Harry was standing in the Entrance Hall seeing off Ginny, Neville and Luna. He had his shoulder buried into one side of large oak doors, his shabby winter cloak wrapped tightly around him.

“Can’t believe you’re leaving me alone with those two!” Ginny hissed darkly, nudging Harry in the ribs harshly. “You’ll pay.” Ahead of them Neville and Luna were already engulfed in each other.

“Yes, two knuts.” Harry laughed as Ginny huffed out and walked out in the snow. Harry watched her walk away sadly. He didn’t want to spend the holidays by himself, especially since there were only a round of two others, Harry didn’t know who, that were staying behind.

After a while he realized that Ron and Hermione had yet to walk by to leave. All the other students had already walked by. Turning he saw them walking down the marble stairs quite slowly.

“Well, I know you guys have a tendency to like running late, but this is pushing it.” Harry commented turning around and smirking.

“We’re not leaving,” Hermione said pointedly.

“What?” Harry asked in shock. Professor Snape and Dumbledore were walking down the stairs behind them but they hadn’t noticed.

“Harry,” Hermione began in a patronizing tone, “do you really think we’d just leave you here over the holidays?”

“What about your families?” Harry asked.

“You’re kidding me, right? As soon as mum found out you were staying, she more or less ordered me to stay here too.” Ron laughed and Harry grinned stupidly. “Let’s play some Exploding Snap,” Ron suggested and Hermione nodded along with Harry.

Reaching into his robes, he pulled out the game and just sat down. Harry gaped at him as did Hermione. “Ronald! What do you think you’re doing?” Hermione demanded.

“Playing Exploding Snap,” Ron laughed.

“In the Entrance Hall?” Harry asked in disbelief.

“Well? Why not? I don’t want to go back to the Common Room just yet and we’re here, aren’t we?” Ron demanded and Harry shrugged.

“Alright,” Harry said, sitting across from Ron. Dumbledore and Snape had stopped on the stairs and were staring. “C’mon Herm, how many times will you be able to say you played Exploding Snap in the Entrance Hall?”

“Well I never wanted to say that I had, but I guess it’ll have to do. Honestly, can’t we move it into the Great Hall?” Ron shook his head as Hermione sat down. He already had the game set up.

“Yes, the Great Hall would make more sense then the Entrance Hall,” Snape’s voice suddenly cut through them. Ron flinched, Hermione sighed, and Harry smiled stupidly.

“Now, Professor Snape, I think it’s an okay idea. Actually, I’ve found myself wanting to do the same thing on several occasions.”

“What?” Snape asked in horror. “Play Exploding Snap in the Entrance Hall?”

“No, just wanted to play Exploding Snap.” Dumbledore waved his hand and a table, along with several comfy chairs appeared in the Entrance Hall. Ron and Harry instantly scrambled into their seats and began to set up the game again. Dumbledore sat down next to Hermione and looked at Snape. “Will you join us, Severus?”

“No!” Snape snarled, before spinning around causing his robes to billow out.

To say the next couple hours weren’t interesting would be a lie. Ron had admitted that playing Exploding Snap in the Entrance Hall had only been a joke to play on Hermione, seeing as she would seriously disapprove, he hadn’t actually expected it to go as far as to actually playing the game.

But not only were they playing Exploding Snap in the Entrance Hall with the Headmaster, but as time progressed more professors joined them. They were only staying one night in the school before going to their home. All in all, Harry realized that with the professors that were leaving, only Dumbledore, Snape, McGonagall, Madame Pomfrey, Trelawney, and Sprout were staying behind.

“What are you doing?” McGonagall demanded when she walked into the Entrance Hall to find not only the trio playing Exploding Snap, but Dumbledore, Hagrid , Vector, Gary, and Sprout all playing too.

“The most random thing our Mr. Weasley could think of at the moment,” Dumbledore laughed as Ron flushed red. Harry rolled his eyes and ducked as the game exploded. Hermione frowned. She kept losing. “Care to join?”

“Fine,” McGonagall said, sitting herself between Gary and Sprout. It was surprising but Gary seemed quite keen when playing Exploding Snape and it was a game on skill, hand and eye coordination, and speed. Not something one would take bumbling Professor Gary to have.

McGonagall turned out to be quite fierce when it came to Exploding Snap and soon it was between Ron and McGonagall on who would have the skill of winning. In the end it was Ron, by a pure chance of speed, and the game exploded in McGonagall’s face. Dumbledore chuckled merrily.

Harry had the suspicion that this was something the old man had been wanting to have happen for a long time.

Finally, Snape came storming into the Entrance Hall, a scowl on place. “Albus, I can’t believe you’re still doing this stunt. It’s almost an hour passed dinner.” Snape snarled and Dumbledore chuckled.

“My, it is isn’t it?” Harry had the feeling Dumbledore already knew this. The man just had far too much free time to scheme things. “Well, we’ll just eat here.” With a wave of his hand, the food that was meant to arise in the Great Hall appeared with a pop on the table in the Entrance Hall.

“Well, this really is taking it too far,” Hermione grumbled as Snape was forced to sit down and eat. Harry nodded. This was starting to seem a bit odd. And you didn’t get odd things in the Wizarding World too much. But he had to admit, this was going to be one tale to tell.

Dinner was a loud affair, as the Professors all talked with each other about everything and anything. Ron and Harry fell into a conversation about Weasleys Wizard Wheezes while Hermione chatted about some incident in history with Professor Vector.

Finally, the food was gone and Dumbledore smiled around the table.

“I do believe this should conclude our afternoon of Exploding Snap in the Entrance Hall. If I ever find the time,” his eyes darted to Harry making the boy almost think he had read his thoughts. “I’ll be sure to record this for ‘Hogwarts: A History’ seeing as I doubt that anyone had ever played Exploding Snap in the Entrance Hall for such a long time.”

Standing up, everyone laughed and the table and chairs disappeared. Snape glowered and whisked away quickly.

“Really!” Ron laughed as they retreated back to Gryffindor Tower. It was odd being the only students in the castle. “I had only meant it as a joke. That was totally unexpected.”

“Well, we made history,” Hermione commented dryly.

“Hermione, I think we’ve all made history since our first year. I highly doubt playing Exploding Snap in the Entrance Hall will be the greatest thing.” Harry laughed and Ron raised an eyebrow.

“Maybe we’ll be surprised,” Ron chuckled.

They sat in the Common Room after that, in a comfortable silence. Harry was more then overjoyed that Hermione and Ron had stayed over the break and he knew Ron’s excuse was probably a bit of an exaggeration. He really did have caring friends.

In Harry’s lap he had the book for carving. He had carved Ginny’s name into the inside of her box and completely messed it up. He needed to figure out how to erase it from the wood. Letters were different then pictures.

And so began the Christmas holidays.

888

It was Christmas Eve and Harry had yet to get Snape a gift. Harry was more or less panicking as he poured over a catalog. Beside him Ron and Hermione were wrapping gifts. They could’ve done it with magic but Hermione insisted on teaching Ron to do it the muggle way.

Hermione had a thick book, a potion book for Snape, flopped before her. According to her, it was a rare book that the manager had just gotten. It was written by a Norwegian Potions Masters from the middle ages and it had just been translated to English.

She said it would’ve cost a fare deal but the owner of the store recognized her as one of the ‘saving seven’ and when she told him the purpose he more or less deduced the price in half. She smiled a bit guilty as she spoke, but she said later that sometimes you just had to do it. Pull out the ‘excuse’ that is.

Ron had gotten Snape an odd little cauldron that could sit in the palm of one’s hand. It looked pretty useless but Hermione knew all about them. Those small cauldrons could hold up to five gallons of potions and barely weigh a thing. Plus, it was easily transportable and made a better convenience then bottling the whole potion. They were rare. Ron admitted that he bargained with the owner of the shop for it too.

Neville had been too embarrassed to show Harry what he gotten Snape, and he forget to ask Luna. Ginny on the other hand showed him her without a problem. It was a record book, one that if you cast a spell, the one explained at the beginning of the book, then it would record all the ingredients in that storeroom. When some where taken it would say why and how much. Those were rare too, but Ginny didn’t have to bargain. The owner didn’t know what it was.

“You know,” Harry remembered saying. “Now we can’t swipe ingredients without him knowing why they were swiped. And knowing Snape he’ll figure out who was making the potion.”

Ginny had just grinned and shoved it into her pack.

“Harry,” Hermione suddenly said interrupting his thoughts. “You really should hurry.”

“I know!” Harry moaned as he dug his head into his hands.

Ron was pouring over the carving book. “Neat!” he called out. “This spell erases carvings in wood, cement, carpet and stone.”

“Stone?” Harry suddenly asked, looking up quickly.

“Yeah,” Ron said, shoving the book over to Harry.

“I know!” Harry suddenly called out and he jumped to his feet. He sprinted upstairs, grabbed his invisibility cloak, threw it over his shoulders, and ran back downstairs.

“Going out are we?” Ron asked as Harry’s head floated downstairs.

“Yeah, be right back.” Flipping the cloak over his head, Harry took off running. He ran to the dungeon quickly, not meeting a soul in the corridors. Then again, there was no one in the school.

Harry only slowed down once he was in front of the Potions classroom. He listened closely and heard no sign of Snape. Smiling, he pushed open the door and snuck in. He kept his cloak on in case he tripped some alarming spell Snape had set up so he knew when people broke into his classroom.

After several minutes of no cursing Snape appearing, Harry realized he was safe.

Sighing, he retreated to the cauldron wall at the back of the classroom and shifted the cauldrons until he found the plaque. He remembered during a Remedial lesson one day Snape had told him to get a cauldron and he grabbed the one concealing the plaque.

“Why don’t you get rid of it?” Harry had asked.

“Don’t know how,” Snape snarled, obviously not wanting to stray into that area. Harry could tell it was just putting salt into the open wound whenever the plaque was mention. But Harry had figured out how to get rid of the plaque...no not great rid of, change.

It took hours to do. Obviously whoever charmed it knew what they were doing. Harry had the feeling it might’ve been his father or Sirius.

Harry had to charm each letter in turn, and then with a lot of effort, dragged it around until it was the letter he wanted. He found joining two letters together took of more area and got rid of the words faster. Yet, it still took a good two hours for him to get it done.

In reality, Harry didn’t realize that he was breaking through more then just a carving charm, he was breaking through some holding charms and some school-wall charms. That was why he had to drag his wand. It was just lucky he didn’t pass out from the effort.

However, Snivellus’s plaque was gone and was replaced with a plaque that read:

Professor Severus Snape,
The Potions Master
Of Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry H.P.

Harry smiled slightly to himself as he reread it.

Jumping up, he grabbed his invisibility cloak, but instead of putting the cauldron back up he left it down. Working his arm forward and backward, he dived from the room and back to the Tower.

Ron and Hermione were waiting up for him.

“Where’d you go?” Ron demanded as Harry stumbled in.

“Just to take care of some things.” He glanced at the clock and saw it was almost midnight. Ron shrugged, leaned over and wrapped his last present the wizard way.

“Let’s go to bed,” Hermione yawned and Ron nodded in agreement.

“Best get one night’s sleep before Snape kills us,” Ron teased as he threw the gifts in the Christmas Gift Transportation pile.

“Agreed,” Harry yawned, as he reached over, grabbed Snape’s candy and scribbled a note for him to look on the back wall of the Potions classroom. “If he doesn’t kill me for this,” Harry muttered softly to himself. “Who knows what he’ll kill.”

“What about Snape’s gift, Harry?” Hermione asked at the base of the stairs leading to her dormitory.

“Don’t worry,” Harry yawned waving a hand at her offhandedly. Hermione shot him a quizzing look before shrugging and going to bed.

“Yeah, let’s just hope I get some use out of my presents before Snape kills us.” Ron yawned climbing into bed. Harry nodded in agreement.

888

The next morning Harry woke up to Ron throwing his pillow at him.

“C’mon mate! It’s Christmas!” Ron laughed and Harry sat up to look at his pile of presents on the end of the bed. Ron made to open his.

“No,” Harry gasped, and in a hurried movement he gathered his presents into him and with Ron, catching on, they ran together into the Common Room where they dumped them onto an armchair each.

“Hermione!” Ron called out. “Bring your presents down here!” There was a long paused and Hermione appeared walking down the stairs carrying a bundle of presents.

“Happy Christmas,” she greeted happily.

“Happy Christmas,” Ron and Harry chanted in unison before diving into their presents.

Harry more or less got the basics as he had all the years before. He got a deep bottle green sweater from Mrs. Weasley that had a H.P. knitted into it, and a box of sweats. The twins had given him a box of tricks for thanks with helping with the company. While the DA members had gotten together and bought him a box of Honeydukes treats. He sighed when he realized that there were no sugar quills. He loved those the most though no one seemed to know that.

Hermione got him a great book on Quidditch, a rare volume that would have some collectors drooling to get. Ron had gotten him a cloak signed by the England Quidditch team. He had obviously used the ‘excuse’ to get it signed.

Ginny had gotten him a book on carving techniques that were brilliant and old looking. Luna had just gotten him a box of chocolate frogs and a year subscription to The Quibbler. Neville stuck to the basics with Quidditch.

“Brilliant Harry!” Both Ron and Hermione chanted at the same time. Hermione was holding the box Harry had carved for her with tearing eyes and Ron was holding the Chudley Cannon book and more or less drooling.

The carved book for Hermione had the time when he and her were flying on Buckbeak to go save Sirius in their third year. It had been hard to carve and he had started over around four times, until the last time when he thought it was decent. Inside the box was the official guide to the Protection of Magical Creatures Bureau. Harry had asked Mr. Weasley to get him one.

“Oh, Harry, it’s so beautiful.” Hermione more or less cried while Ron became absorbed in the Cannon book. Harry could almost see Ginny’s reaction to the wooden box. He had started over on Ginny’s more then Hermione’s until he got the hang of it. Inside the box was a small, charmed dragon Harry had bought at Hogsmead. He had scribbled on some parchment saying: Tame this one and we might allow you to move onto bigger ones.

“Thanks, both of you!” Harry said turning back to the presents they gave him. For the rest of the morning the spent their time messing with their gifts. Ron mostly in his Cannon book, Harry mostly in his Quidditch book, and Hermione mostly in her Guide.

“Oh, dear, we’re going to be late for the Christmas Dinner.” Hermione gasped. “No, we are late.”

“Oh well, at least Snape can’t kill us up here,” Ron commented. All of them had started to feel a bit foreboding now that Snape had gotten his gifts. It was one thing, talking about it, but a completely other thing doing it.

Harry even felt more worried than Ron because Harry’s note was a bit more personal. He shuddered at the thought. He hoped he lived to see seventh year.

Finally, after just leaving their things where they were, the trio ran from the common room. As the slide into the Great Hall the found the house tables gone, as they had been in third year, and a small table crowded with professors. There were only three seats left open. All next to each, but the outer ones were next to Trelawney and Madame Pomfrey.

“Ahh...Happy Christmas,” Dumbledore said as they entered. Instantly Harry, Ron and Hermione scrambled for the seats farthest from Trelawney. In the end, Harry was stuck next to her.

“Happy Christmas,” they all gasped in unison.

Dumbledore beamed and clapped his hands together so that food appeared. Harry glanced warily at Snape, but he was buried in his food and didn’t look up. Ron must’ve done the same because he sighed a bit in relief. At least Snape wouldn’t kill them at the table.

“So...did you get any good presents?” Dumbledore asked, trying to bring conversation to the table. Harry rolled his shoulder back and forth, trying to loosen it up. It had been stiff and sore all morning because of last night and the two hours of pushing, dragging and prodding the wand along.

“Yeah!” They all gasped in unison.

“Where’d you get that book anyway, Harry?” Ron demanded as Dumbledore turned to Madame Pomfrey.

“Bookstore,” Harry responded. “At Hogsmead, I had the owner hide the other two so you wouldn’t find ‘em.” Hermione snorted and Ron flushed.

“My dear,” Trelawney’s voice suddenly said, cutting through Harry. Turning he found the Divinations professor staring at him.

“I know, I know...I’m going to die soon,” Harry sighed as Hermione snorted. “But don’t worry; I’ve decided to avoid all murdering fiends in Hogwarts at the moment, so I should survive a bit longer.” McGonagall’s lips twitched, Ron snorted, and Hermione looked ready to burst.

“You shouldn’t mock what the inner eye says,” Trelawney said sternly. “Yes, you’ve predicted my words, but I was also going to say that you’re area of aura is very foggy.”

“I told you Ron!” Harry snapped, turning to Ron. “We didn’t perform the fog spell right!” Instantly McGonagall snorted, Hermione burst out laughing and Ron began to choke on his food. Professor Trelawney looked put out and turned away from Harry darkly.

“I think I angered her,” Harry whispered to Ron as the conversation around the table picked up. Ron just nodded again as Hermione snorted.

“Now, I do tend to find this room in the dungeons, but it’s the oddest thing. I can’t enter it, and it looks like it’s about to collapse in on itself.” Dumbledore tutted slightly. “Travels behind a solid black portrait I do believe.” Dumbledore sighed. “This castle never ceases to amaze me.”

After that everyone started talking about secret rooms they had found on accident. Ron and Hermione, being Prefects and wondering the castle more, had several hidden rooms that constantly move too.

Finally, dinner ebbed away and Ron was becoming restless to get back to the Common Room. Harry, leaning back in his chair, glanced to his side at Trelawney and snorted.

The Divinations teacher seemed to have dozed off in the middle of an inner eye’s trances and was now drooling and snoring.

“Err—Professor?” Harry ventured, looking at McGonagall.

“Yes?” she asked, looking over.

“I think Trelawney’s fallen asleep...no, she has fallen asleep.” Everyone turned to look at the sleeping teacher.

“Well, I guess I’ll take her to her rooms,” McGonagall sighed but Madame Pomfrey intervened.

“No, Minerva, take her to the Hospital Wing, she hasn’t had a check-up in a while.” Madame Pomfrey almost seemed devilish as she spoke. McGonagall nodded, and standing up the two levitated her out of the Great Hall. Leaving on Dumbledore, Snape, Harry, Ron and Hermione.

“Well, I guess that concludes our dinner. Happy Christmas, everyone.” Dumbledore stood up, nodded in turn to everyone and swept out of the room. Harry, Ron and Hermione, not wanting to be left alone in a room with Snape instantly dived from their seats and left.

Back in the Common Room, they started to mess with their presents again.

“At least Snape hasn’t tried to kill us yet,” Ron yawned as Harry stood up. “If you leave though, he might corner you.”

“Yeah, I’ll take my chances; I just want to give Dobby his present in person.” Ron nodded and Hermione beamed.

“That’s great,” she cried out.

“I’m not going with you, though. Dobby’s a bit too mental for me when you give him presents. Good luck though.” Ron grinned stupidly and Harry laughed as he left.

The trip to the Kitchens was quiet and long. Harry decided he didn’t like the castle much when there weren’t students running around and making bangs and booms. Though, he was sad to find he would leave Hogwarts in a year and a half.

Finally, however, he made it to the Kitchens. Instantly House Elves swarmed him with shouts and questions to what he wanted.

“Err—is Dobby here?” Harry asked and instantly Dobby appeared.

“Harry Potter requests Dobby sir.” Dobby cried out, his eyes overlarge.

“Yeah, I wanted to give you your Christmas gift in person.” Instantly Dobby began to cry. “No, don’t do that, Dobby. It’s okay, really.” Harry sighed as he handed Dobby a crudely wrapped package.

“Harry Potter is too good to little Dobby. Too good indeed.” Dobby cried as he opened the package and found a set of mismatched socks, gloves, and a small hat. However, it was inside a box Harry had carved. On the front was a carving of Dobby, wearing a stack of Hermione’s hats and mismatched socks. Ron had laughed when he saw that carving and Hermione beamed.

Instantly Dobby began to howl. Harry had to fight the House Elf off of him as he hugged him tightly.

“Harry Potter is too good,” Dobby started to cry so hard that he collapsed. Instantly other House Elves swarmed in.

“Is he okay?” Harry asked in horror.

“Oh, yes, Dobby is just crying, sir, crying a whole lot. Master Sir, do you want anything?” the small brown House Elf asked and Harry shook his head.

“I’ll just get going then,” Harry said and the House Elves nodded. Once in the corridor, Harry could still hear Dobby’s wails. “Great, now I’ve gone and done it, he’ll try to save my life again.” Harry mumbled, turning around and walking straight into something quite solid.

Stumbling backwards, Harry landed hard on the ground and found himself looking upward at Professor Snape. His heart instantly flipped.

‘Ron’s right,’ Harry thought. ‘He’s going to kill me.’ And it did look like Professor Snape was going to kill him.

“How’d you do it Potter?” Snape spat darkly.

“What?” Harry asked innocently.

“Get rid of that plaque?” Snape didn’t seem at all pleased.

“W-why? I figured you’d want it gone.” Harry mumbled, backing up some.

“Did you get Granger’s help?” he demanded, taking a step forward and suddenly Harry understood. To get outside help, Harry would’ve had to explain or let them draw their own conclusions.

“No, I swear,” Harry said. “I didn’t get any help from my friends. I had a book, you see, and it was on erasing carvings because I’ve been working on something, and it said it worked on stone.”

“Do you really expect me to believe that you just used an erasing charm on the stone wall, Potter?” Snape hissed darkly, stepping even closer. “Because Black and your father put several strong spells on it, not even I could break today, and then there’s the school-wall spells.”

“I couldn’t just tap it...” Harry admitted. “I had to drag my wand. I swear I didn’t get any outside help. It took me two hours,” Harry rolled his shoulder back and forth a bit. Snape’s eyes bore their way into Harry’s bright green eyes and for a minute it stayed like that.

Finally, Snape broke eye contact, reached down and heaved Harry to his feet. Harry winced a bit as he landed on his trick leg. It had been bothering him for a while now. Actually since the Quidditch game, but Harry didn’t want to admit it.

Dobby had stopped wailing.

“Sir,” Harry nodded and made to go when suddenly Snape’s hand landed on his shoulder, stopping him.

“Thanks, Mr. Potter, you don’t realize how much it means to have that plaque gone.” Harry nodded slightly, glanced at Snape and for the first time saw that the man was grateful.

“I owe you more than that,” Harry mumbled and then before Snape could say anything, Harry left.

Once he was back in the Common Room, Ron and Hermione looked up.

“You missed it,” Ron said. “Snape walked in and gave us three boxes. Mine had a bunch of candy in it, along some potions that’ll help...with my nightmares...and a Magic Reversal booklet.”

“I’m had some candy also, some Protection of Magical Creatures things, and a book on defense against the dark art spells. He just walked right in and gave them to us, without a blink, and his face was blank. Barely mumbled thanks and left. A very Snape action, in a case like this.”

“Open yours,” Ron demanded and Harry did. In his box was a booklet on Aurors, which disappointed Harry a bit, and then a bunch of Sugar Quills, and then there was his Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them book.

The note read thus:

Dear Mr. Potter:

By time you read this, you will have either explained yourself and lived, or reading this while in a lot of pain. ‘That’s Snape for you, Harry thought.’ I know, even if you friends don’t seem to notice, that you love Sugar Quills, don’t see why though. And you will find that in your Beast Book, I’ve made some of my own comments that will help you in up coming Care of Magical Creatures classes, trust me.

Happy Christmas, Mr. Potter.

Professor Severus Snape

“What did you get him Harry?” Hermione asked as she read the letter. “I didn’t know you like Sugar Quills; I guess that would explain why you’re always swapping for them.” Ron laughed as he read the letter too.

“What’d you get him?” Ron asked.

“Let’s just say I found something he didn’t like and couldn’t get rid of, and I did it for him.” Hermione stared at him long and hard and then decided Harry meant it so she didn’t respond. Ron just shrugged, realizing he was going to get nothing out of Harry anyway.

“I’m going to bed; I’m tired, and a bit shocked from Snape’s behavior.” Ron laughed slightly but bid them goodnight.

“Thank-you Harry, for the book, and helping me decide to be part of the Protection.” Harry nodded and blushed as Hermione gave him a tight hug and kiss on the cheek. Then, she went up to bed.

Harry found himself grabbing the Auror booklet and staring at it. Sighing, he opened it up and found to his surprise it wasn’t an Auror booklet at all. A piece of parchment stumbled out.

Not always good to expect things, Potter. S.S.

“How’d he find out?” Harry muttered as he began to flip the pages of the booklet for Curse Breaking at Gringotts bank. “This is one hell of an unexpected Christmas.”