Chestnuts Roasting Over The Open Firewhiskey: A Hogwarts Christmas Tale

What's Brewing In The Snake Pit?

"I wish we were around to see your little prank play out," Blaise Zabini murmured with a wicked smirk. "Draco might kill you for this, Nott," the wizard mused to the lanky brunette boy hunched over a small cauldron on the floor of their dorm room.

"He very well might, but it will be worth it," Theo Nott tried to make his voice match the other boy's glee. Blaise had no idea what Theo really meant of course. This potion was no joking matter, nor a prank at all. When Blaise had come across him brewing this potion hidden under his bed this morning, he had to come up with an excuse quickly. Theo knew he was a shit liar. Draco had teased him about his lack of skill since they were little; he was too expressive when caught off guard. When Blaise pulled up the green sheet and caught him brewing what was clearly amortentia, Theo panicked. Clamoring for a reason, he claimed he was brewing the love potion as a favor to Pansy. When Blaise pushed for answers, Theo said it was for their best mate Draco Malfoy to make him fall in love with Pansy again while he was alone in the castle for Christmas break. And it was close enough to the truth that it worked, with Blaise laughing at how desperate Pansy still was for Draco. Theo noted he'd likely have to forge some embarrassing letters from Draco to Pansy so he could show Blaise and make it up to Pansy with a shopping trip, but he suspected Draco would prefer that to the reality he had planned. Theo was on a rather serious mission in brewing this specific love potion.

The night before he left for school, Theo had heard his father's laughter as he passed his study. A cruel man to his core, laughter was a rare sound, but when it escaped him it was consistent in its vileness. It was an angry laugh, the laugh of an unhinged man who found joy in bitterness, darkness, and violence. The moment he heard it, Theo froze in place a few feet from his father's office, the feeling of bile in his throat. The door was just slightly ajar and the noises of his meeting spilled out into the hallway.

"Very good, Avery. Bring the mudblood here tomorrow and we shall have some fun with that one," his father chuckled lowly before schooling his tone back to the somber, threatening one Theo was excruciatingly familiar with. "As I was saying, our assignment comes directly from the Dark Lord himself. If the Malfoy boy is on schedule with his assignment, we will break out Lucius, Bella, and the others just prior to Christmas," his father instructed. "We'll have the meeting at an unplottable location with the Dark Lord following the break out, and host a dark celebration in his great honor on Christmas Eve. Just like the old days," his father sounded almost wistful, Theo noted with grave concern. Murmurs of agreement in the room motivated Theo to silently back away and run to his room.

When Draco mentioned in November that his parents asked him to stay at Hogwarts over the Christmas holiday to work on his assignment, Theo knew why, recalling that night. Both boys also never talked of it again, an unspoken understanding between the sons of two high ranking Death Eaters. When they returned to the dorms the first time of school, Draco had shared what he was tasked with, as the Dark Lord had graced Malfoy Manor the week before they returned to school. Theo offered to help with the repair of the vanishing cabinet, but Draco refused to involve him, saying it would be dangerous for both of them. Theo knew the stone-faced blond would have to take the mark during the spring holidays and complete his final task in the second semester; killing one of the greatest wizards the world had ever seen. It was a death sentence for Draco.

"Out of curiosity, what do you smell?" Theo asked Blaise, gesturing to the cauldron that sat between them. He stared at Blaise, wondering if this halfblood prat knew how lucky he was that his salg of a mother wasn't a Death Eater. He envied Blaise for many things: his athletic ability as a Keeper, his ease flirting with women, his stupidly high cheekbones, and his comfort in his own skin, among other things. But the absence of this looming pressure and fear of torture Draco and Theo both felt daily topped the list.

"Trying to see what team I bat for Nott?" Blaise said with a cheeky grin. Theo rolled his eyes in return. "Hate to disappoint you, but it is excessively feminine. Vanilla, rose, and coconut," he breathed it in. "Intoxicating."

"Believe me, I expected feminine, you man slag. If I have to hear another heartbroken witch cry about you in the common room, I'll push you in the lake. To me it smells like freshly brewed peppermint tea, grass, and...hmmm...lavender," Theo decided after a moment of analysis.

"Well, believe she's taken, mate. Really want the Weasel's sloppy seconds?" a dark eyebrow arched playfully.

"Not that lavender you prat," Theo hissed, getting impatient. "Never that Lavender," he insisted, shaking his head. Normally the joker of their friend group, Theo was not in the mood to banter. Blaise's excitement for the holiday had him in a jolly mood, one that Theo did not have time to entertain. Theo turned to grab a vial out of his bag.

"What's that? Isn't the amortentia done? It looks perfect," Blaise questioned, looking between the mother of pearl sheen shimmering in the cauldron and Theo's hand.

"A little trick I learned from my father's associate," Theo sneered bitterly at the thought of the older man his father regularly employed on business. He brewed a variety of unseemly potions in his back alley shop in Knockturn Alley, including unlicensed lust potions designed for dosing unwitting young witches. Theo cringed at the memory of seeing these potions in use before taking a deep breath to ground himself. He couldn't wait to get away from his father. He added the crushed fairy wing and the single Cognac-colored hair he had nicked earlier in the week from a brilliant and unsuspecting muggleborn classmate he knew would be staying during the break. The same classmate Draco Malfoy had been teasing, mocking, and bullying mercilessly for years. But Draco was Theo's oldest friend - the closest thing to a brother either of them had ever had. Theo knew what Draco was doing and why, even if Draco didn't realize it.

He was only brewing this Godric-damned thing because he owed Draco a life debt. Although Draco would never collect, Theo felt bound to repay him for stepping in that night the summer before third year. Draco had single handedly distracted, knocked out, and obliviated the senior Nott, after finding the drunk wizard squeezing the life out of Theo while choking him to death. Draco never asked what led to the events of that night and Theo never volunteered the information; they both knew that was hardly the reason Mr. Nott had turned violent. They'd never spoken of the event again, but Theo had paid closer attention to Draco since, studying and analyzing him to determine how he could best requite his friend. The idea that the muggleborn could play a role in helping Draco occurred to him the night of the Yule Ball, when his best friend couldn't take his eyes off the girl in periwinkle blue. In the two years since, Theo had been fitting together the pieces, finding the potential solution one night in late October after watching Draco watch the girl in the library. Theo had reasoned that perhaps opening a door that Draco thought was locked - or didn't even exist - might be a start to repay him the way he deserved. He hoped it would anyway. Maybe she could save him in a way Theo could not. Perhaps if she saved Draco, Draco could save Theo too. And maybe Draco wouldn't kill him for the potion in the end.