-15-

On Sunday, the 15th of December, Snape and his blonde went up to the Great Hall for breakfast early. The witch had mentioned how much she missed breakfasting at leisure after the excitement they had had in the morning repeatedly and Snape wanted to treat her to a quiet breakfast.

It went better than anticipated. The Great Hall was still empty when they arrived and by the time the first students arrived, the two potions masters were already sipping their third cup of coffee. The meal had been wonderful; the elves had decided to serve a continental breakfast with delicious additions from all over the world. There were eggs Benedict, cinnamon rolls and smoked salmon to name only a few.

The students were almost all there when the headmaster and the Dark Lord made his appearance, the latter with his entourage in tow. They all looked hung over.

"Headmaster!" Snape cried. "Finally! I have been waiting for you to discuss another trip to London. Master Jigger expects a delivery on Monday and he promised to grant Hogwarts a special prize for ostrich egg shells."

"Whatever, Severus, but please don't shout," muttered the headmaster.

"Thank you, headmaster," the Head of Slytherin said considerably lower. "Then I'll be using the two hours the Dark Lord offered to take over for me."

"What did you do?" the apprentice turned to the Dark Lord. For once, the wizard was not the only one with red eyes at the table.

"Charades," whispered the Dark Lord. "Lucius suggested the loser of a round had to take a swig of firewhiskey."

"Ah, drinking games!" cried the apprentice and somehow she managed to cry in a way that didn't give anybody a headache. "Always fun."

When the students were getting impatient, Snape opened the advent calendar although the adults were not done with breakfast.

The gift went to Fred and George Weasley. "For entertaining the little ones," Fred read out the message coming with the gift. Snape informed the apprentice that the two pranksters had spent hours organising snowball battles and snowman building contests for the younger students.

The present turned out to be a vast collection of card games.

McGonagall suggested – with a side glance at the headmaster and his co-players – that the students go outside for some fresh air and they play with the cards after lunch. "Since the Msrs Weasley are so good with organising games, maybe they could take charge of holding some tournaments if we have games for that."

The twins agreed immediately.

Snape and the apprentice went down to the dungeons after breakfast. It took them about a half hour to whip up a hang-over potion which was not in stock in the infirmary since it was rarely needed at a school. Once the potion was ready, they proceeded to work on a potion to treat alcohol poisoning which was even less needed at a school and certainly not today but the two potions masters agreed without words that the Dark Lord and the headmaster deserved punishment for overindulging.

About a half hour before lunch, they walked upstairs. The apprentice went to the headmaster and Snape went to the Dark Lord's usual quarters.

"I have a potion for you, my Lord," Snape showed a small basket. "And something stronger should you need it."

"Thank Merlin! What took you so long?" The Dark Lord downed a dose of the hang-over potion immediately.

"The second potion," the potions master explained. "If we are lucky, you won't need it but I didn't want to take a risk." He handed more doses to Lucius and the others.

"No more drinking games with Dumbledore," Narcissa admonished as soon as she had had her dose.

"No dear," Lucius promised.

"It may be important for the cause," the Dark Lord pointed out.

Narcissa glared at him. "We'll find another way," muttered the megalomaniac.

"Let's go down to lunch," Snape suggested, earning himself a grateful nod from Lucius who didn't want to be trapped in battle of loyalties to his wife and his Dark Lord. "Try to eat something sour," the potions master advised. "It will take away the last effects of the alcohol."

The Hogwarts elves rose once again to the occasion. There was an assortment of preserved fish for lunch with potatoes and salad on the side. The charades-players opted for herring salad. Snape enjoyed smoked salmon and the apprentice had "the world's best sardines".

When everybody had had a bite, the Weasley twins explained what they had planned for the afternoon.

"We have tournaments planned for poker, cribbage, tarot and canasta," said Fred. "I will be in charge of tarot, so who wants to compete come to me. George will handle canasta. Professor Flitwick agreed to be in charge of cribbage, and Professor Trelawney tarot. For everybody who'd rather not make this a competition, we have various other games."

Professor McGonagall was obviously in on the plans because with a wave of her wand the house tables turned into smaller ones.

The Dark Lord and the other charades players claimed one of the non-competitive tables and Dumbledore waved Snape and the apprentice over. "We had enough competition," declared the Dark Lord and started to shuffle the cards.

After an afternoon of UNO, Snape and the apprentice spent the evening at the pool It was very relaxing, especially the part where Snape spelled his old radio to play dancing music and they swayed to the music together.