IV

There had been only one thing that Sirius Black's ghost had said that Severus actually believed; he had never botched a potion in his life.

So it came to a very shocking surprise to him when just over an hour later at the stroke of midnight that he awoke from his perfectly brewed Sleeping Potion to someone attempting to tickle him awake.

That surprise soon set off a cry of complete alarm when he opened his eyes and saw who it was. As he attempted to scramble for his wand, he ended up falling out of bed, the covers wrapped around him falling in a pile on top of him. He frantically broke free of them and peered out suspiciously, wand still in hand.

"Dumbledore," he murmured at last, staring in disbelief at the ghost in front of him.

"You were expecting Father Christmas?" Dumbledore asked with a smile. There was such a mischievous look in his eyes that there could be hardly any doubt of who he was.

"You are dead," Severus stated warily.

"Yes, thank you, Severus. To be perfectly honest, I wasn't entirely sure you were going to do it there for a moment, your private vow to me or not, You did the right thing, Severus," Albus said somberly. "But I'm not here to talk about that, or even how you are handling our ultimate plan. No, this is much more personal. Care for a hand up?"

Cautiously, Severus put his hand out and Dumbledore took it, pulling him to his feet. Severus stared at the hand in his with a frown.

"How exactly are you doing that?" Severus demanded.

"Oh, I'm not doing anything, Severus, you are. You're astral projecting," Dumbledore explained calmly. Severus turned around to look at the lump of covers on the floor, then noticed a part of his foot sticking out of it. "May I have my hand back? You really only need to hold onto the sleeve of my robe."

"Sleeve?"

"Yes, we're going on a little outing to Christmases past," Dumbledore said cheerfully. Severus gave him a dirty look. "Yes, yes, I know it's cliché, and I admit that when Sirius came and told me he wanted to teach you a lesson I was going to decline, but then…well, I'm afraid he is right in a way, so be a good sport and humor me. After all, you did kill me, you owe me that much."

"Only because you ordered me to," Severus snapped.

"And now I'm ordering you to play along," Dumbledore said with a smile.

Had Severus thought much longer about it, he could have simply reasoned that the dead could not order the living about in such a way. But this was, after all, Dumbledore doing the ordering, and now that he was dead, he probably knew a great deal more about certain things going on than Severus did. Perhaps if he went along he could get some real answers.

Severus took his sleeve, and Dumbledore quickly pulled him into the fireplace as if they were taking the floo to another destination. Instead…he simply walked through the fireplace itself, and Severus found himself stepping from his cozy, decorous bedroom to the cozy, Slytherin dorm room he had slept in as a student.

There was only one person in the room…one that Severus immediately recognized as himself; a black mop-headed youth who had fallen asleep on his schoolbooks at the desk in front of his bed with a golden-belled clock clutched in his left hand.

"I suppose you know where we are?" Dumbledore asked.

"My first Christmas here," Severus said with a shrug. "Although I hardly see any point in visiting it."

"You were so small then, and so serious," Dumbledore remembered with a smile, but Severus didn't say anything. "Not very many stayed at the school that Christmas, as I recall."

"Not many Slytherin did, at any rate," Severus murmured. "I was the only one in my year to still be there on Christmas Eve, not that I cared much." Dumbledore decided not to comment, waiting for Severus to continue despite the fact that it was quite obvious Severus didn't want to offer any more.

Just then there was a large flutter of Owls by the window. Young Severus woke up and looked over at them attentively for a moment before glancing at the clock…just after midnight. Setting it down, he grabbed his robe and crept to the door, peering out cautiously before working his way out to a brilliant Christmas tree trimmed with satin green bows and silver-dipped candles in the center of the common room.

By the time Dumbledore and Severus stepped through the wall, the young one was already searching through the presents, digging through them all before sitting up with a expression of disappointment on his face. He then began to go through his stack more carefully.

"For a boy with such a healthy assortment of parcels, he doesn't look very happy, does he?" Dumbledore observed.

"I had foolishly convinced myself that year that if my mother had 'disappeared' of her own free will that she might have sent me something," Severus said.

"Sounds like a reasonable hope to me," Dumbledore said.

"Of course, I then began to wonder after the fact if perhaps she just didn't want anything to do with me," Severus said.

"Now, I'm sure you know now that's not the case, Severus. Your mother had been out of sorts ever since the divorce years before this. But she always stuck up for you…as I recall, I had quite a number of conversations with her when your father protested your going to Hogwarts."

"He wanted me to go to a 'normal' school. He thought Hogwarts was too dangerous. He was afraid of what was going on in our world and what sort of trouble I might get into without him to keep a tight hand on my collar," Severus said with obvious annoyance, but then slumped. "Perhaps in a way he was right."

"Nonsense, Severus. It's never right to ask a person to go against their own nature like that," Dumbledore said. "You were very advanced in magic even before you got to Hogwarts…and I have a confession to make, Severus. I long guessed why you had first decided to prematurely stick your nose in those books. There was nothing you could have done, you know, to save their marriage. In many ways, it was over before it even got started, with all the family pressure and all."

"Both families were unhappy about it, not just the Prince's," Severus said in an almost defensive tone.

"I never meant to imply that any one family was at fault," Dumbledore said calmly.

"Well, it hardly matters anymore…wait…don't open that one!" Severus suddenly shouted at himself.

"He can't hear you, Severus," Dumbledore said, as the boy looked over a present with no name on the "from".

A glimmer of intense hope crossed young Severus' face as he opened it, but from the moment he pulled back the paper, a blast of colored smoke burst out, causing him to cough and choke. Suddenly the cough sounded strange, animal-like. It was a bray, Dumbledore decided, and as the smoke cleared he was proven right as Severus' head had been transformed to that of a donkey.

Young Severus' human hands went to his head, feeling around and then pulling his elongated ears. He let out an even louder bray as he ran to the mirror and stared at what had been done to him, intent on ramming his fist through it.

"Rather sloppy job, transfiguring only the head and all," Dumbledore mused.

"What do you expect from first years?" The Severus standing next to him snapped angrily. Dumbledore studied him thoughtfully, so intent on his reactions that he didn't miss when Severus' face became ghostlike, just a second after footsteps could be heard coming down the stairs.

"What in devil's name is going on down here?" called out a platinum-haired seventh year. He took one look at Severus and then rolled his eyes. "Oh, not again! Stand still, Snape, and stop acting like an ass! Reparatus Asinus!" he intoned, a flashing coming out of his wand. A final bray from Severus turned into a wail, which stopped short when he realized his face felt normal again. "I swear, Snape! You really work hard to give us all a bad name, don't you?" he said with distaste, walking over. "It was that Potter boy, again, wasn't it? How did it happen?"

Glumly, the young Severus handed over the package and the older boy rolled his eyes again.

"You are so damned gullible, Snape! Haven't you any pride at all, or has that thin blood of yours robbed you of that as well?" he taunted.

"Of course I have pride!" Young Severus snapped.

"Then stop disgracing the Slytherin name and allowing those Gryffindors to constantly walk over you! It's high time you taught Potter a lesson, one that will convince him not to even attempt to bother you again."

"I would, if it were just him, Lucius," Severus said defensively. "But anytime I try to confront him, those friends of his come to back him up."

"I see," Lucius said, discriminately picking up one of his gifts, and then reading the giver, tossing it back under the tree. "And would Sirius be one of those friends?" Severus glanced up at him, but didn't say anything. Lucius smiled thinly, then nodded. "It's always wise to consider whose family we're talking about before raising an opinion, isn't it? Yes, well, say what you like about him. He's already been disowned by several members of his family for being sorted into Gryffindor house and consorting with mudbloods. You at least had more sense than that, and besides your mother's family goes back farther than practically anyone's…but mine of course," he added with a curled lip. "They shouldn't dare mock you, Severus. It's time we turned this situation around."

"We?" Severus asked slowly.

"Yes, I think for the sake of this house's name, I'll help you get past this little problem of yours and onto your rightful path. Your mother has already taught you much, that I can tell from your marks, but it takes more than wit to be a good Slytherin. It's time you made them play by our rules. I'm prepared to teach you a spell or two that none of them, even Potter, could possibly know. As for Sirius, I'll have Narcissa take care of that issue. So, are you prepared to finally earn the name of Slytherin, and perhaps to wipe the egg off the name of Prince as well?"

"More than ready," Severus agreed.

"Good," Lucius said, the thin smile still plastered on his face. "But first, I was wondering…I do have a question or two about your father."

"Ask away," Severus shrugged. "But I don't know what he has to do with anything important."

"Oh, no of course not, just for curiosity's sake," Lucius said smoothly. But just then there was a light knock on the door, and Lucius looked up with obvious annoyance to see another seventh year Slytherin in the doorway.

"Sorry to disturb you, Head Boy," he said.

"What is it, Igor?" Lucius said impatiently.

"I've been sent to ask Snape to pack a few things. His sister is downstairs…"

"Stepsister," Severus automatically corrected.

"Well, apparently you're going home after all, so I would get moving if I were you."

"I don't want to go home," Severus complained. "If I go home, how do I know I'll be coming back?"

"I'm just a messenger, I'm not here to argue. Take it up with the Professors if you like," Igor growled, slamming the door behind him.

"Don't worry, Severus, you'll be back," Lucius assured him. "Even if I have to ask some friends of mine to bring you back, you'll be back. He can't keep you from coming here, you know. It's your birthright."

"Yes, my birthright," Severus repeated in agreement, then grinned, gathering up his gifts in hand and heading to his room. Lucius sat back in his chair then, and when he was certain no one was left in the room, got out his cigarette holder for a smoke.

"Well," said Albus Dumbledore. "That does explain quite a lot, doesn't it? And, of course, you did return to Hogwarts without incident that first year."

"Perhaps, but I do recall a letter from an Owl that arrived in my father's hand that turned his knuckles white," Severus said. Dumbledore gazed at him thoughtfully.

"You never told me about that," Dumbledore said.

"I hardly needed to considering what happened to him a few years later," Severus said crisply.

"Yes," Dumbledore said somberly. "I recall that day very clearly. I had you come up to my office to tell you the news that he was dead. You were not surprised. Not even a little." Severus didn't say anything, gazing at his young self still packing his things. "You never even asked what happened to your sister."

"She wasn't there at the time, whisked out of harm's way by one Muggle relative or another, I imagine," Severus shrugged. "We were close once, when we were small, I suppose. But by then I didn't consider them my family any more."

"No, you had a new family who nearly cost you your life, and your soul," Dumbledore said quietly.

"Please tell me we're not going to go over that conversation again," Severus pleaded.

"No, that was not at Christmas, nor do I think it's really necessary to tell you of that night when I know you've thought about it every day since," Dumbledore said. "Come, let us go explore another day." Severus reluctantly touched Dumbledore's outstretched sleeve and they were off once more.