Severus Snape disliked Christmas on principle. It was the only time of the year when students were actually expected to slack off and the teachers were expected to be lenient.
Christmas was a time of chaos and expense at Hogwarts. The decorations had to be put up at no little effort every year. Hauling in the enormous trees was an annoyance to all the teachers in the castle (pine nettles were everywhere), but it was put up with because Dumbledore was dead set on it.
Snape had been chosen to patrol the corridors for a few hours on Christmas Eve and he had no problem with it. It was the same as any other night to him.
So far he had found the castle asleep and silent, except for the sounds of his own footsteps. Snape knew that house-elves were currently sorting through piles of owl-sent presents in the kitchen. They would deliver the gifts a little later that night.
Despite all the work they had to do (or perhaps because of it), the house-elves were enjoying themselves. Dumbledore had provided them with several tankards of eggnog for the evening and they were all saving it until after the student’s presents had been delivered. None of them wanted to be tipsy on the job and possibly awaken a sleeping student.
It was, Snape thought, all a monumental waste of time and effort. The students would be just as unruly the day after Christmas as the day before, no matter how many gifts they had received.
He rounded a corner and poked his head in the Charms classroom. All was dark and empty. Students out of bed were less common on Christmas Eve than on most nights, but it was far from unheard of to find one wandering at night, perhaps hoping to catch a glimpse of Father Christmas himself.
Should Snape encounter any wayward students during the night’s stroll, they most certainly would not be receiving gifts from a sack.
His mind gave an unwelcome twinge of remembrance, and Snape stifled it. He didn’t want to be thinking about long-ago Christmases. What he wanted was to finish his tour of the castle and retire to the dungeons.
He mounted a staircase and passed a house-elf carrying a pile of gifts. The elf, a tiny female with enormous ears, was practically hidden behind the pile of presents she carried.
“Happy Christmas, sir!” she squeaked.
The elf was right. It was after midnight. It was Christmas already.
Snape didn’t give the elf a second glance. He checked behind a suit of armor and in a broom cupboard. No miscreants.
He was on the seventh floor, near the Gryffindor common room. Of all the Houses, Gryffindor was the most likely to have a student out of bed.
Of course the very thought of Gryffindor House brought to mind the only person Severus Snape desperately did not want to think about this night”or any other. He had felt her presence during his dark tour of the castle, but he had held her at bay.
He couldn’t do it any longer.
*
The Slytherin common room was dark and cold, but Severus had put a log on the fire and was huddled in front of it, keeping his hands warm.
It was closer to one o’clock than midnight and Severus was feeling slight unease. Perhaps she had been caught. Perhaps she had forgotten to come at all.
The present was sitting on the floor beside him, clumsily wrapped in tissue paper. He had saved all his money for it. His allowance was not very generous and had to be exchanged for Wizarding money at Gringotts anyway.
Severus was the only second-year Slytherin who had stayed at the castle for Christmas. The others were mostly fifth and sixth years who paid no attention to him. They were all in the dormitory, asleep.
He was just about to close his eyes when he heard a soft voice (the password was “Parseltongue,” as he had told her at breakfast) through the thick walls of the common room. The wall slid silently aside and Lily Evans walked into the Slytherin common room with a small, wrapped present under her arm.
“Hi Severus!” she said quietly. “Happy Christmas!”
“Happy Christmas,” he said, getting to his feet.
Lily embraced him and sat down on a sofa. Her face was pink and she looked a little out of breath.
“I nearly bumped into Professor Dumbledore on the way over. I just barely got away.”
“Did he see you?” asked Severus, alarmed at the possibility of punishment.
“I don’t think so,” said Lily. “I don’t know why he was walking around the castle on Christmas morning.”
Severus shrugged. The eccentricities of Albus Dumbledore did not much interest him. Especially not tonight.
“I’ll open mine first,” said Lily. “Let’s see it!”
Severus handed over his gift a little timidly. Lily tore off the wrapping without a second glance, for which Severus was grateful.
Lily was holding a small grey box. She eagerly opened it and withdrew a delicate necklace of gold chain. Hanging from the slender chain was a tiny deer, carved from amethyst.
“Oh, it’s beautiful,” said Lily with a genuine intake of breath. “Where’d you get it?”
“I ordered it,” said Severus. The necklace was from a Muggle shop, but he hoped Lily wouldn’t know the difference. She probably wouldn’t care anyway. “I thought it seemed like something”well, something you’d like.”
“I love it,” said Lily. She fastened it around her neck, nimbly doing the clasp by herself. “Thank you.”
Severus turned pink and muttered something under his breath.
“Now it’s your turn,” said Lily. She thrust her parcel at Severus, smiling.
It was square, boxy and heavy. Severus guessed it was a book. He tore off the wrapping (which was covered with flying reindeer that actually moved across the paper) with care, not wanting to waste it.
It was indeed a book, a fat black textbook called Advanced Potion-Making, by Libatius Borage.
“The book is actually for sixth-years, but you’ve been doing so well in Potions that I thought maybe you’d like to look at it.” Lily, usually confident, seemed anxious for Severus’s reply.
“It’s great,” said Severus truthfully. He flipped the book open. This wasn’t like simplistic textbook he was currently breezing his way through. This would actually pose a challenge to him. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” Lily was beaming. A lot of people would have thought Severus’s reaction unenthusiastic, but Lily knew him better than that. “Now. Aren’t you forgetting something?”
Severus slowly shook his head. “I don’t know.” He was unfamiliar with the Christmas tradition. Was there something he wasn’t doing right?
“You were going to nick sweets from the kitchen!” said Lily.
“Oh, right,” said Severus, grinning. He went behind an overstuffed chair, where he had hidden a pile of food that the house-elves had given him. He brought the assortment of candy and sweets back and dumped it on the couch next to Lily.
She selected a Chocolate Frog and tore off the wrapper. “I didn’t think I could fit anything in after Christmas cake,” she said, “but getting up at midnight really makes you hungry.”
Severus started in on a Cauldron Cake and they ate their snacks in silence, relishing the complete stillness of the night, empty except for each other.
*
Snape shook off his thoughts. It was all long ago, so very long ago. He had to stop the infernal thinking. He had to finish his job.
He gave the seventh floor a complete sweep and found no one but Peeves, who was writing crude versions of Christmas songs on the wall with chalk. Snape shooed the poltergeist away and cleaned the wall with a sweep of his wand.
Snape was just about to move to the eighth floor, when he heard a slight rustle. A dressing gown, perhaps.
“Lumos.”
Snape shone his pencil-thin light down the darkened corridor. He didn’t see anything, but he was fairly sure that someone was nearby.
It was most likely Peeves again, but Snape went to investigate anyway. He had searched two classrooms before he caught a glimpse of movement behind a suit of armor further up.
Snape swept to the suit of armor and grabbed the person behind it by the scruff of the neck.
The person in his grip was a small, tousle-haired Gryffindor boy, probably a first year. The boy was in a dressing gown and slippers. His large eyes were wide and frightened.
“Mr. McCarthy, I believe,” said Snape, dragging the boy into the corridor. “May I ask what compelled you to wander the castle at night on Christmas Eve?”
“I was visiting the Hufflepuffs, sir!” said McCarthy, whose voice was barely more than a chirp. He looked rather like a large, brown-haired house-elf. “I was visiting my friend Harriet! I had to give her my present!”
The boy was holding something that looked like a scarf under his arm. Snape guessed that this was Harriet’s gift.
“Well, Mr. McCarthy, I’m afraid that you have two counts against you: one, being out of bed, and two, entering another House’s common room.”
Snape suddenly had a strange feeling, one that he was not accustomed to. He looked down at the quivering boy and”for an instant”saw the girl he had loved many years before.
“Listen to me,” he said. “I will allow you to go back to your common room. I will not tell anyone of your little journey.”
“Thank you, sir!” squeaked little McCarthy, who looked as though an angel with a halo had just taken Snape’s place.
“You will tell no one of this encounter. If I hear even one word about this, you will be skinning Crups for Potions class for the rest of your years at this school. Is that clear?” asked Snape.
McCarthy nodded, seemingly too intimidated to respond.
Snape let go of the boy’s dressing gown and he ran for the Gryffindor common room at high speed, clearly eager to make good his escape.
Severus Snape watched the boy go and then continued on his lonely tour of the castle.