A Potion Induced Advent's Time
by Healer Pomfrey

Please refer to the content/warnings/disclaimer note above page 1.

December 17

When Harry returned from his last morning class, wondering what Minerva and Severus were doing, he saw an animal that looked like a reindeer pop up at the end of the corridor and vanish around the corner. 'Must be my imagination,' Harry thought and returned home. He found both children sitting on the sofa, chatting and giggling. They quietened as soon as they noticed him, looking at him in expectation.

"Is everything all right?" Harry queried. "Are you feeling well enough to have lunch in the Great Hall?"

"No," Severus replied quickly. "Can we eat here please?"

Harry cast the boy a surprised look but agreed. However, after lunch, he said, "Well if you still don't feel completely well, we better stay here today." Looking into the two disappointed faces, he added, "We can still go to Hogsmeade tomorrow. Are you feeling up to building a snowman?"

"Yeah," Minerva blurted out, excitedly. "May I build a cat?"

"A cat?" Harry repeated in surprise. "Why not? Severus, are you going to help with Minerva's cat, or do you want to build a snowman?"

"A reindeer," Severus gave back, smirking.

"Professor Hufflepuff," Harry turned to the portrait, "would you mind asking Poppy if I may take Minerva and Severus out onto the grounds?"

メリークリスマス

Ten minutes later, Harry and the children left their quarters. On the way to the entrance hall, they met several students, who were wearing red Santa hats. 'Strange,' he mused. 'Have they all gone nuts? It's still a week until Christmas anyway.' However, just when they reached the entrance hall, he saw two reindeer hurry into the Great Hall. 'Oh no,' he thought. 'Is it me who is going nuts? Am I delirious? I hope I didn't catch the squid's flu from Minerva and Severus.' However, he noticed soon that it was not only his imagination, but that the children could see the strange animals as well, when a cat suddenly appeared out of nothing and began to attack Minerva. It was not a normal cat. It was a red cat with a long, white beard, over which it seemed to stumble every now and then, and it was wearing a Santa head, similar to those of the students.

"What the..." Harry blurted out, interrupting himself as both children transformed into their feline figures and chased the cat in Santa attire away.

"That was Mrs. Norris," Minerva explained, chuckling, when she and Severus changed back into their human forms.

"That was Mrs. Norris?" Harry asked in surprise. "What about all these reindeer? Who are they?"

"Reindeer?" Minerva and Severus replied simultaneously; however, due to the fact that they just reached the grounds, which were covered by a deep layer of snow, Harry was too distracted to notice their unnaturally innocent expressions.

By the time they returned into their castle after building a snow cat and a snow reindeer, Harry had already forgotten about Mrs. Norris, who had obviously been pranked by someone.

メリークリスマス

Only when they entered the Great Hall at dinnertime, did Harry notice that something was very wrong. While most students were wearing Santa hats, almost every teacher's head looked like that of a reindeer. At the same time, reindeer were popping in and out all over the Hall. 'They must be house-elves,' Harry slowly realised. 'They can pop themselves, but they're unable to make themselves invisible like they normally do.' He looked around in confusion, when a dark thought crossed his mind. 'That's why Severus didn't want to have lunch in the Great Hall,' he understood. 'He must have brewed a potion, while I was teaching.' He glared at Severus, which went unnoticed by the boy, and pondered what to do. 'On the one hand, he can't just get along with more and more pranks, but on the other hand, I can understand that he really enjoys his chance at a better childhood, but what am I supposed to do?' He decided to ask Poppy later on and contented himself to vanish the children's deserts, before they could even touch their plates.

"You don't think that you deserve a dessert tonight?" he asked, seeing Minerva pout. "Instead, both of you will go straight to bed." 'That gives me some time to grade the homework, which I collected from the fourth and fifth years this morning,' he thought as he tiredly sat at the dining table to work for a few hours.

It was late at night that he finally went to see Poppy, who decided to give the children the next dose of the aging potion right away. "We'll age them up to eleven while they're asleep, so that they can attend first year classes tomorrow. Maybe that will occupy their bored minds a little, especially if they have to attend all classes and not only their own subjects."

Harry agreed immediately, unaware that this solution would merely give the children more ideas for pranks.

tbc...

Thank you for your kind comments - and very sorry for the delay and the shortness... will try to give you the next chapter tonight...