July, Year 1.

Snape watched the two young girls as they played in the park. Well, actually he only watched one of the girls. The pretty red-headed girl he had watched for almost all summer. He knew she had referred to the other girl as her "sister" but he didn't know how they could possibly be. Maybe one was adopted? Her sister resembled a horse – the younger girl had pale skin, red hair and bright-green eyes.

He watched the girl swinging higher and higher, the sunlight glinting off her hair. Suddenly at the top of her swing, she let go and flew gracefully through the air. She hovered and then allowed herself to float gently to the ground, landing lightly on her feet. The elder girl appeared to be telling her sister off – in a bossy voice, she said "Mummy said you weren't allowed, Lily!" This was the first time he'd heard her name. Lily. It suited her.

The red-head – Lily – was laughing and moved closer to the bush which Snape was hiding behind. She picked up a little flower and made open and close its petals. Her sister shrieked something, and Lily through the flower onto the ground. "How do you do it?" asked the elder one.

Snape could no longer contain himself. "It's obvious, isn't it?" He said. He had been meaning to confront these two girls all summer, but that wasn't what he always wanted to start with. Lily looked at him. "What's obvious?" She asked.

The other girl had run off. Good. He bent down and whispered to her "I know what you are."
"What do you mean?"
"You're... You're a witch."
He realised instantly he had said something very hurtful. Lily looked insulted, and said "That's not a very nice thing to say to somebody!" She turned and stalked towards her sister.

"No!" He just realised he'd spoke this word out loud. He caught up with the girls. "You are. 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. " The oldest girl let out a laugh the chilled Snape to the bone. "Wizard! I know who you are. You're that Snape boy! Why have you been spying on us?"
"Haven't been spying," he said, although he had and had all but admitted it to the girls. "Wouldn't spy on you, anyway. You're a Muggle. "

This didn't have quite the effect Snape had hoped. "Lily, come on, we're leaving!" Lily and her sister walked away. Snape sat down, feeling disappointed. Oh well, he thought, when we get to Hogwarts, I can try and talk to her again then.

"What at complete liar!" Petunia announced, when they were barely out of Snape's earshot.
"Yeah," said Lily, agreeing with her sister, not for the first time, just for a quite life. However, her mind was wandering. Could she be a witch? Was it completely impossible? She did make a lot of odd things happen, especially when she was scared. There was that time she managed to escape from some horrible boys who were playing kiss-chase with her, by jumping on the school roof. She was terrified because she had to hand over a letter to her parents, explaining that she had been climbing school buildings, however the letter that had been in her had moments ago vanished the instant she looked down. She got in terrible trouble when that whole story had come out, although she couldn't explain where the letter had gone. Then there was that time she and Tuney had been arguing about something, Tuney threw a battery at her and she somehow stopped it in mid-air and allowed it to fall onto the table.
"...rubbish about being a wizard." Tuney seemed to have finished her rant on Snape. Catching sight of Lily's face, she started up again. "You're thinking about it, aren't you? Yes you are! Lily, you can't allow him to make a fool of you like that. "
"Tuney, I do make weird thing happen, what if..."
"Now, I admit there's something strange about you, Lily, I don't need you or that boy to tell me that. But, there's no such thing as witches! Hey, Lily, come back! Lily, where are you going?" But Lily had turned and ran back to the park.

"Hey." Snape looked up. Lily stood there, alone. "Can I sit here? If that's alright? I-I w-would like to ask you some... questions, if I may, about me being a witch?" Snape was struck by how polite she was. "Sure. What would you like to know?"
"First of all, I never caught your name earlier?"
"Oh. Severus. "
"What did you mean, I'm a witch?"
"You can do magic and stuff, you know."
"I can? Really? You're not just making this up?"
"No. We'll both get letters by owl, and we'll go to school..."
"A school for magic?"
"Yes. Hogwarts. It's in Scotland, in the mountains. It's surrounded by a lake and a huge forest."
"What sort of lessons are there?"
"In our first year, there's Transfiguration, Charms, Potions, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Herbology, Flying and History of Magic."
"Flying? Wow!" Lily could picture herself gliding over the castle, and looking down on it when she was far enough in the air, it looked more like a dolls house.

They talked for hours. Lily knew it was getting dark and she wasn't allowed out this late, however what Severus was saying was so exciting, she stayed. They talked for ages, about Hogwarts and magic, and their families. Lily was shocked to hear about how violent Snape's dad could sometimes be. Snape teetered on the verge of telling Lily about Voldemort, and his policies on Muggle-borns like her, and how some people wouldn't be very nice to her because of it. However, he decided not to. No use worrying her about it, and if he did she might not go to Hogwarts.

"Severus?"
Something about the way Lily said his name made him feel special. "Yeah?"
"Tell me about the Dementors again." She was twirling a stick through her fingers, imagining sparks coming out of the end.
"What d'you want to know about them for?"
"If I use magic outside of school -"
"They wouldn't give you to the Dementors for that! Dementors are for that! Dementors are for people who do really bad stuff. They guard the wizard prison, Azkaban. You're not going to end up in Azkaban, you're too –"
Too what? Nice? Lily though. Then, she heard a rustling noise behind her. Petunia had fallen over from behind a tree, where she was hiding. Lily and Snape leapt up at the same time, Lily looking friendly, Snape, by contrast, looking hostile. "Who's spying now?" He demanded. "And what do you want?"
Petunia was shocked and embarrassed at being caught. "What is that you're wearing, anyway?" She sneered. "Your mum's blouse?"
Snape was so angry at being humiliated in front of Lily, he didn't know what happened. The branch above Petunia's head fell and hit her on the shoulder. She staggered backwards, crying, and turned and ran.
"Tuney!" Lily shouted after her, and then rounded on Snape. "Did you make that happen?"
"No!"
"You did! You did! You hurt her!"
"No – no I didn't!" but Lily had already fled after her sister.

"Tuney," Lily was standing outside her sister's room, trying to talk to her through the door "Tuney, listen, what Snape did to you was wrong. I know you're in there, just let me in, Tuney, please." There was no answer. Lily opened the door anyway. Her sister sat on her pink-rose duvet. The curtains had pink roses on them, and the wallpaper was pink with a border of roses. It looked like a garden where a rose bush had decided to take over, eradicating any other plant in its path. Petunia looked straight at Lily, and said, with an air of malice, "He's still feeding you all those lies, and you're swallowing them, like the gullible idiot that you are. You'll be so disappointed when you realise he's been telling you stories. I heard what he was telling you, all that rubbish about a castle called Hogwash or something – appropriate, when it is a load of hogwash, don't you think?"
"Tuney, he's described it all to me so well, and it's so unbelievable, only someone with a superior imagination could think it up, which makes me think he might just be telling the truth." But Lily's voice sounded, even to herself as if she were trying to convince herself and not her sister.
"No – I can't believe it... I won't believe it! Get out!" Lily left the room, and fled into her own.