Work Text:
The Christmas Present
by Veelana
Severus Snape woke up cheerful. This was unusual for him, to say the least. Even worse, he woke up in holyday spirits. He found himself whistling and humming on his way to the bathroom, where he started brushing his long, wavy hair. His what?
The potions master stared into the mirror. His hair was blonde and gorgeous! And why was he feeling so good?
Luckily, he didn't have any classes today - he would have had a hard time glaring at his students when he was feeling so...happy.
He decided not to wear black robes - the green silk shirt would go so well with his eyes! And didn't his butt just look too sexy in his tight black jeans? The gay wizard community would start drooling!
Boots. He definitely needed boots to go with this outfit. All the shoes he could find where either boring or covered in mixed potions. He took one of his cleaner pairs and a black coat - not what he was feeling like, but the ground outside was covered in snow and it was a bit too cold to go out in a silk shirt.
Most of the students had left school for the holydays already, so nobody noticed Severus skipping through the halls and humming "Frosty the Snowman". Well, someone did, but he just sat in his tower, sucking on lemon drops. Severus was far too serious all the time; he deserved a bit of fun.
Sadly, Severus didn't find the boots he was looking for in Hogsmeads only shoe store. He went on to do some Christmas shopping - a book for Albus (how to make Muggle candy), Christmas cards for some distant relatives, a sweater for Poppy, wrapping paper and some ornaments for his Christmas tree. He never had one - this year he would ask Hagrid to get him a small one for his rooms in the dungeons.
He came across a Muggle style Varsity jacket that he really wanted to have, though. Dark green and black, made out of leather and with the Slytherin snake on the back. Someone had recently started to sell Hogwarts merchandise - shirts, sweaters, even socks with either the Hogwarts crest or one of the four houses mascots on it. Looked like the business flourished, most of the things where reasonably priced and could be worn under school robes. Not the jacket. This was just a tad on the expensive side, so he decided to go to the three broomsticks first to have some butterbeer and think it over.
He felt like having company, but this early in the day there wasn't too much choice. He just sat down on the closest table, not caring who it was who sat there next to him, reading the daily prophet. He just started wrapping Poppys sweater when he noticed the red ponytail and the earring on the guy next to him.
"Bill Weasly? What are you doing here?" They had shared some very passionate nights just after Bills graduation, but it wasn't meant to last. They broke up without any hard feelings.
Bill looked up from his newspaper. "I wanted to spend Christmas with Ron since the rest of the family went to Romania to visit Charlie"
"So why are you sitting here instead of the castle? There should be plenty of beds that you could use."
"Ron went to celebrate Christmas with his girlfriend." Those big green eyes looked at Severus with a thoughtful _expression. "I don't know what to do now. It may sound weird to you, but I don't want to celebrate Christmas alone in a hotel - and it's a bit late to fly to Romania..."
"You want to spend the holydays with me?" The words were out before he even had a chance to think about it. "I'll have Hagrid cut a small tree for us. We'll hang these" he pointed to the ornaments he'd bought "and we can even bake some cookies, if you want!"
Bill gladly agreed to this proposition. He would just go get his stuff from the hotel where he left it and meet Severus later. This gave Snape some time to buy a last minute gift for his former lover - a set of Gryffindor underwear. And while he was there, he also got the jacket - after all, it's Christmas only once a year.
Dumbledore sat in his tower and smiled. He poured himself a new cup of tea and leaned back in his chair. Everything was going as planned.
In the dungeons, Snape was decorating his rooms. He'd taken off his shirt and covered his hair with a pink towel - all of them seemed to have changed colours. Not that he minded, though. He dusted and cleaned, enchanted candles and hung ornaments on the tree. He happily hummed "deck the halls" when he was hanging the holly over the fireplace and around the door, he changed his bed sheets to a more pleasant colour. Honestly, what WAS he thinking when he decorated this room? Why did it have to look so, well, black?
With all the decorating done and the presents lying wrapped under the tree, his rooms looked almost homely. He decided he still had time for a shower.
Dressed in his beautiful shirt and his sexy pants and with his gorgeous hair flowing freely down his back, he went to the hospital wing to give Poppy her present. She and Albus were the only teachers to stay in Hogwarts this year since almost every one of the students went home.
Madame Pomfrey whistled approvingly when he entered the room. "Severus, what happened? You look fantastic! I love you hair!"
Severus hugged her. "I don't know hat happened, but I like it" he whispered. "It's such a relief not to be brooding anymore. Isn't this just fabulous?"
Poppy picked up her presents, Snape hooked an arm around her and together they went to Dumbledore's tower, skipping along the hallways, singing "we're off to see the wizard".
The password was "candy cane" today and the stone gargoyle was wearing a Santa's hat. It looked rather pissed about this, it probably felt that this hurt its dignity.
The headmaster was sitting in his office, drinking tea and eating cookies.
"Ah, Severus, Poppy, so nice of you to visit an old man" He smiled at both of them. He handed a rather big parcel to Madame Pomfrey, who, in turn, handed him a pair of woollen socks that she had knitted.
"So, say, Severus, how do you like your present?"
It dawned on Snape that Albus was referring to his hair. So it wasn't one of the potions he brew the day before - it had been Albus!
"I...ahh...thank you, Sir" was everything he could say. Oh yes, he liked his present. He had never been able to let his hair grow as long as he wanted to have it; it just had the wrong structure for it. He just handed his present to the Headmaster.
"Thank you, Severus - but I think you have to go, someone is coming up to the castle - I think it might be your visitor." The headmaster winked at him and almost pushed him out of the door. Only when Snape was down the stairs, Poppys present in hand, he started wondering if Albus had just wanted to be alone with Poppy...
Yes, it was Bill who was coming up to the castle. It had started snowing again and he looked a little bit like Father Christmas, all covered in white fluffy snow. He was carrying a lot of luggage and some parcels.
They brought his stuff down to the dungeons, put the presents under the Christmas tree and sneaked to the kitchen to steal some cookie dough from the house elves. They spent the rest of the afternoon baking cookies. Severus was still feeling cheerful - he had stopped wondering about the why some hours ago. He just enjoyed it.
They lit the candles on the tree, roasted toast on the fire and had a very nice evening.
When they opened their presents a little past midnight, Severus discovered that Bill had found the exact pair of boots he had been looking for at the shoe store. In his size!
Sitting next to the attractive redhead, Severus started to wonder why they ever broke up. He felt really comfortable sitting next to Bill. It felt right, somehow. Like this was the person he belonged to.
"Bill?" He said, breaking the peaceful silence, "Why did we break up?"
"You where always so serious - I know you had a lot to cope with, but I just couldn't imagine staying here with you, in this dark dungeon. And of course there was the issue with you having been one of the dark lords minions."
"Voldemort is dead" Snape had no problem saying the name, now that the evil wizard was banished from the earth forever. "I was just wondering what could have been."
"I have been wondering about that, too" Bill came a little closer, lightly touching Severus' shoulder. "I missed you."
"I think I could change" After all, Severus hadn't been dark and brooding for a whole day. "I feel happy today, and I haven't felt that way in a while"
"I know" said Bill. "I have lifted the curse of your dark mark for you" Snape looked at his companion unbelievingly." I AM a very good curse breaker, you know."
Severus couldn't quite believe this. He rolled up his sleeve - the dark mark was still there. He was pretty sure he would have noticed if the darn thing was gone.
"Thats just superficial. I can remove that for you with a simple spell - the real curse has been broken this morning." With a wave of his wand, accompnied by some latin words, the ugly tatoo on Snapes forearm vanished. "After all, thats the real reason I came here. I knew Ron would be spending Christmas with Hermione - I wanted to spend the holadays with you."
He leaned over and kissed Severus on the cheek. "I really did miss you"
Severus almost threw himself into Bills arm and kissed him. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"
"Merry Christmas, Severus!"
Merry Christmas, indeed!
END