Later that night
Severus walked downstairs to try and find his girlfriend for their nightly snogging session, but he found her asleep on the living room sofa, in front of the fireplace, a book on the floor next to her hand.

He stopped in front of the sofa, watching her sleep for a while, admiring how deceitfully harmless she looked when asleep, the fluffy white cashmere jumper she wore added to her innocent look, matching her equally white long pyjama bottoms; Florence was precious in his eyes, a beautiful young woman from an upper-class family who had inexplicably fallen in love with him. She deserved the world – and he would try to give it to her.

He walked closer and picked her up in his arms, deciding to carry her to his bed so she could sleep more comfortably, then he'd come down to sleep on the sofa himself.

Florence woke up feeling she was being carried somewhere, and she didn't have to open her eyes to know who was carrying her upstairs.

She rubbed her nose against his neck and whispered: "Where are you taking me, Sev?"

"To my room. You looked really uncomfortable on that couch."

"You're taking me to your bed?" she suddenly felt very awake.

"Yes."

"And you'll sleep in there with me?" she whispered in his ear.

"No. I'll go back downstairs to the sofa, so you can sleep comfortably."

"But then you'll be uncomfortable, all alone on the sofa," she pouted.

"It's not a problem."

Florence suddenly had an idea, the corners of her mouth lifting in a naughty smile against his neck.

Severus entered his room and put her on his bed.

Florence took her jumper off and offered it to him, which he took and folded, putting it on top of his dresser.

Then, he turned to kiss her good night but couldn't avoid looking at her body, the long-sleeved shirt she was wearing was thin enough to let him know she had no bra underneath it. She was lying on her side, the shirt riding up at the waist, showing him a little of the creamy skin of that delicious young woman on his bed.

He averted his gaze and went to his bathroom without saying a word, to try to control his body's reaction to the temptation lying on his bed.

Why had he brought her to his bedroom?

I must be fucking insane!

He would never be able to go downstairs and sleep knowing she was sleeping there, on his bed!

He washed his face with cold water and walked back into the room, going straight to the door; but she called him: "Where's my good night's kiss, Sev?"

He gulped and walked back to the bed, leaning to give her a brief kiss. But she didn't let him move away from her, instead she kneeled onto the mattress and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him down on top of her and they fell onto his bed.

Severus groaned as he realised he had her trapped under him, her legs wide open to accommodate his larger frame between them.

Before he could stop her, Florence tugged on his jumper, taking it off of him, his shirt as well.

She caressed his chest and back, noticing how his shoulders were becoming stronger and broader.

He pressed his still clothed cock between her legs, making her moan. One of his hands found its way under her shirt, cupping one breast and pinching her nipple.

"Sev…" Florence moaned over his lips, "Take off my shirt."

He hesitated so she arched up and removed it herself, exposing her body to his eyes.

"You're too tempting for your own good, Florence," he said, finding it hard to breath – everything was quickly becoming too hard.

He kissed her lips passionately, and she didn't have to push much more to have him making love to her for the first time.

In the next morning

Eileen woke up and immediately saw that Florence hadn't slept in her bedroom, so she got dressed and walked to the corridor, noticing then that her son's bedroom door was locked by a spell.

"Tiffany," she called, "Where's Florence?"

The elf appeared and replied, clearly displeased: "My Mistress Florence is inside Snape-boy's room."

Eileen smiled, looking at the angry elf, "You don't like my son, right, Tiffany?'

The elf shook her head, "He makes Mistress Florence sad. Tiffany doesn't like that. He'll break my Mistress's heart."

"I understand. You're just worried about Flor. But she loves him."

"Yes, Mrs Snape. Tiff knows, but Tiff has seen love cause harm before. Love hurt Mistress Sophie. Tiff doesn't want to see it happens to Mistress Florence."

Eileen didn't find anything to say after that, after all, the little elf had been by Sophie's side when Florence's father left them for months at a time, and she had helped raise Florence from the age of three.

All Eileen could do was to be happy for the young couple and hope Tiffany's fears didn't come true.

The sun entering through the bedroom window woke up the young man on the bed.

Severus opened his eyes to see the beautiful young woman in his arms.

Florence was sleeping peacefully, her head on his chest, her messy vanilla-scented, dark-caramel waves were sprawled all over her shoulders and back. He held her closer, fearing she might disappear if he didn't and all the love-making of the night before would turn out to be nothing but a dream.

She stirred, moving her head against his chest, rubbing her nose on his skin. She trailed kisses from his neck to his mouth and whispered: "Menta spiritus."

And he tasted mint in his mouth, "Another one of your spells?" he asked, smiling.

She nodded, kissing him, "I came up with it a few weeks ago," She ran her tongue over his lips, "I must say I was thinking about this exact situation to use it."

She moved until she was on top of him, straddling his hips.

"Like what you see?" she asked.

"You have no idea how fucking gorgeous you look right now," he grabbed her hips and pulled her down hard, restarting the activities of the night before.

About an hour later, Severus left Florence sleeping on his bed and got up to get dressed; he was hungry and he knew she would wake up famished.

He removed the silencing spell she had put on the room the night before and walked out, hearing his mother downstairs having breakfast at the dining room table, so he braced himself for the lecture she'd probably unleash on him.

Tiffany was about to clean the breakfast table when he reached the first floor.

"Good morning, my son," Eileen greeted him, "And Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas, mum," he replied hugging her, "There's a present for you under the tree in the living room."

Her eyes filled with tears of joy, "Thank you, my baby. You've never let me go one Christmas without a gift – even when you had to make them yourself. I love you, son."

"Love you too, mum," he hugged her again, relieved she hadn't said anything about where Florence had spent the night.

"Now, about last night," Eileen said, ending his relief, "Whatever happened..."

But Severus interrupted her: "It's all my fault."

Making Eileen laugh: "My dear son, I'm sure that anything that may have happened last night was not your fault, or anyone else's for that matter. I'm not judging you two, I knew you would have sex sooner or later. I'm actually surprised it wasn't sooner," she paused and smiled at him, "l just want to remind you that you need to think about your future, yours and Florence's. I want grandchildren, but not before you two are able to fully care for them."

"Yes, mum, we'll be careful," he replied, blushing.

They heard the sound of something being put onto the table.

"I see Tiffany has already prepared what you came here to pick up," said Eileen, pointing at the tray full of food that the elf had put on the table.

"Thank you, Tiffany!" he exclaimed towards the kitchen.

The elf ignored him.

"She really doesn't like you," said Eileen.

"She thinks I'll break Florence's heart."

"Will you?" Eileen asked.

"No," he said, knowing that was a lie.

And his mother noticed it too, but decided not to say anything; she just kissed his cheek and went to the living room to open her present.