Drifting away

SS LE PE friendship/family

Pre-Hogwarts

Disclaimer: Just borrowing JK Rowling's characters for awhile.

My first fic. This is my take on one of the incidents in Severus Snape's memory. If it's similar to any other fan fics, I'm sorry, but really, fan fic story ideas can be a dime a dozen. Can't remember the exact dialogue since I don't have my own copy of the book. Note to self: Borrow brother's copy of Deathly Hallows.

Lily Evans was a bright young girl from what could be called the good part of town. Right now, she was walking away from it to visit her best friend Severus Snape in Spinners End.

Spinners End wasn't too far from where the Evans family resided but the differences were glaringly obvious. There were no green front lawns and each terraced home had the same dull monochrome appearance as the soot from the factory mill nearby coated the street below making it appear miserable, even in the sunshine.

In one of these homes lived the Snape family. Mr Snape use to work in the mill. He was, instead, at the dole office picking up his cheque. Mrs Snape is a housewife and Severus was an only child. While her husband wasn't home, Eileen Snape took this opportunity to do magic. You see, Eileen Snape was a witch. Her husband didn't like the fact that, although she could do magic, she wasn't allowed to use this magic to make themselves rich. They argued a lot about that.

"Hi, Severus" Lily waved at a boy her own age, "Whatcha doin'?"

Severus smiled nervously. He didn't want her to see inside his house. He'd been to her house numerous times and it shamed him to have her see how poor his family was. Before he could say anything, his mother opened the front door and ushered them both inside.

Lily looked on as Severus placed a broken watch he had found on the table and stood aside. She was going to witness magic done by a real witch! Lily shuffled closer to have a better look. Eileen Snape looked quite pleased and smiled at Severus. With a small flourish, she waved her wand over the broken timepiece and it was instantly repaired. The watch went to a small cupboard that held other repaired items, ready to be sold at the pawnshop.

"That was brilliant, Mrs Snape" Lily smiled, "I can't wait to do something like that!" "You will," Severus blurted out first, "When we go to Hogwarts, you'll learn stuff like that and more!" He looked very excited at simply mentioning 'Hogwarts', the name of the magic school that Eileen Snape had attended in her youth and that both Severus and Lily would be attending in less than two months time.

They set off towards Old Tree by the riverbank, only a few hundred meters away. Every so often, Severus would stop and pick up a broken piece of something and place it in his pocket for his mother to fix later.

A figure followed them not quite so silently but they didn't hear a thing as they were both singing quite loudly.

Lily watched as Severus ran around catching bugs "for Mom's potions" and placing them in an old glass jar. She thought it funny when the bugs sometimes went up his coat sleeves and he had to do a strange flapping dance to shoo them out.

But it stopped being so funny when he took out his anger on one of the offending bugs, tearing off its wings. Lily stopped laughing and a small frown creased her brow. "Don't do that, Severus! You're hurting it!" Lily sprang forward and plucked the stricken bug from her friend. She looked at the creature, "Let's take it to your Mom, maybe she can fix it!" Severus gave her a puzzled look, "It's just a bug." He shrugged and walked away, looking for another one, now that he had damaged the first one he caught. Lily looked down at the now dead creature in the palm of her hand. Kneeling in the dirt, she dug small grave and placed it inside. Lily whispered, "I'm sorry", covered the grave, and placed a small pebble for a headstone on top. Lily stood up and started wiping the dirt off her dress when she heard a familiar voice.

"Well, it won't be long now." Petunia Evans smirked as she leant on the Old Tree.

Lily frowned, "What do you mean, Tuney?" She looked over at Severus who was busy digging for worms under an old hollow log.

"You know, first he kills bugs, then it'll be bigger animals like cats." Petunia had a superior look on her face, "After that, he might start killing people."

Lily gasped, "That's not true! Sev will never do something as horrible as that!" The older girl sneered, "He will so become a murderer! He's a freak! Just like you!" Lily burst into fresh tears. Her sister's angry sneer became more pronounced, "FREAK!"

Severus quickly brought his head out from under the hollow log and glared at his best friend's sister. How dare she! Lily was most definitely not a freak!

Why, he oughta -

CRACK!

One of Old Tree's branches suddenly gave and fell quite close to where Petunia was standing. Severus looked at the branch in shock and quickly recovered. He glared at the stupid Muggle girl. It was an accident but he wouldn't have cared if it had landed on her anyway. Petunia's face was pale as she looked from the fallen branch to Severus' angry face. Her eyes grew wide with fear and she quickly ran back across the meadow towards home, yelling, "Murderer! I'll tell Mom and Dad about this! You're FREAKS! Both of you!"

"Tuney!" Lily called after her and made as if to follow but a hand stopped her.

"Lily, I -"

"No, Severus! You could have hurt her!" Lily threw off his hand

and went after her sister. She ducked under the old wire fence separating the meadow from Spinners End and could see Petunia turning the corner in the distance. "Tuney!"

What Severus did to the bug had disturbed Lily and, that Petunia claimed such activity could lead to criminal behaviour seemed so feasible to the young girl, Lily was worried that what Petunia had said was true. Would Severus become a murderer? She heard a set of footsteps behind her quickly catching up, "Lily! Wait!" Severus stood in her way and looked at her pleadingly, "I didn't mean it, Lily. I'm sorry." Lily sniffled, "But it was so mean, Sev!"

Severus looked like he was about to argue but instead mumbled something that sounded like, "jussamuggle". Lily left without another word, leaving her friend confused as to what he had done wrong.

Images of Severus pulling off the poor bug's wings out of mere anger, showing no remorse, kept flashing across Lily's mind. Her sister Petunia believed it to be the first sign of a potential murderer. Lily didn't know what to think. Severus was her best friend and Petunia was her older sister. It was obvious they despised each other. Which side should she choose? Lily pushed that thought to the back of her mind and walked up the stairs to her sister's room.

Lily timidly knocked on her sister's bedroom door. "Tuney?"

She pressed her ear against the wood and listened. Nothing. Lily called through the keyhole, "I'm sorry, Tuney." Still nothing. Lily went back down the stairs to the kitchen.

"Lily?" Holly Evans saw her youngest daughter enter the kitchen looking rather distressed. "What's wrong?" Lily sat at the small breakfast table, avoiding her mother's eyes. A chair creaked beside her, alerting Lily that her mother had made herself comfortable and was not going to move for a long time.

She took a deep breath, "Severus killed a bug and he wasn't sorry about it."

"Oh, Lily," Holly Evans smoothed down her daughter's hair, "It's only a bug." "That's what Severus said!" Lily looked up at her mother's hazel eyes, mildly shocked at her answer. "He said it like it didn't matter!" Holly Evans embraced her daughter and sighed, "It was just a small bug. It's not like it was someone's pet or a person." Lily's eyes went wide. Her mother continued, "Now, I've had a good long stern chat with your sister about this already. Just because someone kills a bug does not mean they'll turn into murderers later on in life. I've killed a few to stop them from biting me. Does that make me a murderer?" Holly tenderly lifted her daughter's chin so that she could look into Lily's emerald eyes.

Lily smiled, "No, it doesn't." "That's right" Holly played tapped her daughter's nose, "I'm just your mommy. Your daddy has killed more bugs than me and he's not a bad man, I'm sure!" At this, Lily laughed, "No, daddy is just – daddy!" Holly gave one last hug, "And you, my dear, are really daddy's little girl. You even have his eyes." Lily smiled and went back up the stairs to her room, knowing that her best friend will not end up a murderer.

Lily didn't bother stopping by Petunia's bedroom. After all, their mother had told Lily that she had already given a stern chat to Petunia about the bug event earlier that afternoon. Picking up a pencil, Lily made believed it was a wand and pretended to repair various objects in her room. If only it was this easy to fix broken relationships. She glanced at the shared wall between their bedrooms.

Ever since Lily found out she was a witch, Petunia became increasingly distant. She didn't understand why. Severus told Lily that her sister was jealous. That all Muggles were jealous towards those who had magic powers and that it was the way of the world. Us against Them. Lily shook her head. She couldn't believe that. But it appeared to be true.

The pencil-wand made a complicated wave at the wall and the little witch whispered a soft plea, chanting, "Please don't hate me for being a witch. Please don't hate me for being a witch" until her arm grew tired.

Finding a new compartment on the Hogwarts Express wasn't too difficult as Lily and Severus were amongst the first on board. Severus was almost bouncing off the walls with excitement, the nasty boys in the previous compartment already forgotten. Lily only half listened to the things her best friend was saying. It was mostly everything he had already told her about the Wizarding World and she wasn't really in the mood. Her mind was still on her sister Petunia. They had argued and had never made up. Perhaps her sister will be ready to make up at Christmas break. Lily turned and smiled at Severus. In the meantime, she was going to learn how to be a witch! Maybe then she can fix what it was that went wrong between her and her sister.