-12-

There was much merry chatter in the Great Hall at breakfast time the morning of the twelfth. Santa had made a point of mixing the houses for the daydream adventure the day before and everybody was still busy sharing their adventures with their friends and house mates.

The students were so excited that nobody complained about the simplicity of the meal. There was toast, butter and two kinds of jam to choose from – apricot and strawberry.

The adults were exchanging stories, too. Flitwick had spent his daydream at the legendary library of Alexandria. His group had mostly consisted of Ravenclaw NEWT students but there had also been some select few from other houses: Hermione Granger, Draco Malfoy and surprisingly Cedric Diggory. "The boy is above average academically," Flitwick admitted, "but nowhere near the top of the class. But, Merlin, does he know things when it comes to muggle Mathematics! One of the librarians had to go and fetch an expert because Cedric had such detailed questions! I must admit I have underestimated that boy!"

Harry Potter, Snape guess from watching the boy wonder, had gone to a broomstick factory and had learned everything about shaping the handle. That, or Santa was handing out gifts that were inappropriate for students.

The apprentice spent breakfast not beside her master for once but had chosen a seat between Narcissa and Bellatrix and they were still discussing the finer points of Viennese coffee culture. "It's a pity," Snape heard his blonde say, "that we didn't have enough time to get some cake, too. If you thought there were many varieties of coffee, you should see the typical display of cakes."

Once everybody had been fed, Snape opened the advent calendar. Sverre gave the present to a young Hufflepuff "for appreciating Santa's gifts" who had missed most of her daydream because she fainted when she saw that her dream provided a visit with Morgana herself. In fact, the only thing the poor child could tell was that the famous witch was just as gorgeous as her chocolate frog card suggested.

The day's gift was a make your own chocolate frog card set and once again there was one for everybody. Sverre helped hand the boxes out and when everybody had one, Dumbledore announced that the morning lessons were cancelled to give everybody time to complete theirs. Their work was to be shown in a mini exhibition in the evening.

Everybody, especially the Dark Lord started with enthusiasm but soon it became clear that this had to be done with a partner. You needed somebody to help with the picture and most were uncomfortable with writing their own text.

Snape secured the assistance of his apprentice just in time to have an excuse to tell the Dark Lord no. Lucius glared daggers at the potions master when he had to assist the evil wizard while his wife had to go and ask their son.

Since nobody had said that the cards had to be made in the Great Hall, Snape took his witch down to the dungeons and the pondered over various pictures at a small table by the pool. Once they had chosen photographs – picture Snape had Sverre sitting on his shoulder and glared at the person holding the card as if they had personally offended him and picture apprentice was grinning from ear to ear while she produced pink sparks with her wand. In the picture she has wearing a huge pointed witch's hat with black and pink stripes.

Before they started thinking about texts, Snape suggested a bit of swimming and the girl agreed. They swam and then lounged in the sun, drinking fresh orange juice and nibbling on ham sandwiches.

When it was almost time for lunch, Snape pointed out that they really needed to do their texts and suggested to mention that the apprentice was an expert for coffee and cake.

"Only if we mention that you are a Santa-approved reindeer expert," cried the apprentice.

"Certainly," said Snape. "I can't very well copy the text from my official card."

When the two potions experts were content with their texts and pictures, they added some finishing touches to the frames around their pictures and then saved the finished cards.

They took their work up to the Great Hall at lunch time and they were not the first. Dumbledore had conjured hundreds of frames for the new cards so that everybody could admire the others' work.

"This is a great picture, my Lord," Snape told the dark wizard who was hovering near his new card waiting for reactions. "And it's a good thing you mentioned your enthusiasm for gingerbread men. It makes you approachable. People like information like that."

"It was a good idea I asked Lucius," agreed the Dark Lord. "Nobody knows as much about public relations as he."

Lucius' new card mentioned his excellent hair and his devotion to its care.

Lunch consisted of finger foods and most students and teachers spent the whole hour looking at cards while nibbling on little delicacies.

After lunch, lessons resumed. Snape had a double brewing session with his least favourite class (the one with Potter in it) and unsurprisingly he had to stay behind after the bell rang to repair the damage some of the students had done to his classroom.

In hindsight he had to admit he was glad he had to stay longer because when he arrived at the Great Hall for dinner more than fashionably late it turned out that somebody had drawn a moustache on the Dark Lord's picture and Snape had an alibi.

"I was looking at the picture a quarter hour ago and it was unblemished," Bellatrix could be heard informing her lord.

"Maybe this is supposed to be funny," Rodolphus suggested. He was immediately hit with the cruciatus curse. People gasped and looked at the Dark Lord in shock. He had broken the vow and now he had to pay the prize!

Nothing happened.

It seemed the vow Dumbledore made the Dark Lord take every year had a loophole because the old wizard had forgotten to include the deatheater guests in the "don't hurt, don't kill" rule.

It seemed, though, that the stares made the megalomaniac uncomfortable because he ended the curse much sooner than he normally did. Snape could tell because he had, on occasion, had to endure the cruciatus from the Dark Lord when he had been the bearer of bad news.

"Tom!" admonished Dumbledore, "You are scaring the children."

"Sorry," the Dark Lord coughed. "I was just explaining something to my friend," he told a group of first years who had been reading Harry Potter's card nearby. ("He is famous for his quidditch-trained abs and adorable behind." Snape wondered who had written the text for Potter and whether the boy wonder had read it beforehand.)

"Wow," replied a Gryffindor first year, "you are a really lousy teacher if you think that's what explaining should look like."

"I will have you know that I'm an excellent teacher," snapped the Dark Lord. "I have taken over Potions repeatedly when your potions master was busy bulk brewing. Severus, I insist I take over your classes to demonstrate what an excellent teacher I am."

"Of course, my Lord, I will step back if you wish me to," Snape hinted a bow. Wasn't that wonderful! A day off! Maybe he could take the apprentice Christmas shopping in London!

"Now, who damaged my card," the Dark Lord looked around angrily. "You better confess or I will interview each and every one of you until I catch the culprit."

"You are a spoilsport," huffed Dumbledore. "I thought this was funny. You were supposed to draw a moustache on another card."

"Does this still count as childish or is this already a sign of senility?" The Dark Lord rolled his eyes.

"Why don't we have dinner and then continue admiring the cards," suggested the apprentice. "I'm getting pretty hungry."

Everybody agreed.

After dinner, every chocolate frog card had a moustache, and while the moustaches moved with the pictures when the correct person was in the frame, they somehow couldn't be taken to other frames and stayed behind when the subject of the card walked out of the picture.

The students found the moustaches very funny and there was a lot of laughter after dinner.

"Where did all those moustaches suddenly come from?" mused Snape when he and his apprentice walked down to the dungeons a little later. "I wonder."

The girl giggled. "It's almost like magic!"