Winter Wonderings

Dedicated to L2SET

"Sev! It's snowing!"

Snape looked up from his book (something boring, no doubt) and looked at his young partner. He vaguely nodded and then went back to his book, his eyebrows furrowed in concentration.

"Sev! Come on!"

The Potions Master mumbled something that Harry barely heard, "Come on where?"

"Outside!"

There was no response from the Potions master.

"Severus!"

"What are you shrieking about now?"

"Let's go outside! Please?"

"Merlin, why?"

Harry stomped his foot on the ground, reminding Snape of a little boy having a tantrum. He opened his mouth to tell the Gryffindor just that when the boy whined again.

"To see the snow!"

Snape glanced to his right, where a very large window was located and looked down at the snow laden landscape of Hogwarts. He gave Harry a look.

"I can see it perfectly from here, thank you."

"But don't you want to feel it?"

"Feel the snow? The cold, wet snow? No, not really."

"Sev, just come on! Please! You don't have to do anything. Just sit somewhere and watch if you want."

Snape frowned, his dark eyebrows creasing. He was going to say no.

"You can even read your book if you want," Harry threw out, in a last desperate attempt.

The eager, pleading expression in those sinful green eyes finally caused Snape to cave and he grabbed his winter cloak as he exited the library, where he had been researching Egyptian Toxins. Due to the snow, no student had been in the library, or they would have been quite surprised, seeing their two professors bicker like an old married couple.

Snape sat down on a stone bench and watched his lover gambol around in the snow, engaging the nearby students in building a snowman. They were at first wary to come anywhere near the feared Potions Master but their favourite professor's easy smile and the fact that Snape was deeply engrossed in his book persuaded them. Soon Harry and several students were making a large snowman.

Snape occasionally looked up and smirked slightly at the sight of his boy playing nicely with all the other boys and girls.

The snowman looked a little different from the conventional one though. The eyes were coals, but thick eyebrows had been spelled above them. The mouth was a small straight black line, clearly not a smile. Even the shape of the snowman was not the usual. Instead of a jolly, fat figure, the snowman was tall and slightly imposing, with a lean body. But most prominent was the nose, which had been made with a carrot that was bent strangely. As if it was hooked.

In fact the snowman looked almost like…………………Potter was so dead.

The angry Potions Master glared at the grinning Boy Who Was Going To Die and then turned his frowning face on the students who had also conspired against him. Taking down a mental list of their names (He had a feeling that they would be competing against Potter's previous detentions record), his clever Slytherin mind began plotting of ways to make their life hell. A devious scheme took shape and Snape grinned evilly, the very sight of the scary smile causing several girls to whimper in fright.

Whipping his wand out, he quickly cast a spell on the inanimate snowman. The Snape replica made out of snow immediately began to pounce on the shocked students, attacking them with curses and mocking words. Harry tried in vain to catch it, but the lively creature evaded him and began to chase a terrified Hufflepuff across the grounds. Soon the small area was abandoned, except for Snape, who was still sitting on the bench and Harry who was giving his lover an exasperated expression.

"What was that for?"

"That was for mocking me in front of my students."

"Oh, come on, it was funny!"

"Perhaps to you, but not in my opinion," Snape ground out in a snide tone, going back to his book.

Realizing that he might have gone a little overboard, Harry wisely kept his mouth shut. His Gryffindor brain tried desperately to think of a way to apologize to the angry man. An idea popped into his head and Harry threw himself on the ground, wincing slightly at the sensation of the freezing snow covered floor coming into contact with his clothes. He spread-eagled himself on the ground and began to make a snow angel.

"Sev! Look!"

Snape ignored him. He had felt rather wounded at how Harry had unwittingly laughed at him along with his students. He had always felt that the boy was ashamed of having him as a partner.

The fact was that Harry was the Wizarding world's hero, with his dashing good looks and sunny persona and Snape was the complete opposite. Plus, Harry was so much younger compared to him. Snape couldn't help but doubt Harry's promises of staying with him.

Someday the boy would wake up and see Snape clearly and he would be disgusted. And then he would leave, taking with him the Potions Master's broken heart. But Snape would never voice his fears. No, he buried them deep inside, not wanting to show the real him to the world.

"Sev, please?"

He could never resist the boy's pleas. Snape looked up to see Harry on the floor, over an imprint of a shape made in the snow.

"I'm an angel, see!"

"Yes you are," Snape agreed, silently whispering, his eyes taking in the rosy cheeked exuberance and snowflake covered dark eyelashes, framing those beautiful green eyes.

"What was that, Severus?"

"I said, I wish."

Harry scrambled off the ground and gave Snape a big, sloppy kiss on his hooked nose.

And just like that, all Snape's misgivings dissipated.

"I'm sorry. I didn't really think before I did that. Forgive me?"

Severus Snape knew that the boy didn't have a single malicious bone in his body. But there was something very Slytherin about the way harry manipulated him into saying things he shouldn't say.

"You're forgiven, brat."

He didn't like his mouth. It didn't seem to listen to his brain. Then Harry leaned forward and kissed, long and deep.

He liked his mouth. It was doing the most delicious things to Harry's. Until the boy broke away and ran back in to the snow.

Sighing and muttering about the short attention span of Gryffindors, Snape turned back to his book, intent on finishing it before Harry returned and broke his concentration away again.

"PLOP!"

Snape vaguely registered that something cold and wet was dripping down the side of his face and onto his book. Merlin, his book! Snape quickly cast a cleaning charm on it and then inspected it for any damages. After having ascertained that it was intact, he looked up, ebony eyes scanning the grounds for the miserable miscreant.

Potter.

That little sod had actually thrown a snowball at him.

Him. Severus Snape. Ex-Death Eater and King of Snark .

Potter was so dead.

"You know what this means, Potter?" Snape casually asked, only his tone belying the seriousness of the situation. He gingerly set the book down on the stone bench and calmly got up, adjusting his cloak and fingering his wan.

"What, my cranky love?"

"This means WAR!"

And Snape began to attack is lover with hundreds of magicked snowballs. Harry laughed in delight and responded with much of the same.

Soon the two were fighting in earnest, abandoning magic and simply resorting to pelting each other with snowballs made by their hands.

The students who had previously fled for their lives had now come trickling back. The baffled students formed an odd circle around the two professors who were engaged in a fierce snowball fight. The sons of the infamous Weasley twins had started collecting bets on who would win their red hair and cheek grins prominent.

"20 galleons on Professor Potter!"

"You're an idiot! Snape's going to murder him!"

"I think Snape's gone a little mad. He's actually smiling."

"No way!"

Indeed he was, a small grin uplifting the corners of his frowning mouth, as he got harry right in the face. Harry retaliated with a snowball of his own, getting Snape right in the gut.

"Excellent, my boys! I'm so delighted that you both have gotten into the holiday spirit!"

The two stopped to look at Dumbledore himself, who had come decked in a winter ensemble of red and green in horribly clashing shade. He had little bells interwoven in his beard and was that mistletoe on his head?

"Carry on! Don't stop on my account."

Snape and Harry chose to heed the headmaster's advice for once and continued their fight.

Even Dumbledore got into the betting spirit.

"Yes. 50 galleons on Professor Snape. Thank you, my dear boy."

The fight continued, ending only with the sound of the lunch gong and the students traipsed back to the castle, still talking about the epic snowball fight.

"That was brilliant!"

"Who knew Snape could aim that well?"

"Did you see how Professor Potter dodged that one snowball?"

"No wonder he was Seeker! With those reflexes!"

"They both looked so hot!"

"Ok………."

It had been declared a draw, both men too tired to combat the point at the present time. They spelled themselves dry and began to walk back to the castle with Dumbledore.

"Splendid fight, boys! The skill you both showed was highly impressive," Dumbledore praised them.

"Thank you, sir."

"Hnn."

"Incidentally, I wanted to ask you something. A wild snowman has been seen, wreaking havoc around the castle, handing out detentions and hexing the students. It cornered Professor Trelawney in a corner of the courtyard and I believe she climbed a tree to escape it. We managed to get rid of it, but Sybill is now hysterical, refusing to come down from her perch and we haven't been able to subdue her. You boys wouldn't know anything about this would you?"

Two faces looked at the headmaster who peered over his half moon glasses at the two of them; one looked decidedly guilty, the other one was smirking evilly.

"Harry, my dear boy, what did you do now?"

"It was him! Why am I always accused first?"

"Hahah….on a tree…….haha…."

"SEV!" "Severus!"

A/N – Hey guys! This is dedicated to my favourite reviewer, L2SET Thanks for all your encouragement. This is a little late but hope you like it! REVIEWS!