It was a typically bright summer's day in Cokeworth with only a single, huge, chimney dominating the distant skyline.
In an uncharacteristically deserted playground two girls were playing on the swings, and he was watching them. His black hair was overlong and his clothes were so mismatched that it looked deliberate: too short jeans, a shabby, overlarge coat that might have belonged to a grown man, an odd smocklike shirt. Severus Snape was nine and a half years old, and sat behind a clump of bushes. He was sallow, small, and stringy. There was undisguised greed in his thin face as he watched the younger of the two girls swinging higher and higher than her sister. He found her pendulum-like movement almost hypnotic, not unlike most things she did.
"Lily, don't do it!" shrieked the elder of the two.
But the girl had let go of the swing at the very height of its arc and flown into the air, quite literally flown. She launched herself skyward with a great shout of laughter, and instead of crumpling on the playground asphalt, she soared like a trapeze artist through the air, staying up far too long, landing far too lightly. Her crimson hair, glowing in the sunlight, floated around her form in the air and fell daintily around her shoulders as she landed, as if she was suspended under water.
"Mummy told you not to!" shrieked her sister fearfully.
Petunia stopped her swing by dragging the heels of her sandals on the ground, making a crunching, grinding sound, then leapt up, hands on hips. She looked so pompous, she always had an air of being better than everyone and everything around her, but she was nothing compared to her sister. Lily Evans.
"Mummy said you weren't allowed, Lily!" Petunia repeated, but Lily maintained the same pensive look.
"But I'm fine," said Lily, still giggling. "Tuney, look at this. Watch what I can do." She said as though to reassure her sister.
Petunia glanced around apprehensively. The playground was deserted apart from themselves and, though the girls did not know it, Severus. He continued to watch them with an eager smile spreading across his face in anticipation. He loved to watch her do magic, she was already so talented for a young witch and she didn't even know what she was, never mind what she was capable of. He could change that for her.
Lily approached the bush behind which Severus lurked and picked up a fallen flower from the ground.
He held his breath, and froze, desperate not to be discovered. Not yet. He'd been watching her for a while now, waiting for the right moment to appear and this wasn't it. Their eyes met through the leaves, and his heart leapt, but she looked right through him. In the midst of his relief he felt a slight disappointment. Everyone looked right through him. She turned away from the bush and Severus began to breathe again, exhaling slowly and carefully.Petunia advanced on Lily, evidently torn between curiosity and disapproval, and Severus shifted backwards further out of view. Lily waited until her sister was near enough to have a clear view, and then held out her palm. The flower sat there, opening and closing its petals, like some bizarre, many-lipped oyster.
"Stop it!" shrieked Petunia.
"It's not hurting you," said Lily, evidently disappointed that her sister was not as impressed as she had thought she would be. She closed her hand on the blossom and threw it back to the ground in annoyance.
"It's not right," said Petunia with an air of accusation in her voice, but her eyes had followed the flower's flight to the ground and lingered upon it. "How do you do it?" she added, and there was definite longing in her voice.
This was the moment.
"It's obvious, isn't it?" Severus could no longer contain himself, and jumped out from behind the bushes, a little too enthusiastically he thought in hindsight.
Petunia shrieked and ran backward toward the swings, but Lily, though clearly startled, remained where she was. Severus instantly began to regret his appearance, and a dull flush of colour mounted his sallow cheeks as he looked at Lily. His mind went almost blank but her radiating confidence and intrigue invited him to continue.
"What's obvious?" asked Lily, almost smiling.
Severus had an air of nervous excitement. Her half-smile had cut through his nerves. He had waited for this very second for so long – 'don't mess this up' sneered the voice in his head. With a glance at the distant Petunia, now hovering beside the swings. He smiled his greedy smile, lowered his voice and said,
"I know what you are."
"What do you mean?"
"You're...you're a witch," whispered Severus his smile expanding and as the world rolled off his tongue.
He felt weeks of planning pass over his lips, and a massive weight lift off his shoulders. This was where she would smile back, and ask "Really?" with an unmistakable glimmer of excitement in her liquid emerald eyes as she realised her life of mundane normality was over. He would of course reassure her, and share that he also had powers beyond those of mere muggles. He'd not factored Petunia into this conversation, as he assumed she would be silenced by her jealousy, leaving him and Lily to talk, laugh and be happy. Finally he would have a friend who could understand him, and she a friend who already understood her more than anyone else she knew.
But to his dismay she looked affronted.
"That's not a very nice thing to say to somebody!"
She informed him as she turned, nose in the air, and marched off toward her sister.
"No!" said Severus, more to himself than to Lily.
He was highly coloured now,he hadn't seen this coming. He flapped after the girls, looking ludicrously bat-like. The sisters considered him, united in disapproval, both holding on to one of the swing poles, as though it was the safe place in tag.
He was used to being looked down on, but not like this.
"You are," said Severus, a little more nervously, and desperately. "You are a witch. I've been watching you for a while. But there's nothing wrong with that. My mum's one, and I'm a wizard." Lily's expression lightened, just enough for Severus to know that he'd been heard.
It was all starting to fall back into place. His panic began to lift until Petunia's laugh hit him, like cold wateron his flushed face, washing away his glimmer of hope.
"Wizard!" she shrieked, her courage seemed to have returned now that she had finally recovered from the shock of his unexpected appearance. "I know who you are. You're that Snape boy! They live down Spinner's End by the river," she told Lily, Severus could feel the raw judgement in her tone.
"Why have you been spying on us?"
"Haven't been spying," mumbled Severus, hot and uncomfortable,suddenly aware of his dirty hair in the bright sunlight.
Spying. What an ugly word... He had merely been observing her, waiting until she began to question her abilities, her normality. As every muggleborn eventually would. Petunia was clearly just jealous of Lily. Lily had extraordinary talents, even for a witch, whereas she was just.. Just EXTRA-ordinary.
"Wouldn't spy on you, anyway," he added spitefully, "you're a Muggle."
The look on Petunias face lifted Severus's sunken spirits; evidently shedid not understand the word, but she could not mistake the tone as he reflected the judgement in her own.
"Lily, come on, we're leaving!" she said shrilly.
Lily obeyed her sister at once, glaring at Severus as she left. Though she looked him up and down, as if still trying to read him. He stood watching them as they marched through the playground gate.In that instance, as the gate slammed shut behind them, his cheeks were no longer flushed. In fact his whole body fell rather cold. Severus recognised this feeling, intense and bitter disappointment. He had been planning this moment for so long, and this was not how it was supposed to happen. How had it all gone so wrong?...
Unlike them he stayed, standing, swaying on the same swing on which moments ago she had sat. He was a fool to think that she would want to befriend him – that she would even believe him. He didn't need anyone anyway, he was just fine alone. An unusually icy summer's breeze heaved through the park, unusually fast. Maybe.. Maybe he should be heading home, it would be dark soon and he didn't want to be locked out for the night again, as comforting as the isolation the night had to offer was. He launched himself skyward with great ease and soared like a trapeze artist through the air, staying up far too long, landing far too lightly. It was a short walk home that night, and the house was silent and still when he arrived.