Christmas with Felix

This is my first fan fiction for Cosforums. So I hope it works out fine.

STORY: Christmas with Felix

SUMMARY: Lily Evans and Severus Snape both receive a bit of the best potion in the world. What happens when they both take it on the same day.

DISCLAIMER: I don’t own any of the characters in Harry Potter. They belong to JK Rowling.

Lily Evans opened a small package that was addressed to her. It was a gift form professor Slughorn. He advised her not to open it in the presence of others so she waited until nearly all the students had left.
It was Christmas morning and Lily was opening presents in the common room. She had decided to stay back at Hogwarts after her sister, Petunia begged her not to come home and ruin the holiday for her. She was supposedly bringing home some boyfriend.
After peeling back the wrapping paper, there was a small bottle with just a tiny amount of golden liquid in it. “Felix Felicis!” she exclaimed. Slughorn was right to tell her not to open it in front of other students. They would be deadly jealous. He did promise that the person who brewed the best Draught of the Living dead would get a gift but she didn’t think it would be this good. It was a good thing that she got the upper hand on Severus that day. He was so anxious that he kept making mistakes.

She took out a quill and piece of parchment from the desk drawer in the room. She decided to make a list.

Things to Do With Felix.
Try to get Severus Snape to open up and admit that he has some major issues with himself and not me
Have a chat with Professor McGonagall and beg her to reconsider that double detention I have to supervise.
Try to sneak into all three common rooms. Slytherine especially.
Try to find Hogwarts kitchens.
Try to sneak out of the castle after dark.

-o-o-o-o-

Severus Snape looked down at a package that had landed on the table. He had already received a new roll of parchment for Christmas from his mother, there was no one else who would send him a gift. His father was mostly likely celebrating Christmas with his best friend Jonny Walker and would be in no state to send him anything, not that he ever did. Calling Tobias Snape his father was a bit of a stretch, it was more like the person who provided the XY chromosomes. He was never a real father or a real husband so expecting him to act as such was wishful thinking.
He picked up the card that came with the package and read.

The next time you snap at me I will not reward you with gifts. Good luck for the holidays..
Narcissa

Oh, so it was Narcissa Black who sent him the package. She was right, he did snap at her, shouting words only his father would say to a woman. He was quite ashamed of it and he apologized to her but he still felt a bit of guilt. But really it was all Potter’s fault. If he hadn’t been hexing him he would not have been in a foul mood. It was exactly like the time he called Lily Evans a mudblood. He regretted that too but he was way too embarrassed to apologize. He couldn’t just walk up to her and say, ‘I’m sorry’. Besides any good opinion she had of him was ruined forever.
He sighed heavily and reached for the package and opened it. Inside was a small bottle with a tiny bit of golden liquid in it. He looked at the note again. “Good luck for the holidays...” he said to himself and then looked at the bottle of golden liquid once more. “Felix Felicis. Merlin’s beard!” He had prayed for this so many times. He had to remind himself to kiss Narcissa the next time he saw her.

With shaking hands, he took a piece of parchment and a quill out on the table and scribbled:

Things to do with Felix
Find Evans.
Wait to see if Evans speaks to you
If she does, talk to Evans
Confess your undying love for her
At the end of the day perform memory charm

He looked at the list and a smirk came on his face. There was nothing that he wanted more than to be in Lily’s good graces again, even if it was for just one day.

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CHAPTER: The Slytherin Common Room.

Severus Snape, examined his reflection in the mirror, he looked decent enough. He knew he was going to take a lucky potion but he wasn’t going to push it. He went right back up the bathrooms to shower again, and attempt to wash the grease out of his hair again. He didn’t want talk to Evens looking and smelling like yesterday.

After he was satisfied that he had done all he could to improve his appearance, he took the cup of tea he brought up from breakfast and poured the contents of the glass bottle into it. The golden liquid disappeared into the tea and left no sign of it being there. He took a pocket watch and waited until the minuet hand was exactly on twelve and the hour hand was on ten. He picked up the tea cup very careful not make a single spill then drank it down greedily. He looked into the cup and saw there were still some dregs. That could be a whole five minuets. He knocked every last bit of the tea onto his tongue.

“I have twelve hours I think,” he said to himself. He darted out of the empty dorm room and ran down to the common room, it half empty except for one other student who stayed back.

“Hey Severus, do you want to play some chess,” Aires Locke asked him.

He replied that he had plans for the day and walked to the portrait hole.

‘Now where would Evans be on a day like this,’ he said in his head. He overhead her telling her friend Alice that was staying for the holidays. He was so pleased when he heard the news. He knew that when there was hardly anyone in school they would have dinner at one table. He was planning on taking this opportunity to sit next to Evans. But that was before Narcissa had given him the best gift he had ever received. Now he could not only sit next to her but he also had a chance to spend the day with her.

-o-o-o-o-

Lily Evans drank the cup of tea that she had just poured her Felix Felicis in. She felt a tingling feeling rushing over her. She could feel it working. She looked around the Great Hall and saw that it was almost empty except for Professor Strangeluck, the divination teacher. She wondered when Severus would come down for breakfast or if he had it already. She would simply have to go down to the common rooms, which was on her list anyway.

She got up form her chair and walked out of the Great Hall, down a corridor and down a flight of stairs in the direction the Slytherins usually disappeared.
As soon as she landed on the bottom of the long spiralling stairs she bumped into someone coming out of their portrait hole. “Sorry,” she said. She looked up to see the stark white face of Severus Snape. A small smile had pinned itself on her features’.

-o-o-o-o-

He was not expecting to run into her so soon, not as soon a he left the common room. He must have been really lucky because he couldn’t understand why Lily Evans would be in this close proximity to the Slytherin common room.

“Good morning Severus,” she said cautiously.

He passed his hand through his hair and looked down to his feet. “Ah...Good morning Evans.” He congratulated himself on being able to say something he wasn’t able to say for the past seven months, although he thought it would have been a far better choice to call her by her first name.

She tossed her perfect red hair over her shoulder and looked at him with a curious eye. It was a good sign that she hadn’t stormed off in another direction, she was actually looking at him like she wanted him to say something to her. Her thought, ‘what should I say?’ It was very difficult to look into her perfect green eyes and concentrate.

“So...” she said prompting.

“Right,” he replied nodding his head.

They both stood there staring at each other and saying nothing until Lily finally spoke. “ Do you have plans for today Severus?”

He relieved that she finally spoke because he was certain his mind had gone blank and he couldn’t even remember the alphabet. “Yes, sort of,” He replied. “You”

“Yes sort of,” she replied but she still didn’t drop her gaze. “Actually I was hoping you could help me with something.”

He wondered with his heart facing, what could he possible help Lily Evans with. “Yes?” he asked, hoping his voice didn’t betray emotions.

“I was hoping to try to see every common room before the day’s end...”

-o-o-o-o

Lily looked at a strange acting Severus Snape work out what she had just told him. His white completion had now turned to a pale green. She couldn’t see why such a simple question would embarrass him.

“Oh,” he said suddenly. “You would like to see all the common rooms so you want me get you inside the Slytherin common room.”

She nodded smiling. “Yes, exactly.”

“Oh why not, no one’s really here anyway.” He turned around to face the portrait of a grim looking King Arthur and said, “checkmate”. The portrait door swung open to reveal dark looking room. He walked in and she walked in after him.

Next Chapter
They go into all the common rooms
Severus is finally able to speak.
They sneak into the kitchens and share lunch among the elves.

CHAPTER: The Elf Party.

The Slytherine common room was a bit of a let down. It had none of the regal feeling of the Gryffindor common room, everything was dark and gloomy and looked like what Lily expected a medieval torture chamber to look like. “This is...boring,” she said taking a seat on the dragon skin leather couch. She looked over to the fire place where the pale haired boy sat playing chess against himself. Unlike the fire that kindled and danced excitedly in the Gryffindor common room, the Slytherin fire place housed some diminishing embers that were struggling to stay alit. “Even the fire place is rebelling against this place”, she said. She meant it as a joke but Severus didn’t seem to get it. He just stood there looking as green faced as he was before. “I am officially over this,” she said getting up. “I think I’ll try Ravenclaw next.”

“How do you plan on getting in,” he asked.

She shrugged. “I don’t know but I have a feeling like I’ll be able to.” She looked at him shifting from one foot to the next foot. She hadn’t forgotten her mission. She was going to get him to talk to her, to confess that he had a problem, to even get him to apologize. “Do you wish to come along and see what happens?” She had a strong feeling that he wasn’t going to say no, that she had done the right thing by asking him along. And sure enough he gave a slight nod to her a few moments later.

They turned around and walked out the door leaving the boy congratulating himself for a brilliant move against himself. As they were entering the great hall they ran into a rather flushed Professor McGonagall. “Good day Professor,” Lily said pleasantly.

“Good morning Evans and... Snape,” she said and gave him a slight nod of acknowledgement, which he returned

Seeing that McGonagall appeared to be in a good mood she decided to ask her right that moment about the detention. “Excuse me Professor I was wondering if I still have to supervise that detention with Pettigrew and Potter?”

She looked at McGonagall work on the logic in her head. “Now that you mention it, it does seem like I should supervise the detention myself. I think I will have much better control of those two.” Lily nodded in agreement while trying to hide the smile that was lurking behind her futures. “Yes I think I was have to change the records there,” McGonagall said to not one in particular. She turned her attention back to Lily looking as cheer as ever. “Have a good day Evans,” she walking off in a quick strut.

Lily turned to Severus and grinned. He didn’t seem to share her enthusiasm so she just continued on her journey to Ravenclaw common room. It was on the east wing of the castle, somewhere in the fifth floor. They found it after trotting down a rather narrow passage way.

o-o-o-o

Severus was beginning to think that his good luck was rubbing off on Lily, because right outside on the floor was a folded piece of parchment with the password written on it. “Sursum Corda,” Lily said to the portrait of a beheaded ghost. And just like that the Portrait hole swung open to let them in.

Severus had never felt more panicked in his life. He thought that if he had planned out the day carefully he wouldn’t be this nervous. He had over a thousand brilliant things he planned on saying and he hadn’t managed to say one of them yet. He was acting like some creepy shadow, following her around. He knew he had to start to talk but he just couldn’t bring himself to.

*-*-*-*-*

She had been with Severus for about an hour and he still didn’t say much of anything to her. She knew that it was the right thing to let him be his unusual antisocial self. It wasn’t like they were friends or anything. On a regular day she wouldn’t even look at him, not after he called her a mudblood. He had proven himself to be just as ignorant as Bellatrix and her gang. But all hope wasn’t lost, she knew Severus from before and he seemed like a nice enough person, he was just incurably shy, that sort of hate mongering was the last thing she expected form him. She knew, rather hoped that it was an isolated incident and was determined to get at to the bottom of it, even if it tool her whole supply of Felix Felicis and having him around whole day.

When they entered the kitchens it was around midday after her visit to the all the common rooms she looked around at the scene in amazement. She had never seen so many elves before. There were dozens of them, all drinking butter beer and having a great time. It looked like they were having a party.

“It looks like we interrupted something,” she said to Severus.”

“I didn’t know elves could have parties,” he said looking at and elf doing some soft of dance on one of the kitchen counters. By waving his hands frantically in the air and shaking his hips simultaneously.

They seemed to be enjoying themselves none the wiser to their presence until one of them spotted them at the door. “Masters are here,” the elf said putting down his butter beer on the counter.

“Oh no please continue,” Lily said apologetically. She didn’t plan on interrupting their party.

But the elf wasn’t he listening; he pulled up two chairs and a table and cleared for Lily and Severus to sit. “Please sit masters,”
Lily looked at the elf with his huge eyes and couldn’t resist, she took a seat on the small chair and Severus followed her on the second. “Are you all having a party,” she asked the elf.

“Yes Yes, Headmaster says we must have a party to celebrate our hard work, and it is our duty to oblige.”

Lily looked around the room full of elves. They were indeed obliging. There was this one elf that was swinging from a chandelier that was lighting the room and making a ‘wee’ noise. It was really a funny site. So much so that she heard Severus laugh at it. “Oh my goodness, you can do that?” she asked looking at him

“Do what?” he asked like he was both worried and confused.

“You can laugh; I don’t think I have ever seen you laugh at anything.”
He shrugged. “I suppose I can laugh but only if it’s really funny.”

“And in all your years at Hogwarts, an out of control house elf is the only thing you have seen that is funny?”

He sighed. “Well that time Malfoy hit Potter with Bogie hex was pretty funny...”

Lily looked at him closely. She knew that this was the right road to go down. She had to talk about James with him. He was very comfortable with that subject.

NOTE: I am so sorry that this story hasn’t been that good at all. I have written stuff that is so much better but I am trying to stay within the rules. So... some of it will seem a little...bla. But good news. I happen to know for sure that the next chapter will rock... and you will have no choice but to leave me some feed back.

And I’m sorry I skipped the Ravenclaw and Huffellpuff common room but I was boring myself with it so I decided to trim it.


I'd love to get some feed back for this chapter (http://www.cosforums.com/showthread.php?t=105110)as well please. Right now its'a at one per chapter, I'd like at least two. Thanks to sticky by the way for reviewing them both.

CHAPTER: Disappointments and Regrets.


The left the elves to their party and walked up the stairs and through the corridors until the reached the Gryffindor portrait hole. This was a quiet place that she knew they could talk, if he was ever going to open up to her, this was where it would happen. She mumbled the password to the fat lady who gave her a very disapproving look at the sight of Severus but she ignored it and pushed the door open. “So this is it,” she said watching Severus examine the room closely. “What do you think of it?” she asked.

He walked around a little and let his long fingers pass over the fabric on the couch. He turned to her. “It’s not what I expected.”

She never bothered to ask him what he expected. She had a feeling like they were straying back down the road of meaningless conversation. “So,” she started as she took a seat, “Did you ever think that you would be in the Gryffindor common room.”

“Yes I had a nightmare about it once, a dreadful dream where I had been sorted into Gryffindor and forced to sleep in the same dorm as Potter.”

She giggled at the thought of Severus Snape in Gryffindor, she didn’t even recall the sorting hat ever touching his head before it yelled out ‘Slytherin’. “I can imagine the horror.” She patted on the available space next her, indicating that she wanted him to sit down. He nervously looked around like she was addressing some invisible person in the room before he took a seat as far away from her as possible. “Severus, can I ask you a personal question?”

The thought seemed to horrify him but he managed to mumble an almost inaudible; “Sure.”

“What is it with you and James, why do you hate each other so much?”

-o-o-o-

He was not expecting her to ask him that question. He really thought it was going to be something really personal that would inevitable lead to him be embarrassed but it was his lucky day after all. “Because he’s an idiot,” he said plainly.

She didn’t seem too satisfied with the answer. “But why does he hate you,” she asked.

He shrugged. He really had no clue why James hated him or even why he hated James from so long ago, he wasn’t even sure when it started, all he knew was that they couldn’t stand each other. “I really don’t know why, it’s just one of those things, you know.” She nodded slowly but she didn’t take her eyes off of him. It was a bazaar feeling having her eyes on him. He had long lost count of the amount of times when she and those emerald green eyes would pop up in his head at the most unfortunate moments. Sometimes during potions class all he would be thinking about Lily, how wonderful her hair looked when it was loose and falling on her should, how beautiful she looked when she was concentrating real hard and other minor things that he was certain would go unnoticed by most. All the attention he was paying to Lily would result in his work suffering, he knew if he wasn’t distracted by her he would be even more brilliant in potions but most of the times there would be some minor ingredient he would mishandle because he was too busy watching her hover over her flawless potion like some sort of unearthly goddess.

“So you ever think about ending the feud?” she asked.

Even tough he was still terribly nervous he wanted to be able to defend himself. He didn’t want her to believe that his constant fighting with James was some attempt to be macho, or he enjoyed it in anyway, it was out of necessity he fought with James, for his pride, the only thing he had. “Is that the general opinion, that I enjoy entertaining Potter and his annoying little friends and their endless taunts?” He could tell that he startled her with his reaction to the question. But he wasn’t too worried because he knew she would forget all of this by tomorrow.

“No I didn’t think that. I just thought that if you don’t want to continue then you should stop.” She said plainly.

“Stop...Stop... it’s a little difficult to stop when someone is hanging you by your knees in front of the whole school.” He had no idea he why he was talking to her this way or why he was even angry, just the fact that she managed to ask him what no one else had ever bothered to ask him before was getting to him. “He always does it... and I’m the one who’s left with the consequences.” She was quite silent. She just sat there letting him talk. “Just the other day I yelled at Narcissa because I was angry with him and everyone is always wondering why is Severus so mean, making girls cry, hexing kids, calling Evans a mudblood. Everyone thinks I’m the biggest git because of him.”

-o-o-o-

Severus was always cool and collected. She always knew that he housed a lot of secrets but she never imagined that he would speak so plainly so openly about them to her, she could really sense the potion working. When he mentioned the incident when he called her a mudblood she felt her heart race, it was that particular moment she was waiting for. “So you called me a mudblood because you were angry with James?”

He passed his hand though his hair and leaned back on the couch in an effort to get comfortable. “At James, but mostly myself for not foreseeing the incident.”

“So you didn’t mean it then.” She asked softy. She always defended Severus to others because he was always kind to her as far as she could remember, there were times when they even talked briefly, and she was very surprised and hurt when he used those words against but mostly she was disappointed in him.

He sighed. “I said it before I even understood what I was saying. I was sickened when I realised what I had done.”

Even though she wanted to hear it for a long time she didn’t feel quite as satisfied as she thought she would feel, she had no idea that he felt guilty about it. “Well no harm done,” she said trying to make light of the situation.

But he wasn’t taking it lightly. “No harm done...I ruined everything.” He said, really looking at her for the first time. She could see the panic in his eyes and she felt a tragic sadness.

“I hardly think you ruined EVERY-THING,” she said hopefully moving a little closer to him.

His head was buried in his hands. “It was all I had to look forward too... those moments when you would say hello to me in the halls. You are the only person who has ever treated me like I was not some unwanted piece of gum that had stuck under their shoe... and I ruined it... you don’t speak to me anymore.

“I’m speaking to you now.” For the first time she saw scared. She didn’t know what to say to him. The thought never even crossed her mind that he had even acknowledged her efforts to be kind to him so she was beyond surprised when he told her that he actually looked forward to it. From the look of panic in his eyes and the way he was acting strangely whole morning, she could tell that Severus Snape was harbouring a secret crush for her.


NOTE: Okay so I finally got the conversation going. This is good news... I think I’m catching my flow. Lets see how it goes.

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