A visit to Number Four

A dark figure appeared quite suddenly on the corner of Privet Drive, he wore a dark coat and smart black shoes. The long black hair hanging around his face was in poor condition, as if it had not been washed in years. In reality it was a stressful and unhealthy lifestyle which had made his hair look tired and greasy. If he so desired, the man was perfectly capable of brewing a potion to restore his hair to a much pleasanter condition. But he did not desire it, he had no reason to make himself attractive. There was no point, no matter how wonderful he made his hair it would never make up for his nasty hooked nose and cold black eyes. He strode elegantly up the street, glancing around suspiciously as he went. He had no desire to be seen here.

"Snape?" Petunia Dursley gasped as she opened the front door of number four Privet Drive. This surprised him, he had not expected the muggle woman to recognise him, perhaps he was not quite so different from his pre-teen self as he liked to believe. "How dare you turn up here after all these years." She continued. "You killed her. You killed my sister!" Snape was thrown slightly by this, how on earth could she know that it was his fault? That it had been his information which had led the Dark Lord to murder Lilly. "You're too late, why the hell weren't you around when she needed you to be?"

"Excuse me?" Snape replied coldly. "Lilly made it quite clear that she didn't need me when she left school and married that arrogant Potter."

"Which she would never have done if you hadn't joined a stupid cult." Petunia spat at him.

"I did not join a cult" he bit out angrily.

"I don't care what it was." Mrs Dursley snapped at him.

"And Lilly's decision was made before that, she'd been dating Potter for a year before we left school."

A curtain at Number Three twitched and Mrs Dursley reluctantly stepped aside allowing the man into her home. She didn't want the neighbours knowing anything about her visitor.

"What did you want anyway?" she demanded as the man looked around her living room in distaste.

"Dumbledore sent me; he seemed to feel that you may need reminding of some of the details he left with the boy on your doorstep."

"I have not forgotten."

"And you will tell the boy everything when he is old enough to handle it?"

"Yes."

"Well then, would you care to explain what you meant about Lilly? It was obvious by our last year at Hogwarts that she no longer cared for me and she definitely did not need me. She had plenty of friends."

"I thought that too, she did a good job of fooling us all." Petunia sighed.

"What makes you so sure she was fooling us?"

"She never stopped caring for you."

"Explain. Please." Snape whispered, the idea that Lilly had not turned her back on him causing an uncomfortable lump in his throat.

"Well, It was about three years before the brat was born that I found out." Petunia began, "They'd been arguing and Lily had walked out. She turned up at our door one afternoon in floods of tears, begging me to let her stay for a few nights. I brought her in and got her a cup of tea; you see I was hopeful that that would be it and she'd leave Potter for good. Anyway, she told me that James had become very possessive, paranoid. Of course he'd always been that way, but she hadn't seen it until they were married. She told me that he didn't believe she really loved him. Naturally she swore that she did, and I'm sure it was true, she probably did love James, in a way."

Snape's face creased in pain.

"But it was never real. I don't suppose you can blame the man for becoming paranoid," Petunia sighed "She was such a good actress; she fooled herself most of the time and at first I didn't know how he had noticed that she didn't feel for him in quite the same way that he did for her. It was only after she'd stayed with me and Vernon for a couple of nights that I realised. Poor Lilly, of course she wasn't to know that she spoke in her sleep; always the same thing. "Sev."

*** A few Years Later***

Severus Snape watched in pain as the Hogwarts Sorting hat was pulled once again over Lily's beautiful green eyes, it was too much like his own sorting day; when he had watched as the hat separated him from her. Now he watched once again waiting as the hat decided where to put the son that could have been his. Part of him hoping that Harry would be in Slytherin, that he would have a chance to get to know the boy, to see how much he was like his mother.

As the hat screamed "GRIFFINDOR" he felt his hand tighten instinctively over his wand. Of course the boy was a Griffindor, he was James Potter's son. He even looked like the vile man. Snape glared angrily at the boy as he headed over to join his new house.

This is the first Harry Potter fanfiction I have uploaded.

Please let me know what you think!

I am working on a couple of other Harry Potter stories and I have ideas for more. Let me know if this is something you would like to see more of from me...

Thanks!