20
"Remind me to talk to the headmaster about the figure skating event," Snape said to his apprentice on their way up to breakfast.
"Figure skating?" the girl asked. "When?"
"I was thinking tomorrow but the Dark Lord sent a note early today. He wants to hold an unforgivable workshop with his people tomorrow. I'll have to ask the headmaster to move the figure skating to Sunday."
"You are moving the figure skating to Sunday?" Draco Malfoy caught up to his head of house at a jog. "Wonderful! That will give Pansy and me time to practice the lift you showed us the other day."
Snape nodded. "That's a good idea, as far as I remember you had trouble keeping the balance when you started to set her down. You have to try and not slow down during that part of the move."
Malfoy thought about it. "You are right. I thought slowing down would help but it's actually making it worse."
Dumbledore agreed easily to move the figure skating for the Dark Lord. "It gives Minerva and me more time to practice," he informed Snape and his apprentice. "We were trying a death spiral the other day but I was not satisfied with how it went. Are you two going to participate?"
"I already asked Miss Granger," Snape informed his superior. He was not going to give up his dance partner of almost a month.
"I didn't bring my skates," the apprentice added. "And transfigured ones never are the same as real ones. I'm looking forward to watching the event. I'm sure my master is extremely elegant on ice."
The headmaster grinned. "I'm sure he is but Minerva and I are going to beat him, of course."
Snape rolled his eyes and the apprentice winked. The potions master was not sure what the witch could do but it felt good to have somebody on his side.
"Today's advent calendar window," Snape read out after a continental breakfast with fresh bread rolls, butter and apricot jam – the elves had provided the apprentice's favourite breakfast dish to celebrate her presence –, "is for the castle and Gloria is to open it." He raised his brows.
There was muttering among the students. The fairy was not even a permanent resident of the castle!
Gloria ignored the stifled protests and flew up to Snape to get her envelope. It was, however, too heavy for her. The potions master had to hold it out and all the fairy could do was pull it open.
The storm of sparks that left their confinement was the most spectacular they had yet seen. A glittering stream rushed up to the rafters, exploded like fireworks and came down along the walls in dozens of tiny pink rivulets of sparks. The whole hall appeared pink for a moment.
When the pink glittering faded, the Great Hall looked like a winter wonderland. The walls were covered in frost, icicles hung from the rafters and snowflakes fell from the ceiling. The tips of the Christmas trees which Flitwick and some of his students had decorated earlier in the week now wore caps of snow. The glittering stars the charms master had put up there now looked like they were sitting on a white pillow.
The snow and frost reflected the candle light and the whole hall was glittering and sparkling. It looked truly magical.
"How did you do that?" Hermione Granger asked once the students had oohed and aahed their fill.
"It's a series of charms, actually," said the apprentice, "combined with a potion to stabilize the frost."
"There was a potion in that envelope?" asked Draco Malfoy. "It looked all flat."
"I thought you weren't supposed to spell potions," added Harry Potter.
In the end, Dumbledore had to change the timetables of the whole school.
The sixth and seventh years stayed in the Great Hall to be taught how to put a winter decoration like the one from the calendar into a tiny container. The headmaster himself, Snape, the apprentice and Flitwick were going to teach.
The first through fifth years knew not enough magic to stand a chance of mastering that piece of magic and got to sit normal lessons. There had to be made some changes because Snape and Flitwick both were supposed to have classes with younger students but Dumbledore wasn't a wizard for nothing. One wave of his wand and the schedules rearranged themselves.
The four teachers divided tasks between themselves.
Flitwick was to teach the students how to make a winter decoration. There were charm to make icicles, more to keep them from melting, and even ones to make sure they didn't fall from the ceiling and hurt anybody. There were more charms for snow and frost, and the tiny wizard even knew one that make your breath visible like in the cold without actually lowering the room temperature.
Dumbledore taught the students how extend the interior of a small vessel to make it as good as bottomless. It turned out that Hermione Granger was already well aware of that spell and had even mastered it. That explained why she had stopped bringing a school bag to class and instead showed up with a pearly handbag. Snape had been wondering.
Snape taught the students how to brew a potion to stabilize charms. They had put up an impromptu potions lab at the Gryffindor table – Snape was not ready to ruin any other house table if Longbottom exploded another cauldron and said so. The potions master asked the house elves to bring the ingredients he needed for the lesson. The potion was simple enough and the ingredients that were needed were harmless or he wouldn't have asked the elves to handle them.
The apprentice showed the students how to make the content of a small container rush out in a display of sparks. Soon the decorations of the Great Hall reflected sparks in all colours of the rainbow. It turned out that the sparks always took on the caster's favourite colour and it was extremely difficult to change that. The apprentice demonstrated how to do it but it was obvious that it was very tiring.
"Slytherin green, Potter?" Malfoy mocked when the Griffindor hero opened a pill box he had charmed.
"The colour of my eyes," Potter huffed through gritted teeth. "Well, let's see what your favourite colour is. Until you have demonstrated otherwise, I'll assume it is Gryffindor red."
Malfoy huffed and cast the spell at the small box he had been given to practice with. He blushed when he opened it and baby blue sparks flew out.
"Baby blue?" Potter rolled with laughter. "How mature!"
"I look good in baby blue," Malfoy said defensively.
"Like the cry baby you are," Potter continued to mock.
"Stop it boys!" the apprentice gave them a glare that was worthy of her master. "As you have both mastered this part of the lesson, you can proceed to another."
Potter went to Flitwick and Malfoy joined his head of house.
It took them all day until every student was able to make something similar to the advent calendar window but it was a joy to teach them. For once, every single student was eager to master the magic required. They practiced willingly and asked intelligent questions.
Some even managed to make small changes to what they had learned.
Hermione Granger succeeded in making garlands of flowers instead of icicles and Lavender Brown surprised everybody by replacing the snowflakes with butterflies.
The four teachers were thrilled with the success of the workshop because, they all agreed, teaching was the most wonderful profession imaginable when you had students who really wanted to learn.
In the evening, Dumbledore led the four heads of house and Snape's apprentice from Common Room to Common Room. Every house had decorated theirs using what they had learned earlier.
The Slytherins had gone for the winter theme, the Hufflepuffs had done that, too. The Ravenclaws had replaced the frost on the walls with dew and small birds where fluttering through the air.
The Gryffindor Common Room looked like a battlefield. Some genius had decided they needed tiny dragons to fly around – "What a splendid piece of transfiguration, 50 points to Gryffindor" Dumbledore and McGonagall cried in unison – for decoration purposes. The problem was that the small hooligans spat fire.
"50 points from Gryffindor for putting the younger students in danger," said Flitwick.
"50 points from Gryffindor for damaging school property," drawled Snape looking at the burn holes in the sofas and armchairs pointedly.
"That was imprudent, children," Sprout said kindly. "It could have gone very wrong."
Snape pointed out to her that it already had gone wrong but the kind head of Hufflepuff ignored him. Instead she banished the dragons and started to help the seventh years repair the damage the small creatures had done.
"I think they have it under control," Snape whispered to his apprentice as Dumbledore and McGonagall assisted the Gryffindor students, too. "Why don't we go downstairs and swim a round before bed?"
The apprentice didn't need to be told twice.
A little later, they were both floating in Snape's pool on air mattresses. They even had a small one for Gloria. There were margaritas, and the fairy sang for them.
She started with Christmas songs and went through other areas of her repertoire later.