I don’t really celebrate Easter (although I am fond of the chocolate bunnies) but I’ll wish you all a Happy Easter today. In honor of the season, I found this fun meme on Every Every Minute:

If you could have an Easter Basket made for you by anyone living, dead, or fictional… who would it be?

Here’s Mine: (and this is only because I’m currently Snape-obsessed and thought it would be fun)

An Easter basket from Professor Severus Snape -

Headmaster Albus Dumbledore watched as several varieties of scowl’s crossed the young Potions Master’s face. He chuckled quietly when one particularly choice glare settled upon him.

“You must be joking, Albus,” sneered Snape. “Perhaps this is a prank by those abominable Weasely twits!”

“Not at all, Severus, my boy. And surely you’re aware of this tradition? You couldn’t have been at Hogwarts as long as you have without hearing something about it.”

Snape fumed. Of course he had. He’d managed to avoid such ridiculous participation since he’d first heard of this Muggle Easter tradition. A tradition he was certain Dumbledore was behind. Perhaps something to do with fostering Muggle relations with the Wizarding world. A foolhardy prospect, he’d always thought of it.

“Why don’t you get Minerva to fill this request, Albus. Or even Sybil!” Snape’s lip curled in a poor approximation of a smile. “That’s it! Sybil could fill this request for an Easter Basket!” He chuckled as he could just imagine the sort of basket the batty professor of Divination might produce. Complete with a fine parchment filled with a dark prophecy of doom.

“They are already filling requests, Severus, and this one specifically mentioned you.”

“Is that Muggle by chance in a mental ward, Albus?” sniped Snape.

Dumbledore glanced down at the letter that had arrived by owl late last night. He frowned for a moment, considered the possibility, and then smiled, giving Snape that maddening twinkling gaze of his.

“I think the lady is in quite good grasp of her faculties, Severus. Although, I question why someone would desire to risk a gift from you….” Dumbledore shrugged and laughed as he imagined that the potions master could easily fill an Easter basket with any number of unpalatable potions ingredients. “It is a season of Good Will, Severus. I am not asking you to participate in a colorful Easter Egg Hunt or something equally distasteful to a Slytherin of your dignity. Just grant this ladies wish.” He held out the letter to Snape.

Snape snatched the letter from the headmaster’s hand as he rose from the chair he’d been seated in. With a dramatic swirl of his robes, he made his way toward the door to Dumbledore’s office. Just as he was to leave, Albus called out.

“You might refrain from including the newt eyes, Severus!”

Snape’s reply was to slam the door soundly in retreat.

In his classroom, Snape threw the letter onto his desk. He snatched a rather battered copper cauldron (one of the one’s most often used by that dunderhead Neville Longbottom) dropped it with a dull clang onto his work table and waved his wand over it.

The basket was delicate with bits of colored ribbon woven in the handle. He scowled and waved his wand again. The basket changed into the shape of half an egg. The other half of the egg was filigree and of the copper of the cauldron. Little more satisfied with that, Snape paced briefly, staring darkly at the very empty container.

He had thought of throwing in various bottles of potions ingredients, such as newt eyes, frog toes, and boomslang skin, but thought better of it. Good Will, Albus had impressed upon him.

“Who is this woman, anyway?!” Snape asked the letter as he picked it up. He read it quickly and then he saw the name at the end. He paled visibly and dropped the letter. His hand was shaking slightly as he dropped into his chair. “She’s one of them.” He muttered. “She’s no simple Muggle.”

The woman was a writer. She often penned her own, original stories and it was said her pen was often like a dagger, unseen by the unwary until it was too late. Not that that was a bad thing. An imagination, even if it was of the mad darkness this writer had, was best released to parchment rather than expressed in an other more unsavory manner. What truly gave Snape a chill and wrapped ice around his heart was that the woman was also a dabbler in fan fiction. An insidious magic that could re-arrange entire worlds, wreak havoc within those worlds in unimaginable ways. Those kind of writers weren’t mere Muggles… they were… something else entirely. And this one… well, she was writing about HIM!

“The woman’s retaliation… this woman’s would be too horrid to consider,” Snape muttered.

Several hours later found Snape in the owlery with the Easter Basket. A wave of his wand shrunk the basket so it would be manageable for the owl to deliver. As he watched the brown spotted owl fly into the distance, he shuddered. He hoped he’d chosen wisely in his gift of Good Will.

************

The gated front door rattled as something heavy connected with it with a loud bang. This set Marcus and Panda, the two dogs of the house, to barking like maniacs. Richard was busy spray painting one of his military model planes and just ignored the dogs. Jayne, at her computer, muttered several succinct imprecations under her breath, then her temper exploded.

“SHUT UP!” Of course the shouting didn’t work. It never did. Panda and Marcus were spoiled and did as they pleased. Claudius, the elderly cat at her feet opened one eye, glared darkly like a certain potions professor, and then lay his head back down to continue his sleep.

Jayne headed down the stairs to the front door, pushed the dogs out of the way and wondered to herself whatever could have been tossed at the door. It was Sunday, so it certainly wasn’t a package from eBay or Amazon. It could be something from the skateboarding kids, but they were usually absent until late Sunday.

Opening the front door revealed an oddly shaped package wrapped in green and silver. Picking it up, she closed the door and headed up the stairs with Panda and Marcus at her heels. One never knew, in the dog kingdom, if a package might contain something very nice to eat.

Placing the package on the kitchen counter, Jayne caught at a small card attached by silver ribbon to the package. Taking the card, she opened it and took off her glasses. The handwriting was very precise and just a bit too small for her to read comfortably. Bringing the card close to her nose (she really needed some reading glasses!) she read the note:

Madam,

I wish to extend to you this offer of Good Will between our worlds. I admit some curiousity as to why you made this Easter request as it is known in our world you are not a celebrant. However, as all men and women do celebrate Good Will toward each other, than please accept this gift as such a token.

Sincerely,

Severus Snape

Jayne laughed quietly. “I’ll bet that Professor Dumbledore put the thumbscrews on poor Snape!”

She unwrapped the package revealing the beautiful container of copper filigree. Several lovely crystal bottles were carefully arranged amongst the frangrant petals of yellow and white lilies. One by one she removed the potions. Each was neatly labelled and in addition to the label, Snape had put a small card attached by silver thread around the stoppers that explained the properties of each potion. Jayne was certainly fascinated by each of the potions, but what caused her to laugh out loud was that beneath the potions there was a white chocolate Easter bunny. A small note around the sweet bunny admonished the consuming of the chocolate in one sitting; unless it was shared.

Tucking the potions into a dark cabinet where they’d keep better, Jayne broke off the ears of the bunny and returned to her computer. Both Marcus and Panda were at her side, desperately hoping for some chocolate. A reminder from her that chocolate was bad and they slumped to floor in disgust.

On Jayne’s computer was a long manuscript she’d been working on for several weeks. She was editing it now and hopefully making it much better. Biting into the chocolate, she smiled at the blinking cursor that was awaiting the next bit of input.

“Have no worries, my dear Professor Snape… you will get your happy ending.”

*********
Easter Sunday 2008