A/N: This is a little present from me to you. I really do appreciate you reading my stories, so thank you. I hope you accept it in the spirit in which it was given. Happy Christmas everyone! Dx
Severus Snape walked rapidly through the door of the kitchen in Grimmauld Place heading towards the fireplace, intending to Floo away before someone stopped him and made him stay for the Christmas party that was taking place that night. He had no intention of being stuck there all evening talking to people he didn't really like and who didn't like him in return. It was much easier all round if he just slipped away, without any fuss, back to his cold, dark, and quiet dungeon rooms.
He went to take another step but couldn't move. He was stuck. He heard a snicker and glaring round he saw Fred and George Weasley killing themselves with laughter. Severus looked up and sighed loudly. Oh, great, he was stuck under the mistletoe. Those bloody twins. He was going to kill them if he ever got out of this.
The Potions Master glared at the twins nastily, which did nothing but prompt yet another gale of laughter.
Severus was well aware that his chances of getting out of his predicament actually weren't all that good. The only release from the spell of the mistletoe was a willing kiss from an eligible partner. Of all the people who visited Grimmauld Place he could think of few who would be considered 'eligible' and none who would be likely to willingly kiss the snarky Potions Master. Immediately he began to feel uncomfortable, knowing that once again he was going to be the butt of everyone's jokes.
By now more Order members were appearing in the kitchen, which was always the hub of the Headquarters, and each one laughed as they realised Severus' predicament, but as expected no one offered to help him — although surprisingly several, including Molly, Tonks and Minerva, apologised for not being able to help as they weren't eligible.
Severus' anger was growing by the moment. Now Potter and his little chums had arrived and were evidently taking great pleasure in his predicament, although the Granger brat actually looked sorry for him, which was even worse. He wondered when he saw her redden slightly whether she would be the one to free him, but his scowl seemed to put her off.
Good! He didn't want to be in debt to that little know-it-all.
Worse still, the Christmas party was getting into full swing and he was stuck right in the middle of it. Severus hated Christmas parties with a vengeance and definitely didn't want to be at this one. He had expected to be safely back at Hogwarts before all this nonsense started — and then he had got trapped. Now Albus was in the room with that infernal twinkle in his eye, which for some reason really infuriated him.
Remus wandered over with a glass of wine and a mince pie and offered it to him.
'You may as well while you're standing there,' he announced cheerfully.
Snape silently added him to his death list — the list of people who were going to die a slow and very painful death once he managed to get free; the Weasley twins being at the top.
'So nice to see you at the party, Severus,' Albus said happily as he wandered over to him, that horrid twinkle in his eye.
Severus wouldn't have put it past the man to have put the twins up to the trick in the first place to make sure he attended the party.
'I didn't really have much choice in the matter, did I, Albus?' retorted a very grumpy Potions Master between gritted teeth. His scowl was worse than usual. 'In fact, it looks like I'll be becoming a permanent fixture in the Grimmauld Place kitchen,' he snarled nastily.
Albus smiled. 'Oh, don't worry, dear boy, I'm sure you'll be fine.'
Twinkling again, he reached out and placed a red and white felt Santa's hat on Severus' head. The Potions Master, unable to stop him, groaned and rolled his eyes. The Headmaster swiftly moved to the top of the death list.
He heard the doorbell again. Ye gods, was this misery never going to end? Looking at the new arrivals, he noticed more students amongst them. Fantastic, yet more people to laugh at him and make the rest of the school year a complete and utter misery as they recounted the tale to their friends back at Hogwarts.
Severus scowled again. Until this moment he had not realised just how many people were now in the Order of the Phoenix, and worse still, they had all obviously decided to attend the Christmas party. There was a commotion outside the door and he saw the twins rush to greet someone, obviously extremely pleased to see them.
He could hear a lot of laughing and whispering — no doubt the twins telling the new arrival about him being trapped. Still laughing, the twins escorted their guest into the room. Severus recognised her immediately, an old student of his called Sabrina Midgen. He was aware that she was a member of the Order, but she had never come to Grimmauld Place before, at least not when he was there.
Sabrina's long, dark hair shone and her bright blue eyes were twinkling with a smile. She looked beautiful, dressed in a simple yet elegant black dress with high-heeled court shoes. Of course, she had never had the acne problems of her younger sister Eloise and had always been a pretty girl. Severus remembered how much time the twins had spent chasing her when they were at school. From what he remembered the three of them had become pretty close so it was little surprise that she was in on their joke.
It wasn't long before Sabrina was off mingling with the other guests. Severus wasn't sure whether he was glad or annoyed that she was ignoring him. At least she wasn't laughing at him openly as some of the other guests were.
Remus returned to his side again with another glass of wine, this time bringing Kingsley Shacklebolt with him, and Severus grudgingly took the drink, figuring that as he had no choice but to be there he might as well get drunk – it couldn't possibly get any more unbearable.
By now Sabrina was back and talking animatedly to Albus and it hadn't taken Severus long to realise that they were standing close enough for him to hear their conversation.
'. . . Well, I think it's nice that you finally managed to get Professor Snape to attend one of the parties,' Sabrina was saying brightly. She laughed softly as she looked at him for a moment with a smile.
Immediately, Severus considered putting her on the death list too, but then he realised that whilst she was teasing him she wasn't actually being malicious — and he already had more than enough people to kill when, or if, he finally managed to get free of the mistletoe. He wondered gloomily for a moment whether the charm ever wore off. Would the bloody plant die once Christmas was over or would he really be destined to spend the rest of his life at Grimmauld Place, with that bastard Black constantly taking the piss?
For a moment he thought of the Granger girl again, wondering if maybe he would have to find a way to get her to release him after all, although the idea was no less distasteful than it had been earlier.
Sabrina stayed within sight of Severus and he watched as Albus was called away to talk to Kingsley. It was no surprise that almost immediately Fred and George re-joined her.
'I see no one's kissed Snape yet,' Fred said conversationally. George sniggered nastily.
'Yes, I'm really surprised by that,' mused Sabrina.
The boys stared at her, looking dumbfounded. 'What?' they both said together.
'Well, I know there are loads of people here who want to kiss him. I guess they're all just too shy to go for it,' she announced.
The men, including Snape himself, looked at her as if she had gone completely mad.
'You've got be joking,' George said, sounding quite disgusted at the idea of a posse of people wanting to kiss Snape.
'Who would want to kiss that great greasy git?' said Fred at the same time, sounding equally disgusted.
Sabrina looked at them steadily. 'Well, me, for starters.'
She said it quietly, and then without pausing she moved quickly over to her ex-Potions teacher. She gave him a wink; then, moving closer, she gently kissed him on the lips, pulling the Santa hat off his head as she did so.
Severus felt the charm break and realised he could move. Instead of moving away as he had expected, he felt Sabrina press against him, the kiss becoming deeper and more passionate the longer it went on. The alcohol he had consumed had lowered his reserve and without worrying about being seen, for the first time in his life, he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her closer to him. She responded in the same manner and the kiss continued, whilst around them everyone stopped to watch in shock.
He could feel his sudden erection pressing through his trousers and against Sabrina's hip as they held each other tightly. As the kiss came to an end, she smiled at him. He knew that she could feel him hard against her; her eyes told him so.
'Mmmmm, yes please,' she whispered in his ear and leant in to kiss him again.
Not breaking the kiss and not caring who was watching, Severus gently picked Sabrina up and carried her out of the kitchen, taking her up the stairs to the room that he stayed in on the very odd occasion when he stopped over at the house. The audience was silent around them, still apparently unable to believe their eyes, as they watched the couple leave.
The silence was finally broken by Albus announcing loudly, 'I told you that mistletoe was a good idea.'
The spell broken, everyone started to laugh and the party continued both downstairs and up.