Chapter Eleven: Ho, ho, ho and a bottle of Rum

I hate Christmas. Severus had scribbled on a bit of parchment he had dug out of his pocket; he was sitting in front of Evelyn in the Hogwarts Chorus Christmas Concert.

I always thought you were kind of a Scrooge. Evelyn jotted and returned.

I am not a 'Scrooge' I don't hate the holiday… I hate the hustle and bustle and forced family time, and carols, and merriment, and eggnog.

How is that different from hating the holiday? Other than eggnog which should be banned from existence. And I like Christmas carols. Severus rolled his eyes, he was well aware of her love of Christmas carols; you couldn't deny the off key renditions of songs weren't a sign of some strange devotion.

I'm painfully aware of that, you had Falice Navidad stuck in my head all week. That was not nice. Coal for you!

Same damn thing I get every year…

What? (Insert Eyebrow articulation)

I'm a naughty girl.

For everyone? Evelyn kicked the leg of his chair as she scribbled on the page,

Hey!

You didn't have to kick me, I was joking. The two teachers continued their scribbling as the chorus members belted out Silver Bells and then White Christmas.

We better be nice Santa Clause is coming to town tonight… I heard McGonagall snapping at Dumbledore about hurrying up with the costume. He does kinda look like Santa.

He does that every year for the staff party, just wait it should be a fun night. Everyone gets pissed and start doing things that we are deeply grateful to forget during our hangover, only to be remained of by the developed photographs.

Sounds fun. I've always like Christmas Parties. Wait! these people get drunk, you're kidding me?

No lie. I have some photos to prove it.

WOOT!

Evelyn's room was dark except for the small white twinkle of her fairy lit Douglas fur. It was almost three am when Evelyn and Severus returned to her chambers. They had enjoyed themselves at the staff party. Dumbledore showed up in a Santa suit and handed out gifts and Christmas crackers to the faculty. She and Severus had ended up pulling two of the noisy favors after an argument over who got stuck with the hat. Now they were sitting on the floor in matching Santa hats rehashing the merrymaking.

"Albus and Minerva were quite affectionate tonight." Severus commented gazing at the tree. It had lights hanging on it, popcorn strings, tinsel, and brightly colored balls some of the branches were sagging under the weight and on top was parched a large snowflake. Evelyn was a bit of a flake at times.

"It was like watching your parents snog." Evelyn said. Her voice vividly pictured her disgust as well as humor. Both were sobering up nicely, despite the vast quantity of mulled mead that they consumed. Severus took his eyes off of the few gifts that were under the tree, the gifts they would exchange and rested them on his friend who was now looking at the tree. She looked ridiculous in her red Santa Clause hat and extra long knit yellow scarf and matching socks, a gift from the Dumbledores. Her eyes moved and he quickly diverted his gaze back to the gifts. He had wanted her present to be special; he had spent a lot of time thinking hard about how he should make it so. He called upon every resource he had until he came up with what he was positive was the best thing he could give her. His gifts were wrapped in emerald green and had silver ribbon bow on top, there were two matching. Her gifts where in striped wrappers one with red and white and one with green and white on top were bows, the green package sported a red bow, and the red package had a green one.

Evelyn's eyes shifted from the tree to her friend. He was wearing a red cap and his gift from Albus and Minerva. It was a sweater in green with a big silver snake on it in the form of a litter 'S'. She thought it was adorable. He had put two good sized boxes under her little tree. She watched him watch the tree for a time before speaking.

"It's three am; I'm getting tired of waiting for Santa. Do you want some hot chocolate before we open the presents. We can you know, its official." She said he seamed to be snapped out of a daze.

"If you're making some." She was. "You make the drinks and I'll play Santa." He said getting up and moving to the tree. When Evelyn returned with two steaming mugs of coco the gifts were laying neatly in two piles. Severus accepted his mug and drank gratefully from in.

"Do you want to go first or should I?" he asked her.

"Age before beauty, you go first." She replied. He bit his thumb before picking up the green package. He shook it playfully and slowly began to open it, skimming his fingers under the tape line. The paper fell away and he turned the box over.

"Little wizard's first potions set for ages ten and up? Evelyn you shouldn't have." He said wondering if she truly did. Then he noticed that the box was taped shut. He opened the lid and his eyes popped open. There in five hand tooled leather volumes was all one hundred and twenty – four short stories/ poems of Edger Allan Poe. Annabelle Lee, the Fall of the House of Usher, the Masque of the Red Death, and the raven, among all the other greats. He hungrily ripped open the first volume and dived into the literature, only stopping to read the note that Evelyn had written on the inside cover.

Wit is educated insolence. Horror is child's play. Just don't make me read them. Merry Christmas. Love, Evie. 1996.

He inhaled deeply of the pages and reluctantly put the volume down; he wanted to see Evelyn's reaction when she opened his gifts. She grabbed the smaller of the two packages and ripped the paper off, less daintily than what he had done before. She looked at the plain brown box in wonder before opening it. Slowly she lifted each item out of the container her eyes dancing as she read the title on each of the five albums he had purchased. There was a Latin album, two "Best of the 70s", a Vivaldi, and even a Christmas record. Evelyn looked up at him and smiled. It was that smile that made him melt a little. Her second gift to him was big and heavy. He took his time again with the wrapping but it eventually fell away revealing another children's box. He opened it and saw it contained more books. He joyously pulled out the first novel; the complete works of Gertrude Atherton. But there was more, the complete works of E.F. Benson, as well as Lord Byron, Jerome, and W.W. Jacobs. Each volume was of fine tooled leather and had her warm Christmas wishes on the title page. There was one last thing in the bottom of the box, the seemingly bottomless pit of literature. It was a green crushed velvet journal with the Snape family crest emblazoned in silver upon it. He ran his fingers over the detail then looked at Evelyn who was watching him intently.

"Thank you." He said feeling a little choked up. She had remembered all his favorites, every last one. She had found them all, and some of them must have been a hunt seeing as they had been out of print for a while.

"You're welcome." She said turning to open her last emerald wrapped gift. When she shook it she thought it sounded like clothes, it was a fairly large gift. She tore open the paper and lifted the lid of the box. Her heart stopped. Inside was a dress, no a gown. With shaking hands she lifted the dress out of the box and stood with it pressed against her body. It was made of taffeta and was in a jewel green color. It was simple and stunning.

"Dear God Severus." She whispered. He could see some tears in her eyes.

"Do you like it?" he asked softly standing next to her.

"I…I love it. How did you know my size?" she asked looking at him her eyes glossy.

"I didn't, but there's a fitting charm. Go and put it on." He said softly wanted to see her in it very badly. She nodded and gently like it was some breakable treasure carried the gown to her room to change. Severus grabbed the Christmas album and tried to remember where he saw here prehistoric record player.

The gown felt like a dream even if it was a size too large. Evelyn reentered her sitting room and found that Severus had just placed the needle of her album player on a record there was the sound of static before "Silver bells" began to play. He was illuminated by the tree, the light reflecting off of his hair which had returned to its greasy state. Her heart pounded as she looked at the back of him, he was facing the tree and in that sweater he reminded her of a scene from one of her well read romance novels. Evelyn made a small noise and he turned to her. He looked at her from head to toe taking in his gift. There was a look in his eyes that she had only seen recently, the last time it had been there before they kissed, almost kissed, she corrected herself.

"You look…" he swallowed, "beautiful." He walked forward and she must've extended her hand because he took it.

The soft light made her glow. Her hair was swept up and the long column of her neck was exposed, as were her shoulders thank to the neckline of the gown. The color was picturesque and seeing her standing there in the doorway of her bedroom took his breath away.

"You look…" he swallowed, "Beautiful." She extended her had and he was eager to take it. The dress was a size too big he noticed as he spun her around to get a nice long look at her.

"It's too big." He commented when they returned to their original positions. He de - pocketed his wand and murmured some Latin, the dress began to shrink to the proper size as they watched. It now fit perfectly, hugging her like a glove. It was worth the money and time he spent. She was perfect.

"It's the nicest thing I think anyone's ever given me. How can I ever thank you?" She said faintly, he could see the tears returning to her eyes.

"I never did learn to dance." He said. That was a lie, he could dance, but he wanted to wrap his arms around her in that dress he would do anything to hold her. The song switched to an annoyingly cutesy sweet song about "Santa Baby".

Santa baby, slip a sable under the tree, for me
I've been an awful good girl
Santa baby, and hurry down the chimney tonight

But Severus stopped caring as soon as Evelyn slipped her free hand around to his shoulder blade and looked up at him. He placed his hand on her waist and they began to sway to the music. He pulled her close to him and rested his cheek on the top of her head inhaling deeply.

Evelyn nestled her face into his knit sweater and drifted off in the smell and sensation of him. She loved this, the feel of him, the look of him, even the thought of him. Hell, she admitted to herself, she was starting to love HIM. Period.

Think of all the fun I've missed
Think of all the fellas that I haven't kissed
Next year I could be oh so good
If you'd check off my Christmas list
Boo doo bee doo

They danced through the song and held each other for a time after words but when the clock struck four a.m. They both reluctantly released.

"I had better go." He said. It wasn't just that he needed sleep; the more pressing fact was that he needed to be away from her before he did something. He was entertaining too many thoughts that shouldn't be thought when you were just friends with a girl, or woman in Evelyn's case.

"Would you unzip me before you leave?" She asked him, turning away from him facing the tree. He about exploded, his hands were quivering but he still grasped her zipper that ran down the length of her back. Slowly he pulled it down, hypnotized by each little bit of exposed flesh that he saw. He held the zip with his thumb and middle finger unable to keep his forefinger from skimming down her back while he undid the gown. She shivered, he shivered. Finally the teeth stopped, but Severus kept his finger on her back. He was taking it all in, she had two tattoos on her back, one where the zipper ended the other on her shoulder blade, there was a gold clasp to a necklace under a birthmark half nestled in her hair, it looked like a splash of tea. He felt his lips get closer to it he was wondering if it tasted like tea as well. But before he could find out she moved and the spell was broken.

"Hello," She said walking to her tree and picking something off of a particularly saggy branch. "What's this?" Evelyn asked holding a small yellow package in her hand it had a large black bow and a tag.

To Professors Blair and Snape There was no other name on the slip. They walked to her door together. Evelyn was slowly unwrapping the package. He stepped through her round door when she said,

"Severus?" He turned to face her and she placed a kiss on his nose. He was shocked. Then he looked at her hand. Clasped between her fingers was a small sprig of mistletoe. "Merry Christmas."

A/N: "Pissed" is Brit- speak for drunk. Does anybody know what the metal thingy on a zipper is the part you pull/ hold?