So I was messing around with some of my stories and I accidentally deleted this one thinking it was one of my other stories. So now I'm posting it again :) And just to reiterate, this story is the back story that I have in my head when I talk about what went on with Sirius and Severus and Lily when they were children in BV. Anyway, I hope you enjoy and please Read and Review!

He held his mothers hand as they walked along the crowded streets of Diagon Alley. People were everywhere crowding the bookshops and Quidditch stores. His mother had said that the next Hogwarts term would be starting soon and that's why there were so many people here. Little Severus smiled, he would be getting his Hogwarts letter in a year and he couldn't wait.

His mother would sometimes sit up lat at night, after his father had went to bed, and tell him stories of her Hogwarts days. She had been in Slytherin and it sounded like heaven from the way she described it. Only people of power, skill, and cunning were in that house. She hadn't met father there though. In fact, she hadn't met father in the wizarding world at all.

He was a muggle. A muggle that hated wizards.

That's why he wasn't here today, but Severus didn't really care. It was nice to have an afternoon away from home, nice to be among the people who shared his interests and his talents.

He squeezed his mothers hand when they passed by the bookstore and stopped dead in his tracks. She felt his hand tug and squeeze hers and turned back to him. "Yes, Severus?"

"Mother, we passed the bookstore." He told her innocently.

She smiled and shook her head, but they began backtracking towards the store. He loved going into Flourish and Blotts and today was no exception. A far away bell tinkled as they plowed their way into the crowded shop. Students were everywhere, dressed in their Hogwarts robes, getting their books for the new term. He struggled to make his way through the crowd and into the back of the store where he knew no one would be.

He reverently thumbed the spines of the books he longed to own. His mother wouldn't let him buy more than one book at a time. His father had already expressed his displeasure at having a witch as a wife and a son who was a wizard, so she thought it best that they don't draw attention to it. Besides, were his father to find his ever growing book collection, they would be thrown into the fireplace in an instant.

He had decided to pass the other sections today. Too many people were crowding them, so he had dashed to his favorite section, the one devoted to The Dark Arts. He had been memorizing various curses since last summer when he had found his mothers stack of old books that she had received from her family.

His mother was a pureblood. She came from a long line of very proud wizards and witches. He was the first half blood to be born into the family and his father had been the first muggle to marry anyone from the Prince line. He didn't know his grandparents and her mother said that he never would. They had cut her out of the family when she had fallen in love with father.

His mother had tried to bring him up differently. She didn't want him to have the same prejudices that her family did; but it wasn't working. She wanted him to like muggles, to not think that they were beneath him simply because they couldn't perform magic. She didn't want him growing up thinking that simply because he could make things happen by waving a wand around that he was somehow better than them. In that one area she had succeeded. He didn't dislike muggles simply because they couldn't do magic, no, his reason was entirely different.

But he wasn't going to dwell on that now. No, he was going to look through every book once more and pick out the best one to bring home just as he always did.

…

Two hours later, his mother dragged him from the section and forced him to put back three of the four books he held in his hand. While they stood in line to pay for his things Severus peered out the window and across the alley. His face broke out into a broad smile and he shoved the book into his mother's hands. He ran out of the shop without another word and pushed his way across the alley towards the Quidditch shop where his best friend, Sirius Black, was staring open mouthed at the broom lying in the window.

"You look like a fish."

Sirius closed his mouth and gave Severus a smile, "Hello to you too. Where's your mum?"

"She's in the bookshop buying me a new book."

Sirius shook his head, "Every time you're here you buy a new book. Why don't you every get anything useful, like a broom?"

"Books are useful!" Severus said indignantly, "besides, you know my dad wouldn't ever let me have a broom. What about you? Where's your family?"

Sirius rolled his eyes and sat down at a near by bench, "My parents went down to Knockturn Alley and thankfully took Regulus with them. I refused to go down there, that place gives me the creeps."

Severus joined him on the bench and stared at him with wide, unbelieving eyes. "You turned down a chance to go to Knockturn Alley? I would do anything to go there!"

"Why?" Sirius asked disgust evident in his voice.

"Just think of all the books down there filled with information that no normal wizard knows. I know there are so many fascinating things down there, mother tells me about them sometimes at night. She doesn't want me to go down there, though. She says it is full of bad wizards."

Sirius laughed, "Of course there are bad wizards down there. That place is filled with illegal objects. I'm surprised the ministry hasn't closed it down yet."

Severus sighed, they had this conversation all the time and it always ended the same way. He decided to try and skip the fighting and change the subject.

"So, what were you staring at?"

Sirius' eyes lit up as the subject turned to something he was actually interested in. He started babbling about the new broom that was coming out called Cleansweep. To be completely honest, Severus didn't care all that much about the broom but he would rather listen to this then fight. The conversation quickly turned to Quidditch, however, and he was more than happy to join in.

He loved Quidditch almost as much as he loved reading. He hadn't had time to test his skill quite yet. His father didn't allow him to have a broom and neither did his mother. She said it was simply too dangerous for someone his age, and she didn't dare anger her father anymore.

All too soon, his mother walked out of the bookstore and beckoned him to her. Severus turned to Sirius and mumbled a sad goodbye. He didn't want to go back home just yet, in fact, he didn't want to go home at all. He wished Sirius would have invited him back to his home. His family wasn't the best but at least they didn't hate wizards.

His mother took his hand and said goodbye to Sirius. He smiled and nodded in return and yelled out, "See you later, Severus!" before going back to staring at the broom in the window.

When they walked back into the Leaky Cauldron, Severus pulled on his mothers hand once more before they stepped into the floo. "Mum, can't we stay here a little longer? Maybe we could talk to Tom a bit or get something to eat."

His mother gave him a soft smile and knelt down to look him in the eye. She kissed his forehead and explained, "We have to go home. Your father will be back from work any minute and you wouldn't want him to find out where we have been, would you? You know how angry he gets when he finds out where we are. But don't worry Severus, we will get to come back soon and perhaps you could even invite Sirius over for a night. How does that sound?"

Severus sighed and nodded his head. His mother kissed him once more on the forehead before standing up and taking his hand. This was a routine they had developed since the first time she had taken him to Diagon Alley when he was four. He closed his eyes as he stepped into the floo. He heard his mother shout the name to their home and was glad he didn't have a full stomach.

He hated the spinning, but thankfully it never lasted long. He had to hold in a scream when he opened his eyes. There, standing in front of the fireplace was his father looking angrier than Severus had ever seen him before. He was exceptionally tall at 6'8 and look like a giant to the 10 year old. His black hair was cut close to his head and his even darker eyes bored into Severus'. He could feel his mother's hand clench tightly around his and he could feel her begin to shake.

He cried out as her hand fell from his grip and he fell sideways onto the carpet. While hitting his mother, his father's hand had smacked Severus in the head causing him to fall. He looked over to where his mother was lying on the floor, blood flowing from her lips. The book he had bought was lying next to him and he quickly snatched it up and hid it beneath his shirt before his father could see it. The book would only anger him further.

His mother began to cry out as she was struck repeatedly by his father and Severus crawled into a corner and curled into a ball. He stuck his head in the space between his huddled legs and chest and tried to block out his mother's screams and his fathers yells.

Rage boiled inside of the little boy as he tried to block out the obscenities pouring from his father's mouth. He knew the hand would soon be directed at him but he didn't really care. His father could beat him until he was black and blue, but there was one thing Severus could do that his father couldn't.

Severus could do magic.

He heard the footsteps near him and he braced himself for the blow to the head that always came. Stars exploded in front of his eyes as he curled up into a ball on the floor, protecting his book more than anything else. He smiled slightly as he thought of the day he would give his father a taste of his own medicine.