The Predisposed World of Severus Snape
Chapter 1: The Little Thief of Cokeworth
Cokeworth wasn't a big town like the other cities in Great Britain. It was a rather small town where only a handful of children and lots of adults lived together. Most of the adults worked in the cotton mills and other minor textile factories so none of the families in Cokeworth lived in big, fancy houses and the people definitely did not wear beautiful, elegant clothes.
There were many big, dirty factories and nearly all of the houses looked dilapidated as ashes from the factories made them all look grey and shabby. There was only a single strip where small street markets which only offered a single product: a butchery, a bakery, a clothing store, tool store, and et cetera and amongst them, there was a single daycare facility for the children to go to- although none of the children did in fact go to that facility. Maybe just once at the beginning of the year. However, that specific street was rarely populated even by adults since everyone desperately saved their money in hopes of leaving this town. However, there was a small corner of that street, a bar, that was nearly always packed with grown, depressed men. It was the corner which most girls and women avoided.
Meanwhile the children loitered around, waiting for their parents to come home after long hours at work. And while they waited, they banded into small groups of two or three children per group. It was rather easy to makes friends as long as they were the same age and sex as you. Thus groups of little boys would run around the dusty streets with small, thin branches in their hands while the older boys tried smoking like their fathers and look for laborious jobs to support their poor families. Then there were the little girls who would play make-believe or houses while the older girls started to learn how to clean and cook from their mothers.
In fact, there were only two little girls in this small town and they were sisters. The older sister, who was twelve years old, was named was Petunia Evans while the younger sister, who was nine years old, was name was Lily Evans. But you wouldn't have been able to say they were sisters because they looked so different from each other. Petunia was rather boney than skinny- but if you pointed that out, she would vehemently argue that she was simply skinny, and she was a very tall girl for her age. But like other girls, she kept her long, curly blond hair tied with a tattered ribbon which she used for many years. On the other hand, Lily was a petite girl who was in fact skinny- mind you, and unlike the other girls, she had the most beautiful, rich, dark red, wavy hair which she kept down loosely. Although she didn't use ribbons or bother to braid her hair, she still looked very attractive.
These two quietly walked down the streets on a particular Thursday evening while the hot sun began to set. Not wanting any unnecessary from the adults- especially the older sister although she did enjoy listening to the women gossip about other people and businesses that truly were none of her concerns, the girls kept their heads down as they strolled down the dusty, grey street. They were only asked to go pick up some loaves of bread by their mother and that's all they desired to do.
When they turned on the street corner, they could hear the angry baker loudly scream, "That little thief! He stole another piece of bread today!"
They walked closer to the bakery and they could see the fat, rounded man shake his chubby, muscular arms in the air. It wasn't a surprise to see other store workers peak out to watch the commotion. However, the old lady with greying hair who worked next-door in her family's clothing store sighed because she heard the reddened man scream those lines everyday. The tired woman huffed and spat, "That's not a big deal, he steals from you everyday and yet, you make such a huge fuss every time."
The hot-tempered man's big mustache shook as he grew angrier by her comment. "That's easy for you to say, old hag! The boy never steals from you! He steals and ruins my business twice each day! But of course, why would that rascal steal your worthless dresses from your store?!"
One of the man's customers, a woman perhaps around her thirties said, "From the rumours, you can't blame the boy. He also needs to eat and live like every one of us." Petunia's ears perked at her most favourite word: rumour. The man turned around and sneered, "What kind of rumours?"
The woman's lips thinned as she picked up a loaf of bread. "People say the lad's father is an alcoholic who spends every last cent at the bar while the mother does nothing at home. The boy must not have any food at home."
The baker sneered, "Or any discipline."
The store clerk, the husband and owner of the clothing store, also stepped out of his vacant business since his wife hadn't returned back inside. The man argued, "That may not be true, Mr. Ivan. My son works at the cotton factory by the polluted river and he once told me that that he saw the boy tending his large bruises and countless cuts and scrapes; an amount that would exceed any amount of normal discipline."
Lily cringed at the adult's discussion about the boy whom she had often saw by the large hill with the old, ashen tree strutting at the peak. Her parents enforced discipline in their households, but they had never laid a finger on them as they did not believe in physical disciplinary actions. Maybe it was different when parents raised sons versus daughters. Nevertheless the news was upsetting because she passed the river side, where the hill was located, each time she left and arrived back to her house, and from time to time, she would notice a small, shadowy figure at the top of the hill next to the ancient tree. But she wouldn't know if the statements were true because she never approached him and he never approached her.
Instead of paying attention to their conversation, she selected a large, round piece of bun and tugged on her older sister's dress sleeves. Petunia frowned as her younger sister interrupted her from listening to the interesting topic of the mysterious thief of Cokeworth. She said, "Fine, we can buy that one."
Perhaps Petunia decided to join the rumour, rather than eavesdropping because she approached the small group of adults and said, "Hello, Mr. Ivan." And to her disdain, the adults finally stopped chattering up the unknown boy's family life as they noticed the little girl approach them. The adults must have secretly decided that she wasn't old enough to join this type of rumour because the clothing store clerk and his wife returned back into their tiny shop while the other woman quickly smiled at the baker and bid a goodbye with a, "Have a good day, Mr. Ivan."
The baker twitched his nose as he recognized the nosy girl and politely replied, "Good evening, Petunia. You're not with your mum today?"
She said, "No sir, she's at home making supper for our family."
Then the grown man noticed Lily Evans who was shyly smiling at the baker while clutching to a bread that was twice the size of her little head. In a friendly voice, the man greeted, "Hello little lady, did you pick out that piece of bread?"
In response, the young girl nodded her head and the man smiled. "Well, that's the biggest bread I've made all day and I'm about to close up the shop, so why don't you pick another small piece of bread for free."
Lily giggled as he winked and beamed an innocent grin and excitedly said, "Okay!"
Petunia rolled her eyes at the exchange because her little sister always had that magical effect on people which in her opinion caused an unfair treatment between her and Lily. Feeling rather annoyed and jealous, Petunia snapped, "Enough chatting, we need to go home or mum is going to upset. How much is it Mr. Ivan?"
The man replied, "Thirty pence," while sticking out his broad hand. Without another word, Petunia paid the man and forcibly dragged Lily down the empty, darkening street before Lily could wave the generous man a goodbye.
Lily noted her sister's fouling mood because the moment they turned corners from that street, her older sister picked up her pace as Lily tried following after her sister fast speed while carrying a rather large, bumpy bag. She didn't know exactly what she had done wrong- besides not saying goodbye to the diligent baker who was more than kind enough to give them an extra piece of bread. Her short legs ran and moved as fast it could, but it was no match for her sister's long strides and before she realized it, her sister was no where to be seen.
It wasn't exactly dangerous for her to walk home alone since their family lived at the edge of the town where not a lot of people lived. Nobody walked around the streets that she used to get home and her sister didn't leave her too far away from their home. She knew which route to take and it wasn't the first time her sister had left her behind. Instead of quickening her speed home, she enjoyed her stroll since the sunset tinged the cloudless sky with a deep golden red and orange. It was peaceful to walk along the dirt path. It was nice to pass homes where some children ran up to their fatigued parents and enveloped them with their tiny arms for a hug. But there was a single street that was always lifeless, the Spinner's End. There was never exciting or anyone on that street which made it look hauntingly eerie because there was only a single house at the far end of the road and from what her parent's have once told her, it was the poorest street to live on and nobody knew who lived in that tiny, dark house.
Lily continued to enjoy her walk until she realized that she was passing the hill which was fairly close to the river and her home and the location reminded her of the things that the adults faintly whispered to each other at the bakery. Lily momentarily stopped and stared at the lonesome hill and it was quite bizarre to watch the leaves shake from the fat tree because the weather had been perfect for the entire day and there was not a breeze around. Then she watched a thin figure step over the hill and just as she had suspected, it was the same boy that she saw from time to time.
But this time, he descended a few steps down and sat at the face of the hill and blankly stared back at her. The boy looked around her age despite of his scrawny appearance. She was never able to tell what the boy exactly looked like, but now she could see his long, black hair that looked unwashed and neglected for days. And the clothes he wore, devoured his small framed physique and they were ridiculously unmatched for the boy wore an adult male's white shirt that was disgustingly stained yellow and brown. Meanwhile it looked as if he had outgrown his blue, ripped pants as they failed to cover his thin, and as the adults had said before, cut legs- his wounds may have explained why there were small red blotches at the hem of the pants. And there were his socks that clearly did not match each other. Lily wasn't the type of girl who would judge people by their outer appearance, but she had to wonder as she observed his attire, if he had intentionally chose to mismatch each piece of his clothing.
But his black, clouded eyes made the strongest impact on her as they coldly stared at her because it made the young boy look like a mere shell of a person. She wondered if the boy would do anything except watch her, but it looked as if he had nothing to say to her- but he flinched when she smiled. She didn't exactly know who he was and what to exactly say to him, so she concluded to continue her way home before she worried her mother.
As she walked away, she caught a voice say, "- different. -not a Muggle."
Lily quickly whipped around, but only saw the black haired boy walk back up the high hill until his back disappeared as he descended down the other side of the hill.