Christmas has arrived and Professor Trelawney has a premonition.

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Chapter 23

Christmas

Christmas had arrived at last and Lierin woke up with a smile on her face. At the foot of her bed a small heap of parcels had appeared so she jumped out of bed, put on her dressing-gown and started to unwrap the packages. Her eyes gleamed like those of a kid. The first was a gift from Remus. She opened up the small velvet box and found two beautiful earrings she recognised as 'The Lunar Tears'. The simple pearl earrings brought tears to her eyes as she remembered them belonging to Mrs. Lupin. There was a small note and it too, in all its simplicity, brought tears to her eyes.

My dearest sister,

Mum would want you to have these.

With all my love,

Remus

She sniffed, trying to hold back more tears and quickly opened another present. This one made her laugh through her tears. She recognised from the untidy scrawl on the brown paper that the gift came from Hagrid. It was a silver necklace with a cute little charm in the shape of a Pearlypod. The next present was from Minerva, she'd given Lierin a large yellow leather bound book:

"Unravel Egypt's Mysteries" it said. Lierin leafed through the pages and had to stifle a laugh as she noticed that most objects had been discovered by herself. She quickly went through all the packages and laughed at one, and 'awed' at the other one. There was only one person who had decided not to give her a Christmas present though, Severus.

She tried to pretend that she didn't care but to no avail, the fact that he just didn't care hurt her. This simple act of negligence ruined her entire Christmas spirit. She quickly got herself dressed and decided she would thank her colleagues for the presents later. She left her room and thought it might be useful to kill a little time doing some research. So, she locked herself up in the library to wrestle through a few books about time-traveling, but she couldn't keep her mind on what she was reading. Angry at herself for being such a fool-hearted girl, she skipped breakfast and forced herself to really do some heavy research for a large part of the day, but still she came up with nothing. At lunchtime she went down to the Great Hall feeling really glum and depressed. To her surprise she found that the house tables had been moved against the wall and that a single table stood in the middle of the room.

Professors Dumbledore, McGonagall, Snape, Sprout and Flitwick were there, along with Filch and a few students (Harry, Ron and Hermione being a few of them she actually knew). Disappointed that Remus wasn't in the room, she sat down beside Flitwick and didn't notice the odd look on Snape's face as he watched her.

"Merry Christmas!" said Dumbledore, "As we are with so few, it seemed a bit foolish to use the house tables. So now, crackers!" said Dumbledore enthusiastically, offering the end of a large silver one to Snape, who took it reluctantly and pulled. With a bang like a gunshot, the cracker flew apart to reveal a large, pointed witch's hat topped with a stuffed vulture, a hat Lierin recognised as her own. She grinned at Harry and Ron; Snape found it less amusing and he pushed the hat towards Dumbledore.

"Excuse me, I do believe that belongs to me!" said Lierin.

"Oh, too bad. Well, never mind. Here you are!" said Dumbledore with a twinkle in his eye as he handed over the hat.

"Tuck in!" he advised the table, beaming around. As Lierin was helping herself to a piece of turkey, she felt a hand softly touching hers as it went for the roast potatoes. The sudden stir in her stomach told Lierin that it was Snape and soon she could inhale his unique scent, proving that it was indeed Snape. A little shaky she retreated her hand when suddenly the doors of the Great Hall opened again. Professor Trelawney obviously had decided to honour her colleagues with her presence, as she glided towards them as if she were on wheels. She had put on a green glittery dress in honor of the occasion, making her look more than ever like a glittering, oversized dragonfly.

"Sybill, this is a pleasant surprise!" said Dumbledore, standing up.

"I have been crystal-gazing, Headmaster," said Trelawney, in her mistiest, most faraway voice.

"And to my astonishment, I saw myself abandoning my solitary lunch and coming to join you. Who am I to refuse the promptings of fate? I at once hastened from my tower and I do beg you to forgive my lateness."

Lierin had to repress a chuckle, which caused an angry glare from Trelawney as she lowered herself in an empty chair. Lierin was sure Trelawney would love to deduct house points for that. Apart from a heated discussion between McGonagall and Trelawney, all went reasonably quiet during lunch until one point.... Lierin was full to bursting with Christmas dinner and she decided to spend the rest of her day in her room. She excused herself with the others and got up first from the table when a loud, hoarse voice cut through the room.

"To stop the evil reign. I tell you this must pass a first, if not so, the evil one will rise again!"

Lierin wheeled around to face Professor Trelawney and so did everybody else at the table. Trelawney had gone rigid in her armchair; her eyes were unfocused and her mouth was dropped open. Suddenly her eyes started to roll, she looked as though she was about to have some sort of seizure.

"With the help of his servant, the evil one will rise again, greater and more terrible than ever before but the future has more trials in store. For if the beast, the grim, the child of sun and moon and the severe soul neglect their destiny, the evil one shall reign for eternity. If they choose to heed this token, the power of the other SHALL be broken!"

Professor Trelawney's head fell forwards onto her chest and made a moaning sort of noise. Then, quite suddenly, her head snapped up again.

"I'm so sorry," she said dreamily, "I don't know what came over me, I must have dozed off for a moment."

Nobody said a single word, they just kept staring at Trelawney. Lierin, pale as a sheet, wheeled around and hustled up towards the library.

In the library Lierin leafed through the books as fast as she could, when a hand gently placed on her shoulder gave her a violent start. She wheeled around and saw, partly relieved and partly nervous, that the hand belonged to Severus.

"Severus!" she breathed, " What in the world are you doing here?"

"I could ask you that very same question. What are you doing here, leafing through dusty books as if there's no tomorrow?"

"If I don't find quickly what I know is supposed to be here somewhere, there might not be a tomorrow."

"What did you say?" Snape asked, not sure if he had heard her correctly.

"Well, didn't you hear Trelawney?"

"Come on Lierin, I had thought you to be wiser than that. You shouldn't pay too much attention to her predictions."

"I know Severus, she's predicted my violent death at least a thousand times and I'm still breathing aren't I! But this one is real, this time it's different.

I recognise that part about the beast, the grim, the severe soul and the child from sun and moon. It's here somewhere, in an old diary of Rowena Ravenclaw. I... I thought it was a bunch of nonsense at first, a silly story, but now it turns out to be a Prophecy! I need to find it. Oh, if I could just remember what it was all about, I wish I had read it more carefully!"

"Fine, I'll leave you to your work then," said Snape curtly and he couldn't keep the disappointment form his voice.

"Wait!" Lierin called and when Snape turned around again to face her, an expecting look in his eyes, Lierin bit her lip nervously as she didn't know what else to say. She was just so very curious about what he thought of her present.

"Was there a special reason that you...I mean... Were you just looking for me?"

"No, I wasn't. Just a coincidence. If that would be all...." Snape turned around again. Damn that man!

"Wait!"

"Yes?" This time definitely impatient. Lierin sighed. Why did this man always have to make things so complicated? Didn't anything go easy with him? Well, there was one thing that went very easy with him...

"My present... Did you... Did you like it?" Lierin could curse herself for wanting to know it so badly but there... she had asked him. Now if he would just answer her question. He moved closer to her, closing the gap between them in one step and reached out with one of his hands to cup her chin between his thumb and forefinger, lifting it up slightly. He lowered his head and brushed his lips against hers in a hot and firm kiss. He wrapped his free hand around her tiny waist and pulled her close to him, his mouth tasting of hers and he, just as she wished he would, kissed her breathless.

"Yes, I loved your present very much. I cannot believe you wanted me to have this. But tell me, are you concerned for my well-being, that you would give me the dagger of Bia?" He watched her reaction curiously, not inclined to let her know that he barely recovered from the shock to find that particular knife wrapped in green glittering paper.

Lierin smiled, so he too had been reading her works. "I just thought the dagger would suit you. I have my reasons." said Lierin, flattered that he had been reading her novels.

"I thank you. It is simply beautiful... Have you been to your room yet? No? I suggest you go there first." Snape quickly left her with those mysterious words. Piling her arms with as many books she could carry, almost every one of them out of the forbidden section, Lierin returned to her private quarters again and locked herself up, determined to find that single page in that single book tributed to a certain prophecy. She dropped all of her books onto her bed and was about to let herself drop to the bed as well when a cheerful hooting gave her a violent start, so instead of falling on her bed, she fell to the ground.

"Ouch!" she grunted as she rubbed her head, which she had bumped to the side of her bed in the process. Carefully she got to her feet and approached a large cage that definitely hadn't been there that morning. There, perched on a stick, was the most beautiful owl she had ever seen. As soon as the snowy female noticed she had drawn attention to herself, she clicked her beak excitedly and expectantly.

"By Merlin!" Lierin cried out as she approached the cage.

"Hey there sweety, how are you doing? Ain't you the most beautiful creature I've ever seen!"

Flattered the young owl ruffled her feathers as if she wanted to show Lierin her perfectly white colour. Lierin opened the cage and immediately the young owl fluttered down on Lierin's arm and obviously content she let Lierin gently stroke her back.

"How soft you are! I think I'll call you Velvet. You like that name? Velvet?"

The owl gave Lierin an affectionate nip with her beak as if she agreed with Lierin.

"Very well then. Velvet it is!"

Lierin searched for a note with the cage but she found none. Nevertheless, there was only one person who could have given her this wonderful present. Severus! A warm feeling was spreading through her body. So he did care! She knew she had to thank him for Velvet, but she also knew she had to work herself through these books again. Remus was not quite feeling well, probably that time of the month again. She was so close, she couldn't give up now! Plus, she now knew what she was searching for.