Mistletoe, a short Christmas tale.
The first week of December, every year since it was found, the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry got ready for Christmas with the help of all its inhabitants. The students hanged the decorations in their respective common rooms; Filch and Hagrid carried giant trees inside the castle; Flitwick and Pomona dressed them with shiny balls and colorful figures; McGonagall made the list of students who would be staying for the Holidays and meanwhile, Dumbledore reserved for himself his favorite task: hanging the mistletoe.
December 1981
"Albus, we're here to negotiate" Minerva said after intruding the Headmaster's office followed by some of the staff members.
"Negotiate?" Dumbledore asked glancing at the crowd in front of him "What about?"
"About this Christmas decoration…"
"We want someone else to hang the mistletoe this year." Madam Hooch said seeing her friend wasn't getting to the point.
"Why would you want that? I like doing it" the headmaster replied like a kid.
"We know you enjoy yourself with the mistletoe…" Minerva talked as if she was actually responding to a child "but last year you covered the school corridors with those damn flowers" she lost her temper "and we don't want that again".
"I don't understand" the old man crossed his arms behind his desk.
"Albus you get crazy with the mistletoe tradition… You can't expect us to kiss with the father of a student, or ghosts to kiss with house elfs every time they meet under a flower… it's ridiculous" Minerva tried to explain.
"You're exaggerating"
"She's not... I like Christmas traditions too, headmaster, but I don't like to see my husband sharing his breath with every witch in the school!" Pomona pointed.
"I had no problem with that" Filius muttered, and his wife stared at him making not just him but all the members in the room shut up with no need of words.
"What about…" Minerva broke the silence looking first at her boss and then at her colleagues to make sure that they were still listening "… if you promise us to hang up less mistletoe flowers this year"
"Alright" Albus agreed, "If you all promise to follow the tradition with no exceptions"
December 1982
Inside the teacher's room, after lunchtime, all the staff members were waiting for the Headmaster; who came in with his usual smile.
"Have a sit, please" offered his deputy.
"Have I done anything wrong?" he wondered.
"The corridors are covered in mistletoe again… and that's not what we agreed last year" Rolanda talked.
"If I remember it right, in exchange for me hanging less flowers everybody had to follow the tradition with no exceptions… but nobody did."
"I did" Sybill said.
"Of course you did, you spent the entire December running into the new Defense against the Dark Arts professor in purpose." Hooch said and she and Madam Pomfrey giggled.
"Girls, please… this wasn't the matter that took us here." Minerva remind to her colleagues looking back at them and then to the Headmaster "Albus, this is a stupid tradition to have in the school…"
"It's not" he interrupted her.
"It is" Severus Snape talked for the first time.
"But if anybody kisses then it's not funny" Dumbledore regained his childish tone like every year.
"Well then, let's negotiate."
This Christmas
This year he wouldn't wait for his staff to ambush him. No, this year he would have the first and the last word about the mistletoe.
It was Friday, first of December, and like every end of week all the teacher met after dinner to talk about their classes and students. The headmaster was the last to join them; he wanted everybody to be comfortably sitting down once he came in to say what he had to say.
"Good evening, my friends" he began "I beg your attention, please". Everybody looked at their boss with curiosity. "I'm sure you'll be happy to hear that this year I'm just going to hang up twelve mistletoe flowers around the castle" after those words the room became a noisy whisper wondering what he was up to.
"What's the trick" McGonagall was the first to dare ask it loudly.
"There's no trick." the headmaster answered.
"Oh, come on, last year you made Severus stay for holidays because he never kissed anyone under the mistletoe" Septima reminded him.
"Yes, none of us like to spent Christmas with these bunch of little monsters" Rolanda added.
"That's not a punishment, Ro" Minerva observed.
"Talk for yourself, Minerva… you stay every year voluntarily" Pomona replied "but some of us have family waiting for us outside".
Dumbledore cleared his throat to make his voice be heard again, "As I've said, there'll be a very few flowers around the castle and if you meet under them, I invite you to rather follow or not the tradition. Good night."
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The next morning, the potions master woke up at the same time as usual. He got dressed, brushed his black hair, took his wand and left his rooms. At the other side of his door, he met a couple of young slytherins stuck by their lips, above them a mistletoe flower was moving on circles on the air. Never losing his temper, he separated the teenagers with a move of wand and made his way to the great hall cursing on his boss' name, sure that he hadn't hang the plant in front of his office by chance.
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When she reached the top of the stairs, Minerva was surprised by the sweet image of her friend Pomona bending down to give her husband a morning kiss under the mistletoe. Their small rounded noses where tickling each other's and their hands were entwined on the air. She smiled and kept walking not willing to interrupt their moment.
Down the stairs, she almost crashed with Severus, who was coming from the dungeons.
"Good morning" she said
"Not until now" he replied.
"What's the matter today?" she asked as they crossed the school hall.
"It's this Christmas spirit I can't stand," he told "In a month I'll be better". She giggled and he noticed she was carrying something "Is that this months' Transfigurations today magazine?" he asked, as he knew she received it monthly but rarely watched her bring it downstairs.
"Oh, right!" she exclaimed while they crossed the big wooden doors "I was actually bringing it to you" she said "I was reading it this morning and found this interesting article about new uses for Dragon saliva I thought you'd like to have a look to." And she handed him the magazine.
"Thank you" he said, accepting it before they separated to occupy their respective sits.
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Albus Dumbledore had slept a very few hours that night because he'd been looking for the best places to hang the mistletoe flowers that year. On the morning, he'd been happy to watch so many couples following the old tradition of sharing a kiss under them. Students, ghosts, elfs, teachers… everybody had some love to give and to take.
Maybe it was that intoxication of love what make him found it that morning for the first time after so many years in a place where he'd never imagined it before.
"Good morning" he said to his deputy when she sat next to him to have some breakfast.
"Good morning, Albus" she replied with a nice tone, grabbing a toast.
"May I ask you something" he wondered.
"Of course" she invited his curiosity while serving her cup some tea.
"What do you think of Severus?"
Minerva's hand trembled and the tea was spilled all over the table. "I'm sorry" she apologized cleaning the mess with her wand.
"It's fine" the headmaster calmed her. "So, I wasn't wrong, I did see something on your eyes"
"Sorry?"
"When you looked at Severus"
"I was just handing him a magazine," she said.
"No, that was what your hands were doing… Your eyes were trying to guess his thoughts"
"Oh, for Merlin's sake Albus, what is in your drink? Severus is a nice man, but he was my student and I don't look him in any weird way"
"Love is anything but weird, my dear."
She didn't replied, but her eyes gazed at the right corner of the table, where Severus was sipping some juice. When his glass met the wood, his eyes looked for hers and she turned around to Rolanda and Sybill.
December 1980
He was going to the Headmaster's office when he crashed with someone in the middle of the hall.
"I'm so sorry" he said bending down to help the woman take her papers back. When he handed them to her he realized she was the transfiguration teacher "I'm sorry Professor Mc-, Minerva" he corrected himself.
"It's fine, Severus" she giggled and they stood up again "It happened to me all the time when I began to work with Albus. I know it's hard to suddenly be your old teachers' colleagues"
"It is" he said; his eyes never leaving her lips, which he'd never seen smiling during his student years.
She looked up at him to say something else but her eyes kept looking at the ceiling, he wondered what the matter was and followed her eyes to the mistletoe flower floating above their heads.
"Dumbledore has hanged them all around the castle," he said to break their sudden silence; "I think it's not an appropriate tradition to follow in a school with teenage students with revolutionized hormones".
She laughed; shyly and shortly, but he'd made her laugh. They looked at each other.
"Fortunately we're not teenagers," she said.
"No, we're not" he replied trying not to lose his temper, not to show any response to that charm she radiated now that she wasn't his professor anymore.
"What about if instead of kissing we shake hands every time we run into each other under the mistletoe?"
"Sound suitable to me" and he held out his hand to her, who wrapped it with her thin and cold fingers.
…
TO BE CONTINUED…
A/N: I never imagined this would take me more than one part, so I hope you like it even if it should have been shorter. I've written better stories, I know it, but I like the plot and I hope you like it too even if I don't know how many times I've mentioned the words hang and mistletoe. I just don't know any synonyms for them.