A/N: A new chapter. Sorry if it was a long wait. Ah damn you Kingdom Hearts! Not to mention I also was reminded of the approaching Anime Boston convention (yes I am an anime geek). Need to finish things for that...

Anyway, new chapter hurray! Now people remember, reviewing is GOOD. I like reviews. Lately I've been getting more then normal and it's nice. I'd love to see more though. If everyone would review it would make my year.

Chapter 38

My efforts to sneak my way into Severus's bed proved fruitless since the man was if nothing else, stubborn. Until he made his way to his bed, leaving me to the rather uncomfortable couch (which was still better then the Slytherin ones), he had a rather definite blush covering his face.

Now I say that my efforts to make it into his bed were pushed back at every turn, that was true. While he was awake at least. I had every intention of sleeping on the couch, but since it wasn't exactly made to let a girl sleep comfortably through the night, I couldn't help it that my back was crying out for somewhere a little better.

The first worry that came to mind was that Severus, being the worrier that he was, would put up a protection on his room. For what reason I wasn't sure, possibly the fear of Sirius sneaking into his room to curse him. It couldn't have been any fear of any women sneaking in. Or perhaps not. After all I had seen the interest that Sinistra showed in him, as well as his own shrinking away from her interest.

So there was a possibility I could get turned into a newt, and even if I got better it would still be an experience one does not want to go through.

But my back was aching, and really that overtook my newt-fears.

A tentative step over the threshold into his room revealed that there was no curse placed on it at all. A soft sigh escaped past my lips. Really I had been truly worried about that...

What does one expect of the cold Potions Master's bedroom? I would have loved to have passed through those doors and seen fluffy pink pillows and stuffed teddy bears. Alas... the room matched it's owner. Dark furniture, stone walls and floors, dark fabric. There were some things on the walls, but in the dark I couldn't really see what they were. Likely lists of ingredients for potions or something along those lines. Things that would be suitably functional instead of pleasing to look at. A wardrobe stood in the corner, an idea that I found rather amusing since I had known the man he had only worn the same kind of robes. An entire wardrobe filled with duplicate outfits...

I was awakened rather roughly in the morning by a tremendously put out looking man. Even the red on his face didn't take away from the anger.

Everything else that followed I have to say was worth it just to be able to see him looking mussed in the morning. What would you do to see the man's hair sticking up every which way? Personally I risked death in his bed to see it. And frankly the sight was amusing enough for me to say I'd do it again.

"Why... Why are you in my bed?"

After a quick examination of his appearance, and his even quicker hair fixing, I yawned and turned over on my side facing away from him.

"You can't go back to sleep!"

"Not if you're yelling at me no..." My voice was partially muffled by the pillow I had stuffed over my head, which was then rather annoyingly ripped away.

"You were supposed to sleep on the couch."

"And it was uncomfortable. My back hurt..." I sat up, stretching. All complaints about the rest of his furniture aside, his bed was actually rather soft. "Since you weren't a gentleman enough to let me stay in the bed..."

"I was being... nevermind." He threw the covers aside and started to get up off the bed.

"You know I always imagined you wore a nice long nightgown to bed, something traditional and frumpy... never would have thought you'd be a boxers man. You don't happen to have a pair with hearts on it do you?"

At my comment he sat back down immediately, now a faint blush not only covering his face but also his body as well. Most of which I could see as well...

"What time is it anyway?" I mumbled the question out having since put my face back into the pillow. The only way to conceal the laughter at his expense.

"6 in the morning..." He muttered the answer out, busy trying to get his clothes on in a way that showed the least amount of skin possible.

"Why am I awake then?" I groaned, burying my head deeper into the pillow and shifting restlessly.

"Because I was a little surprised to find you in my bed." He turned and eyed me with the covers over me a little warily. "What are you wearing under there?"

I flipped back onto my back and smirked across the bed. Apparently the man was remembering my earlier joke about what I wore to bed.

"Interested to find out?" I started to pull the covers away. He jumped away, forgetting about his own lack of clothing, though interestingly enough he didn't bother closing his eyes at all. Grinning at him, I pulled back the covers to show that I was still wearing my clothing from the night before. "You worry far too much Sevvie."

Deciding that sleep was a luxury at that point, that I was not going to get, I slipped out of the bed, making sure to yawn loudly to show just how tired I was.

"Since I'm awake now..." A pointed look at Severus. "I'll go look in on the students. Make sure no one is dead..." I started to make my way to the door before a sudden thought paused me where I stood. "Ah! We missed it!"

"Missed what?" He didn't look up from his task of getting dressed. It was rather amazing how quickly the man gained his composure, though not all of it... he was certainly having a rather hard time with those buttons, not with his fingers shaking like that.

"Christmas. Yesterday was Christmas, and we all forgot about it..."

"I'm sure Dumbledore is in the hall having a fit..." Severus shrugged. "There's no real purpose to the holiday anyway. All useless presents and fake feelings."

I muttered to myself, thinking of the package sitting on my desk in my room with the damn man's name on it. Talk about making me feel like an idiot for getting him anything.

"You really do need to get laid don't you." I huffed and didn't even flinch at the cold look that got me."We give gifts to the people we care about you dolt. Useless...?" I snorted, stamping out of the room.

The students, unlike me, were all still asleep as any sensible individual would be during a holiday. It didn't fail my notice either that Cain was sleeping as far as was possible from the other boys. Kerstan was still absent, not surprising really. Madam Pomfrey would have wanted to keep a close eye on him for a day at least, not to mention not wanting to let him sleep in the same room as the supposed culprit.

After checking to make sure no heads were missing, figuratively or not, I trudged back to my own room. With Severus awake, there was no real worry about the students, and I might be able to acquire another hour or two of sleep.

It was a task that proved to be useless, and within only thirty minutes I was up and about. Not stalking the hallways, no that was Severus's territory after all. I on the other hand was just looking around, making sure everything was all right. Though of course if things weren't all right what would I have done? Perhaps screamed and thrown a portrait at them. Not something I'm sure any of the portraits would have liked have happened to them. Being hauled off the wall and broken over someone's head will severely impose upon your day.

It was during this... walkabout... that I came upon Cain. Apparently he had woken up soon after I had looked in on him, and was now walking around the dungeon.

Normally I wouldn't have hesitated to call out to the boy, see what he was doing, check to see what was wrong if anything. Instead though I found myself hiding round a corner once again. There was something in the way the fair haired boy was moving that lent itself to caution. Furtive glances that reminded me of the time I had caught him in the off-limit area during classes.

This place though was nothing special, just a normal bit of corridor in the dungeons. There were not rooms nearby, no portraits, no suits of armour. The only distinction to this area was a stone carving of a serpent in the wall, one that could be found in almost all the hallways of the dungeon.

As I stood back and watched, Cain said something, too quiet to hear from where I stood. The snake seemed to respond to the half muttered phrase, since it began to move like a real serpent. It slid across the wall a few feet and stopped. Where it stopped the wall opened up a small enclosure.

I blinked in amazement. No matter how long one spends around wizards and all this magic it's still amazing sometimes. Watching a stone snake move was really something to see.

Whether he was taking something out, or putting something in, I couldn't tell but his arm moved into the area and then out again. From where I stood that was really all I could tell, anything else was covered by the edge of the boy's robes. He looked around again, making sure no one was there, and said something else. Whatever it was caused the snake to slither back to it's original position, causing the hole to close again.

And as quick as it all happened, it was over, and Cain was hurrying back in the direction of the Slytherin common areas. Once he was gone I moved forward to investigate the snake. There was nothing for me to see though. It was a stone snake, nothing spectacular about it. Not to a muggle such as myself at least.

It was a question to pose to Severus.

Deeming the matter too important for trivial rules of politeness, I walked into his rooms without so much as knocking.

"Aine. About earlier..." Severus started to speak but I cut him off, waving off whatever he had wanted to say.

"I just saw Cain, he made some snake move and a hole to show up in the wall. Any idea?"

In front of me Severus's face seemed to brighten up considerably, like he had just remembered the answer to a riddle that had been eluding him for months. He grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the room, heading back to where I had just left. It was another date to mark on the calendar, Severus practically running down the halls...

"Not like I need an actual explanation." I yanked on his arm as he was still holding on to my hand. There was no answer except for a small grunt, whether this was from any pain the yanking might have caused or an answer to my comment I can't say. Not until we reached the stone snake again.

"You know about pensieves don't you?" He asked suddenly.

I nodded mutely, remembering from the books the way wizards could remove memories and then view them later on, that anyone could view other people's memories with such a device.

"Well there's a Slytherin tradition, for the men at least, to store one's most deserving memory of your time at Hogwarts. I won't say it's necessarily fond memories... but deserving ones."

I snickered at that. The idea of Slytherins being all cute and cozy, leaving behind touching memories of their time at school was something I couldn't imagine. Especially when taking the two Slytherins that I knew quite well into account.

Severus ignored my snickering, judging probably rather accurately what I was thinking, and continued on explaining.

"I had forgotten about this as a hiding place." He stepped in front of the snake and closed his eyes for a moment, probably trying to remember the password, after all it had been a few years since his own school days. "Gryffindor is the worst house."

I blinked.

Then I started to laugh uncontrollably.

"That's... That's it?" I clutched my sides. "The great, cunning Slytherins... that was the best you all could come up with? A poke at your rival house? Couldn't even come up with anything a bit more... poetic?"

Severus raised an eyebrow at me as the snake slithered down the wall.

"I didn't think it up. This has been here for a very long time."

As he said that the hole opened up and I saw inside it. He was certainly right, judging by the amount of vials sitting in the hole, this tradition had been going for at least a hundred years. Strange to think of the Slytherin men as being almost sentimental. It would be interesting to know why this little tradition had been started. What had been the first memory put in here, and for what reason? All good questions, and the answers would be interesting but alas more important things took precedence.

"Does that mean you have one in there?" I peered in the hole at all the glowing vials, wondering which one was Sevvie's, and more importantly, what the man as a young boy had deemed was his most deserving memory of his time at Hogwarts. That also likely meant that Draco had a vial in there somewhere. Just think of all the blackmail one could have over the young man with that kind of ammunition. Even Harry I'm sure would have been curious to see what his darling Slytherin thought was the most worthy memory.

"Never mind that." The man barked that out, apparently not pleased with what I was thinking, or at least the worst that he was imagining I was thinking. Doubtlessly he was spot on. Luckily for him though none of the vials were marked with names. He pushed vials out of the way, looking around, before pulling away from the hole with a sigh. "There's nothing else in there. Regulus didn't hide anything in here."

I had grabbed a vial and was mesmerized by the glowing substance captured within in the glass. Aesthetic beauty aside, it was amazing to think that within the vessel in my hand, there was a man's memory. Not even just any memory, but one that had held importance to him. It was certainly a sobering idea.

"I want to know which one is Cain's." I said softly. "That's what he had been doing after all. Putting his own memory in here, so I want to know which is his. It might prove that he's innocent after all."

My suggestion was met with rather a bit of resistance from Severus who after all was a Slytherin. It seemed that searching through all these memories was almost like invading the privacy of those who had put them there.

"We're both Slytherins." I rolled my eyes at the expression he gave me. "I'm practically one. You know I won't tell anyone. For crying out loud I don't know anyone to tell. Sirius won't be allowed near any of these, okay?" I placed the vial back where it came from. "We'll just keep it between the two of us, all right?"

He grudgingly accepted. I knew well enough though that his argument hadn't been for all the poor Slytherin boys who were going to have their memories seen, but for himself. He was far more worried about me seeing his memory then anything else. It therefore had to be suitably embarrassing and made me want to find it even more.

Together we managed to collect all the vials out of the hole and bring them back to Severus's, a feat in itself since there were rather a lot of them.

"It's time for breakfast." Severus said that shortly. Probably still not pleased with the idea of me looking at people's memories, or more correctly looking at his. The man was seriously touchy about his personal things.

"Yes, yes." I gave the pile of glowing memories a wistful glance, and followed him out of his room.

We basically escorted the students up to the Great Hall, no one was trusting them on their own just yet.

Apparently I hadn't been the only one to realize that we had managed to miss Christmas with all the commotion. This newly realized news didn't help the nasty looks Cain was receiving, instead they were worse since he was now to blame for the missed holiday.

In the Great Hall Dumbledore was, as Severus suggested, in a bit of a tiff about us having missed Christmas. I didn't doubt that he had somehow managed to be filled in on what had happened, but that didn't change the fact that he felt that the holiday was one of the more important things. To make his point he still had on a festive hat, and was busy blowing his own horn in a truly physical sense.

The hall itself had kept it's holiday decoration, snow falling from the ceiling, and great Christmas trees lined along the wall. If would ignored that yesterday had been the real date, then one could just forget and think today was Christmas.

Sirius bounded into the hall wearing a rather odd looking sweater, red with a large black dog on the front of it. It was strange to think that Molly Weasley was still making sweaters after all these years, but it certainly looked like one of her pieces. The overly excited canine ignored the snickers he was receiving from the students, or the too amused look from Severus, and bounced over to me. Christmas seemed to do wonders for the man.

"This is from Hermione." He plucked at the sweater. Apparently the new (at least newest) Weasley had learnt well from her mother-in-law. He dropped a package into my lap, and judging by the squishy feel of it, I had been included in her knitting frenzy. Opening it revealed a green sweater with a silver snake curled on it. My face lit up, but I can easily say that Sirius didn't match my enthusiasm. "Don't know why she gave you that..." He huffed and pulled off his own sweater leaving him wearing a rather worn t-shirt. He rather quickly pulled his sweater over my head. "You'll just wear that one instead."

I blinked a bit in surprise, it all having happened to quickly for me to have argued. And once over and done with I found I couldn't argue, not with a sweater that smelt like Sirius was surrounding me. It was rather comforting.

The man was regarding the green sweater with a bit of disdain, and I doubted he would put it on. I grabbed it away from him, a little worried as to what he planned on doing to something that I had been given as a gift.

"I'll have to write to Hermione and tell her thank you."

"Here's my gift to you." Sirius grinned and without warning flicked his wand and suddenly a large box dumped itself onto my lap.

With no small amount of trepidation I opened the package, after all the man was known for his jokes. Inside though seemed to be an entire selection from Honeydukes from Bertie Bott's every flavour bean to chocolate frogs and cockroach clusters. The later making me squirm just a bit. Also inside was what Sirius explained to me was a quick notes quill.

"I thought it would make it easier for you to do corrections and writing. You wrote books before didn't you?"

I stared at him for a moment, rather surprised that he had paid attention to what I had said before in passing. Placing the package aside I jumped up and gave the dark haired man a tight hug.

"Are you trying to get me fat?" I pulled back and grinned at him, nodding my head at the box brimming with sweets. By now the students had come closer and were staring in awe at the vast array of candy. Every child's dream I would daresay.

"Perhaps. Though I don't think I need to help you with that." He poked my side, and I swatted the hand away. "I think you probably have some other presents in your room. Hermione's came packaged with mine, not sure why. Didn't you see any others in your room last night?"

I shrugged, choosing not to respond to any of that. I knew well enough why Hermione had thought to put my present with Sirius's. She would have assumed that the two lovers would have opened presents together. There would have been quite a surprise to find that I had spent the night in Severus's bed, even if he hadn't been aware at the time.

Behind me I didn't miss the slight cough from Severus. He was likely amused by the situation.

"I'll give you your present later."

There were two things that I didn't miss at that moment. The rather excited look on Sirius's face at that comment, or the rather annoyed look on Severus's cold face.

The day after Christmas became Christmas itself that year. After all Dumbledore would have been inconsolable if we had chosen to just forget about it. Not to mention the students themselves were rather put out at having been neglected in such a way.

Kerstan had been released from the hospital wing, and with the power of magic such as it was, there wasn't a mark on his face. It was like nothing had happened, excepting of course the distance they all put between themselves and Cain.

When Kerstan went to wish Cain a Happy Christmas, it seemed like the entire room froze. Perhaps it was because they were all worried about what Cain would do, but for me there was an even stranger tension to the greeting. More then ever I was confused over what had happened. Either way one of these boys had to be lying about something. It just happened that I didn't believe that either of them would ever lie about this.

Something had occurred in the boy's dormitory on Christmas Eve, and without a doubt Cain had been involved. I just didn't believe he had beat Kerstan. After all even the victim denied his involvement. Though the victim also denied being touched at all... he wasn't the best witness at the moment.

Holidays are times of joy though so it was all ignored for the time being. I sat back and watched as everyone ate their morning breakfast, and then the house elves brought all the students presents into the Great Hall so everyone could open their gifts together under the watchful eyes of us teachers.

"Here Aine Mackinnion."

I was rather startled by the sudden appearance of Dobby in front of me, a small pile of gifts at his feet, presumably for me.

"Thank you."

And after that the small house elf was gone.

Among the presents for me, was the ones I had gotten for Sirius and Severus. There was no doubt I would give Sirius his, but Severus on the other hand had showed a significant dislike for the entire endeavor that perhaps his gift would just stay unopened. Not to mention I doubted he would want to open it in front of anyone.

"Here you go Sirius." I handed him my own present for him, and with more eagerness then all of the students, he ripped into the package.

Figuring that the man would want to do some catching up, I had purchased a book on modern wizarding history. Not to be boring though, I had also got him a full range of supplies from Weasleys Wizarding Wheezes and some dog care products as a joke.

"Are you going to use the brush on me?" He held up the dog brush, an eyebrow raised in humour.

"Sure. I'll also give you a bath as well. I'm sure you stink as a dog."

Seeming to forget where we were, Sirius leaned forward and gave me a quick kiss. At the rather surprised looks from the students, he just grinned and shrugged.

"Mistletoe." He pointed up at the plant which was indeed hanging over my head.

My face a little hotter, I chose to focus on the presents that had been left for me. One was from Harry and Draco; a set of witches robes. Apparently the two of them had been filled in on the fact that I refused to wear the clothing. I wasn't sure if was meant as a joke, or a suggestion...

The other package was from my parents, by way of Harry, with a note attached from both.

Aine-

Your mother sent this for you, so I send it on to you.

Happy Christmas. I hope the search is going well, but aside from that enjoy the holidays. I can't forget the good things now can I?

I hope you and Sirius are getting along well. Hermione has suggested that you are.

Harry

PS. Draco wishes you well. It wasn't really verbal though...

I groaned at the mention of Sirius and I. It would of course have come to their attention by now.

Aine,

I really do wish you were able to spend Christmas at home with us, but I understand that you can't. Since I doubt you can get some rather normal things where you are, that's what I chose to send on to you for Christmas.

Your father is well, though he complains endlessly that he hasn't seen you in over six months. I wish you were back just to end the constant complaining.

We both love you, and hope you're safe and well.

Mom.

I wished the letter would have been longer, but there was nothing to be said. My mother was never too much of a gossip, and without actual news she didn't feel the need to write too much. Opening the package did indeed reveal some rather normal everyday muggle things that I had been missing without even having realized it. I didn't know how I had gone so long without some good pens, or without my Lucky Charms cereal, not to mention other things that any girl needed to have.

Across the hall, Sinistra was busy accosting Severus with a present of her own. Upon opening it, with great duress I might add, it revealed a set of what had to be potion supplies. Severus had to show his pleasure with the gift, since if nothing else he liked having things he would use. This opened up conversation between the two, and Severus seemed actually happy to have received the gift. An idea that annoyed me since his earlier comments about presents.

This all made me push my own gift for him under my chair, determined not to give it to him. Certainly not at that moment at least. One never likes to play second fiddle. Especially not to a woman like Sinistra.

With presents opened, the students were allowed to leave, though with the strictest of warnings to stay inside the castle. It was something they weren't overly thrilled with, but they rather timidly accepted. If it had been me as a student I would have snuck out first chance, but as a teacher I was happy to see none of the students were like me.

I gathered all my presents, and the unopened one for Severus, and brought them back to my room. After which I had a choice between starting to look through those memories with Severus, or not.

Not was my choice. After all Severus was likely far too thrilled with his new potion set to want to be bothered... Probably had Sinistra there to help him.

"Sirius...?" My knock on his door got me no answer, so I just went in. After the change in our relationship it became rather common for me to enter his quarters unannounced, though my own were still strictly off limits. A girl has to have her privacy at least.

I found him dozing in the armchair by the fire, the book I had given him open on his lap. A leg was thrown over the side, and his arm trailed over touching the ground. I wasn't sure how comfortable he was, but then the man could likely sleep on a bed of nails if pressed.

"Sirius..." I started to move in closer, when his arm snaked out and caught me around the mid-section, dragging me onto his lap. Soon after his lips closed over mine.

"Should have known you were awake." I grinned against his lips.

"The second you walked in I woke up. My senses are too good."

"You know how to apparate don't you?"

Beneath me Sirius shifted, likely trying to get a bit more comfortable. His look suggested that my line of question wasn't where he had intended a conversation to go. Likely he hadn't intended much conversation at all. He nodded though, waiting for me to fill in the gaps and explain why I had asked the question at all.

"If we leave the grounds, we could apparate to Harry's. I thought it would be nice to visit... And I'm rather sick of staying at the school."

It was truly a rather irresponsible thing for me to even suggest. I was a teacher and I had students to look after. Not to mention with something suspicious and dangerous just having happened, this was not the time to play hooky. But all in all I was bit annoyed. Severus was likely off playing with Sinistra, and the students weren't trusting me with the truth.

A slow grin appeared on Sirius's face.

"A marvelous idea. Breaking the rules is my forte." He jumped up from the chair, still with me entangled in his arms. Luckily though he put me down. I was half worried he would run with me in his arms all the way back to London.

"No one will even know we're gone..." I said softly, more to myself then anyone. Convincing myself of the validity of my actions.

With no more further discussion, my hand was grabbed and I was pulled out of the room. The second time in one day. Sneaking out of the castle proved easy for us teachers, and soon we were tearing down the path, off the grounds, and once safely so, apparating all the way to London.

Harry was either going to hug us, or hang us upside down to be eaten alive by crows.

Granted there was that third option...

He could do both.

A/N: So I missed Draco and Harry... The story shall take a small detour. Christmas with The Potters!... or would it be the Malfoys? Hmm... Oh well.