A Christmas Nightmare

2. THE FIRST OF THE THREE SPIRITS

Snape sat up, clutching his blankets and groping for his wand. Something was moving around his bed, tap tap tap like bear feet on the floor -

"Lumos!" he hissed. "Who's there?"

The flash of light revealed a small figure near his bedpost. It had bulging green eyes and very long silvery hair. It wore something that looked like a child's pillowcase displaying golden stars and bright red hearts, and a misshapen red hat with a white top, and in its hands it held a battered holly branch. All in all it bore a suspicious resemblance to a house-elf dressed up in a kind of crazy Christmas costume.

"It's Xmas-elf, the Spirit of Christmas Long Ago!" sqealed the creature. "Please don't hurt your personal Xmas-elf, sir!"

Snape groaned and fell back onto his pillows. This is only a bad dream, most likely caused by Miss Grangers foolish collecting campaign. I might shorten the dream if I do everything this crazy Elf says. Spirit of Christmas Long Ago, Merlin's beard! Aloud he said:

"Very long ago?"

"No sir," grinned the Elf, apparently relieved that Snape didn't show any sign of poisoning him. "Xmas-elf will show you your own past!"

"My past is of no concern to you! Living through it once was bad enough! I do not wish to see it again."

"Oh yes you will!"

The Xmas-elf yanked Snape out of his bed. His grasp was surprisingly strong and he dragged the man effortlessly towards the wall.

"No! Listen, Xm...er, Spirit, can't we ..."

"Master shut up!" cried the Elf cheerfully. Snape gave up and closed his eyes. Only a bad dream, he reminded himself.

When he opened his eyes again they stood in a deserted Hogwarts corridor. Obviously it was Christmas time: all the armours wore wreaths of mistletoe and holly and were vomiting golden lametta. The aesthetic quality of Hogwarts decoration has certainly not improved since then...since now, I mean, mused Snape. The Xmas-elf pointed to a certain classroom door.

"In there?" Snape asked doubtfully as he suddenly felt like the day when he started teaching. The Elf nodded and shoved him through.

Gryffindor and Slytherin second years were hanging drowsily in their seats, not even pretending to concentrate on their books. Snape spotted a young Sirius Black pulling faces to make James laugh ... and there, at the window, was he himself ... God, was I small!

He turned his attention to the front when the teacher spoke up. It was Flitwick, swaying on a pile of books as usual, but he had dark hair - he was young again.

"Enough work today!" he said. "We'll use the last minutes to make our classroom a little more appropriate - after all it's Christmas time. Mr Black, please stop tickling Mr Lupin, I need you to help me with the music."

Snape watched as they tried to lift branches of holly and glittering golden bubbles up to the ceiling. Most of them were aiming clumsily and rather sent their pencilcase flying than the decoration. But it was fun anyway and Flitwick didn't seem to mind. Instead he seized the opportunity to show the class how to make objects dance in mid-air, and conjured a miniature set of instruments playing "God Rest Ye, Merry Hippogriffs" hopelessly wrong. When they passed on to "We Wish You A Magic Christmas", heads turned as Sirius started to sing along. Snape the Elder bit his tongue. I remember the lesson but I forgot Sirius can't strike a single right note.

"We wish you a Magic Christmas,
we wish you a Christmas magic,
we wish you a Mama's Christchick
and a charming New Year!