They entered Severus's room. Kriss walked over to the bed waiting expectantly but was surprised to see Severus going to sit at his desk and pick up his pencil quill and sketchbook.

She hesitated for a moment confused, then it occurred to her "He really thinks I wanted him to draw me naked! I only said that to tease him and get him going"

"Well, are you going to get undressed then?" Severus said looking at her, his eyebrows raised

"Err, yes of course" she replied.

Slowly and carefully she peeled off her long sleeved top then her jeans and then her underwear. All this time his gaze had never left her, his expression unreadable.

Kriss lay down on the bed on her side, with one hand under her head and the other resting on her hip.

"Is this alright?" she asked him, feeling quite nervous

"Yes, now try to stay as still as you can" he said softly beginning to draw

"Severus"

"Yes?"

"Have you ever drawn anyone else naked?" she asked, curious to know

"No, you are the first" he replied still sketching away.

Unable to think of anything else to say, she stayed silent for a while, just watching him work. He paused every now and then, his brow creasing critically and to brush the hair from his eyes. After what seemed like an age, he suddenly stopped and looked up

"There, I think that will do for now" he put down the sketchbook and pencil quill and stood up.

"Is it finished?" asked kriss curiously

"Not quite, but I can no longer concentrate.. .Because it just occurred to me that I have a beautiful, naked girl on my bed and I .." he looked down then up again smiling suggestively "I just can't stop thinking about how it felt to make love to you" as he said this, he took off his robe, then unbuttoned his jacket and slid it off to the floor. After ordering the lights to dim, he walked over to the bed, unbuttoned his shirt and slid that off too, no longer needing to hide the dark mark on his arm. Kriss looked at him admiringly, thinking he had a nice body for his age. She wondered how he stayed so slim, her own father had a big pot-belly, even though he was only a few years older.

"Not bad" she said smiling up at him, in her eyes he looked really good without a shirt on

He climbed on top of her and they kissed passionately. He moved down to her neck, to the part where it meets the shoulder, biting and sucking the skin gently, making Kriss moan with pleasure. Moving down to her breasts, he caressed them with his lips and tongue skillfully, now starting to moan himself. Kriss giggled when he reached her belly, as his hair tickled her. She reached out to stroke it, he looked up smiling, then carried on kissing further downwards.

"What are you doing?.." Kriss started to say, but then all she could utter was "Ohh!"

She had never experienced this before and was uncomfortable at first, but soon relaxed as the sensuous pleasure he was inducing increased. After a while he stopped, sure that she had nearly reached climax then slid over her again, reaching down to undo his trousers. Kriss felt ecstasy feelings swell up from her belly as he made love to her. Building up a crescendo of pure bliss, the feelings then rippled over her like a wave. Kriss reveled in the buzz of the afterglow that surged around her body.

When he was done himself he rolled off and after doing up his trousers, got up quickly to find his wand to do the spell on Kriss's tummy. He got back on the bed, lay on his back and reached out his arms to pull her close to him. Kriss snuggled in against his shoulder, resting her hand on his chest. They lay like this for a while, not saying anything, just enjoying the closeness. Kriss had just been concentrating on Severus's heartbeat, listening as the pounding gradually calmed, going back down to a normal pace again. She been thinking that it might be time to make an admission to him

"Severus you know the first time we made love and you asked me how you compared to the other boys I'd been with.'

"Yes" he said cautiously

"Well, I can't compare you, I..I've never done it with anyone else"

"What? You mean I took your virginity? I..I had no idea you were.., I mean I presumed that you were.. well experienced. The way you were the night of the ball, you seemed to know what you were doing!" He had sat up now facing her, a serious expression on his face

He wasn't taking this as well as she hoped and she worried that he was going to be frightened off again.

"Look, I'm not a complete innocent if that's what you're thinking. I've done other things, I've just never let a boy go all the way that's all. I have always had this idea stuck in my head that I wanted to be in love with the first person I had sex with. It may be old fashioned nowadays, but it was important to me" she said earnestly

"Does that mean you've never been in love before?" Severus inquired

"No I haven't, I came close, but something was always missing in the relationship that stopped me falling for them completely. I could never put my finger on what that was until now" Kriss answered, looking down slightly

"What was it then?" he prompted

"It was the simple fact, that none of them were you, Severus Snape!" She said looking at him and smiling

He shook his head incredulously, not able to believe what this beautiful girl was telling him.

"I don't know what you see in me, no other woman has ever proclaimed their love to me before. You must see something no one else never has."

"I didn't choose to fall in love with you, it just happened gradually over time. I thought it was just a crush, but then I realised after you kissed me that night, that it was more than that." She paused, looking into his eyes for a moment then said "Severus, you know that night, when you found me stuck in the stairs and we got tangled up. Then you said that spell to disentangle us and it went a bit, well wrong. Did you mean for that to happen?"

He took a deep breath and looked down for a while before he spoke

"When I saw you on the stairs in that nightdress, you wouldn't believe how uncomfortable I was, you looked so beautiful. Then when you fell on top of me, I had to get you off me before you felt anything..err happen. My concentration was not what it should have been and I was little over-enthusiastic with the spell. You did know that thing was practically see-through?" He said sounding a little embarrassed

Kriss giggled "No wonder you were in such a hurry to get me off! I thought you were just annoyed with me."

"My back was also hurting where I had landed on it, but I was not going to admit that to you at the time" he continued

"Ahh, poor you! I had no idea!" she laughed

They kissed again for a while, before lying back down again and getting comfortable in each other's arms again. She was nearly dropping off to sleep when she suddenly remembered her friends were supposed to be coming back to bring in the New Year with her.

"What time is it?" she asked worriedly

Severus looked at the clock beside his bed "It is ten minutes to midnight, the old year is nearly done"

"I'll be done if I don't get back to the common room right now, my friends are expecting me to be there. They wanted to celebrate bringing in the New Year with me" she said getting up hurriedly and beginning to get dressed

"Oh, I see, you had better go then" Severus said in a rather resigned voice

Kriss felt torn for a moment, she couldn't let her friends down but she also didn't want to leave him on his own either. Then an idea came to her.

"Look why don't you come down with me and we can celebrate together"

"No I couldn't do that, I don't like to socialise with the students. I feel it undermines teacher authority. You go I will be fine here" he said looking down at the bed

"Oh come on, just this once take that stick from up your backside and let your hair down. We are seventh years not little kids, you don't really have any authority over us anymore." Kriss said pausing briefly from pulling on her jeans

"No!" he said impatiently, but after a couple of minutes of Kriss begging and pleading with him he eventually gave in and agreed to come

Kriss walked over to the door to wait for him and noticed he suddenly looked tense. He slid across, to the other side of the bed still facing her and reaching out, picked his shirt up off the floor where he had dropped it. Sitting on the bed still face front he put on the shirt, but once he had fastened it he seemed to relax. He then got up off the bed, put on his jacket and then followed Kriss out of the door.

Running down the corridor, Severus going in front at the end of it to show the correct stairway, Kriss wondered to herself why he had acted so strangely just now. It had been as if he had not wanted her to see his back for some reason, but she decided to find out later as there wasn't time now.

They crept out of the portrait hole cautiously, looking left and right to see if anyone was about. Seeing no one they rushed out and it closed quickly behind them. They made their way to the common room and went in.

Inside the common room there was rather a lot of noise, which hushed immediately at the sight of Professor Snape. Some people gaped in surprise at seeing him there, then quickly turned away.

"Get back to your conversations or whatever you were doing. I am merely here to see in the New Year then I will go" He said stiffly, looking around threateningly.

The noise level went up as people started to talk again. But looks kept darting in direction of where Kriss and Severus had sat, close to the portrait door, wall

"I told you it was a mistake for me to come here, especially with you" he said looking very uncomfortable

"They'll get over it, it's just you don't come in here very often and they're surprised and curious that's all" she said worried he might leave

"I still feel .. out of place and won't they get suspicious about why we came in together?" Severus said looking around the room

"No, everyone knows that you're my favourite teacher. We could just say I was passing your office and I invited you to come and join us" he still looked unconvinced as the portrait door opened. Lucinda appeared first with her boyfriend Carl, then Xanthe with Darren and then lastly Claudette and her boyfriend. They were all the worse for wear and very giggly. They spotted kriss and came over to her.

"Hello kriss" said Claudette, suddenly looking surprised at seeing Professor Snape sitting there

Kriss felt an explanation was needed "Oh I just invited Professor Snape to join us as he was all alone in his office. I thought it was a shame for him to see the New Year in on his own"

"They all looked at each other questioningly but no one said anything more about it

Claudette sat down next to Kriss and leaned in a little "Oh Kriss you should have been there we've had a brilliant time, it was such a laugh. Some of the teachers were there too, McGonagall started singing old Scottish songs and doing the highland fling! Hagrid was doing a dare as to how much drink he could down in one go. Someone conjured up this huge long glass, about five feet long. I know he's big but it was still amazing how he did it. Then someone magiced up song sheets and music so people could sing along to their favourite tunes. Darren, Carl and Greg here did a rendition of the Weird Sisters and we (indicating herself and the other two girls) did The Sirens, we were brilliant!" Claudette finished with a smile

Suddenly a shout went up it was nearly twelve o'clock. Everyone listened to the Great Clock booming out the hour. When it got to twelve everyone cheered and started to celebrate, explosions, indoor fireworks and shouting and singing could be heard all around.

Soon people were exchanging hugs and kisses. Severus got up at this point to go, but kriss gave him a pleading look. He paused for a moment looking at her as if undecided, when suddenly Lucinda stood in front of him.

"Can I give you a New Years kiss Sir, it is traditional" she said with a smirk. Lucinda was always very forward anyway, but when she had a few drinks inside her she was incorrigible.

Severus started to say something but was cut off by Lucinda kissing him on the cheek, a giggly Claudette followed suit. Xanthe hung back shyly

"What about you Kriss, we all know you fancy him, now's your chance!" Lucinda said jokingly, probably thinking that Kriss would be mortified and turn down the offer. But Kriss was feeling naughty, still buzzing from her night of passion. To everyone's astonishment she walked right up to Professor Snape, put her arms around his neck and planted a kiss directly on his lips.

She heard gasps all around and felt gratified at this shocked response. But Severus wasn't so amused, he tensed up, then pulled away hurriedly and gave Kriss a reproachful look. When he had recovered himself, he announced

"I'm leaving now, so do not think you can make any further noise, as I will be in my office for a while"

Without looking back he left through the portrait hole.

"Kriss!" said Claudette a few seconds later "I can't believe you just did that! Did you see the look on his face he was mortified!" she looked around at everyone else who were all looking at Kriss and smiling

"I didn't know you had it in you!" said Lucinda obviously impressed "there's hope for you yet!"

"Seriously though, I wouldn't have had the guts to kiss him on the lips" said Claudette "Hey could you imagine what sex with him would be like, he'd say (she put on a stern, haughty tone) Take off your clothes and lie back. Now! The instructions are on the blackboard. If you do not do this correctly, you will get detention! If you do not satisfy me you will get detention! Do I make myself clear! Right I am going to thrust exactly twelve times and no more.." But she couldn't do any more for laughing. Everyone else was in fits too by now at Claudettes impression, even Kriss found it funny, but inside she was smiling to herself and thinking "if they only knew..

After several more attempts at impressions of Professor Snape everyone soon decided it was time for bed. They all climbed up the stairs to their dorms. Kriss undressed and slid under her covers of her bed feeling very happy indeed.