It was the beginning of December, and the grounds were starting to freeze. Snow hadn't completely shown up yet, but Harry could feel that it was coming. Although the end of the first term were coming and that meant tests, the students didn't seem to be worried about them. Harry was grateful for that, as he decided to take advantage of the warmth of the library and didn't want to be surrounded by studying students.

As a student, Harry didn't have time to enjoy what the library had to offer. If he were in there, it was to study, or to find information that would help them in the war. He never got the chance to pick up a book and read it for pleasure. It was one of things he enjoyed most now as an adult.

He was walking down one of the aisle slowly, letting his fingers caress the spines of the books as he passed them. He read each title, waiting for one to jump out at him. He had finished his last book the night before and he was itching for a new one.

His fingers stopped on an older book, the spine almost falling apart. Harry read the title and decided that he would read a few pages before taking it to his room. He lifted the book from its spot and walked over to the back corner of the library, where four large fluffy armchair were positioned in a circle. He chose his favorite of the four and sat with his legs underneath him and his arm leaning on edge of the chair. He sat the book in his lap and opened it to the first page.

He was so engrossed in the book that he missed the sound of footsteps approaching. He only looked up when a shadow fell over the pages of his book. "Are you…reading? For fun?" The headmaster asked with an incredulous look.

Harry watched the amusement flicker across the man's face. Harry wanted nothing more than for it to happen again. "As crazy as it seems, that's exactly what I'm doing."

"Well Mr. Potter, I don't think anything else you do in your life could surprise me more." Harry seriously doubted that. He could think of a few things he wanted to do right now that would shock the man.

Harry just chuckled in response and looked back at his book. Not that he could read it with the man looming over him.

Severus seemed to sense that and he sat in one of the chairs across from Harry. "When did you become such a bibliophile?"

Harry closed his book lightly, obviously not getting any further in it. He sat it down on the table between them. "When I traveled with Puddlemere United, we would stop in a dozen different cities for tournaments. Obviously I didn't know anyone, so I decided reading would keep me company."

Severus nodded, as if he understood. "And what kind of books does the hero of the wizarding world find interesting?"

Harry ignored the jab. He was just happy that the man was asking him questions for once. Maybe it meant that Severus was trying to get to know him. "Fiction mostly. I have been trying to make my way through the classics."

"That's surprising. I figured you would go for the more recent works."

Harry just shrugged, not sure what to say to that. They lapsed into silence again. "Do you have any plans for Christmas?" Harry asked, trying to keep the awkwardness to a minimum.

Severus gave him a look that made him feel like an idiot, "I'm the Headmaster. I must stay here for the holidays."

"Well yea, but I'm sure you could take a couple hours to go visit family on Christmas day." Harry didn't want him to think he was stupid.

Severus just shook his head, "I'm sure I could, but I do not have any such family to visit." Harry looked for some sign of sadness or regret, but he didn't see any.

Harry nodded in understanding, "Yea. Me either."

Severus raised an eyebrow, "I thought you considered the Weasleys family."

Harry was surprised Severus even knew that. It wasn't a secret, but you had to know Harry to know that about him. "Of course I do, and I'll be going over there on Christmas eve to celebrate. But it's not the same. I don't know, it's hard to explain."

"There's no need to explain." Severus answered, "I shared the same feelings about the Malfoy family." That was something Harry didn't know about the man. He knew they were close, hence Severus being named godfather over Draco.

"You could come, if you want." Harry said suddenly. He surprised even himself with that statement.

Severus furrowed his eyebrows, "Where exactly?"

"To the Weasleys. For Christmas eve. They have a big feast and invite people over to celebrate. It's not just a bunch of redheads."

"I do not think that would be appropriate." Severus answered with a bit of an uncomfortableness between them.

"Why?"

"They did not invite me themselves. So the only appropriate way to just show up would be as your plus one."

Harry was stunned for a second. He hadn't considered that. He was not the best at remembering social conventions. Of course Severus couldn't just show up because Harry invited him. That would be rude. "Oh."

Severus looked at Harry with amusement. And it looked to Harry that he was smiling. It was subtle and most people would confuse it with a grimace, but Harry was sure it was more than that. He smiled back at him.

Severus looked around and put his arms on the sides of the chair as to leave, "I shall leave you to your reading then?" It seemed almost like a question to Harry. As if Severus did not want to leave but thought maybe Harry wanted him to.

"Oh. Well I mean if you have somewhere better to be." Harry answered, tossing the ball into Severus' court. He didn't want to be the one to admit he was enjoying the other man's company.

Severus stared at Harry with an intense look, "I do not."

Harry nodded, "Well. Ok then." And Severus relaxed back into his chair again. It was a subtle exchange. One that did not seem like much to an outsider, but to Harry, it held much more meaning. It was an acknowledgment from the other man that there was something going on between the two of them. And even more than that, it seemed like Severus also wanted to see where it went.

And so they sat in the back of the library and talked.

It was there that Draco found them an hour later. The book on the table lay forgotten and Harry was sitting back in his seat with his legs on the table. Severus was not so informal, but he was leaning back in his chair with his chin on his hand as if listening intently to what Harry was saying.

"Hey there!" Draco exclaimed, not really caring that he was interrupting the two. He plopped himself down into one of the empty chairs. "What's up?"

Harry smiled politely at Draco. The guy was his friend after all, even if he was interrupting the best hour of Harry's life. He wouldn't hold it against him this time. "Hey." He said simply, ignoring the other question.

Severus nodded towards Draco with a cool, neutral expression. "Draco."

"So it's fucking freezing out there." Draco went on, not really noticing the tightness in the air.

"That's what happens when it becomes winter." Harry said with a laugh.

Severus stood up, Harry noticed with sadness. Their conversation was obviously over. Damn Malfoy. "Well I will leave you boys to it." There wasn't a question to it this time. And the term boys left a bad taste in Harry's mouth. He hoped that wasn't what Severus saw him as.

"Bye, Sev!" Draco said without a care in the world.

Harry couldn't bring himself to say goodbye. He just watched the older man walk towards him as he passed. He stopped just at the edge of the chair, his hand touching the fabric just centimeters away from Harry's fingers. He looked down at Harry, "I shall talk to you later." Harry's heart soared. He nodded quickly. Snape tapped his fingers twice on the chair as if to push himself into motion, and then walked away.

Harry mentally high fived himself for not turning to watch him leave. Instead he smiled at Draco, trying to act calm and collected.

Draco wasn't buying it. "So what were you guys doing?"

"Just talking," Harry shrugged.

Draco wiggled his eyebrows, "Just talking?" It was a little too suggestive for Harry's liking.

He narrowed his eyes at his friend, "Yes," he said slowly. "Why do you ask? What do you know?"

Draco grinned, "Oh you know, just that you are crushing hard on my godfather."

Harry sputtered, "What? I don't know what you're talking about!"

Draco rolled his eyes and sat back in his chair, "Oh whatever, Potter. You're so obvious."

Harry scoffed. And then scoffed again. "Pffft." He was great at comebacks.

Draco couldn't help but laugh at his pathetic friend, "Ok you're not obvious. Not to anyone else. But to your best, coolest, most awesome friend, it's hard to miss."

Harry dropped his head into his hands, humiliated that Draco knew. Despite what he said, if Draco knew, then others probably did too. He didn't want to worry about everyone else while he tried to figure out what was going on between Severus and him. He just wanted simple.

"Hey, don't worry about it." Draco said, reaching forward to slap Harry on the shoulder, "But man are you bold! First guy you've ever seriously been interested and you chose Severus Snape."

Harry shot Draco a deadly look. "Shut up, Malfoy. People may hear you!"

"There's no one in here. Besides after all the help you gave me with Ginny, I feel like I need to return the favor."

Harry stood up quick, "No! Don't you dare." He started walking away from the blonde.

Draco jogged to catch, "Come on, Potter! I'm like the perfect man for the job."

"Draco." Harry said warningly.

Draco began to circle Harry excitedly like a puppy, "Let me heeeelp," he whined.

"Draco Malfoy. If you do not get away from me right now, I will drop kick you." Harry threatened.

Draco stopped and held his hands up in surrender. "Ok ok. I'm going." Harry kept going in the direction of his rooms and Draco stood in the middle of the hallway with a large grin on his face. Harry was going to need a new friend soon.


Harry's ability to find a new friend proved futile. And so, he was stuck with Draco as his Christmas shopping partner. He tried to convince Hermione to go but she was trying to catch up with school stuff before the term ended. He could have gone alone but he never would have heard the end of it from Draco when he found out.

There were walking slowly through a bazaar in Paris that Draco suggested. He told Harry that it specialized in exotic items. After years of getting his friends presents, he had to step out of the box before he ended up getting Ron another Chudley Cannon shirt.

Draco had already found the perfect present for Ginny and could not stop talking about that accomplishment. After rolling his eyes for the millionth time, Harry decided to split up from him to look around on his own. He looked around a booth that was full of odds and ends. He didn't like to get people trinkets that just sat on a shelf and looked pretty. He liked things that were useful. Harry knew the kind of thing he wanted to get Hermione. As a new professor, he figured she might appreciate things that would help her in potions. So he was looking for things specific to potions. He found some basic cauldrons and scales, but nothing was jumping out at him.

He was perusing a case of knives when one caught his attention. It was black and shiny with a hint of red throughout. He flagged down the shop attendant, "What is this one made of?"

The attendant opened the case and withdrew the small knife, it glistened in the light. "It's dragonglass."

"Dragonglass?" Harry had never heard of it.

The attendant looked at Harry like he was a child, "Dragonglass, made from the fire of dragons? It is rare and dead useful in potions and even healing."

"Healing? Why does it help with that?"

"It's wicked sharp and when used on live things, it stops the bleeding instantly. So it is a good tool for getting samples without having to give blood restoring potions to the donor. Also in potion-making, it allows you to get precise sized ingredients. Are you interested?" She looked eager for the sale.

Harry looked at the knife again. It was beautiful. And he knew someone that would get great use out of it, but what if he had one, "I don't know. It would be a gift for someone and I'm not sure if they have something like this already."

The attendant scoffed, "I doubt they have anything like this. Not only is it rare, but the price alone makes it almost impossible that they have one."

Harry frowned at that, "How much is it?"

The attendant pointed him to a sign and Harry's eyes grew comically wide. I mean he had the money, sure, but that was a lot of money to spend on someone that he wasn't even dating. But it was the perfect present. There was nothing else that Harry could find today that would be better. Harry sighed. He was screwed. "I'll take it." He told the attendant, who looked like she could cry. "Do you have anything that would be good for someone that wants to become a potions master?"

The attendant gestured him towards another shelf, "Yes! These crystal jars are perfect for collecting specimen and keeping them completely fresh for as long as they need to be. It's much better than glass ones where the cork could loosen. And these will never break." Harry eyed them carefully. Hermione could probably use something like that. He nodded to the attendant that he would take a set of those as well. She nodded and grabbed them. She took them to the register and began to carefully gift wrap both presents. She put the dragonglass in a velvet lined box and wrapped that box up with simple silver paper. For the jars, Harry had her pick paper that was more festive.

After he spent a small fortune on his purchase, he went back into the alley to search for presents for the rest of the people on his list. Once he was done, he shrunk down his packages and slipped them into this pocket. All but the dragonglass for Severus, which he didn't feel comfortable using magic on.

He finally found Draco, who was talking to a storekeeper about some of the goods that he was selling. "Hey Drake, all done?"

Draco thanked the man and then turned to Harry, "Hey I wondered where you went! Yea I finished ages ago." He walked towards the man and showed him his pile of presents.

"Wow that's a lot."

Draco laughed as he shrunk down his parcels, "This place was a gold mine! Did you get what you needed?"

Harry nodded, "Yea, I found something for everyone." They agreed to apparate back to Hogwarts. Once safely back on the ground, they began walking through the gates onto Hogwarts' lawn.

"What did you get me?" Draco asked in fake nonchalance.

"Who says I got you anything?"

They walked past the lake which was beginning to freeze over. The ground was hard and cold but still no snow, which made Harry a little sad. He loved snow at Hogwarts. It made the castle sparkle. He realized Draco had been talking and he wasn't listening. "Plus there was that time I gave you the last of the treacle tart at dinner. And I give you sound advice about teaching."

"Ok Draco, I get it, you're obsessed with me." He teased.

"You wish, Potter. I was just naming off all the reasons you should have gotten me the best present ever."

"Right." Harry answered. They were almost to the castle.

Draco glanced at him, "Did you get Severus something?" Harry blushed but didn't answer. It was all that Draco needed, "Aww my little Harry, trying to woo my Godfather."

"It sounds gross when you say it like that."

Draco laughed. "You guys would be good together."

Harry sure hoped so.

A/N: Yes, I'm a game of thrones fan. Yes I got dragonglass from there. Let's all just back away and ignore it ever happened.