Disclaimer: picks up potion vial and drinks "I am J K Rowling and I own all of the Harry Potter – what do you mean I have whiskers?" feels face "Damn… I must have got hair from one of J K Rowling's cats. Stupid Polyjuice Potion… Don't worry, I'll erase their memories and give them back when I've finished playing with them. I promise." puts on innocent face

It was two days into the Christmas Holidays and Severus Snape was bored of grading essays, which was surprising in itself as that was what he usually did for every holiday when he would have some peace and quiet. Now that the war was over he decided that it was time for him to live a little, unlike how the rest of his life had been.

Dumbledore had said that he needed to get out and do some of the things that he had never done as a child. That was why he found himself outside on the frozen lake with ice skates tied up tight on his feet one cold December morning. He had just fallen over onto his backside, for the 7th time in the last 5 minutes. Why anyone would do this for fun was beyond him.

He had just gotten up again and he tried to lift one foot up and put it down again in front of the other. He stubbed his toe into the ice and fell flat onto his face once more.

Sounds of laughter where coming closer and Severus prayed that whoever it was, they were just laughing at a joke or something and would soon go back inside the castle if they had any sense. That was the best place to be in the middle of winter. Falling over on his backside onto the freezing snow and looking more clumsy that Longbottom wasn't exactly his idea of relaxing.

The idea of someone seeing him on the ice in his moment of weakness was mortifying. As he turned to face the person who was getting so much amusement out of his bad luck, to his horror, he saw Minerva McGonagall practically rolling on the floor with laughter. She probably would have been if it weren't so cold.

"Would you like to explain just what is so amusing?" Severus asked her grumpily.

"No, not particularly." She replied through her giggles.

Severus got up again and attempted to stalk of the ice, but unfortunately forgot that he was still wearing his ice skates and fell to the ground again. He cursed loudly and sat where he had fallen.

"Would you like some help?" Minerva called out to him, trying not to start laughing once more.

"I'm just fine on my own thank-you very much." He replied with a sneer.

"That's why you keep falling over, I'm sure." Minerva waved her wand and summoned her own pair of ice skates. She quickly did a spell to tie them up and stepped out onto the ice. Severus waited for her to fall over, but it was soon obvious that he would be waiting for a long time, as she seemed to be really good at this. She jumped into the air and landed back onto the ice spinning.

Make that really, really good. She went into another spin where she started off standing on one foot and then crouched down with one leg stretched out, almost touching the ground, still spinning. Severus was amazed that a woman of her age could do that. He didn't think she was that flexible.

Minerva skated around Severus in a circle before stopping directly in front of him. She quickly pulled him up.

"Now, put your feet like this." She said, showing him how her feet had their toes pointing outwards slightly.

Severus did this and told her he felt like a duck with his feet out at such an odd angle. He immediately regretted saying this, as Minerva started to giggle again.

"That's because you look like a duck when you are like that. Your feet aren't supposed to go that far sideways. Just a little bit." She adjusted his feet slightly. "That's better. Now try to push one foot out in front of you, and move it in the direction its pointing in. I'll hold you're arm so that you don't fall over."

Severus had half a mind to tell her politely, or maybe not so politely, to go away and leave him alone and that he was fine on his own, but he found that he wanted to learn how to do this, even if it meant having Minerva teach him how. Carefully, he lifted one foot up and put it back down again as Minerva pulled him along.

He found it was easy when he had someone helping him along. It was a while before he realised that Minerva was at the other side of the lake and no longer holding him up. He overbalanced and almost fell over, but stopped himself just in time by putting his hands out in front of himself. He straitened out and took a deep breath. He had done it! He wasn't sure for how long, but now that he knew it would be easier to do next time. He was sure of it.

He was just skating back over to Minerva to show her that he could now do it, when he hit a crack in the ice and fell forwards into her. They both crashed into the ice, Minerva breaking Severus's fall. He quickly rolled off of her, hoping that she hadn't noticed the situation of his body.

She looked at him with her eyebrows raised, causing him to blush. That was the second time today. Semi-evil, Ex-Death Eater, biased, greasy git potion masters don't blush!

They both got up, and thankfully, didn't say anything about what had just happened.

It was starting to get dark and Minerva stopped and turned to tell Severus that they should probably go back inside. What she didn't realise was that he was right behind her. He tried, unsuccessfully, to stop so that they could avoid another collision. Severus grabbed her shoulder to stop himself from falling over again.

He managed not to fall, but then he looked at where his hand was and almost fainted out of mortification. He had grabbed her somewhere highly inappropriate. Severus quickly removed his hand but the damage was done. He expected her to rage and storm at him any moment.

She just scowled at him. His first thought was to try to explain himself, which he stuffed up by saying "I've had my eyes on it-I mean you, for quiet a while now. I really like you, as I'm sure you noticed earlier." Damn, he was blushing again. He had just made it worse, he was sure of it!

That's why he was so surprised when she stood up on the points of her skates and whispered "Well, if you wanted to do that you should have told me. We should probably take this inside though; it's a bit cold for that sort of thing out here."

Severus didn't even have time to blush this time, as she pulled him into a mind-blowing kiss. He had absolutely no objections. "My quarters?" he asked, breathlessly.

Minerva kissed him in reply, so he took it as a 'yes'.

"You do realise that we have to tell the rest of the staff about this, don't you?" Minerva asked Severus as they walked towards the staff room.

"I suppose that's a good idea," Severus said slowly "Since you came up with it you can tell them." He smirked at her.

She pouted, but Severus was having none of it. "It's a wonderful idea, so you should have the honour. Where's your Gryffindor bravery?" he asked teasingly.

"Fine, fine. I'll tell everyone if you answer any questions that they have."

"I suppose that sounds fair." He replied, thinking it over as they rounded the last corner.

As they walked through the door Minerva pulled Severus to her and kissed him in front of the whole room. There where shocked gasps heard all around. Everyone began bombarding them with questions as soon as they got over their shock.

"Well, as they already seem to know, I think it's time for you to answer some questions, Sev." Minerva said with a sly grin.

"You did that deliberately!" he accused her.

"Of course." She replied "It was fun, too."

Minerva and Severus apparated to the burrow later on in the day to tell all of the Weasley's the news.

"Guess what?" Severus asked before Minerva had a chance to knock on the door.

"What?"

"You get to answer the questions this time."

This time Severus opened the door, but he didn't feel brave enough to kiss Minerva in front of all of the Weasley's. He instead tried to tell everyone using words, which probably wasn't the best idea, as he soon found out.

"I-we have something we would like to tell everyone." Severus started. "Minerva and I are-well she helped me learn to ice skate…and kissing…" he was stuttering really badly and had absolutely no idea what he was saying.

"Did she teach you to kiss, too?" Inquired George in a mocking tone.

"I bet that would have been hard to do…Professor McGonagall, you deserve a medal of some sort." Fred added.

Severus didn't seem to be able to say anything coherent. He was still muttering about kissing and ice skating. Everyone was snickering behind their hands, although if they had laughed out loud, he wouldn't have noticed.

Minerva kissed him again and he seemed to go back to almost his normal state, except he had a slight grin on his face.

"You know what? We need to set some people up with each other. It's no fun being single, so we should help everyone find someone special." Severus said with a smile.

"Severus, are you alright? You sound a little…well a little too cheerful compared to what you are usually like." Molly Weasley asked kindly, giggling at the same time.

"I'm perfectly fine. I have the best plan. We just have to get them together sometime." He whispered the rest of the plan to Minerva, who told everyone else, seeing as Severus still wasn't making all that much sense.

"Fred and I are taking bets! Anyone want in?" George shouted to the rest of the room.

Fin

AN. This one-shot was written for a plot bunnie challenge between Emeraldeyes4eva and Prof. M.

Set in the Christmas holidays when all the students have gone home. Severus is out at the lake and is trying to learn how to ice skate. Minerva sees his attempt and goes out to teach him how. He falls and tries to grab hold of something to stop himself falling over and accidentally grabs hold of Minerva.

Minerva scowles at him.

"I've had my eyes on it-I mean you, for quite a while." Severus tells her with a blush.

Minerva says that they should take it inside.