Harry Potter One Shots

The Perfect Christmas

All rights belong to the author, Laume

A winter and a summer had come and gone since Snape had moved in with Harry. While they both realized by now they would never have a regular father-son relationship, overall Harry thought things could have been worse.

While the former Professor strongly objected to what he perceived as charity, he had grudgingly, after recovering from his illness, accepted that he paid for his room and board at Harry's house by tutoring the young man in several areas so he could continue on his quest to gain all NEWTs.

He also did some freelance work for the Weasley Twins, who were delighted with the resulting gags and pranks. They had eventually given him a share in the profits of the store, and the results were such that the older man had been able, in less than a year, to replenish his savings.

Harry stretched lazily, one morning early in December. He had allowed himself the month off, and spent the first few days of it visiting Hermione. She had only six months left of her studies in Sydney, and was beginning to stress out over taking the tests come summer.

Snape entered the room, holding out a few parchments.

"Oh," Harry sighed, "invites from the Weasleys to their Christmas party, of course...Invitation from the Ministry for their annual Christmas party...Christmas party...Christmas party..."

The dark man frowned. "You don't seem overly excited," he remarked, as he carefully opened the few parchments addressed to him.

"Well it's...I don't know. What parties are you supposed to attend?" Harry asked curiously.

"The Weasleys have invited me as well," the wizard scowled, but it was only token resistance. The fact that he was included meant a lot to him. "Poppy and Minerva are both expressing their hopes I will still make an appearance at the Christmas party at Hogwarts. Oh, and Albus asks that I meet him for lunch on Boxing Day."

Harry stared morosely at the pile in his hand.

"Surely the fact that so many people wish to be in your company can't be that depressing?" Snape eyed him carefully.

"Well, no," Harry shrugged, "it's not that I don't appreciate it...though I wouldn't go near a Ministry party if my life depended on it...but it's not...at Hogwarts, Christmas was always with everyone who stayed at school during the holidays, and the teachers. Fun, but hardly informal. Much as I love the Weasleys, they invite just about everyone to their party, and they're such a big group already – it's noisy, and chaotic...good food, though," he admitted with a grin.

"When I was little, I used to peek through the cracks of my cupboard...Christmas evening and Christmas morning were such special times to my aunt and uncle. Christmas evening they'd have a nice dinner, then hot chocolate and a movie together on the couch. Cozy. On Christmas morning, it would be just the three of them, Dudley unwrapping his gifts and Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon exchanging presents. Then Uncle Vernon would help Dudley put together one toy or another, Aunt Petunia would go see if she had things in the house to try out one of the recipes from the annual cookbook Uncle Vernon always got her, and make a treat if she had..."

Harry shrugged. "I guess when I think of Christmas, when I used to think of how I would want Christmas, it's always that, you know. Intimite. Calm. No busy hustle and bustle. Not that I minded at Hogwarts, I mean, I'd never even gotten to celebrate Christmas before..."

Snape squirmed a little. Since he had seen Harry's memories of his childhood, and realized how wrong he'd been about the boy's upbringing, his own taunts during those years at Hogwarts came back all the more fierce.