"Hogwarts is closed indefinitely," came the headmaster's voice as he stood before the students gathered within the Great Hall, the twelve members of the Board of Governors standing behind him as the staff sat at their respective seats along the High table.   All manner of conversation stilled among the students and for one Harry Potter, it felt like a blow to the gut.  He hadn't truly expected Hogwarts to close at all once the attacks had started.  "Students will be heading home tonight by various methods and information packets will be mailed out within the week.   Muggleborns should be advised that Durmstrang does not accept Muggleborn students.  Due to the illness going through the school and the attacks on Mister Finch-Fletchy, Mister Lucian Bole and Miss Emma Vane, the Board of Governors has decided it is best for students to return home and the school to close until the monster is found and destroyed and the illness has run its course."

"Sir?" Terry Boot raised his hand and waited for the Headmaster to call on him.  "What if the monster isn't found?"

"Then I'm afraid Mister Boot that Hogwarts will be closed permanently.  Students, your tuition has already been returned to your family vaults for the remainder of the year minus the tuition for this term.  I have written to some schools saying they might get requests from students this year, but it is up to the students' families to see about scholarships or have their parents pay the tuition. The three petrified students were already taken to Saint Mungo's for treatment until Mandrakes or a mandrake potion can be found to cure the petrification."

Harry couldn't believe this.  Closed.  Hogwarts was being closed indefinitely. What was he supposed to do now? He didn't have the money to pay for the tuition of another school. Harry didn't know how much money he had in his vault, but he was pretty sure it was just enough to get by for the next five years at Hogwarts.  But if Hogwarts was closed indefinitely...where would he go? What if he couldn't get into another wizarding school? What if he was forced to go to Stonewall High, as he would have, were he not accepted into Hogwarts?  Well, at least I'd be away from Dudley.

Harry didn't need to hear the professor's words to understand that not everyone would be attending the same new schools together and wasn't a fool to believe that he might see Ron and Hermione at whatever new school they went to.  Who could really say where he would go or even how other magical schools sought out students? It wasn't like Harry had gotten any letters from any other wizarding schools when he'd been a first year.  Maybe he wasn't a good enough wizard.   Or were British wizards expected to only attend Hogwarts? He knew that his parents had put him down for Hogwarts at birth so obviously they expected him to go to Hogwarts as they had done.  

"Come along Mister Potter. We haven't got all day," and Harry looked up into the eyes of his potions professor.  Snape. Why did it have to be Snape of all people that Harry had to be escorted home with? Why couldn't he have gotten the opportunity to go home on the train with the other students?  Instead, the potions professor was escorting him home and on the Headmaster's orders no less.  What was worse, he couldn't bring Hedwig home with him.  Were he to do so, Uncle Vernon would probably kill her within the week.   He knew his relatives wouldn't be happy about him being home indefinitely either, despite them not wanting him to go to Hogwarts at all last year.    

He hurried after the sour man down the hallway to the front doors and out into the wind and snow that swept across the grounds, making him squint against the outside as the cold chilled him to the bone, cutting through his clothes and soaking into his skin.   They strode to the gates of Hogwarts and then Professor Snape held out his arm. "Take my arm Potter."

"What? Why?"

"Just do as you are told," said Snape and Harry reluctantly took hold of the Potions's master's arm.   "Make sure you have a tight grip Potter, lest you be splinched. I don't feel like putting you back together."  He waved his wand at Harry's trunk and shrank it before pocketing it.  "Are you holding tightly?" The question came as he tucked his wand away and looked sharply at the child.  At Harry's nod, they pushed past the gates of Hogwarts and headed down the path to Hogsmeade where they vanished with a pop.

Harry felt an intense pressure, as if he were being squeezed through a narrow tube.  It was hard to breathe and he felt like he couldn't get any air but he hung on, the world moving past dizzyingly before him until they appeared with a pop in the alley connecting Magnolia Crescent and Wisteria Walk, several streets away from Privet Drive.  Harry stumbled, letting go of Snape's arm and staggering to a wall of the narrow dark alley where the boy soon threw up.  "Well, you seem to be in one piece at least," said Snape.  He waited for the boy to stop his retching, looking him over.   He looked to be in one piece and he was pleased that the boy had enough sense to not let go of him during the side-along apparition. Though the boy seemed dressed in rags, it was probably due to the child being too suborn or arrogant to bother changing into something more proper for travel. Well, that was hardly Severus's responsibility or care.  He was merely to escort the boy to his home and see him safely inside at the start of the Christmas holidays.   

"If you are done Mister Potter, I suggest you come along," said Snape brusquely, pulling out his wand and spelling a warming charm on himself, then a moment later upon the boy.  He didn't care for the child and may not have cared if the boy froze to death but the Headmaster would not be pleased.   Harry felt an instant relief from the cold and turned in surprise to the potions professor who stared down at him.  The child used his sleeve to wipe at his mouth, Snape's mouth tightening in a thin line and followed his professor through the alley to Magnolia Crescent and then down some more streets until they got to Number Four Privet Drive.

"Sir?"

"What?"

"What...what was...that? That..travel?" Harry questioned hesitantly.

"Side-along apparition Potter.  It's a magical form of transport parents or other wizards may use with children who cannot legally apparate.  Apparation is another form of magical travel along with flying on broomsticks, floo or portkey."

"Portkey?"

"Another time Potter. Perhaps you can get Weasley to spell it out for you in a letter."

Severus said not a word further as his brisk steps took him down the road.  Harry stood there, staring after his professor in shock and embarrassment before he heard a shout of  "Come along Potter," and hurried after his professor down the sidewalk.  It was, as they were walking, that Harry realized that his professor hadn't asked him for directions.

"Professor!  I can walk myself home."

"The headmaster told me to escort you to your front door Potter so that is what I am going to do, loath as I am to do so in the first place," said Snape.   As they reached the front stoop of Number 4, he stared in disgust at the house and then at Number 3 and 5 on either side of Number 4.  "How....quaint," sneered Snape before lifting his hand and knocking sharply on the door.  Removing Potter's trunk from his pocket and tapped it twice, restoring it to its normal size.   Hearing footsteps coming to the door, he turned and pushed Potter ahead, he turned and headed out without a word, the door opening a second later to reveal Petunia. 

"Boy! What are you doing home early?!"

"There's an illness at school and something is attacking students so H...the school was closed for the rest of the year," said Harry.  He watched his aunt's face become pinched before she stepped aside and ushered him within the house.

"Where is that dratted owl of yours?"

"I left her at...at school," said Harry.

"Well, at least we won't have to listen to that bird the rest of the year," said Petunia. "Put your things in the cupboard boy and then go to your room.  I'll speak to Vernon about this when he gets home."

"Yes, Aunt Petunia," said Harry, dragging his trunk inside the house and hearing the door shut behind him before heading to his cupboard and put his trunk within it, knowing if he tried to take it upstairs, his uncle would give him what for upon his return from work.  Once the cupboard door had been closed, he headed upstairs to his room and shut the door behind him, the cat flap and locks still there on his door. 

Dinner was an overall quiet affair with the Dursleys, his uncle not speaking to him once since coming home from work and discovering that Harry was home from Hogwarts indefinitely.   However, once Harry had cleared the plates away when dinner was completed and taken them to the sink, he heard his uncle shout for him.  The child turned and headed back into the dining room where he saw his uncle and aunt sitting at the table.  "Boy.  Your aunt says you're home due to that place you go to closing down."  Vernon looked positively gleeful at the fact that Harry wouldn't be able to attend school anymore.

"Yes sir," said Harry.

"Where is that owl of yours?"

"I left her at Hogwarts," said Harry.  "I think the Headmaster wants to use all the owls the students have to deliver information packets on potential other schools for the rest of the school year," he said.

"That bloody bird better not come here, or I'll snap its neck," said Vernon and Harry swallowed nervously.  "Why your kind can't send post normally...using ruddy owls..." Harry tuned out his uncle's words until his uncle said... "I will not be paying for you to go to a new school boy.   You're expected to find a way to get it yourself and if not, then you're going straight to Stonewall High."

"Yes, Uncle Vernon," said Harry.  The thought again crossed his mind on how he was supposed to get to Gringotts to see how much money he had left for the upcoming five years and how he could possibly pay for tuition to another school.  His relatives would never take him to London to check his bank accounts.  He supposed all he could do was wait for the information packet to get here in a week.  

"You won't write to those freaks," said Vernon.

"I don't even know their addresses," said Harry before he could stop himself and watched his uncle's face turn purple before the man continued.

"You won't seek out any admittance with the wizarding world and won't use that...that wand...at all in this house. You will control yourself with that...freakishness you perform and complete all your chores as well as find a job to pay for your tuition.  If no school accepts you, you will go to Stonewall High and forego all future contact with the wizarding world and magic," said Vernon.  

"Yes Uncle," said Harry.  "How am I supposed to find a job though? I'm underage."

"That's not our problem," said Vernon.  "Tend to dogs or run a news route if you must but we won't be giving you a penny and if your chores aren't done on time, then you'll have no supper.  Now get those dishes done and go dust the living room."

"Yes sir," said Harry, heading back into the kitchen.  It was on a Tuesday that an owl appeared and the shout of his uncle as the owl flew through the open door, causing Uncle Vernon to trip and fall backwards with an angry bellow brought Harry's head up from where he'd been staring at the ceiling of his bedroom before rushing out of his room and downstairs to see a barn owl holding a packet tied to its legs.  Harry rushed to relieve the bird of its parcel and then it grew before him to regular size before the bird turned and flew back out the front door that was wide open. 

"BLOODY BIRDS!"  His uncle clambered to his feet and whirled on Harry who was frozen still.  "TO YOUR ROOM BOY! I DON'T WANT TO SEE YOU UNTIL DINNER!"

Harry hurried up to his room, clutching the information packet which he realized was really a folder containing information on the random schools, shutting his door before his uncle could change his mind about him going to his room. Once the door had been shut, Harry  headed to his bed and sat down before opening the folder.  

There are eleven great schools in the wizarding world, known for being the best places of magical education magically. Each school serves their own set of students with their own subjects, however some subjects are the same across the international scale.  Not all countries have a school and there are some schools that are smaller and locally known, serving only smaller communities but some with histories far deeper than the great eleven.  The great eleven schools are:

Hogwarts-Servicing students from the British Isles consisting of the United Kingdom, the Isle of Wright and the country of Ireland as well as several overseas British Territories. This school was founded in 990 AD by four great witches and wizards; Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Salazar Slytherin and Rowena Ravenclaw. 

Ilvermorny-Serving students across North America including the American territories and some Caribbean countries, it was founded by seventeenth century and one of the few known schools founded by a non-maj, the American term for those of muggle status.    Harry blinked in surprise at the information.  A school founded by a muggle?   That would never have gone over with people like Malfoy.  

He continued reading the information presented to him.  Koldovstoretz-Servicing students from Russia, the Baltic States, Siberia, Ukraine, Belarus, Finland, the former Soviet Union and Central Asia, this school is located in Northern Siberia which is a region of Russia and was founded in 1039, making it one of the oldest wizarding schools in the world.

Mahoutokoro-Made of mutton-fat jade, it was built in the late Sengoku period (1467-1603), or the Azuchi-Momoyama (1568-1600), so it is likely possible that it was built during the Sengoku period and then later remodeled in succeeding centuries and successively dismantled, rebuilt, & remolded (significantly in 1581 with expansions).  The school itself looks like a pagoda and its most prominent feature is the central tower, also called tenshukaku.  It has the smallest wizarding population of any of the eleven schools and services students from Japan.  The school begins serving students at 7 years old, however 7-10 year olds are known as day-students and it is only when a child turns eleven that they begin boarding.

Day students and boarding students? Maybe I'd know how to use a quill if Hogwarts had something like that, Harry thought to himself.  He set the folder aside, not having looked at all the schools but so far it seemed that Mahoutokoro was the most interesting, but could he even get in since it was small?  There was no information yet on if the schools accepted international students or not. 

He didn't get a chance to look at the rest of the folder over the next two days for Harry found himself suddenly told to pack a bag and that the family were going on holiday.  Harry took the opportunity to put the folder and some clothes into his bag before grabbing a coat and hurried out the front door before he was left behind.   Piled against Dudley in the backseat, Harry set his bag on the floor at his feet, hearing the car doors of the front passenger and driver sides shut before his uncle started up the car and they drove off.   As they left Privet Drive, Harry had no idea where they were going or why he was being allowed to accompany his relatives. Maybe they thought that he would blow up the house if he were left alone or that he would find a way to contact Hemione or Ron.  The ride was around two hours and Harry realized with a start they seemed to be going the same way they had as when they had been trying to flee the letters addressed to him last year.    

"There you go boy. You can find your own way now," said Uncle Vernon as he suddenly stopped the car on the outskirts of a large town consisting of many streets on which were identical brick terraced houses.  "Your mother supposedly lived in this town with your aunt when they were younger.  Maybe you can find her house and live there."

"Live...there?"

"That's right boy.   We're going to spend our Christmas somewhere nice and have no plans on taking you with us.  Now get," he shouted, and Dudley shoved the smaller boy out of the backseat so that Harry tripped and fell, yelping as the door caught on his ankle and his bag was tossed out after him before the door was closed.   The car then turned around and sped away, leaving a disgruntled and surprised child on the side of the road.  Whatever was he supposed to do now?

As he got to his feet, he winched and whimpered in pain at his ankle before slinging his backpack over his shoulder and hobbling along down the road.  The brick terraced houses all looked the same, the sky covered with clouds and a chilly mist that drifted over everything.   Sow fell lightly from the heavens, and he searched for somewhere to take shelter, deciding to hide within one of the alleys as he didn't think he could walk well on his ankle.  Harry could not believe that he had been left here, in the town that his mother had lived in and was meant to find her house...let alone that he was without protection nor a home to go back to.  He was thinking of Hogwarts and how he missed it despite it only being a few days and yet, he didn't know the Dursleys had no intention of not retrieving him.  

"Hark! The herald angels sing,

Glory to the newborn King;

Peace on earth, and mercy mild,

God and sinners reconciled!

Joyful, all ye nations rise,

Join the triumph of the skies;

With th'angelic host proclaim,

Christ is born in Bethlehem!"

Harry's eyes slowly drifted open, shivering in his coat which was threadbare from having it for three years, having stolen it from the lost and found at school one autumn day before Hogwarts.  Snow fell off him as he sat up and as his stomach gave a rumbling noise, he realized he hadn't eaten anything since breakfast a couple days ago.   What is that? Where...where am I?

"Hark! the herald angels sing,

Glory to the newborn King!

Christ, by highest Heav'n adored;

Christ the everlasting Lord;

Late in time, behold Him come,

Offspring of a virgin's womb.

Veiled in flesh the Godhead see;

Hail th'incarnate Deity,

Pleased with us in flesh to dwell,

Jesus our Emmanuel."

It sounded like...singing? But who could be singing at a time like this?  As Harry slowly sat up, snow fell off him, the ache in his ankle having settled with the snow piled on top of it but the boy must have lost his shoes for as he got to his feet, only socks hit the cold cement below.   He turned his head towards the sound of voices and slowly followed it after retrieving his bag, the cold snow seeping through his socks and stinging his feet.  Oh right...Hogwarts.  And the Dursleys...they'd left him here. Where was he again?

The town was a dreary place but there were some lights on the roofs of homes and holly strung about on doors.  "Excuse me?" he questioned a woman in a group that passed. "What....what day is it?"

"While it's Christmas Eve child.  Oh my...you look well spent.  Come along dear and join us. Perhaps the spirit of Christmas will warm your soul before we get food into your stomach there."

"Oh...thank you," said Harry, perturbed and surprised at the woman's kindness.  He found himself swept into the small crowd of carolers and gazing at the lights and the cheery lamps in the windows that lit up rooms, the Christmas trees as well.  When his relatives kicked him out on Christmases past before Hogwarts, Harry had enjoyed strolling through the town and looking at the Christmas lights and decorations. He'd never gotten to put any up himself nor gotten any presents or even share in the Christmas feast and pudding that he had to make for his relatives but maybe...maybe things could be different this year?  Why doesn't Hogwarts have something like this?  Oh right...because of all the purebloods.

Severus was glad to be home for the holidays, even if he was not expecting the school to be closed.  Though he couldn't say that he wasn't glad of a reprieve from teaching dunderheads who didn't appreciate Potions and nearly caused a disaster every year, particularly Potter's second year Gryffindor-Slytherin class.  Having both Potter and Longbottom in his Potions class was an utter disaster.  He wished neither had been born in the same year or that one of them had not come to Hogwarts at all.  Some might say that was selfish of him but the first-year class with the two lions who were the prophesied children was a horrible class, even without Potter's lack of talent and Longbottom's stupidity.  Really, no wonder the Dark Lord hadn't touched the pureblood child. He probably knew what an imbecile Longbottom would be despite having parents that were Aurors.

Severus had come back to his home in Cokeworth, a home dubbed Spinner's End and the place where he had spent his entire life, except when going to Hogwarts.  Merlin, he hated this place for it gave him bad memories, but he never went to his summer cottage except during the summer and nobody knew about it.  An important thing when one was a spy.  He had been content to enjoy his Christmas alone in his home and perhaps brew some potions.  Brewing was always relaxing and something he hadn't really gotten to do since becoming a professor. Though he was not sure what he would do now that he was effectively out of a job.   He had some money to live on from his mother and his time in the Dark Lord's service.  Maybe he'd open an apothecary of his own.  Severus had just gotten a fire started in the hearth when he heard voices outside his window.  He wasn't much for the Christmas spirit and was pondering the letter he had received from Grandfather Ferdinand told him that he had to attend the Christmas celebration and he had to bring his child.   

His grandfather was a strict man, but Severus was at a loss. Where did one find twelve-year-old children to borrow for the Christmas holidays? He wasn't at school so he couldn't just confound one of his students and pass them off as his child, then oblivate them afterwards when school started again.  There were no ‘child-for-rent' agencies either, at least not in Britain that he knew of.  This presented a problem as there was no way he could get out of it, and he could not possibly show up without a child.  Why, oh why, had he told his relatives about having a child when he had been younger?!

"In the bleak mid-winter

Frosty wind made moan

Earth stood hard as iron,

Water like a stone;

Snow had fallen, snow on snow,

Snow on snow,

In the bleak mid-winter

Long ago."

Puzzling over the difficulty of somehow procuring a child for the Christmas holidays, of which he knew he'd be expected to stay until after New Year's, Severus Snape looked towards the door as he heard singing outside.  "What is that infernal racket?"

"Our God, heaven cannot hold Him

Nor earth sustain,

Heaven and earth shall flee away

When He comes to reign:

In the bleak mid-winter

A stable-place sufficed

The Lord God Almighty -

Jesus Christ."

He got to his feet and made his way across the room to the front door, peeking out the window to see a group of carolers outside in the evening snow.  Carolers...ugh he forgot this was a tradition among Muggles. They'd certainly never come here when he was a child due to his father's demeanor and then he'd spent his holidays at Hogwarts.  Severus let the curtain fall to cover the window once more and used his wand to levitate a plate of warm gingerbread men and some Styrofoam cups of hot chocolate which he set on a table beside the door.  Opening it, he was greeted with a small crowd of children to adults singing and bundled up in coats, mittens, hats and scarves to stave away the cold. 

"Enough for Him, whom cherubim

Worship night and day,

A breastful of milk

And a mangerful of hay;

Enough for Him, whom Angels

Fall down before,

The ox and ass and camel

Which adore.

Angels and Archangels

May have gathered there,

Cherubim and seraphim

Thronged the air;

But only His Mother

In her maiden bliss

Worshipped the Beloved

With a kiss."

With a start, Severus realized this carol was an old one. He knew it to be A Christmas Carol and that the carol itself had first been published in the year 1872 in Scribner's Monthly, written by a woman named Christina Rossetti.   He listened to the last verse of the carol before offering out the cups of hot chocolate and gingerbread men which filled his home, unwillingly singing along with them.  It was something his uncle Sable had introduced him to as a boy.  Despite his family being purebloods, there were a few oddities that liked some Muggle traditions.  They just didn't believe in mixing much with Muggles, let alone marrying them.  The Prince family, at least, wasn't as inbred as some other families and he was grateful for that.

"What can I give Him,

Poor as I am? -

If I were a Shepherd

I would bring a lamb;

If I were a Wise Man

I would do my part, -

Yet what I can I give Him, -

Give my heart."

"Merry Christmas," Severus said as the children ran up and took the gingerbread men in their mittened hands, adults and adolescents thanking him for the hot chocolate and gingerbread. Not many knew it, but the man enjoyed baking.  Having learned it from his mother and aunt on the Snape side, he was glad that he had kept this muggle habit to himself.  None of his...friends...would have understood in Slytherin.

Gradually the cups of hot chocolate and gingerbread men were removed with only a few left as the carolers moved on down the road and he closed the door behind them, locking it and returning to his spot by the fire, taking one of the gingerbread men with him to nibble upon, setting the gingerbread man aside after a while and drifting off to sleep.

Harry hadn't dared take the hot chocolate and gingerbread man offered, instead hanging out in the back of the group so he couldn't be seen and thankfully none pushed him forward or bothered to ask him why.  As it had been a few years since he had sung any Christmas carols, his voice was rather rusty to his ears and soon he had fallen silent as they passed from house to house.  Some did not appreciate the carolers' at their doorsteps and some houses were completely dark...these they passed by....but they were drawing closer to the end of the street.  Gradually, Harry fell behind for his hobbled ankle made his gait difficult and he found he couldn't walk much further on an empty stomach and with his injury.  The light in the house they stopped at, on a road called Spinner's End, soon went out and Harry gradually slipped back to sit beneath a window of the home that looked like all the others, only somehow more unkempt than those around it as if the inhabitant or inhabitants had not lived there in some time.

Shivering, he pulled his coat tightly about his shoulders and tried not to fall asleep.  He hugged his backpack tightly to him as he tried to not fall asleep for he understood that were he to do so, he could potentially not wake up.  To keep himself awake, Harry's hoarse voice began to sing one of his favorite carols, It Came Upon a Midnight Clear.

"It came upon the midnight clear,

That glorious song of old,

From angels bending near the earth,

To touch their harps of gold;

"Peace on the earth, good will to men,

From Heav'n's all-gracious King."

The world in solemn stillness lay,

To hear the angels sing.

"Still through the cloven skies they come

With peaceful wings unfurled,

And still their heav'nly music floats

O'er all the weary world;

Above its sad and lowly plains,

They bend on hov'ring wing,

And ever o'er its Babel sounds

The blessed angels sing.

"Yet with the woes of sin and strife

The world has suffered long;

Beneath the angel strain have rolled

Two thousand years of wrong;

And man, at war with man, hears not

The love-song which they bring;

Oh, hush the noise, ye men of strife

And hear the angels sing."

His voice grew quieter as time passed and the night grew darker, colder, bringing with it a more moderate snow than it had been when Harry had woken from his sleep earlier. He shivered, a natural response to his body being cold and raised his bare hands to his mouth before blowing into them, unaware of the face at the window looking down upon him or that he had attracted the occupant of the house or that it was his potions professor upon who's home he graced his presence. 

Severus Snape was not a patient man, nor did he appreciate being woken up by the feeling of something being off.  He knew, on instinct, it was not the mark on his wrist for his mistake hadn't burned since the Dark Lord's fall.  What then could it be that had woken him so? What time was it?  The fire was low in the hearth, the candle lamp casting the room into shadow and Severus reached for his wand on the table beside him, muttering a quick "Lumus" to light his way before waving it at the candle lamp and relighting it as well as doing the same with the same with the fire, levitating a couple fresh logs onto the fire.  

He slowly moved across the floor, ears straining for the slightest bit of sound and in his tired state was able to make out the sound of singing.  Singing? Had those ruddy carolers come back?  But no...it sounded like a child's voice and he peered out the open window, his wand held aloft for light.  There was indeed a child sitting beneath his windowsill and a mop of black hair adorning the head of the child who seemed to be blowing warm air into bare hands which he would make out under the glow of his wand light and the moon above in the sky. 

He started as he realized where he had seen the child's hair before and frowned.  Potter? What was Potter doing in Spinner's End?  Severus knew he had dropped the boy off at the doorstep of his relatives!  Had the blasted boy run away?   Of all the arrogant and stupid...

Harry hadn't noticed his professor as he continued singing to himself, softly...quietly...alone into the chilly winter night.  He lowered his hands to his lap and tucked them into the threadbare coat he wore as his hoarse voice wobbled out the last two verses of the carol, a favorite of his. 

"And ye, beneath life's crushing load,

Whose forms are bending low,

Who toil along the climbing way

With painful steps and slow,

Look now! for glad and golden hours

Come swiftly on the wing.

Oh, rest beside the weary road,

And hear the angels sing!

For lo! the days are hast'ning on,

By prophet seen of old,

When with the ever-circling years

Shall come the time foretold

When Christ shall come and all shall own

The Prince of Peace, their King,

And saints shall meet Him in the air,

And with the angels sing."

As his voice faded, he shivered as a gust of wind roared past and attempted to shrink further into the coat around his shoulders, yet it did naught to stuff out the wind and biting cold that tickled his nose, his cheeks, his bare hands.   Leaving them numb and cold, tinged pink, he was sure to get frostbite if he didn't do something soon but there was naught he could do.  Above him, staring silently down at the child, Severus was attempting to process the fact that the Boy-Who-Lived was underneath his windowsill and had just finished singing a carol.  What time was it even?  He wasn't sure but he knew one thing for sure...he'd have to get the boy inside before he caught his death and Dumbledore, or worse Minerva had his head. 

Opening the window a bit more, the child beneath it seemed preoccupied and he pondered at the boy's lack of warm clothing though he couldn't see much from this angle. Once the window was open all the way, letting in a blast of cold air and snow, he reached out and grabbed the child by his coat, hauling the startled child inside before closing the window  and turning to the boy.   "Potter...what are you doing here?" He stared at the shivering child who clutched the backpack to him, the boy's clothes looking several sizes too big for him, and he scoffed at the rags the child wore.  They made the child look utterly ridiculous on his otherwise scrawny frame.  "Answer me!"