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Draco glared up at his parents from the fireplace, irritated by the Floo call’s limitations. But it was two weeks until the winter break, and a letter certainly wouldn’t do. “He didn’t even consider it!”
His father regarded him calmly from the parlor at Malfoy Manor, a glass of wine in hand, completely unbothered. “Severus has never been overly fond of social gatherings. You know this.”
“This is not a ‘social gathering,’” Draco snapped. “It’s Yule. With us.”
His mother knelt beside the fire. “Draco —“
“It’s not a big deal,” Draco insisted. “It’s us, a handful of close friends, and — oh wait, I nearly forgot — his husband. He didn’t even invent an excuse! Not that he’s got one! He’s bonded now, and that gets him out of all of it. I checked with McGonagall — no students, no staff duties, no ‘tragic burden of responsibility’ to keep him at Hogwarts this year. And still, he just said no.”
His mother’s expression softened. “Draco, you have to understand… He has spent many years being… peripheral.”
Draco scoffed. “So he’s just supposed to keep on like that? He’s bonded now. He has an estate. He has family outside of Hogwarts. That changes things!”
His father sipped his wine. “To us, perhaps, but Draco —“
Draco’s jaw tightened, and he cut his father off. “It should change things to him! He never comes to the Yule party, but this year is different!”
There was a brief silence, filled only by the crackle of flames around Draco’s head.
“I could ask Taneen what he thinks…” Narcissa said hesitantly.
Draco’s gaze snapped to his mother. “You could?”
“Yes,” she said. “It’s… possible that the new opportunities afforded by this arrangement simply haven’t occurred to him… but, dear, he may still decline the invitation.”
“Taneen will help,” Draco said eagerly. “He’s a Slytherin — he knows strategy. And Uncle Sev actually listens to him. He’ll get him here!”
Lucius set his glass aside and fixed Draco with a very serious look. “You are suggesting we enlist Severus’s husband to undermine him.”
“I am suggesting,” Draco said, a slow, dangerous smile spreading across his face, “that Uncle Sev hasn’t considered how much more fun he’ll have here with us than he will playing daycare back at school, and that he may simply need some encouragement.”
***
Severus Snape made it three corridors this time before a suit of armor began singing.
“God rest ye merry hippogriffs —“
“No.”
The armor followed, clanking discordantly. “Let nothing you dismay! Remember —“
He turned sharply, wand already in hand. “If you complete that verse, I will dismantle you and donate the pieces to the duelling club for target practice.”
The armor paused, then bowed.
Severus continued on.
Peeves came ricocheting around a corner ahead, and Severus ducked quickly into a shadowed alcove, casting a quick disillusionment charm on himself. The poltergeist flew past, cackling to himself about holiday cheer and trailing long strands of tinsel.
Somewhere down the hall, the suit of armor started up again at top volume.
“GOD REST YE MERRY HIPPOGRIFFS —“
Severus leaned his forehead against the wall.
He just needed a moment.
***
The Floo flared green, interrupting Taneen’s reading. A moment later, his husband’s head appeared in the hearth.
“Severus,” he said warmly. Then he frowned. “You look —“
“Harassed,” Severus supplied shortly. “Hunted. Persecuted by inanimate objects.”
Taneen smiled. “Ah. Yes. ‘Tis the season, isn’t it?”
Severus’s lip curled. “If one more suit of armor sings at me, I will dismantle the castle stone by stone.”
“You could come home?”
Severus hesitated, then sighed and shook his head. “I told Draco I’d be staying. He’ll think I’m avoiding him if I just come home.”
“Narcissa asked me about the party… Would it really be that bad?”
Severus exhaled sharply. “Shockingly, I do not particularly enjoy sitting for hours with oblivious parents who care nothing for me and only wish to hear how brilliant their little trolls are. Meanwhile, said trolls either flinch at the very sight of me or act up with impunity under the protection of their ‘loving’ parents.”
Taneen nodded and sipped his apple juice. “That does sound exhausting. But Draco and Lucius and Narcissa will be there…”
“Of course they will,” Severus said irritably, “but that is beside the point. I will not monopolize their attention during the biggest event of their year.” His eyes narrowed. “And I was under the impression that your family does not celebrate Yule.”
“Not particularly,” Taneen said with a shrug. “But at the end of the day, a party’s a party. It wouldn’t trouble me if you needed company.”
Severus sighed again and shook his head. “It is a better use of my time to stay with those who have nowhere else to go. At least the other Heads of House are here to suffer with me.”
Taneen hummed his understanding but did not comment.
“I’m sorry,” Severus said suddenly. “I am being childish, whining like this. How are things at home?”
Taneen smiled and opened the ledger he’d been reading.
***
Peeves hesitated, though he eyed the jingling pouch with unrestrained want. “Last time was no fun,” he pouted. “Jinxed poor Peevesy, he did.”
Draco sighed. “Well, maybe you are getting a bit slower in your old age,” he mused, and began to tuck the pouch back into his pocket.
“Wait!” Peeves cried out, snatching the pouch and floating up out of Draco’s reach. “Wasn’t saying that!” He shook the pouch and grinned as it jingled merrily. “Christmas cheer at last is HERE!” he crowed as he zoomed off, bouncing off several walls and jingling madly.
***
Taneen arrived on Saturday afternoon to see a small, mangled Christmas tree shoved haphazardly into the corner of his husband’s quarters, and a large jar crammed with a dozen disgruntled fairies on the desk.
“I am fully aware that I am about to whine, and I do not require commentary on the matter,” Severus said stiffly, pointing at Taneen and pacing in front of the desk.
Taneen nodded, having expected as much. “Understood.”
“There was a choir in the stairwell this morning.”
“Wood nymphs again?” Taneen asked, smiling in spite of his husband’s foul mood. “I remember the year they set up in the Entrance Hall —“
“Satyrs,” Severus interrupted flatly. “In the dungeon stair. I am almost certain I am being targeted. And then, the first years decorated the Common Room —“
“Draco showed me. It’s very pretty.”
“It’s Gryffindor colors!”
Taneen frowned. “Red and green are… traditionally Christmas colors, no?”
“They did not add any green! Red! Red and gold! Everywhere!”
“Darling,” Taneen said quietly, “I think you might be overreacting. The Slytherin Common room is almost nothing but green. It would be silly to add green decorations to an already green room, wouldn’t it?”
Severus glared, but Taneen scarcely noticed, instead fingering the ends of his own crimson hair where it fell against his blood red robes.
Severus growled and pulled Taneen into an embrace. “I apologize. I did not mean anything by it. Your red suits you, and I would not change a thing.”
Taneen allowed the embrace for a moment, relishing the way it soothed his nerves, but then he pulled back. He fixed Severus with an assessing gaze. “I think you are simply allergic to color,” he declared. “And holiday cheer. Perhaps it would be best if you came home for break after all.”
“The house elves would fuss,” Severus answered dismissively. “And Draco would think —“
“– that you chose rest,” Taneen finished firmly. “And much needed, at that.”
Severus pinched the bridge of his nose. “It’s only one more week until break, and then most of the little beasts will be gone to terrorize their own families. No need to change plans because I’m… irritable.”
“Suit yourself. But I’m releasing those poor fairies on my way out.”
“’Poor fairies,’” he scoffed. “Someone set the vapid little beasts loose with sprigs of mistletoe in the potions lab yesterday. My third years nearly burned the place down in their distraction!”
***
Minerva McGonagall looked up as Severus slammed the staff room door open, admitting a bellow of caroling armor and an eye-watering stink of peppermint and pine needles. His robes trailed fine eddies of glitter along the floor behind him.
“You seem tense.”
“I am being targeted,” he snarled, flopping inelegantly into the chair opposite hers.
She poured him a cup of tea, wisely forgoing the Christmas biscuit. “You are exempt from holiday duties, you know, now that you’re married. You could go home for the break.”
Severus huffed out a bitter laugh and accepted the cup. “That’s what Taneen said. And Draco this morning. If I didn’t know any better, I might suspect —“
Severus’s expression turned suddenly murderous.
***
Lucius Malfoy received the Howler at breakfast.
Narcissa arrived just in time to see it burst into flames among the echoing accusations of “manipulation, conspiracy, and seasonal malice.”
“Oh, dear.”
“He is unused to being wanted,” Lucius said serenely. “He will recover.”
“And if he doesn’t come?”
Lucius smiled.
***
Draco looked up as Tiberius fluttered down between the pumpkin juice and the sugar bowl. Draco recognized Taneen’s new House of Prince seal, and tore eagerly into the letter. With a little luck, it would tell him that Uncle Sev had caved at last, and he wouldn’t have to resort to desperate measures.
Instead, it warned him to be careful.
Draco scoffed and threw the letter aside, just as a second owl arrived with the package he’d had the Weasley twins procure for him.
This would do the trick.
***
Severus had just enough sanity left to recognize that Floo-ing directly into Taneen’s lap in this sort of temper would only be disastrous for both of them. Instead, he chose to apparate just beyond the estate’s wards and walk the remaining distance.
He welcomed the rush of cold wind on his face and the crunch of snow beneath his boots as he marched up the gravel path, tugging his cloak more tightly around his shoulders. Something jingled faintly with the movement, and a knotted snarl of tinsel flickered in and out of his field of vision, but he chose to ignore both.
He might have fled – and his pride stung at the admission – but at least it was too late for anyone to reasonably expect him to attend the Malfoys’ Yule party. There was no one but Taneen to witness his surrender.
The front door opened before he could even reach for the handle.
“Oh!” squeaked Tilly. “Master Severus is home!”
“I am aware,” Severus snapped, brushing past her and leaving a trail of tinsel across the rug.
“They is waiting for you in the drawing room,” the elf called happily, hopping a little in her attempt to divest him of his cloak as he strode through the entrance hall. “They will all be so happy you is here!”
Severus stopped, and the tiny creature crashed into his leg, dislodging a jingle bell from where it had caught on the hem of his robes.
“All who?” he hissed.
But she had already claimed his cloak and scampered off.
He stood there for several long moments, the satisfaction of escape souring into the unmistakable feeling of having been outmaneuvered. Then he set his jaw and pushed open the door to the drawing room.
He froze on the threshhold.
“What –”
Lucius looked up first from an armchair by the fire, calm and cool as always. Narcissa, seated with Taneen on the sofa, rose immediately, her expression carefully neutral, as if he were some crazed beast in need of gentling. Taneen was close behind her, his eyes twinkling mischievously. Draco, standing near the mantel, only raised his chin defiantly.
“If you think we are hosting your –” Severus began, but Narcissa cut him off.
“We cancelled the party, Severus,” she said quietly.
Severus stared at them. “You — What? You expect me to believe —“
“That stubbornness is a quality unique to you?” Lucius asked, one pale eyebrow raised as he tipped his head to indicate his son.
“You plan these wretched events months in advance!” Severus protested.
Narcissa resumed her seat on the sofa, smoothing her skirt with a proud sniff. “Yes, and this year we have planned something else.”
Severus turned to Taneen. “You knew about this?”
“Knew your family cares about you very much?” He moved to Severus's side and threaded his fingers into his. “Yes, I did.”
There was a long silence.
“I-I don’t understand,” Severus said finally. The edge had gone from his voice, replaced with something more cautious, more wary. “Why go to all this trouble for — just me?”
Draco let out a huff of irritation. “Because you’re ours, Uncle Sev, no matter how determined you are to be difficult.”
Severus opened his mouth.
Closed it again.
He exhaled a little shakily.
“Well,” he said at last, reaching for anything that resembled a practical response, “this whole thing seems to have been terribly inconvenient.”
Taneen smiled and tugged him over to the sofa. “You have no idea.”
Severus sat obediently, but he looked up suddenly to fix Draco with a glare. “If I hear even one note of a Christmas carol, I will put you in detention until Valentine’s Day.”
Draco’s eyes were fierce, but he held up his hands and retreated to perch on the arm of his father’s chair. “It got you home, didn’t it?”
Taneen’s hand was warm in his, and Severus sighed. “It did. Thank you.”