Christmas Spirit

Chapter 1: First Year

Disclaimer:I don't own these characters...I just like to play pretend with them.

A/N Warning: This story will be AU, and I already suspect Severus is very OOC.

It was a week before Christmas and that meant it was only a few days before the glorious arrival of the Hogwarts Express. The thought that almost all the students in Hogwarts were about to leave for home put a spring in Severus' step, he had already planned the next two weeks solid with leisurely reading and potion brewing. Tightening the belt of his robe around his waist he slipped on a pair of worn slippers and carefully slipped out of his rooms determined to celebrate this newfound glee with a cup of tea and perhaps a thick ham sandwich as a midnight snack. Tickling the pear he quickly entered the kitchen tripping over a house elf that was carrying a bag of flour almost as big as it. Apologizing in a high squeaky voice the elf hurried off and another quickly replaced it giving a deep bow to Severus.

"Professor Snape sir!" the new house elf exclaimed as it began another deep bow.

"One bows enough," Severus hastily stated holding out a hand, "I would appreciate a pot of tea and a couple of ham sandwiches."

"Right away sir!" The house elf made a motion to bow again but stopped when Severus raised an eyebrow.

He made his way towards the large crackling fireplace and sat down on a nearby chair reveling in the warmth of the fire. Severus had just begun to sip his cup of tea when he heard a loud high pitched and very human exclamation.

Jumping up from his chair and spilling his cup of tea down his robe, Severus quickly glanced around the kitchen his wand at the ready. When his glance finally landed upon the disruption he had to cover his mouth with his free hand in order not to smile or worse, laugh. There standing in front of a torn sack of flour lying on the floor was the Granger girl completely covered in the white substance which still hung in the air around her.

"No!" She wailed again, her hands coming down dramatically to her sides creating another puff of flour. "I'll never get these cookies baked."

Severus completely recovered now from seeing his first year student still in her school uniform covered with a good layering of flour began to scowl. She was in clear violation of curfew and was in the kitchens. It took students until at least their third year until they figured out the secret of how to gain entrance into the kitchen. His scowl deepened, it must have been those Weasley twins who told her. He was just about to go and reprimand the girl and take a significant amount of house points off when another thought stopped him, why in the world was she covered in flour?

He was pondering this thought when Hermione turned and caught sight of him, the formidable potions master standing near one of the kitchen fireplaces in a robe and slippers. Her mouth formed a horrified 'O' and she quickly crouched down on all fours and scrambled beneath the nearest table.

"What?" Severus whispered to the air around him as he watched the Granger girl scramble beneath a table carefully aligning a stool in front of her body in an attempt to disappear. Smirking Severus shook his head, the girl was anything but an enigma and he was determined to find out what was causing her to hide beneath a table this late at night.

He could feel the girl's tension as he neared the table that she was curled up beneath and paused to either heighten her tension or to give himself a chance to back out, Severus didn't know. After his momentary pause he sighed and crouched down until he was eye to eye with not the Granger girl…but a stool. He studied the stool, looked around it, rubbed at his eyes in confusion and did a double take and the results were the same, the girl wasn't there. Narrowing his eyes Severus began to rise out of his crouch when he heard a clatter to the left of him, glancing over revealed the Granger girl in mid crawl halfway between tables wincing at what looked like a wooden spoon.

Severus' eyebrows rose a few inches in surprise, the girl had tried to sneak away from him. Him of all people! He could possibly understand trying to sneak away from other teacher's like that new twit Quirell or even Flitwick who was too short to even come eye to eye with the table but to try to sneak away from Severus Snape? If he wasn't so outraged he could have classified it as almost amusing. Almost.

"What," Severus whispered as he stood up and took a step toward the girl who realizing she had been caught had stood up and was turning to face him, "do you think you're doing?"

"T-trying to sneak away from you s-sir." Hermione stammered as she clenched her hands into fist in order to stop them from shaking. "It's not going very well."

He paused until he was only a few feet away from her and crossed his arms across his chest. He knew he should stop talking to the girl, immediately deduct at least fifty house points from her and give her a month's worth of detention split between himself and Filtch. But, call it Christmas spirit, lack of sleep or sheer stupidity Severus couldn't bring himself to do it just yet.

"I can see that Miss Granger," Severus smirked as she distracted herself by brushing off the flour that was still clinging to her, "but what I'm more concerned with is why you're breaking curfew."

She looked up, "So I can assume you're not concerned with why I'm down in the kitchens?"

"You're not making a good case for yourself Miss Granger." Severus replied stepping back a bit as a few specks of flour floated down upon the front of his robe.

"I've dug myself into a deep enough hole that I'm incapable of arguing anything better Professor." Hermione shrugged, causing another puff of flour to go up.

Sighing Severus took out his wand, made a noise of disapproval when Hermione flinched at the sight, and wordlessly spelled away the remaining flour. "I fear you are just delaying the inevitable Miss Granger, perhaps if you have a good enough reason I'll be lenient with you."

Looking down at her newly clean uniform Hermione smiled back at him, "I sincerely doubt that Professor but..." She twisted her hands nervously before her as a blush climbed up her neck and blossomed onto her face.

"But?" Severus demanded suddenly remembering that he was talking to a first year student, a first year Gryffindor for that matter he couldn't understand why he was being so… friendly with her. He hadn't shown his own house of Slytherin this much attention in the whole time he had been working at Hogwarts.

"But please don't have me expelled sir!" Hermione exclaimed, "I'll serve any type of detention as long as you don't expel me sir."

Coughing into his hand to prevent from laughing at the girl's outburst Severus cleared his throat and became somber again, "I will not have you expelled Miss Granger, I can assure you. Besides being caught out after curfew isn't as," he paused, "large as the troll situation that you were caught up in at Halloween."

Hermione let out the breath that she had been holding in a large sigh and placed a hand upon her heart, "I wouldn't want to be expelled over making Christmas cookies." Her eyes widened and she slapped her hand over her mouth glancing up at Severus who was utterly confused by it all.

"You," Severus pinched the bridge of his nose, "you were breaking curfew to bake Christmas cookies?"

"Yes?" Hermione questioned, her cheeks growing pink with embarrassment, "Except it was supposed to be a surprise." She nervously pushed a stray curl behind her ear, "For all of my Professors."

"You were baking cookies for your Professors?" A scowling Severus questioned as he looked back over at the table which was laden with baking supplies and cookie sheets. "At this hour? By yourself?"

Hermione said nothing and just nodded glancing past Severus to the table and torn flour bag that had caused the whole mess.

"Why didn't you just ask the house elves to bake them for you and deliver them to your professors for you?" Severus gestured around them, "Then you wouldn't be faced with this predicament."

"It wouldn't be the same!" Hermione shook her head, "They wouldn't be made by me. I wanted to give you all something I made…those are the best gifts. And with all of the homework that I have and getting ready to leave for home again I couldn't find the time until now…"

It was the most ridiculous thing Severus had ever heard, a student risking detention and loss of house points just so they could make cookies…cookies for their professors? Severus shook his head as studied the girl, she was more than just an enigma she was a force to be reckoned with. He decided then that he would let her off this one time. Call it Christmas spirit or Christmas stupidity Severus found the whole situation too strange to even contemplate further.

"Miss Granger what I'm about to tell you, no," he paused trying to form the words better, "our whole interaction tonight, this, will not be spoken of again not to me or anyone else. You will also forget the leniency I'm going to show you. Do you understand?"

Hermione eagerly nodded, "Yes sir, Professor… my lips are sealed!" She emphasized the statement by holding up a finger to her lips.

"Good." Was all Severus said as he turned on his heel and left the kitchen pausing only for a moment to hear, 'Merry Christmas!' being called after him by the girl.

In the week that followed Severus waited half expectantly for the promised Christmas cookies that the Granger girl had risked so much for, they weren't to be found the day after their midnight interaction nor were they to be found in the days leading up to the arrival of the Hogwarts Express. Severus began to become agitated when the cookies weren't delivered on the day the students left for their respectable houses and he almost took all of Gryffindor's house points when the Potter and Weasley boys were what he deemed disruptive at dinner that night. By Christmas Eve Severus was practically outraged there were no cookies, the girl had lied to him of all people. He spent half the night scheming up reasons to give the girl at least three months of detention with Filch and drifted off to dreams of the girl painstakingly polishing every trophy in the castle.

On Christmas Severus awoke to the small pop of a house elf's departure and glanced blearily at the end of his bed at the meager piling of presents gathered there. Pulling the sheets up a bit higher in order to retain as much warmth as he could for an extra hour of sleep Severus heard a small clink. Sitting up in bed again he glanced back down at the presents there was the poorly wrapped multicolored wool socks from Dumbledore with a matching wool hat and the tin of ginger newts from McGonagall. Those were the two presents he always could count on at Christmastime, occasionally he got a card from his other colleagues but that was it. So what in the world caused that clinking noise? Taking a deep breath Severus gathered his courage and brought his feet out of their warm encasement in his sheets and down on the cold floor. Smirking he studied the well worn woolen socks that he wore, Dumbledore never did guess that Severus actually used the socks he sent him.

Shaking his head Severus slipped on his robe and made his way to the end of his bed to discover what the clinking culprit was. There shining dully on the ground was a small silver tin. Scowling Severus snatched the tin up and sat back in bed pulling the sheets quickly about him again for warmth. Taped on top of the tin was a plain envelope, after studying it for a few minutes Severus slowly tore the envelope open shocked when a small piece of parchment slid out into his palm.

He quickly opened the folded piece of parchment to read what it said:

"Merry Christmas Professor Snape!

Sincerely,

Hermione Granger"

Severus smirked as he folded the note and carefully placed it back into the envelope. The girl had made due on her promise, he glanced down at the silver tin half debating whether he should give in to the temptation of tearing the lid off and devouring its contents while he was still snug in his bed or if he should wait for a more suitable hour. The softness of his pillow and the warmth of his bed eventually won out over temptation and after carefully slipping both tin and note onto his nightstand Severus pulled the covers up over his head and fell back into a dreamless sleep.

It wasn't until the late afternoon sun began to shine through a gap in his curtain did he stir again, hunger gnawing at his stomach as he stretched out his joints and frowned as they popped. Rolling out his neck and shoulders Severus eyed the tin of cookies and got out of bed. After a shower, a change of clothes and the selection of a good book Severus was finally ready. Sitting further back into his chair he took a sip of his favorite tea and popped the lid open. He had to paw away several layers of parchment paper until he found the promised Christmas cookies and he had to lift an eyebrow at what he found.

There was a number of shortbread cookies cut out in different Christmas shapes, each dripping with colored icing and what he thought were sprinkles. He then lifted what looked like a misshaped ornament. The top had splotches of red icing that had slowly melted down the side bringing tiny green metallic sprinkles down with it. Turning the cookie over Severus saw the bottom hadn't faired any better. It was dark brown in color and looked as if it had an inch of burnt flour coated on the bottom. Taking a large gulp of tea for courage Severus bit into the cookie his lips pursing as the taste of sugary icing, burnt cookie and a tremendous heap of flour mixed together in a horrific combination. Flinching Severus threw the cookie into the tin and drained the remaining tea in his mug.

"She risked detention for that?" Severus spat out as he rubbed his sleeve vigorously against his lips. "Is she trying to kill us all?"

Placing the tin on the floor Severus eyed it warily, that had to be one of the worst cookies he had ever tasted, and his mother had been a horrid cook. Half his childhood memories were full of smoke billowing ovens and burnt to a crisp premade cookies slathered in store bought icing. Shaking his head Severus nudged the tin even further from him with the toe of his boot, even though it was the first present a student had ever given him he could not bring himself to stomach another bite. That was the only reason he had even tried the cookie in the first place.

It was no secret that Severus Snape was a man who received many Christmas presents, and the few he did were highly cherished so when he had come across the Granger girl risking hide and hair for the chance to make HIM Christmas cookies he had been hopeful. He should have known though, the girl was Gryffindor after all and the 'know –it-all' bravado that she put on in class clearly didn't extend to anything beyond it. Sighing Severus bent down and retrieved the tin, he studied the top. It was a pretty tin. Silver, embossed with snowflakes and gold trees, he could tell that it had cost a bit of money. He glanced at the small tin of ginger newts he had received from McGonagall. In a few fluid movements he had dumped Granger's tin of cookies out into the wastebasket, and carefully placed the others inside. Satisfied Severus poured himself another cup of tea, placed the tin on his lap and continued reading.

It was later that night when he was sitting with Dumbledore and had gotten through with thanking him for the socks and hat that the old man had turned to Severus with a gleam in his eye. "And tell me Severus, did you too receive a tin from Miss. Granger?"

Severus coughed on his pumpkin juice as he remembered the nightmare cookie, "Y-yes I did."

"Ah, I thoroughly enjoyed her lemon bars. They were quite scrumptious once one got past the fact that she had inadvertently used cornstarch instead of powdered sugar for the dusting on top." Dumbledore paused to take a sip of his own drink and smiled, "I think it was very considerate of Ms. Granger to find out what our favorite baked goods were. Minerva was just telling me that she received a splendid assortment of slightly burnt gingerbread from the girl."

"What do you mean she found out our favorite baked goods?" Severus asked, highly suspicious.

"Didn't you know? Ms. Granger went around to all the professors and asked what our favorite Christmas treat was and then of course she baked them specifically for us. Although she did ask me about you Severus, I dare say she was too nervous to ask you herself. Did you get a tin of iced shortbread cookies then?"

"Yes," Severus diverted his attention to the mashed potatoes on his plate.

Wiping his lips on a napkin Dumbledore nodded, "I know I do not have to remind you Severus but good manners do dictate that you should-"

"Send her a thank you card." Severus muttered, "I did grow up with some manners."

That was how Severus found himself hunched over at his desk, ink stains on his fingertips trying to organize a thank you note. Three crumpled letters already littered his desk and he grumbled over the fourth. He had never had a reason to send a student a thank you note before. In actuality he never had a reason to send a thank you note since his mother had died. The last thank you note he had ever written was to his great aunt Margaret in accordance to her sending a 10 pound note to help with the funeral arrangements of that, "poor sweet girl" that had been married to her nephew.

Pinching the bridge of his nose Severus hunched his shoulders over and started again.

Ms. Granger,

Thank you for the tin of Christmas cookies.

-Professor S. Snape

Severus sat back and reread what he had just written. It was short, to the point and wasn't over the top he thought. Of course he couldn't convey his brusque manner into writing but this letter would be sufficient enough.

It was the day before the students returned back from their Christmas break when Severus received a letter. It was unceremoniously dropped on top of the toast he had just finished buttering. Growling under his breath he snatched the now butter coated envelope up and ripped it open. Fumbling inside he tore out the letter from inside read it and dropped it on top of his buttered toast, again.

" Professor Snape,

I'm so glad.

Sincerely,

Hermione Granger"

The girl had written back. She had bloody written back after he sent her a thank you note. It through him for a loop, he didn't know what to do. Dumbledore who was sitting beside him again looked over, "I hope its good news Severus."

"Uh," Severus hesitated quickly smashing the letter back into the envelope, "yes, yes, of course it is."

Nodding Dumbledore turned his attention back to his own breakfast.

Scowling at the envelope Severus shoved it deep into his pocket determined not to think of it again.

And Severus didn't think of the letter again, he hardly had time to with the mess that the rest of the year provided. But he did keep the silver cookie tin and stocked it regularly with cookies and although he would never admit it he did keep the letters the Granger girl had sent him tucked into a heavy leather bound potion book in his personal library.

Hermione didn't think about her own letter either, but when she returned home that summer and slowly cleaned out her trunk she carefully placed the thank you letter into her 'Hogwarts a History' book and slid it back into its place on the bookshelf. And when her mother asked if she'd like to bake cookies, Hermione always insisted on making iced sugar cookies, determined to make an edible batch by next Christmas.

A/N: I forgot I had this story lurking on my computer until now, it's about a month too late for Christmas but I'm sure we could all go for some Christmas spirit. This story looks like it will be eight chapters long. One chapter for each of Hermione's seven years, followed by an epilogue.

Reviews are greatly appreciated.