December 22, 1980, London
The shops were crowded, and Severus Snape knew he'd waited too long to do his Christmas shopping. He should have gotten this taken care of already. But there were too many eyes on him. The Dark Lord used him, but did not trust him; the Dark Lord trusted no one. The Order of the Phoenix watched him. Dumbledore alone, of that pack of meddling busybodies, knew that he was a double agent, which meant most of the other order members would happily Avada Kedavra him if they thought they could get away with it. The result was an appalling lack of privacy, which made it difficult to run the most insignificant errands unobserved.
And this errand, Severus did not consider insignificant.
He went past the dollies and the toy brooms, the model railroads and the self-juggling balls. None of those were appropriate. Weary parents jostled him, some muttering polite 'excuse mes,' some ignoring him. At last he worked his way through the crowd to the stuffed animals. Every beast one could think of was replicated in plush: hippogriffs, sea serpents, owls, ravens, unicorns, nifflers.
Ah, there was what he was looking for: dragons.
Big dragons. Little dragons. Plush dragons. Wooden model dragons to construct. Cartoony dragons. Dragons realistic enough to use as teaching aids in a Care of Magical Creatures class. Norwegian Ridgebacks. Ukrainians Ironbellies. Catalonian Fireballs. Hungarian Horntails. Swedish Short-Snouts. Hebridean Blacks.
He sorted through the toy dragons until he found a Welsh Green and a Chinese Fireball, both about the size of a Yorkshire terrier. He headed for the cashier's desk and waited in line to pay for them.
"Very nice choice, sir," the cashier told him. "The little ones will love these. Let's see, thirteen Sickles a pieces, that's one Galleon, nine Sickles. For an extra five Sickles each, you can have them gift wrapped. The money from the gift wrapping goes to St. Mungo's."
"Yes, gift wrapped, please," Severus agreed. He had neither the time nor the inclination to indulge in fancy paper and bows, and St. Mungo's was a worthy cause.
"That brings it up to two Galleons, two Sickles." He took the money Severus handed him and quickly made change. "The gift wrapping table is right over there, sir."
Severus took his purchases and got in another line. In a very few minutes a medi-witch was asking him which color wrapping paper he would like for his dragons. He chose green and silver for the Welsh Green, with a silver bow, and red and gold for the Chinese Fireball, with a golden ribbon and bow.
"If you like, you can just address the cards, and we'll take them to the hospital's Owlery, no extra charge," the medi-witch offered.
Severus took a quill and wrote out two gift tags. For Draco. Happy First Christmas. SS. he put on the package in Slytherin colors. For your son's first Christmas he put on the other gift tag, then addressed it to Lily E. Potter. He didn't sign it, although he knew she'd recognize his handwriting. Perhaps if it came anonymously, she could pretend she didn't know from whom it came, and accept it, for the baby's sake. He pushed the box in Gryffindor colors toward the medi-witch. "If you'd deliver this one, please. I'll take care of the other one myself."
"Of course, of course. Thank you very much, and Happy Christmas."
"Happy Christmas," he echo'd as he left the store. Lucius and Narcissa were hosting a Boxing Day party; he could give them Draco's gift then. At his age, the child wouldn't care that it was a day late. He knew from Dumbledore that the Order of the Phoenix was planning a party on Christmas Eve. Despite the fact that he was officially a member of the order, he knew he wouldn't be welcome. And really, 'twas better not to go. The more people who knew he was a double agent, the more chances someone might accidentally let something slip. Attending a holiday party wasn't worth risking his life.
And he didn't think he could bear to see Lily under the mistletoe with that toerag, Potter.
