-13-
Snape was woken shortly after midnight by a gush of cold air. Sitting up, wand at the ready, was one swift movement, he wasn't a spy for nothing after all and was always prepared. He looked around but didn't see anything. It was pitch dark in his bedroom. Not even the little stripe of light under his cupboard door that often showed that the apprentice was up to Merlin knew what in there was visible. The girl must be asleep.
"Baaaaah!"
Snape lit his wand when he heard Sverre. The little reindeer was hovering above him, Snape's duvet in its mouth, which explained why the potions master was feeling cold.
Then he heard it. Somebody was knocking on his door. Snape transfigured his pyjamas into a more dignified robe on his way to the door. As he opened it, he was glad he had thought of changing his clothes because the person in the corridor was Lucifer Flint, a fifth year prefect from his own house.
"Professor," the boy said without preamble, "it's Jasper Bulstrode. He seems to have a nightmare but we can't wake him. Millie is beside herself."
Snape rushed to the dormitories. He had been warned that something like that could happen. The youngest Bulstrode child was a first year and he was an empath. The parents had written to Snape explaining that at this age the boy was mainly picking up on emotions from his family and he had suffered from nightmares when a family member was distraught before. What was completely unclear was whether the child's gift would work with the distance. The Bulstrodes lived in Wales, far away from Hogwarts.
Snape found the child caught up in a silent scream, he was trashing under his sheets and his older sister was trying to wake him. A bruise on her cheek told that she had been hit at some point.
"Thank you, Miss Bulstrode, I'll take it from here." Snape cast a quick healing spell on the girl's face. "Kindly notify your parents immediately. Mr. Flint, kindly accompany Miss Bulstrode to the owlery. The rest of you go to the common room. Ask the elves for hot chocolate and make sure there is some for Mr Bulstrode once he is awake."
The children filed out of the room. Lucifer Flint left last and Snape registered with pride that the boy encouraged the others to hurry without making them hectic. Making him a prefect had been a very good choice.
When he was alone, Snape cast Legilimens as the mother of the child had instructed. Entering the boy's mind was easy as there was no defence at all. Young Jasper was caught in a swamp of despair and snapping turtles were attacking him.
"Mr Bulstrode," Snape called out. "You have to calm down. The turtles won't attack when you are calm and acknowledge that the panic you are feeling is not your own."
It took almost an hour to talk the boy through his episode. By the time it was done, the mother had arrived. She was waiting in the common room when Snape and her son emerged from the dormitory.
"Jasper!" she cried and hurried to embrace her boy. Prefect Flint handed Snape a mug of hot chocolate which the teacher accepted gratefully. Jasper's mind had not put up a fight but projecting calm in the middle of the child's inner turmoil had been exhausting.
Snape let the children finish their beverages and gave them time to see that Jasper was well before he sent them all to bed. Then he had to speak with Mrs Bulstrode who informed him that her youngest child had had a bout of unintentional magic in the late evening and had merged with the bedroom wall. When she and her husband hadn't succeeded in getting the girl out of the wall after an hour they had panicked.
Snape asked whether they needed still help and Mrs Bulstrode said no, a house elf had finally saved the girl with a snap of their finger.
It was well past four in the morning when Snape finally returned to his quarters and he felt a head ache coming.
"Where have you been?" he was greeted by a certain blonde when he entered his bedroom. "Sverre woke me and you were gone."
Snape told her and the girl handed him a headache cure wordlessly. "Massage?" she asked.
"Would you?" Snape asked hopefully and the apprentice ushered him into the cupboard.
The potions master lay on a deck chair and the blonde proceeded to give his shoulders a wonderful massage. They had known each other for years and the witch knew exactly where he ached after mind magic. She kneaded the hurting muscles until Snape fell asleep.
In the morning, the apprentice waited until breakfast was almost over before she woke Snape. "Do you feel up to opening the calendar or do you want me to tell them you'll do it at dinner?"
Snape muttered that he would rather do it in the morning. He got dressed as quickly as he could manage and they went up to the Great Hall.
"Finally," cried the Dark Lord.
"There was a medical emergency in Slytherin house," Snape explained. "I barely slept. I'm really glad that you said you were going to take over my lessons."
The Dark Lord puffed out his chest. "Of course! You go to bed and I teach. I can expect your lesson plans in the same drawer as always?"
Snape confirmed that, yes, he kept them in the same drawer.
The day's present went to Slytherin, to prefect Flint "for staying calm in the face of chaos". It was – and Snape was glad – not something that required any kind of workshop or chaperoning. Each witch and wizard got a cute ballpoint pen. Some had reindeer on it, others an overweight Santa, and some had Christmas trees with blinking lights. The décor, however, wasn't the interesting part for most of the Hogwarts population. It was the mere idea of writing with something that was not a quill that was fascinating.
Snape left the Great Hall as soon as he had his pen. The apprentice followed him faithfully to the dungeons and tucked him in.
Snape woke again around ten and the girl ordered breakfast for them both as they had not eaten in the Great Hall. After a quick meal, Snape took the blonde to Diagon Alley and it was very romantic. It was not as cold as in Scotland but cold enough to allow snow falling in thick fluffy flakes. The apprentice wore a long pink coat over a pink dress. Her hat, scarf and gloves were a darker shade of pink. For romance's sake, Snape had donned a pink hat and scarf, too. It wasn't as if anyone from Hogwarts was going to see him.
They walked through Diagon Alley arm in arm and Snape pointed out where Santa's stall had been when he had posed as an advent calendar vendor all those years ago. The blonde oohed as he recounted the conversation he had had with Santa. Then they went to the apothecary to stock up on some ingredients the volunteers couldn't collect in the Forbidden Forest.
"This makes this a business trip and Dumbledore can't count today as a day off," Snape explained.
The apprentice giggled. "You sly dog!"
The potions master treated the girl to lunch at Fortescue's. In the winter, most witches and wizards didn't want to eat ice cream and Florean offered some hot dishes to make enough business. Snape chose some roast chicken with a small salad, the blonde had potato soup with mushrooms and a freshly baked bread roll.
After lunch they went Christmas shopping. The blonde insisted that Snape could not come with her and they agreed to meet at the Leaky Cauldron in two hours.
Snape used the time to make a visit to Gringott's and the bookshop. For the few people he bought for, books were always a good idea. He got very advanced potions books for the Dark Lord and Dumbledore, a book on the effects of mind magic on animagi in their animal form for McGonagall and a crazy little bookmark for the apprentice. That was, of course, not going to be her main present but Snape just knew that she would find it hilarious. It was a small pink leather bookmark but when you opened the book, the bookmark turned into a flamingo and stood beside you waiting until it was needed; and when it was getting too dark, the flamingo's eyes turned into floodlights!
The potions master also got a book for Hagrid, it was titled "Monsters from the Deep" and most of the creatures described in it sounded too fantastic to really exist, so just the thing that the half-giant was going to find entertaining.
When the two hours were up, Snape met the apprentice. She was carrying a new pink handbag. "It has a splendid extension charm imbued in the leather," the girl said excitedly. "It can hold all my Christmas presents and when you look inside you won't believe it's even in use yet."
The arrived back at Hogwarts just in time for dinner. The Dark Lord entertained the Head Table with stories of his lessons. Snape congratulated him in just the right places of the story and didn't even bat a lash when his more evil master informed him that the classroom needed quite some cleaning.
On the way out of the Great Hall, he took points from Gryffindor for existing and gave Potter and Weasley detention because they didn't have their ballpoint pen with them.
"I haven't seen it yet," Snape snarled. "Leaving it upstairs when there was the possibility that I would ask to see it shows your utter lack of respect! Cleaning my classroom will teach you some humility."
Potter protested but to no avail.
Snape was, indeed, a sly dog.