Christmas Gifts

Eliana had not even recovered from the shock before her hands caught the money pouch on their own.

The coins made a low, muffled clink against one another. The pouch was packed so full that they had almost no room to move.

Just holding it, Eliana could tell it weighed nearly twice as much as her original pouch.

Like a little hamster clutching an enormous sunflower seed, she stared blankly at Snape, who had propped an elbow on the edge of the table and was rubbing his forehead.

She lowered her head and rustled the drawstring open. A flash of gold made her eyes hurt.

She was even more stunned. Tears still glistened in her wide eyes as she stared at Snape, her eyes like two pieces of obsidian washed in clear water.

Snape noticed her gaze. In fact, with two beams that solid and laserlike fixed on him, any living creature with a shred of awareness would have found them hard to ignore.

"Something else?"

He looked thoroughly impatient, but he turned slightly toward Eliana.

Tears welled up in Eliana's eyes again. "I thought you couldn't stand me."

Snape fell back on his usual sarcasm. "I'm delighted Miss Richie has such a clear understanding of herself."

Seeing that the little hamster was about to start wailing again, he hurriedly changed the subject. "What is it?"

Perhaps because her emotions were already in such turmoil, Eliana was far more sensitive than usual. She sniffled and said quietly:

"I sent you a Christmas present, but you never replied. I thought that was your way of telling me you couldn't stand me and didn't want anything to do with me."

Snape truly could not understand it. He had been the innocent victim, scratched up in the street for no reason by the little Whomping Willow in front of him. Yet somehow he was now expected to comfort that same sniffling Whomping Willow.

He was only a Potions teacher. Why did he have to spend his holiday counseling an adolescent girl?

Did that thief take your brain along with your money pouch? Snape thought irritably. His voice came out cold. "As a teacher, I neither have the authority nor any intention to expel you."

In other words: What on earth goes through that head of yours? I still have six years of Potions Class to teach you. How could I possibly expect us never to cross paths?

For Snape, that was already an enormous concession. Ordinarily, Eliana would have understood what he meant at once.

But her heart was fragile as glass right now, and she could not bear the slightest cold remark. Her mouth opened, and she was about to start sounding the alarm again.

"Stop!" Snape raised his voice, his composure cracking for once. He pressed his fingers to his temple yet again and gave in with an air of exhaustion. "Christmas isn't over yet, is it?"

He took a potion vial the size of a little finger from his pocket and raised his hand. Like a golden flower bud caught by the wind, the vial drifted toward Eliana.

Still sniffling, Eliana held out her hand. The vial settled slowly into her palm like a dandelion seed. The golden liquid inside looked like molten gold, shining brilliantly even in the dim room.

Penniless Eliana had no idea what treasure she was holding. She sniffled and looked up at Snape again with her large, watery eyes.

Snape let out a patient breath. "Felix Felicis. Perhaps it will bring you a little luck."

Bloody hell. Robbed by a student in my own home.

He kept his face rigid as he thought it.

Eliana's eyes lit up. She turned the little vial over and over, examining it closely. The tears on her cheeks had not even dried, but a smile had already appeared.

Snape gave a cold laugh and resumed his usual stream of venom. "But taking too much causes dizziness, recklessness, and an inflated sense of self-importance. Though that sounds little different from Miss Richie on an ordinary day."

Now that she had been thoroughly cheered up, Eliana was strong enough to keep his everyday barbs from getting past her eardrums.

She pressed her lips together, though she could not stop their corners from rising. She was back to her usual lively, energetic self.

Snape drew back from his slight lean forward and settled against the back of his chair again.

Eliana looked at the Felix Felicis in one hand, then at the bulging money pouch in the other. After a long struggle, she shuffled over to Snape, fidgeting.

To be honest, it was rather alarming.

When a child who was normally brazen, restless, scheming, shameless, full of energy and mischief, and exceptionally talented suddenly stood before you all quiet and well-behaved, looking as though she had something difficult to say, you would never assume she had seen the error of her ways. You would think—

What has she got up her sleeve?

Snape uncrossed his legs and watched Eliana warily.

After hemming and hawing for ages, Eliana suddenly said, "I'm sorry, Professor Snape."

Snape said nothing, but he sat up straighter, looking warier than ever.

Absorbed in her own feelings, Eliana did not notice. She went on, "I've only just realized how awful it feels to lose something that belongs to you."

Snape said nothing. He raised one eyebrow, inviting her to continue.

Eliana bit her lip, gathering her thoughts. "When I helped prepare your ingredients before, I wasted a lot of them. If I'd been more careful, I could probably have saved quite a bit."

So that's all.

Snape relaxed a little and said casually, "A pity we aren't at school. Gryffindor would lose five points for that."

"And sometimes, when I was preparing your ingredients, I secretly took a little..."

Snape sounded impatient. "I'm not blind. You took a few odds and ends. So what? Ritchie, if you're going to keep wasting my time with such trivialities..."

His tone grew dangerous.

"One last thing!" Eliana declared, suddenly raising her voice.

Snape paused, startled by the outburst. He stopped speaking and gave her an irritated gesture to go on.

Eliana stole a glance at his face. He seemed unusually easy to talk to today, which made her a little bolder.

Susan had told her to say she had taken the curtains home to clean them, and Eliana knew that might have been a better explanation.

But for some reason, right then, she wanted to tell Snape the truth.

"And the curtains from your classroom. I shouldn't have secretly taken all of those either."

She glanced at Snape, then lowered her head and spoke in a voice barely louder than a mosquito's buzz.

"What?"