And the last chapter.

I hope it will put a smile onto your face.

I am not able to smile right now, for I have lost two wonderful friends of mine to cancer in these last 10 days.
My heart feels empty without them...

Thank you all for reading and commenting here.
Please enjoy this last chapter and I hope you all have a better start into the New Year than I have.
I turn 31 tomorrow, but I feel no joy at all for my birthday. Life simply sucks at the moment...

As for this story: I am pretty sure this chapter goes into OOC territory now.
Especially at the end. But I had to. This idea was stuck in my head for some time and wouldn't let me go anymore.
But even I have to admit that I felt a bit sorry for Snape in the end...

And as always I would appreciated feedback in the form of a comment very much, thank you.
Please don't be shy and share your thoughts with me, for it would mean a lot to me to know what you think about this.

Hellhound683
You should, the books are really good and so are the movies :)
I am currently listening to the audio books. Helps me to relax in these difficult and sad times.

Elle Light
So true. Cats just know how to get what they want.
When our cat, Fiona, wants to cuddle and I don't want to, she will just climb onto me and kind of forces me to cuddle with her.
What would life be without cats? It would be really boring ;).

And thank you for liking this story and for the christmas wishes.
I wish I had a better christmas though, but it wasn't that joyfull for me at all, for I have lost two people
on December 20 due to cancer. Both of them passed away on the same day.
One of them I knew since I was born. It hurts so much...

Guest
Thank you. Glad that you like it :)

Maya123
No problem at all, my dear.
And thank you very much for your kind words and for liking this story.
I am always nervous whenever I write for a new fandom.
It's good to see that I don't completely suck at writing for HP :)

A jolly Christmas morning

There was complete silence in Severus Snape's bedroom, which was only interrupted by the sound of his gentle breathing.

The young Potions Master had gone to bed late the night before, because he had sat in front of his fireplace for a long time, thinking about the previous evening. When his eyes closed at some point, he had decided to go to bed. It had been a long and exciting day that had to be dealt with on an emotional level. Especially since he had shown his emotions way too often lately and that scared him.

And here he was now, cuddled in his pillow and slept as calmly and peacefully as he had not slept in a long time. No nightmares had plagued him that night or disturbed his sleep. He had fallen asleep in complete harmony with himself.

And so he didn't notice that two emerald green eyes had been watching him curiously for some time...

The gray / tabby cat sat at the foot end of his bed and watched him carefully.

Minerva had been sitting in her Animagus form on her younger colleague's bed for a while, watching him. Actually, she had only wanted to check on him for a short time, but in the end she had decided to give him a little Christmas surprise because she knew how much he liked cats. Albus had been there before and had left him a little surprise in his living room. And they both couldn't help but be astonished that Severus hadn't noticed them, because otherwise he would immediately notice when someone sneaked into his personal quarters. But today was not the case and the older witch saw clearly why. From the looks of it, not even an explosion could wake the young teacher.

It was already ten o'clock in the morning and as much as Minerva loved watching him sleep so calmly, but she thought it was time for him to wake up and get up. After all, there were some presents, waiting for him to be opened...

And again that mischievous twinkle appeared in the cat's eyes and she rose from her seat, stretched briefly before walking slowly towards Severus. She wanted to wake him up and see his reaction when he found the presents in his living area. Severus could act as cold-hearted and emotionless as he wanted to, but deep inside the little boy from before was still hidden. She just had to tickle him out of him every now and then and that's exactly what she planned to do today and she wouldn't leave until she had reached her goal. But first of all she had to wake him up and she already knew exactly how to do that. In cat style, of course...

Slowly and quietly she crept up to the head of the bed on her velvet paws. Her whiskers twitched in amusement as she saw the mop of jet-black hair that peeked out from under the soft covers. There was nothing more to be seen of Severus, since he had snuggled into his blanket so that only his head was sticking out. He was lying on his side with one arm hugging the pillow and the rest of his body was hidden under the covers.

Minerva sat down in front of his face with a little distance and paused to enjoy the sight for a few moments. It was rare to see the young teacher so relaxed. It was the first time in a very long time that she had seen him sleep so peacefully. His face didn't contort with pain, as he didn't seem to be suffering from nightmares, no tense body, nothing like that. His features were gentle, his breathing was calm, and his muscles were relaxed.

But as wonderful as the sight was, she wanted to wake him up and so she went straight to action, albeit with a gentle start by giving a quiet meow. But nothing happened. He didn't move a muscle and she meowed again, louder this time. Again with the same result.

Fine. The hard way then...

Slowly she crept up to his face, lifted her left paw and used it to brush a strand of black hair from his face, but he didn't even react to that. But she kept going and now led her paw to his nose and touched it gently. Her whiskers twitched again in amusement when he wrinkled his nose as her fur seemed to be tickling him, but his eyes still remained closed. Once more she brought her paw to his nose and she finally got a reaction, if not the one she had wanted, because Severus grumbled in his sleep and...just turned on his other side and away from her.

If McGonagall had been able to do so in her current form, she would have giggled at that reaction.

Giving up was not an option for her and since she had now got a clear reaction for her attempts, it only spurred her on and so she lost no time, walked up to him and put her front paws on his shoulder and began to knead. Again a low grumble was the reaction she got and she could clearly feel Severus struggling to wake up. She continued, used her claws and pulled the blanket off his shoulders bit by bit and her whiskers twitched again as he grumbled and raised his hand and groped for the blanket, half asleep, but before he could grab it, McGonagall had already pulled it out of his reach. Then she immediately went on to the next attack and rubbed her head against his back. Another grumble, louder this time, and he rolled onto his stomach and buried his face in his pillow.

"I know it's you, Minerva..." he muttered into his pillow and the cat cooed in amusement and jumped onto his back and lay down comfortably so that her paws rested on his shoulders.

Minerva laughed to herself as she thought about how his students would react if they could see him like that now: He was only dressed in a gray nightgown, lying on his stomach with a cat on his back and tried vehemently to fight against waking up. A sight that many students would most likely give up their wand just to see it...

But that would stay between them, because Minerva knew as well as Dumbledore knew that Severus would be embarrassed if a soul ever found out about it, so this action would never leave this room. Still, she liked to have fun with teasing her younger colleague a little every now and then and when, if not now, would be the best opportunity to do so?

Said and done, because Minerva proceeded to her next attack, leaned forward a little and rubbed her head against the back of his head. He didn't react, seemed to switch to stubborn but Minerva could be just as stubborn as he was and so she leaned forward a little further and attacked his ear with a tender bite. Not firm enough to hurt him but firm enough to make his body jump and he turned his head slightly to the side and pressed his ear into his pillow to protect it from further bites.

"Stop it..." he mumbled sleepily as she rubbed her head against his again, purring loudly. He raised his hand and reached back and Minerva slid down a bit, until she came to sit on his bum to escape his hands. When she noticed exactly where she was sitting, a mischievous twinkle appeared in her emerald green eyes and she stuck out her claws...

"OUCH! Hey, Minerva! What in Merlin's name are you doing?" he growled, now much more awake than before and his entire body jumped when he felt her claws on the top of his buttocks, which pressed through the thin fabric of his nightgown.

The cat quickly jumped off him when he rolled back onto his back, glared at her half-heartedly and then closed his eyes again and tried to find his way back to sleep. But inside he knew that the night was over for him and that Minerva would never let him sleep any more. And he was right, because seconds later he felt the cat climbing onto his chest and lie down. And a little later he felt her whiskers tickling his neck.

Minerva noticed the slight twitch of the corners of his mouth and how his body jumped a little, as she rubbed her head against his neck and she laughed to herself as she repeated it; again with the same result.

Who would have guessed that Hogwarts' most feared teacher and former Death Eater and most loyal follower of Voldemort was ticklish.

A secret that she should really keep to herself.

However, she didn't get the chance to use this knowledge against him again when Severus' dark eyes opened. He glared at her and he just grabbed her, lifted her off of his chest and rolled back onto his stomach and growled, as he buried his face back into his pillow. He also grabbed his blanket and pulled it over his head.

"Let. Me. Sleep!" He murmured from under the covers.

Again there was that mischievous twinkle in the cat's eyes and Minerva was slowly starting to really enjoy teasing her colleague. After all, he always teased her about Slytherin always winning the house cup. So in addition to the little wake-up action, she was able to take some revenge on him as well. And that was exactly what she was up to now.

She crept back to the foot end of the bed and this time she couldn't contain herself and grinned a Cheshire-cat-like-grin when she saw his bare feet sticking out from under the covers. She turned around and ran her tail teasingly over the pinkish soles of his feet and cooed in amusement when Severus body jumped violently and he quickly pulled his feet under the covers to protect them from further tickle attacks.

"Stop that!" he growled from under the blanket, but Minerva didn't give up, crept back to his head, bit into the blanket and tried to pull it off of him, but he held onto it tightly.

"Come on, Minerva, that's ridiculous," he muttered as the cat slid under the covers and rubbed her head against his again.

With a loud, theatrical sigh, he gave up in the end, pulled the blanket off his head, rolled onto his back and looked at the cat, who, bold as she was, had settled back down on his chest and was now staring at him in amusement.

"I don't even ask how you managed to sneak into my quarters without me noticing it," he muttered and his right arm rose as if by itself and he began to scratch the cat behind her left ear, which started purring loudly at his touch and closed her eyes with pleasure.

For a moment there was complete silence in the small bedroom. Severus' lips curled up in a gentle smile as the cat stretched out on top of him. When she rolled onto her back and closed her eyes, he grinned slightly as he brought his hand to her stomach and scratched it. A scream went through the room and within a few seconds he felt her teeth and claws in his hand (but not as hard as to hurt him) before she jumped off of him and glared at him indignantly.

Laughing softly, he sat up and brushed his dark hair from his face before grinning knowingly at her.

"Ticklish?"

The cat just growled, turned her butt towards him and stalked off, away from his bed and over to the chair on which his clothes were lying on, which he had simply thrown carelessly onto the chair the previous evening.

"Now we're even," Severus said, who had got up from his bed and quickly straightened the covers before he went to the chair on which his black robes were lying on, but Minerva was faster than him, jumped on the chair and laid down on his robes and gave him a defiant glare.

Snape pinched the bridge of his nose before narrowing his eyes at Minerva.

"Get away from my robes! You cover them in fur if you lay down on them."

He wanted to pull his clothes out from under the cat, but the cat swatted her paw at him playfully and the mischief began to twinkle in her emerald green eyes again and if Severus didn't know any better he thought he saw a little cat-like grin on her face.

"Fine, then just stay there! I'll just get other robes out of my closet!" he grumbled. But when he opened his closet, his eyes widened when he saw that it was completely empty. Well, not completely empty. Albus' green and self-knitted sweater was still there. And a pair of black trousers. But the rest seemed to have vanished, ironically, as if by magic. And now he knew why Minerva had smirked at him so deviously.

Slowly, very slowly, he turned his head to the cat, who was still lying on the chair and still looking at him with that twinkle in her eyes.

"I'm not going to wear this sweater! And now make the rest of my clothes hang in my closet again!"

The cat barely moved. Only her tail whipped excitedly back and forth and she still looked challengingly at him.

He massaged his temples, weighed his chances to win against this devious witch in cat fur and finally decided to just play the game she had started playing with him, hoping she would finally leave him alone. He didn't want to get upset again after he just got out of bed. So he grumbled and surrendered to his fate, put on the black trousers and finally the green sweater and then turned to Minerva.

"There! Satisfied?!" he asked, growling at her and the cat twitched its whiskers in amusement, jumped down from the chair and rubbed her head against his legs before she grabbed his pant leg with her teeth and pulled him towards the living area.

"Hey, what are you doing? Minerva, stop!"

She just ignored his nagging and continued until they both reached his living room. And then, finally, Severus saw why she had urged him so much to go there.

He paused for a moment to let the sight take effect on him.

There was a tiny Christmas tree in the corner of the room with some presents underneath and a couple of large decorative Christmas socks were hanging over his fireplace and the way they looked like, they were also filled with something. Most likely with all sorts of candy, because he could see some candy canes sticking out of some of them.

Severus couldn't utter a word. He could only stand there and stare with open mouth and wide eyes at the picture that stretched in front of him. The cat was forgotten for a moment and his eyes wandered back and forth from the little tree and the socks. He didn't know how to react. Never in his life had his personal quarters (or the dungeon in general) had Christmas decorations because he had always been strictly against it. Now someone had actually dared to sneak into his quarters and decorate it for Christmas and Severus was sure that he knew all too well who was responsible for this...

"Albus..." he growled softly and he couldn't help but roll his eyes.

The cat rubbed her body against his legs again and he glared at her knowingly.

"And you certainly helped too, or am I wrong? Why else should you be sneaking into my personal quarters on Christmas morning and wake me up?"

An amused meow was the answer he got.

"I thought so..." he grumbled and he let the cat pull him to the little tree.

"I hope that stays between us, Minerva..." he said as he sat down in front of the tree and made himself comfortable on the ground. Immediately the cat was back, cooing in amusement and rubbing her head against his side. He gently stroked her back, but she wriggled away from his hand, slid under the little tree and pushed a present out from under it with her head.

"Oh come on...I'm way too old for that..." he mumbled and he couldn't help but blush slightly. Especially when Minerva looked at him admonishingly and pushed the present a bit further into his direction.

"Okay, okay. Fine! I open it. Are you satisfied then?"

The look she gave him told him that she would only be satisfied when he had opened all the other presents as well and with a loud sigh he simply surrendered to his fate, took the small red package and opened the ribbon on it before tearing open the wrapping paper. A black box appeared, inside of which were some vials with various items for making potions.

Minerva didn't take his eyes off him for a second and her whiskers twitched again when she saw the rare childlike, joyful sparkle in his eyes as he took one of the vials out of the box and examined the contents.

"Acromantula venom? How did you even get that?" he asked and he couldn't hold back the surprise in his voice. Carefully he put the vial back into the box and let his gaze wander over the remaining ingredients, which consisted of more rare ingredients such as unicorn hair or unicorn horn. But there were also many standard ingredients that he was just as impressed with as with the rare ones.

Minerva, meanwhile, pointed to the little card next to the box to answer his question and when he read it, the corners of his mouth twitched upwards a little.

"Then I should thank Hagrid this afternoon," said the young wizard and he carefully placed the black box on the coffee table that was not far from him and then turned to the second present, which Minerva was already pushing into his direction and which was a Christmas gift bag. With the way the cat looked at him, it couldn't be any good and apparently this was also the gift from Minerva herself. He was about to open the bag, but Minerva stopped him from doing so when she pushed a card to him and showed him that he should read it first before he would peek inside the Christmas bag. Sighing, he took the envelope, opened it, and pulled a...Muggle Christmas card out of it?

Apparently Minerva really wanted to go the old fashioned way...

Without thinking about this any further, he took the card and began to read:

My dear Severus,

Thank you for the lovely evening. I and Albus were very happy to have you at our table on Christmas Eve, even if it wasn't for very long. Nevertheless, we could see that you too were happy about it. I hope that my present will make you happy once again and that I will be able to put a smile on your face with it. I also gave you the things you forgot last night when you left us.

I wish you a Merry Christmas

Minerva McGonagall

The young Potions Master frowned thoughtfully and looked questioningly at Minerva. A teasing grin appeared on the cat's face (at least it looked a bit like it) and Severus was already suspecting nothing good when he pulled the bag towards him and opened it. He peered carefully into it...and immediately his eyes darkened. He looked back at Minerva who looked as if she was about to burst into laughter, which didn't necessarily get better when Severus pulled the plush cat out of the bag that had been inside his wizard cracker last night. And to top it all, this damn cat had the Santa hat on its head that had inevitably adorned his head yesterday.

"Ha, ha, ha. Very funny..." he grumbled with a fine blush on his cheeks and quickly placed the plush cat next to the black box on his coffee table and peeked into the bag again. He fished out a small box, which he eyed critically from all sides. Until Minerva nudged him in the side with her head, indicating that he should finally open the little box.

Carefully his fingers loosened the red ribbon and he removed the lid. A gold medallion was revealed, bedded on black velvet. One of his eyebrows rose and he looked questioningly from the medallion to the cat. Minerva gave him to understand with her look that he should open it.

There was silence as he opened the medallion and looked at the moving image that was inside.

A picture of a young Severus and a young Lily, who were both hugging each other and looking very happy.

Severus couldn't find the right words to describe what he felt when looking at this old photo and he felt a thick lump building up in his throat and his eyes start to burn.

Not again, he thought when he felt the first tear in his eye and quickly wiped it away.

He winced when he felt soft paws on his thigh and then tickling fur on his chin as the cat gently rubbed her head against his chin. His lips twitched up into a small smile and he cleared his throat in embarrassment, trying to get his emotions under control and he only looked at Minerva when he was sure not to burst into tears in front of her as he did the day before with Albus.

He really had to do something about all this emotional stuff...

"Where...where did you get that from? I thought there would be no photos of us together..."

The cat cooed softly and rubbed her head against him again and Severus ran his finger gently through her velvety fur and his lips twisted into a big smile.

"Thank you, Minerva. This is the best present I've ever received."

His honest words should have shocked him, but at that moment he only felt happiness in his heart when his eyes returned to the photo inside the medallion and he gently ran his fingers over it.

He didn't put this gift to the side like the others, but instead he put it on after he had been able to take his eyes off it and before he actually burst into tears in front of Minerva, he reached for the last gift that was under the tree and which was clearly from Albus. He noticed that as soon as he opened it and when he was immediately met with a big bag of lemon drops. An amused eye roll followed and the candy found its way to the other things on his table before he fished the next gift out of the big box. It was something soft, wrapped in Christmas wrapping paper and he could already guess what it was when he started opening it. And he was right, because only a few seconds later he was holding his second sweater, which Albus Dumbledore had knitted himself for him, in his hands. This time in black and with a green snake on it...a green snake with a Christmas hat and Christmas lights wrapped around its body which, to make matters worse, blinked when he touched it.

He grimaced, held up the sweater and glared at Minerva, who was grinning at him again.

"I'm definitely not wearing this!" he growled and Minerva couldn't hold it back anymore. She gave a long meow and fell onto her back and Severus just rolled his eyes and tried to ignore the cat, which was making fun of him so shamelessly.

But for someone who felt such an aversion against the Christmas sweater, he folded it a little too neatly and put it a little too carefully to the other gifts...

Grumbling, he grabbed the next package, which was smaller, but just as soft as the first and he shuddered slightly when he opened it.

The Christmas classic came to light: socks.

Also black and hand-knitted, with little green snakes on it. But unlike the sweater, the snakes looked normal. Neither snake had a Santa hat on and neither snake had a blinking string of Christmas lights wrapped around its body.

Well...socks were still quite acceptable. Even a Severus Snape couldn't complain about that. But there must be something wrong with the whole thing, because otherwise why would Minerva grin at him like that and why did her eyes twinkle as much as Albus' when he was planning something mischievous? And why did she suddenly urge him to put on those socks?

Perhaps it was because he only wore his thin house slippers and his feet were otherwise bare and Minerva probably didn't want him to catch a cold. In addition there was the fact that she couldn't wait for him to wear more of Albus' self-knitted clothes. The sweater was not up for discussion but the socks...well, they were okay and so he submitted to his fate without grumbling and pulled the socks over his feet and was pleased to feel that they immediately warmed him up nicely. One thing he really had to give Albus: he knew how to knit...

"Satisfied?"

Minerva nodded her head and Severus raised an eyebrow as the grin just wouldn't go away from her face. Either her face had frozen that way or she was up to something. Whatever it was, he didn't like it and he just tried to ignore it and instead just looked at the rest of the things that were in the big box.

From this point on, it wouldn't surprise him at all if he would pull a few more self-knitted underpants out of the box, but he was spared this embarrassment. Instead, he pulled out a bag of Berty Botts beans of all flavors, followed by a few chocolate frogs and all sorts of other candy that made his teeth and belly ache from just looking at it.

Why did Albus always think that everyone else ate as much candy as he did?

Without even noticing it, he scratched the soles of his feet. Was he just imagining it or did those socks suddenly felt itchy? Albus must have taken the wrong wool this time. Weird…

He just ignored the itching (at least he tried to) and decided to move on to the last two presents.

The last two presents in the box consisted of a scarf and a pair of gloves and Severus was no longer at all surprised that these were also hand-knitted. Albus must have had a lot of free time to knit all of this for him...

But even he had to admit that he liked the scarf and gloves. Both were in the colors of his house and especially the scarf looked very soft and cozy. He would try it out later when he went down to Hagrid's hut and thanked him for the potion ingredients. And he would make a short stop at Albus' office too and thank him for the nice presents.

Involuntarily his lips twisted into a small smile when he thought of it. Something he's been doing far too often lately and something he really needed to change.

But somehow he just wasn't able to stop smiling. On the contrary: The smile widened and he really tried everything in his power to get rid of it, but he just couldn't do it.

It couldn't be because of the gifts, could it?

Again he felt this annoying itch on his feet, but somehow the feeling changed after a few seconds and became a...tickling?

The corners of his mouth twitched up a bit as the feeling got stronger. It felt like something was moving across the soles of his feet. Or rather slithered across his soles...

His eyes widened as the realization hit him, but before he could do anything about it, Minerva had already jumped onto his chest, unbalanced him and pinned him to the ground. He tried to lift her off his body, but couldn't manage it when he suddenly burst into laughter as the tickling grew too strong for him to handle anymore.

"W-what in Merlin's name is thahahat?" he asked, laughing, squirming on the ground and his legs were kicking wildly as he tried to get rid of the strong tickling sensation on both feet. But he couldn't. He didn't want to hurt Minerva and so he just lay there and gave in to his fits of laughter as the tickling grew stronger and stronger.

"Th-thahahat's nohohohot f-funny! GAH! M-Minerva, PLEASE! M-make it stahahahap!" he begged through his growing laughter as he swore to hear the cat sniggering at him. But that could have also been his imagination…

Meanwhile, Minerva lay down on his shaking chest and watched him amused as he was forced to give in to his growing fit of laughter and soon tried to hide his red face from her.

Again that mischievous twinkle appeared in those green cat eyes and a small, mean grin crept onto her features, as she listened to the rarest sound Hogwarts has ever heard: Severus Snape's loud, hearty laughter; which even grew in volume and pitch, as she let the tip of her tail brush slowly and gently back and forth on that little patch of bare skin that peeked out from under his Christmas sweater, which had ridden up a bit due to his constant squirming.

Yes, Albus' idea with the moving snakes on the underside of the socks had really been a brilliant idea and just made sure that even a Severus Snape laughed at least once in his life, because at Christmas there was an unwritten law at Hogwarts that said that even a Severus Snape had to be jolly and cheerful...

The end