Chapter 31

It felt strange to have a Christmas party after the department Mag's parents worked in at The Ministry was so recently attacked by Voldemort. One would think the party spirit would've deflated, but Mag's parents decided to push through rather than send everyone away when they showed up. Mira had prepared a lot of food, and at this point it would be more of a bother not to have the party.

"All these years we tried so hard to just stay out of it, and now look," Raislen grumbled to Heather and Mag as the doorbell rang to announce the first guests.

"I'll get it," Mag said. "Mira is all the way in the kitchen and she shouldn't have to drop whatever she's doing." Dashing out of the library and down the long hall toward the front door, Mag called to Mira that she'd get it. When she opened the door, Severus Snape was literally the last person she expected to see standing on the other side of it. For a moment she just stood stunned as she stared at him. "Hi! It's so great to see you! Come in!" She flung the large door wide and stepped back.

"I...Well I don't need to," Severus said, remaining where he was. For the first time, he came across as uncertain. Though odd this made him seem even more human to Mag. She couldn't decide how she felt about that.

"Why ever not! It's a Christmas party. I thought you must have come for that...to work things out with Mum and dad in the spirit of Christmas...that maybe Nightshade had talked you into it...But apparently that isn't the case." Why was she babbling? Though it would've been very nice of Nightshade to bring her Severus for Christmas, that apparently wasn't the case. The two looked fine, though, so it hadn't occurred to Mag that there was a problem...until now. "Is something wrong," she asked, gesturing him inside again. "Whatever it is, shouldn't you come inside where it's warm?"

"We're fine. I just heard about the attack on the Department of Mysteries today and I wanted to make sure your parents were safe," Severus said, expression nearly ashamed.

"We're fine," Raislen said.

Mag hadn't heard her father approaching, and turned quickly to see him staring at Severus as though he'd seen a ghost.

"We went for help when the first department alarm went off while the others were busy trying to track the source. Thanks to your warnings, Heather and I weren't bothering with that," Raislen said grimly. "Thank you for that, by the way."

Severus shrugged. "It was no problem...The warning...and I am glad you were quick on the uptake with the situation."

"Oh great! You guys are talking...that's great...Severus why don't you come in," Mag said, stepping forward and tugging at the sleeve of his customary black robe. By all the dreamy gods, he looked dashing in it, she couldn't help thinking, and Nightshade rolled his large owl eyes at her in open disgust. To her relief, Severus allowed Mag to tug him inside when Raislen didn't protest.

"He can control that snake or else it's smart like Nightshade, but I could never glean anything from its mind to know which, and didn't want to push it too hard and draw unnecessary attention just to satisfy my curiosity," Severus said.

He was still speaking of the attack on the Department of Mysteries. Mag hoped he and her father would talk of better times from the past instead, but at least they were talking and that was most definitely something. "Mag told me that Nightshade is helping you. It goes against my wishes to keep us out of it, but Mag is of legal age and she swears you're all being careful...and in the end there isn't anything I can do about it," Raislen said, tone mildly resentful and scowl a bit more than mildly so.

Severus frowned back. "I never asked her or Nightshade to do anything and even attempted to dissuade them because I knew how you would feel about it."

Raislen sighed, wide muscular shoulders relaxing somewhat as his expression relented. "Thank you for that. I do appreciate it."

Severus shrugged. "I'd better go. I don't have any information to share at present...I only wanted to make sure you and Heather were alright."

"Oh stay for the party," Mag pleaded eagerly. "There will be a ton of food. For me that's the best part. I'll get bored quick enough and go hide out in the library. We got some new books from Grandfather WestCraven for the collection. I could show them to you. We could look through them together because I've not even seen them all yet. It is a very large box of books after all."

/Oh yeah, the grandfather Christmas box of books is always massive,/ Nightshade added to Severus, who was wavering in spite of his better judgment.

"Severus!" Heather WestCraven flew past Raislen and threw herself at her former school friend, hugging him tightly as tears sprang to her eyes. "Oh Severus...I'm so sorry for everything...Sorry that you screwed up, sorry that we don't get to see you...sorry that Voldemort even exists...But no matter our past issues I am so proud of you for trying to help take him down even if we do wish you'd remained safe instead. And we both miss you so much...all the time! You were like our little brother and it's all so horrid!

"Wow, I'm actually not sure how to take any of that," Severus said dryly, not sure if he wanted to hug Heather in return or push her away."I ought to hit you in the nose," Raislen grumbled to Severus, turning away and heading back up the hall toward the library."No one else is here yet and I need a drink, so you're staying."

"I'll stay for the books," Severus said and Heather giggled as she released him and stepped back after he finally relented and gave her a brief hug.

"That's my line. His books were the only reason I spent any amount of time with Raislen in school. Then later we both hung out with you. You were what kept us together like a messed up dysfunctional family," she said fondly.

"The only reason you disliked Raislen is because he called you HeatherToy. It wasn't a big deal," Severus said dryly, giving his head a shake.

"And he always tugged my hair."

"Not hard," Raislen called from the library.

"It was prattish," Heather called back Mag blinked in bafflement as her parents obviously regressed to childhood.

Severus smiled at her in understanding, nodding. "Story of my Hogwarts years, I'm afraid," he said.

Soon they were all sipping on spiked eggnog and going through the waist high box of books from Grandfather WestCraven. Mag could hardly believe Severus was in her library on one hand, but on the other it felt completely normal and right. He and her parents spoke of old times and while she did think her parents were great, it was difficult to imagine them being so close with someone as perfect and brilliant as her Severus. Too soon for Mag's liking, the doorbell rang again and guests began to arrive. The party moved into the sitting room and she made sure to stay close to Severus's side as everyone ate and chatted. At first there were only people from her parents department at work, then Kereston and her parents arrived. The little blonde gaped to see Severus, but to Mag's immense relief, Kereston didn't ask if Mag had finally bagged her man or anything like that. She merely smiled and said, "Hi, Professor Snape. Fancy seeing you here."

"Indeed," Severus said, nodding back at Kereston and giving her a slight smile in return. When Millicent Bulstrode and her parents arrived, the tall wide shouldered girl didn't bother greeting Severus at all, and Mag was relieved about that as well.

"Are any other students going to show up," Severus asked Mag, looking pained.

She shook her head.

"No. Kereston and Millie are the only ones. Our parents are all friends and we grew up together."

"My condolences for having to grow up with Bulstrode," Severus said, giving Millicent's back a withering look. Millicent stood at a table of Hors d'oeuvres, popping cheese cubes into her mouth as she chatted to Kereston.

"She really isn't at all stupid,"Mag whispered, leaning close to Severus to be heard over the room full of chattering party guests. Severus arched his brows in open skepticism. "It's an act. We all have our ways of keeping safe I suppose," Mag clarified.

"Well that's a stupid way of doing it, and I think she's rubbish," he said.

Mag sighed. She'd tried, and if Millicent and Severus refused to like one another, she supposed there was nothing she could do about it. "She's a fun person if given a chance," she said. "I need another drink. Do you want one?" Her parents didn't seem to mind her drinking this year, though in the past, she was never offered the spiked eggnog.

"Sure. Why not," Severus said after only a second of hesitation.

"It is a party, after all. I've not attended a party since...the last time I was here actually," he said with a slight bemused smile.

After they were stuffed on Hors d'oeuvres , Mag and Severus gravitated to the library to resume sorting through the books from her grandfather. On the way out, she snagged a pitcher of the spiked eggnog to keep them company. When Mag's parents eventually joined them in the library Mag was glad. She'd been struggling against the urge to kiss Severus, thus making her move before graduation though she knew that could go very wrong.

"It's late, and you want me to go," Severus told them.

"I've overstayed my welcome, I'm sure." His speech was a bit slurred.

/He's fucked up,/ Nightshade shared happily. /He's not had more than a few drinks at a time for ages./ The owl thought for a moment as he wobbled on the back of Severus's chair. /I may be fucked up too, but that was some good nog./

"No that's not why we came in," Heather assured quickly. "Everyone's gone home and we want to see the new books too."

"It's nearly four in the morning, but leave it to us to drunk read," Raislen said with a tipsy chuckle.

"Maybe we need more to drink," Mag said and stood so swiftly that she fell sideways into Severus's lap. The nearly falling was a complete accident but the direction in which she chose to fall once she realized it was going to happen was fully intentional.

"I think we're all good," Raislen told his daughter firmly."You are definitely all good, considering you're falling all over the place."

Mag laughed, looking up at Severus. "Sorry, I should get up," she said, but the act did seem a bit daunting. Severus didn't respond, and from the half slumped way he sat in the chair, Mag wondered if he would pass out. The idea was somehow funny and she giggled. She wondered if it was a good thing that Severus hadn't told her to get up directly, or if he was simply too drunk to notice. Heather and Raislen were busy tipping over the box so that they didn't have to lean way down into it to get at the books at the very bottom. Mag sighed as a wave of dizziness hit her. Leaning her head back against Severus's shoulder she murmured, "The room is spinning."

"It really is," Severus agreed, placing a hand on her hair.

Though she doubted he was sober enough to notice that his hand was on her hair, Mag planned to enjoy it to the fullest anyway. Eventually, Raislen had Mira apparate Nightshade and Severus back to Hogwarts and Mag slowly made her way upstairs to bed where she hoped to have very pleasant dreams. Regardless of if she dreamed or not, though, Severus had given her the best Christmas present ever without even knowing it.