Modern Times

A/N A HP story, not featuring HP. I am more fond of the adult characters. A thing that popped into my head the other day. R and R, please! Love, george.

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'Minerva, what in Merlin's name is that?'

The potions master stared in horror at the contraption that had set up place in the corner of her living room. A kobold he thought, dressed in red and white, all the white parts covered in lights, wiggling and waving its hand and shouting 'Merry Christmas! Ho Ho Ho! Merry Christmas! Ho Ho Ho!' Then suddenly the red parts of the outfit began to sparkle as well and the creature changed its tune: 'Happy New Year! Happy New Year! Happy New Year to everybody! Happy…'

It was late in November and even he recognised the thing as something related to Christmas, even if the first impression of it was seeing the Headmaster on too much butterbeer.

Minerva hid a smile when she returned from her kitchen, carrying a tray with mulled wine and chocolate. If nothing else, just the sight of Severus Snape confronted with something so utterly cheerful made it worth the wile to have the thing in here.

'Isn't it jolly?' she said. 'It's a present from Miss Granger, to show us how Muggles celebrate the holidays. She modified it so that it would work on magic instead of batteries. I thought about setting it up in the teacher's lounge, wouldn't that be great? ' she continued, her singsong Scottish accent making it even more merry.

Snape frowned, thought for a second, then pulled out his wand and made the thing disappear in a rather nasty smelling cloud of smoke.

'Thank you for that, Severus, ' Minerva said, and with a wave of her own wand opened a window, so the smelly smoke could leave the room. 'Good heavens, I never thought it would be so unpleasant,' she grumbled, picking up her copy of Transfigurations Today and waving it to help the mess disappear.

'And I thought Miss Granger would have better taste that that,' Snape complained.

'Oh she does, she does. She just wanted to show me an example of what we may have to deal with.'

With the singing horror vanished and the last threads of foul smoke drifting out of the window, the room had returned to its natural peaceful state. A fire crackled in the hearth. Two walls covered with books, a worn sofa and an armchair near the fireplace, a polished mahogany desk in the far corner, covered in paper, ink bottles, books, tea mugs, magazines and quills. Small tables everywhere, paper and student's essays covering them, along with hairpins, needles, pincushions and matchsticks that she used for her lessons. He suspected there might be a family of mice as well, kept in stock to be Transfigurated into stemware or bookmarkers, but to be honest he never found any trace of that. The room was nice and warm, a bit dusty, cluttered and comforting and he had found to his own surprise that he liked it. His own quarters were pristine, one couldn't have stuff lying around when working with poisonous material. He was used to it and liked his place neat, and still he felt nice, warm and welcome when he entered Minerva's messy rooms.

Minerva pushed a pile of paper from the coffee table- he thought he noticed a letter from the Ministry of Magic among it- and put the tray down.

'There you are, Severus. This is a gift from Miss Granger's as well: her gran's recipe for mulled wine. I must say, I like it very well.'

She poured them both a cup and broke some pieces of dark chocolate.

'Mmm, it's very good,' the potions master had to admit. 'You made this?'

'No need to be so surprised,' she said, indignant.

'I see. You followed the recipe then.'

'I did, yes.'

'Well done. Sometimes you can take a few liberties with the recipe, but that takes skills and a certain je ne sais quoi that not everyone possesses. Pardon my French.'

'And I don't possess those qualities, you have made that very clear in the past, thank you.'

He smiled and put his arm around her shoulders. 'I'm sorry Minerva, I just couldn't help teasing you a bit,' he whispered and placed a soft kiss on her temple.

'That's alright, we all need to be reminded of our limits now and then. Thank you.' She snuggled a bit closer.

After enjoying each other's company for another hour, sharing a second cup of mulled wine and some sow kisses, Severus remembered what he had wanted to ask her after they had gotten rid of the noisy Muggle Christmas decoration.

'You said it was an example of wat we have to deal with,' he frowned. ' I suppose singing Christmas monstrosities are the least of our concern. So, what are we going to have to deal with, Minerva?'

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A/N

TBC if you like it…. Let me know, x george