Oh look, I promised and I delivered. Here it is people: a brand new chapter. Crisp, clean and right off the presses!

There was a bit of confusion about Lt. Malfoy in the last chapter. Um. . .that would be because this note that I'm writing now was supposed to have gone in front of the last chapter. Sorry, I kinda forgot. Anyway, Lt. Malfoy isn't foreshadowing. Consider him more of a hint of things to come in the sequel, when the Hogwarts gang meets the 24th century. There's some more of it in this chapter, though the ones in here area bitmore random.

Again, thank's to all who reviewed!

ZetsumeiX - Thanks. I'll score for the Russian mafia any day, but I don't they'll be appearing in this fic anytime soon. Hmm. . . I wonder if the wizarding world has a mafia (Death Eaters don't count, 'cause their 'godfather' is insane and not related to any of them).

Gymnast204 - I'm glad you didn't think that chapter was random. And ready room? Are you sure? Isn't that what the captain's room is called (though I always thought it was his writing room)?Thanks though.And I'll keep thephaser idea in mind, that sounds like fun.

Eratosthenese - Hopefully I've made the Malfoy thing a bit clearer in my author's notes above. Let me know if I didn't. And yeah, I'd just love to be an omnipotent omniscient being like Q. That would be soooo much fun! Glad you liked it!

Fuji the Hobbit - Glad you liked! I've had this idea in my head from the moment I knew I was going to be writing some Christmas chapters. Hope you like this one just as much. plays back evil jaws music

Disclaimer: don't own this so stop bugging me.

Chapter 25 - Christmas á la Q 2

Not far from the Enterprise, Q sat on an asteroid and laughed.

The long-awaited Christmas break had arrived and Q had pretended to leave by floo powder like many of the other students. Of course, he never actually arrived in America and instead went directly to the Enterprise.

Ok, so petty practical jokes isn't exactly my style, but Jean Luc turned such a wonderful red colour. He he, I think I'll wait a few days before appearing personally. It'll annoy him even more, because he'll have no one to actually yell at.

Actually, Q was quite impressed how well his prank had turned out. The other officers had managed to get even Worf to try the Canary Creams.

"Aw, come on Worf," Dr. Crusher had teased, while holding the plate up in front of him, "don't tell me the big, bad Klingon is afraid of the little bright yellow custard creams."

Worf growled at that and reluctantly shoved one of them in his mouth. Just as he was beginning to admit to himself that they weren't all that bad, he heard a shriek.

Then he watched as Counsellor Kylan morphed into a small, yellow bird. Then one, by one the rest of the Enterprise's senior officers followed.

To say that he was confused would be an understatement. As Chief of Security he knew that he should be doing something, but he had no idea what. The Starfleet manual had never mentioned what to do in the eventuality that the senior staff turns into birds.

He didn't have to think about that for very long though as a very strange feeling came over him and he watched the room seem to grow around him.

Captain Picard had the pastries analyzed, but none of the tests showed any reason for the bright yellow sweets to turn people into canaries. Too bad everyone missed Lt. Malfoy's eyes widen when he first spotted them.

Several days later, Admiral Jennings sprayed coffee all over his desk when he read in Captain Picard's report that the Enterprise's mission had been delayed for nine hours due to the entire senior staff being turned into canaries.

That, however, was not by far the strangest report that Starfleet Command received during the next two weeks.

Several admirals suffered from chronic headaches during that time.

The next report came, amazingly enough from the station Deep Space Nine.

"Quark to Chief O'Brien."

Chief of Engineering Miles O'Brien groaned. He was in the middle of fixing a relay that had blown-up this morning. It was frustrating work, because it was almost completely fried and was probably going to need to be completely replaced.

In other words, he was in no mood to deal with the Ferrengi who ran the DS9 casino and bar. Putting down one of the tools he was holding, O'Brien tapped his communicator.

"O'Brien here, and I really don't have the time right now Quark," he said.

"Well, you're going to have to make the time, because the snow is driving away perfectly good customers."

The Engineering Chief opened his mouth to respond, but then closed it again. He frowned.

"Wait, did you just say snow?"

One hour and many diagnostics later, Chief O'Brien stood on the Promenade watching the mysterious snow accumulate. So far they had 10 cm of it and no one had any idea how to stop it. As far as the computer was concerned it was a nice sunny day on the Promenade.

And O'Brien couldn't find anything wrong with the computer.

He leaned his head back and sighed in frustration. Then something hit him between the shoulder blades.

"Hey!" he yelled as he swung around. And then rolled his eyes as he spotted Captain Benjamin Sisco trudging through the snow towards him with a big smile on his face.

"Nice to know I haven't lost my touch," he said. "Though I am a bit confused as to why I'm able to practice throwing snowballs at all."

"Yes, well, you're certainly not the only one," replied O'Brien.

"Oh?"

"The computer's not registering any snow, sir."

"I wish I could say the same thing," Sisco said as he looked around and grinned when he spotted Odo trying to break up a snowball fight between a group of children on their way from school.

"Believe me sir, so do I."

"Have you. . ."

"Yes. And as far as I can see there is absolutely nothing wrong with the computer. And I've triple-checked everything I could possibly think of. I'm completely stumped."

"Well, I must say, it's been a while since I've had snow for Christmas," came a voice from behind them. Chief O'Brien tensed.

"Captain Riker, hello," Sisco said as he turned to the captain of the USS Titan, "is there anything I can help you with?"

"No, no, I was just admiring your festive decorations."

"Festive decorations?" asked O'Brien, not at all liking the sound of that.

"Yes, the Christmas trees are beautiful."

"Huh?"

"Christmas trees? What Christmas trees?"

The two DS9 officers looked at each other. Neither one of them had any idea what Captain Riker was talking about.

"Those ones over there," Riker pointed to a corner behind them.

Sure enough, standing quietly in the corner were five brightly decorated Christmas trees.

"Umm. . . Captain?" Chief O'Brien asked uncertainly, "were those there a few minutes ago?"

"No, I don't think so. . ." Sisco answered, looking at the trees as if they were some sort of new alien species.

"Wait. . ." began Riker, "so you didn't put those there?"

The DS9 officers shook their heads, still staring at the trees.

Suddenly there was a bright flash and everyone blinked. Then blinked again as they noticed a few changes on the Promenade. 'A few' being a vast understatement.

The interior hull of the ship was now decorated in red and green stripes. Red, green and silver streamers criss-crossed as they fell from the centre of the Promenade to its sides. Holly and mistletoe hung from the walls and doors of the various shops that lined the heart of the space station. And there were more Christmas trees. Everywhere.

The Promenade was quite for a few moments before some of the non-humans began to discuss the odd decorations and wondering what they were for. A few of the human children squealed and ran to the nearest Christmas tree.

"Sir, I demand to know is the meaning of this!" a very irritated Chief of Security yelled as he marched over to Sisco, Riker and O'Brien.

"Odo, I'll be doing the same thing just as soon as I get over the shock," Sisco replied, his eyes scanning the new incarnation of the Promenade for the tenth time as he tried to figure out a way any of this could make sense.

Just as Odo was about to protest, a loud, booming voice interrupted him.

"Ho, ho, ho, Merry Christmas everybody!"

Everybody turned their heads in slow motion, not actually wanting to see what they thought they were going to see.

And sure enough, walking onto the Promenade was a fat man with a long white beard, bright red suit and a bright red had on his head.

"Just when I thought this day couldn't get any stranger," mumbled the Engineering Chief.

Captian Sisco was the first to snap out of his stupor. He walked up to Santa Claus, trying to avoid bumping into the children who were now crowding around him.

"Hello Santa Claus," he said with a smile that clearly stated 'I'll humour you, but don't mess with me', "what brings you all the way out here?"

"I'm not Santa Claus," the man-in-red replied with a twinkle in his eye.

Sisco's face blanched. Of all the weird and bizarre things he had been expecting the stranger to say, that was not one of them.

"Then who are you?"

"I'm Santa Q, of course!"

"Santa. . . Oh." Everything was suddenly making sense. Unfortunately it didn't make him feel any better.

O'Brien, Riker and Odo came up behind him and he turned to them.

"Well, gentlemen, it seems I've managed to solve the mystery of the snow and Christmas decorations," he said.

"Oh?"

"And. . "

"Allow me to introduce Santa Q."

There was a collective groan.

"Q, what do you think you're doing?!" Riker demanded, having seen enough of this entity in his lifetime to become annoyed on sight.

"Why, I'm just spreading a little Christmas cheer!" As he said that he raised his hands and fireworks shot out from his palms, exploding over the Promenade in a dazzling display of light.

"Well, I rather prefer to have my Promenade look the way it's supposed to look. . ."

"You know you're right," Q interrupted Sisco and put a hand to his face in a contemplative gesture, scanning the area with his eyes as he did so, "there is something missing."

Sisco opened his mouth to protest, but Q beat him to it.

"Aha! I know!" He snapped his fingers and nine reindeer appeared. One of them had a big, red, shiny nose.

"How did he do that without a wand?" Q heard one of the children beside him whisper. In a flash he was kneeling next to said child, or rather children since there were four of them. All wizards. All redheads.

"Because I don't use a wand, I'm an omnipotent entity, I don't need one," he said, looking straight at them.

One of them gasped. She looked about 14 and was tall, with wavy hair and some freckles on her cheeks.

"You're Q!" she exclaimed almost reverently. "I read about you in Hogwarts: A History!"

"I made it into the history books! I'm flattered, not that I deserve anything less of course. . "

The children giggled.

"So, what's your name child?"

"I'm Katherine Weasley and these are my brothers Tom and Bill and my sister Natalie."

"Gryffindor?" They all nodded enthusiastically.

"Pity, I was a Slytherin."

"You went to Hogwarts?" Tom Weasley asked in surprise.

"Yup, three hundred years ago. Now, what are you doing so far away from school?"

"We're here with our parents . . ." answered Tom.

"They're here with SPHW. . ." Bill added.

". . .that's the Society for Promotion of Hologramic Welfare," Natalie proudly announced.

Q rolled his eyes. Then he noticed that the Starfleet officers and Odo were staring at him as if he'd just spontaneously grown an extra set of heads. Though why they should find that unusual knowing full well who he was, was beyond him.

He turned back to the Weasleys and pulled something out of his pocket.

"Here, have some chocolate frogs," he said, smiling, "I'm sure you can't find them around here."

Especially not with super sugar content that these have. I don't think their parents will want to thank me later. More like decapitate me. . . Or in their case, hex me repeatedly.

The children thanked him and ran off to find their parents. Then Q stood up again and gestured for the rest of the crowd to back up a bit. Then did and Q pointed to a spot on the floor in front of him. In a flash a large green sac appeared.

"Well kiddies, here are some treats for everyone. Enjoy!"

Then Santa Q disappeared.

"'Don't you just love Christmas," he sighed dreamily as he reappeared sans Santa outfit right behind the group of officers who'd been talking to him earlier. He smirked as he startled them and they whirled around.

"Q!" yelled Captain Sisco, "this Christmas spirit whatever it is you've gotten into is really beginning to get annoying! I demand that you stop the snow. . ."

"You're right, I think there's enough of it here." Q waved his hand and it stopped snowing. Captains Riker and Sisco exchanged baffled looks. They were certainly not expecting it to be that easy.

Q surveyed his work one more time. Then he turned his attention once more to the officers in front of him.

"Well, I must be off now: so many people to annoy, so little time. . ."

"Not before you remove these ridiculous decorations you don't," Odo growled. Q raised an eyebrow.

"But I thought you said this was only beginning to get annoying," he said with a perfectly innocent expression, "I'll be back to remove it when it actually becomes annoying."

With a final mischievous grin, Q snapped his fingers and was gone.

The Christmas decorations and snow mysteriously disappeared three days later.

Author's notes:

Captain Sisco - I'll be the first one to say that I'm not really up on DS9. I do however remember something about Sisco becoming the Prophet (no, wait he was the prophet) and joining the beings in the wormhole in the series finale. Well, in this fic, he's back from the great beyond or whatever.

Well, hope you all liked that. And incase, you're wondering, the Weasley kids were stuck in there, just 'cause I wanted to. They serve absolutely no purpose to the plot (except to introduce SPHW).

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