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PATH to DARKNESS by Tyde
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Disclaimer thingie: Absolutely anything and everything Harry Potter related belongs to JK Rowling (that Goddess) etc - is that good enough? :o)
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Chapter One – Acceptance
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Eleven year old Severus Snape spent the month of July 1970 sitting on the roof of his parents' house with his Cleansweep broomstick in hand and keeping a look out for an owl. His childhood had been a plethora of Hogwarts infused stories from his parents and he was incredibly eager to get there. The thought never entered his mind that it was possible he wouldn't be accepted to Hogwarts. All he could think about was potion making and Quidditch games. His father had taken him out to a secluded glen to teach him to become a chaser. His father, Paxen Snape had been a keeper in his day at Hogwarts and thought as his son was fast on his broom he could make a fair chaser. Sundays were usually spent in the glen throwing quaffle after quaffle in an attempt to thwart his father's excellent keeping skills. He wouldn't have minded having a few practice throws now but as he lived in a Muggle street that would have been out of the question. He instead tried to patiently wait for an owl. It rained for a few days that July but still he would sit out there with a sou'wester on and a pair of binoculars aimed north.
Severus thought about it later and convinced himself that Professor Puckranter the Headmaster had been keeping an eye on his place and that was why he sent an owl at some ungodly hour in the morning so Severus missed it turning up. He jumped down the stairs three at a time like he did every morning only to find an envelope addressed in purple ink sitting at his place at the breakfast table. His eyes lit up but he couldn't decide which to grab first – the letter or the moon cakes his mother Jyliana had placed on his plate. They were Severus's favourite type of food and she only made them on rare occasions.
He decided the envelope was the best and shouted with glee when he read the words that he had been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Severus's father hugged him and mentioned that it would be nice to have another Hufflepuff in the family. The young boy reminded his father (from his many memories) that 'I'm not sorted quite yet Dad and you never know I might be a Gryffindor like Grandad'. Paxen Snape wasn't so sure about that (he'd seen the young boy run away from a fight once too often) and said maybe he'd be a Ravenclaw if his marks in Muggle school were anything to go by. Severus tried to keep the look of disgust off his face when his father mentioned Ravenclaw. That was just for smarty pants and stuck ups. It made him think of a girl from school called Hortense Hamilton who was always shooting her hand up into the air to answer every question asked by the teacher with an annoying simpering voice.
'The capital of Australia is Canberra' Hortense prattled off 'Not Vienna'. She smirked in his direction and he could hear his answer rattling in his head – the teacher was asking for the capital of Australia, not Austria! He admonished himself. How could you be so stupid? Now Hortense Hamilton is going to smirk at you all day and put you down at lunch time in front of all the older kids.
'Miss Hamilton would you come up to my desk please?' the teacher asked. Severus's head snapped up. Was Hortense going to get into trouble for smirking at him? He watched in wonderment as the teacher talked quietly to Hortense and then she returned to her desk only to drag it over next to the teacher's desk. She gave Severus a self satisfied smile as she pranced back to grab her chair and then settled down in her new position.
The teacher clapped her hands to get everyone's attention. 'Class, your attention please. Miss Hamilton has displayed very intelligent qualities and I have decided that she will be my special helper. If you have any questions about your work and find that I am busy please go to Hortense instead and she will be able to assist you.''
Severus was sure that if there was a world competition in smugness that Hortense Hamilton would surely be the queen. Unfortunately later in the week when he needed the teacher to mark his Geography exam he discovered that Miss Prissa was busy and Hortense was boring holes through his head with eyes filled with mirth.
'Do you need someone to mark your ickle test, Severarse?' her voice dripped with sarcasm.
He felt the heat rise up to his face 'My name is SeverUS, not SeverARSE!' he practically shouted the last bit and he received a scornful look from Miss Prissa. He sighed in resignation. 'Yes, Hortense' he spat out 'I need you to mark my test'
With a look of glee she extracted a red biro from her desk and proceeded to make a pattern down the page that looked very similar to something he'd seen in the village bakery around Easter time. In other words, Severus Snape wasn't very good at Geography and Hortense Hamilton was taking great delight in marking practically every answer on his test with a big red cross. Her face twisted into that familiar self satisfied I'm-better-than-you-all-and-I-know-it look. This time however the young boy couldn't stand it. He gritted his teeth and before he knew it the girl was floundering up near one of the vents on the ceiling.
It took the school gardener and a maintenance man to get her down from the ceiling. The school explained it away as a particularly strong air conditioner accidentally set on suck instead of blow. Severus always had a probably controlling his temper around particularly irritating people that liked to point out his faults, Muggles in this way particularly seemed to irk him. He was surrounded by Muggles all his life and would generally get on well with them but when one of them teased him he always tended to accidentally send them towards the ceiling or into the nearest lake. He never got in trouble for it because let's face it, what would Muggles know about magic? A lot of the children at school teased him though and called him freak because weird things always happened when he was around. He was always hoping that one day another fellow wizard in training would come out of the woodwork to talk to him but it appeared that Severus and his parents lived in the most Muggle intensive village in Britain.
He let the image of Hortense, the most insufferable girl in his class, flying up to the ceiling linger in his mind and it was at that time that Severus S. Snape made up his mind to concoct a potion that would make the sorting hat choose Gryffindor for him. 'There is no way I could survive 7 years at Hogwarts with an annoying classmate like Hortense' he muttered. That decision was just a small part of what would eventually become the stepping-stones to a darker path for the young wizard.