"I don't sense damage," Snape finally pronounced. "But whatever's happening is definitely tied in with your magic. Something inside you is coiling, trying to break free. The conflict is causing the pain."
"So I just have to put up with it until I get my magic back?"
"I didn't say that." Snape tapped each of his fingers with his wand and lightly chanted some soft Latin phrases that wiped the pain clear away. "Ask me to renew it whenever you have need. I'll teach the charm to Draco too, so he can assist you as well."
Harry flexed his fingers, amazed at how light and free they suddenly felt. "You know, I expected more of a potion," he admitted.
"A potion might stop the source of your pain," Snape told him, "but to do so, it might have to repress the conflict inside you. If your magic is struggling to be reborn in full, I hardly wish to stop it. But the charm should be harmless. I merely told your hand to forget it hurts."
"Wish I'd have known a charm like that after a few of the rougher Quidditch matches," Harry said, smiling.
"It works best on magical, not physical, injuries."
Harry nodded. "Right. Well, thank you, sir."
Snape merely inclined his head.
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The days passed more quickly than Harry would have expected. Maybe that was because the lack of any house-elves meant that there was quite a lot for them to do. Of course, Draco and Snape freely made use of magic to perform all their chores, but still, even spells took a certain amount of time.
Draco went flying every day, performing twists and dives and turns to do any Seeker proud. Harry wasn't too jealous of all that until the day he noticed Draco actually chasing a snitch. Then he realized how much he missed Quidditch.
The first chance he got, Harry put his Slytherin sneakiness to use and tested out his magic on Draco's broom. He didn't actually plan to ride it; he just wanted to see if it would respond to his command of up.
It didn't, which put him in a foul mood.
The mood didn't last long, however. How could it, when there was Christmas to prepare for? Harry would have thought, after spending every Yule holiday at Hogwarts, that he knew all there was to know about a wizarding Christmas, but he soon found out that he had a lot to learn.
First, there was the tree.
"It's a bit of a shame to chop down and kill a beautiful tree, I've always thought," Harry remarked when Snape said they'd see to the tree the next day. "Although I suppose it's not a total waste if we burn the wood after the season's over..."
Draco stared at him like he'd grown an extra head. "Chop down a tree! Honestly, Harry! We're wizards!"
"They always have trees at Hogwarts," Harry pointed out. "Twelve of them is the usual number, I believe?"
"And you thought they were real?" Draco asked in mock astonishment, his silver eyes glittering smug and superior. "They're spell-trees, Harry. Although I suppose it's a compliment to the house-elves that they seem so completely real." He appeared to muse that over a bit. "I wonder how many of the Muggle-raised students assume they are."
"Well there was a tree in the Gryffindor common room that was real!" Harry protested. "I know, because after Christmas was over it started to turn brownish and drop needles!"
"Some Muggleborn arranged for a real tree, then," Draco surmised, shuddering a bit. "It's horrible bad luck, though. Goes back to old wizarding ideas about the forest gods and all that. The fact that Muggles cut down trees just shows how utterly uncouth they can be--"
"Oh, stuff it," Harry said, turning to Snape. "Don't you think it's a bit ridiculous that I've been at Britain's premier wizarding school for six years, and I still don't know anything about basic customs? Why doesn't Hogwarts take into account that not all the students arrive at school already knowing all these things?"
Draco opened his mouth, but then shut it without speaking. Just as well. Harry really wasn't in the mood to hear him spout, Because Muggleborns aren't supposed to be there to begin with, Potter.
"Perhaps in addition to Muggle Studies we ought to provide a Wizard Studies course," Snape suggested, nodding slightly. "I'll discuss the matter with the headmaster."
The spell-tree turned out to be a difficult bit of magic. Normally house-elves saw to providing one, but a strong, skilled wizard like Snape could also perform the necessary spells. He walked the boys to the edge of his property and let them study a little grove of pines growing on its western edge. After a bit of wrangling, they settled on a short, squat tree with widely spaced branches. Snape pointed his wand at it, enveloping the plant in a slight bluish haze for a moment... and incanted a few sentences that didn't sound like Latin at all to Harry. Celtic, maybe, considering what Draco had said about the old forest gods and such.
When they returned to the cottage, a perfect replica of their chosen tree was standing to one side of the hearth. It took up a good quarter of the room, and even made the whole cottage smell like the woods. Harry reached out and touched it, hardly able to believe it wasn't completely real. When he looked down, though, he saw that it couldn't be. There was no snowy tree skirt to conceal the cut end, and no tree stand to keep it upright. The spell-tree looked like it was growing straight out of the stone floor.
"Candles now," Draco announced.
Reaching into a crate, Snape drew out some green and silver tapers. Since Harry had been all through the boxes by then, he knew there'd been no candles laid in. Definitely, one crate was charmed to deliver up things on demand. Snape's demand, that was. Perhaps that was where the Potions Master was hiding their presents. Harry grinned a little when that though occurred to him. Draco's Slytherin influence was rubbing off; previously, Harry would never have dreamed of searching the cottage for gifts. Maybe, however, he just wasn't used to Christmas being a very exciting time. Draco's intense interest in what he "might be getting" really did spice things up, Harry thought... even if the other boy was a bit more materialistic than Harry thought good.
Snape lit the candles one by one with a spell, and sent them levitating amongst the branches of the tree. Overall, the effect was quite nice, the candles obviously magical in their own way. They put out light and heat, but didn't consume any wax... or drip any. Nor would they light anything on fire, Snape assured them. Candles like that could be safely left lit night and day.
Harry thought they were brilliant. Still, he couldn't help observing, "Slytherin colors, sir?"
"I thought you said we were all Slytherins here," Draco retorted.
"I said sort of, didn't I?"
"It's Severus' house, so of course the candles represent him," Draco explained, his tone just a bit sneering. "He's not just a Slytherin, he's Head of Slytherin! Now, if he were a cursebreaker, his colors would be purple and white. If he worked at St. Mungo's, we'd see orange and yellow candles on the tree. If he--"
"I don't actually need fifty examples before I get the point," Harry interrupted, wishing more than ever he'd had a chance to take a Wizard Studies course. "Are all the decorations going to be in Snape's colors, then?"
"For Merlin's sake, Harry! His name is Severus!"
Remembering Draco's words on the subject of real fathers, Harry managed not to reply to that.
Snape ignored the entire issue in favor of educating Harry a bit in wizarding customs. "It's no great wonder Harry has questions," he said with a brief glare at Draco. "Traditional Yule decorations are based on plants, so they aren't so colorful as the garish displays I've seen in store windows in Muggle London. However, this is your home too, Harry. There's no reason why we can't strew about some maroon and gold if it will make the holiday seem more festive to you."