Authors note: Well, my dears, it is a tradition...

…1…

It was Saturday, and the resident potions master of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry indulged in his guilty pleasure, sleeping in. It happened only once or twice a month, if at all, that neither of his two masters had given him a task which required him to be up and about early.

Those two masters were, of course, Albus Dumbledore and the dark lord Voldemort, sworn enemies, only united in their recklessness when it came to ordering Severus around.

But that fateful December the 1st neither had requested the potions master to participate in some absurd plan to get the upper hand of the other. Therefore, Severus Snape stretched luxuriously when he woke and snuggled deeper into his pillow.

It was almost ten o'clock when he finally rose, not because he had slept his fill but because he needed the bathroom. Once he was up, he completed his morning ablutions and left his quarters for the Great Hall to get some breakfast.

One of the advantages of breakfasting that late was that the hall was as good as empty and a meal without several hundred children chattering nearby was pure bliss for any teacher. Snape expected the Great Hall to be completely deserted that particular day. Friday evening had brought the first snow and the children were certainly playing outside by now. He just hoped that Hogwarts' most difficult students – Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter who hated each other even more than Dumbledore and Voldemort – would not get into serious trouble before he had had his second cup of coffee.

It came as a complete surprise that every single seat at the Great Hall was occupied when he entered.

"Finally!" cried Potter who had no decorum at all.

"Severus, my boy!" cried Dumbledore. "Come and join us!" He pointed at Snape's empty seat in a grand gesture.

Snape looked around, dumbfounded. "Have I missed something?" he asked.

"Why my boy, it's the first of December! Everybody is curious to find out whether you have acquired an advent calendar this year!" Dumbledore beamed at him expectantly.

"I have not," Snape informed the hall at large. He poured himself a cup of coffee and reached for the toast.

"You have not?" cried Potter. "But why?"

"I never did anything to get one. They were always given to me," Snape pointed out. "This year I didn't receive one from anybody."

There was a murmur of disappointment in the hall and although he had done nothing wrong, Snape felt a little bad for the children.

"That can be remedied," the clear voice of Fred Weasley announced. He got up from his seat, his twin George by his side and stepped up to the head table.

"Professor Snape, may we present you with this advent calendar. It's only a little fun piece, nothing grand, but we thought it might be fun to have one again. You have to share it, though. And we request we get full account of the effects."

"Effects?" squeaked Snape. "What effects? What is this thing? What does it do?"

"I'm glad that you ask, Sir," replied George. "This is the Weasley's Wizard Wheezes advent calendar. The test version, to be exact."

"Every window holds a piece of chocolate laced with a fun potion," Fred continued. "We worked on it most of the summer. – Go ahead, open the first window."

"What does the potion do?" Snape asked suspiciously.

"Now, now, Severus," Dumbledore chimed in, "where would be the fun if they told you in advance."

"If you think I will ingest an unknown potion, you are mistaken," Snape snapped. "What does it do?" He glared at the twins in a way that would have most students in tears in seconds, but not the twins.

"We thought you were going to ask that," George took over from his brother, "but the headmaster is right. It would spoil the fun."

"Therefore, we mixed the chocolates before we put them into the calendar. We do not know which potions is in which window. We can assure you though, there is nothing dangerous in there."

"Open the window already!" Potter cried from his seat. Encouraging his fellow students with waves of his hands he started a chant of "Snape! Snape! Snape!"

"Severus, please!" Dumbledore pleaded. McGonagall and Sprout looked at the potions master hopefully.

"Snape! Snape! Snape!" tiny professor Flitwick joined the students' chants.

The potions master did some quick thinking before he grabbed the calendar – a smallish thing that looked just like a muggle chocolate advent calendar with a Christmas tree and red nosed reindeer picture – from Fred's outstretched hand. "You said I had to share," he pointed out. "I assign the first window to your sister, Miss Ginevra Weasley."

"Thank you, professor!" the Gryffindor redhead squealed excitedly. She pecked her boyfriend, Harry Potter, on the cheek before she rushed to the head table. When Snape held out the calendar, she clapped her hands excitedly before she opened the window and took out a small piece of chocolate wrapped in pink paper.

"Do I have to eat the whole thing or can I share?" she asked her twin brothers who were still standing by the head table.

"Go ahead and share it," said George. "But I wouldn't recommend to share with more than one person or you will get too small a dose to have a proper effect."

"I wasn't going to share with more than one," Ginevra cried. "Harry, would you like a piece of my treat?"

"As if he's going to say no," Draco Malfoy's bored voice was heard from the Slytherin table. "Not even Potter is stupid enough to refuse to share chocolate with his girlfriend."

"I heard that," Potter cried, "but I have more important things to do than quarrel with you." He took the bite of chocolate Ginevra held out to him and put it into his mouth without hesitation. Snape thought this was the single most heroic and stupid thing he had ever witnessed at the same time.

First there was no effect but after a couple of seconds, both Ginny and Potter's hair changed colour. They looked at each other and laughed. Both now sported Gryffindor colours, red and gold.

"See, Severus," Dumbledore pointed out, "completely harmless."

"For a Gryffindor," Snape replied. "Can you imagine the head of Slytherin with red and gold hair?"

The headmaster chuckled. "As a matter of fact, I can!"

The advent calendar was positioned on the Head Table in front of Snape's plate and Dumbledore cast a spell to prevent anybody from opening a window unauthorized.

Since the spectacle was over for the day, the students headed outside to play in the snow – Potter and his girlfriend without hats to show off their matching hair – and Snape got a quiet breakfast at last.