Summary: What if Lily forgave Snape when he called her a mudblood? What if they married? This is their journey before, going through, and after Hogwarts if Lily had forgiven him.
It's probably not a good idea for me to start writing another fanfic with my GCSEs in few months, but oh well. I've written a few chapters ahead so updates should be once a week. I may have to take a break May/June time just to warn you. Also, in case it wasn't obvious this is a Severus X Lily story, if you don't like Severus please don't flame. I don't want to get into a debate about him, I just wanted to write a story involving him. Another warning, there will be child and domestic abuse in this story, I'm not sure yet how much detail I'll go into, there's bits in this chapter, but if this is a major trigger, I wouldn't suggest reading.
Enjoy and please let me know what you think.
Disclaimer: I'm not JK Rowling (in case that wasn't obvious) and I don't own the characters.
~The Lonely Geek
A second chance
Part 1 – Pre Hogwarts
Chapter 1
"Get out!" Dad screams, crumpling an empty beer can. He chucks it on the floor where it rolls to the corner. "Severus, get out of this house now!" He yells again. I dodge past him quickly and run out the front door. My feet slipping on the icy cold grass in the front garden. I didn't dare to stop and put a pair of shoes on before I went. Dad looked angry enough to hit me. He never used to be like this. It's ever since he lost his job. He had to get work at a factory packaging stuff. He hates it. The hours are long and they pay is nowhere near as good as it used to be in his other job. Not that it matters, he drinks all the money he earns, or most of it. He gambles the rest. Occasionally he does win and comes back in a good mood. I can hardly remember the last time that happened though.
Sometimes, like today, he comes home in an even worse mood than usual. He normally just rants and rages at me and mum, but sometimes, like today, he just throws me out the house for the night. I normally go into the back garden and just sleep in the shed. This is the first time he's done it in autumn. Normally, it's not that bad because it's a warm summer's night, but it's a cold September night now. I can see my breath forming into steam as I breathe in and out. Maybe mum will be able to sneak me out a blanket or something so I don't get hypothermia or something. She might not be able to sneak out though, dad might make her go to bed with him and stay there.
The first time he kicked me out the house, she tried to help me and he hit her. I only saw him hit her once, but then the next morning after he had left for work and she let me in the house, her face was swollen and around her eye was a huge purple bruise. There were also small bluey purple bruises running up her arms. She never tried to stop him again.
I don't know why she doesn't stop him. She can use magic after all. She says it's not allowed, in the presence of muggles, that's my dad – a muggle. He knows about magic, he's married to witch of course he knows, but mum says there are laws against it. She says she could be thrown in the wizarding prison. She says there are creatures who guard it who suck out all the happiness out of you. Make you re-live your worst moments. They can even suck your soul out. I think that the law should make exceptions though. My fingers and toes go numb when I have to sleep outside.
It's not time to go to sleep yet, but I go into the shed anyway to get out of the bitter wind howling around me. I sit on the small wooden stool and look out the dirty cracked window across the field at the river. Lily and Petunia Evans are playing there. They're wrapped up in thick winter coats with woollen gloves on. They're also wearing wellies and are kicking damp newly fallen leaves at each other and laughing. I wish I had a coat to wrap up in.
Petunia is standing under a large oak that still has quite a few leaves left to fall. Petunia kicks an extra large pile at Lily and then something odd happens. All the leaves on the oak tree Petunia is standing under just fall off. Straight onto Petunia's head. Lily just stands there and laughs at her before they turn around and go back to their house.
It's strange that all the leaves fell off at once, especially straight after Petunia kicked a load of leaves at Lily. Especially when the leaves all fell on Petunia. It's not the first time I've seen strange things happen around Lily Evans. It's only small things. Nothing huge that makes her stand out from the rest of the people in my class, but strange things all the same.
One time a boy called Thomas Mason flicked a piece of paper at her and only a few seconds later he tripped on the floor. Only there was nothing for him to trip over. Another time one of Lily's friends, Carolyn, was climbing a tree and lost her grip, I saw both her hands come off the trunk, but somehow she hovered in mid air. Not for very long, not even for a second, and then she had a grip again. Lily was standing next to me, staring at her the whole time.
I think she might be like me and mum, magic. I don't want to scare her by saying anything though. Her parents are muggles, and her sister isn't showing any signs of magic, and if she was magic she would be getting her Hogwarts letter about now. Well, technically someone would come to her house and explain it to her parents, but I don't think they will send someone, Petunia would have shown signs of magical traits by now if she were a witch.
It's getting really dark now, but I can still see. The sky is like a sea of inky blue silk with tiny pinpricks of lights that are really far off stars scattered across the galaxy. A few small grey clouds swirl around the sky, concealing the moon. They soon move though, showing the almost full moon. It shines into the shed, making weird shadows dance around on the floor. It's getting colder and colder so I decide to curl up and try to sleep.
Mum rouses me from my sleep in the early hours of the morning with a blanket.
"Sorry, I couldn't bring one any sooner." She whispers as I sit up, numb from the cold. "I have to go now or he'll wonder where I am." She leaves as quietly as she came. I pull the thick folds of the blanket around me, it slowly warming me up. I soon get feeling back into my body and I lean against the wooden wall of the shed and doze off again until the pale sunlight drifting through the window wakes me.
I wake up stiff and needing a hot bath, but there was no chance of that, especially on a school day. I sit by the window, snuggled in the warmth of the blanket until I see dad leave for work, looking angry as usual. As soon as he leaves, I slip the blanket off me and run into the house. I'll leave the blanket there so that if he throws me out again I won't be as cold.
"Hurry up," Mum says, handing me a brown bag with my lunch in. "You'll have to eat your breakfast on the way to school, you don't have time." I dart upstairs and give my face a good scrub. I still feel dirty but that's all I have time for. I change into my school uniform and pull on my tight, too small school blazer as I run downstairs.
"Here you go." Mum puts an apple by my lunch as I put my feet inside my worn, hole riddled, black school shoes. I grab my stuff and race out the front door, taking a large bite of apple as I go. I'm already running late.
"Hey, Snape." I turn around and see Lily and Petunia Evans walking behind me. Petunia's laughing and I can see Lily trying not snigger.
"What do you want Evans?" I ask Petunia, wishing that people would just leave me alone.
"You would have thought that by now you would know how to dress yourself." She laughs.
"What do you mean?" I snarl, oh know, what have I done now? I didn't have anytime to check himself before I had to leave for school. Did I put on a dirty pair of trousers or something? Petunia just laughs harder. Idiot.
"You've got your jumper inside out." Lily says, elbowing her sister gently to get her to stop laughing so harshly. I glanced down and see that she is right. I quickly chuck the apple core in a bush and fling my bag on the floor, hurriedly taking the jumper off and turning it the right way out and put it back on as the Evans sisters passes me. I'm grateful she told me before I got to school. That could have been even more embarrassing.
"Thanks." I muttered, I can feel my usually pale cheeks flooding scarlet. I hurry on, still worried that I am going to be late. As I get through the gates a couple of older students ambush me.
"Hey, Snape, is it true your parents can't even afford to feed you properly." One jeered. I try to ignore them and walk on, seething with anger. Just because my parents didn't have a lot of money, it didn't mean everyone else was better than me.
"Hey, loser, we were talking to you." The other boy said, leaping down from the brick wall he had been sitting on. He laughs at me and then punches me hard in the guts. It really hurts. I'm used to them doing it now, but it's still painful. I bite my lip so hard it starts to bleed to stop myself from calling out in pain. They'd only punch me again if I did that. Anger swells up in me and as the older boy who punched me sat back down again, high-fiving the other boy, it explodes out of me. The brick wall the boys were sitting on suddenly had a large crack running down it and then the bricks started to break up and collapse between them. The boys yelped and leaped up immediately and a teacher noticed.
"What are you boys doing?" She demands, coming over. "Were you sitting on that wall, you know it's old and crumbling, besides it's against the rules to be sitting on it." She looks really angry. "You two should be in form anyway, come with me." I smile to myself, despite the pain in my stomach, and slipped away unseen. At least they would get what they deserved know. I know I have to try and control outbursts of magic like that, but when I am angry or scared it's difficult. I have to stop it though. What if someone noticed?
I run to my classroom, aware that the last bell was about to go, declaring me late any minute, and sat down by my desk just in the nick of time because my teacher, Mr Edwards, walks in a second later.