The Life and Times of Severus Snape

Chapter 1: Small Beginnings

He could remember the day when he first used magic. It was when he was just about 6. He'd gotten mad at his mother, he'd never wanted to learn how to measure out newts tails in cups, for Merlin's sake, and been sent to his room. What good was learning such things, when Mummy did them, really? She was the one who made the feel-better potions for his tummy when he was ill, she made the dreamless sleep potions when he had nightmares and she cooked dinner. So, what was the use? He glared at the open door from his bed.

"Severus! Get back here!" his mother yelled from the kitchen. He glared harder. She was coming down the hallway.

"Severus! If you don't learn such things, you can't go to school," she said, her dark eyes boring into him.

"Daddy says I won't go to your school. He says it's weird." She rolled her eyes.

"Severus Tobias Snape! You will come here right now or I will –" Her words were cut off as the door slammed shut in her face. And he hadn't moved at all.

"Severus!" He heard the exclamation from behind the door. He shut his eyes and hid beneath his covers, certain he was in deep trouble. The door creaked open.

"You did that all by yourself? Oh, Mummy is so proud of you!" Severus opened his eyes and drew back the covers.

"I'm not in trouble?" he asked cautiously.

"No, dear! You did magic! Just like me!" Eileen hugged her son tightly to her chest. "You'll go to Hogwarts!"

Severus smiled in his mother's embrace. Happiness swelled throughout his whole body. If magic felt this good, he wanted to learn more. He wanted to never stop learning it. He wanted to know it all.

"Can we do potions again, Mummy?" he asked, pulling out of the hug.

"Yes! Yes, yes. Come here, you can help me pound the ingredients."

They spent the afternoon in bliss, happily mixing potions. Before they even knew it, Tobias Snape came home.

"Shit! Put away everything, quickly, quickly! Hurry, Severus!" She began throwing ingredients into cupboards. Severus grabbed the jar of frogs' legs and tried to carry it across the room to her. He dropped it.

"What's going on here?" a booming voice above him asked. Severus looked up at his father. "I did magic today!" Severus's tiny voice rang out.

"You what?" Tobias asked, clearly not amused. Eileen shooed her son into his bedroom and shut the door. Severus could hear their voices through the door.

"What do you mean he's like you?"

"He's got magic!"

"You know I hate the stuff, Eileen. I suppose now you're gonna ship him off to that weirdo school of yours!"

"Not until he's eleven."

"And what were you two doing in here? Making 'potions'? Don't give me that shit! I work long, hard days, and I think I deserve a dinner ready and waiting for me when I walk in that damn door!"

"Make your own dinner."

"Excuse me?"

"I said, make your own fucking dinner!" A door slammed and Severus could hear soft crying coming from the room next to him. A second door slammed and he heard his father's car engine start and drive away.

That afternoon was the last time he'd remembered being happy. At least, until he met her.

He could remember the first time he saw Lily. Even at age 8, she stunned him. Her flowing red hair and beautiful green eyes, eyes that seemed to be full of light, every aspect of her being hit him and he knew that she was perfect. He watched her play with her friends in the playground. From his position behind the flower bushes, he watched her on the swings. She swung higher and higher until it seemed she touched the sky. The sun struck her and he thought he was watching an angel. Suddenly he heard a scream.

"LILY! Be careful! Don't fall! Stop swinging right now, and come down missy!" A woman, quite obviously the angel's mother, strode into view.

The angel only laughed.

And then she jumped.

He yelled out, concerned for her safety. His yell was masked by the screams of her mother and friends. But instead of falling to a crumpled heap on the ground, she floated down slowly, like she really was an angel. Her mother grabbed her and held her tight.

"Don't you EVER do that again, Lily! Never, you hear me?"

Lily. Even the name was beautiful. He said it out loud, trying it out on his tongue and it tasted sweet, like sugar. "Lily. Lily..."

Lily broke from her mother's arms and grabbed a leaf. It was brown, like all the other leaves that had fallen from the trees. She held it in her hands.

Severus pushed aside a few branches to see her better. The leaf sitting on her palm turned yellow, then green as if it was still on the tree. Lily dropped it and the second she let go it turned brown again. Severus gasped.

"She's magic, like me!" he muttered to himself. He stepped out slightly further, not realizing what he was doing. Lily's mother spotted him.

"Hello there, what are you doing hiding in the bushes?"

Severus flinched. "N-nothing. I was just walking!"

"What are you wearing? Is that your Hallowe'en costume?" He looked down at his father's old black overcoat he was wearing. Hallowe'en? What?

"Are you a vampire?"

Severus frowned. "No. I'm a wizard."

In the background the girls jabbered excitedly about 'trick or treating'.

The woman glanced at them. "Well, why don't you come out and play with the other children?" The thought of being even closer to Lily made him shiver. When he didn't reply, Lily's mother stepped closer to him. "What's your name?"

"Severus."

"The little Snape boy who lives down in Spinner's End?" Severus nodded. "I have to go home now!" he practically yelled at her, then he turned and fled.

A/N: So, thus begins the story of Severus Snape.

I imagined that Snape met Lily on the same day of the year that he lost her - Hallowe'en. It makes it more dramatic. ;)