Author's Note: Hi! Please read and review. Constructive critism, please, no flames. I know this is a popular fic idea, but I fell in love with it and I had to write one of my own. Any suggestions or corrections are appreciated. :)

Summary: This fic is about Severus Snape and Lily Evans, from the time they met to the time their friendship ended. DH spoilers.

Disclaimer: Sadly I'm not JKRowling. -tear- I do not own any of the characters. I'll also be putting lyrics at the begining of each chapter. I think it adds a little something. XD Credit to the artist will be given.

Carry on my wayward son,
There'll be peace when you are done
Lay your weary head to rest
Don't you cry no more

"Carry on Wayward Son", Kansas. " Leftoverture"

The Playground

"Hogwarts? What the bloody hell is Hogwarts?!"

"It's a wizarding school. Every witch and wizard atten--"

"FREAKS, you mean. And we're not like every other freak family, we haven't got the money to send the boy off to a school like that! Bloody waste of money, even if we could afford it. LOOK AT ME WHEN I'M TALKING TO YOU--"

A loud noise, of hand colliding with face echoed throughout the small house. He had had enough. Without making a sound Severus opened his bedroom window and jumped. The window was only five feet above the ground, so he landed in bushes, unharmed. Standing up, brushing off his clothes, Severus began to run. Where wasn't important. Anywhere, as long as it wasn't this house.

He ran and ran until he couldn't run any more. He found himself at a fence, beyond which was what appeared to be a playground. He couldn't really see it, as his vision was obscured by a line of bushes in the way, but he could see the top of a slide just above where the bushes ended. He could hear laughter and voices. The source of which, he could not see. Before he could think about what he was doing, Severus found himself crawling through the bushes, trying to see the people laughing, yet trying to stay concealed.

Finally, after several scrapes and cuts from sharp branches, he found himself in a position where he was hidden, but still had a fairly decent view of the playground.

There were two girls running towards the swingset. "Hah! I win!" yelled one of the girls, as she beat her companion in the race to the swings. "I beat you Tuney!" she cried playfully. The girl had long, red hair that fell half-way down her back. Her face was freckled and pleasant, and she had beautiful almond-shaped green eyes.

"Shut it," said the other girl--Tuney--Severus was guessing from what the first girl had said. What kind of a horrible Muggle name 'Tuney' was, he did not know. "You cheated Lily, I know you did," she challenged.

Severus did not know either girls, but he was starting to already dislike this Tuney. Her voice was high-pitched, and whiney. She stood with her hands on her hips, her nose up in the air, chomping on bubble gum contemptuously.

"Lily, I'm in charge when we're here," she said bossily. "Mummy said so." Ah, Severus thought, so these girls are sisters.

But Lily didn't appear to be paying much attention to her sister, for she jumped on the swing nearest her, and was gaining altitude fast.

"Lily, you better not jump off again, you're going to hurt yourself and I'll be in troub--LILY!" Tuney schreeched at her sister, as Lily yelled "WHEEE!" and jumped off her swing.

It looked like a dangerous jump--but instead of falling the ground, she appeared to be soaring, flying, finally landing dantily on her feet some fifteen feet away. Severus was intrigued. How could she have managed that?

"LILY!" Tuney shouted. "That's it. We're going home. I'll telling Mummy."

"No! Please don't," said Lily pleadingly. "I promise I won't do it again."

But Tuney ignored her sister and stomped off in the other direction, and Lily had no choice but to follow.

Severus sat, hugging his knees in the corner of his room. He hated it here, he hated this place. The house was small, cramped, and dirty. It stank with the filth of his Muggle father, Tobias, a drunk who lost his temper daily, screaming at the top of his lungs how he despised his family of freaks--Eileen, his wife, and Severus, his son. Eileen was a witch, and had passed on her magical qualities to Severus, therefore earning them both the title of 'freak'.

Someday, not too far away, Severus would be gone from here. He was 11 now, soon he'd be going to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. There he'd learn to control his magical abilities, well away from his father.

The screaming in the other room grew louder, penetrating through the walls. Severus tried to focus on thoughts of Hogwarts, but somehow he always ended up thinking of that pretty little red-headed girl, Lily.

Every day for the next few weeks Severus returned to his hidding place in the bushes and watched the playground, waiting for the two girls to come back. They came nearly every day, and every day he found himself believing that Lily was a witch. A mudblood, but still a witch.

He wasn't sure, even himself, why he was so intrigued by this girl. So what if she was a witch? She was a mudblood. His mother had always told him about mudbloods, about how they were inferior, their magical abilities not as good as those with a magical ancestry. Still, this girl, Lily, was fascinating. She was beautiful and full of life. He wanted so badly to speak to her, to swing on the swings beside her.

Perhaps someday he would

"Tuney," said Lily. Lily walked over to the bush where Severus was hiding and he froze, petrified that she would see him. She picked a flower, and turned her back to him, facing her sister. "Look what I can do!"

What exactly she was doing, Severus couldn't see.

"Lily! How are you doing that--how are you making it move?"

This was the perfect time, the perfect time to tell her. Tell her how and why she could do it. Severus stood up, taking a deep breath, making himself visible to the girls. "Isn't it obvious?"