Candy Cane Caution

A knock came upon the headmaster's door as he finished tying a bow around a small, brightly wrapped box. When it sounded, Albus Dumbledore looked up from his work momentarily before stowing the package safely in one of the drawers of his large oak desk.

"Enter," he called.

The door opened to reveal none other than Minerva McGonagall, holding a box of her own and smiling softly.

"Good morning, Minerva," said Albus, with the slightest undertone of surprise.

"Albus," she said in greeting, and crossed the room and placed the box in front of him on the desk.

He raised his eyebrows. "Might I inquire as to the occasion?"

Rolling her eyes, Minerva returned, "You know perfectly well what day it is."

Holding his hands up in surrender, he said, "Merry Christmas, Minerva," and opened the drawer and withdrew from it the gift he had been wrapping. He handed it to his colleague before clasping his hands together.

Minerva stared at the gift for a moment; she then pushed the package that stood on the desk between them toward Albus, bidding him, "Open it."

"At the same time?" he suggested.

She nodded (perhaps a little grudgingly) and tugged on the bow keeping lid and container together. Albus did so as well, and they both tore apart the wrappings, revealing the plain cardboard of their boxes. They each caught the other's eye, held it for a moment as though counting, then opened the boxes.

Albus' face lit up in delight, a wide grin stretching across his face; Minerva's expression was one of uncertainty. Before he had a chance to cry out, he looked to see what she thought of the gift and was met with:

"Er - are you quite sure this is the best idea, Albus?"

For in the box lay peacefully a - if you could call it that - bouquet of candy canes, all different colors, but all obviously striped similarly to the original red-and-white. There were several dozen in the bunch, tied together with a length of bright red silk ribbon.

This being the case, it would be hard for an outsider to understand Minerva McGonagall's caution. Albus Dumbledore, however, was not an outsider; in fact, he was the main cause for Minerva's caution.

"I'm sure," said Albus, and set his own present down. "Ambrosius Flume owed me a favor and, once I told him just what I needed, was actually quite eager to get started on it. I must say" - this with a small smile - "I'm glad I approached him with the idea when I did, or he wouldn't have been able to finish in time."

"What on earth," said Minerva, sliding a candy cane out from under the ribbon and studying it with great interest, "could you have done for Ambrosius Flume to make him help you with candy canes?"

"That's not important," said Albus, maybe a touch too quickly for Minerva's liking, because she fixed him with a glare that, if looks could kill, could have made him drop dead upon the floor. "What's important is their purpose."

"Their purpose? And what would that be?" she asked. "To transform into wild animals and run around the school rather than turn whoever is eating it into an animal?"

Amazingly, Albus almost blushed. Looking something like sheepish, he said, "No. It is a punishment."

Incredulously: "A punishment?"

"For those students who earn the" - teasing - "cruel fate of earning a detention with the horrible Head of Gryffindor House."

"Excuse me?"

"Nothing, Minerva, nothing..."

Quickly regaining herself, Minerva lowered her eyebrows. "So how is this a punishment?"

Albus reached for the candy cane she was holding. "May I?" he asked; she complied. He walked around to the other side of his desk and sat himself down, and with a flick of his wand he conjured an image of a nondescript boy in Hogwarts robes. "Jimmy," Albus said, as though the boy was real, "what you have done has earned you a detention."

Minerva rolled her eyes for a second time at his generic speech.

"For your punishment," he continued, "you are to eat this candy cane."

The faceless boy took the one Albus offered him, mechanically unwrapped it, and immediately began to suck on it. Minerva stood watching, unimpressed, for a few moments before the boy disappeared with a pop! to be replaced by -

Minerva's jaw dropped. "A skink?"

Albus watched her in silence, waiting for her to speak again. When she did not, he said, chuckling lightly, "You'll catch flies, my dear Professor."

She closed her mouth, opened it, closed it again, then said, "How? Why?"

Flicking his wand again so the image of the skink disappeared, he picked up the candy cane, still whole and still wrapped. "The how, I'm afraid, is between Ambrosius and I," he said, smirking when Minerva scowled. "But the why - when used on a real student, the animal they turn into reflects their person and what they did, much like a Patronus."

Minerva stared. "Then why was the boy you conjured a skink?"

With a shrug, Albus smiled and said, "I like skinks."

Sighing, shaking her head, Minerva decided she'd rather not know. Instead, she asked, "Did you like your gift, Albus?"

He beamed.

"Woolen socks!" he cried. "How did you know?"

A/N: Merry Christmas, everyone! This here silly one-shot is for the Sock Challenge - I got woolen socks and of course the first person I thought of was Dumbledore. And then Minerva and candy canes were my other prompts, so... here's this. :)

I also published a HarryGinny drabble today... so if that's your cup of tea, go check it out. ;D

Hope everyone's having a great holiday. It would be the best Christmas gift in the WORLD (next to my new iTouch) for you to review. But then, if you don't, that's okay too.

Thanks for reading!

~whispered touches

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. It belongs to J.K. Rowling. No copyright infringement is intended.