…11...
On Tuesday, the eleventh of December, Snape decided that he deserved a treat.
First he slept until five minutes before his breakfast duty started. Miffy, the small house elf who usually answered to Snape's calls, woke him following the orders the potions master had given the evening before. Snape treated himself to a magic-enhanced shower (Spell the water warm, magic the soap and wash cloth to wash you at top speed, meanwhile spell shampoo onto your head, spell yourself dry; Snape was able to do all this within two minutes. As a spy you sometimes had very little time.). Then he rushed up to the Great Hall just in time.
Once he had reached the hall, Snape slowed down a bit. He reprimanded a group of Gryffindors for entering the hall before a teacher was present and took a not too small number of house points. When one of the boys tried to argue, Snape doubled the amount of points lost.
With a smirk, the Head of Slytherin took his seat at the Head Table. If the Gryffindors continued to come to breakfast that early, Dumbledore could as well hand the house cup over at Christmas.
"Miffy," Snape snarled after his first cup of coffee, "I crave something chocolaty."
The small elf smiled beatifically. "Miffy knows exactly what to make for master potions master!"
Five minutes later, Snape indulged in mousse au chocolat for breakfast. It was divine!
"Potter!" Snape scolded when the Gryffindor hero cried out angrily upon seeing the almost empty Gryffindor hourglass. "Five points from Gryffindor for disturbing your fellow students' meal!"
"Nobody feels disturbed!" protested the boy and his housemates – the only students present so far – nodded in agreement.
"In this case, twenty points for disturbing MY meal. And I do feel disturbed." Snape snapped.
"That's unfair!" Potter cried.
"Yes, indeed! It is unfair that I have to deal with your impertinence instead of enjoying my breakfast!" Snape stood his ground.
The younger wizard was not scared easily though. "Is that chocolate pudding you are having for breakfast?" he asked. "Why don't we get any?"
"Because I was good and you weren't!" Snape made a point of licking the spoon clean.
"I didn't do anything and you know it," Potter insisted. "After all it was you who drugged me. Don't try to deny it."
"It was for your own good," Snape pointed out. "The Dark Lord was here and you have a unique way of making people want to kill you."
"I never did anything of that sort!"
"I'd appreciate it if you'd sit down and shut up now. Some of us do want to eat their breakfast." Snape drawled just as Draco Malfoy and his friends entered the hall.
"Is Potter being difficult again?" the blond boy asked. "Potter, we are all here to enjoy breakfast. Why don't you sit down and have some food, too? And I'd appreciate it if I didn't have to see your face during my meal. Kindly sit so that you are facing the other wall."
Within moments, the two boys were involved in a shouting match.
The potions master watched in silence for a couple of minutes before he took more points from Gryffindor.
"Really Severus," Minerva McGonagall, the Head of Gryffindor, sighed when she sat down. "Is that necessary? Do we have to repeat this every week?" She rolled her eyes at her colleague and started handing out points to Gryffindor left and right.
"You can't award points for breathing!" Snape pointed out.
"But I just did!" McGonagall smirked. "And don't think I do not know that you take points for breathing to loudly on a regular basis. – Miss Patil, two points to Gryffindor for existing!"
Snape was not beaten that easily. "And three points from Gryffindor for existing on the same plane of existence as I!" he cried.
The fight would have gone on hadn't the headmaster put a stop to it when he arrived. With a wave of his wand he restored the score of the previous evening. "No house points can be given or taken for the next two hours," he declared.
Snape and McGonagall glared at each other. Their students did the same.
"Severus," Dumbledore changed the topic, "why don't we open the advent calendar window now?"
"An excellent suggestion," agreed Snape. "I have decided that I should get today's window." Without much ado he opened it and ate the chocolate he found in it. The sweet was wrapped in gold.
Snape shrieked.
"Severus, do you feel ill?" Dumbledore asked, worried.
"No!" cried the potions master, "but I now have x-ray sight! – I can look through non-transparent materials," he added when Dumbledore and McGonagall looked puzzled upon his first statement.
It was the witch's turn to shriek. "How dare you!" she folded her arms protectively in front of her. "Turn around!"
Snape obeyed. "You don't understand! I can not only look through your clothes," here all the female students shrieked, "I can look through you! All I see is your skeleton!"
"Wicked!" cried some of the boys.
"Disgusting!" cried some of the girls.
Snape had to agree with the girls. He found it disgusting to look at a hall full of skeletons having breakfast.
"With your permission, Albus," he said, "I'll return to my quarters. I'm afraid I won't be of much use here when I can't see the students properly."
The headmaster saw Snape's point and allowed it.
Back in his living room, the potions master poured himself a tiny amount of firewhiskey and sat in front of the fireplace.
When he saw it, he gasped. Where he had considered the mantle a solid piece of wood, he now could clearly see a hidden cavity.
He had to wait for almost an hour – it was a good thing that he didn't need to teach the first period that day – before his eye sight returned to normal and he was able to investigate.
The cavity could be opened with a simple alohomora, since the main part of its protection was the fact that nobody even suspected that it was there. The cavity held a small treasure: a journal with the notes of a potions master who had lived in the very quarters Snape occupied now many years ago.
Snape was excited. Oh, he was going to enjoy exploring this booklet! He hoped that the author had written his name somewhere or at least a hint which could help to find out his identity.
With a contented sigh, he pocketed the journal before he went to his classroom to teach the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff first years how to use cat whiskers in calming potions.