Chapter One: Spinner's End
They were fighting again. Severus could hear them; down the narrow hallway and into the kitchen. He wanted to escape from this hell, but for now he would have to make do with hiding in his small bedroom. Severus sat on top of his bed, the thin blanket over his head creating a fort around him – somewhere he could feel safe. The nine year old boy sat with a flashlight and one of his mother's spell books, attempting to loose himself within its pages. Of course, the spells were much too advanced – especially for a boy without a wand – but Severus liked to pretend he was a great wizard who could have anything he wanted with the flick of his wand.
Tonight, however, he couldn't concentrate on the magic. It wasn't because of his parents' fighting, they were no louder tonight than any other. Today, Severus had done what he had been dreaming about for months. Today, he had spoken to Lily Evans. And it had gone catastrophically wrong.
Severus couldn't help but noticed the girl from across the village. She always had an entourage of other children following her around the village playground, her red hair blowing playfully in the wind. Severus never played with the other children; instead he sat behind the bushes trying to perform magic. He longed for a friend, and the laughter that floated towards him from the playground only made it worse, but the other children tormented him about his shabby, mismatched clothes and haircut. Their parents would warn them to 'stay away from that Snape boy. His whole family are trouble'. His mother told Severus that they didn't understand, because they weren't special like him. So Severus sat alone, anxiously awaiting the day he would go off to Hogwarts and leave the muggle town of Spinner's End forever. The girl with the red hair was different though, Severus could tell, and the more he watched her the more he realised exactly how right he was.
She was every bit as special as he was.
Severus watched her more and more. Finally there was someone who he could relate to; finally he wouldn't be so alone. As he watched, it became obvious that Lily Evans was a muggleborn and didn't know what her magic was. Severus had been waiting for exactly the right moment to tell her, hoping that somehow they would magically become friends. I should have known someone like her could never be friends with someone like me, he thought bitterly to himself as he tucked a piece of his black hair behind his ear.
Today she had been with her sister, which was as alone as Lily Evans ever was, and Severus watched her perform bits of magic. Pulling courage from god knows where, he had found it in himself to leave the sanctity of the bushes and talk to her. At first, she had been offended by the title 'witch' but after her prissy sister had butted in and made fun of him, Severus watched the two girls march away, leaving him standing foolishly in the middle of the empty playground. Stupid muggle, why did she have to stuff everything up? Maybe Lily would have heard him out if she hadn't interrupted…
A shriek from the kitchen interrupted his train of thought, followed by an increase in the volume of the argument. Severus could hear his father banging his fist in the wall out of anger. He was a stupid muggle as well. There was nothing wrong with Severus or his mother, but Tobias Snape hated their magic. It was wrong and foreign and was certainly not allowed in the house. Severus imagined his parents had been happy once upon a time, why else would they have gotten married? But for as long as he could remember, all they did was scream and fight. He couldn't wait to leave.