December 21st

Dear Miss Granger,

Today I finally moved back into my own quarters in the dungeon. I am not entirely sure whether I am happiest to be in my own rooms or to be out of the reach of Poppy Pomfrey. She said she would come to check up on me every day, but I made it clear that my rooms will be warded against her. I have agreed to visit the hospital wing twice per day, instead, because Minerva threatened to use her authority as Head to override my wards if I didn't agree. I would say that it is like having two mothers fussing over me, but my own mother never showed any such concern. I remind myself of your words about accepting that people do things because they care, but it is still an unfamiliar feeling and I struggle not to get annoyed with them both.

I hope you enjoy your time with the Weasleys, despite your concerns that you and Potter will feel out of place at a family event. I am sure it will be a difficult Christmas for many families after such terrible losses over the past year. However, they have assured you that they wish for your company, and I believe you should take them at their word. They will accept and support your grief for your parents as well as appreciate your presence in their own mourning.

Last Christmas, the staff could not get out of the castle fast enough. Some even apparated directly from Hogsmeade as soon as they had seen the students safely onto the train. This year, more staff than usual will be staying at the school. Aurora Sinistra lost her only brother in the war, so no longer has family to visit. Pomona's family is, apparently, horrible, so she always stays for Christmas. Williams is staying, despite having a large family, to experience a Hogwarts Christmas.

The headmistress has made it very clear that attending Christmas lunch and the various staff get-togethers are not optional, although I suspect that the rule applies only to traditionally-anti-social dungeon dwellers. I believe Dumbledore's portrait has been encouraging her in her festive preparations. I have been amusing myself by planning which hexes I will use on anyone who attempts to make me wear a paper hat.

Severus Snape

December 24th

Dear Professor Snape,

I'm feeling a bit down right now.

On Tuesday, Ginny and Ron came over to Grimmauld Place, along with some people from the auror office and others that Harry and Ron have met at the ministry. We all had a great time, although I drank more than I should have. The hangover potion Harry had in his cupboard was very effective but tasted awful - I found a recipe in "Everyday Magical Ailments" that would probably be just as bad, but I was wondering if substituting the newt eyes with South American Horned Toad eyes might improve the taste. What do you think? Not that I'm planning on getting drunk again for the rest of my life, but I'm sure it will happen again sometime. Charlie Weasley swears, every time he gets drunk, that he'll never drink again. It usually takes him less than two weeks to forget how bad he felt.

Although I got rid of the hangover pretty quickly, the rest of yesterday didn't improve much. We went to The Burrow for lunch, and Percy got into a big argument with Arthur. Arthur asked me how you were doing, and Percy was furious at the idea that he would care. I think Percy feels so bad about siding with the ministry for so long, he gets angry at anyone else who didn't support the Order one hundred percent. He's sticking to the Prophet's version of events (again) and says the Quibbler just prints a load of rubbish. Arthur was really hurt, and George and Bill got mad with Percy, who ended up going back to spend the rest of the time in his room. Ron stayed out of it, thank goodness. He seems to have changed his mind about you, but still can't quite bring himself to openly defend you. It's about as much as I could hope for from Ron.

But the thing that really upset me yesterday was talking to Kreacher. Last night, he was pestering Harry about when he's going to propose to Ginny and start a family. Harry said they wouldn't be having kids for a few years, and Kreacher got upset. It took a long time of Harry and me talking to him before he finally admitted what's wrong. It turns out that about forty years ago, the Rowle family was visiting the Blacks at Grimmauld place, and their house elf, Melly, came with them. Kreacher and Melly hit it off, and got married without their owners knowing. According to a book I found about house elves in the Black library, humans have never really taken much interest in the lives of their elves, and couples are just separated if they have different owners. A baby house elf is valuable, though, and 'legally' belongs to the owner of the mother elf. Kreacher heard about a year later that Melly had had a baby, but that the baby had been sold. Wizarding law says the Blacks should have been given first chance to buy it, but they never were, for some reason. Maybe the Rowles found they could get more money elsewhere.

Kreacher is now approaching his 75th birthday, which is a big milestone for an elf, and he's worried about what's going to happen to continue the lines - both for the elves and the humans of the Black family. He doesn't know what happened to his child or his wife, but he wants to be certain that the human line continues, even though Harry is not a Black by blood. Because Sirius and his brother are both gone, he's desperate to see Harry with a family.

I'm determined to find out what happened to the baby. The ownership of house elves is worse than I thought. I realize that they don't want to be freed, but maybe there is something I can do to make their lives better. Perhaps with many old pure bloodlines dying off in the war, house elves might be prepared to accept more rights. Not necessarily wages, but at least the right to see their own families and not be separated from their children. Kingsley still wants me to join the ministry and says I can pick wherever I want to work, so this might be what I choose to do. I'll write to him after Christmas. Hopefully he can also point me in the right direction for finding out who Kreacher's child was sold to and where his wife is.

I'm sorry that this letter has been pretty miserable. I'm feeling a lot better, though. Writing things down helps, as though I'm actually talking to you, and you're a good listener. Not that you can get a word in when I'm rambling away in a letter!

I'll try to be positive about Christmas being better than yesterday's lunch at the Weasleys'. I've always loved Christmas. I'm sure that you'll have a good Christmas at Hogwarts. Good luck with avoiding a paper hat.

Hermione Granger

December 26th

Dear Miss Granger

Thank you for such a thoughtful Christmas present. I have temporarily placed it on my desk, but over the next few days I plan to set up my lab to take over the school's brewing from Slughorn, and I will place it in there to use for my brewing notes.

Your information about Potter's elf is interesting but disturbing. Although my mother came from a very old pureblood family, who presumably had their own elves, I know little about them. Even when I used to spend time with families like the Malfoys and Rosiers, the elves are intended to be unobtrusive. It would be considered in bad taste to mention them, and no visitor would ever speak to one unless they needed their service. I am saddened to hear of Kreacher's story, but not at all surprised to hear that you wish to help him. You have such a kind heart that I know you could never turn your back on someone in need of a friend.

I hope your Christmas at the Weasleys' managed to pass relatively peacefully. We held a small memorial gathering in the grounds on Christmas morning, where Minerva listed the names of everyone who died fighting against Voldemort. It was particularly difficult to hear the names of the members of the Order and the staff and students who died. Pomona cried through most of the list, and even the headmistress sounded like she would break on the name of the Creevey boy. The most difficult for me to hear was the name of Charity Burbage. I think it was an excellent idea to do that, and it seemed to help many of the staff. Back at the castle, we drank a toast to them, and shared a few stories.

Other than that, I had a surprisingly pleasant Christmas, and Christmas lunch was not quite as nauseating as expected. There were about a dozen students who stayed in the castle for the holidays, and they were not entirely ignorant. Since Mr. Longbottom's show of friendship, the students' attitudes towards me have continued to improve. In fact, their fear of me seems to have lessened to the point that I may need to revert to my traditional intimidation techniques to swing the pendulum back the other way. Some of them are turning into real smart-alecs.

Sybil Trelawney was more irritating than usual on Christmas Day. She carried around a sprig of Mistletoe and kept trying to corner me. Luckily, she was drunk enough to be easily avoided. Eventually, she gave up on me and cornered Flitwick instead, who had to charm one of her shawls to start strangling her any time she tries to kiss someone.

I think your idea of improving the taste of a hangover potion would be very effective, although it would triple the price. During my first month of teaching, one of my seventh-year Slytherins tried to make the same improvement by the simple method of adding mint. He was lucky that another student found him and alerted me immediately. I managed to get a bezoar into him, but it was close, and he spent two days in the hospital wing. I saw him several years later and he swore that he had never drunk alcohol again since that day. Your approach is definitely the better option.

Severus

December 28th

Dear Severus

The gloves you gave me are beautiful. Thank you! When I go outside, they adjust to the temperature so that my hands are always warm and comfortable, and they even stay dry in the rain. I love how soft they feel. I'm sure I'll be wearing them every day through the winter. They're perfect.

Christmas Day went much more smoothly than I expected. After Harry and I left, there was a big blowup between Percy, George and Bill. George said that if anyone had a right to hold grudges, it was him, but he doesn't. It sounds like there was a lot of horrible stuff said, but in the end Percy just broke down completely. He feels so guilty about leaving the family during the war, and especially about how Fred died. Percy was right there, joking about something. He said that if he hadn't been joking and had been paying more attention, he might have seen whatever killed Fred and been able to stop it. Ginny came over and told us about it on Christmas Eve, to reassure us that it was safe to come back to the Burrow.

I know you probably don't like the fact that your name keeps getting pulled into all this drama. It's not really about you, though. Percy had kind of latched onto you as a focus for his anger to try to push down his guilt. Arthur and Percy had a long talk about what you did, and your recovery, and Percy seems to accept that you couldn't be blamed for what happened in the war. Voldemort was the cause, and you were fighting just as hard as any other member of the Order of the Phoenix, but using different methods and without any support. I think if it hadn't been you, Percy would have found someone else to bear the brunt of his anger, like Professor McGonagall or Harry.

Before we went to the Burrow for lunch, Harry and I had a nice time opening our presents together, although I opened your gift before I even went downstairs. I had taken a photograph of Kreacher and Harry together the day I arrived, and I put it in a lovely frame to give to Kreacher for Christmas. I'm hoping that he's stopped crying by the new year, but i'm not hopeful. He has placed it in his 'nest' (Harry offered him a bedroom, but he refused), and he keeps going back there every couple of hours during the day, to check that it's safe and to look at it.

Ginny has been spending a lot of time here with Harry. She'd probably stay overnight if it wasn't for the fact that Molly would kill her. Molly is desperate for grandchildren, but not that desperate! I've been making sure I give them time in the house alone. I visited Neville's new flat one day, and also enjoyed spending some time alone, shopping in muggle London. I even went to the pictures, which I haven't done since I last went with my parents.

We haven't quite decided what we're doing to see in the new year. I usually like to have everything planned, so it's actually nice to be unsure and spontaneous. I'm still not ready to drink alcohol again, though.

Hermione

Jan 1st

Dear Hermione,

Happy New Year.

I finally made it to the Three Broomsticks, a few evenings ago. I talked to Poppy Pomfrey about walking as far as the gates, then apparating, but she said my body is not strong enough to withstand apparition. I can't say I disagree with her - there were occasions when I was severely injured by Voldemort or one of my Death Eater 'colleagues', and had no option but to apparate to return to Hogwarts. It was not pleasant, and often exacerbated my injuries.

Instead, the Headmistress connected her floo to the pub. Minerva has loosened some of the floo restrictions I put in place as Headmaster but kept others. She is the only one who can open up a floo for travel. Sadly for her, that meant that when Flickwick, Williams and myself returned, her office was re-decorated with Williams' vomit as soon as he stepped out. He looked a little green after flooing to the pub, as it was the first time he'd tried it: evidently, flooing back after several drinks was a bad idea.

Hagrid, Slughorn and Pomona joined us at the pub. I enjoyed having a drink with them all, but I will never be the life of the party. I have no intention of ever imbibing too much and singing drinking songs with Hagrid and Slughorn. After about five buckets of mead, it took a while to persuade Hagrid not to try to force himself into the floo to return to the castle. I disliked the attention I got in Hogsmeade, even though it was almost entirely positive. It is a good thing I have had practice at being less of a bastard with the students, because otherwise I would not have been able to prevent myself from hexing certain over-enthusiastic well-wishers. Luckily, a good scowl can still scare away the most persistent, when necessary.

Last night, the staff had another get-together to welcome the new year, and even some of the teachers who were not here for Christmas came to join us for the night. Aulus Savage brought his wife and Bathsheda Babbling brought her annoying husband.

Sybil had already been drinking before she arrived, and she was not happy to discover that the charm Filius had placed on her shawl was still in place. She tried to corner Williams, but was almost strangled. Apparently, though, Filius had only charmed the scarf to react to kissing men, and Athena Verto didn't seem to have any objection to Sybil's advances. It seems that our new Transfiguration professor is not quite such a clone of her predecessor after all. Neither Verto nor Sybil have been seen since shortly after midnight.

Going to the pictures is one of my few pleasant memories of childhood. From being about nine, I would go whenever I could, with the little money my mum could spare from the pittance my father allowed her. Occasionally, I would manage to sneak in if I didn't have any money. Later, I went with Lily a couple of times. My favourite film was "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory", which I saw the summer before I started at Hogwarts, and was the last film I saw. I assume they've changed a lot in almost thirty years.

Whatever you decided to do for the new year, I hope you enjoyed it and did not have to resort to the unpleasant-tasting hangover cure again.

I look forward to seeing you in a few days, when school starts.

Severus