Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter!
A/N: Onto the really sweet and probably the funniest and funnest chapter of the story. This is probably the most humor said readers will ever get at the current time for this story I'm afraid. I hope I at least pull it off with a bit of class!
Everlasting Sacrifice
Chapter 25: Christmas Wishes and Christmas Kisses
Cat (Crystal)
"Cat, I don't know, could you look any more excited about Christmas or any more pregnant?" Remus asked as I glanced around Honeydukes. I was doing some latent Christmas shopping on the last trip to the village before Christmas Break. Remus, for one reason or another, was here.
"I'm only in my second trimester," I said, glancing around to make sure no one was paying attention to us. Fortunately, everyone here was more interested in the candy. "And yes, I'm so excited about Christmas!"
Remus sighed. "What are you looking for here anyways?"
"Candy and sugar. I want to get on a sugar high every day over Christmas break this time around. Especially on Christmas day!" I exclaimed, selecting various treats.
"Might I ask why you want to go and do that?" Remus asked.
"Several perks, a few sexual ones and others being well, I just really need sugar. The babies demand it!" I exclaimed.
"I bet they don't," Remus said blandly. "Trust me, Tonks sent me a letter stating some of the things you've been eating. She stated numerous weird food combinations the House Elves had to make for you, which she heard through rumor as she was making rounds over a couple of nights and nothing you had was as simple as sugar."
"Geeze, you're such a downer," I said with a giggle as I waited in line to pay for my items.
"And you're not wearing a coat!" he said. "If you catch a cold or the children get hurt I know Severus won't be happy."
"I'm wearing a sweater," I said. "And a scarf and a hat and mittens."
"It's snowing outside, practically a blizzard!" Remus said as I paid for my stuff. He shifted uncomfortably on his feet, agitated by my lack of care about proper outer wear. "I say we go get you a coat at least!"
"This coming from the man with the torn robes," I said as we walked outside into the brisk winter air. "I'm just fine! ACHOO!" The sneeze came over me before I could stop it. I felt a heavy jacket drape over my shoulders.
"We're heading back," Remus said, in a tone that said, 'no ifs ands or buts.'
"But I wanted a butterbeer!" I exclaimed.
"NO!"
…
"You're back from the village a bit early love. Cat, what's Remus's coat doing around your shoulders?" Severus asked as we walked into the DADA quarters.
"It's just there," I said and my nose felt swollen again. "ACHOO! Damn." Severus's eyes narrowed. "What?"
"I see. Thank you Remus, for returning her," Severus said. "I'll see about getting a sleeping potion from Madame Pomfrey…"
"Why not just get some medicine? Oh wait, sleeping potion, got it. It won't hurt the children if she sleeps whereas you don't want to take a chance on other medicines or potions," Remus said knowingly and then Sev took Remus's coat off of me and gave it back to him and he brought be towards the fire and draped the first blanket within reach over me.
"I think both Lupin and I warned against this," Severus said in an emotionless tone. "So long as you're pregnant you have to be more careful! I won't loose the kids due to your old habits!" I glared at him. "I'm being entirely serious."
"I'll be off now, enjoy your candy Cat, I'll check up on you later. Take good care of her Severus," Remus said and with a wave walked out and away, his footsteps fading into the darkness.
"Cat, I think we need to talk," Severus said and I felt the couch give way as he sat down next to me. I clung to the blanket as he wrapped it more around me and drew it into my arms. "You really have to be more careful you know?"
"I am careful, I normally don't get cold, nor do I catch colds!" I exclaimed in a huff, snuggling against him. He was nice and warm.
"I understand that but Cat, I'm not joking. You getting sick isn't a good thing. You're supposed to be protecting the children, not endangering them. Your body may be fine when you're in the cold by yourself, but you have two fragile lives sleeping inside of you," Sev said and I felt his lips touch my hair. "You have to take better care, and even afterwards. I don't want them to be without a mother."
"And I don't want them to be without a father," I said with a smile. "All right, I promise to take better care. But you have to as well. You can't go off and do stupid things, okay?"
"I promise I won't," he said sarcastically. "But you're the one we should most worry about right now…"
"Ah shut up. Are you seriously going to force a sleeping potion down my throat?" I asked him, glancing up to look at his eyes. There was a gleam to them I'd rather not name.
"No, because I know you better," he said. "You'll just relax into my arms and fall right asleep."
"Right, you do know me," I said, and visibly relaxed into his arms as if on cue. "I'm cold, hold me Sev…"
"You don't need to use cheesy and bland lines," he stated dryly.
"Sure I do, its fun," I said and yawned. "Damn, you do know me well."
"I wish everything were this easy."
…
A cold. Great. Just what I needed. A fricken cold. At least in two days it would be Christmas break, but Christmas with a cold? Damn. My luck was not with me. I don't think I had any luck to begin with. Severus? Don't mention him. He's been overprotective and too teasing with this. WAY too teasing. I can tell he's worried though, about the kids. And about me, at least, I think so. I can't tell by how much he's teasing though.
Anyways, a lot of kids are deciding to stay here over break. Can't blame them but Dumbledore said he'd be stepping up security a bit for that just because. The kids that are going home? Good luck to them. A knocking on Severus's bedroom door causes me to raise my head. "Who's there?" The door creaked open and Remus walks in, balancing a tray between his hands.
"Thought you could use some company today," Remus said with a grin as he came over to where I was. "I figured you'd be staying with Madame Pomfrey though in the infirmary."
"Like hell," I said. "I told Severus if he made me stay there I'd kick his ass. She comes in here on occasion just to check up on me and the kids though." I let out a sniffle and Remus handed me a tissue as soon as he set the tray down on my lap. "Goodie, chicken noodle soup."
"Ah, I've forgotten how angry at the world you are when you're sick," Remus said with a grin. "Don't think you're the only one that'll suffer this time of year."
"Oh right, it's getting closer to the full moon, isn't it?" I asked.
"I'll be okay," he said.
"Do you want to stay in the temple this time?" I asked as I blew my nose. Remus eyed the tissue wearily as I tossed it into a garbage bucket not to far away.
"I haven't stayed there for my monthly transformation in a long time," Remus said. "It would make things a bit easier though. I'd be able to stay closer but then again I'm still in the midst of doing spy work."
"Almost forgot about that," I said.
"You know the werewolves I now have to hang with don't take kindly to you, right?" he asked. "I wouldn't be surprised if they're planning to violate your temple this time around."
"Werewolves never did like me much, even though I am a protector. Why didn't they do it before though?" I asked.
"You would have known. I guess their courage shot up when Voldemort came back and everything changed." He let out a sigh. "I'm probably the only one to have respect for you."
"They're not your kind," I said gently before starting to eat. "They never were. You truly belong here, with me and Harry and everyone else."
"I know, but my work is my work," he said with a sigh.
"Remus…" I began but he stopped me with a finger to my lips.
"I know. You know my answer already though Cat, you don't need to keep asking," he said and lowered his hand. "When the time comes, I'm ready. Everything happens for a reason you know. Now eat your soup, it'll get cold if you don't." I went back to eating and we sat in silence for a few moments.
"What do you want this year?" I asked suddenly.
"You're asking this late in the game?" he asked me with a cocked eyebrow.
"I already have what I got for you, I'm just asking to see if there's anything you wanted in particular."
"You're gifts are always special Cat," Remus said with a smile. "No denying that. I best be off. I'll talk to you later then, okay?"
"See you around," I said and sniffled again. Remus handed me another tissue and collected the tray. "Thanks." He set it on a nearby table.
"Take care of Severus over the holidays. You'll get my gift in the mail sooner or later," he said with a smile. "Happy Christmas!"
"Merry Christmas Moony."
…
"So Severus, have you gotten everyone their Christmas gifts?" I asked wickedly as he sat at his desk, poring over papers quickly, grading them as fast as he could. I was doing my best to be difficult, it was so much fun.
"I'm glad to know you're better but if you want me to spend any time whatsoever with you on Christmas day then you had better let me work!" he said and looked up to glare at me.
"You know, you only bring it upon yourself when you give the kids homework due right before Christmas break. Found my paper yet? I made sure to go into extensive detail about the properties of every ingredient…"
"Just shut up," he said, jerking his thumb towards something pinned on the wall. "That one is yours and by Merlin I won't be grading it until I'm done with these. Besides, you already know all of this…"
"But still grade me fairly. How do you know I didn't just write stuff to write stuff?"
"It's always possible but you wouldn't do that to me. You'd make sure to explain every little detail just to prove yourself." I smiled at the comment before leaning more into the sofa. "That and it's probably some new potion of yours as well, not following the assignment at all like I asked because you know it really annoys me and I don't want to be annoyed grading these papers."
"What makes you think I just invented a new potion and wrote about that rather than the required one?"
"The fact that it just so happens to be titled, 'Snake Venom Peppermint Christmas Candy'."
I pulled out a bag from my pocket, "Want to try some?"
He growled and stood up, coming over to me with wickedness in his eyes. "You really waste that much time inventing new versions of your snake venom candy?"
"Why not? It tastes good and it's not harmful. It's my greatest potion…"
"It's also called cooking," he said as he sat down beside me. "You claim it's a potion…"
"Have you forgotten what I create the candies for?" I asked. "I mean, hello!"
He looked at me and his eyes widened. "Oh, right."
"I'm just trying to create different versions of it to see what kind of effects I can get out of it. It's not just cooking. I don't make potions without a purpose," I said with a smile. "This one is supposed to relax you."
"Ah, so then it's preparing for the birth you were doing?"
"It's gonna hurt like hell love," I whispered. "It'll be wonderful…but it'll hurt like a bitch."
"I'll be there right beside you," he said, our teasing argument long forgotten within a few words. He took me into his arms and put a hand on my stomach. "Just one question though."
"What is it?"
"Why call it Snake Venom Peppermint Christmas Candy?"
"Because that's when I finished perfecting it, around Christmas time. That and it tastes like peppermint."
"I should've known better than to ask that question."
"You got that right, now shut up and kiss me." We didn't do much talking after that.
A/N: I know, bad thing to have in the middle of a chapter, but this is a warning. No plot lines are forwarded here and it makes little to no sense. I had this planned out a while ago in some math notebook and I meant it to be a funny scenario for this even if some of it, actually everything except what's going on between Cat and Sev probably would never really happen otherwise. Even the explanation of the present Ron gets is weak, even for me. So just bear with me, I had to write it. Think of it as a funny little late Christmas Present…or something.
Ron Weasly
I think I got one of the oddest presents in the world this Christmas, a video recording device from Cat. She gave me instructions on how to use it just fine, and even told me to hide it because my dad might be interested in the fact it's an enchanted muggle item Cat used to use a lot when she was at Hogwarts (she actually mentioned she had two but the one she couldn't find probably was being held hostage by the ministry so she was giving me this one that she did find exactly where she had hidden it). I figured I might as well use it so today, it being just the day after Christmas I was going to see what I could record in the great hall. Pure curiosity on my part.
"What do you think is going to happen out here?" Harry asked me as I set up a spot near the staircase. "I don't think anything funny enough will happen here, Fred and George aren't here anymore and besides, I doubt anything could bring much laughter these days."
"It's a gut feeling," I defended.
"SEVERUS!" a loud yell suddenly filled the air and down the stairs a familiar sight of Snape entered my vision as he walked hurriedly by and then Cat seemed to follow behind.
"I said no and I mean no!" Snape exclaimed. I brought up the video recording device and started to tape it. Obviously Cat had wanted me to use it to tape…so I might as well see what I got from this.
"You didn't say no to before…" she purred. I shuddered for a moment and wondered if I shouldn't be taping this at all because I had a sinking feeling this wasn't exactly kid stuff.
"That was a special occasion. I told you from then on no more until they are born!" Snape exclaimed. "I will not risk loosing them." Yep, maybe I should stop recording… aw hell; this is probably going to be funny. The greasy git is being offered some snogging and turning it down?
THIRD PERSON
Cat looked at Severus, who was staring at her with a hard expression on his face, as if he was trying to fight against her with much difficulty. Her pregnant form swayed from side to side as she appeared to contemplate her next move.
"You know you can't resist me," she whispered, and started to walk towards him again. He backed up until he hit the door. "And I'm in the mood. Throughout the few months I've been pregnant as of yet, I haven't been in the mood all that often…"
Severus gulped. "Often enough for me." Cat smiled at the sweat beginning to form on Severus's forehead.
"You're terrible at lying about this kind of thing," she whispered and reached up a hand to touch his cheek. Severus's hand reached and felt along the wooden door until he reached a handle and as soon as he opened the door slipped outside and left Cat there staring forward. "SEVERUS!"
…
From Ron's space by the stairs he snickered. The greasy git was turning down snogging? It didn't make much sense to him but he didn't know a lot about pregnant women either. Harry only looked on with wide eyes.
"So what are we doing this fine Christmas morning Mr. Weasley?" a voice asked and Ron looked over his shoulder to see McGonagall standing over him. Harry looked up as well and gulped down air.
"Watching a scenario." He gasped; he was going to get in trouble now, wasn't he? He and Harry exchanged worried glances.
"I see," she replied and then looked toward the entrance Ron had been staring at just a moment ago. "Oh, something between those two. Carry on." She knelt by Ron and then looked over at him. Ron looked just a little bit afraid.
"Um…professor?" he asked.
"The antics between these two are one of the few things I miss from a long time ago, when I was teaching them as a matter of fact." She smiled fondly. "It's still the same even today. Those two really haven't changed much at all."
"Oh really," Harry muttered and then turned towards the scene once again. It looked like Cat was going to give up; she turned away from the door and began to walk back towards the stairs.
…
"Stupid Sev…all I wanted was a little time with him!" Cat exclaimed in a huff. She headed towards the stairs while letting the hair she had pulled back fall down around her. She paused in her step and put a hand on her stomach. "Maybe it is for the best you know, but I was really in the mood!"
…
The door creaked open and Severus pocked his head inside. It looked like Cat was getting ready to head up the stairs. Good, he'd be able to escape. As much as he did want her right now, risking the children was not something he wanted to do…she was still enticing, but doing it this late in the pregnancy…rather risky, so it was a conscious decision of having no more! He slid inside and shut the door as quietly as he could, sliding along the door to the wall and then shifting along the wall towards the nearest door.
"Severus?" she asked and he swore under his breath, reaching for the doorknob ahead of him. He opened it quickly and slipped inside.
"Right…where the hell am I?" he asked, "Merlin, I went into a broom closet, didn't I?"
…
Cat smiled. Severus had just walked into a broom closet and was hers for the taking. There was no way he could escape her now! She walked up to the broom closet, opened the door, looked at Sev's face, smiled at his disbelief and closed the door behind her.
…
"Mr. Weasly, Mr. Potter, I do believe we don't need to see this…or hear it I'm afraid." Professor McGonagall said, glancing at the boys. Ron lowered his camera and looked at Harry.
"I don't even want to imagine this," Harry said and pretended to bang his head against one of the stairs.
"What's everyone gathered at the foot of the stairs for?" a voice asked. Harry looked up and saw Professor Dumbledore coming down to where they were. "Is something the matter?"
"Um…well, you see Cat and Snape…"
"Professor Snape," Dumbledore corrected. "And what exactly are they doing?"
Neither Harry nor Ron said anything but their looks towards a certain broom closet door seemed to tell him more than enough. Dumbledore nodded at the pair and raised an eyebrow to Professor McGonagall and turned to face the door.
…
The door swung open and Cat emerged looking oddly satisfied. She hastily brushed her hair and disappeared up the stairs of the great hall with a smirk. Shortly after Severus came out of the broom closet, his hair arranged messily and it looked as though he had been bitten on the neck.
"Bloody Dragon," he muttered as he made his way to the stairs, holding a very odd looking book. "How was I to know she still remained that flexible?" He started up the stairs and paused at the top, taking one more look at the cover. The Karma Sutra for the Pregnant Woman in gold letters still caught his eyes once more. "I should have remembered how much of a reader she was."
…
"I'm scarred for life," Ron said. "To think that…he gets her!"
"Well, there are factors we don't know about as to why she is with him you know," Harry said and the looked at Ron sheepishly. "At least that's how Hermione chided us last time we questioned this."
"I think I'm going to puke."
"We should get going then," Harry said with a glance towards the two professors. "Um…yeah…" They dashed off as fast as they could go, Ron holding onto the video recording device. It would be good blackmail for later…although Cat would probably kill him. Then again, why else did she give him the recording device?
Hermione Granger
I watched from a seat as Cat walked up the stairs towards her dorm room. She looked oddly happy and waved at me before walking up the stairs with just a little difficulty. I looked at her sadly, wondering if I should tell her what Harry had told me he heard in the bathroom during Professor Slughorn's party between Malfoy and Snape. But she trusted him…trusted him and loved him. She knew him for a much longer time than me that I was certain of. I could only hope she really truly knew his heart.
TBC
A/N: Again, sorry for the stupid little interval…but I believe that there has to be just a little humor in this. Yeah, so sorry about that again, yeah, it wasn't very funny. The last part with Hermione was a little bit of a plot point, but not much. I wasn't really planning to advance any plot any way really in this chapter, I just wanted to write out a Christmas break thing. I know, I'm extremely weird. Well anyways, just lemme know what you think if you want, just don't flame! Sorry it took like a semester to update as well, but college is a little hectic and I've been adjusting to a new lifestyle kinda.
Hope you still like this story and look forward to the next chapter. I should be able to update once again before I head back to college!