Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters, except for the few that I made up, like Professor Dockase or the roommates. The rest are from J.K Rowling's Harry Potter series.

author's note: we'll start with snape's first few days at hogwarts, and then afterwards, time will just keep flying by. keep the year in mind. i wanted to present him as somewhat of an innocent as first, and we'll slowly see his fall to darkness and eventually to the employment of voldemort. this is the story of snape's fall, as he stands "On the Brink of Darkness." and how one girl, Lily Evans, could have saved him from falling over completely, but didn't.

1971 - First Year

The stars were twinkling in the silent sky as the pale boy looked out from his cold window, at the edge of a tower in Hogwarts. It was his first year here and he was nervous, seeing so many people his age. Already he had earned a nickname, Snivellus. His eyes shut tightly, remembering the taunts from the previous hour. It had been a smug-looking boy with glasses with another young man who had dark hair that had been at the forefront of those taunts.

Severus felt betrayed. He had come to the school hoping to make friends, hoping to find companions who would understand him, but he had been met with jeering, right from the start. What was wrong with him? He continued to look up at the stars, constant and beautiful as they smiled down at the world. There was no one who would hear his cries of anguish, so he merely put his forehead to the window and sighed deeply. It was only the first day. Perhaps tomorrow would be better, but he seriously doubted it. All his life he had hoped for a better tomorrow, and it had never come. He suddenly made a small fist and grit his teeth together. He'd show them, tomorrow in class. He had spent all summer studying the prescribed books, eager for schooling. He could not have known that already, he knew more hexes and spells than most seventh years.

Suddenly he heard the doorknob turning and his roommates walked into the room. "Jeez Severus, why are you always in the dark?" an annoyed voice whined from the open doorway. "Yea, sittin' there all gloomy by ya'self. No wonder people don' like ya," said his other roommate, a tall, thin boy with dirty blonde hair. Severus had not taken the liberty of remembering their names yet, he didn't care to anymore. He felt deeply saddened inside, but he couldn't let them know that, it was a weakness, so he stayed silent, ignoring them completely. They stared at each other a bit, flipped on the lights, and began to talk about their first day at Hogwarts.

The dark-haired boy sitting by the window found his roomates annoying and foolishly giddy. Hogwarts. Of all the promises it had presented to its students, the only one it had kept to him was that he could learn magic here. Severus would show them all.

Lily brushed back her blazing red hair from her face as she looked over the lesson plans set out on her desk. It was her second day of Hogwarts and she was eager to impress, or at least, not to slip up. Already she had made a few friends, but they were now whispering together excitedly at the boys who had suddenly rushed in. One had on thin wire-rimmed glasses and a smirk plastered on his face and the other was combing out his thick dark hair with his long fingers, pretending not to notice the girls sneaking sly glances at him. "Ah, Mr. Potter and Mr. Black, so glad you could join us," said their potions professor, a small man with a booming voice. The students were calling him Professor Clockface because his head was so round, but his name was Professor Dockase.

Lily rolled her eyes as "Mr. Potter" looked over at her, still smiling. Obviously he was pleased with himself for being late, though she had no idea why. She was trying to figure out if he wanted something, so she didn't look away, and he merely put up his hand and waved at her, making her blush slightly and then indignantly turn her head. As she did so, she saw across the room, a thin boy with long, dark hair and a pallid face, glaring maliciously towards the Potter boy and his friend. She frowned a bit, wondering how such drama could already take place on only the second day of school.

She saw the pale boy's lips moving slightly, as if he were muttering something, but she couldn't tell what. He was still glaring intently at the two boys across the room, sitting just a few seats left of her, but he was concentrating more so on Potter.

"Alright class," said Professor Dockase, "welcome to Potions. Here you shall learn..." Lily couldn't listen the rest of what he was saying because now she noticed that Potter was frowning slightly, his smirk gone. She watched in horror as little red spots began exploding all over his skin and he got up immediately. "Professor!" The boy yelped.

"What is it now? First you come late to class and-oh my dear boy, what has happened to you?" cried Professor Dockase.

"It..itches," Potter said hesitantly. He presently began scratching at the boils, half-annoyed. He wasn't the least bit worried though. "S-someone, take him to the clinic," Dockase said nervously, then turning to the student nearest him he exclaimed, "Evans! Please escort Mr. Potter to the nurse's office." Lily almost groaned aloud. She was to miss her first potions class to accompany an arrogant idiot to the nurse's?

"Well, hurry it up," Potter pretended to snap at her impatiently. Her eyes widened angrily and she hurredly stood up, stomping towards the door, grabbing Potter's robe as she walked. "Hey, HEY! That hurts," the boy complained, as he was dragged into the hallway.

Before she left the classroom, Lily stole a glance at the pale-faced boy, and he was looking down at his hands, sullen. She had a hunch that he had been the one responsible for the hex, for clearly it was a boils hex. She had read about it over the summer in her spells book. It was only by mere chance, really. She had just been curious.

When they were out of the view of the classroom, Potter abruptly stood still and Lily felt her arm jerk back. Apparently, he was stronger than her pull, and had just been humoring her. "Finally, we're outta there," he exclaimed with a smile. "So, what's your name, Red?" He grinned at her. She wanted to laugh at how ridiculous he looked, trying to flirt with her, yet his face was full of reddish boils. She held back her laugh and began to walk towards the main hallway without giving him a response.

"Aw, c'mon Red, just your name. Ms. Evans is all I know. What's your first name?" he continued, walking behind her. She walked even faster, wondering just where the clinic was. "Alright fine," he said, "I'll just call you Cecilia. You look like a Cecilia. So, are you planning to stay with me in the clinic?"

At this she stopped suddenly and turned around, fuming. "My name is not Cecilia or Red, it's Lily, Lily Evans, get it right you twit. And no, I shall not be accompanying you past the moment you are in the nurse's office. I'm returning to class to learn, ever try it? Now if you would please, Mr. Potter, let's just walk together in silence until we get there."

"You sound like a teacher. But at least you finally say something. Lily," he emphasized the last word.

She glared at him once more and he put two fingers at the corner of his lips and pretended to zip them shut. They walked on in silence as Lily hoped she was heading towards the clinic. She began slowing down a bit, and then came to a complete stop. Looking at the boy as if she were seeing him for the first time she said softly, "What's your name?" He looked surprised for a moment and began to open his mouth, and then stopped, remembering that he was suppose to be silent. Instead, he began pantomiming things to her.

"One syllable," she said with all the patience she could muster.

"Sounds like..." she furrowed her eyesbrows, trying to see what he was doing. He was wiggling his fingers and moving his arms upwards. "Sounds like worms?" she tried. He scowled.

"Well excuse me," she said, getting annoyed. "Wiggling, movement, legs, spiders, wind, flower, fire," as soon as she said fire, his eyes grew wide and he got excited. He motioned her to keep going and Lily pouted a bit, "Uh...fire, smoke, burning, sparks, flames. Flames?" He smiled now.

"So, it sounds like flames and it's one syllable," she reasoned aloud. Her delicate fingers were wrapped around her chin in thought and she was staring at the floor, though not truly seeing it. Suddenly she looked up at him, "James?" He began to jump up and down happily, then he bowed to her. They both laughed for a moment and then she said, "Fine, you can talk again, James."

Soon the Bloody Baron came because of all the noise they were making in the hallway and directed them to the clinic.

Meanwhile back in the classroom...

Severus stared at Potter furiously, just seeing his face made him boil. Boil...that could work. He tried to remember the hex for boils on the skin. The Potter boy was looking at a girl with thick red hair and a light dust of freckles across her smooth skin. Severus thought she was actually quite pretty, but he could care less about some girl when there was a hex to be done to a very smug-looking boy across the room. He remembered that he had to maintain eye contact with the subject and soon blocked out all other sounds from the classroom and concentrated on Potter. Then he began muttering the hex under his breath so no one would hear. He was almost finished when he felt someone looking at him, but he couldn't stop now.

There, he had finished. He smirked as Potter's grinning face suddenly morphed into a rather amusing-looking frown. His skin was soon covered in boils and Severus was quite pleased with himself, though he only allowed a slight smile to grace his face. Now Potter would know what it was like to be humiliated in front of everyone else, now he would be the one laughing at Potter. Severus waited for the taunts to come, but they did not. In fact people looked worried, and Potter wasn't acting like he really cared either. Now he was casually scratching at the boils as the Professor assigned the red-haired girl to escort him to the clinic. Severus grit his teeth in anger. Why wasn't he even the least bit agitated? Potter showed no sign of fear or worry. It was irritating.

Severus glared at the floor, sullen at being defeated by Potter yet again, this time without him even doing anything. He sighed deeply and his long dark hair fell from his shoulders as if to create a curtain around his face, hiding him from everyone else. He felt the red-haired girl glancing at him as she passed by. Why was she always staring at him? Unexpected a thought occurred in his head, and his heart fluttered a bit. Perhaps, just maybe...but no, he would not allow himself any thoughts like that, it would only disappoint him in the future. He wasn't particularly charming or handsome, so girls were never interested in him, except when they were laughing with the rest of the class.

Something flew from across the room and landed in his lap. It was a crumpled piece of paper. Severus stared at it for a minute, looking up, but no one looked back at him to indicate that they had been the one to throw the paper. Wincing a bit, Severus uncrumpled the paper and there was one word scrawled on the parchment, "Snivellus." He immediately crumpled it back up, his nostrils flaring in anger and hurt. Then he saw Sirius Black grinning at him, his shoulders shaking as he silently laughed. Severus stood up suddenly and everyone turned to stare at him.

"Yes, Mr. Snape?" asked Professor Dockase.

Severus stood very still, though he trembled with anger. His white face grew even paler as he felt all eyes on him and he struggled to think of an answer to the professor. "I, I was," he began, "I'm sorry Professor," and he sat back down, now blushing profusely. He heard Sirius chuckling and didn't dare turn his head to look at him. He sat quietly for the rest of the class, sulking miserably.