Boys, Girls, and Broomsticks
Hey. I've finally decided to write a Harry Potter fan fiction. The title just came to me suddenly. I think it fits the story pretty good. Anyway, the summery:
You never really knew what happened when James Potter, Lily Evans, Severus Snape, and the rest of the gang went to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. What if Lily had a best friend with the beauty of a Veela and the intellect of an Auror? Who says that Sirius Black never fancied a girl at school? Who really tipped James off that Snape was going under the Whomping Willow? And how exactly did love, learning, and Lord Voldemort fit into this? Read on to find out!
Chapter one: We're off
My name is Severus Tobias Snape. My middle name officially belongs to my father, and my first to my grandfather on my mother's side. It means to break apart or to sever. I loathe my name most in my trivial existence.
My mother is a witch, and my father a Muggle. I am not proud to have his surname, not because he is non magical, but because he is everything else. Hateful, sour, and abusive. He and my mother are fighting constantly. As you have probably guessed, I don't spend a lot of time at home. Mostly, I walk around Spinner's end, until I come to Surrey, where I sit inside of a dismal playground for a while.
One day, when I was around 11, I can't quite remember, I was laying on my back, watching the clouds form very non interesting shapes, when I heard voices. I was quite surprised at first, as people did not usually come by here. When I looked up, I saw two young girls swinging on the nearby swings. They looked about my age. The shortest one had long, thick red hair and emerald green eyes. She had a nice clean white shirt on, with pale blue corduroy pants. She had a pale, pointed face, and was laughing cheerfully as she swung higher and higher. I watched her curiously. Her comrade was watching her with fear as her friend began to swing almost impossibly high. She had straight blonde hair, and was taller than the other girl. There skin color matched perfectly. The red haired one's laugh became louder and happier, and I had to admit I liked it. It was high and "little kid-dish", but very pretty. My mother never laughed, so you could say that I was "starved". I slowly peered out from my bush. She had reached the point on her swing where she could either fall off or be thrown off.
"Lily, don't do that!" shrieked the blonde one. Lily. I liked that name. It was my mum's favorite flower. But, ignoring her friend, at the arch of the swing, Lily let go of the swing. I panicked. I almost blew my cover worrying about the red haired girl with the pretty laugh. But, to my surprise and relief, I watched as she flew quite literally over her comrade's head, twirling in the air, before coming to a graceful and light stop on the ground in front of her.
Now, I knew that there could only be two options here. Number one: I was insane. That was the term for people who saw other people doing something like that. Number two (and the more likely option): The green eyed girl was a witch, like my mum. I highly doubted that the first option was true.
"Mummy told you not to!" scolded the older looking girl, scraping the ground with her pink sandals to stop the swing, and leapt up in front of her friend, looking reproachful. "Mummy said you weren't allowed, Lily!"
"But I'm fine," assured Lily, giggling happily. "Tuney, look at his. Watch what I can do."
I saw Lily pick up a fallen flower by my hiding place. her friend followed her to my bush, and I watched the witch girl doing something with the flower. She was making it open and close, as though she were quickening the processes of blooming flora. "Stop it!" yelled Tuney. "It's not hurting you," contradicted Lily, but she threw the flower back on the ground in the clear line of my eye sight. "It's not right," scolded Tuney, but she asked "How did you do it?" seconds later with unmistakable eagerness in her voice. I didn't know exactly know what I was doing, but patience had never been my strongest virtue, and I thought that the girl should know that she was magical.
"It's obvious, isn't it?" I asked dryly. The taller girl jumped and hid behind the swings, but Lily stood her ground. Closer to her, I noticed that she was bold looking, as though she were not afraid of anything. Next to her stark white clothes, I became very self conscious of my mismatched clothing, and I swear I must have blushed. The thing is that if you have pale skin like me, its easy for people to tell if you blush, which is very annoying.
"What's obvious?" she asked.
I glanced nonchalantly at her comrade, staring at me tentatively from her swing haven. "I know what you are," I stated simply.
"What do you mean?"
"You're, you're a witch," I said softly.
Her next reaction surprised me the most. She stuck her cute little nose in the air and said, "That, is not a very nice thing to say to somebody!"
I almost laughed. In the Wizard world, being told that you are magical is an absolute honor. I hadn't taken into account that witches were portrayed in very negative ways in the Muggle world. "No!" I said. I had to bite my lip to keep from snickering. I ran after her. I suddenly felt very ashamed as I watched her join her sister at the swings. "You are," I said. "You are a witch. I've been watching you for a while. But there's nothing wrong with that," I added proudly, puffing out my sadly small chest. "My mum's a witch, and I'm a wizard."
Her friend scoffed. Her laugh was like icy air. "Wizard!" she laughed. "I know who you are. You're that snape boy! They live down Spinner's End by the river," she added to lily. "Why have you been spying on us?"
"Haven't been spying," I snapped. "Wouldn't spy on you anyway. You're a muggle!"
"Lily, come on, we're leaving!" Lily followed Tuney, glaring at me behind her back. I stared sadly at the ground for a few minutes. After a while, I wdalked in the diresction that the girls had gone. By the river, Lily and Tuney were playing with the new fallen leaves. The red haired green eyed girl was laughing again. I liked the way her face lit up, like a bright candle. After a few seconds, her friend left to ask her mother something, and Lily sat on the ground. I tentatively approached her.
When she saw me approaching, I half expected her to yell at me, but instead, she turned her back on me, and gave me the silent treatment. I sat down next to her cold form. "Look," I began quietly, "I'm sorry I called you a witch. It's just, there's no other word for it where I come from. It just means a girl that can do magic. And I'm a wizard. Look, I'll prove it to you." I picked up a stick, and held it by her face. "Watch!" I saw her eyes flit to the stick. I made water spew from the tip. Lily's eyes lit up, and she grabbed the stick from my hand, and examined it. "How did you do that?" she asked curiously.
I chuckled. I never chuckled, so this form of behavior freaked me out a little. "I told you, I'm a wizard, and you're a witch. The only reason I told you was because you'll be getting your letter from Hogwarts soon."
"What's Hogwarts?"
And so, for the next hour, I launched in to a full explanation of my world. I had just finished explaining our Ministry to her.
"But I have done magic outside school!" I had just said that you can be punished if you do magic outside of school. "We're all right," I assured her. "We haven't got wands yet. They let you off when you're a kid and you can't help it. But once you're eleven, and they start training you, then you've got to go careful."
"It is real, isn't is?" she asked nervously. "Petunia said that you're lying to me. She says that there isn't a Hogwarts. It is real, isn't it?"
"It's real for us," I assured her. "But not for her. We'll get a letter, you and me."
"Really?" she whispered eagerly.
"Definitially." I really liked Lily. She was fun to hang out with, and it was fun actually sharing my world with someone who wasn't ashamed of it.
"And it will really come by owl?" she asked next.
"Normally, but you're a Muggle born, so someone from the school will have to come and explain to your parents."
"Does it make any difference, being Muggle born?"
The honest answer was yes. There was so much prejudice against Muggle borns where I came from, but I didn't want to hurt her. I didn't want to see her frown.
"No," I said firmly. "It doesn't make any difference."
She sighed in relief. "You've got loads of magic," I continued, "I saw that. All the time I was watching you……" I stopped. How embarrassing!
"How are things at your house?" she wondered.
"Fine," I answered curtly. Also a lie.
"They're not arguing any more?" I had let it slip that my parents did not get a long. "Oh yes, they're arguing, but it won't be that long and I'll be gone."
"Does your dad like magic?"
"He doesn't like anything much."
"Severus?"
I smiled when she said my name. "Yeah?"
"Tell me about the dementors again."
"What do you want to know about them for?" I groaned.
"If I use magic outside school…."
Oh! That's why! "They won't give you to the dementors for that! Dementors are for people who do really bad stuff. They guard the wizard prison, Azkaban. You'e not going to end up in Azkaban. You're too…….." I was going to say nice, thoughtful, smart, happy, any of those. But I blushed again and shredded more of the leaves I had been shredding. Next thing I knew, Lily had said, "Tuney!" and was hopping to her feet. "Who's spying now?" I accused.
"What's that you're wearing?" she mocked. "You're mum's blouse?"
I instantly regretted my next action. A branch had fallen unto Petunia's shoulder, and she cried. "Tuney!" said Lily, but her sister had run back home. Lily rolled her head in my direction. I was surprising how scary she could look. "Did you make that happen?" she whispered murderously.
"No," I said too quickly. "You did! You hurt her!"
I regretted my actions greatly. I did not like to see people in pain, least of all Lily Evans.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Two months later, I was at platform 9 ¾, standing off to the side with my mother. Me and Lily had gotten our letter a month ago. We had become pretty good friends. She was someone I could easily trust, and after she forgave me for the incident, she seemed to enjoy my company for one reason or another. I was looking at her family. Her mother was tall and had Lily's fiery red hair and a very pretty smile. The father had black hair, and pale skin. They were both drinking in the situation with apparent enthusiasm. Lily appeared to be arguing about something with Petunia. I hoped that it didn't involve what I thought it did……….
My mother kissed me goodbye as I jumped on the train. Running to put my trunk away, I quickly changed into my uniform. I disliked my mismatched clothing greatly and was glad to be rid of it. I racked the compartments, trying ot find Lily, when I at last spotted her. She was sitting across from two rowdy looking boys. They both had pitched black hair, one's reached to his shoulders and the others was cropped short but very messy. They were swapping chocolate frog cards. I saw that Lily was crying. I sat across from her. "I don't want to talk to you," she said.
"Why not?"
" TUney h-h-hates me! Because we saw that letter form Dumbledore."
"So what?"
"So she's my sister!" she snapped loudly at me.
"She's only a-"
Oh yeah. Lily didn't like that word. But she didn't hear me. After a moment of silence, I said quietly, "But this is it! We're finally going to Hogwarts! Oh, Lily, you're gonna be the brightest girl there, I swear! And we're all gonna have a lot of fun, I promise! You had better be in Slytherin, though, you got that, Evans?"
She smiled her beautiful smile, lighting up her kind face. "We're off! She said happily.
"We're off!"
