Disclaimer: I do not own any of JK Rowling's characters in this story.
Snape's Story
'A greasy haired teenager sat alone in a dark bedroom, pointing his wand at the
ceiling, shooting down flies...' The small bedroom slowly became darker. The boy
sighed and rolled over on his creaking bed, dropping his wand to the dusty floor with
a clatter.
Grey early morning light peaked into the room from a small window, illuminating
a desk strewn with bits of parchment, a broken quill, and a few old books. Against one
wall adjacent to the window was an old cot with thin faded threadbare sheets. A
teenage boy lay facedown on the bed, snoring softly. A loud hooting woke the hook-
nosed teenager with a jolt. He looked around for the source of the noise, spotting a
brown barn owl perched on the windowsill, and swiftly crossed the room towards it.
For a few seconds the boy struggled with the sticking window, his thin arms pushing
feebly against it, but he eventually opened it wide enough to admit the owl. He took
the letter from the bird's beak, then watched it flutter out the open window. A thick
parchment envelope was addressed in green ink to 'Mr Severus Snape.' Severus pried
off a wax seal bearing the Hogwarts crest and pulled out two sheets of parchment.
The first, the usual start of term greeting, he laid aside on his desk, scanning the other
paper, his booklist.
6th year students will require:
The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 6)
by Miranda Goshawk
An Advanced Guide to Transfiguration
by Emeric Switch
Curse and Counter Curse: The Practical Uses of Defensive Magic
by Voricia Hex
Severus folded the parchment and put it in the pocket of his jeans. Slowly he
opened the bedroom door. He silently crept down the narrow hallway and glanced
down the winding staircase. A sallow-skinned woman sat at a scrubbed wooden table,
staring into a deep tankard. Her mousy hair clung to her head and neck; her frail body
slumped in a large chair. From the top of the stairs Severus let out a soft sigh. He
walked carelessly down the stairs to his mother, stopping to peer into her sunken
face.
'Where's father?' He asked slowly.
His mother looked up from her tankard as though just spotting her only son.
'A-at the store,' she said in barely a whisper, returning to look into the tankard.
'School list came,' he announced shortly.
'Better go to Di-diagon Alley, then.' Still staring into the fathomless depths of
the tankard, Araminta Snape pointed to a silver box on the mantelpiece. Severus
grabbed the empty tankard and groaning lowly, put it in the sink.
'Mum, you have to stop,' he said, almost helplessly. Araminta continued to look
intently at the spot where the tankard had been.
Severus turned on his heel and walked to a large stone fireplace, carved in the
shape of a fanged serpent's head. He took a pinch of powder from the silver box and
stepped into the empty grate.
'Diagon Alley!' He yelled, letting the floo powder fall from his hand and burst
into emerald green flames, rushing him off in a whirl of fire.
Diagon Alley was packed with the usual weekend shoppers and those shopping
for school supplies. Having climbed out of the fireplace and brushed the soot from
his clothes, Severus Snape now stood blinking in the bright morning sunlight. He
watched a group of boys his age pass him laughing and licking large ice creams. What
he would do to be one of them, not a care to his name.
Bowing his head, Severus trudged up the cobblestone street to a dark alley,
which he turned onto. At the end of the alley he came to a street scarcely wider and
no brighter than the one he was on. He turned left and walked, shoulders hunched and
head down to a tiny shop. Stepping inside, the shop seemed to be larger inside than it
had appeared from the street. The store was crammed with old books. The bookcases
were of all different sizes, some reaching to the ceiling and some only knee high. A
cabinet stood against one wall, with a sign that said 'Highly Dangerous Books.
'TOUCH AT YOUR OWN RISK.' The gloom in the shop was no lighter than the street
outside.
Severus looked around and spotted a tall hook-nosed man standing with a
stooped old woman, pointing to a dusty book on the bookcase in front of him.
Making his way slowly towards the man, Severus was distracted by a book on display
on the top of a bookcase. Stepping closer, Severus could make out a diagram on the
cover. Slowly, the man in the diagram sprouted hair on his face, arms, and legs, his
body twisting and his back rounding so that he was crouching. Suddenly, Severus felt
a strong, cool hand on the back of his neck. A shiver passed through his body. The
hand tightened, fingers digging into his skin. The picture blurred in front of him as
tears of pain welled up his eyes.
'What are you doing here?' A cold voice whispered in his ear. Severus was
pushed hard into the bookcase as the hand was removed, scratching his neck with long
sharp fingernails. Severus stood up, feeling the tightness of his lungs and the
throbbing pain in his side where the corner of a book had been thrust into him, and
faced his father.
'I need school books,' he replied defiantly, angry at himself that he could not
make eye contact with his father, and instead was staring at his eyebrows.
'Well I guess it's just too bad that you don't have any money,' his father said with
a sneer.
'That's why I came here. I need money from you for my books. Or I could just
steal them,' finally Severus met his father's steely gaze.
'What did you say boy? I will not have you disgracing the family name! You
already bring me enough shame as it is!' Again the man used a deafening whisper,
'Here!' He dropped eight Sickles and four Knuts in Severus's outstretched hand,
grabbing his wrist tightly.
'And I expect change,' he whispered between his teeth.
Severus quickly turned and left his father's store, thinking he should have come
to his father later in day so that he would have had more change to give him. He had
barely given him enough for frogspawn. Sighing he rounded the corner to Diagon
Alley and turned in the direction of a second-hand bookshop at the far end of the
alley.
Severus walked through the door and breathed in the instant smell of musty
moldy old books. He approached the counter and cleared his throat loudly. An old
woman bustled towards him. She was very plump, and wore a patchwork dress with a
faded dirty white apron on top. Her hair was white and frizzy, and was pulled into an
untidy bun. Upon spotting Severus her old wrinkled face broke into a smile, and she
kindly asked what he needed. Severus produced his booklist and handed it to her
wordlessly, feeling uncomfortable and a bit annoyed with her polite gestures. She
told him it would only take a minute and started puttering around grabbing books of
mismatched lopsided shelves.
'Randal, do we have any copies of "Curse and Counter Curse"?' She called back
into a room separated by frayed sheet across the doorway. A skinny old man
emerged, wearing an old black cloak that hung off his tired, worn frame like a large
sack. He checked a few bookcases, looked hard at Severus, then replied, 'T'appears
not.'
'I'm sorry dear, I've got your other books though.'
'Thanks.' Mumbling, Severus removed a few coins and handed them to the old
woman, and quickly left the store. He knew he would have to go to Flourish and Blots
for his Defense against the Darks arts book, and he made his way there in growing
trepidation.