12
The next morning, Snape was woken at an ungodly hour. Again. He roared with frustration as he crawled out of bed and made his way to the door.
"What!" he shouted in the face of the person who was standing in the corridor.
The person, who happened to be the Dark Lord. The evil wizard wore a frilly baby blue nightshirt, white fur slippers and a white jelly bag cap. He yawned.
"Severus, I envy your energy in the morning. I wanted to speak with you before breakfast but I can barely keep my eyes open."
"Do come in, my Lord," Snape ushered the older wizard inside and looked up and down the corridor before he closed the door. "Coffee?"
Snape sat in one of his armchairs and handed placed a cup in front of the dark wizard. Voldemort had chosen the sofa for himself and conjured a dark blue plush blanket with yellow stars on it. He lounged with his feet pulled up onto the sofa and looked close to falling asleep.
"Mmmmh," the dark wizard sighed happily after his first sip. "Bellatrix makes excellent coffee but she doesn't come close to the Hogwarts' house elves."
Snape gave the other wizard a couple of moments to enjoy the coffee before he enquired about the reason for the early visit.
"I wanted to ask for your permission to attend your workshop," the Dark Lord explained. "I spent the last ten days with only Lucius and dear Bella for company and I crave meeting other people. I'm especially interested in learning something about the young generation. I know," he raised a hand as if trying to stop someone, "Dumbledore acts all friendly but I'm aware he doesn't want me near his students. But if you agreed, he couldn't say no!"
Snape stifled a shudder. "Of course I'd be honoured, my Lord, but I am not sure the parents would approve," he pointed out.
"I have followers among said parents," the Dark Lord huffed.
"Obviously," the potions master said carefully, "and I don't think they might be worried by you but by any person taking the teacher's attention away from their offspring."
"Hmm," the Dark Lord took another sip of coffee. "And if I acted as an assistant teacher? They can't say no to another teacher in the classroom. Severus, I'm bored!"
Snape was, of course, aware that a bored Dark Lord was potentially dangerous. "That could work," he nodded. He got up. "My Lord, as much as I'm honoured by your visit, I think it would be wise to return to your quarters before there are students in the corridor. Being seen in your nightwear wouldn't add to your reputation. We Hogwarts teachers avoid it at all cost."
No sooner had the dark wizard left his quarters that Snape lighted the sofa on fire. How could he ever enjoy an evening with his witch on that sofa again when the Dark Lord had sat in that very spot? No, it was unthinkable. "Happy!" Snape called for the elf who usually attended to anything needed in his quarters.
"Master Potions Master, Sir!" the small elf bowed low. She eyed the burning sofa suspiciously.
"Happy, kindly get rid of the sofa and replace it with the same one if there is another one in the attic. If not, choose a similar one."
"Happy knows exactly which sofa to bring you!" cried the small elf. She disappeared and reappeared a couple of minutes later with several other elves in tow, a new sofa between them. The new piece of furniture was the exact same colour as Snape's armchairs – a dark brown, almost black – only the middle of the backrest was decorated with the Slytherin crest. "Does Master Potions Master approve?" the elf asked excitedly.
"It will do," Snape said with dignity. "Now go and fetch the headmaster. It is urgent."
"Happy is very sorry, but Happy is not allowed to wake the headmaster this early." The elf hung her ears.
"It is an emergency." Snape stood his ground. "Go now."
The headmaster appeared five seconds later, in a floor-length orange nightdress, clearly having used his privilege of apparating within the walls of the castle.
"I hope this is important, Severus," he said sternly. He looked around the room, trying to spot the emergency. "Please tell me you haven't called me here because you have redecorated."
"The Dark Lord was here," Snape snorted. As if he'd get up in the small hours to redecorate his quarters! On the other hand, it was good to know that it would annoy the headmaster to no end. It might be an interesting piece of information for future use.
"What did he want?" the headmaster was instantly alert.
Snape informed his superior of the dark wizard's plan to attend a workshop.
Dumbledore paced in front of the fireplace. "It wouldn't be good to deny him access. Hmmm! If we can't keep him out, we have to add people who will thwart his plans if he has superior motives. But who? He'd be offended if I attended. Who?"
Snape watched the headmaster pace. It made him dizzy.
"Ha!" the old man cried at last. "This could work! I must talk to Harry!"
"Harry? As in Harry Potter?" Snape's brows went up almost to his hairline.
"Of course! Can't you see the elegance of it? Harry would keep an eye on him. Voldemort would expect him to be annoying but wouldn't say anything. He'd never admit that Harry gets to him."
The Dark Lord was delighted when the headmaster granted his request without hesitation. He even agreed that it might be a good thing to attend the workshop Harry Potter was going to help supervise.
"Who knows," Dumbledore said slyly. "You might even find out that you like each other."
"Don't you think we can open the calendar now?" the Dark Lord changed topic. "Everybody seems to be done with breakfast."
"Bellatrix seems to be still eating," Dumbledore pointed out.
"Bella is done," replied the Dark Lord and the croissant the witch was holding disappeared.
"Who dares…!" cried the death eater but Lucius pointed her at their Lord and the witch calm down immediately. She wiped her hands on her dress. "Yes, let's open the calendar!"
Once again, the adults watched over the students first. Luckily there was no need to interfere on that particular day. The children discovered mostly sweets and Christmas ornaments in their parcels. The most spectacular gift of the day was a thin booklet which held different texts every time the reader opened it. The reader even could choose the topic with a simple incantation. It was an invaluable asset for homework. And it now belonged to a third year Ravenclaw.
Dumbledore received a pair of dancing shoes. He was thrilled and tried them out immediately. The Dark Lord applauded as the older wizard waltzed around the table with McGonagall.
Lucius Malfoy was now the owner of a new feather boa. He wrapped it around his neck and threw the end back dramatically. "Very elegant," Bellatrix smiled approvingly.
Snape received a small bag of unicorn tail hair. He nodded his thanks to Hagrid which reminded him that he had forgotten to check his highland dragon egg this morning. He made a mental note to take care of it during his lunch break.
"Good morning, students," Snape greeted a group of second years only a little later in his classrooms. "Today we will make shampoo and – if you do well – conditioner as well. My assistants today will be Harry Potter who will show you how to turn potion vials into nice shampoo bottles and the Dark Lord who is an excellent brewer himself. He will help you if you have questions during the brewing process. He will also help you correct mistakes."
The children clapped politely.
The lesson started well enough. The students put the base together without any problems. It was easy enough, any first year could have done it. Once the base was bubbling – it had to cook for twenty minutes to achieve the appropriate texture for shampoo – the children had to choose which oils to use.
A tiny Hufflepuff approached the Dark Lord. "Can you tell me if boys like oranges? I wouldn't want to put shampoo into the advent calendar and the person who gets it dislikes the scent."
"You are thinking of making orange shampoo? What a wonderful idea!" the Dark Lord said with unexpected kindness. "Why don't you add a little cinnamon to make it Christmassy? Everybody likes orange and cinnamon at this time of the year."
The girl clapped her hands excitedly. "What a wonderful idea! Thank you, Mr Dark Lord!"
Since the girl made her delight known so enthusiastically, more students came to ask the Dark Lord's advice. The dark wizard was delighted.
"Severus," he cried when the last child had their ingredients ready to continue brewing. "What a delightful job you have! I had no idea teaching could be so satisfying!"
"It's only delightful when the students want to learn. Try getting them to brew a remedy for warts or a de-aging solution. There's no delight in those tasks, believe me."
By the time the base was ready, Potter was also done with making the shampoo bottles. Luckily the transfiguration needed was taught in first year. All the boy had to do was show the children how to change the spell a little for decorative effects.
With three people helping, the workshop was a success. By lunchtime all the students had a beautiful bottle of shampoo. The more accomplished brewers among them also had bottles of conditioner.
Snape returned to his quarters just in time to see his highland dragon egg move. He examined it closely but there was no crack in the shell. He could, however, feel the beast move inside while he held the egg. It was clear that the dragon could hatch any moment.
Snape strengthened the shield spells on his terrarium before he went up to the Great Hall for lunch.