While Toby was putting up their colourfully charmed pine cones in their dormitory, Harry had moved downstairs to the common room where he frowned intently at the letter Snape had sent him a while ago. Harry hadn't wanted to open it and as he sat there in silence, staring at the sealed envelope, he ran through his mind the things he had recently learned about the man he had once hated.

Because in truth, Harry could not find it in himself to hate Snape any longer.

The man had suffered as he had; in similar ways and different situations, but they'd both had a childhood taken from them and lacked a loving family. The more Harry thought about it the more he wondered if any of this had contributed to why Snape was such a bitter and sour man.

Exhaling slowly, Harry reached to touch the line of the envelope's opening but hesitated further still...what if it contained a bad reply to his guess? Snape had requested a satisfactory response to the fictional scenario involving an unknown wizard's death, and yet Harry hadn't really given him one; he had been so convinced that the man was testing him instead.

Deciding that he was willing to take that chance since Snape would technically be annoyed with S.J.E instead of himself, Harry tore open the envelope and extracted the letter from within. It was surprisingly longer in length than what he had come to expect.

Harry exhaled with intense relief when he read that and was pleased to know that he no longer had to answer a bunch of theoretical puzzles and scenarios each time he wanted to ask something. Curious as to why this letter would be so lengthy if that was all Snape really needed to say, Harry lowered his eyes to continue reading.

Harry frowned as he read over those options and honestly hadn't noticed that there was indeed quite a long period of time between their letters, mostly because he had been busy and hadn't found the time to reply. Or lately, he simply hadn't wanted to.

Sighing, Harry knew that the only suggestion that would really work for him would be the second one. Even as he felt a sting of resentment towards how it was similar to the mirrors he and Sirius would have shared, and yet it was Snape in which would be at the other end instead.

Gulping, Harry suddenly felt an intense rush of relief towards the fact that he had decided to read his letter while it was still December. He shuddered to think of what would happen if Snape found out it was him writing those replies and than to march up to him in the middle of breakfast in front of the entire school.

Harry believed that such an embarrassment would kill him where Voldemort could not.

Harry grabbed a nearby quill, spare piece of parchment and a textbook to lean on, as he formulated a reply and spelled the handwriting; it would indeed be less annoying to have to spell every single reply. Spotting Hedwig nearby, he was tempted to use her but knew that Snape may recognize his snowy owl and didn't want to risk it.

'Dobby?' Harry called just as he heard Toby's feet running around above. The boy burst into view with a huge grin on his face.

'I'm done!' Toby announced. 'Come see, Harry. Come on, have a look!' The boy pleaded with obvious glee and pride.

'Hang on.' Harry answered as Dobby appeared in front of him.

'Yes, Master Harry Potter, sir?' Dobby bowed.

'Could you get this letter to Snape without him seeing you?' Harry handed the folded parchment to the house-elf.

'Of course, Master Harry Potter, Dobby would be honored to deliver his letter for him.' The elf bowed and popped away to do exactly that.

'Aright, I'm coming!' Harry sighed heavily when the impatient Toby grasped his hand and tried to tug him back upstairs to the dormitory. Although, he had to admit that their Christmas branch was coming along rather nicely. It stood upright in the cauldron, decorated with their hand-drawn pictures and colourfully charmed pine cones. Small strings of tinsel was also wrapped the smaller branches in odd places; no doubt Toby had stolen them from the larger Christmas tree that stood tall in the Common Room.

'Do you like it?' The small boy asked anxiously.

'It's brilliant.' Harry grinned as he praised the small boy, since it was Toby who did most of the decorating.

'I'm hungry, when's Dobby bringing the feast to us?' Toby wondered.

Normally if Harry stayed behind for Christmas, as he had most years until he began to join the Weasleys more often, he would enjoy the feast in the Great Hall with those that had already remained behind, as well as the few staff members too. This year, however, with Toby to share it with this wasn't an advised option and therefore Dobby would be sending a portion of the feast to a table in the common room for the boys to enjoy together. Harry didn't know it, but permission had to be gained to do this and the house-elf had been granted it by Dumbledore.

Upon remembrance, it also pained Harry to recall that his last Christmas had been at Grimmauld place with Sirius.

'We've still got time.' Harry answered. 'Fancy a game of chess?'

'Yeah.' Toby sighed as he was looking forward to the feast and also wanted to improve his chess skills, which so far could easily be described as “nonexistent”.

The boys had eaten their fill, showered, and headed to bed later than they'd planned. Snug under the covers, Toby dreamed about the grey cat he had found, then of swinging from long strings of tinsel, the library filled with lemon tarts, being chased by towering trees, and making chocolate pudding in a rainbow cauldron.

Harry however, mostly dreamed of memories of some of his previous Christmases, and than of a younger Snape being followed by four Gryffindor-coloured shadows. He was yanked from his slumber by a grinning-Toby that following morning.

'It's Christmas!' Toby declared happily. Now that he had woken Harry, he turned and ran down the dormitory stairs to burst into the common room.

'And we've got presents!' He shouted with pure, unrestrained glee.

Harry yawned and put on his glasses as he pulled himself from the bed and ventured to join the boy. 'Happy Christmas, Toby.' He added with a smile as he sat cross-legged on the floor with his brother.

'Happy Christmas, Harry.' Toby nodded back with a gin so wide that all of his teeth were in sight, including his new one that had recently come through.

And without further ado, the boys began to reach for their gifts and tear open the wrappings.

Harry got a sweater with a large Golden Snitch on the front from Mrs Weasley, a large box of Weasley's Wizard Weezes products from Fred and George, a set of Quidditch posters from Ron, sweets and a book titled “A Guide to Muggle Plants in Potions and How to Make them Useful” from Hermione, a large bag of rock hard cookies from Hagrid, a colourful assortment of mis-matched socks from Dobby, a book called “A Young Potioneer's Guide to Mastered Potions” from Irma, a package from Kreacher that he didn't dare to open, and a very large drawing from Toby.

'Wow, thank you.' Harry said to the boy.

It was a piece of paper roughly three feet long and high. Detailed in colour and with maturing skill was a castle (Hogwarts, surely), several people on what appeared to be pointy sticks (broomsticks, perhaps?), and many other bits and pieces that Toby had added but would take at least half an hour for Harry to look at them all. It was really good and the boy had clearly spent a lot of time and effort on it.

'Do you really like it?' Toby bit his lip nervously as he looked over at him. 'Miss Hermione helped me make the paper bigger and put some spells on things.' Surely enough, a few objects moved occasionally or the people waved.

'And if you touch stuff, her words come up to tell you who the people are...in case they move too fast.' He added. Actually, that was likely the reason Hermione had told him when actually it would be so Harry could tell who was who.

'It's really good.' Harry nodded. 'What did you get?' He wondered, surprised to see a pile of unwrapped gifts beside the boy.

Toby had received a colour-changing wizard's hat from Ron, a silver whistle from Seamus that bursts with Irish tunes when blown, a muggle football from Dean, a small gardening pot from Neville with soil and a strange flower budding inside, a box of Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans and a small child's telescope from Hermione, a rainbow-coloured quill from Ginny that changes the colour of it's ink daily, rock cakes from Hagrid, an assortment of mis-matched gloves from Dobby, a thick book of humorous children stories from Irma, and five things from Harry: a brand new, black cloak with a silver fasting, a magic pop-up book about dragons, a stuffed hippogriff toy, a chess set, and a child's training snitch that glows in the dark.

'They're all really great!' Toby's eyes brimmed with tears. 'I-I've never had presents before.' He lunged at Harry and wrapped his arms tightly around the teen.

'Thank-you, thank-you, for letting me come to Hogwarts and for being the best big brother ever!'

'You're welcome.' Harry hugged him back as he smiled. 'Thanks for being the best little brother anyone could ask for.' He added.

Toby chuckled and smiled shyly at him. He than frowned as he tilted his head to the side and pointed at an armchair near the tree. 'I think you missed one.'

Harry reached over and grabbed a roll of parchment wrapped with an emerald ribbon. The note attached read:

Harry held the promised communication parchment in his hands and smiled as he stared at the note. It was a rather quick response, as though the man had either predicted his answer and had it ready or...Snape had worked on it last night. How long would it take to apply all of those charms to two rolls of parchment and making them match? Either way, Harry grasped it and added it to his pile of gifts; he didn't care what it had been intended for, he was going to consider it a gift.

Imagine that, Severus Snape sending Harry Potter a Christmas gift...yeah, that was as crazy as trees fighting back.

Huh, guess it's possible then.

As Toby settled to enjoy and play with his new presents before breakfast, Harry moved to an armchair by the fire and stared down at his unrolled piece of parchment. Leaning on the back of a random book, Harry has his green inked quill poised to write. He was far too curious not to and wanted to test the handwriting spell as well as the charmed object in general.

Happy Christmas, sir.

Harry stared at the writing and was please to note that it turned out almost exactly as it had whenever he'd applied the handwriting spell himself. He must have stared at his own words for at least two minutes before they faded and were replaced with new ones, something he had not at all been expecting.

Harry laughed at the reply and noticed that Snape's writing looked different as well, but if you knew who it was from than it was still rather simple to tell notice the similarities. Hooked already and enjoying himself, Harry snatched at his quill and replied.

'Is that the magic letter thing you're writing to Snape with?'Toby peered over at him.

'Yes.' Harry nodded. 'And it works brilliantly.'

'Can I ask my questions now?' Toby wondered eagerly. 'I can still remember them!'

'Yeah, go on.' Harry scribbled something else down and than listened to the boy reciting what he wanted to know.

Severus growled again as a spelled alarm dinged nearby. His eyes trailed from the list of ingredient stores he needed to restock, to the roll of parchment that rested open at the end of his desk. He saw the boy's words writing themselves one the surface and regretted making such an offer for the teenager to use it whenever. What had he been thinking when he'd made that suggestion? No matter, the misjudgment had been made and now he was forced to endure it.

Sighing, Severus pulled the parchment closer and read over the answer. Yes, he remembered that the boy was an orphan, yet it was still Christmas and writing to his professor seems to be a poor way of spending the festive day. Unless he was finding great amusement from this and no doubt the attitude-expressing boy was.

And then there were the questions. For a six-year-old, they actually weren't too bad. Far better than Severus had been expecting, anyway.

Harry sat and read the reply aloud while Toby hung over the top of the armchair to listen. The boy was satisfied with all the answers except one part. Frowning at Harry, he watched relentlessly as his brother wrote down his reply and added to it.

The boys sat back and called Dobby to order the breakfast they wanted, having a lot of fun personally picking out each food item and drink. Afterwards they headed outdoors to built a snow-wizard that ended up looking a lot like Snape with a hat - otherwise their creation would look rather bald). They'd planned to check on the cat as well but when they knocked on the door of Hagrid's hut, there was no answer.

By lunch, Toby was enjoying his presents and the food Dobby had brought him while Harry thought he should head to the Great Hall. If he failed to make an appearance than the others were likely to get rather suspicious. And so he left his brother in the common room with Dobby as the boy played with his new toys and fussed over the books. Harry walked through the portrait hole and down the stairs, skidding to a calm stop just short of the Great Hall.

Inside the staff and few remaining students were seated together around a large round table as they prepared to enjoy the Christmas lunch. Harry was momentarily horrified to see Draco and Blaise amongst them.

'Ah, Harry m'boy!' Slughorn spotted him from where he was seated beside McGonagall.

'We were beginning to worry.' He said, although only three out of the others (which were at least twenty), actually looked over at him as though that was true. Hagrid beamed at him, Dumbledore smiled, McGonagall nodded in greeting, Irma raised at eyebrow to criticize his lateness, and Trelawney gasped dramatically.

'Come, come!' Slughorn encouraged.

'Yeah um, sorry I'm late.' Harry blushed more to Irma than anyone as he moved to one of the few empty seats left beside her and the other empty one to his left. Slughorn was beside Irma, followed by McGonagall, Dumbledore and than Hagrid etc.

'No to worry, m'boy.' Slughorn hadn't seen Irma's expression and merely chuckled at the suggestion. 'How have you been keeping?'

'Fine, sir.' Harry nodded as he dutifully helped himself to some Christmas ham and mince pies.

'Not studying too hard, I hope?' Even Slughorn nodded the darker rings around Harry's eyes that were still yet to fade. 'Knowing your material is essential for a NEWT student, but so is getting plenty of rest.'

Harry had no time to formulate an excuse or reply when he spotted instant movement across the table and saw Draco get to his feet a few chairs away. The blonde's gaze was directed towards the door, where Snape stood hesitantly.

'Severus!' Slughorn grinned at him as much as he had to Harry, although with a little more wine in his system. 'There's plenty of room for one more.'

'Mr Malfoy.' Severus greeted Draco, who now seemed embarrassed to suddenly standing, although it had been a polite sign of respect that had occurred instinctively when he'd see his head of house and godfather standing there.

'Severus?' McGonagall looked surprised as she watched the dark-clad man approach and scan the table for a suitable seat. Not wanting to be seated between Trelawney and Dumbledore (Hagrid had just left), nor with a group of giggling third year girls, his reluctant gaze fell to the empty chair between Harry and Blaise.

'Atta boy, join in on the fun for once, won't you, Severus?' Slughorn nodded at him.

He turned back to Harry, who was now feeling very nervous and unprotected about being in the chair directly to Snape's right. Thankfully, the man was currently choosing to ignore him.

'What?' Harry realized Slughorn was talking to him. Catching Irma's glare, he quickly recovered.

'I mean...pardon, sir?'

Severus withheld a sneer of dislike towards Potter's rudeness and reached for his goblet of wine. He wasn't sure why he had even bothered to leave the safety of his dungeons to venture into the dangerous room that was the Great Hall during Christmas lunch. Severus supposed he had S.J.E to blame for it.

'Yeah, I've just been really busy lately, sir.' The boy was saying and Severus was certain the brat was referring to whatever trouble he was getting himself into this time. He refused to acknowledge the fact that he had caught the Gryffindor in the middle of very little wrongdoing in the past weeks and simply decided the boy was getting sneakier.

'I'm surprised you've decided to remain behind at Hogwarts this Christmas, Mr Potter.' McGonagall spoke. Severus lifted his head a little to listen more closely.

'With Mr Weasley returning to the burrow, I'd have thought you'd join him.'

'I wanted to at first, Professor.' Harry replied. 'But there will be plenty of time to do that after I graduate and this is my second-last year at Hogwarts so I wanted to make the most of it.'

Severus had to admit, that lie was perfectly delivered. Although Potter had never been an exceptionally good liar and he worried about where this skill had been given the chance to develop.

--

As the meal progressed, Severus found himself caring less and less about the conversations around him and merely settled to serving himself a small portion of food and an even larger serving of wine.

'Having a good Christmas, Harry?' Dumbledore smiled at him.

Harry opened his mouth to say “yes, sir”, but stopped and remembered that the headmaster had been keeping knowledge to himself about Toby and hadn't bothered to share this fact with him. Frowning, he decided to steer away from any discussion with Dumbledore and looked around for an alternative. Irma was conversing with McGonagall, Slughorn was chuckling across the table at Hagrid (who had returned to sit beside Trelawney as a seventh year Ravenclaw had left), and already his options were limited.

'Er, have you brewed anything interesting lately, sir?' Harry gulped as he turned to Snape. To his horror, half of the table fell silent to watch their exchange. No one was more stunned than Snape by the suddenly casual conversation directed his way by the Gryffindor student, and yet he was the first to recover.

'I can hardly see how that is any of your concern, Potter.' Severus narrowed his eyes dangerously at the teen. Why was Potter talking to him instead of the headmaster?! He slowly raised his gaze and was awkwardly aware of the gawking audience and felt terribly pressured to say more. Severus squashed that ounce of nervousness instantly and remained silent; he didn't have to talk if he had nothing he wanted to say!

'What about you, Harry?' Slughorn smiled. 'Surely you've been doing some brewing yourself, m'boy?'

'Mostly serums and draughts, sir.' Harry turned to the other professor again, thankful for being surrounded by two Potions Masters.

Dumbledore had noticed the teenager's obvious ignorance towards him and instead of being bothered or confused, he merely nodded knowingly and turned to speak with McGonagall.

'I had hoped to brew veritaserum, actually.'

'Whatever for?' Slughorn wondered with delighted surprise. Severus however was supremely suspicious of the Gryffindor, more so than usual, anyway. 'You're not planning on using it, I hope?'

'No, sir.' Harry shook his head. 'I was just curious. There was an old philosopher who once suggested that dragonroot could be added in the instance of having the drinker keep their memories of the usage. It's highly inconvenient, but curious nonetheless.'

Severus tuned out of the conversation as a startling realization filled his mind; Harry Potter's supposed brilliance in Potions was not entirely a fluke. With the absence of his previous Potions Master, the boy was suddenly more interested and skilled in the subject than he had ever been in the past five years of his education.

'It seems I was mistaken.' Severus spoke, directing the Gryffindor's (and many other's), attention back to himself.

'And pray tell, Mr Potter, where has this profound interest towards the fine art of Potion-making stemmed from?'

Harry stared at Snape and frowned, thinking for a moment as he decided to face the man and even raised his emerald eyes the match Snape's obsidian ones.

'I've always been interested in Potions, Professor.' He said defiantly. 'Surely you know that?'

Severus watched the brat turn to converse with Irma (his mother calls the boy by his first name...when did this happen?!), and lowered his gaze to his empty plate. He had been ready to snarl at the boy for lying or his cheeky attitude, while also denying truth in his words. But the sad fact was...there was little falsehood behind those Lily-like eyes. An image of Lily's eleven-year-old son loomed into his mind, as the boy sat beside a cauldron and eagerly copied down notes matching what his Professor was saying in the boy's first ever Potions lesson. Where had the Potter-like mop of hair gone? And the rounded glasses? The sneer of defiance accompanied by a chuckle shared with his Gryffindor buddies?

Severus stood abruptly from the table and didn't bother to utter an excuse as he turned and strode from the room. It had been a mistake to join in the festivity and now he deeply regretted it. As he left, only two others were watching his retreating form and wondered what had caused Snape to leave so suddenly. Harry and Draco turned away from the door and stared right at each other for a period of thirty seconds before they frowned and returned to speak with the person to their right.

Ten minutes later, the lunch continued as though the group had never been joined by the rare presence of Severus Snape.

A man who was, at that moment, throwing a jar of fish eyes at the wall of his office before he sank into his chair and hung his head with intense remorse. It was the first time he had truly expressed or even felt such an emotion in fifteen years. Will it always be associated with such a set of emerald-green eyes?