Chapter 1: Snape's Dream

"Severus! Come on! Let's go play!" yelled a small girl of eleven years. Her hair a deep red and eyes of emerald green. She had an air of confidence about her, unusual for someone of her age, as she pounded on the door of an old run down house, in what was clearly the bad part of town.

"I can't Lily. Go away!"

"No! You promised you would teach me more about magic!"

Severus could be heard running and then he yanked open the heavy front door. "Are you crazy? Keep your voice down." He whispered dangerously, "What if my father heard you?" Lily gasped in response, not to what he said, but to what she saw.

Severus Snape never looked particularly healthy, with his pale skin, sunken eyes, and oversized clothing accentuating the thinness of his frame, but now he looked worse than Lily had ever seen him. The whites around his black eyes are bloodshot. His body hunched with exhaustion and pain. Worst of all was his skin, covered in so many bruises, he was more yellow, green and blue than his usual pasty white.

When Lily regained her power of speech, she weakly asked, "What happened to you? Did your father do this to you?"

"It doesn't matter, you have to leave."

"No! Not until you answer me."

"Shhhh! You'll wake him. Okay, Okay… I'll tell you. I accidently did magic. My mum and father were arguing, again. I just wanted it to stop, so I..well…" Severus trailed off. He was staring ground, rubbing the back of his neck nervously.

"Severus?" Lily asked cautiously, "What did you do?

"jjhfgylcdvfbgknm" He spoke so fast it was unintelligible.

"Severus, slow down. I promise I won't judge you." Encouraged Lily tenderly.

"I made his tongue swell, so he couldn't speak. So, he beat me."

"But, you can't control it. He knows that."

"He doesn't care, Lily. He hates magic. I told you that."

Suddenly a large hand came shooting out of the dark house and grabbed Severus by the collar, pulling him back into the shadows. Lily heard a deep husky voice grumble "What have I told you about using that word?" and then there was a loud crash as Severus was thrown down and the table flipped on top of him, pinning is small body down.

"Severus!" yelled Lily as she ran towards the door, bouncing of the large man standing in the doorway, and landing on the ground. The man was Severus's father. He was in dirty clothes, his wife beater stained yellow with sweat and spilled alcohol. His black beady bloodshot eyes squinting down at her.

"Who are you!" the man roared.

"Don't hurt Severus!" Lily demanded, ignoring his question. Her fiery hair magically standing on end, her power palpable with her anger.

Severus's father growled, "You're one of them! A witch!"

"So what if I am? I am eleven, and so is Severus, we can't hurt you, we don't know how!" she questioned as she stood back up to face him.

"You are an abomination, that's enough!" ha screamed at her as he reached out, grabbing her by the arm and threw her back to the ground.

All the while, Severus had been struggling to remove the table from on top of him. When he saw his father hurt his best and only friend, his anger erupted in a burst of magic, throwing the table off of himself and into his father knocking him out. "Run, Lily! You have to get out of her, before he wakes up."

"Not without you Severus. You can't live like this. Come live with me and family. My parents would understand."

"I can't, you know I can't. Besides that muggle sister of yours hates me."

"I wish you wouldn't call her tha…"

Lily was interrupted as Severus yelled, "Duck!" The table that had just been on top of his father was now zooming through the air as if by magic. Once they had dodged the flying furniture, they looked back to see what had caused it and standing where Severus's father had been lying was a different man. The unknown man was tall and thin, with pale skin, and an almost flat, snakelike nose. The strangest part of the man was his eyes. They too looked as a snakes eyes might, if the eyes were a deep blood red.

Before either of the children could process what they were seeing, the strange man lifted his wand and pointed it as Lily. He spoke some words neither had heard before and a green flash emitted from the tip of his wand hitting Lily square in the chest as she fell to the ground, dead.

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Severus Snape called out Lily's name, sitting bolt straight up in his bed. This was the third time this week, he had dreamt of his old friend's death. It had been ten years, and he still could not move on from it.

He tried to shake it out of his mind, as he got out of bed to check the time. It was 5am. An ungodly hour that should not exist to most, but Severus was intimately acquainted with it. He found it was the best time to brew his potions in peace.

Unfortunately for him, his potions would have to wait, for when he entered his office, he found a note on his desk from Albus Dumbledore and it read,

Severus,

Please see me in my office at your earliest convenience. I have an important matter to discuss with you.

Albus Dumbledore

p.s. The password for today, July 30th, 1991 is Taffy