14
Severus hated being summoned on a Sunday. Having two jobs – potions master at Hogwarts and the Dark Lord´s right-hand man – was bad enough, but when one job took away his rare leisure time of the other, it was hell.
The summoning, a light itchy feeling on his left forearm, came at the break of dawn. It even woke the potions master. Cursing under his breath, Snape forewent a shower in favour of a cleaning charm (which meant he had to wait another week until he had time to bask forever under the warm spray, one of the rare pleasures Severus Snape allowed himself) and put on his robes.
Without a single bite of breakfast Snape hurried down to the gates and apparated. One of these days he was going to kill the snake-nosed git and spare Potter the job.
The apparition – he allowed his master´s call to guide him – brought the potions master back to Riddle House. This time he was led to a room on the ground floor instead of the dusty one he had visited last time. The ground floor room was clean. The tiles were shiny – had the Dark Lord acquired a house elf or was it Wormtail´s work? – and the hangings freshly washed. In the middle of the ballroom sized room stood a table, laid for breakfast.
The Dark Lord sat at the head of the table and sipped tea.
"Severus! Finally! Come and join me!" cried the man and gestured to an empty place at the spot to his right. "Wormtail!" – the small wizard hurried into the room – "Bring coffee for Severus!"
The potions master sat obediently and helped himself to a plate of fresh fruit and toast.
"Master," he dared say after he had had some coffee and toast, "as much as I´m honoured by this wonderful breakfast, may I ask why you called me? How may I be of assistance?"
The Dark Lord swallowed the bacon he had been chewing. "Severus, this breakfast is sort of a bribe," sighed the man. "The matter I want to talk about is delicate and an emergency and I have no right to command you in it."
Severus was puzzled.
"The gift your calendar gave me caused severe trouble for me," the Dark Lord continued.
"The wand polisher?" the potions master was bewildered. The little gadget had seemed harmless enough.
"The very." The Dark Lord sighed again. "I don´t complain! It was a gift from Santa after all and complaining would be ungrateful." He took a forkful of baked beans. "Not even I – powerful as I am – would anger Santa."
There was a short silence. Severus´s curiosity was roused and it was hard to patiently wait until the Dark Lord was ready to continue.
"Bella, my most faithful," the man explained at last, "has been polishing my wand for years. When she found it shiny when she came to do it this week, she thought I had found somebody else for the task. She was deeply hurt, and you know her. When Bella is hurt, she runs amok." There was another pause when the Dark Lord sipped tea. "She has been giving me a hard time ever since. I thought I could handle her, but I can´t."
"Master, I have no more power over her than you. On the contrary. Don´t you think her husband would have been a better choice to ask for assistance?"
"You don´t understand! What I was going to ask you, beg you, was to let her open your advent calendar, to make her believe me. I know I have no right to ask for another of Santa´s gifts, but it is not for myself."
Severus would never in athousand years have thought of including Bellatrix Lestrange in the group of people who got one of Santa´s presents, but denying the Dark Lord wouldn´t have been wise.
"I would be honoured." Severus hinted a bow and grabbed some bacon. This conversation asked for stronger stuff than fresh pineapple.
The Dark Lord beamed at the potions master and called for Wormtail again. He pressed his wand onto the small wizard´s dark mark and five minutes later Bellatrix hurried into the room.
"My Lord!" the woman threw herself at her master's feet.
"Sit with us, Bellatrix," the Dark Lord said pompously. "We had a disagreement this week and as I don´t want my most faithful to be cross with me, especially when Christmas is just around the corner, I asked Severus for proof that what I told you was right." He signalled the potions master to take over.
"Bella," Snape said in an equally pompous tone, "I´d be honoured if you opened my advent calendar today. It´s a Santa original."
"So it´s true!" said the witch in a hushed voice when she took the little pink box from the potions master. She opened it. "Oh!"
The woman lifted a small item out of the box before she handed the latter back to the potions master. The item started to grow as soon as it had left its confinement. It was a pillow.
"Wonderful!" cried Bellatrix. "Thank you, Severus! I can kneel on this when I worship my Lord! – My knees have never been the same after my stay at Azkaban." She threw the pillow on the floor and knelt by her master´s side. Voldemort stroked her hair and the witch leaned into the touch, all but purring.
Severus was dismissed with a grateful smile and hurried back to Hogwarts, where he drank two more cups of coffee in order to forget the image of Bellatrix Lestrange rubbing her cheek on the Dark Lord´s arm. Something stronger would have been nice, but it wasn´t even nine o´clock, so it was out of question.
Well, at least it wasn´t evening, or Severus would have been afraid to go to bed. Nightmares were a sure thing this night.