12. Christmas holidays.

Professor Snape was having a rather good holiday. Not that he liked Christmas itself. It held little enough pleasant memories, as did all traditional family events. And here at Hogwarts it meant altogether too many frilly decorations and colleagues who insisted he join them and be cheerful. But it also meant almost three weeks of no classes and few students.

There were just eight of them; Harry of course, Granger, the two younger Weasleys, the Creeveys, and a couple quiet Hufflepuff first years. Not a single Slytherin had remained at Hogwarts for the holidays, so he wasn't even required to make himself available at mealtimes. He showed up for dinner because he knew Albus would badger him about it if he withdrew into his quarters completely. Yet the rest of the time was his own.

He read up on the latest publications in the mornings, had the house-elves bring him lunch, and spent the afternoons brewing several of the new concoctions described in the articles.

It was too bad he had so little time for research, himself. Other years he'd managed to get some work done during summer, but this past year he'd not even managed that, with all the student letters and what not. Well, hopefully this summer would be better. At least this Christmas he could catch up on what others had done.

He woke up on Christmas morning to the sound of a house-elf scurrying in his room. However quiet they were, he always heard them. At least they knew and didn't try to bring his presents at some ungodly hour. Or present, he didn't expect more than one this year.

Previous years his father had sent him something. Whatever it had been, it was always outrageously expensive, otherwise tasteless, and accompanied by a letter chiding him for taking such a lowly position and inquiring whether the coming year he'd finally come to his senses, leave 'that school' and take a real job somewhere. But when he'd been exposed as a spy, his father had made it clear he wanted nothing more to do with him. Well, no big loss. He didn't even regret much not being able to hear from his mother, she'd never been able to stand up for him, nor tried very hard.

He got up, poured himself a cup of tea from the tray the house-elf had also brought, and picked up the present from Albus. It was easily recognisable by the extremely gaudy paper, even before he opened the card, which featured a jolly Santa who happily waved at him hollering 'Merry Christmas, meeeeeeeeeeeeerrry Christmas! Hohoho!'. It refused to shut up, too, once he'd opened it, even when he put it back in the envelope.

But whatever he might think of Albus' taste in wrappings and cards, the older wizard always took care in picking out the actual present. He unwrapped a beautiful book, The Wizard's Guide to the Collections of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, filled with reproductions detailed enough that they could be enlarged, at a touch of the wand, to full size without getting blurry.

Professor Snape appreciated good art. The only reason he didn't visit any of the predominantly Muggle museums was that he didn't like dealing with said Muggles. Fortunately, he was hardly alone in that respect and Wizard publishing companies had published books such as this.

It was only as he had leafed through the book and looked up to reach for his wand, that he noticed there was another present after all. He hadn't even seen it before. He carefully closed the book and put it aside, then picked up the present.

Years of tasteless presents had dimmed his enthusiasm, but not his curiosity. He spent only a few moments wondering who it'd be from –had his mother sent him something after all, or perhaps one of the staff?- then opened the package.

Had he spent all day guessing, he would never have considered what he found. He looked at the mortar and pestle set with surprise, there were few enough people who would've noticed he hadn't replaced his old one. He picked up the card that was included in the package, quicker now.

Merry Christmas!

Harry, Hermione, Ginny, Ron.

Whatever he'd expected, it definitely wasn't this. He stared at the card, not sure how to react. Harry, he was sure, had been the one to pick out the set. He smiled briefly. He knew him well enough to know it was just a nice gesture, with no double intentions. The others, now, made him wonder, and he frowned again.

The Weasley girl had some of the same straightforwardness as Harry, she probably simply liked to do something nice. He noticed that didn't bother him as much as it would have a year ago, although it still made him feel a little awkward. Granger always did what she thought was right, something which some people would say was the same thing. It certainly was not. And the Weasley boy was in it only because of the others, of course. But whatever their inner feelings, it was a thoughtful thing to do. Who would ever have thought he'd get a Christmas present from a Weasley? He laid the card down and looked at the set again. And decided he would accept the gift, from all four of them.

As he made that decision, he considered going to the Great Hall for lunch. At dinner they'd all be seated together, as Albus arranged it every year when there were so few students, and that meant his colleagues would all be right there. He might appreciate the gift, he still knew he was uncomfortable about word getting out. Gryffindors buying him a present, and he accepted it? Next thing Minerva and Pomona would expect him to be nice and friendly in the classroom and everywhere. And he just couldn't imagine being open and sociable to everyone in the entire school. At least they hadn't tried anything like this while school was in session. It would be easier to catch the students alone at lunch than at dinner, but showing up at lunch at all would raise eyebrows. No, better he show up at dinner like usual.

So he spent the day leafing through his new book, then reading and experimenting as usual. Finally, at dinner time, he left his rooms and walked up the broad steps to the Great Hall. As he had expected, the House tables were gone and there was just one table in the middle of the room. More decorations filled up the rest of the Hall, smaller trees in addition to the large one that had been put up before the holidays, fake snow, snowmen, and even a large toy train that ran circles around the table. It was snowing outside and the ceiling mirrored the falling snowflakes. It was very, very Christmassy and also quite overdone.

Albus and Minerva were already seated, fortunately they were talking together so they didn't pay much attention to him or anyone else. The four Gryffindors were standing together near one of the trees, examining something Weasley held. They were all wearing those brightly colored sweaters Mrs Weasley made every year, apparently Granger had received one now, too. Well, there was no accounting for taste.

He walked over and resisted the urge to wait for them to notice him before he spoke. It would be interesting to see their expressions, see how they expected him to react, but that would be a rather unseasonable thing to do.

Instead, as soon as he reached them he simply said, "Thank you for your present."

"Merry Christmas, sir," Harry replied immediately. He smiled so broadly that Professor Snape felt himself smile briefly, no matter how much he'd intended to keep a straight face.

The others quickly chimed in, "Merry Christmas!" Weasley rather wide-eyed, but he did not falter in his words.

"Merry Christmas," he replied, then nodded and walked to the table.

Dammit, Albus was looking at him. He could see the Headmaster's eyes twinkle, even among all these other blinkity things. At least Minerva hadn't looked around. He sat down on Albus' other side, then went through the inevitable 'Marry Christmas' routine with her before thanking Albus for his thoughtful present. That at least was less awkward, and they were soon talking pleasantly about art.

Soon the rest of the staff and students showed up, and more Christmas greetings were exchanged. Even Argus joined them, but to Snape's relief, Sybill did not. The woman got on his nerves, and on those of just about anyone else. Poppy sat down on his other side, which suited him fine. There were the inevitable Christmas crackers, which he rather disliked, especially since two years ago, yet this time it held no evil surprises. It cracked open to reveal nothing more than a large button with yet another cheery Santa, which waved merrily but, thank Merlin, didn't make a sound.

As everyone was seated the food appeared on the table, steaming platters with turkey, roast potatoes and gravy. He helped himself to a generous serving, and soon found the food to be excellent. He felt himself relax enough so he could actually enjoy it.

Poppy had started to tell him about her family and all her nieces and nephews, but he'd managed to change the subject to the food, then to Diagon Alley restaurants, which was somewhat more interesting. Usually he just tuned out but this seemed to work as good or better, for she often wouldn't stop talking about her family whether he listened or not.

Even the students didn't bother him tonight. They were excited, speaking about their Christmas presents and the oldest Creevey boy had taken the new camera to the table and got up a few times to take pictures. Instead of calling the boy to order and telling him to sit down, he ignored it, although he refused to smile. He even took a brief look at the thing when it was passed around; Creevey called it a 'digital' camera, and it showed the pictures taken on a small screen built in to the thing. Without looking too interested, he still listened as the boy told Minerva and Filius about his computer at home. Muggles came up with the most amazing things to make up for their lack of magic. And when the Weasley girl asked him to pass the cranberry sauce, he did so before he even realised how rarely his colleagues cared to ask him such a thing, let alone one of the students.

Finally, desert was served, huge Christmas puddings –as if anyone had room left for a large desert. Of course everyone took a large serving anyhow, even Pomona, who was always going on about how she needed to lose some weight.

As he got up from the table, he realised he hadn't had a better dinner in a long time. Then, Albus stopped him as he was about to walk off.

"Minerva suggested we leave the table here until the rest of the students return. I liked the idea, myself, but if you have any objections…"

The Headmaster's eyes twinkled, he had definitely noticed he'd been able to relax more than usual. Professor Snape glanced at Minerva, who looked threw him a challenging look, daring –and expecting- him to protest.

"I think it's a fine plan," he said instead. Then he smiled at Minerva's dumbfounded expression. With a brief nod, he turned and left the Great Hall.

-0-

So for the rest of the holidays they ate all together at the center table. Well, almost all, Argus did not join them again. And thank Merlin the decorations, apart from the large tree, were gone again the day after Christmas. There was such a thing as 'too much'.

There were no set seating arrangements at the table, so everyone sat down where they wished. He managed to avoid Arabella and Hagrid, and eventually enjoyed the mealtimes enough he came in for lunch on the last two days of the year.

And so New Year's Eve arrived. Normally there wasn't a whole lot of fuss surrounding the New Year, but this year the Weasley twins had sent a huge box of fireworks, and the Gryffindors had managed to talk Albus into giving them permission to set it off at midnight. Not they'd had too much trouble getting permission, Snape suspected. Then at lunchtime, Filius had boasted about some spectacular spells, and of course the students and several of the staff wanted to see those.

He could've stayed in his dungeons. He distrusted any fireworks the Weasley twins sent, his opinion of them hadn't changed yet over the past several months. But they wouldn't do anything too dangerous and he'd risk their hilarious sense of humour. So here he was on the Quidditch pitch, which hopefully provided enough space so not too much damage would be done by the Weasleys' fireworks.

 And just for this once, he'd judged the Weasleys wrong. The fireworks were spectacular and huge; dragons chasing each other, spinning wheels of colored flame, giant flowers so big the entire sky lit up, but even the biggest dragon totally failed to chase anyone of those watching or set anything on fire, and it was all in good taste.

Filius did not let himself be outdone and created the wildest scene of birds and other creatures out of a luminescent smoke in every colour imaginable. It was well past one before they went back inside.

All in all, it had been the best Christmas holiday he could remember, and when Saturday evening the students returned, he didn't even mind overtly much.