A Christmas Gamble: Burning Down the Workshop by Whitetail
Summary: Sequel to A Christmas Gamble. After filling in for Father Christmas the previous year, one would think Severus and Harry would have a peaceful holiday, but all that went out the window when the two of them got talked into taking over the business. It seems like insanity, and it probably is, especially after the workshop burns down and they’re forced to try and find a way to sneak a hundred Christmas Elves into a makeshift workshop in Hogwarts. With twelve days until Christmas, and no time to waste to replace the lost gifts, it’s going to take one big distraction.
     Good thing Severus and Harry have a knack for pulling pranks.
     All the two can hope for is that burning down the workshop is the only black mark their names will get on the naughty list, because if the staff find out who is behind the pranks, Christmas will truly be ruined.
Categories: Teacher Snape > Trusted Mentor Snape Main Characters: .Snape and Harry (required)
Snape Flavour: Snape is Kind
Genres: Action/Adventure
Media Type: None
Tags: None
Takes Place: 2nd Year
Warnings: Abusive Dursleys
Challenges: None
Series: A Christmas Gamble
Chapters: 7 Completed: Yes Word count: 19435 Read: 14939 Published: 20 Dec 2014 Updated: 25 Dec 2014
Dinner and a Show by Whitetail

"Are you sure this is going to work?" Harry hissed at Snape as they stood in an abandoned classroom.

"Positive," Snape said back, checking his watch. "I'll go in first to dinner, then you go in. Everyone who is going to go to dinner should be there in about a minute"

"And then I stop to tie my shoe in the doorway," Harry said, rehearsing what they'd talked about all day long since Snape had first brought it up yesterday after class.

"Yes. Then you press the Draught Dough against the floor - just a tiny ball of it will do," Snape said. They knew the plan inside and out, but Harry got the sense Snape was saying it again more for his nerves than for Harry's benefit. "From the second that you press it against the floor, you have two minutes to sit down and look busy before I do my part. The Draught Dough will activate in a line, sealing the doorway. It won't activate until someone gets within a few feet of it, intending to leave."

"One of the elves is getting the candles?"

"Yes, Dory is. She's in there already, under your invisibility cloak. She'll wait for my signal. Toffee's down on the grounds now, and will begin leading our elves in the moment the lights in the hall go out. I'll do my best to stall if we need, but I am confident the commotion will last longer than fifteen minutes."

Harry shifted nervously, and Snape glanced at his watch again.

"Alright, I am going," said Snape. "Wait about a minute until I have gone in."

Harry shuffled nervously, watching Snape go. Snape glanced over his shoulder, giving Harry a curt nod before leaving the room. Harry could hear his footsteps echoing as he left.

Harry flipped the tiny tin in his hand. It was disguised as burn salve, the most common kind sold at apothecaries for potions burns. It would go well with Harry's story, as he really had burned his hand in potions the previous day. Snape had remembered, and put the Draught Dough inside of a tin to make it fit with the story. Draught Dough looked enough like burn salve, anyway. Harry flipped the tin over in his hand.

He couldn't believe that Snape came up with all this himself. There was definitely a prankster in the man dying to come out. It was almost Fred and George-ish of him, his whole plan. He'd made one of the components for the prank homemade the previous night. He'd even broken into Filch's office for the Draught Dough, which he'd said was all the rage when he was a student, although still produced today. Luckily the stuff he found hadn't been too outdated (roughly five years). Snape had tested it in a side classroom to make sure.

Harry untied his right shoe, took a deep breath, and left the classroom. As he neared the Great Hall doors, he opened the tin, grabbed a tiny ball of the Draught Dough, massaged it between his fingertips to activate it, then walked into the door way. He bent down to tie his shoe, and quickly swiped the draught dough in a thin, short line parallel to the arch of the doorway above him. He finished tying his shoe, then walked casually to the Gryffindor table.

"Harry, about time," Ron said through a mouthful of shepherd's pie, spraying slightly and causing Hermione to wrinkle her nose.

"Sorry, Snape made me finish writing out that set of old detention cards from Filch's office," Harry said dismally. He'd told them that Snape called him into his office after class the other day because he noticed some of the dates were off on the cards, which Harry had claimed he'd been copying out for the past few "detentions".

It was kind of awesome getting to mouth off in potions class and only have to do fake detention, other than the fact that he actually got along with Snape now and didn't mean most of what he said. Still, how many students could say they got to go play with reindeer for being an idiot in class?

Or pull pranks with the head of Slytherin House.

Harry's heart fluttered slightly, the seconds ticking in his head. He glanced at the head table. Snape would be making his move any moment.

 

***

 

Severus reached for his goblet of wine, which he'd placed deliberately close to the edge of the table.

"Oops, sorry Sinistra," he said, knocking the goblet over and spilling wine on her robes.

Sinistra growled slightly. "Snape you bloody -"

The signal given, Severus held his breath for the next part of the plan to commence. A half second later, the candles spluttered and died all at once, causing screams to erupt throughout the hall. Severus, delighted by Sinistra's repertoire of swear words still whizzing past his head, had to forcibly push his glee from his mind over having a legitimate reason to douse her with wine.

He probably could have just dropped his fork to alert Dotty, but this was more fun.

The voices of the students and staff rose in crescendo in the seconds following the candles being doused, and wasting no time, Severus uncapped the phial in his pocket and poured the contents on the floor. A sudden chill erupted in the hall, and the sound of cracking ice could be heard. A few pounding heartbeats later, Dumbledore had waved his wand to light the candles again. They burst into life, row upon row up above, illuminating the scene before them. Sinistra, in the process of syphoning wine off of her dark blue robes, stopped.

"Merlin," muttered Severus for effect as the other staff members exclaimed aloud. The entire hall was consumed with ice. The windows were coated in thick, impermeable frost, blocking everything outside from view. The floor too was frozen over with a shining layer of ice. Light from the candles reflected in the surface, and one by one, students started to get up and test it. Laughter erupted amongst them as they started to slide across it, their shoes clacking loudly against it. Potter, delight written on his face, was pulled to his feet by one of his friends.

"Don't think this makes me forget what you've done to my robes you -" Sinistra hissed at Severus.

Severus smirked. "Cold yet?" he asked.

Sinistra swore at him.

"Well, I supposed it doesn't do any harm," said Minerva a few chairs down, having finally regained her voice. "Whoever this Holiday prankster is."

"A foolish pursuit," Severus said, scoffing, "but I see your point."

"Oh, lighten up Severus," Filius said. "What harm does it do?"

Severus had to contain his inner glee as a student began to slide too close to the door. He could see it coming from a mile away.

There was an unearthly roar, and the Draught Dough activated. A rattling gust of air blew down from the door through the centre of the hall, sending students sliding at an even pa pace toward the top table. There were screams of both terror, and delight. A few students tried to come at the door from the side, seeing if they could leave. They only managed to get caught in the wind, which was blowing handfuls of snow drifting from the ceiling across the hall. Severus had to hold back a laugh as they lost their balance and slid on their bottoms across the ice, pushed by the incredibly strong wind.

"Draught Dough," Minerva said. "Dear Merlin, that brings back memories, doesn't it, Severus?"

"Hmm?" Severus said, panicking internally. Did she guess? He caught a glimpse of her expression, which was not accusing, but nostalgic. He relaxed. "Oh, Draught Dough, that is quite a blast from the past."

"Filius snorted. "Was that a joke?"

"Er, joke?" Severus muttered, not catching what Filius meant.

Minerva rolled her eyes.

"Oh," Severus said, annoyed.

 "You really need to work on your sense of humour," said Minerva, chuckling good-naturedly.

"You have no idea," muttered Severus under his breath so nobody could hear, snow piling up on the tables.

"I suppose we will have to find a way to get the students out of the hall eventually," said Dumbledore, getting up from his chair. Severus winced slightly, Dumbledore's age burning brightly in his mind. "It would be quite a chore to get them all though the floo in the room behind our table. Best inspect the front door."

"Sir, perhaps I should go? You might -"

"You're right Severus. I think a cushioning charm on my backside is in order."

Severus snorted slightly, and Minerva turned rather red as she tried to hold back a giggle.

"I imagine I will have to have a stern talk with the Weasley twins," Minerva said, her laughter dying into a sour scowl. "Best go interrogate them now."

She followed Dumbledore's lead, and slid carefully across the ice, having also cast a cushioning charm.

Severus, thinking it would be suspicious of him to stay in his chair, got up and started to move around the hall as well, as though scoping out the scene.

"We never did find a spell to remove Draught Dough," said Filius as he followed behind him, although judging by the delightful screams of the students as they ran into the wind to be blown across the ice for fun seemed to be destroying any sense of urgency of his.

"Oh, I remember," said Severus. "I swear my entire senior year that stuff was everywhere."

"Personally, I enjoyed the one where someone managed to make it blow vertically upward and proceeded to cast a Neutral Buoyancy charm on Sirius Black and James Potter. Whatever buoyancy charm they used wasn't compliant to the usual counter spell, if I recall. Took us an hour to get them down."

"Yes, that one was good," Severus said, a gleeful warmth filling him from the inside.

"We never did catch who did it," said Filius, giving Severus a rather pointed look.

Severus' lip twitched. There was no sense in denying it now. What could Filius do, give him detention? Filius would never suspect him for this prank anyway. Something twenty odd years ago wouldn't condemn him now. He glanced sideways at Flitwick, smirking. It was all Filius needed as confirmation.

"I always thought so," said Filius, rolling his eyes. "But Slughorn vouched for you. Said you were down in the dungeons brewing."

"I bribed him."

"What?"

"Crystallized pineapple. He could never say no, especially if you gave him a sample first. It was a harmless prank after all."

"That scoundrel - and you -" Filius caught himself as Severus gave him a withering look. Flitwick chuckled to himself. "Bribery ... dear me. But it was expert spellwork, I will give you that."

"Thank you," smirked Severus.

"Thank goodness you grew up. You were quite the handful, you know."

Severus choked slightly, but Filius didn't seem to hear him.

"Now help me get this ice off the floor," said Filius after a moment, waving his wand in a few complicated patterns. "It won't respond to usual methods."

The End.
End Notes:
Hope you guys liked the prank! More shenanigans to come!


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