Disclaimer: I own nothing except for catherine, everything else is the property of J K Rowling.

Warning: Sexuality. If you are offended by sex or sexuality, do not read this...

Chapter 7

Over the course of a few weeks it spread throughout the school that Severus Snape was with Catherine Delacour. A Gryffindor and a Slytherin. Never in Hogwarts history has this happened in the school. There were mixed feeling about it, mostly from the Slytherin lot, who seemed to take it as a personal insult, but knew better than to do or say anything about it. They knew how good she was at hexing, and knew that Severus would make their lives very difficult.

She had decided to try and take things slow in their relationship, even though she found out that he was almost as experienced as she was. She couldn't explain it, but something was different this time, and she almost wanted to wait until marriage before sleeping with him. She didn't think they would get married, but she had fun daydreaming about it, but she also knew that he wanted to sleep with her real bad. Their 'playtime' was limited and it was also hard to find a time and place to be alone. They had tons of homework and most of their time together was spent in the library. They did go around the school snogging, but it never went too far, because they couldn't.

Christmas was coming, and Catherine was quick to write her name down on the list of who's staying. She didn't want to go back to her aunt and uncle's place and was more than happy to stay at Hogwarts. This was also going to be her first Christmas without her parents. Lily was also staying, she said she had way too much work to be done and couldn't go home.

As the holidays drew nearer, Catherine was getting more and more depressed, and moodier. She snapped at anyone and everyone, including Severus and her friends. She couldn't help it. She always regretted snapping at them afterwards, but it didn't stop her from doing it anyways. She spent a lot of time locked up in her dorm and always pretended to be asleep when her friends came to see her. Finally the first day of the holidays came. The Gryffindor tower was deserted as was the school, and Lily decided that she had had enough. She stormed up the stairs and into her room and shook Catherine awake.

"What, what ees 'appening?" Catherine said groggily,

"Wake up now!" Lily practically shouted. Catherine jumped,

"What ees your problem Lils?" Catherine asked her getting angry.

Lily looked at her just as angry, "I am so sick of you sitting in here moping around. Your boyfriend is beside himself with worry. He won't stop asking me how you're doing. You have us all in a right state. We're your friends Catherine, we love you, and we want to help you." She finished sounding sad. Catherine turned over ignoring her friend's sadness.

"I wouldn't expect any of you to understand." She said bitterly.

"FINE!" Lily shouted, "Just fucking stay here then, mope around and push us away" she stormed out of the dorm and slammed the door.

Catherine was shocked, she had never seen Lily so mad, nor had she ever heard Lily swear. Five minutes later, she heard her dorm door open.

"Cat?" it was Severus. She ignored him, hoping he would go away. She heard him sigh and close the door and thought she had succeeded, but quickly realised she hadn't when she felt him crawl into bed next to her and put his arms around her. He nuzzled into her neck and lay there quietly, tickling her arm. Her back was to him and her eyes were wide open. She was staring at the wall opposite her bed as silent tears were falling out of her eyes. He heard her sniffling and pulled her closer holding her tight.

"Cat, baby, talk to me." There was such tenderness in his voice that it made her cry harder. "Please don't push me away," he pleaded with her. "I love you Catherine," he whispered in her ear.

She turned over and looked him in the eye. Not believing what she just heard. He had never told her he loved her. She was shocked. She believed him when she saw the love in his eyes. He kissed her tears away and started kissing her. She was kissing him with such passion that she surprised even herself. Their tongues met to mate and their hands were running everywhere. She was so caught up in the passion, she didn't realise that she was practically naked and he was too. Somehow at some point they had removed eachother clothes. She was only in little skimpy underwear, and he was in his boxers. She was breathing heavily as she pulled away. "We should stop." She said, not really wanting to. He nodded, panting beside her. "If that's what you want, I'll respect that." He said. She nodded and looked at him.

"Why are you 'ere?" she asked.

"Because you're here. I wasn't about to leave you here. You're obviously upset about something, and I have a pretty good idea what that is. I'm not about to leave my baby so I can go home to family I don't really like." He said simply, as he kissed her again. "Plus Christmas is a holiday to spend with the ones you love. And she's right here, so why would I go?" he added quietly between kisses.

"You really love me?" she asked nervously. He looked her straight in the eye and nodded. "More than anything" he said. She broke down at his words. She felt her walls crumble and she poured her heart out to him. She cried as she told him about her parents and their Christmas traditions, and how much she misses them and how she sometimes felt like she'll never be happy again. And about her aunt and uncle and about how nasty her uncle is. He listened the entire time and he didn't interrupt once. He stroked her arm and looked at her throughout the whole conversation, never taking his eyes off her. Finally when she had no tears left in her and she was all talked out, she rolled into him and held him tight. He sat there quietly stroking her back holding her tight and giving her soft kisses every so often.

Finally she sat up and said, "I need to go to Lily" he nodded and they got dressed and walked down the stairs together.

"'Ow did you get in 'ere?" she asked.

"Lily came to find me." He said, "She thought you needed me"

Catherine smiled as she thought of her friend. Lily always seemed to know exactly what Catherine needed. Suddenly Catherine felt even worse for how she had been treating Lily.

Catherine finally found Lily in the library studying and went to go sit next to her.

"Hey," Lily said before Cat could speak..

"Hey," Catherine replied, "Um, can we talk?" Lily nodded and followed Catherine out of the library, and Catherine told Lily everything she told Severus. She told her how sorry she was for treating her the way she did. She was crying again, even though she thought she had no more tears. Lily was crying too. Together they cried and hugged and cried some more. "I am so sorry, Lily. I can't believe I did zis to you guys. I love you both, you're my best friend, and I'm so sorry." She said hugging her again. Lily was smiling, "Don't worry about, what are friends for if it's not to put up with the shit as well?" she said. Smiling, they made their way to the great hall for lunch.

A.N: More fluff! The next several chapters will be fluff, so I hope you enjoy it! Thanks for the reviews so far everyone!