Early morning.
As soon as Snape opened his eyes from the bed and got up slowly, his peripheral vision caught a glimpse of whiteness outside the window.
Like willow catkins, the white snow drifted with the wind, draping a layer of wedding dress over the industrialized city of Cokeworth, diluting its usual dirty and noisy tough-guy temperament. Even the quarrels between workers seemed to have softened a lot.
After putting on his pajamas, Snape walked down the stairs.
In the living room—
A Christmas tree over two meters high was placed in the very center, surrounded by many carefully wrapped gift boxes.
The strings of bulbs prepared a few days ago had long been lit, and warm light filled every corner of the room.
Eileen was humming softly, busy preparing breakfast in the kitchen, while Tobias was sipping hot coffee and flipping through today's morning paper.
After greeting them—
Snape walked straight to the Christmas tree and squatted down to check which gifts belonged to him.
Hmm, Lily gave him a scarf she knitted herself. It's fiery red like her hair.
Except for one end being slightly shorter due to technical errors, everything else could be called perfect.
The gift from Mulciber was very heavy.
When Snape opened it, he found that it contained several old-textured Dark Arts books he hadn't read yet, obviously from the collection of the increasingly declining Avery family.
Snape seriously suspected this was Mulciber's own initiative.
If his parents knew, a "bamboo shoots stir-fried with meat" (beating) would probably be unavoidable.
It was worth mentioning that after creating the minor hex named Levicorpus and its corresponding counter-curse Liberacorpus yesterday, Snape's Dark Arts skill had unexpectedly risen by two levels in succession, leaping from LV7 to LV9 in one go, directly surpassing Potions, which had been leading, by one level!
When returning to Hogwarts—
Snape's long-cherished plan of harvesting experience could officially begin. Replicating specialties would no longer require careful calculation as before!
As for Snape's other roommate, Leo, he gave him a transparent snow globe.
As long as the snowflakes were shaken, the scene inside would naturally switch.
Snape tried it slightly.
He found that inside this snow globe were four different scenes: the three of them attending class together, stopping to talk, teaching in the library, and the most important one—the speech in the dormitory!
Madam Lavinia sent several bottles of shampoo, said to be the latest product not yet launched by the Rainbow Beauty Salon, and incidentally asked Snape to attach an experience review after trying it.
Lupin gave a box of exquisitely packaged chocolates, which was already a considerable burden for him given his tight financial situation.
Sent along with the letter was a sincere apology.
Expressing deep regret for the Marauders' long-term hostility, he also implicitly reminded Snape that James was very likely to bring some secret weapon from home during this holiday to deal with Snape, advising him to be vigilant at school.
Lupin's reminder was an unexpected surprise, allowing Snape to prepare for dealing with the Invisibility Cloak in advance.
The other gifts basically came from those half-blood students in the study group.
From food to daily necessities, everything was there. Among them were letters from some of their parents, explicitly expressing gratitude for Snape's helping hand in their children's studies.
What surprised Snape somewhat was—
Professor Slughorn, whom he hadn't seen except in class since that gathering, also sent him a gift.
Inside the gift box were several sheets of paper filled with dense handwriting, all suggestions for improving the Scar-Removal Cream, and even a sample of the improved Scar-Removal Cream.
If there were no errors in the refining process—
Then this Scar-Removal Cream could even have a whitening effect while removing scars. If one had scars, they could try it; if not, they could also use it. Once launched, the Scar-Removal Cream, which already sold well, would inevitably trigger another round of hot sales!
But Snape didn't care about the sales of the Scar-Removal Cream. Instead, he cared more about the profound Potions attainments Professor Slughorn displayed in those few sheets of paper.
Like a glittering treasure.
Conservatively estimated, Professor Slughorn's Potions skill must be above LV25!
If he could get his guidance, Snape's improvement in Potions would definitely accelerate by more than just a little bit!
Obviously, this was an open scheme from the scheming Potions Professor!
Want to learn?
If you want to learn, come find me, and I'll teach you personally!
The corners of Snape's mouth twitched. He seemed to have already seen the eye-stinging scene of the old walrus-like bald professor twisting his body while writing furiously on the desk, unable to stop giggling.
After hesitating for a long time, Snape finally decided to probe again. He would prepare a gift later and ask Juliet to send it to Professor Slughorn.
Hmm, send a bottle of perfume.
Women's style.
Eileen gave Snape a password notebook full of magical colors.
The cover was made of gears of different sizes. It could only be successfully opened by using a wand to unlock it according to a specific route. The pages inside were fixed at five hundred, and no matter how it was disassembled, none would be missing.
Tobias's gift was a fishing rod. Going fishing when interested in the future would also be a good choice.
It wasn't just receiving gifts.
Long before Christmas, Snape had also prepared surprises for others.
For Lily, under the guidance of the Ancient Runes professor, Snape personally made a Protean Galleon (modified).
A large amount of Dark Arts knowledge was mixed in. When it detected a person with malicious intent approaching within a range of five meters, this Galleon would heat up rapidly to scalding as a reminder.
Snape strung this rare Galleon, with dragon bodies on both sides, into a necklace to provide protection for Lily when he wasn't present.
The gift for Mulciber was a book titled One Hundred Inventions That Changed the World bought from a bookstore.
Allowing this pure-blood wizard, who was far from the Muggle world, to understand the situation of another world better.
Leo's gift was completely the opposite. It was The Fourteen Greatest Leaders of the Wizarding World bought by Snape from a bookstore in Diagon Alley.
It introduced the development history of the wizarding world in a humorous and interesting style, which also ran through the notorious witch-hunting operations in history.
For other classmates, he uniformly sent a bag of candy, which was a self-produced and self-sold product from the Golden Organ Candy Shop.
Just sorting out these gifts took Snape quite a while. Incidentally, he wrapped that bright red scarf around his neck.
And as expected—
Not long after, Lily's family came to visit.