Hello people, this is my first fanfic and I've always wanted to write one. I think it's pretty okay, not that great but it's a lot of fun to write and the people who have read it till now, they all loved it. I just hope all of you like it too. And please do review in the end, it makes me happy. I accept suggestions too. The story shall have loads of chapters, as it continues to wind through the live of Snape and Lily, closely following the memories of Snape as portrayed by JKR. Please review! :)

P.S I don't own any characters, all credits to JKR!

Chapter 1: That little glint of red

She was running towards him, her auburn long hair gracefully floating behind her, smiling her best smile ever, hands outstretched. He had always waited for this, but he wondered, how had she known who he was. He had never spoken to her, yet. Not at all disturbed though, he ran too, and stopped, he had heard her scream just then, a terrible scream. Wondering what happened he turned around and he saw his hopeless, drunk father shouting at her, calling her all foul names he had never imagined. Anger was boiling inside him, and before he could control himself, his father had staggered on to the ground, withering in pain, calling out for help…

Severus woke up with a jolt, and just as he realized that it was all a dream, a wave of happiness followed by a great rush of disappointment washed over him. He was glad that it was just a dream. Not daring to imagine what would have happened if he had really used magic upon his father, such horrible painful magic, and his mother would never forgive him, despite the fact that his mother knew he could not learn to control his magic yet, he was just 10; he set his bed and walked straight into the bathroom. Looking at himself in the mirror, he pondered over the remaining half of the dream. It was probably the 100th time that he had dreamt about her, and that was why he was disappointed, it was only a dream.

Deciding to pluck up the courage to go speak to her today, he tried to wash out his black hair, which remained as greasy as ever, falling upon his shoulders, and his black eyes stared back at him, with as less emotion in them as possible.

He was starving, he wanted to eat something, he hadn't eaten anything yesterday, not wanting to go down, anywhere near his parent's who were arguing continuously, clearly oblivious to the fact that they had a son. He could hear them now. They had started arguing again, their voices carried up till his room. He couldn't really catch what they were saying.

He was a wizard, his mother, Eileen was a witch who married a muggle (non magical folk), Tobias Snape. He had always wondered why had she done so, they clearly despised each other. His father came home drunk most of these days, and took to hitting Severus every time he had laid eyes upon him. He was terrified and filled with utmost hatred, he wanted to run away, as soon as he could, but the only thing that kept him waiting was Hogwarts, and her…Lily.

His mother had told him about Hogwarts, a few times, but always when his father wasn't home.

Slowly, and as quietly as he could, he went down the stairs. His over sized, shabby coat dragging behind him. He saw his parents in the living room, facing each other, looks of utmost hatred in their faces. His father's back was facing him, and his mother was too busy to notice that he had just entered. He quickly made his way to the kitchen, and grabbed a muffin and some milk, and turned around to make his way back to his room when his father saw him,

'What do you think you're doing?' he screeched.

'Trying to survive, eating, since you conveniently choose to ignore feeding me.' Severus replied, with his voice strangely calm but filled with obvious disgust.

'How dare you speak like that to me' and his father made his way to him, getting ready to strangle him, when his mother shouted.

'You very well know what Severus is capable of, Tobias. Better not provoke him, because his magic is still uncontrolled.'

'I don't think he can do magic, like you Eileen. He clearly hasn't shown much signs as he? If he does know magic, I'm never going to send him to that School.'

'And you expect you can stop him? Or me?'

She flipped out her wand again and pointed it at him.

Severus couldn't take it anymore, and ran up to his room, shutting the door behind him, so he could drain out their voices. He opened his window, ate the little amount of food he could acquire, and then stared out blankly.

After what seemed like hours, he saw that red glint among the green park, and at once his heart gave a leap of joy. It was her, but she wasn't alone, as usual.

He remembered the first day he had seen her. He was merely lying on the ground, enjoying his time away from his home, when he heard so excited chatter followed by disbelieving gasps. He got up, and carefully making sure to stay hidden behind the bushes, peeped and saw two girls, one of them contrastingly prettier than the other, with a look of happiness and wonder, and distinct green eyes. She was holding out a flower in her hand, and without effort, the petals of the flower kept opening and closing continuously, just like magic. At once, Severus knew she was a witch, but was quite shocked. How could a witch like her not know, and be accompanied by a muggle who bore minute detailed resemblances to her, in features.

'Lily, stop doing it. How are you doing it?' said the other girl, clearly jealous, shocked and slightly scared.

'I don't know. See what else I can do, Tuney…' and she showed her something, Severus couldn't see properly. But he didn't care. The girl, Lily had taken all his attention, and since then, he had always tried to sneak about and spy on the girls, grasping tiny details every time, preparing and planning to tell her about the magical world. But she always seemed to be accompanied by that other girl, her sister, who was so unlike her.

He decided to go and tell her today, what she really was. He had planned enough. He would hide behind the bushes, as usual and then at the right moment he would get up and tell her, that she was a witch. But the only problem was getting out of the house unnoticed by his father, his mother wouldn't say anything, she had in fact seemed relieved every time he had left the house for a couple of hours. Waiting for his father to leave for work, he made up his mind firmly, he would, whatever may happen, talk to Lily today. It was just a matter of days before he turned 11 and got his letter. He wondered when she would get hers.

He searched his wardrobe for decent looking clothes, which wasn't really difficult because all he owned was 5 pairs of clothes, and numerous books, all of which he, you could say, inherited. The clothes belonged to hi s father and were ridiculously over sized for him and the books, mostly wizarding books were his mother's who gave it to him one day after she had seen him performing magic, making pebbles near his front door move away on their own accord. She must have hoped he'd become a full talented wizard. Finally, on locating a pair of jeans, the only pair he had and a well decent looking coat, he changed into them and stood in front of the mirror. Well this was the best he had looked in ages, although the jeans was a tad too short for him and the coat, preposterously over sized, his smock like shirt didn't make thing any better but he couldn't help it.

He tried to set his hair, but it was so full of grease he gave it up and sat down on his bed, gazing out the window at the tiny glint of red, waiting for his father to leave.

On hearing the slamming of the front door, which obviously indicated that his father had left he ran down the steps and walked straight into his mother.

'Where do you think you're going?' she asked, coolly.

'To the park.'

'Dressed like that?'

'What's wrong?' Severus panicked, had he looked that bad? What would Lily make of him? He looked down and didn't see much of a difference and faced his mother again, who had a weird look of disgust on her face. He had the same sallow skin like her, and those black eyes were unmistakably inherited by him.

'Nothing. Be back before that mad man comes home.' Saying that she went back to her room, leaving Severus free to go .

He ran to the park, and took his usual place behind the bushes. He saw her, and his heart gave a small leap of joy. She looked prettier than ever, her eyes filled with astonishing glee, as she was swinging higher and higher sitting on the park swings. Below her, standing next to the poles was Tuney, her sister, with a mad glint of displeasure in her eyes.

'I will tell mommy, stop it LILY!' cried out Tuney.

'Okay. Fine.' Said Lily and got down, facing Tuney, her back to Severus.

'Will you ever tell me how you do such stuff?'

Severus knew, it was now or never, he got up, tried to muster every ounce of courage inside him, and said

'It's obvious isn't it?' and jumped out from the bushes.

Tuney screeched and ran back to the swings, but Lily stood there, her feet firmly planted on the ground, staring at Severus, with a look he really couldn't register, making him regret his appearance. He felt his cheeks warm up, and hoped to god he wasn't blushing.

'What's obvious?' Lily asked, trying her best to hide the thrill in her voice, and mildly surprised, but not even for a moment did she feels scared.

Severus looked back at Tuney, and as excitement mounted him, he answered, lowering his voice 'I know what you are.'

'What do you mean?' this time, she didn't even bother to hide her enthusiasm.

Slightly hesitant, he answered 'you're…you're a witch'

'That's not a very nice thing to say to somebody' and she marched off, to her sister.

He hadn't expected this in the least bit, but muggles as they were, are ignorant, and he did know what better way to explain it in.

'You are.' He said, both the girls were standing near the swing poles now, facing him united, ready to run any second as though he was going to attack them.

'You are a witch. I've been watching you for a while' saying this he felt himself blush again, but pushing it aside he continued 'But there's nothing wrong with that. My mum's one and I'm a wizard.'

The girl, Tuney started to laugh like a maniac, and rudeness was emitting from within her voice, as she said 'Wizard? I know who you are. You're that Snape boy!' Turning to Lily she said 'They live down Spinner's End by the river.' and turning back to him 'Why have you been spying on us?'

Severus could feel rage boiling inside him, but he had to control, he couldn't let things go wrong now, after all the planning he had done for ages, he didn't want to scare Lily away or make her angry.

'Haven't been spying, wouldn't spy on you, would I? You're a muggle.' he said to Tuney.

She had clearly understood that it meant something horrible, or something unworthy of, because the next thing she did was grab Lily by the hand and drag her away, saying 'We are leaving, now.'

He saw Lily look back at him, a look of longing in her face, and he smiled at her, extremely glad that she smiled back at him. She clearly wanted to know more, find out more. It hadn't gone on as planned, the other girl ruined it, but it was a start wasn't it?

He lay on the grass for a few hours more, thinking about when he may next get to talk to her, maybe at Hogwarts, she would surely get her letter, unless she wasn't supposed to go there, because she wasn't supposed to be a witch by birth, maybe her family were entirely like her sister, and wouldn't recognize the value of being a witch. 'Muggles' he muttered aloud. Tomorrow was New Year's eve, and 10 days from then would be his birthday, he'd turn eleven, and as his mother had told him, he would get his letter. His father couldn't stop him then.

He suddenly got up, having thought of a brilliant way to find out whether Lily would ever be permitted to Hogwarts, and ran back home. There were still a couple of hours before his dad would return.

'Mother?' he shouted, once in the living room. It felt different because he had hardly used such a polite tone before, or called for her ever. Since no one had replied he decided to go up to his room, disappointed when on the steps he saw his mother coming down, looking rather irritated for having been disturbed.

'You called for me? What?' she asked.

'Well you know mother, I'm turning eleven this January, so I was just wondering whether I would get my letter. '

His mother searched his eyes, looking for something he didn't figure out what, and then took him by his hand, an action which startled him so much that he nearly jumped, and led him to the living room. She sat down and Severus took the couch facing her. When he looked up at her he saw a kind of mild joy in her face, he had seen only once before, the first time she had told him about Hogwarts.

'Severus, you know what you are, a wizard, and there's no denying that fact, even if Tobias wanted to. It doesn't matter if he's your father and I am not going to let him what so ever to stop you. Yes, you will get your letter, by owl post, and once you do, I shall take you to Diagon Alley where I will buy you all your school stuff, although yeah I have to get the required money.' She spoke the last bit mostly to herself.

'That I'll manage, but listen, once you're at Hogwarts, you will be taught, as time goes by, advanced magic and how to use and control it. Until now you haven't been punished for doing magic at home, because you still haven't been taught to control your magic, but once you start attending Hogwarts, doing magic outside school until you are of age is restricted. You, however have an advantage, if you do magic when you're with me it'll be difficult to detect who actually did it, you or me, so the Ministry of Magic won't be able o pin down a complaint on you. Understand?'

Severus nodded, and he could feel the enthusiasm inside him buzzing, his mother had never told him so much before, never spoken to him for so long, and he liked it. He for a moment felt that she actually was happy that she had a son like him. He said 'There's a Ministry of Magic?'

'Oh yes there is, but more of that later. My family, entire ancestry has been sorted into the House of Slytherin, the noblest and best house there could ever be. Indeed, the Prince's did have a quite amount of respect shown to them, but you cannot expect the same amount to be shown to you, since I have been disowned from the family, for having married a muggle. My family did have the pride of being a pure-blood family, but let me tell you, it doesn't matter what your blood status is alright? And I have no doubt that you'll be sorted into Slytherin, because you're bloody attitude proves that…what is it?'

Severus had wanted to ask something, so he made to interrupt her flow,

'Mother, can a person, belonging to a muggle family, do magic?'

Eileen was clearly shocked, she hadn't expected to be asked this question, but she answered.

'Why do you want to know that boy, what have you seen? And yes they can, they are called muggle-borns, and even more foully 'mudbloods'. Don't you dare go using that name in Hogwarts, it may make you quite a few enemies from the other houses. And have you seen any muggle borns around? Here, in our neighborhood?'

He didn't know what to say, firstly he would never dream of calling Lily a mudblood, not even in his wildest dreams, and he couldn't make the decision as to whether he should tell his mother about Lily or not. He had a strong feeling not too.

'I may have noticed something…um…someone, probably its nothing, but do they get their letter through owl post too?'

'Maybe, maybe not, usually someone from school goes to explain it to the muggle parents. And remember all the books I gave you long time ago, have you read them? They could be of some use to you, you could very well be advanced then many others in your year. And I still have a few of my old school books, if we can't manage to buy new ones, you can use them…what now?'

'How many other houses are there? And what are they? How do you get sorted into them?'

' There's a sorting hat, and there are totally four house, Slytherin, Ravenclaw, Gryff…..'

The front door slammed open, and his father barged in, looking furious to find his wife and son having a conversation, sitting in the living room.

'What have you been teaching him? More magic? Teaching him how to kill me I suppose.'

'There would be no use for that would it? I could just kill you myself.' And turning to Severus she said, 'Off you go to your room, hurry.' She whipped out her wand and pointed it at Tobias again, who backed away still screaming,

'I will not accept this madness, he shall not be leaving to that school this year, I will see to it.'

'You suppose a muggle like you could stop me? By the way, I'll need some money to buy our SON'S school things.'

'Money? MONEY? How dare you…you woman!'

Severus backed off, ran up to his room and buried his head under the pillows, thinking of everything his mother had told him, she had seem unnaturally kind, and happy today, while she was speaking of everything and even offered to protect him from his father. Feeling rather pleased he fell asleep, hoping for a new year ahead.

So that's the first chapter. Please review! Thanks!