17
"Good morning, Sir!"
Once again, Snape was startled by none other than Draco Malfoy when he left his quarters to go up to breakfast.
"How often do I have to tell you not to do that!" Snape snapped at the boy.
"But Sir," the blond said as he fell into step beside the potions master almost at a run, "you are my head of house. I am supposed to confer with you when there are problems."
Snape stopped in his tracks. "Is anybody sick?" he asked, worried that the younger children had once again indulged in too many Christmas cookies.
"No," admitted Malfoy and Snape resumed his quick ascent to the Great Hall. He needed coffee and desperately. "Potter won't let me be Joseph!"
"And you are telling me because…" Snape prompted when Malfoy fell silent as if that had cleared up everything.
"Because you are his assistant. And my head of house!"
"I," Snape whirled around so that he came nose to nose with the impertinent blond, "am definitely not Potter's assistant."
"But Potter said so!"
"And I am saying otherwise," Snape once again set out for the head table where a big pot of coffee was waiting.
He groaned when he entered the Great Hall. A full dozen of students were waiting by his usual seat.
"What?" Snape snapped.
It turned out all those who were waiting did so because they were hoping that Snape as the assistant director would have the power to overrule Potter's decision.
"All the important characters were given to Gryffindors. The other houses are left with playing shepherds," a girl from Ravenclaw complained.
"Then I suggest you are so good at it that Potter will regret overlooking your talent. Now go to your tables and eat something!" Snape ordered.
The students muttered mutinously but in the end they obeyed.
McGonagall must have heard of Potter's policy because she was looking extremely smug when she sat down.
Snape huffed. Why did he get to do the work and the older witch to bask in the importance of her house? It was unjust and the potions master wanted to hide in his dungeons.
But first he had to get the advent calendar out of the way.
"Today's window is for Albus Dumbledore," he read out. "He is to open it after dinner and he was to invite the Dark Lord as a witness."
As soon as he had read the whole text, the envelope slipped out of his hand and flew up towards the enchanted ceiling where it swayed gently in the non-existent wind.
It was a long day. Everybody wanted to know what was in the calendar that had to be revealed after dinner instead of the morning. And why was the Dark Lord's presence necessary? Especially the younger years were worried about the dark wizard's repeated presence at the school.
When Snape arrived for dinner – early, because he didn't want to miss anything – with Gloria in tow, Dumbledore was not there yet, but he clearly had invited the Dark Lord for the meal, too. There were a couple of seats more than usual at the head table. Snape decided that he didn't want to sit too close to his two masters because during small-talk the danger to slip and give away his position as a spy was too great.
"Hagrid," he turned to the half-giant who usually sat at the end of the table, "I was going to ask you whether you have some unicorn hair. I'm almost out of a couple ingredients that can be found in the Forbidden Forest."
Hagrid boomed that, yes, he had a lot of things that the potions master might need. Therefore, Snape took a seat beside the gamekeeper, glad to be out of the way of Dumbledore's guest.
It worked quite well, when the headmaster arrived with the Dark Lord and a small delegation of deatheaters – Lucius Malfoy and his sister in law among them – Snape got only a curt nod as a greeting and was ignored for the rest of the meal.
Sitting with Hagrid turned out more benefical than Snape had thought it would be because the half-giant not only had unicorn hair but also dragon scales (apparently from a former pet), bowtruckle droppings, a couple of centaur tail hairs (those were especially difficult to come by) and acrumantula venom.
After the meal, Dumbledore raised his hand to the ceiling to signal the envelope that he was ready. And really, it sank down to the headmaster's hand gently.
Everybody waited with baited breath as the old wizard opened his prize. The whirlwind of sparks sped through the entire hall twice before it manifested in front of Dumbledore.
The headmaster squealed excitedly and waved his wand. Immediately his Christmassy winter robes changed into light summer robes with palm trees on them.
"Limbo!" Dumbledore cried and held the pole high over his head.
"Limbo!" echoed the Dark Lord and transfigured his robes to match the headmaster's.
Another wave of Dumbledore's wand started the music. A stern glare from their Lord and Lucius and Bellatrix Lestrange got up to hold the pole.
"Everybody, form a line!" cried the headmaster and the students obeyed happily. The head table was quickly banished to make room for the limbo dancers.
First, everybody danced under the pole without a problem but as it was lowered little by little, people had to give up.
"Limbo contest!" cheered the Dark Lord.
"I want to play, too!" cried Bellatrix who so far had faithfully held the pole.
"Of course!" cried the Dark Lord. "I'm sure you are great at this!"
Two students – Boot and Finch-Fletchley – took over as pole holders so that Lucius and Bellatrix could participate.
Snape smirked. He had a lot of limbo experience because it had been among the favourite games of his apprentice and her friends. He had participated – and won – in many limbo contests.
It turned out that the Dark Lord and Lucius were tough opponents. Lucius seemed to have no backbone at all and the Dark Lord could bend like a snake.
By curfew, only those two, Snape and Dumbledore were still in the contest.
Once the students were gone, Dumbledore brought out the firewhiskey.
Bellatrix and McGonagall were now holding the pole.
"This is fun!" cheered the Dark Lord as he got up from dancing through the pole that was held only waist high.
"I have lessons tomorrow," Snape pointed out when Dumbledore held out the bottle to him.
"Spoilsport!" Lucius took a swig.
"Do you or do you not want your son to be accomplished in potions?" Snape asked. "He'll need a sober teacher to achieve that."
"I can order the boy to read a book," the Dark Lord offered.
Snape snorted – he wouldn't have dared that had the dark wizard been sober but he knew that the megalomaniac was a magnanimous drunk – and made a dismissive gesture. "I can do that," he said, "but unfortunately young Draco is not the only one in that course and I'm afraid not everybody in that lot can read."
"Severus!" cried McGonagall who was very well aware that Draco was in a Slytherin and Gryffindor class.
"It's the truth!" shrugged Snape and the Slytherins present chuckled.
In the end, nobody won. Lucius and Snape gave up because the two older wizards clearly were using wandless magic – there was no way Dumbledore could do THAT unaided – and it was getting really late anyway.
The headmaster and the Dark Lord settled on a draw in the end. To seal the deal, they danced one last time, hand in hand.
When Snape returned to the dungeons, he found Gloria fast asleep on his pillow. With a sigh he moved pillow and fairy to the edge of the bed and conjured a second pillow for himself.
That night he dreamt of limbo and margaritas and girls in a pool.