A/N: Hey all!!! First off, THANKS for all the great reviews for "Mother's Day"! I cried!!!!!! ^_^ I also blushed! I didn't know so many would like it. ^_^ WELL, here's my next story. This one's a Christmas story. SO, hope you like it! Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter nor do i own Faith Hill's "Where Are You Christmas?" That's on the "The Grinch" album! GOOD SONG!!! GOOD CD!!! GOOD MOVIE!!!!!! (A/N: It's kinda sapppy....but those are always the best kind right? Well, it's a XMAS fic and it's also for our favourite Potions teacher!!!) "Where Are You Christmas?" By: Angel Grrl I'm not quite sure what woke me up this morning. The slight draft in the dungeon......or the fact that there was a small layer of snow in my room. I shivered slightly and burrowed back under my blankets. Only then, when I was drifting back off to sleep, did I remember the date. December 25.....again. It was Christmas again. I moved my foot slightly towards the end of my bed and my expectations were met to the fullest extent. Nothing. Just like every year.... ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Where are you christmas? Why can't I find you? ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sitting up fully in my bed I looked at the empty space just to be reassured. There was still nothing there. Ironically, I wasn't surprised. Nobody remembers me at Christmas time. The only thing I ever looked forward to at this time of year was my Christmas bonus and the halfway point of the school year. I grudgingly got out of bed and began to dress myself for the day. I began to think back over the years that I had been at Hogwarts. My school years and my teaching years...what had happened to me? I allowed myself a moment of self-pity. What had happened to me to make me so bitter towards everyone, and why did this particular holiday bring out the worst in me? I began to think back.... ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Why have you gone away? Where is the laughter You used to bring me? Why can't I hear music play? ------------------------------------------------------------------------- I thought back to when I was about 8 years old. I woke up to the sound of laughter and paper ripping. I immediately knew what today was. I ran downstairs quick as a flash and there sat my sister. She was ripping open a package from Father Christmas. She had a look of joy on her face that only came from this day. She looked up at me and smiled and looked at my pile, and then went back to her own. I took the hint and sat in front of my gifts and started to unwrap them. The first was a toy broomstick that went up about 4 feet in the air and would do tricks if you pressed a certain button. Overcome with excitement, I grabbed my slippers and a robe and hurried outside into the snow. My sister called after me and came outside right after me, carrying a brand new teddy bear. "Stand back, Lizzie," I called. She obeyed and stayed near the door. She loved to watch me do magic. Her magic hadn't shown itself yet but I was confident that it would, besides she was only 5 years old. I got on the broom and kicked off into the air. I was about a foot and a half above her head but she was still just as enchanted as if I were twenty feet above. I spun in the air and would myself around a tree in the yard. When I landed she wanted to have a go as well. I knew she was too young and she might fall off. Still, when she looked at me with her bright black eyes, I couldn't say no. I remember her eyes......our father said that our eyes were like two buttons in a snowbank. I smiled at the memory. Then, it took a drastic turn. She gingerly got onto the broomstick, and asked me to hold her teddy. I obeyed and put her bear next to the step so, he could "watch her soar like a professional Quidditch player". She laughed at this and steadied herself. When I let go she floated up into the air. Very slowly, but nonetheless she was still in the air. She laughed merrily and clapped her hands in excitement. I watched her as she wobbled slightly but still nothing too dangerous. I heard our mother inside call our names. I glanced at her and saw that she was safe she was floating over the flowerbed and singing silently to herself. I went inside for just the briefest moment of moments. I yelled at mother that we were outside and that everything was fine. I saw her in a blue robe carrying a steaming mug of cider and my father behind her with his coffee. I went back outside and the sound that greeted my ears was a yell of panic. Following the sound, I looked skyward and saw to my horror that my sister was suspended in the air about 12 feet high. My mother screamed and my father ran inside for his broom. I could only look up in shock. Then.........she began to fall. The broomstick had bucked and she fell off......straight down. She landed with a sickening thud and didn't move. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- My world is changing I'm rearranging Does that mean Christmas changes too? ------------------------------------------------------------------------- My parents had taken her to a wizarding hospital immediately. She was still breathing but unconscious. She wasn't dead......but she was badly hurt. My mother didn't stop crying for the rest of the day and my father kept asking the doctor what he progress was. I just sat silently, not seeing and not feeling. Just staring...... Finally, the doctor came and told us. Lizzie was alive but she was in a coma. They didn't know how long she would be in it. Sometimes they lasted for hours, days, weeks, even years. I knew now. I knew that THAT was the moment. That was the very moment that I stopped caring for anything, anybody. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Where are you Christmas? Do you remember The one you used to know? I'm not the same one See what the time's done Is that why you have let me go? ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Looking back, I made a decision. I went back to the place that I had avoided for nearly thirty years. When I entered the hospital I asked a very nice witch where I could find my sister. Elizabeth Snape. She asked if I was family and upon answering yes, she told me Room 309. I nodded and my way to her room. Her room still had not changed. Not even after all these years. I went back into my memories. My parents had not blamed me, although I blamed myself. My father had taken my broomstick to the Ministry and they had found that a spell had been cast on it to make it throw its rider at a certain height. Despite all of that, I still couldn't stop thinking 'What if I hadn't left?' 'What if Dad had been able to get there in time?' 'What if I hadn't been so DAMN anxious to start flying?' I was soon snapped out of my reverie as I realized I was standing in front of a door. I was standing in front of Room 309. Gathering up my courage, I slowly turned the knob. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Christmas is here everywhere Christmas is here if you care If there is love in your heart and your mind It will feel like Christmas all the time ------------------------------------------------------------------------- There she lay. She looked like a sleeping angel. I tried to ignore all of the numerous tubes that were connected to her body. I sat by her bed and took in her appearance. Her hair was now fuller and black and long. Her face was calm and relaxed and I saw that her nose still looked like our mother's. I had inherited Father's. I smirked slightly. Then, pushed it away. She looked almost EXACTLY like our mother. Ever so slightly, as if afraid I would break her, I touched her forehead lightly with my fingertip, brushing a strand of hair away. She slept on. I picked up her hand and held it and stroked it lovingly, as if she were a tiny kitten. Plink! I looked at her hand and saw a drop of water. I then felt it on my face. I raised a trembling hand to my face and found that I was crying. I wiped my tears away and refused to move. Then......I felt something. I don't know what I felt....I just felt something. I looked at my hand and hers, where they were conjoined. I had felt a tiny squeeze. It was so slight that if I hadn't been so still I wouldn't have felt it. I looked at Lizzie's face......and her eyelashes fluttered. I stared intently at her as she eyes opened for the first time in nearly thirty years. Then, she looked at me with her black eyes, and said only one thing. "Merry Christmas Severus" ------------------------------------------------------------------------- I hear you Christmas I know I've found you You never fade away The touch of Christmas Stays here inside us Each and every heart with love ------------------------------------------------------------------------- A/N: OK! OK! I admit it. It was SAPPY! BUT it's almost Christmas and well, HEY! I just saw "The Grinch" gimme a break! OK! PLEASE REVIEW!!!! AND THANK YOU SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH FOR READING!!!! HUGS TO THE READERS!!!