and this was what I came up with,' she said nervously. 'I hope you like it. You're quite difficult to shop for, you know.'

Severus stared at the gift, wrapped in silver and gold paper and tied with a green and red ribbon. He smirked inwardly at the Gryffindorishness of the wrapping. It was just like a Gryffindor to wrap their own house colour with another. He carefully removed the ribbon and then peeled away the paper, focusing on preserving it to remember at a later date when he felt the need to. Inside was a box made of a dark mahogany wood, with Celtic symbols burnt into it intricately. The latch on it was silver and elaborate.

He opened it and inside was a glass vial embedded in dark green velvet. The vial was beautiful, stained a deep green at the bottom, and had a silver stopper with a serpent twisted into an intricate knot on it, a green jewel embedded into each of the eyes, as well as a larger one which the snake was wrapped around. He looked up at her and saw her smiling at how enraptured he had been by it.

'It's beautiful, thank you,' he said quietly.

'I'm glad you like it,' she replied. 'I saw it and thought of you. It is shatterproof, and has a stasis charm built in, so you can store pretty much anything in it.'

'This is a very thoughtful gift. I am sure that I will find a purpose for it when we return to Hogwarts,' he said sincerely.

Feeling disheartened, Hermione nodded, and then she stood and brushed out the imagined wrinkles in here clothes, before summoning her gifts into her arms and walking towards the door without so much as another word. Severus watched with a slight scowl marring his features for a moment before he stood to follow her this time. He was about to pass through the doors when Ronald Weasley stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.

'You're going after Hermione, aren't you?' he asked seriously.

Severus was about to snap something at the younger man, but held his tongue, figuring that if he just answered, he would be able to go after Hermione sooner. 'Yes, and I do not expect you to approve of that either,' he answered.

'Just treat her right, and I won't hex you into the next millennium,' Ron said, releasing him and walking back to join his family in the unwrapping of gifts.

Severus continued until he reached the stairs, and then, taking a deep breath, he mounted them, taking two at a time to get to his destination faster. He reached the third floor and walked briskly to the end of it, straightening his frock coat before he knocked on the door, grabbing the small wrapped gift from his pocket as he waited. The door opened and Hermione's face appeared in the crack she had allowed.

'Hermione... can I please come in?' he asked.

She opened her mouth to speak, and then closed it again, shaking her head. 'I – I don't think that's such a good idea,' she replied, tears welling up in her eyes.

She moved to close the door, but Severus was quicker, and he jammed a foot in the gap to stop her from closing him out completely. He knew she was upset with him, and she had every right. He just wanted to make sure that she got his gift for her, and that she knew he did care for her.

'Please – I know you don't want to see me at the moment, but at least take this,' he said, holding the gift out to her. 'I was – I was too scared to give it to you earlier.'

Hermione looked at the gift, just as tears began to slip from her eyes. Her bottom lip trembled a little, and Severus reached a hand towards her, brushing a fresh tear from her face tenderly. She was startled by this action and withdrew from him, letting go of the door and walking away from him into the room. Unwilling to disrupt her any more, he walked a few steps in, placed the gift on the vanity in the room, and left without another word.

When Hermione heard the door close, she turned to glance at it and saw that Severus had left, and that his gift was sitting on the vanity. She itched to pick it up and open it, but resisted, sitting on her bed and letting the tears come. It had been so long since she had cried, and she had been bottling for too long. After a few minutes, she stopped crying and blew her nose on a handkerchief that she recognized as the one Severus had handed to her the day a student in her class had exploded a cauldron and the contents had caused everyone in class to get severe nosebleeds.

She had kept it by accident and now was gazing at the embroidered initials on it in silent reflection. Sighing, she scourgified it clean and set it aside, before going to the vanity and picking up the present. She sat at the stool there and tugged the gold ribbon loose, followed by the action of carefully unwrapping the red paper and preserving it just as Severus had earlier.

Inside was a small ivory-coloured box, which reminded her of something she had seen once before. She opened it and gasped when she saw a pendant resting inside it. This had been the one she had seen that one time in the Jewelers in Diagon Alley, when she had gone there with Severus just before the new school year had begun. She had loved it, because it was a singular drop diamond, with silver twisted around it and hung from a thin silver chain.

Her eyes filled with tears once more at the thoughtfulness of his gift, and she felt a pang of regret for sending him away from her door. She lifted the pendant and chain from the box and put it on, standing and looking at it in the mirror. It was perfect – the perfect Christmas present. And he was perfect...

She gazed at the door and felt her heart ache. She made her way across the room and opened the door, looking across the hall at the door to his room. Hermione walked across to his room and lifted her hand up to knock on the door, but it opened before she even got the chance.

'Severus...' she said breathlessly, her cheeks still pink from crying, and the tears still wet on her face.

'Hermione...' he replied, and then his eyes fell on the pendant hanging around her neck and dipping down to just above the swell of her breasts.

She touched her hand to the pendant and smiled sadly at him. 'I love it, thank you,' she said softly.

Severus took the hand that was resting over the pendant and brought it to his mouth carefully, pressing his warm, thin lips in a meaningful kiss over her knuckles. She smiled at this. The day had looked like it was going to be a bad one, but this twist had certainly made it a wonderful one. The smile he returned was warmer than any smile she had ever seen on him. They mutually agreed to return to the happy party downstairs, wordlessly putting another little misunderstanding behind them.

As they descended the stairs, hands occasionally brushing, Severus handed her a pristine white handkerchief from his pocket for her to dry her tear-stained face with. 'Thank you,' she said when they had reached the bottom. 'I think I'll just nip into the bathroom quickly to freshen up, and then I'll join you.'

'Very well,' he replied with a nod, heading back to the gathering on his own.

On entering the room, he received pointed looks from about four people in there. Namely the Potters and Minerva, and even Ronald Weasley seemed to be interested in what had transpired. Severus nodded and waved them off and saw the smile that lit up Ginny Potter's face at this. He sat down where he and Hermione had been before while opening gifts and waited.

Soon enough, she re-entered the room looking just as fresh and beautiful as she had ever looked that morning and smiled brightly and nodded at her friends also. Severus found that there were far too many people aware of their regard for each other for his liking, but because he loved Hermione, he was going to let it pass. At least now, he was fairly certain that Minerva had been right when she had told him that Hermione had feelings for him. She would not have been so upset if she didn't.

She lowered herself comfortably onto the lounge right beside him. 'I hope that the Gryffindors aren't bothering you too much,' she said with a sheepish grin.

'No – not too much,' he replied, holding a hand to her, which she took readily with her own and twined their fingers together. He was pleased at her actions; however, he kept a decidedly neutral expression on his face.

'This has been a good Christmas,' she said, and he only nodded fervently in agreement.