Nope, not JKR! But I own a wand. It's plastic without a core and is pretty useless but it's still mine.

Thanks for the reviews to Isis78-13, Lost O'Fallon Girl, Burnedx2, iPod reader, usethecuffs!

Potions and Holidays

Christmas was coming. Everyone could feel it in the air. The students were paying less attention. Of course they learnt quickly that daydreaming about Christmas cookies or presents is not a good idea during Potions class. Finally one morning in mid-December, Hogwarts woke to find itself covered in several feet of snow. Severus was already out before most of the students even woke up. He loved winter. And despite what he caught from the seventh year Gryffindors' conversation about him being the Grinch he really liked Christmas. He couldn't wait for the holidays. The drafty corridors had become icy and a bitter wind rattled the windows in the classrooms. He had to use a warming charm on his robes so that he wouldn't freeze in his own classroom in the dungeons. Yet he was in a good mood. The wound on his leg slowly healed and Quirrell didn't dare to go anywhere near Harry since the Quidditch match.

One morning as he entered the Potions classroom he found that Hermione Granger was already there.

She was shivering and holding his copy of Complex and Tricky Potions.

"Good morning, Miss Granger! How may I help you?" What's wrong with me? It must be the closeness of the Holidays. I'm being all nice. What's gonna happen to your reputation? Also I should be yelling at her for setting my robes on fire telling her that at least she should attack the person who tries to harm her friend, not the one trying to protect him.

"Good morning, Professor! This morning I went to the library to return Complex and Tricky Potions but Madam Prince told me that she's never seen this book. I thought…"

He reached for the book and she stopped in midsentence clearly her Gryffindor bravery is gone in the presence of the head of Slytherin house.

"How did you like it?"

"It was really entertaining and it answered a lot of questions but…"

"But?"

"But I have a lot of new questions now."

"I would be surprised if you ever ran out of questions. However I think it's my turn to ask some questions. Let's see… How do you make sure not to explode your cauldron when making Wolfsbane?"

"By putting the salamander skin and the mandrake roots in water for 24 hours. The water has to come from a natural fountain collected at midnight during full moon."

"What are the ingredients of Polyjuice Potion?"

12 lacewing flies that have been stewed for 21 days, 1 ounce of crude Antimony, 4 leeches that have been unsucculated, 16 scruples of fluxweed that was picked at full moon, 3 drachms of pulverised Sal Ammoniac, Pulverised blades of knotgrass, 1 pinch of powdered horn of a Bicorn that has been lunar extracted,

filings and rasplings of Saltpeter, Mercury and Mars, shredded dried skin of a Boomslang and extract of The-Transfigured-Being-To-Be" she said in one breath quickly.

"The book only wrote about the ingredients though. It didn't say how to make the potion."

"I wouldn't have given it to you if it had. Polyjuice is a dangerous and possibly dark potion."

"Possibly dark?"

"Depending on the intent of the user."

"Oh, that's reasonable. I'd still love to try to brew it though."

"You'd have to read a lot of books before I'd let you try it." said Snape

"Which books?" seeing her eager expression he could hardly suppress a smile.

"Darkness in Light" he said after a second of thinking.

"Can I find that in the library?"

"Only in the restricted section."

"I'd need a teacher's note for checking out a book from the restricted section." she said looking at Snape expectantly.

"You'd definitely need one." said Snape.

"However…" he flicked his wand and an enormous old book zoomed in from his Private Quarters "I happen to have a copy of my own."

"Thank you." said Hermione walked back to her desk and started reading without wasting any time.

Snape was smiling at her completely forgetting about his reputation and scaring the entering Neville Longbottom to death. He could see in the boy's mind easily that he thought Snape was a vampire about to drink Hermione's blood. Why else would he smile at her like that?

Snape turned away and snickered. Longbottom had some really wild imagination. If only his potions skills were as great too.

Slowly the students arrived to the class. They were all shivering in the cold and once they started making their potions they kept as close as possible to their hot cauldrons.

"I do feel so sorry," said Draco "for all those people who have to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas because they're not wanted at home."

He was clearly trying to get to Potter but the boy ignored him. Snape remembered hearing nearly exactly the same sentence from James Potter. Of course he had hexed Potter gaining a week's detention for it from Slughorn. This Potter didn't even talk back to Draco. Maybe he isn't so much like his father after all. What the? Oh my got, Snape, you're all too nice with Christmas coming up.

Of course Potter was just like his father as it turned out after the lesson. Hardly had he left the classroom when he found that Weasley was diving at Draco and Potter was pulling out his wand.

"WEASLEY!"

"He was provoked, Professor Snape," said Hagrid, sticking his huge hairy face out from behind a Christmas tree he was taking to the Great Hall. "Malfoy was insultin' his family."

"Be that as it may, fighting is against Hogwarts rules, Hagrid," said Snape silkily.

"Five points from Gryffindor, Weasley, and be grateful it isn't more." he added lookin at Potter who was trying to hide his wand quickly. "Move along, all of you."

"How many days you got left until yer holidays?" Hagrid asked as the were looking at the decorations in the Great Hall.

"Just one," said Hermione cheerfully "And that reminds me… Harry, Ron, we've got half an hour before lunch, we should be in the library."

"Oh yeah, you're right," said Ron,

"The library?" said Hagrid, following them out of the hall. "Just before the holidays? Bit keen, aren't yeh?"

"Oh, we're not working," Harry told him brightly. "Ever since you mentioned Nicolas Flamel we've been trying to find out who he is."

"You what?" Hagrid looked shocked. "Listen here… I've told yeh… drop it. It's nothin' to you what that dog's guardin'."

"We just want to know who Nicolas Flamel is, that's all," said Hermione.

"Unless you'd like to tell us and save us the trouble." Harry added. "We must've been through hundreds of books already and we can't find him anywhere… just give us a hint… I know I've read his name somewhere."

"I'm sayin' nothing" said Hagrid flatly.

"Just have to find out for ourselves, then," said Ron, and they left for the Library.

They had indeed been searching books for Flamel's name ever since Hagrid had let it slip after the first Quidditch match. They were quite sure that Snape was trying to steal whatever the three headed dog was guarding. But then why is he so nice to me? Hermione wondered.

The trouble was, it was very hard to know where to begin, not knowing what Flamel might have done to get himself into a book. He wasn't in Great Wizards of the Twentieth Century, or Notable Magical Names of Our Time; he was missing, too, from Important Modern Magical Discoveries, and A Study of Recent Developments in Wizardry. And then, of course, there was the sheer size of the library; tens of thousands of books; thousands of shelves; hundreds of narrow rows.

Hermione took out a list of subjects and titles she had decided to search and worked her way through them. Ron to her annoyance just strode off down a row of books and started pulling them off the shelves at random. Harry wandered over to the Restricted Section all the time. Hermione had been wondering for a while if Flamel wasn't somewhere in there but she was sure they wouldn't get a teacher's note anyway.

Once again they left the library without any result.

"You will keep looking while I'm away, won't you?" said Hermione. "And send me an owl if you find anything."

"And you could ask your parents if they know who Flamel is," said Ron.

"It'd be safe to ask them."

"Very safe, as they're both dentists," said Hermione.

Hermione sit in a cabin with Neville on the way home. She was really excited about meeting her parents. She kept writing to them about Hogwarts and they answered each time. Hermione's father even started reading Wizarding books. He really loved History and was really excited to get to know the wizarding version of some important historic events. Her mum was disappointed to hear that Hermione was not allowed to use magic at home. Hermione was really happy that they accepted her being a witch absolutely. Yet she was a bit worried. She didn't tell anything to her parents about the troll or Fluffy or their suspicion about Snape. She didn't want to scare them. She felt bad about it. She had never kept secrets from her father before. They had been really close and Hermione could share everything with him. She hoped that it was still the same way.

"What are you so worried about?" asked Neville.

"I don't know how it's going to be…" she trailed off.

"How what's going to be?"

"Meeting my parents."

Neville didn't answer.

"My parents are muggles, and they are really nice and understanding, but it's still going to be awkward at first."

"Uh-huh" said Neville.

"I never really asked, and you don't have to tell me if you don't want to, but why is it that you live with your grandma?"

Neville seemed to hesitate.

"It's ok, it's none of my business I guess."

"No, I just don't know how to say this. You know about the war eleven years ago?"

Hermione nodded.

"Of course you know" said Neville nodding. All of a sudden he looked a lot older and even wiser, like someone who has seen a lot in his life "Well, You-know-who's followers attacked my parents. That's why I live with my grandma."

"I'm so sorry, Neville"

Neville didn't look at her.

"I'll go, so that you can change into muggle clothes" said Hermione "I promised to say goodbye to Pravati anyway.

"Ok, thanks." Neville muttered still not looking at her.

"Hermione" her mum ran to her and hugged her "I'm so glad you're at home."

"I'm happy to see you too mum." she whispered feeling that her voice might crack if she speaks any louder.

Once her mum released her she ran to her father.

"Dad!" she couldn't say anything more as she hugged him.

"I missed you, Hermi" Robert said

"Dad, I'd like to tell you something…"

Her dad was reading her copy of Hogwarts, a History.

"Yes, Hermi?" Robert looked up expectantly.

"Do you like it?" asked Hermione nodding towards the book.

"Yes, I wish I could see the castle too. But you wanted to tell me something."

"Yes, I didn't tell you everything in my letters…"

She told her dad about seeing the three headed dog, and her night time walk to the library, the troll in the castle, and how they suspected that Professor Snape was trying to get past the dog. She even talked about her suspicion of how Snape tried to shake Harry off his broom.

"You see, what's my problem? He is really mean to most of the students except for his own house and he especially hates Harry. On the other hand he gives me books and is quite nice to me. But on the other hand he was at the forbidden corridor on Halloween and he was jinxing the broom, but on the other hand somehow I feel that I should trust him. I don't know if I should ask for help from Professor McGonagall or the headmaster."

"Are you quite sure that he was bitten by that three-headed monster?"

"Yes, Harry overheard him saying it."

"Are you sure that he was the one jinxing the broom? He could have been saying a counter jinx."

"That's an option of course. But what was he doing at the forbidden corridor?"

"I don't know, Hermi. But I'd be happy if you tried to stay out of this. I know hardly anything about Professor Snape, but he seems to be a really private man. He could have plenty of reasons to be at that corridor."

Hermione wasn't pleased with the answers at all. Snape might have been saying a counter jinx but then who was jinxing the broom? She tried to remember if she saw anyone else who could be suspicious through the binocular but couldn't think of anybody. And if Snape had indeed been trying to save Harry then why did the attacker stop when she set Snape's robes on fire? She felt desperate. She needed answers but in this situation her beloved books didn't help her. Maybe if I found out who Nicholas Flamel is.

"Dad, have you ever heard of Nicholas Flamel?"

"No, Hermi, is he a wizard?"

"I don't know I just heard the name somewhere." What if he was a muggle and we are checking the wrong books? I have to go to a muggle library tomorrow. But what would Dumbledore have to do with a muggle?

Hermione spent the next few days with researching in the muggle library without result. She even asked her mum if she had heard the name Flamel but she didn't either.

On Christmas eve the three of them had dinner together like always. After dinner they went to the living-room. The Christmas tree was decorated and shining in the corner with nicely wrapped presents under it. They always opened the presents on Christmas eve as a family tradition. Hermione bought a nice spell-check pen for her dad with his name graved in it and an ever warm enchanted pullover. For her mum she gave a similar pullover and a beautiful dress that she bought in Madame Malkin's. Her mum loved going to theatre with her friends and she always dressed out very nicely.

She got a bunch of books and she could tell that her father bought them at Diagon alley at once because the covers were moving. She also got a golden necklace with a small heart on it. It could be opened and on the inside was a photo of them again moving. Hermione was about ten on it and was hugging her parents after arriving home from a summer camp.

"Thank you! I really love it!" she said very touched.

The next morning she was surprised to find presents next to her bed. She got a Remembrall and some sugar quills from Neville.

I know you don't really need it because you can always keep everything in mind but my granny insisted that it comes in handy even for you.

Merry Christmas,

Neville

Hermione smiled as she read Neville's card and took the Remembrall in her hand. It didn't turn red. She smiled happily.

The other present was from Harry. He bought her some wonderful quills and her favorite muggle chocolate: Ferrero Rose.

She had a lot of fun during the holiday. She was happy to realize that she was just as close to her parents as ever before. She was talking about both muggle and wizarding books with his father and she went to the theatre with her mother to watch a funny show titled "Noises Off". She was laughing so much that tears appeared in her eyes and felt that even without magic the actors and actresses managed to put together something magical. But even the best things come to an end eventually. And soon she found herself standing on Platform 9 and ¾. She saw Wood and Angelina waving at her from the train.

"Hey, Hermione, why don't you join us?"

Yeah, I know this is a stupid place to leave it but I don't feel like continuing right now and I wanted to post a chapter today. Tomorrow is back to school, so the chapters are gonna come slower.

Reviews are appreciated!