Christmas was in the air at Hogwarts. The students and faculty - at least most of them - were filled with holiday cheer. The familiar sounds of Christmas carols, the tantalizing aromas of piping hot chocolate and warm gingerbread wafted throughout the school. Harry Potter was counting down the days until he was let out for the holidays - this was his first Christmas away from the Dursleys, and he was beyond thrilled to spend the holidays away from a place where he was treated like a second-class person. He made some real, honest-to-goodness friends like Ron, Hermione and Hagrid.
He always had a flair at making crafts, so he wanted to show his appreciation for their kindness to him by creating Christmas ornaments for them. He wanted to make some fancy glass snowflakes for them as it was something homemade but took considerable time and effort to create. They deserved that sort of dedication, Harry thought.
He already had some designs prepared, but didn't have the equipment to make everything himself. He didn't have a proper glass cutter, and didn't have access to a hot enough fire to heat the glass. He figured that Hagrid would be the best place to go as he almost certainty had the tools needed to cut and fire the glass, and also his hut was far enough from prying eyes.
The Saturday before classes were to be let out for the holidays, Harry approached Hagrid about helping him make the ornaments. "Hagrid, I'm making some Christmas gifts for my new friends at Hogwarts and I was wondering if you could lend a hand. I don't have a proper glass cutter and I need a kiln or a very hot oven," he said. "Of course I will help yeh Harry," Hagrid replied with a grin. "Be my pleasure."
"One of these will be yours when they're finished," said Harry. "You were one of the first real friends I've ever made and I just wanted to do something special to show my appreciation."
"Bless yeh Harry, yeh don't have to do that," Hagrid said. "I always thought yeh were gunna be a thumpin' good wizard, but you're an even finer person. Stop by my house in a couple of hours. I should have everything yeh need."
"Thanks Hagrid, I always know I can count on you," said Harry appreciatively. He waved good-bye to Hagrid and returned to his room to gather all the pieces he needed.
Harry then hurried over to Hagrid's place with the glass pieces hidden inside a bag. He knocked on Hagrid's door. "C'min Harry," bellowed a familiar voice. "I've been waitin' for yeh." The door opened and Hagrid gestured to Harry to have a seat.
"I have the glass to make the snowflakes but I will need some help cutting them into the pieces I need, and after that I will need to have them fired in the oven so that they will set properly," Harry explained to Hagrid. "There are going to be four in all, so that will require lots of long thin beams and geometric shapes. I've drawn them all out for reference." Hagrid nodded at Harry. "Shouldn't be too hard," he said. "I think I can help yeh make them the way yeh want."
Harry then reached into his bag and unveiled four pieces of uncut glass - one red, one purple, one blue, and one green. "We'll need to get these cut up into hexagons, stars, and connectors, just like in my drawings," Harry said. "I can help yeh there, just need to find something that will cut - ah, here we are," said Hagrid, holding up a long black device that reminded Harry a bit of a wand. "This should do the trick."
"If yeh can hold the glass down while I cut on top of the templates, I think yeh'll have some mighty fine snowflakes in no time."
After all the glass pieces were cut, Hagrid and Harry put all the pieces together on a covered baking sheet with small globs of glue holding the designs together.
"I can make it as hot as you need it to be," he told Harry. "About 575 degrees Celsius to start," Harry replied. "Aw right, it may take a while but I kin get yeh there," said Hagrid. "This is glass so it will need to rise to about 800 before slowly cooling. The whole process takes a couple of hours."
After about thirty minutes, the oven got to the needed temperature and Harry opened the oven door while Hagrid stuck the snowflake designs inside. Harry watched the time meticulously and let Hagrid know when to add more heat, or take it away.
After a couple of hours, the oven was cool enough to take out the ornaments. Harry opened the oven door and Hagrid carefully pulled out the pan with a large set of tongs and placed it on a cooling rack.
Harry then peered over the pan to admire his creations. He could not believe how well they turned out - perfectly symmetric in shape and sparkling in their respective colors. He carefully touched the blue one and presented it to Hagrid. "This one is for you, Hagrid. Thank you for taking the time to help me make these - I could not have done it without you," he said with sincere gratitude. "Thank yeh Harry," replied Hagrid. "'Twas my pleasure - and fer sure, that is a mighty fine snowflake. I'll hang that one up proudly! Happy Christmas, Harry, though I suspect I'll be seeing yeh before then." "Happy Christmas, Hagrid," said Harry.
Harry then carefully packed up the three remaining snowflakes and headed back to his room to wrap them up and give the other three gifts to their respective recipients.
He wrapped up the red snowflake and addressed it to Ron, he then wrapped up the purple snowflake and addressed it to Hermione, and wrapped up the green one and addressed it to one Professor S. Snape.
He knew that Ron was going to be staying at Hogwarts for the holidays, so he could wait to exchange gifts, but Hermione was going home so he needed to make sure that she got hers before she left for the holidays.
On Monday, he caught up with Ron and Hermione before class. "Hi Ron, Hi Hermione," said Harry. "Hi Harry," said Hermione and Ron. "I have some Christmas gifts for you. Ron, I'll give you yours later on since you're staying here over the holidays, but since you're going to be with your family I'll go ahead and give you yours today, Hermione." Hermione blushed a bit as Harry handed her the package. "Oh Harry," she exclaimed as she opened her gift. "It's incredibly beautiful - where on Earth did you find this?" "I made it," Harry replied. "But I couldn't have done it without Hagrid's help." Hermione wrapped her arms around Harry in a wild hug. "Thank you so much. Happy Christmas, Harry!"
Shortly afterwards, the three of them headed over to Potions class. Professor Snape did not seem to be in any sort of holiday spirit, however. If anything, he seemed to be more sarcastic and impatient than usual. He docked Gryffindor five points when Neville mispronounced "shiitake" when reading a list of ingredients for a healing potion, and docked Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff ten apiece for laughing. He even docked three from Slytherin when Vincent Crabbe could not correctly answer a question.
When class was over, nearly every student hurried to pack their belongings and leave the classroom as quickly as they could. All except Harry Potter, at least.
He approached the professor once he was sure everyone else had left the classroom. Erm, Professor, I have something for you," he said with a hint of nervousness. Snape arched an eyebrow at Harry. "Mister Potter. This is very… unexpected. Surely you would know I am hardly the sentimental type," he said slowly and coolly. "You may leave it on the chair by that table." He made a slight gesture to his right. "You're welcome," Harry said quietly. Snape's eyebrows furrowed slightly. "I said, 'unexpected', not 'unwelcome', Potter. At least not entirely. You may disappear at any time."
Come dinner time, Harry got a message popped onto his table from his owl Hedwig. He opened up the letter and it stated simply:
Potter,
See me after class tomorrow. I have something that belongs to you.
S.S.
Great, Harry thought. Ron saw the uneasy expression on Harry's face. "What is it Harry?" "I gave Snape a Christmas gift this morning but he didn't even open it up. He didn't seem terribly impressed that I bothered to remember him." "You actually tried to give him a Christmas present? I don't think anyone's given him a Christmas gift in fifteen years! He's Ebenezer Snape in my book." "Shhhh!" said Hermione somewhat frantically, pointing in Snape's general direction as he was sitting with the faculty, quite possibly within earshot. Thankfully he was not facing the Gryffindors, but they didn't want to push their luck so they quickly dropped the subject.
The following day, Harry was filled with dread. He barely ate anything for breakfast and was just hoping the Potions class would go quickly. Unfortunately it seemed to drag, and Professor Snape was even more irritable than the day before. The students were excited as it was the second-to-last day before they were excused for the holidays, and could not help but chatter or space out a little bit, but Snape was not expecting anything less than their full undivided attention. The holiday cheer had gotten to him in class, thoroughly exasperated, he shouted, "Ten points from all houses!" He drew a breath and continued in a more controlled manner, but still seething: "I'm keenly aware that you have a holiday coming up, but while you all are sitting in MY class, you WILL remain quiet, you WILL pay attention, you WILL take notes and you WILL adhere to the authority that I represent. Any further interruptions will result in detention… DURING the holiday break. Mister Filch almost certainly has some… less than palatable assignments that he'd be delighted to hand out to our delinquent students. If you have made plans to be with your families while on break, I encourage the lot of you to not do anything further to jeopardize your plans… or your classmates'."
He glanced at the clock, and noticed that class was nearly over after his tirade. "Pages one hundred fifty seven through one hundred sixty four. Read them tonight. Every last word. Copy down the ingredient list thrice-fold. Your knowledge will be assessed in the morrow. Class dismissed. Except for one - you know who you are."
Harry slowly stood up and felt a lump in his throat as he approached the professor. "Sir? You have something that belongs to me?" Snape barely glanced at Harry. "Yes Mister Potter, I do. Follow me." Snape strode quickly toward the opposite end of the room. He knelt next to a small black foot locker, and opened it up. From it, he retrieved a package - well, it looked more like a large yellow envelope, and shook a smattering of dust off it. He opened the envelope and what he produced shocked Harry. A faded moving photograph with two children roughly Harry's age - one of them was a girl that had long, reddish brown hair and the other was a boy with greasy black locks. They wore their Hogwarts robes and appeared to be either first or second-year students. The two children were laughing and seemed to be enjoying each other's company.
The girl looked familiar - the hair and the eyes reminded him of his mother, Lily. In fact the more he looked, the more he was sure this WAS his mother that was having such a good time. And the boy - he wasn't sure who he was, but he clearly wasn't James, his father.
"I am certain you know who the girl in this picture is, Potter." Harry looked up at the professor. "Yes sir, that has to be my mother." Snape nodded. "She was a very dear friend of mine. We go back a very long ways - even before our time together at Hogwarts. She was intelligent and very kind, but my favorite quality that she possessed was her laughter. We had… so much fun together." Harry swore he saw Professor Snape blink away a tear. "When she died, any last vestiges of my childhood innocence died as well." "And that boy in the photograph - was that you?" Harry asked. "Indeed it was. And I would like for you to have this picture. I am genuinely sorry that you never got to know your mother like I have. There is more of her in you than I admit, particularly her kindness. The gift you gave me yesterday, by the way, reminded me so much of her. I don't get many Christmas gifts these days, nor do I have much reason to celebrate. What you did was truly a noble gesture. Thank you , from the bottom of my heart." Harry beamed at the professor. "You're very welcome." Snape's thin lips curved into a slight smile. "Happy Christmas, Harry Potter." He slowly offered his hand to Harry. Harry took the professor's hand and shook it gently. "Happy Christmas, Professor Snape."