A/N: Sorry this took a while but it was my birthday and Christmas on Saturday, I'm on holiday people! So this is a weird chapter I started it about a week and a half ago and just kept adding random bits on to it. Just a warning – this chapter contains some content that might offend some readers, it's not descriptive (this fic is staying PG-13) but it is a bit suggestive. Don't worry it is VERY mild! (For now…)

Thank you:

Vlaire – I know it was mean but this chapter is nicer

PinkAphid – here's some action for you

Artemis MoonClaw – I tried to put those little line things between each letter but it didn't work was pissing me off

Greeknelo – sorry this took a while (see above!)

Natsuyori – Thankyou!

Tallgiraffe32 – I know I know… I'm v.bad but read my note to Asphodel in chap.11 that might clear things up a bit

WhirlyBlue – hello Shirl! How's HK?

Good Tidings

Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny stood together in Dumbledore's office. He held out a large box of tissues and they each took a hold of it. Dumbledore counted down from three and they felt the familiar whooshing sensation and the feeling of being hooked up by their navels. The colours swirling around them stopped as they landed, shakily on the cold floor of a shabby hallway which looked as if someone had tried to clean it but failed. Two red-haired parents came rushing forward to claim two of the red-haired children, a tiny man in purple hat bowed and smiled at them, two anxious looking Muggles hung at the doorway with expressions somewhere between relief and fear. And one tall pale man, clad in black robes stood at the door and caught Hermione's eye, he smiled and put a finger to his lips, gestured with his finger towards him and disappeared from the doorway.

Everyone was too busy in the Weasleys' hugs to notice her slipping off into the adjacent room. "Hermione! I've missed you so much!" He came straight at her, his hands all over her face, just longing for that soft touch again. But she took his hands away, gently.

"Severus, look we need to talk…" he sighed, he knew those words too well. "This really isn't working; for a start you're my teacher –"

"Ex-teacher; I'm dead remember,"

"- And twenty years my senior, I'm still at school, I'm studying for my NEWTs and it's so hectic. I just want a normal life."

"Hermione one of your best friends is Harry Potter; you will never have a normal life. Are you telling that you've spent months planning this? Negotiating with Dumbledore just so that you could come here for a week and tell me that you don't want me? Because if I didn't know any better I'd call that selfish and insensitive."

"No Severus, it's not like that."

"What is it like then?" his voiced was beginning to rise,

"Shh, they'll hear."

"Well if they know already then it doesn't really matter does it?" she looked at her feet,

"I couldn't tell Ron…"

"Great! This is just great; you promised me you'd tell him."

"I did not promise, you just suggested it!"

"Don't insult me girl!"

"What did you just call me?"

"What's going on in here?"

"Ron!" Hermione spun round, her face flushed she ran her fingers through her hair, "Sev…Snape was just going, he was just helping me on the essay Professor Infelix set us," the idea of asking her ex-teacher to help her with homework over Christmas was enough for Ron.

"What? You're doing homework now?! And with Snape," he muttered the last phrase under his breath, "Well Mum wants you and Ginny to go and help her cook dinner, the kitchen's just down there…"

Hermione gave a great sigh, "Me and Ginny?"

"Well you're girls aren't you? Go cook the dinner,"

Hermione's face went even redder than it had been before and she trembled with rage, Snape smirked at her across the room thinking how sexy she looked when she was angry, she clenched her fists and marched out of the room. Ron pulled a face at Snape and went back to his game of chess with Harry. Hermione stomped down the hallway and passed the kitchen door, going upstairs instead. She looked around the rooms, they were not unusable, but they reminded her of rooms in a dreary hotel, that you would never be able to call your own no matter how much you tried.

She recognised the Weasley's bedroom; warm lights and colours, magical and Muggle implements, and the sense of someone trying too hard. The Dursley's was spotless but still felt bleak, though it was simple and usable. Diggle's was bright and cheery; decorated with throws of various oriental designs and what looked like paper stars had been stuck to the ceiling and charmed to shine. Snape's was the one that had least been looked after, apart from the dark satin throws and curious silver objects affixed to the walls that seemed to radiate dim light, the room was mostly undecorated. It was clean, but it felt as if someone would just come in and say Scourgify once a day, without any real care.

She sat down on his bed, the covers were a dull black material, and it wasn't particularly comfy. A cold chill came upon her and she felt as if someone was watching her, she felt afraid. She thought she heard a voice, whispering, somewhere, softly, sinisterly. She looked around herself, wide-eyed, she saw nothing but the dark walls of the room, that seemed to be tightening, closing in on her, engulfing her in their darkness. She closed her eyes for a second and opened them again; Snape was standing in the doorway.

"I though you were making dinner," she swore at him under her breath, he smiled and came and sat beside her, "What? Tears Hermione? What ever is the matter?"

"Nothing," she wiped her eyes,

"I'm sorry for being a pig to you, it's just all so hard at the moment, hard on everything." He put an arm around her waist and squeezed it comfortingly. He gently ran his hand down her face and neck, stopping at the necklace and clasping it in his fingers. "You don't believe it do you?"

She looked at him and mumbled softly, "How can I know if you're my true love? I mean how do I know I'm even in love? I don't have anything to compare it to."

"Then I suppose some might think you lucky to know nothing of the pains of love,"

"Severus, I'm 17, I haven't exactly had much experience yet,"

"True, but in time you will see,"

"See what? Severus, are you OK? You seem to be, I don't know, kind of, distant."

"I've found that you only realise you love someone when you are alone, without them," he looked into her eyes, "have you not felt anything these past months?" she looked puzzled,

"Of course I missed you Severus, but I know you're safe and I've kept in contact with you, it's not that bad really."

"Perhaps I was foolish, you are too young; you don't understand," he muttered, but loud enough for her to hear,

"Will you explain yourself for once?!"

"Oh look Hermione, I've spent the past two months alone with only 5 other people – none of whom I like – I'm not allowed out of the house, I can't speak to anyone, I'm rarely allowed to look out a window for fear of someone seeing my face. I've had a lot of time to think. And I think that I've fallen in love with you." Her eyes widened, "I can't spent a living moment with your face not in my mind, it pains me to hear your name, to see you, knowing that you can't be mine."

She remained silent for a moment and then gently caressed his cheek, "I can be yours…" she ran her hand down to where his billowing black robes began, and slowly unbuttoned them. He lifted her top over her head and stroked her back. The rest was forgotten in their ardour.


Hermione lay on her back, her eyes shut, she felt a soft kiss on her lips and she blinked. She was lying naked under the black satin sheets of the bedroom, enjoying their gentle touch on her skin; Snape was standing above her dressed, "Merry Christmas,"

She gasped in shock wrapping the bed sheets around her more tightly, hiding her face, but he cupped in his hands and gave her another kiss. "Don't you want to see your presents?"

"Severus, did we…I mean last night when…?"

"Yes, we did. Have you discovered what love is yet? Could you give me something in return?"

"Yes, I think I could. Yes Severus, I do love you." She smiled and grasped his face pulling him into a deeper kiss.

"I guess that's why they call it making love," he whispered to himself, he took his dressing gown from the door and gave it to her, and gestured to the present lying in the middle of the floor, "I thought I'd give you this before we met the others,"

She smiled and bent down, slowly unwrapping the silver paper, tied with a black ribbon. She caught a glimpse of something deep purple, and sure enough it was. A beautiful long, slender dress, deep purple satin with flecks of gold, the sleeves would just loosely drape over her shoulders and the hem skimmed the floor. She was speechless, he turned whilst she dressed and he tied the black ribbon in her hair. Then he brought out a velvet-covered box, revealing an exquisite set of diamond earrings, shaped like teardrops. Real tears fell from her eyes, "Severus this is all so beautiful…"

"No Hermione, you are the one who is beautiful," he held her against his chest,

"Wait, my gifts, they're in the room – I was supposed to be – staying in," she slid past the door and ran across the corridor; luckily everyone else was still asleep. Ginny who was sharing a room with her hardly stirred as she clambered across it to her suitcase. She ran back to Severus' room clutching a small parcel. She came in and gave it to him; a box, wrapped in scarlet-coloured paper dotted with silver stars that she had bewitched to twinkle. He opened it and inside found a silver watch; opening the clasps on the side he saw that it had two faces; one on the outside and one on the inside. The opposite side of the inside face held a small mirror.

The two faces were different in design; the outside one was just like any normal clock but the inside had four hands, all pointing to a minute engraved symbol. On the back the words 'All I want is you' were carved. He looked at her and smiled, "How am I supposed to work this?"

"It's a Paired Watch, I have the other, from the front they tell the time, the face inside tells you what the other wearer is doing and feeling (the symbols will make sense soon enough) and the mirror is a two-way one. So if you want to contact me you would check whether I was free and what mood I was in, the call my name. And," she added, "there is no way anyone could tap them. It would be completely safe,"

"Unless someone got hold of it,"

"But Severus, that's not going to happen."

They smiled at each other and held hands he put the watch on and she took the other from a small bag, hers was slighter and more feminine, but still part of the pair.

"Merry Christmas Hermione," Ron stood in the doorway, his face beetroot red as the door slammed shut behind him.

A/N: So – sweetness, soppiness, sex, clichés and angry young boys! Merry Christmas everyone! I was very high whilst writing this – probably easy to guess, the only things I haven't eaten in the last 24 hours that wasn't chocolate were two slices of toast – chocolate is bad for me! Oh well, sorry if that chapter was a bit crap and the title doesn't really fit with it does it? But hey. Click that little button!