On Christmas Eve, Severus and Kanara were busy preparing for tomorrow. This year, there would be –  hopefully – six of them spending Christmas together. Kanara’s immediate family planned to come over. The Crawfords, all three, hadn’t spent the holidays together in a while, so she was extremely excited.

The dishes were finished in the morning. Now, it was afternoon and time for them to make gingerbread cookies with their two children. The single-wall kitchen was lined with appliances, wood top counters on the left wall, and a small wood island in the middle of the room. At the end of the kitchen was a casement window and a small round table with four chairs in front of it. Currently, the kitchen was warm from the oven, baking the cookies.

Everyone was comfortable in sweaters or shirts and sweatpants. The aroma was a mix of sweet cinnamon, baked dough, and vanilla. Jasper’s wavy hair bounced on top of his head, and Severus watched him while leaning against the wall next to the doorway. Kanara and their oldest, Kendi, were sitting at the table. Her legs and thighs rested as she ran her hands through her dark braids. With the winter sun shining through the window, it was lively.

Eventually, Kendi changed her chant to “Cookies! Cookies!” Her dark, straight hair swung with her arms. Then Jasper switched to a disco move from before his time, making Kanara snort at their teamwork and Severus cover his face.

Actually, Severus’ stress level decreased on holidays, weekends… any time he got to leave Hogwarts. He was thankful for the time away from that school, that boy. The current DADA professor. He always took advantage of his breaks to see his family—two cute, smiling faces who seemed to love and adore him. And a woman who cared about him, heard and saw him, and wanted him as much as he wanted her. They came with a different set of challenges, yes. But he willingly took them on.

Suddenly, from the living room, there was a pop.

“It’s me,” a familiar voice sang. There were light steps, a rhythmic ruffling of polyester. Then, a short woman poked her head into the doorway at the front of the kitchen.

“Aunt Ti!” The small children exclaimed. Their little feet made the floor tremble as they ran to the doorway and hugged Tatiana – Kanara’s little sister.

“Get out,” Severus shot, showing his face again. For once, one corner of his mouth curved up at her.

Ti sucked her teeth. “Oh hush, Snape,” she shot back with a bright smile. “How was the term?”

“…Alright.”

She usually picked both children up. But today, she struggled. “Merlin, both of y’all are getting so big! I should take another family picture today.”

So far, Ti spent every Christmas with the family. Her niece and nephew also saw her throughout the year, as she visited whenever she wasn’t traveling. The children found their aunt to be entertaining and funny. And their faces lit up whenever she visited.

Kanara smiled at the scene of her kids crowding Ti. “Y’all, at least let her take her coat off.”

“Hey, girl,” Ti perked at her sister. The children finally released their aunt, who exhaled in relief. She took her hat off and shook out her tight, golden-brown curls.

“Hey, Tati. You’re just in time to decorate.”

“Ooh, okay.” Ti quickly went to the right, back into the living room to hang her coat.

Five minutes later, Severus took out the cookies and set them on the island. He waved his wand over them to cast a cooling charm, the children applauding. For what, he didn’t know – but it made him snort anyway. Kendi and Jasper were already sitting on the two stools, claiming a few cookies.

There were two pans of cookies in different shapes – the typical gingerbread person and snowflakes. That was all, because the couple liked to personalize the rest of the dough. Kanara had some shaped like cats. Severus made some cookies that were shaped like potion bottles, too. As the cookies cooled, he smiled at the success – he’d carved them out of the dough himself.

Ti stood at the doorway. She jerked her head back as she put her curls in a bun. “Why did y’all make two pans?”

“Because, your sister is dangerous with her spices,” Severus drawled as he folded his arms.

"Ah, you've tasted the Crawford recipe."

“I planned on eating the cookies… so I made a second batch.”

Kanara agreed from the fridge. “They’re on the brown pan; mine are on the black pan. His taste more like… warm cinnamon? Something like that,” she projected, pulling out the colorful icing. “You know mine are pretty good with some milk, though, Tati.”

Ti nodded. “Yeah, I like a kick.”

“I like the hot cookies, too, Aunt Ti,” Jasper perked.

Kanara chuckled sweetly. “As for the extra cookies… I can always give them to my coworkers.”

“Their tongues will burn off, Kanara,” Severus said as he watched her set the icing on the island.

Then suddenly, he smirked and mumbled, “…Can I take some back to Hogwarts?”

Ti widened her eyes in shock, but Kanara just burst out laughing with a nod.

“Yeah, but when you leave, they’re your cookies. I ain’t going down with you.” She discreetly squeezed his elbow.

With the charm, the cookies were completely cool and ready for icing in twenty minutes. There were tubes of icing in various colors, at least as many in a standard crayon box. Kanara laid them out on the island, along with extra pans so everyone wasn’t reaching over one another. Kendi and Jasper sat on the right end, and Ti was on the short end, closer to the doorway. The parents stood across from the children.

Kendi grabbed a gingerbread person. “I’m making a Daddy cookie,” she stated quickly.

“But I was gonna make one,” Jasper whined.

“Now you can’t. Too bad, so sad –“

“Aht – I told you to stop that,” Kanara warned sternly. A cookie began to float seemingly on its own, and Severus grabbed it.

She continued. “Jas, look at me, honey. Both of you can make Daddy cookies. The more, the merrier.”

“But Mum, he’s gonna make it the same,” Kendi whined.

Severus stepped in. “Then don’t make a Daddy cookie. Or try to understand that your brother thinks you have great ideas.” He softened his voice. “It’s your choice, Ken.”

Kendi sighed deeply – or dramatically – and seemed to weigh her options. She ran her hands through her hair.

“Fine,” she said. “We can make Daddy cookies.”

Everyone then got to work. On the counter behind them, the radio played quietly in the background. Unfortunately for Kanara, everyone else had voted on Christmas music.

She tried not to roll her eyes but sighed at the jolly sounds filling her kitchen. The children sang off-key to Jingle Bells, forgetting whatever happened earlier. Ti added some beatboxing to the old song. And Severus just had to be annoying by subtly nudging his knee into his fiancée’s thigh to the beat. She stared up at him unamused, but he focused on decorating his potion cookies with folded lips.

“All done,” Kendi perked. “Look, Daddy, I made you!” One of the gingerbread people was dressed in black icing. Black hair, with randomly placed dots around the mouth, too. But she gave him a bright smile.

As always, his daughter drew him adorably. Severus chuckled under his breath. “Good job, Kendi. I want to eat that one.”

Kendi gasped and shielded the gingerbread man. “I’m keeping him. Forever and ever.”

“He won’t survive ‘forever and ever.’ One bite.”

“No, Daddy,” she giggled. She tucked her cookie behind a cat that she started to work on.

“You can eat mine, there’s love in it,” Jasper beamed. He held his cookie up, which looked similar to his sister’s. With Ti’s help, the difference was Severus’ eyes were closed and U-shaped. He looked even happier.

And Kanara, as always, squealed at the art. “Aw, Ken, Jas, they’re so cute! They look just like Daddy.”

A small smile finally broke through as Severus moved the boy’s cookie to his stack of potions. “Thank you, son. I’m sure it’ll be delicious.”

After finishing most of the potion cookies, Severus gave the rest to whoever wanted to decorate one. He also set three gingerbread people aside. No one had touched the snowflakes yet. He took some and made one group different from the other – red décor for his fiancée’s spicy batch and green for his.

Sometime before dinner, they finished decorating the cookies. The icing decor between the five of them was a mix of detailed, fun, and wild.

"Can I eat one?" Jasper asked.

"You two can have half of one," Severus nodded. "You haven't eaten dinner."

Everyone took their pick and indulged for a short time. Kanara took a potion cookie and broke it in half. She offered one piece to Severus. He turned away from Ti and the children to bite a piece off with his teeth. As expected, it was sweet with a slight tease of spice.

“Mm,” Kanara nodded. “I don’t know about you. But this is the best potion I’ve ever tasted.”

“Ah – !“ All of a sudden, Kendi exclaimed. The parents turned around to see that their daughter had chosen half of a cat cookie.

“Mum, it’s spicy.”

“I’m so sorry, hon,” Kanara soothed. She pointed her wand at the island, conjured two glasses of cold milk, and floated them to the kids’ side. When she looked back up at Severus, his eyes briefly squinted at her. She wasn’t sure if it was out of disappointment or suspicion. But he didn’t have to say anything. She just smirked and looked away.

~~~

Now, it was nighttime; the drapes hung over the kitchen window, and the lamps were bright. Kanara sighed and listened to the magical scrubbing of the last pan. She sat at the dining table, her legs stretched on the chair next to hers. Ti had stayed for dinner, then left with some cookies. The children were tucked into bed.

But her sister did take a new family picture for them, as she mentioned when she arrived. It was now propped in a smooth green frame on the table. Kanara looked over it, humming sweetly at her beautiful family.

It was taken at the table where she was sitting now. Some cookies were moved to a large floral glass plate and set on the table. The plate was magically tilted, so the cookies were seen well in the picture.

Kanara sat on the left side, a thumb pointing to the plate. Kendi stood in front of the table, to the side so she didn’t block the cookies, with a grin on one side of her face. She held her arms over to one of her sides as if she were advertising the cookies. Jasper sat in his father’s lap, holding up his Daddy cookie. He had a big smile, identical to his mother. And Severus pointed at the cookies too, though his cheek slightly laid on their son’s wavy head. He had a tiny smile.

Suddenly, the picture was blocked by a gingerbread person floating in front of it. She smiled and took the cookie out of the air. It had a perfect afro, an orange shirt with blue jeans, and a pretty smile.

She looked to her left to see Severus leaning his elbow against the island. His wand was pointed in her direction, and he put his arm down. He was already in sleepwear, his hair wet and strands sticking to his cheeks.

“Aw, is this me?”

“Yes. And I used part of a potion cookie for your hair.”

“You’re so cute...” Her eyebrows were raised, and he tried not to scoff. “You know, this means you’ve made your first portrait of me.”

“Sorry she’s stiff,” he smiled shyly. He grabbed a small plate from the island and glided to the table.

She shook her head. “Stiff or not, she’s perfect, Sev.” She grabbed his hand and kissed it, which made his stomach flip.

Then he put the plate down to pull out the chair she had her legs in. She took them down, but he sat and put her legs back up to rest on his thighs. His plate had the Daddy cookie that his son made for him. As he picked it up, Kanara tapped her cookie with his as if they were glasses of wine. Then Severus bit off most of the head.

But then he started coughing. He might have cursed too, but it was barely a whisper.

She gasped as he quickly conjured a tall glass of milk. “Oh goodness, he grabbed one of mine.”

“Apparently,” he sniffled with a grimace. But then he took another bite, and she cocked her head in disbelief.

“Baby, you don’t have to…”

“Jasper made it with love, Nara. I’ll eat all of it.”

His pale skin was a soft pink, and his face was the usual look of nonchalance. She watched as one of his hands smoothed back his shoulder-length hair. As quickly as he could, he consumed the spicy gingerbread cookie. Then he washed it all down with the milk.

She slightly pouted at his discomfort. “I bet you could taste the love, too.”

“Of course,” he shook his head with a lip curl. “Still feel it in my throat.”

“Sorry,” she folded her lips, but he gently patted one of her legs. She stared back at his Kanara cookie in her hand. “You used one of mine for her body, then.”

"I might have," he shrugged. “Perhaps you should take a bite.”

“...You trying to set me up?”

“Didn’t say that.” He sat back and watched her, absentmindedly sprinkling the crumbs on the plate with his thumb and two fingers.

Kanara slowly nodded skeptically at him. Then quickly bit off the cookie’s leg. Like the potion cookies, it was buttery and mild.

“Hm… cinnamon too. She’s warm and sweet.”

“…I tried to be as realistic as possible.”

Her heart skipped a beat once she worked out his response, not to mention his soft gaze, and she softly hummed. She took her propped legs down and stood up. Then, she leaned down to hold his chin, his stubble scratching her fingertips. He felt her firmly kiss his cheek, still flushed from the heat. And as always, his cheek rose by itself.

“Thank you,” she said softly, wiping the few crumbs she left. He quickly turned his head to peck her lips.