Here he was. He was on platform nine and three-quarters! Finally! The young boy - Severus - looked up, slightly hunched, next to a thin, sallow-faced, sour-looking woman who greatly resembled him. His mother. He was staring at a family of four a short distance away. The two girls stood a little apart from their parents. His best friend Lily seemed to be pleading with her sister; Severus watched briefly, trying to read the one sister's lips.

He hated reading lips. It was always so mentally exhausting.

You see, Severus was an unusual lad. Not only was he a wizard about to start his first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, but he loved reading, studying, and was a bit of a loner. He couldn't wait to leave home. That wasn't all though, Severus also happened to be profoundly deaf.

He had become quite ill with Meningitis when he was younger and, as a result, had lost his hearing. That meant he often had to read lips and spent a lot of time in speech therapy; both at school and out.

He hated the large unwieldy hearing aids he always wore.

They did help some, but they were just so noticeable. Everyone was always giving him funny looks.

Thankfully, when Headmaster Dumbledore stopped by the residence, in order to make an education plan due to Severus being differently abled as the Headmaster put it - his way of saying disabled, apparently - Severus learnt that Wizarding Child Services would be providing a new magical hearing assistance device that seemed to work just as well but was also much more discreet. It just hooked onto the back of his ear and then a small earpiece went inside. His hair was just long enough that it covered it up easily enough. That made him happy.

The teachers would also be wearing a device around their neck that would amplify their voices slightly; basically a microphone.

He had also been given permission to use a special quill - dictaquill - in class for note-taking.

The Headmaster had been very clear that it was for notes, and he would be expected to use a regular quill during any and all exams.

His mother had initially wanted to homeschool him, but his father had convinced her that Severus attending a school for people trained to deal with people like Severus would be for the best. That meant that Severus was swiftly enrolled into Manchester Institution for the Deaf and Dumb when he came of age.

His father wasn't too happy about the constant trips into central Manchester but it was either that or having his brat unable to speak. In the end, it wasn't a hard issue for Tobias. If he had to deal with a brat, then the aforementioned brat was going to at least be able to speak and be a little bit more normal. Tobias wasn't fond of anything particularly out of the normal and his son was a major point of contention.

And, thusly, Severus learned to speak. He did have a slight accent, but he was more than intelligible enough.

The conversation didn't make much sense to him although he did catch the words persuade, Dumbledore, sorry, and a series of other words that made him think their fight was about the letter from Petunia, the older Evans girl, that they had found.

He frowned. Lily was crying.

He turned his attention back to his mother.

"Behave. Remember to write... the sortie... want... know how your first week goes.."

He quickly tried to make sense of what the woman before him had just said. "I promise I'll write tonight after the sorting, Mum."

"You better," she said, giving him a rare small smile. "Have a good term."

His mother pointed towards the Hogwarts Express and then to her ear.

"It's time to go."

He nodded, mumbled a goodbye, and quickly made his way onto the train.

Finally.

It didn't take long before he was hurrying along the corridor of the Hogwarts Express as it clattered through the countryside. He had already changed into his school robes; having taken the first opportunity to take off his dreadful Muggle clothes. At last, he stopped, outside a compartment in which a group of rowdy boys were talking. Hunched in a corner seat beside the window was Lily, her face pressed against the windowpane.

He slid open the compartment door and sat down opposite Lily. She glanced at him and then looked back out of the window. She had been crying.

He tapped her on the shoulder.

She turned to him and then spoke in a constricted voice. "I don't want to talk to you."

"Why not?" He said, tapping his index finger on his shoulder with a frown.

Typically signing was seen in poor taste and particularly with the teachers at his old school, it was frowned upon. Hearing impaired children did not sign. They spoke. Signing was seen as inferior.

Even the school didn't try and hide it. 'If you want your child to talk in a normal way, you must speak to him as you would to any young child, not in an unnatural manner. If you persist in using gesture or pantomime he will not trouble to learn to talk. He will imitate you and learn that it is easy to get what he wants by gesturing. After that, you are going to find it difficult to establish good speech as the means of communication. In order to compete and conform as an adult, good speech is essential.'

However, that didn't stop people from knowing it and Severus had picked it up from a friend who had Deaf parents. He then taught Lily. Severus didn't dare do it around his parents, or they got upset, especially Tobias, but it was just so much easier.

"Tuney h-hates me," she signed while voicing. "Because we saw that letter from Dumbledore."

"So what?"

She threw him a look of deep dislike. "So she's my sister!"

"She's only a —" He caught himself quickly; Lily, too busy trying to wipe her eyes without being noticed, did not notice.

"But we're going!" he said, unable to suppress his exhilaration. "This is it! We're off to Hogwarts!"

She nodded, mopping her eyes, but in spite of herself, she half smiled.

"You'd better be in the same house as me," he said, encouraged that she had brightened a little.

"It'd be nice," she said, giving him a warm smile this time.

One of the boys sharing the compartment, who had shown little interest in Lily or Severus until that point, looked around at what was going on.

"Where's your accent from? And what are you doing with your hands?"

Severus glanced at the boys. One was slight, the other more muscly and both were black-haired like Severus, but with that indefinable air of having been well-cared-for, even adored, that Severus knew he so conspicuously lacked.

"I find myself curious as well," the second boy said.

"I'm deaf. Do you have a problem with that?" he sneered.

"No," both boys said, quickly back peddling.

"What's that you're doing with your hands though?" the second boy asked.

"Sign language," Severus said with a shrug. "It's easier to understand sometimes than when someone's speakin'."

The boy grinned. "Cool. In any case, my name is Sirius. Sirius Black."

"And I'm James Potter," the first boy said.

"Severus Snape."

"Lily Evans."

"You were talking about houses," Sirius said. "Where are you heading, if you've got the choice?"

James lifted an invisible sword. "'Gryffi-or, where dw- the brave -t -art!' Li- my dad."

"Sorry?" he said with a frown. "Can you maybe face me this time?"

"Oh, sure," James replied with a shrug. "Gryffindor. The motto is, 'Where dwell the brave at heart.' My dad was one."

"Hmmm."

"How about you, Sirius?"

"My whole family have been in Slytherin," Sirius said with a frown.

"Blimey," said James, "and I thought you seemed all right!"

Sirius grinned. "Maybe I'll break the tradition."

"There's nothing wrong with Slytherin," he said with a frown.

"Oh?" said James with a sneer. "Who would want to be in Slytherin? I'd leave."

"My mum was in Slytherin."

"Alright, sorry, mate," the boy said. "I didn't mean to offend you or nothing."

"It's fine," he grumbled, tone showing he clearly wasn't fine with the comment.

"I think I would like either Ravenclaw or Gryffindor," Lily said trying to lighten the mood. "I love learning new things, and Gryffindor seems quite interesting. I hear Dumbledore himself was in it."

"Gryffindor is by far the best," James said with a grin.

While they had been talking, the train had carried them out of London. Now they were speeding past fields full of cows and sheep. They were quiet for a time, watching the fields and lanes flick past.

Around half past twelve, there was a great clattering outside in the corridor and a smiling, dimpled woman slid back their door and said, "Anything off the cart, dears?"

Both James and Sirius leapt to their feet, but Severus muttered that he'd brought sandwiches. Lily and the other boys went out into the corridor.

Severus' family had never been particularly well off. Almost everything Severus owned were second hand, and even then.

That was why he had changed out of his Muggle clothes so quickly. He didn't want to be the impoverished half-blood from working-class Manchester on top of the weird disabled kid.

His mother was a pure-blood from the Prince line but had been disowned after she ran from an arranged marriage and married a Muggle. His father.

The three of them seemed to have bought some of everything; Bettie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, Chocolate Frogs. Pumpkin Pasties, Cauldron Cakes, Licorice Wands, and a number of other strange things Severus had never seen in his life.

Severus stared as the three of them brought it all back into the compartment and tipped it onto an empty seat.

"Hungry, are you?" he deadpanned.

"Starving," said James, taking a large bite out of a pumpkin pasty.

"Oh, you should try this, Sev," Lily said holding up a pasty. "Go on -"

"Go on, have a pasty," said James. "It's a travesty that the Muggle world doesn't have them."

"How did you know?" Severus said with the snort, taking the pasty.

"We're purebloods," James said. "Both of your names are Muggle."

"Plus," Sirius added, "Evans there is basically jumping out of her seat in excitement."

Lily blushed. "I'm excited is all."

James laughed. "Oh, I am too. I've been dreaming about this for years."

"Me as well," said Sirius.

"What are these?" Lily asked, holding up a pack of Chocolate Frogs. "They're not really frogs, are they?" She was starting to feel that nothing would surprise her.

"No," said James. "But see what the card is. I'm missing Agrippa. "

"What?"

"Oh, of course, you wouldn't know - Chocolate Frogs have cards, inside them, you know, to collect - famous witches and wizards. I've got about five hundred, but I haven't got Agrippa or Ptolemy."

"I've heard of Agrippa actually," Severus said. "My mum occasionally told me stories about the wizarding world."

"Half-blood?"

"Yes."

"Brilliant."

"Oh, here, Sev!" Lily said. "Try one of these. Do it before me."

"Why? Isn't it ladies first?"

"Except for when the lady is in peril."

"Ah yes, the perils of chocolate," he quipped.

Severus unwrapped his Chocolate Frog and picked up the card. It showed a man's face. He wore half-moon glasses, had a long, crooked nose, and flowing silver hair, beard, and moustache. Underneath the picture was the name Albus Dumbledore.

"He hasn't changed since this photo was taken," Severus said with a snort.

"You've met him?" Lily said.

"Yes," Severus grinned. "He personally came to my house to deliver my later and discuss my academic challenges as it were."

"Professor McGonagall came to my house," Lily said, "but then you already know that."

"How was she?" James inquired. "She's the Head of Gryffindor House if I recall."

"She seemed more than nice enough," Lily replied. "She seems strict but reasonable."

"Strict?" said Sirius. "Well, there goes my fun."

Lily rolled her eyes.

Severus turned over his card and read:

ALBUS DUMBLEDORE

CURRENTLY HEADMASTER OF HOGWARTS

Considered by many the greatest wizard of modern times, Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood, and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel. Professor Dumbledore enjoys chamber music and tenpin bowling.

"Oh, I've got Morgana," Sirius said. "I've got about 15 of her."

James looked at his. "Brilliant! I've got Andros the Invincible!"

"Lucky you," Sirius scoffed.

"Hey, i - ntmftthatyrcadsuks " the boy's voice trailed off real fast.

Severus blinked and tried to figure out what the other boy's reply was, hoping that would make more sense. Unfortunately, he missed part of the reply and the boy had also spoken rather fast.

"Are you ok, Snape?"

"What did you both say?"

"Oh?" said Sirius, with a shrug. "It wasn't that important."

Severus sighed.

A voice echoed through the train: "We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes' time. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately."

Try as Severus might, he couldn't understand the conductor. They had a strong accent and then however they amplified it throughout the train seemed to just distort it and make it worse.

He wiggled his index finger slightly off to the side and then brought the index finger to his lips and then straight out. What'd he say?

"Leave your luggage here," Lily said. "They will take it."

He nodded. "You should probably change into your uniforms."

"Good point," said James.

"I'll be right back," said Lily. "There is a washroom on this train, isn't there?"

"Yes," Sirius said. "I saw one about two corridors down."

"Brilliant."

Severus' stomach lurched with nerves and Sirius, he saw, looked a bit pale. Those two boys crammed their pockets with the last of the sweets and joined the crowd thronging the corridor.

The train slowed right down and finally stopped. People pushed their way toward the door and out on to a tiny, dark platform. Severus shivered in the cold night air. Then a lamp came bobbing over the heads of the students, and Severus heard a very loud voice: "Firs' years! Firs' years over here! All right there, everyone?"

The very large man standing before them's hairy face beamed over the sea of heads.

"I'm Hagrid. In any case, c'mon, follow me - any more firs' years? Mind yer step, now! Firs' years follow me!"

"I can't understand him at all," Severus frowned. "He speaks funny." It was made even worse by the fact that the man had quite a lot of facial hair. The unfortunate combination made it basically impossible for him to read his lips.

"He has a strong accent," Lily agreed. "I'll repeat anything important."

"Thanks," he said with relief.

Slipping and stumbling, they followed Hagrid down what seemed to be a steep, narrow path. It was so dark on either side of them that Severus thought there must be thick trees there. Nobody spoke much.

"Yeh'll get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec," Hagrid called over his shoulder, "jus' round this bend here. "

"What?" Severus asked.

"Look!" Lily said, signing at the same time.

There was a loud "Oooooh!"

The narrow path had opened suddenly onto the edge of a great black lake. Perched atop a high mountain on the other side, its windows sparkling in the starry sky, was a vast castle with many turrets and towers.

"No more'n four to a boat!" Hagrid called, pointing to a fleet of little boats sitting in the water by the shore.

"Four people M-A-X-I-M-U-M," Lily voiced and signed. Severus and Lily were followed into their boat by Black and Potter.

"Everyone in?" shouted Hagrid, who had a boat to himself. "Right then - FORWARD!"

And the fleet of little boats moved off all at once, gliding across the lake, which was as smooth as glass. Everyone was silent, staring up at the great castle overhead. It towered over them as they sailed nearer and nearer to the cliff on which it stood.

"Heads down!" yelled Hagrid as the first boats reached the cliff; they all bent their heads and the little boats carried them through a curtain of ivy that hid a wide opening in the cliff face. They were carried along a dark tunnel, which seemed to be taking them right underneath the castle until they reached a kind of underground harbour, where they clambered out onto rocks and pebbles.

The rather large man checked the boats as people climbed out of them. Then they clambered up a passageway in the rock after Hagrid's lamp, coming out at last onto smooth, damp grass right in the shadow of the castle.

They walked up a flight of stone steps and crowded around the huge, oak front door.

"Everyone here?"

Hagrid raised a gigantic fist and knocked three times on the castle door.