Master of Enchantment

Book 5: The Christmas Rose

Chapter 5: Rumination and Reminiscing

Three Weeks Before Christmas

The bell chimed at Enchanté and Quirk hurried to answer the door. Standing on the doorstep, looking about her in a curious way, was a female house-elf. She wore a very neat lime-green pillowcase and carried a small bag. Quirk stood in the doorway, gaping at her.

"Hello," the female said in soft voice. "My name is Holly."

Quirk closed his mouth with a snap. "I is not asking you what your name is," he responded. "What is you doing here?"

Holly reached into her bag and withdrew an envelope. "You is not needing to be rude," she reproved. When Quirk did not respond, she said, "Is your family being home?"

"Where my family is being is none of your business," he replied, snatching the envelope from her hand.

"That is a letter for your master or mistress. Is you knowing how to read?"

"What I is knowing is none of your need to knowing," he said. Turning his shoulder to her, he spotted his own name written on a scrap of parchment attached to the envelope. He clutched the scrap and laboured over the writing.

Dear Quirk,

Please welcome Holly to Enchanté. She lives and works with a family of animal Healers and she knows about magical animals of all kinds. She is a nice elf and will help you with the kittens.

Your Friend,

Albus Dumbledore

P.S. Please deliver this envelope to your mistress.

Quirk looked up from the note and glared at Holly. "I is not needing your help."

Holly gave up on being polite and reached past Quirk to open the door further, then stepped past him into the foyer.

"I is not here to help you with your family. I is here to take care of the kitties. Where are they?"

Quirk shoved the door closed. "I is the head elf in this house," he declared.

Holly looked around. "You is the only elf in this house," she laughed.

"You stay here!" Quirk commanded, then walked away from her to the fireplace in the sitting room. Quirk threw the Floo powder into the fire and said, "Professor Severus Snape's quarters."

Moments later, his mistress's head was floating in the fire. "Good morning, Quirk," she said. "Are the kittens well?"

"Yes, Mistress," Quirk replied. "There is a letter for you from Professor Dumbledore."

"Very well, Quirk; step back, and I'll come through."

Hermione came through into the sitting room at Enchanté and took the proffered envelope. "Thank you, Quirk." She seated herself in one of the armchairs and began to read.

Dear Severus and Hermione,

I have sent help for Quirk to Enchanté. Her name is Holly. Her master is animal Healer James Herriott. She has been trained in the care of magical creatures. Healer Herriott highly commends her abilities. I have made arrangements for her to stay until the kittens are of an age to go to proper homes.

Sincerely,

Albus Dumbledore

Hermione looked around the room expectantly. "Where is she, Quirk? Where is Holly?"

Quirk pointed toward the foyer and Holly took one hesitant step into the sitting room. "Holly is here, Madam Snape, ma'am."

Hermione stood and walked forward to where Holly curtsied. "Welcome to Enchanté, Holly."

Hermione glanced over at Quirk, who was glaring at the up-start. "Quirk, have you prepared a place for Holly to stay?"

"Quirk was not expecting a house-elf, Mistress. Quirk had prepared the guest room upstairs."

"The guest room will be fine, Quirk," Hermione assured him, leading the way upstairs. "Come with me, Holly; I'll show you where to put your things, and then Quirk can introduce you to the kittens, all right?"

Quirk stood in the foyer, watching with horrified eyes as his Mistress led the quietly protesting Holly up the stairs.

"Oh, no, ma'am, please," Holly whispered in distress. "Please don't make Holly stay in the guest room. House-elves isn't sleeping in the family's rooms – it isn't fitting, ma'am."

Hermione glanced over her shoulder at the agitated house-elf. "It will be all right, Holly. Come along, please."

With an obedient sigh, Holly allowed herself to be shown up to the guest room.

Hermione seated herself at the desk in the laboratory, mild guilt pulling at her mind. Quirk seemed upset, Holly seemed uncomfortable, and the kittens seemed to be growing more impossible with every passing day. To top it all, Hermione and her workmates were growing ever closer to completing a viable test-version of the Christmas Rose Potion.

With a determined shake of her head, Hermione sent up a plea to Whomever might be listening to make all well at Enchanté, then threw herself into the pile of parchment before her.

Quirk stomped into the kitchen. Not only was that Other Elf sleeping in the Family Quarters, but she was telling Quirk how to take care of the kitty-babies! Quirk had been taking care of the kitty-babies without her help for a month! Well, aside from the rug in Master's study and the robes of that red-haired wizard, the kittens had done no harm under Quirk's supervision! He certainly did not take into account his many burns and hurts, suffered due to unusual abilities of Bast's and Crookshanks' babies.

A wicked thought came to him. That Other Elf might be sleeping in a wizard's bedroom, but he could fix it so that it was not such a nice place to be. With a grim smile upon his lips, Quirk went down into cellar to fetch the kitty-babies from their make-shift quarters below.

He was not Professor Severus Snape's house-elf for nothing – Quirk had learned some things about how to be nasty at the knee of a true master.

Holly sniffled to herself and unpacked her things. Why did Master send her away to this awful place? Holly was a good elf! She always did just as her master told her to do. She helped him with the magical pets that people brought to Master's clinic when the poor animals were sick. Was Master thinking about giving Holly clothes? Pushing that horrible thought from her mind, she was moving towards the bedroom door when it popped open without a knock and seven cats were thrust in, followed by Quirk, carrying a litter box.

Holly turned on the mean house-elf indignantly. "You is not to be coming into my room without knocking on the door!" she said in a loud voice.

Quirk kicked the door shut behind him and placed the litter box on the floor.

"This is not your room – this is Master's guest room, and you is having no business staying here!"

Holly's eyes dropped in shame. "I know I isn't," she agreed softly.

Quirk stopped in mid-tirade. Somehow, it was difficult to continue being nasty when the other person admitted their wrong behaviour.

"Well, if you is going to be sleeping in this big room all by yourself, you can just keep the kitties in here with you!"

"All right," Holly responded, turning to lift her bag from the bed. "Perhaps you can do as your mistress said and be telling me all about the kitties and their magical powers."

Quirk crossed his arms across his thin chest and glared at the Healer's elf. How, when he was bringing the kitties to stay in her room and telling her what a shameless elf she was to be sleeping in a wizard's bedroom could she still be ordering him around as if she were Human?

Holly stood, showing no impatience, and waited for the stupid boy-elf to do as he was told.

The elvish warfare continued throughout the day. Quirk managed to do much of his communicating by speaking of Holly to the kitties. He would not prepare food for her, nor would he sit down to eat with her; he showed her where the kitchen was and adjured her to clean up behind herself because he would not do it.

Holly, on the other hand, simply delighted in speaking to Quirk – she was telling him what to do and how to do it.

"You be holding Jumper while I tie her with this string," she said, pulling out a length of red yarn.

"You is going to tie her to the floor to keep her from flying?" he snorted. "Flamer will burn that string right up!"

Holly waited for him to do it, just looking at him out of her great big brown eyes. Quirk had to admit the she wove the string in, out, and about on the kitty in such a way that it did not trail about her on the floor, attracting the notice of her siblings and inciting them to attack it. When next Jumper flew, Holly snapped her fingers, and the red yarn obediently unfurled right into her hand, so that she could tow the kitten back down to the floor with a spoken command.

"If you pulls kitty down and gives her the command every time she flies, she will learn not to do it," she explained to Quirk, who pretended not to listen.

Next she pulled a tiny jar of paint from her bag. "You be holding Fader while I put a little bit of paint on her," she instructed.

"What good is a little bit of pink paint going to do when kitty is invisible? And Mistress is not going to be happy when kitty eats the paint and gets sick!"

Once again, Holly just waited patiently for Quirk to scoop up the wriggling fluffy black Fader. When he had done so, she carefully applied the paint to the tip of the kitty's tail. "This is being special paint," she said by way of explanation. "Master is making it himself. The paint shines in the dark and shows up even when kitty is invisible, so that you can find kitty. It's safe, even if kitty eats it – Master would not be hurting animals." This last bit was said in a tone of reproof, as if Quirk had spoken badly of Holly's family.

After seeing how clearly the pink paint showed, even when Fader completely disappeared, Quirk stopped objecting. Of course, Holly had not asked his assistance when she belled Blinky, placing a pretty green collar made of the softest suede about his smooth orange fur. The Anti-Disapparition Jinx which Quirk had applied to the room with Master's permission kept Blinky from Apparating out of the room, and the bell made it easy to find him if he Apparated into the cupboard or under the bed.

…which left them with Flamer. Quirk did not ask, but waited to see what Holly would do for the ball-of-fire kitten. The only thing she pulled from her bag, however, was a large bottle of what appeared to be bubbly water, with an odd metal attachment on top of it.

He did not have to wait long to find out what she meant to do with it. In a confrontation with Fader over which of them was going to sit in one particular spot on the floor, Flamer burst into fire. Holly calmly lifted the bottle and sprayed Flamer until he was a dripping mass of soggy orange fur, equally affronted and down-hearted. Kitty looked so funny Quirk could not help but chuckle.

Holly made a "shush" noise as she knelt beside Flamer and dried him with a snap of her fingers, murmuring a command to him. "You is not to be laughing at kitty; it is hard enough for kitty to be wet without you making fun of him," she said to Quirk.

Incensed at this final insult, Quirk stomped out of the room and let the door slam behind him.

Late that night, when Quirk paused outside the closed door of the guest room, wondering what might be the reason for the light to still be burning within, he heard the sounds of weeping. He reached for the door handle, then turned and went back down to his room off the kitchen. If the Other Elf was being unhappy, maybe she would just go home.

Two Weeks Before Christmas

Severus glanced up when the clock on the mantelshelf chimed five o'clock. Putting aside the book he was reading, he left the sitting room and moved a short distance down the dungeon corridor, pausing to enter an unmarked door.

Across the work counter, he spied Hermione sitting at her desk, one hand twirling an unruly curl as the other made notes on the parchment scattered before her. He closed the door and crossed the room soundlessly, stopping behind her with his hands on her shoulders.

Hermione started when two hands grasped her shoulders; almost instantly she registered her husband's presence, and she tilted her head back to look up into his fathomless black eyes.

"Hello," she said, pressing her shoulders and her head back against him.

"It is time for you to come home," he told her, stroking her cheek with one long finger.

"Time got away from me," she said, rising and taking his hand, allowing him to lead her to the door. "Is it time for dinner?"

Severus allowed her to precede him through the laboratory door, then paused to ward it. "No, it is time for you to bathe and dress for the Order Christmas party."

Hermione's hands flew to her hair. "The Order party! I had forgotten all about it!"

Severus smirked at her, motioning for her to continue back to their rooms. "I had surmised that much, actually," he told her as he followed her into the sitting room and closed the door behind him.

Hermione stopped in the middle of the floor, surveying him with rank suspicion. "Wait a minute. You do not like parties. You whinge and wheedle every time I try to make you go anywhere. Why is it that you are reminding me of a party when I had forgotten all about it?"

Severus strode to the middle of the floor and took her into his arms, twining his fingers in the heavy curls at the nape of her neck with one hand and pulling her fully against him with the other. He captured her lips in a kiss that robbed her first of mutinous inclinations, then of thought, and finally of will. When both of her arms were wrapped around his neck as she greedily returned his kiss, he removed his lips from her mouth to trail kisses to her ear.

"They will expect us to be there – you would not wish to cause any offence by failing to go. I cannot have them believe that you have become anti-social." He stepped away from her, looking down into her eyes with an enigmatic expression on his harsh features. "If obligation mandates my appearance at this gathering, I intend to walk in with the most desirable witch in the world on my arm. Do you have any further objections?"

Hermione went off to her bath in a glow, with her appreciative husband's eyes following her as she went.

Molly Weasley looked about the parlour at number twelve, Grimmauld Place, feeling a bit of vicarious pride for Ginny's triumph at such a successful first party in her newly renovated home. Harry and Ginny had chosen to knock through a wall into a seldom-used room, thus enlarging the sitting room to a nice size. The glass cases and moth-eaten tapestries which had graced the room when the Black family had lived here were gone, replaced with freshly painted walls and comfortable chairs and sofas, arranged in such a way as to invite relaxation and conversation. The enormous Christmas tree in the corner of the room was a-glitter with decorations and crowded with gaily wrapped gifts, many of which were the result of the name-drawing gift exchange the Order engaged in each year.

Dobby, the Potters' paid house servant, carried in a new tray of canapés from which Remus Lupin snagged a stuffed olive as Dobby went by.

"Hermione is looking well this evening," Remus commented to Severus, who sat at his side, sipping Ogden's Old Firewhisky.

Severus' eyes took in the radiant countenance of his bride as she sat with the other young women, admiring pictures of Hannah's and Fleur's babies. "She is luminous," he agreed, his own eyes shining as they rested upon her. "Will you assist me with something a bit later?"

Remus' face registered astonishment. "Of course I will, Severus; you have only to ask."

Severus leaned forward. "This is what I want you to do…"

Quirk looked at the bare evergreen tree set up on a table in his room. Mistress had said he could have a Christmas tree, and she had given him permission to use the Christmas decorations he had found in boxes in the cellar, but he was feeling a bit sad. Christmas in Master's Great Aunt Seraphina's house, where Quirk had been bred and trained to his position, was a busy time for the house-elves. The entire house was decorated, there was much baking done, and endless entertaining. Since Quirk's master and mistress did not live at Enchanté most of the time, there was little need to decorate and no need to bake or entertain. It was just a little lonesome for him.

As he sat on the edge of the elf-sized bed in his room, he noticed movement outside his window. With a snap of his fingers, he doused the light. Beyond the window pane, he could see that the snow which had begun falling that afternoon was now drifting in pretty mounds upon the front garden. Walking through the snow was Holly.

Quirk pressed his nose to the window and watched her. She was really not such a bad elf, after all. She could be bossy about the kitties, but she never tried to interfere with Quirk's management of the house. In fact, she was sort of stupid about how to take care of the house, which made Quirk feel better. He supposed that if he had been set to work in an animal clinic when he was just a tyke, he would know more about taking care of magical kitties than he did about keeping house – but it was really hard for him to admit that she might be better at something than he was.

He watched as Holly stopped in the middle of the lawn and turned her face up to the sky. He had heard her crying in her room every night when he went up and pressed his ear to the door. He did not know why she was crying, but it became more and more difficult for him to be mean to her. She was just an elf away from home; perhaps, if Master had sent him to spend a long time in the home of another family, he might be sad, too.

With sudden decision, Quirk stood and walked to the front door. He would say something kind to her.

Harry and Ron gathered up the discarded wrapping paper that had covered the drawing room floor in the midst of the gift exchange. Ginny, ponderously pregnant, smiled her thanks at her husband and her brother; the last thing she wanted to do was bend over repeatedly to stuff papers in the waste bin.

Dumbledore was showing off his seven pairs of thick socks, in the most lurid colours of the rainbow, to Minerva McGonagall, who was holding a large book which detailed the history of England during the time of Grindelwald. Arthur Weasley was excitedly removing his Muggle magic tricks from their odd packaging, while Fred and George donned their matching hats, which proclaimed them to be "Gred" and "Forge." Slipping away from their mother, who was trying to show her children the wristwatch she had been given, which was a miniature of her excellent kitchen clock, the twins converged upon the punchbowl with matching conspiratorial grins.

Severus had been sitting for some minutes staring at the leather-bound works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, which had been his gift from an unknown giver. He noted the passing of the Weasley twins and their progress to the refreshment table. The finely-honed instincts garnered from years of teaching adolescents served him in good stead once again as he advanced upon them from the rear.

George started and very nearly dropped the phial he held when the most loathed voice from his childhood inquired, "Brewing something, gentlemen?"

Fred gave his twin a look of disgust as George permitted Severus to remove the phial from his hand and sniff it.

Severus stood for a moment, his eyes closed as his nose communicated its information to the encyclopaedia in his mind. "It's a diluted form of the Euphoria Elixir," he said at last, handing the phial back to George.

George darted a quick look to Fred, who said, "Sir?"

"Carry on," Severus said indifferently, wandering away.

Remus was sitting on a sofa, sipping at his drink and watching Tonks, who was huddled with Luna Lovegood, deep in wedding discussions.

"Are you drinking punch?" Severus inquired of him as he took a seat.

"No, why?" Remus asked.

Severus smirked and sipped at his glass of Ogden's Old Firewhisky. "Never mind."

Remus made a mental note not to touch the punch. "Have you begun to shop for Hermione's Christmas gift?"

Severus curled his lip. "I believe I have that taken care of, Lupin. What are you getting Tonks for Christmas?"

Remus looked thoughtful. "I thought I'd get her drunk and let her have her way with me," he said.

When Severus inhaled liquor, Remus laughed out loud.

Severus mopped his face with his handkerchief and nailed Remus with a menacing glare. "Have you been in the punch?"

Remus chuckled. "No, it's 'Dora – loving them changes you."

Appreciation glimmered in Severus' eyes. "Yes, they are a sneaky, conniving and underhanded lot."

Remus snorted. "You'd think they'd all be Slytherin, according to you."

Severus raised an eyebrow. "You think?"

"You make that sound as if it were a compliment!"

The other eyebrow went up to join the first. "I meant it as a compliment."

Remus observed him for a moment, then raised his glass. "To the ladies – may they always befuddle us."

Severus put his glass to his lips, murmuring, "Indeed."

Holly stood in the snow with tears falling down her face and tried very hard not to feel so lonely. She had been gone from home for a week now, without a word or a sign from her master that he missed her or needed her assistance. What if he was training some other elf to do her work? Why did Master have to send her away at all?

"Holly?"

Holly turned in surprise, seeing the mean boy-elf standing there in the snow, watching her. Her hand came up to her face, wiping her tears away.

"I am sorry you is being sad," Quirk said gently.

Holly's lip trembled. "It is scary here," she whispered.

"Oh, no," Quirk said, taking another step toward her. "Master is not here, so it is not really scary!"

Holly sniffled and looked interested. "Is your master being scary?"

Quirk nodded vigorously. "My master is even famous for being scary," he imparted with some pride.

Holly looked down at her feet in the snow. "Is that why you is so mean to me?" she asked softly.

Quirk felt really badly, then. "I is a bad, bad elf to be mean to you, Holly. You is not being mean to me."

Holly felt her face blush and kept her eyes on her feet, not knowing what to say. Quirk waited for a moment, wishing she would say something, because he did not know what to do next. When she did not look up again, he finally sighed and turned back to the house. She probably would never like him because he had been so mean to her before.

He actually heard the giggle before he felt the soft, wet plop of the snow thudding into the back of his neck. Turning with a suddenly much lighter heart, Quirk gathered a handful of snow and created a missile to hurl at his laughing tormentor.

Harry sat down next to Neville and Ron with a big sigh. "They all seem to be having a good time," he said.

Ron looked over to Luna, who was now recounting wedding details to all of the females in the room. "Can you believe I'll be married next week?"

Harry and Neville exchanged droll looks. "I can, mate," Harry said, "the question is, can you believe it?"

Ron nodded, never taking his eyes from his fiancée. "But she talks and talks about the wedding … is she going to like me when the wedding is over?"

Neville clapped him on the shoulder in a friendly way. "Sure she will, Ron. Then she'll get all excited about furnishing your house or something like that. Girls love being married."

Harry snorted. "Just wait until she's pregnant …"

Ron turned horrified eyes to his two friends. Neville nodded vehement agreement. "Yeah, they talk about that loads more than they do about weddings."

Harry, who had just been through the joys of a wedding, being a newlywed husband, and who was now an expectant father, enjoyed taking the piss out of his best mate.

Ron gulped audibly. "I can't pass out like I did at Hermione's wedding, Harry; Luna would never forgive me. Do you think there's some potion or something I could take to make me really strong on my wedding day?"

Harry glanced over at Hermione, who was sitting a bit apart from the other women, talking quietly with Ginny. "I think you should ask Hermione, Ron. Potions are her field now, you know – and if she doesn't know of anything, she can always ask Snape."

Neville blanched at this suggestion, but Ron looked thoughtful. "Great idea, Harry. I think I'll do that."

Harry chuckled and made a mental note to have a chat with Hermione sooner rather than later.

Ginny looked up excitedly. "You have five kittens at your house and I didn't know about it? I want a kitten!"

Hermione shook her head. "Not one of these kittens, Gin – they all have unusual magical powers and Dumbledore is going to have to place them in special homes. It's been a right nightmare. Besides, you're going to have a baby – you don't want a kitten."

Ginny looked obstinate. "Fine. But I want to see them – I'll bet they're adorable!"

Hermione cast a pleading look at Harry, wishing he would come and manage his difficult pregnant wife. Harry, however, seemed to be having a fine old time working Ron up into a lather. Hermione sighed. "Perhaps you could come for tea next weekend," she began.

"No," Ginny said, becoming more contumacious by the moment. "Let's go now – no one will miss us; we don't have to be gone for very long."

"Ginny, you're not supposed to Apparate after your seventh month!" Hermione protested.

"We can go Side-Along," Ginny wheedled, sensing that she was about to get her way.

Hermione stood then. "All right, but if you get nauseous, it's not my fault. I'll get our coats."

Ginny stood and began to follow her into the hallway. Harry saw her moving and joined her there. "What's going on, love?" he asked, slipping one arm about her shoulders and kissing her cheek.

"Hermione is going to take me to see her kittens," she told him.

"Erm, Gin? We have a house full of guests…" Harry began.

Ginny turned a stormy face to him. "I want to see the kittens, Harry, and I will. You take care of the guests, and I won't be gone fifteen minutes."

Hermione came down the stairs from the bedroom where the coats had been placed; she and Harry exchanged a meaningful look over Ginny's head.

"I'll look after her," Hermione assured her best friend as she helped Ginny put on her cloak.

Harry mouthed his "thank you" as Ginny and Hermione went down to the ground floor.

Hermione Apparated them to the box hedge at the edge of the drive and paused to make sure that Ginny was all right.

"I'm fine!" Ginny said, beginning to walk up towards the house. "Look how pretty the snow is in the moonlight!"

It had stopped snowing and the moon and the stars could clearly be seen in the velvety black sky. Hermione had to admit that the snow did look very nice on the grounds of Enchanté. "It's a shame we haven't decorated the house for Christmas," she said, opening the front door and leading Ginny into the foyer. "We'll go on into the kitchen, Gin; Quirk wasn't expecting us, so there's no fire in the parlour."

They entered the kitchen, where Hermione spoke a spell and lit the candles. From beneath the closed door to the left, there was a glimmer of light. "Quirk?" she said, going to the doorway.

The door to Quirk's room opened and Quirk was there, with the partially decorated Christmas tree behind him and Holly on the floor with tinsel in her hand.

"We is just decorating the Christmas tree, Mistress," Quirk said, averting his eyes deferentially.

Holly leapt to her feet, flinging the bit of tinsel back into its box and dropping a curtsey. "Good evening, Madam Snape, ma'am," Holly said in a frightened voice.

Hermione bit her lip and looked at Ginny, who was clearly struggling not to laugh. "I am glad you are decorating the tree, Quirk; that certainly needs to be done. Where are the kittens?"

"We is making sure the kitties is sleeping before we is decorating the Christmas tree," Quirk said desperately.

"Do you think you could bring the kittens to the kitchen for a visit?" Hermione said in a voice trembling with laughter. "Madam Potter would like to see them."

"Yes, Mistress," Quirk said. He grabbed Holly's hand, and they all but ran from the room.

"Did we just interrupt house-elf love?" Ginny whispered in fractured accents.

"Ginny, stop!" Hermione whispered back, her eyes alight with amusement.

Severus made another circuit of the sitting room, the hallway, the kitchen, and the loo, before stopping in the doorway with a frown on his face. Where had she gone?

"Are you looking for Hermione, sir?"

Severus looked down, and Harry Potter shoved his glasses back up his nose in a gesture unconsciously copied directly from the James Potter Book of Moves. Sternly reminding himself to behave, he responded, "Yes, I am. Do you know where she is?"

"She was taking Ginny to see your kittens; they said they'd be back in fifteen minutes."

"And how long have they been gone?"

"About twenty. I'm sure they'll be here any moment."

Severus stood for another moment, wracking his brain for small talk. "Thank you for inviting us to your home, Po – Harry; it is a very nice party."

Harry opened his mouth to reply, but Severus felt he had done his duty; he walked off without another word.

The young women who had been eagerly discussing Luna's upcoming wedding erupted in a burst of laughter, as they sat around with their cups of punch. Angelina pulled Fred down beside her and tweaked his nose. "Aren't you the sweetheart, bringing us all a glass of punch?"

Fred grinned at his twin, who was fending off a nose-tweaking attack from Alicia. "Score," George mouthed at him, before succumbing to a thorough nose-tweaking.

There was a clatter from below, then Hermione and Ginny came up the stairs, a bit breathless from the cold, and giggling. They put off their snow-dusted cloaks as they watched the rampant nose-tweaking going on amongst the young women and their men. Dobby, who took their cloaks, jerked his head in the direction of the punchbowl.

"Mister George and Mister Fred," he said to Ginny, by way of explanation.

"Oh, really?" Ginny said, marching off to confront her brothers, a martial light in her eye.

Hermione strolled away from them towards her husband, who had just spoken to Remus Lupin. Severus sat down and picked up his book; Hermione sat down next to him and placed her outdoors-cold nose against his cheek.

"I've been meaning to ask you," he said, without looking up from the book, "what you want for Christmas."

Hermione settled back on the sofa, cocking her head to watch his face. "I only want one thing for Christmas."

Before he could respond, an odd noise came from below – could it possibly be the kettle whistling? Severus put the book away from him, speaking quietly to Hermione. "Excuse me, please," he said and headed into the hallway; she could hear him walking down the stairs.

Dobby came bounding down from the bedroom where he had replaced Hermione's and Ginny's cloaks. The kettle was singing in the kitchen, and Dobby had not put the kettle on to boil! He would have to hurry, or the kettle would melt!

Remus Lupin, stationed in the hallway, caught Dobby as he rushed by.

"Sir?" Dobby said in confusion.

"I can't let you go down there, Dobby," he said softly, as Hermione quietly followed her husband down the stairs to investigate his odd behaviour.

Smiling to himself, Remus leaned against the wall at the top of the stairs. "In fact, no one is going down there, until I say so."

Hermione entered the kitchen at number twelve, Grimmauld Place, to find her husband standing with his back to her as he poured the steaming water from the kettle into the china teapot set before him.

"Severus?" she said cautiously from the doorway.

"I'll be with you in a moment," he said and motioned her into a chair, which had been set at right angles to the table.

Confused, Hermione sat down, never taking her eyes from him. Moving with some impatience, he opened a cupboard over the stove and pulled out a bottle of brandy. Seeing him there, in his customary black robes with the bottle of brandy in his hand, a sensation of déjà vu flooded through her mind, just as time became elastic and up-ended her into the past.

He poured a measure of brandy into the waiting teacup and pressed the cup into her hand.

"Drink this, Miss Granger. Slowly." His voice was quiet but commanding.

Hermione turned her face up to look at him; after nearly five months as his wife, she was used to obeying his will. Severus' face was impassive, but his eyes were fierce.

This was the first time they had been back together in the kitchen of number twelve, Grimmauld Place, since the night she had first held him in her arms, and they had felt the Enchantment flow through their veins like molten magma.

Putting the teacup to her lips, she drank, then stood and stepped up to him, placing one hand fearlessly over his heart.

"Please don't send me away, sir," she whispered, gazing up into his eyes imploringly. Then she reached around with her free hand, gathering a great handful of the back of his robes, and pressed herself to him, tucking her curly head beneath his chin.

In a move quite unlike the rigid acquiescence he had displayed on that night so long ago, he crushed her to him in a savage embrace. "Not this time, Pet – not ever," he said thickly, his voice heavy with import.

"You," she said as she clung to him, deeply moved by this romantic re-enactment of the beginning of the tortuous course of their love. "All I want forever is you. Only you."

Severus brought his hands up to frame her face. "I am yours – beyond question, beyond doubt – only always," he vowed, then claimed the kiss he had foregone those years ago, before he knew that he was permitted to have a dream come true.

A/N: Deepest thanks and most enduring love to my beloved Slytherin, who collaborated with me so closely on this chapter. The idea of the reunion in the kitchen was his, ladies. Am I, or am I not, One Lucky Wench?

To read the original kitchen scene, see the Prologue.

The Euphoria Elixir induces euphoria in the drinker, with occasional side effects of excessive singing and nose-tweaking, according to The Half-Blood Prince.