Harry stirred from sleep as someone tapped his foot, and noted that he was uncomfortably hot. "I'm up sir," Harry said, pulling a heavy gray wool blanket off of him. He heard a crackling and turned to see that there was a roaring fire in the fireplace, which just made it feel a little more like Christmas.

"Did I miss breakfast?"

Severus shook his head. "No. It's on the table along with hot chocolate."

Harry rose and followed Snape into the dining area where there was a small feast on the small table, along with two plates. Seeing Harry's eyes nearly bug out at the amount of food, Severus chuckled and had a seat.

"Is this tradition too?" Harry asked. He knew the Dursleys often had large meals around the holidays seeing as how it was the only time he was let out of his cupboard because he was needed to help cook the meal.

"I believe it is." He began loading his plate up with food and watched as Harry dug in also, filling his plate with bacon, eggs, an English muffin, sausage, fried potatoes, a blueberry muffin, and an orange frosted cinnamon roll.

"Is that a cake on the counter?" Harry observed a few minutes after he'd seemingly gone into a trance while scarfing down the delicious food.

"My grandmother ate coffee cake once a year on Christmas day."

Harry eyed it for a moment longer before deciding that he couldn't possibly eat anymore. He wished every day were Christmas if he could eat like this.

"Why did your grandparents celebrate Christmas the day before?"

"They went visiting on Christmas day. Something wealthy wizarding families often engage in. I believe the Malfoys celebrate in the same manner."

"Oh," Harry said. Again he wondered that Snape came from a wealthy magical family, probably pureblood at that. "Are we going to visit someone then?"

"I had planned a trip, yes, but not to visit." Severus could tell that this had peaked Harry's interest as the boy's brows raised.

"Good, because for a second I thought you were going to say I had to spend the day with Draco," Harry joked.

"You will be," Severus said then in a serious tone, and Harry's face fell as he grimaced. Severus held up a hand then and smiled. "I was merely joking."

Harry gave him a wary look and then smiled. "I want an extra piece of cake for that," he said with a grin, and Severus gave another small smile as well.

"We will be going shopping in Ward's Cross."

"Where's that? I thought everything would be closed."

"It's a magical village similar to Diagonalley and Hogsmead. It is tucked up in the hills behind Loch Ness."

"Loch Ness? As in where the monster lives? I thought Hogsmead was the only all magical village in Britain?"

"Ward's cross has several squibs that live in the village as well as several half Muggle half Wizarding families. And as for the monster, it's nothing more than sport for the Mer-People to drag a long dead dragon skin up to the surface and trail it along when there's Muggles to see."

Harry shook his head then in disbelief. All these years after the specials he'd seen on the telly, he'd really believed there was a monster.

"Are you going to crush my belief in the Yeti too?"

Severus raised a brow. "The Yeti is a magical creature to be feared. If you were ever to see one, I would run and pray that it does not catch you. It is a dangerous creature that is a half breed between giants and bears, although the headmaster once told me there was primate mixed in as well."

"Good to know," Harry said as he stood up and began clearing dishes from the table, although he snagged another muffin. Severus noticed that the boy ate it there instead of stuffing it or other food into a pocket. Good, he thought, he's not still in survival mode.

"I don't have any money from my vault," Harry said then. "Just a few knuts left in my bag."

"There is a Gringotts branch in Ward's Cross, but you will not need to access it."

"Oh."

When the kitchen was clean, Harry was told to put on something warm, although Severus was disappointed to find that the teen's warmest clothing was nothing more than a thin sweat jacket, and then Harry was handed a cup with barely more than a sip of electric blue potion.

"What is it?" He asked cautiously as Severus drank his down.

"It will make you take on some of my features and it will make me take on some of yours. We should not be recognizable to anyone we may come across while out."

Harry shrugged and drank it down, and then looked up at Snape in surprise to see that his hair shortened considerably, his eyes turned green, and his nose straightened out. He distinctly looked un-Snapeish.

"What do I look like then?"

Severus conjured a mirror and Harry examined himself. His hair was trimmed nicely as opposed to going everywhere, his nose had elongated a little, his scar was gone, his eyebrows had thickened, and he was surprised to find that he was now nearly six inches taller.

"You should not require your glasses, as I do not."

"That was a lot more pleasant than Polyjuice," Harry commented as he took his glasses off. In fact he hadn't felt a thing.

"It is a watered down variety with different ingredients. A potion of my own invention. I was not aware that you'd had Polyjuice before."

Harry grinned sheepishly. "Maybe it's better if we keep it that way."

Severus raised a brow and Harry snickered because he didn't look like himself at all. "What's your name then if I can't call you Professor Snape in public?"

Suddenly Severus fidgeted uncomfortably and said, "I believe we look like father and son. Villagers may find it strange if you call me by a given name."

"Oh," Harry said. "Who shall I be then? I think Issac, or maybe Aiden."

"Issac," Severus experimented. "Let us depart then. The potion gives us six hours." He held out his arm for Harry to take, and before Harry knew that it had happened, he'd been apparated to a dirt lane covered in snow in a wooded little town. It was sunny out despite the cold, and Harry couldn't help but feeling excited to be out. Much better than moping around the common room with no presents.

"It looks a lot like Hogsmead," Harry said. There weren't a lot of people out yet, but there were a few, mainly shop owners.

"If I am not mistaken, the founders of Hogsmead and Ward's Cross were related."

Severus motioned for Harry to move towards a store, and they went inside. "Everything is going on a tab," he told Harry then as they entered a furniture store. "Do not worry about cost. This too is tradition and we would do well not to break it."

"What do you mean?"

"It means you will go and choose your own presents," Severus said, knowing very well that this was a tradition he had only started that morning. He intended to give Harry some security by letting him take part in tradition as well as letting him personalize the guest room. If he could get his way with the Headmaster once they returned, Harry would not be returning to Privet Drive.

"What shall I buy then?"

"I suggest a desk and chair to your liking. There are decorations and bedding on the second floor."
Feeling a little strange at being let loose in a store and told to buy what he wanted, Harry moved off, passing the desks and making his way to the second floor. Severus stayed on the first level chatting with the lonely looking store owner who desired to strike up a conversation.

"Your dad lettin' you buy what you want for Christmas then?" a boy of about ten years old said from a bean bag chair in the corner.

Harry nodded, not wanting to lie to the boy and say that it wasn't his father. "We just got some new Quidditch posters in," the boy said, motioning to the wall to Harry's left. "Only a sickle each, and each one I sell my da says I get to keep the profit. If I earn enough I'm going to buy a racing broom before I go to Hogwarts next year."

"How many should I buy then," Harry laughed, and the boy held up five fingers.

"What else do you get to keep the profit from?" he asked as he went over and picked out five rolled up posters. He figured he might as well get one for each boy in the Gryffindor dorm, and picked out the teams accordingly, even though he knew he'd received no gifts from them this year.

"The boy's bedspreads. My sister gets to keep all the money from the girl's ones because she picked out the designs on those."

Harry went over to look at the blankets and found one he liked. It was a simple quilt made of squares all the same size in alternating shades of dark and darker red.

"Have I bought you your broom yet then?" Harry asked, and the boy said, "I reckon by spring I'll have enough." He took the bedspread from Harry then and they climbed back down the ladder that slanted almost enough to be stairs.

"Da, I'm up to 35 Galleons now," the boy boasted as he set Harry's things on the counter.

Severus raised a brow but Harry gave him a look and shook his head.

"Good job son," the shop owner said as he tallied up Harry's purchase, 1 Galleon total.

Severus paid for the items before banishing them with his wand. "Where'd they go?" Harry asked.

"Back to the house. You will not learn item apparation until your seventh year."

They hurried out of the cold into a book store that was decorated for the holiday, and Harry was amazed that he had just been told to purchase ten or fifteen books that interested him.

"But I already got a lot of things," he said, confused.

"I told you that you are not to worry about the money. Be on your way. I will be in the defense section."

Harry was surprised the man hadn't headed straight to the Potions section, but moved off himself to look for more action novels like the one he'd accidentally borrowed from Ron. He tucked the next two in the series under his arm before going to look for Quidditch books, and then on to the Defense section where he found his professor sitting in an oversized armchair engrossed in a book.

"Are you finished?"

Harry set ten books down on the table. Two action novels, two Quidditch books, three defense texts, and three drawing books he'd picked up on his way to the defense section. He'd always wanted to learn to draw, but had never had the money to get drawing books nor had anyone to teach him.

"Yes," Harry said, and they purchased their books, Severus having picked up several of his own.

"One more stop and then we will go to lunch."

Harry nodded and they went into a clothing store that was very narrow, but three stories high with a winding staircase that went up to each level.

"Men's on third," a twenty something girl said when they came in, and Harry and Snape both went up to the third floor.

"I can't possibly get anything else," Harry tried to beg off when Snape had practically told him to get a new wardrobe. He really didn't need three new shirts, three new pairs of pants, a new coat, and new boots. He could use a new hat and pair of gloves seeing as how he had none, but he'd been given so much already that he felt bad about taking anymore.

"Tradition," Severus said.

Harry bit his lip. "Ron would like your traditions," Harry said as he turned to a rack full of shirts.

"And what about you?"

Harry turned and gave him a crooked smile before he went about picking out the new clothing. It would be his first new clothing since getting robes. Robes were the only thing he ever got new since he needed a new set every year.

When Harry lingered overlong at the rack of hanging gloves and hats, Severus told him it was mandatory to get two hats and a pair of gloves as well, which Harry finally didn't argue with.

Instead of sending the purchases home after they'd paid for them, Severus directed Harry to the changing room, where Harry was pleased to put on a new pair of dark blue jeans, a dark green shirt with a broad tan stripe across the chest, his new dark blue heavy winter coat, and his dark red beanie and mittens. He wanted to wear the new black boots too, but didn't want to ruin them in the snow, so he left them in the bag and came back out, finally feeling warm.

Severus gave him a close looking over before nodding in approval. "Lunch then," he said, and they headed out into the bright sunlight and now street full of people.

"How is it the other Muggles don't know about this place if it's so close to Loch Ness. Is it like Hogwarts?"

"Anyone with the password can get in. They couldn't put anti-Muggle charms on it because there are Muggles that live here."

"What's the password?"

"Simply the name of the village. In the spring they change the name to Moss Wart until the fall when all the Moss Wart dies."

"They actually change the name?"

"They believe it keeps unwanted visitors away. Like changing common room passwords at Hogwarts."

"Hm."

They enjoyed a warm Christmas meal at a little restaurant full of people trying to get warm, and then went to one last store, where Severus insisted that Harry choose an area rug to his liking, as well as a board game.

It was almost three o'clock when they returned back to Snape's home.

"Your items are all upstairs," Severus said, and Harry went upstairs to find bags and bags of purchases on the guest bed. He was also surprised to find that Snape had followed him up.

"These things should make the room appeal more to the eye," he commented, waving his wand at the area rug, which unrolled itself in midair and then suddenly disappeared, only to reappear a moment later directly under the bed, where it stuck out for two feet at all the edges.

"Sir?"

Severus turned to see that the potion had worn off and that Harry was looking anxious. "Yes?"

"You didn't have to buy me all of this stuff. I won't really be able to take it with me back to my aunt and uncle's house. They'll just throw it out."

Hands on his hips Severus said, "I suppose we'll just have to keep it here then, and you'll have to come here to use it."

Harry frowned. "I'll get to come back?"

"You are welcome here any time that you want Harry," Severus said then. "See there, that rug is yours and it's on the floor, I guess that makes this your room."

"Will the Headmaster let me?" Harry hedged. He did not fail to notice that Snape had just called the room his.

"I will be speaking to him when we return. Do not worry yourself over it."

Harry smiled then and said, "What other traditions do you have on Christmas?"

"I have none, but perhaps we can start a new one. I was thinking about making some cookies..."

Harry was already up off the bed and looking eager however, and he lead the teen downstairs to the kitchen, where Harry decided that pumpkin cookies sounded appetizing, and they were after Harry threw the first batch out that Snape had burnt and started another.

After dinner that evening, when Harry was nearly sick to his stomach from sweets and cake, (although mainly he'd eaten the large chocolate bar to test out if it would really grow back), they sat in front of the large fireplace and read the new books they'd bought until Harry started to doze off in the chair.

"Mr. Potter, I believe it is time for you to go to bed."

Harry opened his eyes and closed his book. He wasn't sure if he was just overwhelmed with happiness at that moment, or perhaps overcome with a drunken feeling from the sugar high he was coming down from, but Harry stood and looked over to Snape, whom he no longer resembled as much as he had that morning after they'd taken the potion.

"Sir."

"Yes?"

"This was the best Christmas."

"Oh?"

Harry was silent for a moment, and then said, "I liked it when they thought you were my dad."

Severus stared up at the teen for a moment before Harry seemed to realize himself then and blushed before he waved and said goodnight before hurrying up the stairs to his room.

He sat there for long moments in the dim light by the fire, book forgotten as he was immersed in his thoughts. The boy had had what he called his best Christmas, but he didn't identify it as such because of the good food, excess of candy, or numerous new gifts he'd received. It was his best Christmas because for a little while he got to pretend he was Severus Snape's son. And if Severus were honest with himself, it was his best Christmas for the same reason. Now there was a thought worth thinking about.