Hogwarts: I am Snape

Chapter 46 Frosty Christmas

Christmas snowflakes were fluttering and dancing outside the window.

Snape, carrying two hoods, led Pandora slowly out of the Great Hall, heading towards the fourth floor.

"Aha!" A sharp, strange cry came from above, startling both of them.

They hadn't even noticed and had just walked right under the little devil.

They saw Pippi hanging upside down on a fancy candelabra, grinning wickedly at them.

"Are you sure you want to speak?" Snape pulled out his wand and looked at Peeves, who was suspended in mid-air, with ill intent.

"Silly baby and weird girl sneak away from the crowd—" Pipi shouted at the top of his lungs.

But before he could finish speaking, Snape, quick as lightning, pointed his wand at Peeves.

Pipi Ghost immediately clutched his throat with both hands, choking, his face filled with terror.

He flew out of the window, making slutty gestures like Snape and Pandora, but couldn't utter a single word because his tongue was stuck to his palate.

Having shaken off Peeves, Snape and Pandora continued on their way and soon arrived at a statue of a hunchbacked, one-eyed witch on the fourth floor.

“Hogsmeade,” Snape whispered into Pandora’s ear, “there is a secret passage here that leads directly to Honeydukes’s cellars. The entrance is in the hunchback of this one-eyed old woman.”

"Since everyone's busy today, would you like to go to Hogsmeade for Christmas?"

Pandora was clearly not one to follow the rules, and her eyes lit up immediately upon hearing Snape's words.

She subconsciously touched her wizard robes, then nodded cheerfully.

Seeing that Pandora had agreed, Snape quickly looked around, then drew his wand, gently tapped the statue, and whispered, "Separate left and right!"

Suddenly, the statue's hunchback opened up, revealing a hole just big enough for a thin person to crawl through.

"You go in first."

Snape quickly scanned both sides of the corridor, then followed Pandora, headfirst into the hole.

It seemed as if they had slid down a long stone slide, with the wind whistling in their ears, before falling onto the cold, wet mud.

Snape quickly stood up, brushing the dirt off himself as he raised his wand and chanted, "Fluorescence!"

Only then did they realize that they were in a narrow, low dirt tunnel.

"Follow me." Snape led Pandora forward.

This passage is winding and twisting, more like a giant rabbit hole.

Snape held his wand in front of him, its faint light flickering in the darkness. The ground was uneven, and he occasionally tripped over the potholes.

Time passed slowly in the darkness, feeling like an hour, before the passage finally began to ascend.

After walking for about ten more minutes, they arrived at the bottom of a dilapidated stone staircase that stretched out into the distance.

“Let’s go,” Snape whispered to Pandora.

They began to climb the stone steps, carefully making no noise.

One step, two steps... At first they were counting the steps, one hundred steps, two hundred steps... but as they counted, they lost count.

Suddenly, Snape's head slammed into something hard with a "bang".

It was a trapdoor. Snape stood there rubbing his head, listening intently to what was happening above.

After a while, he heard no sound. He slowly pushed open the trapdoor and cautiously peered inside.

“Nobody’s here. Let’s go up. They must all be celebrating the holiday,” Snape whispered.

This is a cellar filled with crates and other wooden boxes.

Snape was the first to climb up, using both his hands and feet. Once he was steady, he bent down and pulled Pandora up.

Then, he gently closed the trapdoor. It was almost the same color as the gray floor, and unless you looked closely, you wouldn't even notice there was an entrance.

“Put this on.” Snape took a hood from his hand and handed it to Pandora. “We’d better be careful out there.”

After putting on their hoods, the two slowly climbed the wooden staircase leading to the upper floor. They reached the doorway at the top of the stairs, quietly slipped inside, and stood behind the Honeydukes counter.

The shop was empty, and the lights were off.

Snape and Pandora walked past the counter as quietly as possible—"The Araquoise Opens."

After using magic to open the shop door, the two quickly slipped out.

The streets were quiet, except for the lights on at the bar near the station, where cheerful sounds occasionally broke the stillness of the night.

“Let’s go, this weather’s perfect for a butterbeer,” Snape said, turning to Pandora.

The two men wrapped their robes tighter around themselves and headed toward the three brooms.

The wind was biting cold, and their hands were almost frozen. Finally, the two crossed the road and, a few minutes later, they disappeared into the bar amidst a gust of snow.

A beautiful Christmas tree stood in the center of the bar, adorned with all sorts of colorful lights and decorations.

The bar was packed tonight; the tables that usually sit there had been cleared away. Everyone was walking around with their glasses in hand, toasting each other.

Snape struggled to squeeze to the bar and, deliberately speaking in a high-pitched voice, said to Mrs. Rosmerta, "Two butterbeers, please."

Ms. Rosmerta turned and looked at him with a puzzled expression for a while, then smiled and handed him two large glasses of hot, frothy butterbeer.

As Snape took the glass, he felt Lady Rosmerta lightly scratch the back of his hand with her little finger.

He suddenly felt guilty and secretly glanced at her through his hood.

But she had already turned away, busy preparing drinks for the other guests, leaving him only with a long ponytail tied behind her. This was the first time Snape had ever seen Lady Rosmerta with such a hairstyle.

"Do you like it?" Snape asked Pandora, who was gulping down her butterbeer. He had to raise his voice because the pub was blaring a loud Christmas announcement.

The melodious voice of Setina Warbeck flowed from the large wooden radio.

"That's wonderful!" Pandora exclaimed, raising her glass. "Merry Christmas!"

Snape took a big gulp; it was one of the most wonderful things he had ever tasted. The rich, sweet flavor spread through his mouth, as if warming every inch of his body.

Under the cover of a particularly jazzy tune, "A Pot of Hot Love," Snape and Pandora talked loudly and clinked their glasses loudly.

"Oh, come stir my soup."
If you do it properly

I will endure the heat and develop a passionate love.

May this warm and cozy night keep you company.

They quickly finished their first butterbeer.

Then came the second, the third, the fourth… Snape couldn’t even remember how many times he went to the bar.

He had even started grinning at Ms. Rosmerta.

When he handed the glass to Pandora again, she also looked somewhat tipsy.

“Severus, I have something for you.” Pandora’s voice was a little shaky from the alcohol.

"What good stuff?" Snape swayed slightly to the music.

“This,” Pandora said, pulling a men’s wallet from her robe and squinting, “can hold a lot of things.”

At this moment, Setina began singing "You Stole My Heart with Magic".

"Oh, my poor heart, where has it gone?"
It left me, hooked away by magic.

……

Now you've torn it apart.

Please give me back my heart!

Setina ended her performance with a long, high note, and loud applause came from the radio. Pandora clapped excitedly as well.

(End of this chapter)