Christmas at the Evans Family Home

Snape left Spinner's End wearing his cleanest robes (which Lily had bought him last year), a silver-and-green scarf (one of Lily's Christmas presents to him this year), and a brand-new pair of dragon-hide boots (a gift from Lily to make up for dragging him to Diagon Alley to shop). He could already imagine Potter going mad with jealousy if he saw that everything Snape wore had been bought by Lily. The thought of Potter's jealous gaze and the look on his face as though he wanted to beat him to death made Snape happy.

He closed the door he hated, as if that could shut out his alcoholic father beating his mother, who had once been a witch. She had given up her pride as a witch, imprisoning herself again and again in memories of a time when they had been relatively happy. But his father had soon gone bankrupt, blaming everything on marrying a witch and having a wizard for a son. Snape faced the biting wind and walked toward Lily's town. It was his first visit to Lily's home, and it was large. He knocked politely, and the door soon opened. It was Lily. "Hi, Severus, merry Christmas! Come on in."

Lily hurriedly pulled Snape in out of the cold wind. "It's freezing outside." Lily shut the door, and Snape took off his scarf and hung it on the coat rack by the entrance. He greeted Mr and Mrs. Evans first, then set the potions he had brewed on the table. "These are Christmas presents. Please, you must accept them."

Mr Evans picked up a potion bottle curiously and looked at the words "prevents colds" on it. "What an incredible talent."

Snape was a little reserved; it was rare for him to receive praise. "Severus is incredibly talented at Potions, but I'm pretty talented too," Lily said, wanting Mr Evans to praise her as well. "Professor Slughorn gave Severus and me permission to skip first-year classes and study advanced Potions together!" Lily pulled Severus down to sit beside her, and Petunia sat opposite them.

Honestly, Petunia could not understand why abnormal people always managed to latch onto Lily with such precision. She sighed and slowly speared a roast potato with her fork. Mr and Mrs. Evans seemed unsurprised that Lily had brought a friend home for Christmas for the first time; instead, they were especially welcoming. As a result, Snape received two Christmas presents and had all three of them frantically plying him with food. Even though Petunia disliked Snape, she had given him a Christmas present early on.

After the meal, Snape sat before the warm fireplace in the Evans home, holding the hot cocoa Mrs. Evans had pressed upon him. He did not actually like things that were so cloyingly sweet, but he still sipped it in small mouthfuls as he watched Lily unwrap Christmas presents across from him. "Severus, what do you think of the Christmas presents I gave you?"

"They're good." He was still sparing with his praise, though he actually liked them very much, especially the scarf she had knitted herself.

"I like them a lot," he added, worried that Lily would mistakenly think he didn't like them.

"I'm glad you like them. And of course, I like what you gave me too." Lily looked down and continued unwrapping her presents. Snape sat for a while before deciding to go home. He still wasn't used to staying too long in someone else's house, even though he wanted to spend a little more time beside Lily. He said goodbye to Mr and Mrs. Evans, took his scarf from the coat rack, and opened the door. Before he left, he saw Lily wave at him from among the pile of presents. "Bye, Severus! Get home soon; it's especially cold outside."

Then he closed the door. He had to return to the home he hated once again. Lily was still unwrapping presents, and soon she came to James's gift. She eyed the package warily, hesitating over whether to open it outside in case some prank item inside exploded. "Lily, who gave you that?" Petunia asked, seeing Lily stare at the package without opening it. "It's from Potter. I'm afraid there's a prank item inside, the kind that explodes when you open it."

Petunia eyed the package warily too. From what she knew of James Potter, he really might do something like that. "Open it slowly. If anything seems wrong, throw it out immediately." Petunia stood far away from Lily, peeking out to watch the package. Lily stared in disbelief at Petunia, who was standing miles away. "Petunia, why are you standing so far away? Don't you love me anymore?" Petunia nodded, then shook her head. "I love you, provided there isn't a Dungbomb in that package."

Lily had no choice but to open the package herself. After taking several deep breaths, she gingerly opened a small gap. Nothing seemed to happen, so she opened the box. Inside was a model of a Golden Snitch. Has Potter turned over a new leaf? Or did Mrs. Euphemia give him some advice, so he didn't send anything weird? Only after seeing that it wasn't a prank item did Petunia walk over, relieved. "Potter actually didn't send anything abnormal. That's not normal at all."

By now, Petunia had a higher opinion of Potter than she did of Snape. If Lily absolutely had to choose between the two of them, she would unhesitatingly tell her sister not to choose either.

Lily placed the model James had given her on the table beside her bed. She planned to take it with her when she returned to school and put it in her dormitory. She went to bed early that night, ready for a busy day ahead. She planned to restock the warehouse and finalize the location of her seventh shop. She also intended to launch a new product combining potions and Muggle snacks at her chain of shops, Tales of Blossoms, and her first choice of partner was Snape.

Early the next morning, Lily got up, and Mr Evans drove her to the warehouse. Most of the enormous warehouse was empty. She deftly counted and restocked the inventory, quickly filling the warehouse with goods. Tales of Blossoms had become a supermarket chain with a fine reputation in the Muggle World, and Lily decided to open two more stores. With a net income of nearly 40,000 Galleons a month, she was starting to get a little carried away. She offered Petunia fifteen percent of the profits. At first, Petunia insisted on refusing, but in the end she couldn't resist Lily's insistence that "we're family" and reluctantly accepted.

Petunia had also opened a vault of her own at Gringotts. Feeling a little embarrassed about simply taking the money, she helped Lily manage the accounts. Petunia was well suited to this kind of work that required sitting for long periods, and Lily was happy to hand that part over to her. The sisters spent almost the entire week busy with Tales of Blossoms.

Lily invited Snape to her home again. When he heard that Lily wanted to partner with him to repackage potions and sell them in the Muggle World, Snape learned that Lily's business in the Muggle World brought in no less in a month than the combined earnings of several Pure-blood families. He looked at Lily as though she were a walking mountain of gold.

"I'm in." He agreed without hesitation. Lily generously offered to supply him with potion ingredients and even wanted to set up a separate Potions workshop for him. It was already an irresistible temptation for Snape. Lily went ahead and bought the house next door to make a workshop just for him. Snape felt he didn't even want the school term to start; the Potions workshop was already far more enticing to him than the verbal promises that group of Pure-bloods had made him.

Unfortunately, once the holiday was over, he still had to take his luggage to King's Cross Station. Mr and Mrs. Evans drove the three of them to the station. Snape had been dragged into the car by Lily, even though he had said he could get there on his own. "Come on, Severus, we'll go together. You can part ways with us when we get there." Lily understood his concerns too. Snape fell silent. He was already in the car; was he supposed to get out halfway there?