Author's note: Sorry I'm so late today. Life is busy.
18
On the eighteenth, puppet Snape found himself seated between the feet of a suit of armour near the entrance to Ravenclaw tower. It was a quite entertaining hiding place. The suit of armour was not very neatly polished, the metal appeared rather dark, almost black, and somebody had enchanted it sing Christmas carols. What the suit of armour lacked in musicality, it compensated by enthusiasm.
The view from between the metal shoes was not bad either. Snape could see most of the corridor, almost to the door of Ravenclaw tower. Snape watched the Ravenclaw students emerge from their lair. They came in pairs, one looking at the right, one at the left, very systematic. Only nobody seemed to think to check for puppet Snape near the floor.
The suit of armour went through its whole repertoire of Christmassy songs three times before a living soul registered Snape's presence at all.
"Purr!" said Mrs Norris and she sat between the feet of the suit of armour, right in front of Snape.
The potions master thought it was a pity that the day's present was going to be lost but there was no way anybody would think of checking behind Mrs Norris. The cat was strongly disliked by the students because she informed Argus Filch, the caretaker, of any misconduct she witnessed. Not even the teachers knew how the feline communicated with her master. Still, nobody ever went near her for fear of being told on. Nobody was going to find Snape.
The suit of armour was singing "Jingle Bells" for what must be the eleventh or twelfth time when the cat got up. She hurried away from the tower and by the next time the suit of armour sang the song, she returned with Filch in tow.
"Ah, my precious," Filch praised the cat. "You found him! I'm so looking forward to seeing their faces when they realise that we won Santa's present!"
"Snape in a Cape!" came the jubilant voice of Ravenclaw's own Luna Lovegood.
Snape turned back into a human. His body was, of course, a lot bigger than puppet Snape but the suit of armour was easily moved just enough to give the potions master enough room.
"Well done, Miss Lovegood!" Snape praised.
"You stole my present!" shouted Filch. "You dreadful girl!"
"I waited for a little while to give you time to say the words," Miss Lovegood said dreamily. "Only when I saw that the wrackspurts were distracting you and you had forgotten about the code words, did I make my move. It would have been a waste to let the time expire and lose the present."
Just as she said it, the bell signalled the start of the first lesson. The present had, indeed, almost been lost.
Snape handed the girl her prize – a nice little box wrapped in Ravenclaw colours – as he looked at her sternly. "Don't open it in a lesson. I'd think it would be best to wait for the lunch break."
"I will only open it when the Nargles say it's okay," the Ravenclaw promised.
Snape had no idea what Nargles were but he had no time to ask as he had a lesson to teach. He hurried to his classroom and found his apprentice had already started the lesson.
"I have Professor Snape's lesson plan," she was just telling his second years when Snape rushed into the classroom. "We all know the professor didn't have breakfast. Therefore, we will go over the theory first to give him time to have a bite. Good morning, Professor Snape. We will start the brewing in thirty minutes if you want to supervise it personally."
"Thank you, Professor Auriga," Snape replied. "I will come back in time to help supervising. Until then I will be in my office. Who can tell me why?"
A large number of hands were raised and Snape called a red-headed boy from Ravenclaw.
"Because it is the closest place to the classroom where you are allowed to eat," explained Robert Harper. "If you were to take breakfast here, you'd be in danger of poisoning yourself."
"Three points to Ravenclaw," Snape nodded. "If you'll excuse me."
Snape enjoyed a rather quick but delicious breakfast of cereals and fresh fruit before he returned to his lesson and took over from his apprentice.
At lunch, Luna Lovegood opened her present in front of the whole school. In the box were strange glasses. The frames were yellow and the lenses fluoresced in various shades of blue, green and purple.
The blonde put the glasses on and squealed with delight. "I can see the Nargles! And the Snorkacks! And there is some kind of dragons up there in the rafters!"
Snape looked where the blonde was pointing but he couldn't see a thing. It wasn't important though, he decided. Luna Lovegood was happy, and that was all that present was about.
