5. A Very Muggle Christmas

Severus was grading exams at Warbeck's kitchen table, when the woman came up from behind, set a dreidel in front of him and gave it a spin. "Hmph," the Defense teacher huffed in amusement.

"Something befitting a Hebrew," Warbeck said.

The other picked up the toy and twirled it between his fingers. "I never had one of these when I was a boy," he remarked.

"Well it's about time, then."

Turning around to face her, he reminded, "I told you I don't practice. We never practiced; we paid no mind to holidays. In fact, I know about as much regarding Judaism as you do, and probably less."

"I get it," she said. "Just wanted to do a little something to acknowledge your roots. But don't worry, I'm not going to light up a menorah or attempt a batch of latkes."

Meanwhile, there were touches of her own holiday spirit all around the sitting room, including an ornately decorated tree, cranberry garland, a glass nativity scene, and two stockings hung up over the fireplace. Taking it all in, Severus asked, "What do you want for Christmas?"

Warbeck gave it a moment of thought, then replied, "You know what I want. For you and I to spend the day together, our first holiday as a couple."

The man looked away from her, a mix of mild vexation and a hint of guilt on his face. "We've been over this," he said. "I'm not going to change my mind."

She'd informed him that her mother was going to be hosting Christmas dinner with her aunt, uncle, and two cousins in attendance. The younger Warbeck woman had invited Severus to come along and meet them, but of course, he'd declined with very little hesitation.

Presently, the woman's shoulders sank, and she asked, "Won't you even consider it? Or are you that opposed to spending the day with a family of muggles?"

To that, he glared at her. "Are you suggesting it's an issue of prejudice?"

With a pensive expression, she replied, "Well... it's not completely out of the realm of possibility."

He merely studied her, unable to believe that if she thought that to be true, she would have anything to do with him. "And all this time you have assumed I'm a bigot. Yet you continue to love me, in spite of your belief that I hold unfavorable opinions of the non-magical - a class to which your own mother belongs."

She thought it over, and asked, "Well if that isn't the problem then what is?" A pause. "Unless you just don't care to meet my family."

He could see that she very much wanted him to, for whatever reason. "Why do you want me to meet them?" he asked. "You've always maintained a separation between the magical and muggle aspects of your life. I belong to the former."

"Well that isn't the same," she argued. "They're going to find out eventually about..." She trailed off, before continuing apprehensively, "I mean... it's not as if my dad was a complete secret to them."

Severus wasn't entirely sure what she was saying at first, but then he realized - If she ever marries, they'll hear about it. Perhaps even be present for the wedding. They're bound to meet the man she ends up spending her life with at some point or another.

He hadn't given any thought to the question of how their relationship would look in a year, or two years, or five. What with the vow of celibacy he had taken after Lily's death, the plan had been to spend whatever was left of his life alone and then to die the same way. Never once had the prospect of taking a wife been an option, nor had he desired it to be.

But now...

Don't even bother considering it, he told himself. Warbeck was young and they had only been together for six months. There was every possibility they'd never reach a point at which the topic of marriage became relevant.

Warbeck went on, "Ya know, Aunt Cathy and her family are - ironically - the only people who I could be open with about you and me. I can't tell my girlfriends, can't show you off to anyone. No one but Mum and McGonagall know you're the reason for my uncontainable joy the last six months. It would be nice to just be a normal couple for once, without having to hide anything."

Severus sighed to himself, and asked, "Do you really want to 'show me off' to these people? They're not going to be impressed with an odd-looking misanthrope twice your age. I don't do well with others; I wouldn't make a decent impression on them."

"They aren't that judgmental," she said. "Nothing like my dad's side. They don't have that sense of superiority about them." Giving it a moment of thought, she added, "You're safer with the muggles than the proud purebloods, actually. Be thankful that you'll never have to meet Diana and Roz."

"Oh, I am," he said. "But I don't believe I ought to be included in this. It's a family event, after all. I would feel as though I were intruding, and they'd likely regard me as an unwelcome presence."

"No they wouldn't," she insisted.

"Either way... I wouldn't enjoy myself. And they would sense that. You oughtn't subject us all to an afternoon of discomfort."

Severus took in her dejected appearance, and he couldn't help but feel distinctly guilty. He didn't enjoy disappointing her, and if there was any way he could make up for it, he was going to try and do so. "Anything else," he said, rising up and standing before her. "Whatever you would like, it's yours."

The woman considered it, then met his eye with a slight smirk. "All right. There is another way that you could please me." With a devilish look in her eye, she ordered, "Grow out your beard."

Automatically, he replied, "No." This was something she'd been asking him to do for months. Apparently she thought a bit of facial hair was sexy.

Crossing her arms, she declared, "You've already said no to me today. You don't get another one."

"I don't like the way it feels," he argued. "And it appears unkempt."

"It appears rugged and manly," she countered. "You can shave it when the new term starts. Just give me a couple of weeks of the Mountain Man look." He merely kept quiet and returned to his seat. "Come on now, Professor, indulge me!" Coming up behind him, she whispered in his ear, "Do this for me... and I'll do anything you want."

Considering she didn't have a lot of inhibitions, he wasn't particularly enticed by such a statement. "You already do everything I want," he reminded.

After a beat, the woman let him go and straightened up. "Damn it, that's true," she said, frustration coloring her tone. Wandering away, she muttered, "Obstinate bastard."

"You insisted that my stubbornness was cute."

"I lied."

The Defense teacher smirked to himself.

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He'd been good enough to let the beard grow out, but to Callie's dismay, she couldn't convince him to come home with her for Christmas. "It's not entirely unreasonable," her mother remarked, "to want to give it some time before becoming acquainted with extended family."

With a sigh, Callie replied, "I suppose you're right." After all, she'd dated Neville for over two years, and in that time she'd never met his aunts or uncles or cousins. But she would've liked to have Snape at her side for the day. Despite his apparent belief that they wouldn't take kindly to him, she would've been proud to introduce him to her only remaining relatives.

"If Adrienne or Forrester show up with a date," she commented, "I'm going to be right pissed." Thankfully, it was only her two cousins, her Aunt Cathy, and her Uncle Pat.

"There she is!" Cathy exclaimed when Callie greeted her. "My favorite niece!"

The two exchanged a hug, and Callie reminded, "Your only niece."

"Yes, and so rarely she writes me or visits," the older woman said disapprovingly. The two hadn't seen each other in a year and a half. "You and I have got quite a lot to catch up on." Surveying her godchild, her gaze lingered ever so briefly on the scar, before she asked in a quiet tone, "How are you, love?"

"Fantastic," Callie replied honestly. Gesturing over the scar, "This is all that's left of the whole ordeal."

Cathy and her family hadn't been completely left in the dark about the girl's near-death experience the previous year. However, since Susanna hadn't been able to tell them what really happened, she'd come up with the story that Callie had been in an automobile accident. Such was one of many lies that the witch and her mother were forced to keep up with for the benefit of their clueless relations.

Uncle Pat came forward to throw his arm around her, and said, "Doesn't make a right bit of difference. Still a beauty, she is."

Forrester - Callie's nineteen-year-old cousin - was the next to get a look at the scar, and his eyes widened as he exclaimed, "Bloody hell!" To that, Adrienne, who was twenty-two, smacked him over the head.

"Good Christ, have a little bit of tact, why don't you?" she chided.

Cathy gave her daughter a stern look. "Eh! Don't you take the Lord's name in vain on His own birthday."

Rolling her eyes, Adrienne replied, "Oh, hell, it's only an expression." She then went up to Callie and pulled her into a tight embrace. "So you totaled a Volkswagen and nearly killed yourself, eh? Remind me never to get in a car with you."

Behind them, Forrester asked, "Did your life flash before your eyes?"

Before Callie had a chance to respond, Uncle Pat remarked, "It's those ruddy German manufacturers. What you want is a nice, reliable Japanese model. Toyota!"

Callie smiled to herself - her uncle managed a Toyota dealership.

"Nobody wants your blasted Toyotas!" Cathy said, an irritated look on her face. "Now come along and help me in the kitchen."

As she made her way through the sitting room, Susanna said, "I've already got everything taken care of. This year is my turn to cook, so settle down and relax, why don't you?"

With a wave of her hand, Cathy replied, "Oh, you never do it right. You're cooking the turkey breast-up, aren't you? The meat isn't as juicy if it's breast-up."

Susanna rolled her eyes. "But if it's breast-down the skin isn't as crispy," she argued.

"Oh, bloody hell!" Pat cut in. "You have been having this same argument for fifteen years now!"

Ignoring him, Cathy explained, "Mummy always cooked it breast-down."

To which Susanna replied, "Mummy was wrong."

The younger sister gaped at the older, then exclaimed, "Blasphemy!"

Both women headed into the kitchen to debate the topic further, while Pat and the cousins caught up on what had been going on with all of them. Forrester was in his second year at Liverpool studying mathematics. Adrienne, an aspiring novelist, had earned a degree in English literature the previous spring. She was currently writing obituaries for a local newspaper.

"Not exactly living the dream," she said to Callie. With a hopeful expression, "But everybody's got a story, and perhaps I might find some inspiration in the tales of the recently deceased."

Nodding her head and attempting to be encouraging, Callie said, "Cool."

The two were quiet for a beat, before Adrienne scrunched up her face and conceded, "No, it isn't cool. It's shameful and unsatisfying. I really thought that I'd become the next Charlotte Brontë first year out of university."

"Well, the year isn't up yet," Callie reminded in a flippant tone. "At least give it 'til June, and if you haven't made it big by then, you can go ahead and off yourself."

Soon enough, Pat and Forrester had turned on some sports match or another, and Callie and Adrienne headed off to the former's bedroom for a bit of girl talk. "A bloody governess," Adrienne commented. The muggles had been led to believe that this was Callie's occupation. "I didn't even know you liked children."

With a shrug, Callie explained, "Like I said, it's only temporary. The money's good, anyway." She hesitated a moment, before grabbing a photo of her godchild off the dresser and handing it to Adrienne. "That's him, the boy in my charge. His name is Teddy."

The other took a look at the image of the three-year-old, then inclined her head in a curious manner. "His hair is blue," she noted.

"Aye. His parents are sort of... eccentric."

"Hmph." Adrienne smiled softly. "He is a doll, I have to say." Handing the photo back, she went on, "But enough about punk rock toddlers and blasted German automobiles. Let us get to more important matters." She lay on her side atop Callie's bed and propped herself up on her elbow. "How's your love life?"

Again, Callie was hesitant. But for so long she'd been wishing that she could confide in one of her girlfriends about Snape. And as long as her cousin wasn't going to be gossiping with anyone in wizarding Britain, then what could it hurt to open up to her?

Turning back to the girl and smiling slightly, she replied, "I've been seeing someone the last six months."

Looking slightly surprised, Adrienne said, "Six months already and you haven't told me?" Though they hadn't seen each other since the previous year, they wrote every couple of months.

"Well... he's insanely private. Doesn't want to shout about us." This she said with a hint of bitterness.

Adrienne considered that, and said, "All right, then. Tell me about him."

Don't mention magic, don't mention magic, Callie reminded herself. But there was plenty to talk about aside from that. "He's a professor at my old school in Scotland," she began. "That's how we met."

Taken aback by this information, Adrienne sat up, her brow furrowed. "Wait," she said, "was he your professor?"

"Aye."

The older girl gave her a "you must be joking" look. "Bloody hell!" she exclaimed. "You hooked up with a teacher?"

"He's not my teacher anymore," Callie reminded. "I graduated three years ago." She couldn't tell if Adrienne was settled by that or disappointed. Perhaps a dirty student-teacher affair could've made for an interesting novel.

"So... how'd you end up shagging your old professor?"

Damn it - how was she supposed to explain it all without mentioning that she'd worked with him at Hogwarts? "We kept in contact over the years," she replied vaguely. "After a while, it just sort of... evolved."

She and Adrienne were silent for a moment, before the latter remarked, "You went off to that school when you were like ten, right?"

"Eleven," Callie corrected.

"Was he already working there when you started?"

"Yes."

The older girl got a pensive look on her face, before she asked, "How old is he?"

"Forty-one," Callie replied.

"So this man was in his thirties when you met him, and you were eleven?" Adrienne sat with a rather perturbed expression, then said, "And now you're dating him. Please, set my mind at ease and tell me this wasn't some sort of a grooming situation."

Furrowing her brow, the other asked, "What's a grooming situation?" Once her cousin explained it, Callie scrunched up her face in disgust and exclaimed, "Mother of God, no! He's not a bloody pedophile, he never would've-" She cut herself off and shook her head to herself, shuddering at the thought.

Holding her hands up in defense, Adrienne said, "All right, all right, just checking." After a pause, "So what drew you to him? Is he hot?"

"No, he's hideous," Callie said sarcastically. "That's why I've been sleeping with him for six months."

Rolling her eyes, the other asked, "What does he look like?"

"Dark hair, dark eyes... wears a lot of black." Giving it a moment of thought, "Rather gothic-looking, he is."

"Sexy," Adrienne remarked. "But ya know, men that age are usually either divorced and full of baggage, or else there's a reason they're still single at forty-plus."

Callie informed her, "He's never been married. And he was single by choice. Trust me, I know him very well; we've already unloaded all the baggage."

Cocking a brow, the older girl asked, "Does he have a lot of it?"

Oh, darling - you don't know the half of it. But she replied, "Nothing I can't handle."

Adrienne appeared a bit concerned by that statement. "You sure this bloke is good for you?"

"Yes, he's good for me! What's with this motherly attitude regarding my romantic life?"

"I'm only looking out for my best girl. Couldn't have you running around with some sod."

Smiling softly at her cousin's protectiveness, Callie said, "Well, you don't have to worry about that." She was quiet for a beat, before she went on, "He was at my side the whole time I was in the hospital. He took care of me after I got out." He was always there for her when she needed him, whether she was injured or upset or performing illegal potion experiments at Azkaban.

"You'd never guess it if you didn't know him like I do," she continued, "but he's the type of bloke that women dream about. He leaves a flower on my pillow in the morning and draws me a bath after a long day. He calls me a goddess. He looks at me as if I'm the only woman in the world. And he respects me." With a smug little smile, "He thinks I'm brilliant."

Adrienne took all that in, and after a moment she remarked, "Really does sound like a rather top drawer bloke, I've got to admit." She paused, then cocked a brow at Callie and asked, "Six months, eh? Do you love him?" The younger woman gave her a telling smile, and the other exclaimed, "Bloody hell, my girl's all grown up and falling in love with old men!"

With a roll of her eyes, Callie said, "Oh, for God's sake, he isn't decrepit."

"He's closer in age to your mum than to you."

"Yes, well... don't worry, in many ways he's very emotionally immature. So it all balances out."

"Mm," Adrienne muttered. She rose up off the bed and came over to Callie, folding her arms as she asked in a mischievous tone, "So... how's the sex?"

Callie bit her cheek in thought, and after a moment she replied with a smirk, "The man's a wizard."

Adrienne half-chuckled, half-scoffed. "Now I know you're in love," she said. "Talking like a Disney character, you are."

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They sat down to dinner about an hour later, and Callie teased, "So you worked out the crisis of breast-down versus up?"

Susanna inclined her head towards Aunt Cathy and explained, "She cut it in half. She actually cut it in half and flipped her half over. Bloody hell, it was the adult version of running a line of tape down the middle of our bedroom when we were children."

Looking around the table, Cathy said, "You all can try a bit of each and then tell me whose breast meat is better."

In an airy tone, Callie remarked, "Oh, I could say something really inappropriate right now." Her mother flashed her a warning look, and she added, "But I won't."

Despite the fact that no one was particularly religious, Cathy insisted on saying grace. Which prompted Forrester to ask, once the prayer was finished, "Eh, what religion are we anyway?"

As though this should've gone without saying, Cathy replied, "We're Christians."

"Right. But I mean, like-" he shrugged "-what denomination?"

All six glanced around at each other questioningly. After a silence, Susanna spoke up. "I want to say Presbyterian." Turning to Cathy, "Weren't we Presbyterian?"

But Adrienne cut in, "I thought we were Anglican?"

Uncle Pat furrowed his brow. "Anglican? No. My dad was a Methodist. I'm certain my mother was Baptist."

"So what are you?" Cathy asked.

He looked down at the table in thought, then replied, "I have no idea."

"Oh, what difference does it make?" Susanna asked, waving her hand dismissively. "It's some sort of Protestant or another."

"Well, whatever it is," Adrienne said, "we're most likely all going to hell anyway." Raising her glass of wine, "Cheers!"

The family engaged in lively conversation as they ate, and after a while, Cathy inquired about her niece's academic prospects. "So, Callie," she said, "have you given any thought to university?"

"Plenty of thought, but-" the younger woman shrugged "-nothing definitive yet." This was a difficult topic to discuss with the muggles. Obviously she couldn't tell them she was currently training to become a healer, and every time the subject of higher education or career aspirations came up, she remained vague in her answers and explanations.

"Such a curious mind you always had," Cathy remarked. "I was certain you were going to follow in your mother's footsteps, always wanting to play doctor. D'you remember the time you put a pencil in Forrester's mouth like a thermometer and nearly killed him?"

Eyeing his cousin, Forrester cut in, "Aye. You were scary back then."

"Did I not save your life, though?" Callie countered. When it had become clear that the boy was choking, she'd jammed her whole fist in his mouth to grab that pencil from the back of his throat, knocking out a loose tooth in the process. "And it earned you a fiver that night."

"Are you no longer interested in medicine?" Cathy asked.

"I am," Callie replied. "I'm content with what I do now, though, for the time being."

Her aunt's expression became pensive. "What drew you to private tutoring? I never knew you had an inclination towards teaching or children."

With a shrug, "I just sort of fell into it."

Cathy pondered that, then said, "But eventually you'd like to go into the medical profession? What schools have you been considering?"

It was risky to name a specific institution. She could've simply said Oxford or UCL or Cambridge - the last of which had been where Susanna had studied medicine - but perhaps the muggles might look into it one day and figure out that Callie had never attended any school. As always, she responded in the vaguest way possible. "Haven't thought that far ahead, to be honest."

Attempting to jump in and rescue her daughter from anymore difficult-to-answer questions, Susanna asked Cathy, "What's with the interrogation?"

"It's not an interrogation," the other replied. "I'm simply talking with my niece about her future."

Yes - a type of conversation that should've been easy and harmless, yet the young witch couldn't help but feel as though she had a spotlight shined on her whenever her out-of-the-loop relatives got a bit too curious. This had been going on for as long as Callie could remember.

Presently, she said, "I'm a live-in-the-moment type of person. I guess I don't think much about the future."

There was an awkward silence, and Callie could feel the tension in the air. After a moment, Cathy remarked - with a note of irritation on her face - "I'm reminded of David. Rather evasive he was about certain subjects."

Susanna furrowed her brow at her sister, looking rather affronted. "What are you on about?" she asked. "What subjects?"

Before the other could reply, Uncle Pat cut in, "Kitty-" his nickname for his wife "-let it go, eh?" Callie noticed him give the woman a warning look.

Susanna looked from her brother-in-law to her sister, and said, "No, I'd like to hear whatever she has to say." To Cathy, "What exactly are you insinuating about my husband?"

Cathy sat in silence for a moment, looking as if she had a lot to say, but was reluctant to express it out loud. But finally she said, "Seventeen years and I never quite felt as though I knew him very well."

Shit, Callie thought. She must've suspected that something was off. But she couldn't possibly have guessed that David and Callie were magical. She was much too reasonable a woman for any idea so fantastical.

Taken aback, Susanna asked, "Where is this coming from? You were friendly with David. He was good to you and Pat and the kids."

"Yes, he was wonderful," Cathy agreed, "I'm not saying otherwise." After a pause, she went on, "But I always suspected there was something he was hiding."

"Catherine!" Pat called out. "It's none of our concern, and what difference does it make now?"

"What are we talking about here?" Callie cut in. To her mother, "What are they talking about?" Silently, she was asking, They can't have any clue about Dad and I, can they?

By this point, Susanna appeared slightly angered. "I haven't the foggiest idea," she said.

To Uncle Pat, Aunt Cathy declared, "It matters because I am concerned about her," inclining her head towards Callie. "This kind of thing is... nothing a young woman ought to get herself involved in."

Neither Callie nor Susanna had any idea what the woman was alluding to, and the latter asked, "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Yes, can we speak openly, please?" Callie requested. "What is 'this kind of thing' that you're referring to, Auntie?"

Cathy didn't respond, but she and Pat continued to hold each other's gaze, some sort of silent conversation taking place between them.

After a beat, Adrienne exclaimed, "Oh, hell, this is nonsense! Let us stop dancing around and get straight to the point." She looked from Callie to Susanna, then asked the latter, "Did Uncle David belong to the mob?"

Callie did a double take, wondering whether she had heard that right. She met her mother's eye and saw the woman was as stunned as she was.

Looking utterly bewildered, the doctor shouted, "What?!"

"No, don't answer that, Susanna," Uncle Pat said in a somewhat panicked tone, "we don't want to know."

Before anyone else could speak, Callie burst out laughing. "Bloody hell, all this time you've thought that Daddy was a gangster?"

Her mother, still in shock, turned to Cathy and asked, "Have you? Have you really, or is this...?" She trailed off, shutting her eyes and shaking her head in exasperation. "What would make you think that?"

Hesitantly, Cathy replied, "I never could get a clear answer about what he did for a living."

"He was a banker!"

"For what bank?"

Of course, Susanna couldn't tell her sister about Gringotts, nor could she claim that her husband had been associated with any known bank in the muggle world. "It was a private institution," she said. "His clients were the uber-wealthy; he wasn't supposed to go shouting about it."

"Yes. That's what you've always said." Shifting her eyes downward, Cathy declared, "The idea of money laundering came to mind."

The Warbecks exchanged a glance, and Callie fought to suppress a grin. Suppose that would've been a pretty good guess, she thought.

Cathy went on, "Look - if it's true then I really don't want to know. How your husband earned his living is none of my business." She looked over at her niece and continued, "But I'm sensing the same sort of secretiveness about you that I sensed in your father, and I'm wondering if you've not been dragged into whatever this is."

Callie held the woman's gaze a moment, then turned to her mum and said with an amused smirk, "She thinks I'm Michael Corleone."

With a sigh, Cathy said, "This isn't funny, Callie!"

"Yes it is," the other insisted. "Daddy wasn't a criminal, he wasn't involved in anything shady." The idea that the family was involved with some sort of organized crime syndicate was so ridiculously out-there, and yet Callie had to remind herself that it was still a much more logical assumption than the truth - from a muggle perspective, at least.

In any event, Cathy still didn't look convinced.

After a silence, Callie went on, "You were right, though. He was hiding something."

At this, Susanna sat up straighter in her seat and muttered, "Callie," shaking her head in a warning manner.

"Oh, Mum, are you not tired of keeping this a secret and making up stories and watching what you say every time we're all together?"

With a furrowed brow, Cathy asked, "What are you on about, now?"

Ignoring her sister, Susanna said to Callie, "I would love to have done with all that, but-" She cut herself off, glancing around at the muggles. "The Statute?"

Technically it was against international magical law to let muggles in on the secret of the wizarding world. The exceptions were spouses, and the parents of muggle-born wizards and witches. Nonetheless, Callie argued, "I'm friends with the minister. What's he going to do, throw me in Azkaban?"

Cathy cut in, "What's Azkaban?"

"'The minister,'" Pat echoed. "Our minister?"

"No," Callie replied. "My minister."

"What are we talking about here?" Adrienne asked in confusion.

The room fell silent again as Callie and Susanna exchanged a look. The former could see that her mother was against letting their life-long secret come to light, but at this point too much had already been said. May as well let it all out, Callie thought.

When nobody spoke for about twenty seconds, Cathy finally lost her cool. "Will somebody tell me what the hell is going on?!" she demanded.

Callie bit her bottom lip, then said, "All right. Let us stop dancing around and get straight to the point." She paused, looking around at them all, and declared, "I'm a witch."

There was an awkward, confused sort of silence, before Adrienne spoke. "Yeah, so? You've told me that before."

"No," Callie said, "I don't mean the Gerald Gardner pagan variety. I mean that I can do magic."

Again, no one seemed to know how to respond to that.

"So..." Forrester spoke "...a magician?"

Smiling to herself, Callie countered, "No, I don't do card tricks and smoke-and-mirror illusions." She struggled to find the best way to explain it, and settled on providing some examples. "I can make objects appear out of thin air. I can move things without touching them. I can turn one object into another." Continuing on down the list of her abilities, "I can make myself disappear. I can put spells on people." The more she shared, the more bewildered the others became.

"Daddy was magical, too," she went on. To Cathy, specifically, "The bank that he worked at is called Gringotts. It's a wizarding bank; that's why they couldn't tell you its name."

Once again, silence fell, and eventually Cathy turned to Susanna and simply stared at her.

"I'm waiting," she said, "for you to tell me she's lost her bloody mind!"

Meeting her sister's eye, the other said, "She hasn't. It's all true."

At this, Cathy brought a shaky hand to her mouth, perhaps questioning whether they'd both gone mad.

Nonchalantly, Callie offered, "I can prove it if you'd like."

"Yes, I would like," Adrienne said. In a tone of cynicism, "'Turn one thing into another'? 'Make objects appear out of thin air'?"

"Don't make fun of her, Addie," Forrester spoke. "Obviously she's... ya know... delusional or something."

Callie cocked a brow at him. "Oh, am I?" Rising up from the dining table, she went into the adjoining sitting room and called out, "Accio wand!" It flew into her hand, and she aimed it on the Christmas tree that was decorated with ornaments representing the twelve days of Christmas. Up until now, the characters had been still and silent, but with a flick of her wand, they all came alive - the drummers drumming, the pipers piping, the swans and geese and turtle doves fluttering about.

Turning back to her family, she saw that they were all absolutely stunned - except her mother, of course. But after a moment, Forrester stated, "They must be rigged."

Callie then grabbed up a glass candy bowl and threw it to the ground, smashing it to pieces. "Reparo!" she incanted, and the shattered glass reformed into its original, perfectly undamaged state. Picking it up and handing it over to Forrester, she said, "Still not convinced? How about this, then?"

Stepping back into the sitting room, she thought, Prepare to be amazed. And for the pièce de résistance, the muggles watched their niece and cousin disappear into a blurry mass, replaced by a living, breathing fox that had eyes the exact color of the human girl's. The mouth twisted into what could have been described as a sly little smirk, and the creature winked at them.

Aunt Cathy appeared to be absolutely horrified. She gaped at the fox with a dumbstruck expression, before her eyes rolled in the back of her head and she fell out of her seat, unconscious.

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Shortly thereafter, Cathy lay on the sofa, holding a cool washcloth against her head. "My niece is a fox," she said to no one in particular. "A wild animal, she is." The woman seemed to be struggling to accept the reality of what she'd just witnessed. Turning to Callie, "I saw you come out of a human woman twenty-one years ago!"

"It's got nothing to do with DNA," Callie exclaimed. "I don't have any animal genes. I do have magical genes, but still I'm all human."

Cathy stared at her as though she were seeing her niece for the first time. "Bloody hell," she breathed. "A witch. An honest to God, fairytale witch!"

Behind them, Adrienne asked Susanna, "But you're not one?"

"No," the older woman replied. "It's inherited, but only one parent needs to carry the genes. Apparently they're dominant."

"Yes," Callie said. "Unusual it is for the child of a muggle and a magical person to not be magical themselves."

"What's a muggle?" Pat asked.

Callie explained, "That's what we call someone who isn't magical."

She proceeded to tell them all about Hogwarts, as well as the wizarding world in general. "I'm in training to become a healer - the magical equivalent of a physician."

For the first time, Cathy's expression turned more to amusement than horror. With a small smile, she remarked, "So you are following in Suzy's footsteps. In a way."

"You said you could put spells on people," Forrester reminded. Looking slightly worried, "You haven't put any on us, have you?"

"No," Callie said. "That's illegal anyway."

"So is speaking of the wizarding world to muggles," Susanna added. "You lot can't go telling anyone about this."

Cathy sat up and met her sister's eye. "You really believe that we'd speak of this to anyone? Bloody hell, Susanna, nobody would believe it and we'd all end up in lunatic asylums!"

Sitting off to the side, Adrienne tapped a fingertip against her lip and mused, "Ya know... this could make for an interesting fantasy novel."

"Don't you dare!" Callie warned. "This information never leaves this house." Sipping from a glass of Christmas eggnog, she went on, "Besides, what muggle would care to read some stupid wizard story?"

After a while, the doorbell rang, and Susanna's face took on a look of alarm. To Callie, she asked, "You're not expecting anybody, are you?"

"No," her daughter replied, rising up to answer the call.

"No, no, no, wait!" the older woman called out in a panic. "What if it's somebody from the Ministry?"

Callie furrowed her brow. "Why would it be someone from the Ministry?"

Her mother was uncharacteristically nervous all of a sudden, twiddling her fingers as she said, "What if they've found out we told?"

But Callie replied, "Our house isn't bugged, for God's sake! How would they know?" Waving a dismissive hand, "The Ministry's got more important matters to concern themselves with, believe me."

"Should we like... hide or something?" Forrester asked.

"Don't be ridiculous," Callie said. "It's probably carolers."

It wasn't carolers. Moving to the foyer, she opened the door and nearly jumped back in shock at the sight of Snape, in all his rigid, expressionless, unshaven glory.

Before she could greet him, he said in a low voice, "You owe me a lot for this."

Stepping out into the cool evening air and pulling the door shut behind her, Callie declared, with an uncontainable smile, "Whatever you want is yours, Professor," and brought him in for a brief but passionate kiss. He actually came! Always there for me, he is.

When they broke apart, her expression turned a bit sheepish. "Before we go in..." she said "...you should probably know that I..." she hesitated, certain that he wouldn't approve of what she'd done "...I just told them all about the wizarding world."

He merely stared at her a moment, as if he couldn't comprehend her words. Unwrapping his arms from around her, he asked, "You are playing with me, yes?"

"No," she replied. "But there's no need to fly off the handle. It's all under control."

"'Under control,'" he repeated, gaping at her. "Under control? You've broken the Statute of Secrecy, you could be arrested for such an offense!"

Rolling her eyes, Callie argued, "Who's going to know? They're not going to say anything to anyone, and who would believe a word of it if they did? Trust me, it's all right. So please, please don't make a big thing out of this. Because I just now was thinking how I love you for coming here - even more so than I already did - and I don't want that ruined by an argument or you disapparating back to Hogsmeade!"

Snape held her gaze, clearly struggling to keep himself composed. But after a silence, his posture relaxed. "Do they know about me?" he asked.

"Adrienne does."

"What have you told her?"

She thought back on their conversation from earlier that afternoon, and replied, "Nothing you wouldn't want shared. They don't know anything about the war. Figure we oughta save something for Easter."

His eyes shifted to the sitting room window, though the curtains obscured any view to inside. "You know I don't get on well with others," he said. "Do not expect this to be a pleasant experience."

"Just try not to be openly hostile and we ought to be fine." She took him by the hand and led him in, knowing all the while he was dying inside at the four sets of strange eyes all looking curiously in his direction. "Everybody," she said, "this is Severus Snape." He detested the term "boyfriend," so instead she described him - with a smirk - as her beloved. He didn't seem to like that either.

Perking up, Adrienne pointed a finger at the new arrival. "Wait, so... is this 'the wizard'?" she asked, a devilish glint of excitement in her eye.

Attempting and failing to suppress a grin, Callie replied, "Aye."

The other gave Snape an appraising once-over, and said with a smile, "Fantastic."

Callie introduced everyone, and they settled in for drinks and conversation. To ease a bit of Snape's discomfort, she fielded most of the questions directed to him - where he had come from, what he did for a living, how he and Callie had become involved. Aunt Cathy had seemed a bit perturbed at the knowledge that the couple had first met when she was eleven and he was a fully-grown man, and Callie wondered if the woman had the same ideas about "grooming" as Adrienne had had.

To ease any potential concerns, Callie explained, "We worked together at Hogwarts after I graduated. It wasn't until last spring that we started dating."

"You worked at Hogwarts?" Cathy spoke. "So does that mean you were never a governess?"

"Right," Callie confirmed. "That was a cover story. The last three years I've been teaching Potions."

"Potions?" Forrester echoed.

"Think of it as magical chemistry."

"And what do you teach, Professor Snape?" Adrienne asked.

Apprehensively, he said, "Defense against dark magic."

"Dark magic," Uncle Pat mused. "What would that entail?"

It was Callie who explained, "Curses, hexes, evil-doers. Magic meant to harm."

The muggles were simultaneously fascinated and disturbed by the idea of dark magic, confirming for Callie that now was not the time to get into the topic of the war. But she was also delighted by the sense of awe with which they questioned Snape about his knowledge and experience of fighting evil forces. By the end of it, Forrester was goggling at him as though he were a superhero.

"Bloody hell," the young man breathed. Then, thinking back on Callie's Animagus transformation from earlier, he asked, "Can you turn into an animal, too?"

"No," Snape replied.

Callie thought it best not to mention that he did have a certain special power of his own, as they all might've run for the door if they found out he could read their minds.

After a while, Adrienne piped up, "Eh - if you're not really a governess, then who was that young'un in the photograph? Teddy."

Callie hesitated, biting her lip before explaining, "Well... I couldn't say anything before, but..." taking Snape's hand in hers and waiting for the perfect moment, she concluded with a happy smile "...he's our son."

So unexpected and absurd was such a claim, that the wizard spat a mouthful of bourbon out in shock.

Repressing the urge to burst into laughter, Callie thought, I'm going to pay very dearly for this later. But it was worth it.