Thank you so much for all your reviews. Comments to you all as usual at the end. I hope you enjoy this chapter. I think I've given you as much Sev as anyone could wish!
My thanks as always to JessiokaFroka for betareading.
Chapter Fifteen
Christmas - Part Two
THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS
"Please explain why we are out walking in six inches of snow. On Christmas Eve."
"Because back in London it doesn't snow that often, and hardly ever at Christmas anymore. I just wanted to enjoy the experience."
They had walked around the outside of the forest, beyond the view of the Castle and now reached a clearing where a fallen tree would provide a good resting point.
"Impervious!"
They sat.
"It's like a fairy tale here," she said, looking at the snow-laden trees and the ice glistening around the edges of the lake. "Winter days are beautiful, aren't they? The sky is almost white; a pink and yellow sunset and everything is sharp and clean-"
"And cold."
She smiled and sang, "A law was made a distant moon ago here."
"What?"
"July and August cannot be too hot.
And there's a legal limit to the snow here
In Camelot"
"Have you ever had a moment when music did not play a part in your life?" he said.
"I don't remember a time," she answered honestly, and then thought of the Crone's words back in July. "Perhaps for the three years my mother was around."
"You believe music replaced your mother?"
"It's possible."
He looked away across the lake. "Then you are very lucky to have clung to something so joyous. Some
take a different path."
She watched his face for a moment, and felt a lump rise in her throat. She took her hand from underneath her cloak and tucked it inside his. His fingers came up to entwine with hers.
"This is the third Christmas without my Gran," she said, quietly. "Somehow, I feel closer to her here at Hogwarts than in the Muggle world." She rested her head on his shoulder as they watched an arrow of geese fly, honking, across the darkening sky.
"I'm glad I'm here with you," she whispered.
He shifted so that her head came up from his shoulder. He turned to look at her, raised his arm and drew his cloak around her, shrouding her in darkness, warmth, and the sweet herby scent he always wore, and kissed her.
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"Do you remember this?" she said seductively, as she posed in the doorway between the bedroom and main room.
He stood up from the armchair and came towards her, gazing at the blue silk dress she had worn back in July. He stroked her one bare shoulder.
"Very much so," he said, huskily. "But you cannot possibly be thinking of wearing this to dinner?"
"Oh, and why not?"
"The school may be on holiday, but a handful of students do remain, and will be dining with us."
"No, I don't think so. Not tonight." She smiled as she indicated for him to turn around.
While his back had been turned, Lollie and two other house-elves had set the refectory table with a crisp white cloth, silver and crystal wear, candles.
"I excused us from dining in the Great Hall tonight."
She led him to the table and pulled out a chair for him. He sat.
"Wine?" she offered. "Oh, dear...I seem to have a left-paw bottle," she teased, and leaned across him to pour his wine in a re-enactment of his actions last July. "I'll try to keep my mind on the task shall I, and not spill it all over the table?"
"Yes. While I shall attempt to keep my bosom from heaving and panting with want."
She laughed. "Was it really that obvious?"
"To distraction." He gave a small smile.
She dished out the food and watched, anxiously, as he took the first mouthful of rice and meat.
"What do you think?" she asked.
"Of the food? It is very good."
"I cooked it."
He looked at her. "You cooked it? Why?"
"Well you see, I thought and thought about what to give you for Christmas but, you're not really a possessions type of person, so I thought instead, I would cook you my speciality 'Boeuf Bourguignonne'. I've never had the chance to cook for you, so-"
"Is that what you were doing all this morning?"
"In the kitchens, yes."
The candlelight was dancing in his black velvet eyes. "No one has ever taken so much trouble over a meal for me..." He seemed genuinely moved.
"Do you like it?"
"Yes," he said, looking into her eyes. "Very much. Thank you."
They ate, and when they finally put down their knives and forks, Lollie appeared with a small dish and put it down in front of Andi. She then cleared their plates and disappeared.
He looked at her, enquiringly.
"Dessert," she explained.
"We do not eat dessert."
"Ah, but this is also my specialty. You must try it."
"I do not possess a sweet tooth."
"Nevertheless," she said, taking the lid off the pot. "You must try it. This is chocolate and orange mousse. It isn't sweet, it's bitter; go on."
She scooped a portion with a long spoon and held it to his mouth. Gallantly he took it.
She watched his face and then laughed. "You don't like it?"
He gave a little cough. "I think a better description would be 'rum mousse with chocolate'." He smirked, his eyes watering a little.
"Oh, yes there is a little bit of rum in it."
"A little bit from a very large bottle, evidently."
"You don't have to eat it," she said, smiling.
"No, as it is my Christmas present, I feel able to have a second spoonful." He did, then dabbed his mouth with the napkin. "I do have something for you."
Her heart swelled. Severus had got her a present?
"Shouldn't I wait for Santa Claus?"
He ran his eyes slowly over her dress until she shivered with the stirrings of desire. "I think, given your mood, I would prefer you to have it tonight."
He raised his wand and a parcel, wrapped in brown paper floated out from the bedroom and set itself down gently on the far end of the table.
She got up and went to it.
The parcel was the size of a microwave oven, and just as heavy. She tore open the paper to reveal a brown box with a lid on hinges. When she undid the catch and lifted the lid, she gasped.
It was an old-fashioned gramophone.
"I knew there was one in the Castle somewhere, and I asked the Headmaster if I might present it to you as a gift."
"Severus," she said, quietly. "It's wonderful. Oh, there're some records in here." She took a pile of 78s from a compartment in the lid and looked through them. "These are Muggle songs!" She looked at him, amazed.
"I had no hand in the music, it is how it is."
All the music seemed to be from the 1940s. Some she recognized. She picked one out and set it on the turn table, then wound up the machine and put the needle in the groove.
"I walked around in my own little crowd
The usual laughs, not often but loud
And in the world that I knew
I didn't know about you..."
"I know this one," she told him. "Isn't it lovely?" She turned to him and found him watching her with what, for a moment, looked like delight on his face. She went to him. "Thank you so much," she said, bending to kiss him.
The kiss developed into an embrace which began to heat up. She broke off when the song finished.
"Will you dance with me?" she whispered.
"I do not dance," he said.
"You don't eat dessert, either," she smiled. "Besides, you danced with me last July."
"That was-"
"Extremely romantic, sensual and I want to do it again. Not to this one though. There's another."
She went to the player and picked out another record. Winding up the machine again, setting down the needle, she held her arms out to him.
"As it is Christmas," he sighed.
The band began playing Getting Sentimental Over You.
They swayed to the music, their bodies close. Andi's mind drifted to that magical evening last July by the lake when he had come into her arms and kissed her for the first time as she listened to Tom Waits singing Alice.
Now here they were once again, only it was Christmas and the tune was a wartime one. How awful it must have been to dance to this, knowing that tomorrow the men would be off to the war, perhaps never to return. How did people cope with something like that?
She held him tighter. She could feel his mouth near her ear as he lowered his head to hers, a finger playing in her hair, twining it around. Closing her eyes to the rising emotions and the longing for him to be closer still, she pressed her hips into him, feeling his arousal against her belly, and when she lifted her head, she found him there, waiting, ready to kiss her, and they did, slowly, deeply...
And then the music finished.
"Iterum!" he murmured.
The music began again.
She felt solidness at the back of her calves and realised he had danced her to the sofa. Still kissing, Andi lowered herself slowly, bringing him with her until they were both lying fully on the plush red velvet.
Slowly, oh so slowly they kissed and caressed and stroked. She felt the heat of his hand through the silk as he cupped her breast, sending waves of pleasure through her body. Her fingers slipped open the buttons on his shirt and she pushed her hand inside, both sighing at the touch of flesh on flesh.
The room was in darkness apart from the candlelight at the table and the fire glowing in the hearth which sent flickering shadows over their bodies. The music played quietly; the Christmas tree twinkled in the corner of the room, the only witness to the cosy scene on the sofa.
Severus ran his hand up her thigh, pressing his hips down onto her, letting her know how ready he was.
Her dress now up around her hips, she curled herself around him, feeling him pressing against her; a murmured spell and the lace of her panties became the only barrier between them. She knew no spell would remove her underwear. He took pleasure in removing it himself.
They were kissing continuously, softly, slowly. Everything was happening with a smooth, sensual calm; taking their time over every delicious movement
She moaned against his mouth as his fingers slipped beneath her lace panties, parting her, stroking her, her moans becoming harder and louder until the lace was teased down her legs and off and very, very gently he slipped inside her.
He stopped kissing and raised his head a little to look down at her as he began moving very slowly, his eyes never leaving hers, gazing at her so close.
She gasped as she began to peak.
"Keep looking at me," he whispered.
Her eyes fluttered open to look into his as he moved again. Another gasp escaped her.
His eyes wandered down to her open mouth and then back again, watching her. He moved again and she gasped again, feeling her control giving way to him. And still he watched as though studying the effect he was having on her, concentrating on giving her these feelings without thought to his own.
She succeeded in keeping her eyes open for a while, but eventually the ecstasy became to much. Her head tipped back and her eyes now closed instinctively as the full force of her orgasm grabbed hold. Somehow
she managed to remember his request, and with extreme difficulty she forced her eyes back open to look at him, desperately, wildly, as she cried out in the deepest throws of her pleasure.
Finally he bent his head to kiss the tops of her breasts and she pushed against him, feeling his gasps against her flesh as he finally gave way to his own climax.
That was beautiful, she thought as he brought his face back up to hers to nuzzle her cheek.
"That was beautiful," he whispered, and kissed her.
A/N - You're never to old to make out on a sofa!
Midnight Lilly and Josie - Beauty and the Beast is one of my favourites too. I didn't mean anything derogatory - it's just the poster was offensively drawn, an invasion of their privacy and...you just don't do that to your teachers. Only Claris made reference to the film because she's Muggle-born and would have seen it; the Slytherins just know the fairytale.
Aries1 - Thank you thank you thank you!
Intelligent Witch - Well he didn't get the knickers, if that's what you mean.
Helena Oe - Wow, now I'm wondering what you mean by that, after all Andi is nearer the students' age than Sev's...
FemmeLoki - Yes. This one had been bothering her for some time.
Silent Watcher, 1st Fury - Oooh, what could Snape get them to do? How about wash by hand the Gryffindors' underwear after a particularly sweaty game of Quiddich?
billiejoe - No, it was not Rita.
Thouandl - I think perhaps Nott would be dead if Sev had got to him!