Weave and Weft

by Duplicitous

The interweaving tales of Peter, James, Sirius, Remus, Lily and Severus as they began their journey at Hogwarts.

Title: Weave and Weft

Author: Duplicitous

Rating: PG/PG-13 for violence and mild language

Summary: The untold story of the marauder's first year at Hogwarts and those they associated with.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, or else Harry wouldn't be the main character.

Chapter 1

Grand Beginnings

The sky was black outside his window, the moon itself just barely visible. Bighting his cheek and fidgeting, James checked the glowing clock on the wall. It was five in the morning, still too early for his parents to be up. He really wanted to turn on the light, and go do something, anything. If he made too much noise though, his nanny, Hilda, would probably notice.

Still, she was a heavy sleeper and James wondered if he maybe could get away with using his practice broom. His room was big enough for some basic maneuvers he thought, or would be if he pushed a few things out of the way, and he was quite good at flying. He was sure he could avoid the major obstacles. Once he got to Hogwarts he would make the team easily, he thought proudly. But if he got caught out of bed, special day or not, he'd likely be in trouble.

Suddenly he remembered the toy his father had made him when he had been little and still afraid of the dark. James jumped out of bed and eagerly ran over to his toy chest. Rummaging through in the dark was hard, especially trying to be silent and after not finding it there, he looked around his room frantically, practically twitching with nervous energy, until he noticed the small star shaped plaque sitting on his shelf. Relieved, he skipped over, and pressed it, watching as replica stars slowly began to appear, casting the room in a dim light. While he hadn't used it since he was nine, it was still a way to pass time in the dark. After locating all the major stars, he glanced at the clock, hoping that it might be near 7:00 or 6:00 at least. The glowing digits though, had stubbornly refused to move passed the half hour mark though, and so dejected, he collapsed onto his bead and stared at the starry ceiling.

Lazily pointing his finger at stars, he absently traced out constellations he knew by heart, watching as lines connecting them shimmered briefly into existence before fading again into the ceiling. The night was turning out to be far longer than it had any right to be.

Ten minutes later James decided he'd had enough of waiting.

Pushing up, off his bed, James quietly snuck out of his room and into the small room just outside. In a feat of great skill, he deftly avoided the snoring Hilda, though he paused for a moment to stare at the glistening gob of drool hanging from the corner of her mouth. Hilda was certainly one of the weirder people on staff. She stood no taller than James himself, but had the temper of a dragon and the personality of a troll. She was ugly, fat and covered in warts. James was quite sure that she used to be the sort of person that would turn young children into food and eat them, but whenever he suggested such a thing to his mother, she always told him to mind his manners.

Refocusing on the more pressing matter of scouting out his parents current location, he positioned himself against the wall as he slowly edged into the hallway and over to his parent's bedroom. He was careful to keep away from the small strings of magic meant to trigger an alarm when broken. His father had set them to keep people out of James' room and, theoretically, to keep James in, though James had long ago learned how to avoid them. Very carefully, James snuck through the empty hallway just like the great Marauder from his storybooks, he reflected. He would blend into the shadows of the forest, silently moving along to humiliate the dark wizards and pompous lords and save the common people and maybe rescue the princess, if he had time. Creeping past the evil lord's sentinels, portraits of dead Potters, James made it to his parents' door and cringed as it creaked on the hinges, the enemy must have set an alarm. There, still soundly sleeping, lay his parents, arms wrapped around each other in the giant canopy bed.

James sighed and miserably walked back to his room where he collapsed on his bed again. The stars were still twinkling along merrily, and for a minute James was furious at them. Then, looking up at them, he deliberately traced out one of the "bad" words his parents had boxed his ears for using. By the time he had gotten halfway through the third letter, the first was already fading, somewhat lessening the effect.

Standing up again he went to check on his parents once more, surely they would be up by now, it was nearly 6:00 am. Slowly edging out of his door, and past the sleeping Hilda, James crouched with his back pressed against the wall carefully making his way along the hallway. He twisted around, deftly avoiding the enemies curses, he cast back his own charms and jinxes Woosh, Wizzz, he got them! The enemy was running away in fear. Suddenly, he felt a hand on his shoulder, one of the guards had caught him.

Doing his best to impersonate a young innocent child, James the Marauder was about to plead his innocence, when he noticed it was Thompson, the butler, and such tactics never really worked on him. "Young Master Potter, what are you doing out of bed at this hour and by your parents bedroom at that? They had a very long night, it would be highly inconsiderate to wake them just now."

James scowled up at Thompson, stupid butler, had to destroy his game, "I wasn't going to wake them up," James muttered petulantly and he wasn't he thought, after all he hadn't woken them the first time he went in. They just needed to hurry and wake up already, they needed to get ready, he had to leave soon. The Hogwarts Express would wait for no one. Then, looking even less repentant he added, "But, they should be up by now, it's my special day, and they promised we could do what I wanted before I left."

Thompson shook his head slightly before taking James by the hand and leading the boy down to the kitchens. The boy smiled slightly as he was handed a jelly filled pastry and sat down on the hard wooden counter. He had always enjoyed watching cook and his assistants, in messy white uniforms and funny hats running around in the chaotic kitchen yelling, screaming, mixing and beating, yet somehow everything worked out in the end, like a happily ever after.

He watched contentedly, easily tuning out the shouted instructions and loud booms, bangs and thuds so prevalent in a kitchen. His gaze flitted from the chef carefully lighting a flame underneath some sort of contraption, to one of the witches making a gelatin salad, cutting the pans of rainbow gelatin into smaller squares then dumping them together, he watched a wizard using magic to levitate donuts so he could fill them with apple jelly and he saw a giant bowl of pudding being cooked, there was so much going on, he could hardly focus on any of it, then he noticed one of the young witches making a sugar sculpture. He watched intently as the mound of sugar began to resemble a mountain and then a castle, the young witch's wand deftly cutting and moving and shaping the sugar. After a moment she turned to him, "Like what ye see young sir? Can ye guess what 'tis for?" James nodded absently in answer to her question, too transfixed by the giant sugar sculpture in front of gaining more and more detail, and rapidly changing, it wasn't the first time he'd seen a sugar sculpture, they had them at parties all the time. This was that this time he could watch each step take place as the form of a castle slowly began to take shape, though. A mound added here, a lump removed there, slight incisions made and then larger ones, the entire thing was constantly changing and flowing so quickly it was hard to keep up with.

He sat silent, still, fascinated, until a small glimmer in the dinning room caught his eye. Navigating through the chaos of the kitchen was not as problematic as it could have been, but still included a fair amount of ducking, weaving and dodging the ever moving witches and wizards to get through the small servants door on the opposite of the kitchen. He peeked out into the dining room and was awestruck.

"You know young Master Potter, Mister and Mistress Potter didn't want you to be seeing this yet," the familiar voice of Thompson whispered behind him, "this shall be our little secret, Hm?" James nodded emphatically in answer to the older man, though hardly spared him a glance as he took in all the gold and sparkles around him. The table was covered in a red tablecloth with gold lions embroidered throughout, and his chair had been transfigured into a small throne. By his spot were several boxes all wrapped in bright gleaming paper. The ceiling had been charmed clear to show the sky outside and candles were suspended in the air in a wonderful imitation of the Hogwarts great hall. James was speechless, they had remembered. He looked at Thompson and then back at the room and opened his mouth, so many words wanted to come out that all he managed was a great smile.

"Nice charm work, wouldn't you say James?"

James turned around "Wha- Dad, Mom, you're awake!" And with that declaration he launched himself into his mother's arms. "I love you so much, thank you thankyouthankyou!"

Anne Potter winked at her husband, "Can I take it on faith then, that you were pleasantly surprised?" James nodded and hugged her harder.

Dropping back onto his own feet he looked between both his parents, "I thought you two'd forgotten," he mumbled quietly.

Francis Potter smiled slightly, "Forgotten?" he exclaimed, " Anything but! Do you know how finicky the wards can be when you try to alter them? I had a devil of a night getting the ceiling like that, but it did turn out quite nicely if I do say so myself."

James found himself at a loss for words again but finally managed to get, "I love it dad, I can't wait to see the real thing, I'll write to you about how close you got." And with that the family sat down at the table, James in his throne and his parents on either side.

-x-

Sirius Black, eldest child of Orion and Walburga Black lay on his stomach underneath his parents bed, doing his very best not to sneeze, despite the rather lot of dust that accumulated underneath said bed in the past several decades, give or take a year as Sirius figured it. He, Sirius Black, was going to play the best prank of his life on all the pompous, stuck up, bigoted witches and wizards he had the misfortune to call family, though some more loosely than others. While it wasn't the most original idea, as even he had to admit, it was spectacular more in who, it was to be pulled on. He currently had his eye pressed to a small crack he had found a few days ago that went through not only the uneven plank floor, but also the plaster coated ceiling bellow.

From where he lay he could see most of the dining room and a bit of the foyer. His grandparents had already come, as had his Aunt and Uncle and Belatrix. Narcissa hadn't shown yet, though that was no surprise, last he had heard she was spending the weekend with her fiancé, the Malfoy scum. Luckily for him, Malfoy would be graduating in a year or so, so Sirius would only really have to put up with him for a little while. It was no surprise his eldest cousin, Andromeda didn't show, she had been blasted of the family tree, but as far as he knew never officially disinherited. You had to go through the ministry of magic for that, and the Blacks tended to distrust bureaucracy as a general rule, especially when they had in their house more dark items than the ministry had thought to outlaw.

Just as he was about to signal the first part of the prank, the front door opened again, outlining the rather stuffy forms of Abraxas and Prisca Malfoy, showing up 'fashionably late' just because they had money. Sirius could tell his father was furious. Orion hated being shown up by anyone, especially in his own house, as he walked over to greet the Malfoy couple Sirius could practically see sparks flying off him. This was going to be good. Chances were, it would be enough to start half a dozen honor duels, a fair amount of chaos and maybe even be enough to call off Narcissa's wedding to Lucius. And speak of the devil, Sirius thought as he watched Narcissa and her almost husband walk in quietly. Unlike his parents, Lucius had the ability to draw attention to himself while looking like he was attempting to be inconspicuous, it was sickening. At Orion's scowl, Lucius looked truly apologetic, offered an expensive wine and explained that Narcissa had been feeling unwell and so they had been unable to come until the potion started working. Even Sirius had to admit the man had skill in acting. He was playing everyone masterfully.

Deciding that he had waited long enough, Sirius grabbed a small mirror out of his pocket. Instead of seeing himself, the young face of Regulus Black shimmered into existence. "Operation Marauder is go," Sirius whispered, and quickly pressed his eye back to the crack. Bellow, Regulus calmly dropped a chocolate frog Sirius had charmed to look like a rat. While the thing still jumped like crazy, and smelled of chocolate, it was hairy and resembled a rodent, and really, it was the best he could manage without a wand of his own. Waiting until Narcissa predictably screamed, Sirius used his father's wand to levitate the punch bowl. It had taken weeks of planning and practice to be able to pull off the feat, but he was willing to go to any extreme to see his father made a laughing stock in front of the entire family.

Right as his father was getting a goblet of punch, he levitated the red juice up and onto his father's dress robe. The entire room went silent until Narcissa screeched again and jumped onto a chair, madly throwing hexes at the floor beneath her. Beneath her the charmed frog was jumping madly, trying to get past her and to freedom. Lucius, never one to lag when his dear fiancé was in danger began throwing spells that Sirius had never heard of, one of them actually hit the frog, and instead of stopping, the frog grew to the size of a large dog and began hopping even more frantically, knocking over people and furniture indiscriminately. Panic erupted as spells were cast everywhere, hitting frog and guest alike. While pleased with how well it had worked, Sirius was disappointed when the frog stopped moving about five minutes later, and slowly shrank and morphed back to its original form. All around it Blacks and Malfoys were yelling at each other and threatening more bodily harm.

Distracted as he was, Sirius nearly panicked when he felt a hand touch his shoulder. Turning around, he saw the nine year old face of Regulus Black smiling down on him. "Did you see? I put the frog down just like you said and Narcissa was screaming and Lucius Malfoy was running around like a headless chicken and everyone was acting all crazy," then pausing for a breath Regulus started to look more concerned and turned away slightly, "You don't think mum and dad will be angry with me do you," he asked, his voice staining slightly. Sirius understood his concern, while he had never been one to really care what their parents thought of anything he did, earning their displeasure was often a painful experience, that Regulus was often spared

He shook his head slightly and snorted in reply, "You, caught? Regulus, you are the golden child, mother and father believe you can do no wrong, and I'm certainly not going to tattle on you. If this goes right they won't even know it was me," moving away from the crack Sirius continued, "Watch this." Casting a quick spell, he began to write on a piece of parchment. Regulus, his face plastered to the ground stared through the crack in awe as words began to appear on the wall below.

'Today's festivities and entertainment, were provided to you free of charge by

The Marauder'

It wasn't until Narcissa turned around and asked what was happening to the wall that anyone noticed, and then the bickering broke out again.

Lucius' cold voice could be heard clearly over the din of angry words, "Much as I have enjoyed this small fete, Orion, I'm afraid Narcissa isn't doing so well, too much excitement for one day. I would love to come back again some time later, owl to arrange a date, and please wish your son good luck at Hogwarts for me, I can't wait to see him, and will do all in my power to see that his transition into Slytherin is an easy one." And with that he calmly left, followed shortly by his mother and father.

Making sure to move silently, Sirius stood up and placed his father's wand back on the dresser and left the room, making his way back to his room, where he could safely claim he had retired early from the party to study. He watched Regulus run off, presumably to find some sort of alibi as well, though knowing him he would wind up getting distracted by some of his toys along the way.

Not a minute after he had dusted off the grime from his parents bedroom and sat down he heard the distinctive tread of his father's footsteps. Grabbing the first book he could find, Sirius opened it to a random page and pulled out a blank piece of parchment and a quill.

Orion Black walked into the room, his face devoid of all emotion. "Sirius, I missed you at your party," he hissed. Not rising to the bait, Sirius kept his eyes focused on the book he was reading, or at least tried to. "Everyone came to congratulate you for your acceptance into Hogwarts, the least you could have done was show up, hmm?" Orion tried to look Sirius in the eye, but Sirius resolutely kept his eyes on the book, skimming though spell names, suddenly his eye caught upon a Calcification Curse, So one may turn enemys to stone. Shuddering slightly, Sirius glanced up from the book to see his father staring at him. "You'll never guess what I found under my bed Sirius, or should I call you the Marauder?" His father paused and held up the piece of parchment Sirius had been writing on, "You do realize that you single handedly drove the Malfoys off, you ruined my robes and practiced underage magic, unsupervised before attending Hogwarts. It amazes me that you have enough intelligence to continue to exist in this world. I want you to write a formal apology to Lucius and Abraxas which you will hand deliver tomorrow, is that understood?"

Sirius glared at his father. Tomorrow was the grand opening of the Box of Laughs in Diagon Alley, an event Sirius had been looking forward to going to for the better part of a year. The chances of him being able to go from Grimauld Place to Malfoy Manner and then to Diagon Alley before the store closed at 5:30, was were slim at best.

"If you want to have a prayer of visiting your joke shop tomorrow I'd hurry up and start writing if I were you, and next time you have a foolhardy plan do not involve Regulus in your scheming.

-x-

Remus sat stiffly in a purple overstuffed chair, to his left his mother was also sitting, quietly knitting some sort of scarf. Doing his best to look around the room without actually moving his head, Remus noticed that it was, all in all, rather small. A large desk dominated the area right in front of him, floor to ceiling shelves stood around half the room, the other half, most notably the area right behind the giant desk, was covered in an assortment of mismatched frames of varying sizes, shapes and colors. Inside of which there were a number of portraits of people in various states of boredom. Where the bookshelves ended on the right, a mirror was leaned in a rather haphazard sort of way, and on the other side stood a bird stand, though no bird was presently on it. Instead a rather flamboyant cape was draped over it, looking rather like someone had thrown it there on their way into the room, and then forgotten it. The shelves themselves were covered in all manor of arcane items, and it would be rather easier, Remus mused, to make a list of things that were not currently on it than those that were. he was relatively sure there wasn't anything living on them, but it was hard to tell, covered as they were in books of every sort. When he glanced at them out of the corner of his eye the shelves seemed to expand, but whenever he turned to look at them straight on they had already collapsed back to normal size.

There were a number of shiny golden things as well, and a handful of silver, all of which looked rather ominous, though Remus recognized among them a chemical distiller, a butter turn and what appeared to be a muggle light bulb. There was a rather mysterious device to the left though, that Remus couldn't for the life of him figure out, it was covered in etchings of a handful of runes and mystic symbols, and glowed softly in the dim office interior. The object itself was essentially a group of concentric rings that floated just above the shelf, each spinning and bobbing ring slightly off from the ones around it to create a rather lot of light, but not much else.

Remus had just gone over to look at it more closely in an attempt to figure out its purpose when he felt someone behind him, turning slowly he was confronted by a tall man, with a long white beard, each strand of which trying desperately to get loose from the tie that held them all confined. The next thing he noticed was a lot of purple, it was almost overpowering. The man wore a bright purple, velvet robe with long flowing sleeves, the sort, Remus thought, that one could easily keep a small horse hidden in. He also had a purple hat that came to a point and was covered in bright twinkling crescents and stars, Remus had seen it in the store the other day, but couldn't imagine anyone willing to wear the thing, let alone pay money to own it. He had thought it looked rather goofy, though to be honest, it went, if not nicely then at least not all that poorly, with the purple robe. Glancing up for the first time, he found himself confronted by a pair of brilliantly blue eyes covered in wire rimmed half-moon spectacles. "A wonderful device that is, terribly useful," said the man. Remus looked up at him again and felt that the blue eyes could see through everything he was, looking back at the spinning whatever-it-was Remus nodded.

"Um, sir," he began, "what exactly does it well um do? Is it like a sneak-a-scope?"

The man slowly slipped the device onto his hand, and except for a slight waver in the bobbing, it continued as it had been doing. Leaning close to Remus the man said in a whisper, "It does this." And with that a scream was heard from the direction Remus' mother as the entire room was plunged into darkness, except for the object which was now glowing twice as bright.

"So, it's like a really complicated night light," Remus stated as he was lead back toward the desk. By the time he was seated the lights had returned to normal, and the spinning thing had gone back onto the shelf he had first seen it on.

"Albus Dumbledore," Agatha Lupin began, "It's been a while since we last saw each other, and I would like to talk about some arrangements to make it possible for my son to attend Hogwarts this year. I owled you about his… well… his condition, and was-"

The headmaster's eyes twinkled Remus noted. It was as if he knew about a joke that no one else had picked up on yet. He was having fun, and Remus wondered whether it was at his mother's expense or not. "Dear women," the headmaster began his voice full of barely restrained mirth, "I have indeed made arrangements, we have a number of passages in the castle, as I know you, my dear Agatha are intimately aware of, and over the summer I found a most delightful tree that I took the liberty of having planted over one such passage. It will keep young mister Lupin from the student body and likewise them from him. All that really remains is for you, Remus, to say you wish to come."

Remus stared at the headmaster. His mother had said she had a surprise for him, once she finished her errand, but he hadn't really expected anything like this. "You mean, I'll be able to-to go to school, and no one will know what I am? I can go to Hogwarts and be a wizard?"

The headmaster smiled, "No one whom you don't specifically tell will know, Remus my dear, I trust you know enough to keep yourself and others from harm during your episodes." Remus could feel something tingling in his stomach. He was being given a chance to be a real wizard. He smiled softly at the thought, and swore silently to himself that he wouldn't ruin it. He would do everything in his power to keep others from harm and would do well in his studies, he wouldn't disappoint Dumbledore.

-x-

A knock on the door made Peter look up from the small model he'd been building, "Peter honey," a voice said urgently outside the door, "we need to be leaving now. I heard on the Wireless that your father was sighted near by. I packed you some clothes and some money, a good friend of mine at Knockturn Alley will watch over you for a bit, then you can come back to me, alright. It'll only be a few days, alright?" Peter nodded wordlessly and went to get his bag, rubbing his eyes to get the dust out of them, that was it. He wasn't crying.

As they waited for the Knightbus, Peter watched his mother and silently wished that he could do something about his father to make his mother safe. Once he went to Hogwarts he promised, he would find friends and become a great wizard, and then his father would rue the day he ever hurt Jessica Pettigrew.

Within seconds after boarding the bus and paying their fare, the world melted around them. Peter noticed a wizard eyeing his mother but after a brief staring match them man turned away, and doing his best to ignore his motion sickness and the dread in the pit of his stomach, Peter focused intently on his shoes. The rhythmic shaking and sound of rushing air slowly lulled him into a fitful sleep.

When they arrived at Knockturn Alley, Jessica Pettigrew put her arm around Peter and held him close, "Remember my Pete, I love you very much, and once this is sorted out I'll come right here and get you okay? I need you to be on your best behavior for Uncle Roger, can you do that for me?" When Peter nodded she squeezed his hand tightly and then walked up to a dark door, partially obscured by a pile of garbage, and knocked.

An older man, tall with yellowing teeth opened the door, his thin hair hung around his shoulders and he smelled strongly of nicotine and beer. His clothes were covered in dirt, grease and dark stains, his sallow skin riddled with pox marks and he swayed slightly in place. In one hand he held a bottle of beer, his wand sticking out of it, the other he was using to steady himself against the door. Peter tensed slightly as his mother looked at the man, "Roger, remember I flooed you this morning, you were going to look after Peter for me, in exchange for me doing you a small favor." Roger smiled at that and nodded.

"What's mine is yours Mrs. Pettigrew and you Peter, come in now, don't be shy." Roger slapped Jessica on the rear as she came in and then gestured for Peter to look around. "Your room's gonna be here, on the couch, why don't you unpack, put your things in that there chest and make yourself at home, while your mom 'n me, discuss hows matters is goin' to be working around here, alright?"

Peter looked intently at Roger, and knew with a certainty he couldn't explain that explaining was the last thing Roger had in mind and not for the first time he feared for his mother's safety. Looking at Roger he stood in front of his mother and said quietly, "Don't hurt my mom, please Uncle Roger, she's all I have left."

Roger snarled and smacked Peter across the face, sending him sprawling before grabbing his collar. "Now you listen here you punk. You and your mother are going to do exactly what I say you're going to do if you want to avoid that father of yours, you understand. Yer in my house, pertakin' o' my hospitality and will live under my rules. Any insolence from you and the deal I made with your dear mother is off, its out on the streets with you," Roger growled, spittle flying from his mouth, "Yer only here because I'm taking you in out of the kindness of my heart. Remember that, and the next time you try to stand up to me I will beat you black and blue because I am stronger than you and always will be, you sniveling little coward." With that he shoved Peter to the ground and lead Jessica upstairs, where they stayed for longer than an hour. Dejectedly, Peter went outside to escape the sounds and smells of Rogers small, stuffy house.

-x-

Lily stared in wonder at the graceful barn owl as it glided through the air. Severus had told her how in the wizarding world they were used to carry the mail and some places were always covered in owl feathers and droppings so many flew over each day. She often imagined having her own owl and writing letters to her prince to take her to live in his castle, he would be a wizard with midnight black hair riding upon a flying horse, or a unicorn, and he would take Petunia and her and her parents away to live happily ever after.

It came as quite a shock when the owl did appear to be coming toward her though. While Severus had insisted she had magic, Lily found it hard to believe. After all, Petunia didn't do magic so how could she? Slowly backing off to the right, Lily was somewhat delighted to notice the bird adjusted course as well, when she moved left, so did the owl. Then, running over toward it Lily jumped back as it dropped a thick letter into her waiting hands. On the front was the address

Lily Evens

Park outside Spinners End

London England

Breaking open the wax seal, Lily deftly unfolded the letter only to find closer to ten sheets of paper all nestled together. The top most one said

Dear Lily Evans,

I am please to extend to you an invitation of acceptance to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment. I await your reply no later than July 31.

Albus Dumbledore

Headmaster

As she tried to put it back in the envelope and read over the supply list and all the other information enclosed, she dropped half the papers all over the ground. Running after them desperately, Lily managed to get all but one, gently picking up the acceptance letter was Petunia Evans. "Dropped something Lily," she called out walking over to hand the paper back. "What does it mean 'School of Witchcraft and Wizardry,' aren't you a bit young to be looking into uni?"

Lily smiled and shook her head emphatically. "'Tunia! Its true! Everything Sev said about magic, I really have it, isn't that awesome. This is the moment we've been waiting for we can finally- " Lily trailed off at Petunia's expression, "'Tunia, what's the matter, aren't you excited"

Petunia smiled a bit, "I didn't get a letter Lil, I don't think I can go with you, there won't be an us." Petunia sat down slowly, "I don't know what I'll do without you, I mean you've been getting under my feet for the past eleven years, I guess this is… it then." Petunia slowly began walking back to their house, her eyes closed and turned away.

"Wait, Petunia, no! You have to come, I won't know anyone there, there must have been some sort of mix up you need to write to Dumbledore, the Headmaster, he can let you in. It'll be all better, you'll see." Petunia turned back and smiled a bit, her eyes glinting with unshed tears. "You know what Sis, I think you might be right," Petunia declared, knowing in her heart that noting would bring her sister back, and no matter what Lilly said, things would never be the same. Unwilling to dwell on the future though Petunia and Lilly walked back to their house to share the good news.

-x-

Severus Snape lay on his stomach on the floor of his room, his toes touching the shelves that covered one wall, and his fingers a few inches from the shelves on the other. He wondered briefly what he would tell his father. He had received his Hogwarts letter, as had Lilly a little over a month ago. He had yet to go to Diagon Alley for his supplies, but had been told that as the Aspiring Wizard First Year Essay Winner, he would be picked up tomorrow to stay at the Leaky Cauldron for the official award ceremony. Severus couldn't imagine his father taking it too well.

He could hear the telltale sounds of his father bellow, the roar of a crowd as yet another goal was scored and the sound of a beer bottle being uncapped. The entire building stank of mould and beer, and Severus vowed that he would never drink anything stronger than sparkling cider. He had seen what alcohol did to the system and knew it hurt his father. While he wasn't foolish enough to believe it could all be blamed on an inanimate object, he did have a basic idea of how it could affect the brain. His mother had been teaching him anatomy along with potions and powerful spells during his muggle school breaks while his father worked.

Closing his eyes, Severus tried to work out how he was going to survive the next few hours. Once he got to Diagon Alley, he would be safe, his father couldn't follow him there. It was just the lead up that concerned him.

If all went well, then his father would probably yell and scream, but nothing would get broken and he himself would suffer a headache at worst, but the chances of Tobias Snape understanding the importance of anything magical were less than nonexistent. As a devout Christian, his father tended to believe all magic was the work of the devil and so by extension, his mother was evil and to be treated as such. Severus himself felt somewhat guilty not telling his father about his acceptance to the school earlier, but realized it was likely in his best interests to keep his father in the dark on that information for as long as possible as it was undoubtedly going to throw the man into a furious rage. There was a chance he wouldn't survive such an encounter, especially if his father was already drunk at the time, and Severus rather liked living.

Waiting until he heard the telltale voice of a telemarketer, Severus walked through his parent's room and down the stairs to the living room. Tobias turned to look at him, a nearly indecipherable expression on his face. Severus took that as a good sign, the only expressions worth knowing of Tobias' were immediately apparent and screamed 'run for your life'.

"Father, Severus began quietly, "I haven't been completely honest with you and I wish to repent for my sins," while he didn't honestly believe a word he was saying, he knew how better than to provoke Tobias more than was absolutely necessary, "Please forgive me. I did not notify you of my acceptance into Hogwarts academy or of my winning the coveted Aspiring Wizard Essay competition. For these reasons I will be leaving tomorrow. Someone will come to pick me up. I apologize for not inform-" Severus stopped talking as soon as he saw his father's eyes change from happily drunk to murderous, and even though he had been anticipating the blow, he was not quite fast enough to dodge it. Tobias was a steel worker, and quite a strong one at that, and when his full anger was unleashed it was not a good idea to be around him. Severus, not pausing to take a breath ran out the door that his father wasn't blocking into the kitchen, opening the back door, he dashed across the garden and began to scale the chain fence backing the alley way behind when he fell back to the ground, Tobias stood above him wielding a frying pan.

"Now boy, you listen here, I've had it to here with your behavior, you're a dunderhead and a disgrace to the proud name Snape, you here? I heard what you done been up to, lying to your old man, trying to run away and fleeing to some sort of demon school. I won't let no son of mine go there you can bet on that, you here me-"

Severus began to let his mind wander, his father would talk for a long time and while it was occasionally accompanied by a slap, it made no difference how much attention he was paying. Trying to divorce himself from reality, he began reciting the potions recipes his mother had taught him last week. Two parts sopophorous bean added to one part asphodel in aqueous solution, set to boil and stir thrice, add infusion of wormwood to counteract the noxious poison inherent to the gas and add valerian to stabilize, after a modest time to react, it created a sleeping potion so potent it was called Drought of Living Death. Three parts bluebell for truth, one part caper for power, One part dragons breath to compel added at once in solution to boiling hydrargyrum. Wormwood sprinkled to counter poisonous effects and simmered for two hours, leave to distil for a week, if created correctly it was called Veritiserum, if off by a fraction it was a slow acting poison with similar properties. Six parts thyme one part-.

Suddenly Severus heard the distinct sounds of his mother returning home from work, and wondered if he should call for help. Tobias heard it too, and glaring let go of the younger Snape. "You're not to go to that place boy, you here, you're staying home, and I don't care what you say," and with those final words he went back inside, just as the Eileen Snape opened the front door.

Severus sighed in relief. Yes, his timing had been about right. While it would have been preferable to have his mother come in a bit earlier, he couldn't be certain when exactly she would arrive. Wiping a bit of blood from a split lip, he trudged back inside. One more night he whispered to himself. One more night and then he was practically home free.

If he played his cards right he would even be able to stay at the school during breaks. He was mature for his age, and he was sure he could stay out of trouble. From all his mother's accounts, the headmaster was a wise and caring man. Certainly he would never leave a child alone in the care of someone like Tobias.

Notes: Hello, this is the first draft of a story I was working on in chem. Class, chances are things'll change once I've read it over a few more times and got a bit more of the plot done, but this is what I've got for now, enjoy.