The next morning, Director Dancer and Director Raven were once again late. "Did we have to stop for that accordion-playing bear?" Raven yelled at Dancer as they sprinted along the road.

"Yes! How many times in your life are you gonna see a bear playing the accordion?" Dancer protested.

"It'll be there tomorrow! And the next day, and the day after that!"

"Well you still stopped!"

Raven cast a sarcastic glare at Dancer as they turned they corner and entered the theatre. "That was because you were clutching my arm so tight! They are gonna be SO mad at us!" she gasped.

They skidded to a halt inside the theatre. The guys were all huddled around in a big circle. "What are they doing? Don't they even care!" Dancer panted, catching her breath.

"Apparently not. Why do we even bother?" Raven sighed.

Meanwhile, the guys were involved in a game of truth or dare, and had not even noticed the directors enter the theatre. It was Draco's turn. "Truth!" he cried.

"Hmm, ok…." Harry considered for a moment. "If you could go out with one of the directors, who would it be?"

"Dancer!" he said without a moment's hesitation.

"WHAT!" Dancer screamed. All the guys turned around to find her standing there, staring at them with a mixture of shock, horror and anger in her eyes.

"Come on, baby, you know you want to!" Draco insisted.

"Um, no I don't! Get lost you loser!" Dancer cried.

"Oh, come on!" Draco pleaded. "No!" Dancer slapped him. She must really love me! Draco thought, and began chasing her around the stage, trying to hug her.

"I really should be helping her… But this is so entertaining!" After five minutes of it though, Raven decided to intervene. "Right! Let's get onto it, shall we?"

They spent the rest of the day rehearsing, and finally it was time for part two of the play to start.

The curtains drew back, and Hermione began to narrate:

"When Scrooge awoke, it was so dark that he could scarcely distinguish the transparent window from the opaque wall of his room. He remembered Marley's Ghost, and it bothered him exceedingly."

Fred sat by Snape on the stage and poked him repeatedly, saying, "Bother, bother bother…"

"Stop it, you idiot, that's not what it means!" Snape hissed at Fred.

"Are you sure? Because…"

"Yes, I'm sure!" Snape yelled.

"Ok…sorry, carry on Hermione…" Fred ran off the stage.

"Thank you. Every time he had resolved within himself that it was all a dream, his mind flew back, like a strong spring released, to the first position, and presented the same problem to be sorted through again:"

"Was it a dream or not?" Snape cried dramatically, clutching his head. A small child in the audience burst into tears.

"Scrooge lay in this state until, on a sudden he remembered that the ghost had warned him of a visitation when the bell tolled one. He resolved to lie awake until the hour passed, and considering that he could no more go to sleep than go to Heaven, this was perhaps the wisest resolution in his power. So basically he remembered that Marley's ghost told him that another ghost was gonna visit him at one in the morning, which is really rather rude, isn't it? So anyway, he decided to stay awake till then, because he couldn't sleep anyway."

Snape lay in the bed onstage, looking rather bored. Raven pressed the play button on her stereo and the CD of bell chimes began to play. It chimed two.

"What? Isn't it supposed to be one?" Snape said.

"Oh, yeah, sorry, wrong track," Raven pressed the next button and one bell chimed.

"The hour…and nothing more," Snape/Scrooge said, looking around the 'bedroom'.

Suddenly a flash of light came from one side of the stage, and Ron was shoved on while the audience recovered from the temporary blindness.

"Scrooge found himself face to face with the unearthly visitor."

Ron was standing about three feet away from Snape. He looked around at the directors, who signaled for him to go closer. He didn't want to catch Snape's cooties. "It was a strange figure, like a child, but yet not so like a child as an old man."

"Are you calling me old?" Ron asked.

"No, now get on with the play!" Dancer hissed.

"Are you the spirit whose coming was foretold to me?"

Snape recited.

"No, what are you talking about?" Ron said, looking bewildered.

"What? But…"

"Nah, just playing with you! I am the spirit."

"Who and what are you?" Snape asked.

"I am the ghost of…wait, what am I the ghost of again?" Ron looked behind him at the directors. They both rolled their eyes and said, "Christmas Past!"

"Yeah, that's right! I am the ghost of Christmas past," Ron said, turning back to Snape.

"What business has brought you here?" Snape inquired.

"Your welfare," Ron replied, after a hasty look at the directors, who were giving him death glares for forgetting the lines.

"But surely a night's unbroken rest would be more conducive in the end?" Snape said.

Hermione was quick to translate for the confused audience: "He means: wouldn't it be better to let him sleep than wake him up in the middle of the night?"

"Right, right, whatever," said Ron. "Your salvation then. Take heed, rise, and fly with me!"

Snape looked dubious. "But I am mortal, and liable to fall!"

"No, you dork, you're a wizard, now come on, let's get a move on, we've wasted most of my hour already!" Ron said impatiently, and pulled Snape out of the bed and towards the window.

They both went to leap out, but Ron missed and hit the wall instead.

"It's not fair!" he cried, sliding down the wall, "All the other ghosts can float through walls! But me? Oh no! It's never me! Never!"

He began crying. Snape flew back in the window on his cough not really there cough broomstick and pulled Ron out with him.

As they flew through the sky, Snape saw a blinding light on the horizon. "Spirit, what is that? It cannot be dawn."

"No, it's the past, you idiot! Can't you tell? It's completely different from dawn. See, dawn has these little purple-y bits in it, and you can obviously see that there are NO purple-y bits in that." Ron tutted as if everybody knew this.

Snape stared incredulously at him.

As they neared the 'past' the ground came rushing up to meet them as Snape, blinded by the absolutely non-purple-y light, lost control of the broom. Screaming, they crashed in a heap.

Raven signaled Hermione to start narrating while Snape and Ron disentangled themselves.

"Scrooge and the Spirit stood upon an open country road, with fields on either hand. The city had vanished. The darkness and mist had vanished with it, for it was a clear, cold winter's day, with snow upon the ground."

The set was quickly changed and Ron and Snape were standing on a white sheet with fake trees on both sides of them, and a scale model of Hogwarts at the other side of the stage.

"Good hell!" Snape cried. The priest, who had just gotten over last night's disaster, shrieked and ran for the hills.

"It's 'Good Heaven'!" Dancer hissed.

"Good Heaven!" Snape repeated. "I was a boy here."

"These are but shadows of your past. They cannot see or hear us." Ron said.

Oh no! That means they can still smell us! Snape thought despairingly.

They entered Hogwarts to find Draco sitting at a table wearing a black wig. Standing next to him was Dumbledore, looking very pleased with himself.

"What do you think, Severus? Great role for me isn't it?" he asked.

"You're not supposed to see him!" Raven murmured.

"What? Oh right," he turned to Draco.

"I cannot see anyone standing over there where Severus is. Can you?"

Raven slapped her forehead with her hand. "Get on with it!" Dancer whispered from beside her.

"It was Christmastime, and everyone had left for the holidays, except for one little boy, Ebenezer Scrooge .He was receiving some last minute advice on life from his headmaster." Hermione read.

"Keep your nose to the grindstone! Work hard, and one day your career will be as solid as this very building!" Dumbledore slammed his hand against a wall to prove his point, and a shelf fell off. "Well, um, certainly as steady as this wall…" he hit the next one and the whole thing fell down. "Well, you get the point." Dumbledore grumbled.

"Yes Professor," Draco said obediently.

"Of all the people they could have had to play me…"Snape was muttering.

"Let us move outside," Ron said, pulling Snape with him.

The second Snape stepped outside; a snowball hit him in the back of the head. "Ouch! Help! We're under attack!" Snape cried and ducked down, covering his head.

"Poor Snivellus!" a voice said. Snape was astonished. "No…it can't be…"

"Oh yes, it's us!" James and Sirius's voices chorused.

The audience cheered, glad that finally someone good had come into the play.

"But I thought the ghosts of the past couldn't see us!" Snape wailed.

"Well they can't, but we're ghosts from the future!" James cackled and levitated Snape upside down.

"Help! Weasley, do something!" Ron took Snape's hand grudgingly and dragged him down.

"Oh you just spoil all the fun!" James said, and trudged back to Hogwarts. He reached for the door handle.

"You dummy! You're a ghost, you can go through doors!" Sirius said.

"I know that, I've always been able to go through doors!" James protested, opening the door and demonstrating this.

"Not like that, you idiot! Like this!" Sirius yelled, and walked right through the wall.

"Oh," James looked down disappointedly. 'You win."

"YES! Go me!" Sirius cried.

"Um, let us leave this place now…" Ron mumbled.

There was another flash of light and a quick scene change, and they were now in a large hall with lots of people around.

"I was apprenticed here!" Snape said.

"Yes, I know that, that's why I brought you here!" Ron sighed angrily.

But Snape was not paying attention, for he had spotted Professor Flitwick, acting as Fezziwig, Scrooge's old employer, desperately jumping around trying to gain the attention of the past Scrooge.

"Hello! Down here! Look! No, not over there! Down, down! Dammit, what I would give for some stilts!" Flitwick was crying. Finally the young Scrooge spotted him.

"Ah, Mr. Fezziwig, what is it?" he asked, bending down so he was eye level with the tiny man.

"You seem to be awfully lonely over here! Come, there is someone I want you to meet," Flitwick said, grabbing young Scrooge's leg and dragging him after him.

Young Scrooge, surprised, tripped over and fell flat on his face. When he righted himself, he was face to face with a beautiful, young Professor McGonagall.

"Scrooge remembered this meeting well," Hermione read.

"I remember this meeting well!" Snape exclaimed. He and Ron watched as Flitwick introduced the Professor to Scrooge.

All seemed to be going well, when suddenly, Professor McGonagall's features began to ripple and change.

"Oh no! The youth potion!" McGonagall cried. Raven ran around backstage, shouting for someone to find some more. "Come on! Move your backsides and get me some more potion! NOW!"

The audience sat, confused and regretting paying the entrance fee. A few people got up and left, yelling obscenities at the directors.

'Wait! Don't leave!" Dancer wailed. She ran onto the stage and began pulling off all her best moves, turns, leaps, handstands and cartwheels in a last attempt to keep the remaining audience members in their seats.

"Finish the scene!" Raven yelled to the actors.

Dancer quickly pranced offstage.

"Spirit, show me no more!" Snape cried. "Haunt me no longer!"

"I told you these are the shadows of things that have been! They are what they are, do not blame me!" Ron said. "As the bell tolls two, you will be visited by another! My time is up! Farewell!"

He and Snape left the stage, and Raven hurriedly had the curtain pulled down by Hagrid and Seamus.

"That was a disaster!" Dancer cried, sinking to the ground.

Raven turned to McGonagall. "What happened! I told you to check that there was enough potion left to do the play!"

"No you didn't," McGonagall replied.

"Yes, I did! This morning! I said: check that you have enough potion left to do the play tonight!" Raven ranted.

"That never happened!" McGonagall yelled.

"She's right, it didn't," Dancer pointed out.

"Whose side are you on here?" Raven shrieked.

The cast decided to leave the two directors to yell at each other, and returned to Hogwarts, avoiding the angry patrons.