Thank you for reading! I don't own any of Harry Potter! Please let me know if you enjoy!
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Severus Snape harbored many regrets.
Three years after the second wizarding world war, Hogwarts' headmaster endured yet another regret on Christmas Day.
The castle once again hosted the Triwizard Tournament, and by tradition, the Yule Ball.
While the music played and the couples danced, Severus sat at the High Table in the Great Hall as he scowled at the crowd and tried to ignore the woman standing across from him.
The position of Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor had once again become available a few months prior.
At the Ministry's urging, Severus had reluctantly agreed to hire the heroine of the wizarding world and newly-trained auror, Harriet Potter.
Severus had underestimated how much his former student had matured.
The school girl that he had held such a great disdain for had disappeared completely only to be replaced by a bold and beautiful young woman.
Severus hadn't expected Harriet to show him kindness after she began her employment at the castle.
He hadn't expected her to flash gentle smiles at him, or to look at him with longing in her emerald eyes that he found so disturbingly familiar, but Harriet had, and with each look, each statement, each smile…….she had destroyed him.
Severus avoided her at all costs, terrified of what may happen if he spent a few moments alone with her or obliged one of her multiple requests to join her in her office for a private cup of tea.
When she had walked into the Yule Ball earlier that night, Severus's mouth had fallen open.
Harriet Potter looked more lovely than he could have imagined as she walked through the Great Hall in her flowing dress of red silk, overlaid with golden embellishments.
Her shimmering, green eyes had begged him to come and dance with her, but Severus had vehemently refused.
Instead, he chose to scowl at the hints of her supple cleavage that peeked over her gown's neckline and teased his tired heart.
He ignored the rippling waves of her lustrous, dark hair.
Harriet had been a student, one of his students, the daughter of-
No.
It didn't matter that she had become an adult and blossomed into womanhood.
It didn't matter that she had become a colleague, and it didn't matter at all that she very obviously wanted him…...Severus Snape did not allow himself to indulge his desires.
That's what he told himself anyway, as his dark eyes narrowed and his face twisted into a forlorn frown while he watched one young man after another twirl Harriet around on the dance floor.
As soon as the ball concluded, Severus stomped out of the Great Hall with his black robes flowing behind him like spindles of angry smoke.
Harriet watched him glide through the crowd and she reached out in an attempt to gain his attention as she cried, "Headmaster Snape! Headmaster Snape!"
Severus gnashed his teeth as he continued to move towards his exit.
He regretted his decision the instant that his polished black shoes touched the stone floor outside of the Great Hall.
If only he had been willing to open his lonely heart…..then perhaps he too could have been one of those lucky wizards that waltzed Harriet Potter around in her gorgeous, red dress.
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The twinkling starlight that shone above the castle that evening acted as a remarkably deceptive blanket of false calm.
The unheralded blizzard rose out of nowhere and howled towards the castle.
The enormous storm of unprecedented proportions crashed into Hogwarts and pounded its stone walls with copious amounts of heavy snow, sharp hail, and cutting wind.
Hagrid took shelter inside his sturdy hut with Fang, his loyal dog.
The students shrieked when the violent, arctic blast first hit.
Severus, Harriet, and the rest of the staff quickly fired a series of spells and charms designed to curtail the storm's onslaught.
When their enchantments proved futile against the frozen bombardment, it was hastily determined that the icy attack would have to be weathered.
The towers were deemed unsafe after the windows shattered as the blizzard continued its assault on the castle and filled Hogwarts' stone rooms with the icy, unforgiving spoils of an angry winter.
Headmaster Snape, the rest of Hogwarts' staff, and the Prefects worked quickly to evacuate everyone to the dungeons.
Students were packed into Slytherin's common room and dormitories.
Filch vigilantly stood guard while the unfortunate members of displaced houses attempted to sleep.
The professors found lodging in the dungeon classrooms, but while they determined who would rest where, Severus stood in the doorway and listened to the staff members deliberate amongst themselves.
He watched Harriet shiver, chilled without the warmth of the many, nearby bodies in the Great Hall.
Her shoulders were exposed to the open air and her thin, soft gown was not much of an insulating shield against bitter temperatures.
Opportunity once again presented itself and Headmaster Snape made a decision.
He had grown exhausted from living with regret.
"Potter……." Severus called out.
All of the staff, including Harriet, looked over in his direction.
As she stepped forward to answer her employer's call, the other staff members resumed their chatter to make the proper decisions so that they could seek their own rest.
"...Yes, Headmaster?" Harriet asked as she walked over to Severus with her arms crossed as she shivered and shuddered.
"There will hardly be enough space for everyone to lie comfortably here. My rooms are spacious enough, perhaps you'll consider spending the night there?" Severus asked as he raised an eyebrow at Harriet.
It was a bold statement, one that caught her off guard as she replied at first with a disbelieving laugh.
Severus scowled before Harriet cleared her throat and wiped her happy grin off of her face, not wanting to offend him as she spoke, "I…..I don't want to get in your way, Headmaster."
"Nonsense, Potter. My rooms are as winding and as cavernous as these dungeons themselves. The space should be utilized. If you refuse…..I'll make the offer to someone else." Severus answered in a low drawl.
Harriet felt a rush of jealousy and the quickness of her reply surprised them both, "-No, I'll stay the night with you….er, I-I mean, in your rooms, Headmaster."
Severus scowled down at Harriet and she gave him a wry smile at her own slip of the tongue.
He pretended to be annoyed but as they walked off to his chambers together, once the rest of the staff and the students were all settled, Harriet couldn't help but wonder why Headmaster Snape hadn't invited a few other professors to share his chambers that night, if his rooms really were…….."cavernous"?
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Harriet silently reprimanded herself for entertaining her own wild musings.
What display of romanticism had she really believed that Severus Snape would show?
The stoic headmaster was all business when they finally arrived at his old rooms which he continued to occupy, despite his promotion.
He preferred the coolness of the dungeons to the warmer temperature in the headmaster's chambers.
Severus opened the door, Harriet stepped inside, and he swept in behind her.
Without a word, he closed the door and glided back to his bedroom.
Harriet heard the cleaning spells that he cast as he readied the room for her occupancy.
After the sheets had been changed, the stone floor had been polished, and everything had been sat pristinely in its proper place, Severus went back into the living area to fetch Harriet.
He stared at her with his brow furrowed as he nodded and gestured with a hand, "Your room awaits, Potter……...If you don't mind, I'd like to make my own bed so that I might rest too."
Harriet Potter had not become famous for her meekness.
She blinked at Severus as she brazenly asked, "...Are we not going to share the bed?"
The scowl that manifested on Severus's pale face seemed so angry that it almost appeared to be comical.
"Absolutely…..not." He replied as he slowly enunciated his words, "Is there no end to your impetuousness, Potter? You are to sleep in the bed and I'll sleep here on the sofa."
"You call this a sofa?" Harriet asked with a mocking grin.
Severus was not a person who believed in spending large amounts of money on furniture.
The tattered state of the piece that had once been a sofa in his living room served as a confirmation of his thrifty attitude.
"Go…..to…..bed." Severus commanded Harriet in his low voice.
He defensively kept his scowl as Harriet looked at him seriously.
The happy, knowing smile that curled across her lips made him want to growl, but Harriet was determined not to back down.
After months of trying to secure a private moment with Severus and years of pining, Harriet was not going to abandon her pursuit of her elusive headmaster, not when he was so easily within her grasp.
Harriet held Severus's dark gaze in her emerald stare as she took slow, deliberate steps towards him.
She stopped when she stood with her breasts nearly brushing against his chest, as the red silk of her dress flirted with the heavy blackness of his robes.
Harriet drew in a breath as she looked up into his dark eyes.
The air between them thickened with tension as Harriet glanced down at Severus's lips, then back up to his black stare as she answered, "...Not unless you come with me~."
Severus bristled as Harriet leaned in, but the moment that her lips touched his, she succeeded in accomplishing her goal.
Harriet Potter broke Severus Snape's brittle resolve.
His walls crumbled away as Harriet pressed her soft lips, as plump and sweet as two ripe, winter berries, against his while her hands came up to cradle his face.
Severus let his palms instinctively slip across Harriet's waist as they finally acknowledged the feelings that each had secretly held for the other.
"Potter……" Severus breathed against Harriet's lips while they stumbled backwards out of his living area, down the hallway, and into his bedroom.
While the raging winter storm beat down against the formidable dungeon walls, Harriet no longer shivered in the cold, warmed by Severus's body heat and the soft touch of his lips as they cuddled together under the sheets of his bed.
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By the following Christmas, Harriet had left her position at Hogwarts and taken a leave of absence from the Auror Office.
Severus's rooms at the castle had been vacated and were used only for storage.
He had no need for his stone chambers anymore, not after he and Harriet had purchased their small cottage in Hogsmeade.
Harriet sat on the sofa, under her blanket, as she stared at the shining lights on the tree that stood in their living room.
She silently admired the twinkling garland that had been wrapped around the branches in a way that looked like bright stars.
A low voice called her thoughts away, "More tea, my love?"
"Yes…..please." Harriet replied as she glanced over at Severus.
He poured two cups full of the steaming cardamom blend that Harriet had requested before he sat down beside her on the sofa and handed her one.
Their gold wedding rings clinked against the porcelain as they held their cups in their hands and sipped the liquid down.
Harriet sat her empty vessel on the coffee table first, satisfied and content.
Once Severus did the same, she moved to snuggle up to him with her back against his chest.
Snow fell softly outside as Harriet sighed and Severus splayed his hands over what they could cover of her rounded belly.
"I love you….." Harriet whispered to Severus as she leaned her head back against him.
"You're mine………..Harriet Snape." Severus whispered in a possessive reply as he bent down and stole a gentle kiss from his pregnant wife's lips.
The fire crackled soothingly in the hearth as a tender snow drifted down outside.
While the baby that Harriet carried wriggled within her womb, Severus felt pride swell in his chest as he looked forward to meeting his firstborn child.
He counted it as one of his wisest decisions, the choice that he had made to share his heart with Harriet Potter on the night of the Yule Ball's great blizzard.