Besnaped, Orlando, Tegan - Thanks for liking the story so far!

BethAnn - I'm glad you think Snape is in character.

Katharin the Dragon - Happy ending? What's that? (just kidding!)

skimpygenie03 - Thanks for liking my Dark Sevvy. Yes, bad boy characters in stories are always more interesting.

Strega Brava - Well, Snape's trying to be a manipulative bastard, but somehow it's not working, heh.

Big thanks to the other reviewers!



Chapter Four

The next day dawned with another bright, cold blue sky. As there were no lessons at this time of year Hermione spent some time studying in the Gryffindor common room, trying to put the memory of her strange encounter with Professor Snape out of her mind.

Of course he wasn't interested in her, she told herself. Thinking along those lines (and about his dark, sexy smile) would get her nowhere - and besides, he wasn't just any wizard, but the Head of Slytherin.

When she eventually took a break, getting up and walking around the room to stretch her stiff limbs, she casually glanced out of a window to the grounds below. She blinked in surprise at what she saw and then she grinned. A brief excursion outside wouldn't hurt, she thought as she headed towards the stairs.

"Wonderful, innit?" Hagrid beamed down at her, the genial giant bundled in a thick fur coat.

"It's.interesting" Hermione allowed, trying not to giggle as she looked at the giant snowman that had caught her attention. Hagrid had built it as tall as himself in one of the many courtyards of Hogwarts. However, most snowmen didn't have two heads or three eyes marked in each misshapen head by black pebbles.

Hagrid happily patted some more snow onto one of the heads.

"I'm sorry to hear about your parents, Hermione," he rumbled, peering down at her. "Hope they get better soon, eh?"

"Thanks," Hermione said softly. "It feels strange not to be sharing Christmas with them."

Hagrid nodded sympathetically. "It's no fun for a lass like you here at the moment, what with only a few students and the teachers, some more miserable than others.I shouldn't have said that."

He meant Professor Snape, thought Hermione as she gazed back at the castle pensively. She was sure of it.

Now Hagrid, who wasn't exactly the brightest of wizards, was shrewd enough to realise Hermione was about to start questioning him..and perhaps meddle with things she shouldn't. Quickly patting some of the excess snow in his huge hands into a ball he gently lobbed it at Hermione's shoulder.

She nevertheless staggered in surprise and stared at Hagrid in surprise. He gazed back at her with a look of attempted innocence.

"Who did that?" he said in surprise.

Hermione put her hands on her hips and smiled. If you wanted a decent snowball fight ask Hagrid, it was said (and make sure you had your shields up!).

"That's a fellow Gryffindor you threw a snowball at!" she warned him. She murmured the charm that would set a shield around her that would deflect any snowballs that Hagrid threw with perhaps a bit too much force. Not that he would deliberately do that, for he took pains to ensure that he threw snowballs as gently as he could. But his idea of 'gentle' was often different from everyone else!

"Ooohh, scared!" Hagrid rumbled happily as they both picked up handfuls of snow. If he could cheer her up it was the least he could do.

The Potions master was the last thing on Hermione's mind as she dodged Hagrid's snowballs and flung her own at him.

"Missed!" a snow-dusted Hermione taunted as she muttered a spell that made an incoming low-flying snowball swerve up and away past her - making a soft 'splat' as it hit something.

Hagrid's face froze in sudden worry, staring past her. "Oops.shouldn't have done that, shouldn't have done that..sorry, Professor. Didn't know you were there."

With a sinking feeling in her stomach Hermione carefully dropped the snow in her hands and turned around. Professor Snape was standing just metres away with a cold expression on his face, snow splattered over the front of his pristine black robes.

"A.snowball fight" Professor Snape sneered, carefully brushing the snow off his body with elegant hands. Hermione and Hagrid carefully watched the Slytherin with barely concealed anxiety on their faces, Hermione silently wincing at the thought of the countless points Professor Snape was about to deduct from Gryffindor.

Then there was a smirk on Professor Snape's face and he lifted his arms gracefully..two clumps of snow rose and formed themselves into snowballs. "Well, then," he murmured with cheerful malice.

"We're in trouble now!" Hagrid muttered to himself worriedly. It was unheard of for the professor to act this way.

When Severus had noticed Hermione slipping outside before he had rolled his eyes. Surely she wasn't going skating again?

But when the distant sound of her laughter came to his ears, the curious professor went outside, following the sound. He certainly hadn't expected to see Hermione and Hagrid throwing snowballs at each other in cheerful abandon like children.

How immature, he had thought scathingly. And at their ages, too. Surely Hermione was past that sort of behaviour? He had never done things like that when he was young, of course. His parents had packed him off to a Slytherin boarding school as soon as he was old enough. Chosen by the Sorting Hat to be anything but a Slytherin when his time came one day would bring shame and disgrace on the family, his father had hissed at him before Severus had left. At the boarding school plotting and scheming had soon become second nature to him, and there certainly had been no time for anything as mundane as.snowball fights.

But as he watched Hermione as she neatly dodged another snowball, a sparkle in her eyes, he had felt an odd pang in his heart. What was the girl doing to him?