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Christmas Eve- Part one...

Denis watched Torrey send a lustful stare in the direction of Professor Snape. Usually he wouldn't have noticed, but with it being Christmas break and every one at one table, it was hard for him not to notice. He leaned his head on his hand and watched her. She was shy, that was for sure. Every time Snape moved his head, she turned and blushed furiously.

It was completely different from the Torrey in class. Class Torrey was brilliant and very vocal when it came to her opinion. Class Torrey could stare down a Basalik.

As he watched her blush for perhaps the tenth time, a plan unfolded in his mind. He grinned. This would be fun.

Torrey looked at the book's title and sighed, realizing it was on the shelf behind her. she set it on the step and went to the next book.

Torrey was stuck at the school for break and she volunteered to help Madam Pince put away the library books. She found the work interesting and more importantly, time consuming.

Unfortunately it required no mental thought and left her too much time to think. As usual, her thoughts were on Professor Snape. It was wrong. She knew it was wrong. He was at least thirty years her senior. He was old enough to be Ginny's father. She ran a hand through her hair. If it was wrong, why did she keep thinking about him this way?

She tried to justify it. After all they did this sort of thing in the middle ages and the Romans did too. So why was it wrong? It didn't feel wrong. That was the problem. If it had felt wrong, she would have been more eagar to move on, finding herself a steady boy. God knows there were more than enough in Slytherin who fawned over her. She was the beauty of her year, the same way Ginny had been. She caught boys, even some older boys, giving her inviting looks. She knew how they expected her to act. They wanted her to act coy or hard to get or flustered. They all thought she was playing hard to get. in truth she was jst not interested.

She finished placing the books on the shelf and started toward the other shelf when she heard a slight cough. She looked over at the table. Denis Creevey sat with a piping hot mug of hot chocolate. Torrey licked her lips and stared at the drink. It looked really good.

"Hey, Den." she said, sitting by him. "I'm surprised Madam Pince let you stay in here."

He grinned. "She put me in your reliable hands." He nodded toward the hot chocolate. "I brought that for you. Help yourself."

She eagarly took it. "Thanks."

His smile took on a devious note if Torrey had been paying attention. If she had known him the way Ginny had, she would have been throttling him. "Think of it as an early Christmas present."

Snape sighed and plopped into his desk chair. There was a knock at the door. He looked up as a house elf entered the room, holding a tray with a hot chocolate on it. Snape found himself drooling. Damn that looked good.

"SIr, Dobby thought you might like this."

Snape looked down at the little quaking creature. "Thank you." He took the chocolate and the elf fled.

Outside his room, Dobby ran to find the young man who had sent him on this mission.