traintracks (train_tracks) wrote in adventdrabbles, @ 2012-12-02 11:42:00 |
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Entry tags: | contributor: train_tracks, dec02, fandom: harry potter, prompt02, year: 2012 |
Dec02, Harry Potter, Snape, "And to All a Good Night, Now Shut Up"
Title: And to All a Good Night, Now Shut Up
Author: train_tracks
Fandom: Harry Potter
Characters: Severus Snape, (Potters, Weasleys, Malfoys, a Lupin, Minerva McGonagall, OFC [Original Female Cat], Dumbledore's ghost)
Rating: PG
Word Count: 750
Disclaimer: I don't own much of anything, least of all anything having to do with Harry Potter.
A/N: This is for adventdrabbles and prompt #2: scrooge/humbug, plus elrhiarhodan's "Snape -- It wasn't a game".
It was days like these that Severus Snape almost regretted Potter saving his arse.
It was a Weasley day after all. And those were the most despicable days of the year.
He'd only decided to go because he'd refused the last two years, and this year he'd received threats not just from Potter, Draco (a new Burrow convert), Minerva, and an incredibly articulate Hermione Granger (even her insults were polite), but (of all people) Dumbledore's ghost.
It was this last that persuaded (coerced) him into getting all dressed up and ready, Severus muttering under his breath the whole time, "Blasted ghost…don't need your…son of a..."
But Severus had even put on a less-than-off-putting aftershave, although he couldn't have been arsed to tell anyone why.
He frowned down at his new cat, Fibberbunch. "You will just have to do without a lap for a couple of miserable hours."
The cat blinked, if anything less amused than Severus was with the whole business.
He huffed a sigh and Disapparated from his quiet little cabin in the north forest to the loud, awful Burrow where, two seconds into Apparating onto the front lawn, some demon child was heard screaming in atrocious delight.
"Quidditch," Snape practically snarled in disgust. It was a game he'd come to despise. Mostly because he'd always been bollocks at it. But also because he was sick of opening his morning Quibbler only to find yet another Gryffindor win at Hogwarts. He blamed Minerva. And Potter. And everyone else who worked at that bloody school nowadays.
Severus sighed, knocked on the door, cringed when another high-pitched scream arose from around the back of the house, and then tried to quit grimacing (and might have succeeded, he wasn't at all sure) when Molly Weasley flung the door open on him.
"Severus!!!!" she shouted.
He winced.
But then there was more shouting – a whole awful band of red-headed Weasleys, a mass of Potters, a spattering of Malfoys, even the funny-haired Lupin chap. They all looked so happy to see him, it made Severus' stomach turn. He tried to wipe the scowl from his face. He was determined not to turn from the door and run into the field like a frazzled Hufflepuff.
"Hello," he said tightly.
Then he was pulled into the Burrow with aggressive, happy hands.
He was, Merlin help him, hugged.
He was given a hot drink. It wasn't terrible.
He was made to sit by the fire. It was almost too hot, but not quite.
He was made to suffer joyful people singing carols. It didn't hurt his ears *too* much.
Before he knew it, three hours had passed. He'd eaten passable food off an almost-clean plate. He'd been seated between Potter and Arthur Weasley, and they hadn't bothered him *too* terribly.
When asked by the littlest Potter girl to recount how her brave daddy had saved him, he gave her a sick grin and simply said, "He sucked out the snake venom and spat it onto the ground before he vomited."
She made a horrified face, eyes brimming with fat tears, and that was the end of it.
They all opened presents.
Hurray.
Severus drank another hot toddy by the fire and didn't quite fall asleep.
By the time he was ready to Apparate back home, he had a bottomless bag full of gifts, sweets, left-overs, and cards. He even had a twenty year-old bottle of his favorite brand of Firewhiskey courtesy of Minvera McGonagall. He'd also, blast her to Hell, been duped into agreeing to have her over for tea in a week.
It was enough to make one wonder what the world was coming to.
He grumbled and frowned through good-bye hugs and 'Happy Christmases'. He turned in the doorway, fully prepared to utter the most foul "Ba Humbug!" he could muster.
But what came out instead was, "Thank you. Thank you all very much."
And before any of them could respond, Snape left.
He went home.
He unpacked his gifts, lining things up on his mantel, showing them to Fibberbunch and explaining them as he went.
When he was through, he got into his black pajamas and in between green and black sheets. He pulled the blanket up to his chin and closed his eyes.
And only then did the ghost's voice come out of the ethers at him, softly chuckling, "Happy Christmas, Severus."
"And to all a good-night, now shut up," he answered.
The ghost's chuckling subsided as Severus Snape drifted off to sleep.