AN: The first chapter of Severus Snape: First Year Slytherin was done as a one-shot for the Severus Snape Big Bang fest. This is the continuation of the story.
Dear Mother,
My first week at Hogwarts has been amazing! I was sorted into Slytherin and Lucius Malfoy is looking after me as his mother told him to. She thinks we should come to visit her more often. She is very nice and stuffed me full of food.
The meals here are unbelievable! All sorts of meats and all the vegetables are fresh with no soft bits!
"Are you planning to talk about anything besides food?"
Severus looked over his shoulder and scowled at Lucius. "What's it to you?"
It was Friday night, right after the evening meal. The students in Slytherin House had eaten their fill and had wound their way through the corridors and down to the dungeons, into their dim common room with its black and green couches and spooky green lights. Severus had tucked himself into a corner and was writing on a small black desk with pewter skulls on the drawer pulls.
Lucius chuckled. "She wants to know about your classes. That's all they ever want to hear about."
Severus snorted as he turned back to his letter. "Not my father. If he'd had it his way I wouldn't even be here."
Lucius watched curiously, as Severus hastily finished his letter and stuffed it into an envelope. "What is your father like?"
"Stupid," Severus spat out without hesitation as he tucked the letter into his robes. "He hates me, he hates mum, and he hates magic-"
"Muggles can be like that," Lucius interrupted. "It's in their nature to be cautious when confronted by people who are obviously, naturally superior."
Severus shook his head. "It'd be the same even if we weren't magical."
Lucius seemed to weigh Severus' statement before speaking. "You will never know that."
Severus looked up: his beetle-black eyes meeting Lucius' ice blue.
"Do you think so? What if you had been cut into his image instead of hers? Without magic?" Lucius asked, one eyebrow raised.
Severus stayed silent, knowing the answer.
Severus had been born early: small and weak. His features slowly started to take shape and his mother had often remarked how much he resembled his grandfather.
Severus thought if he had been just like his father, old Tobias Snape would have been down at the pub every night singing the praises of his son: how good he was at football: how Tobias would have gone pro himself, had he not injured his knee working at the docks. The neighborhood girls would all think Tobias' prodigy was so adorable: how he'd be able to have his pick of them all, just like his old man had back in the day before his knee had been injured.
Nothing like Severus was: clumsy, shy, and blessed with his grandfather's honker of a nose.
Tobias wouldn't have cared one whit about anything as long as Severus had been born in his image.
But that wasn't the way fate would have it.
Then came the day his father had arrived home from work early, his cap clenched in his hand and an angry, embarrassed look on his face. He had taken Severus' mother nearly out of earshot, Severus had made out the words 'doctor', and 'London' when he strained his ears and concentrated very hard.
His mother had gone white, and the next day his father took another day off and had glumly watched him while his mother visited the doctor herself. It was one of the few days he remembered his father actually playing with him.
He even let his father win at marbles.
When Eileen returned in the evening she looked grief stricken. She took his father aside and Severus strained as hard as he could and he was able to make out 'St. Mungo's' and 'only child.'
His father had stormed from the house and his mother had cried herself to sleep that night. That was the night Tobias disappeared and didn't return until the following evening, smelling strongly of drink and vomit.
"You should have gone to a real doctor!" Tobias had raged, weaving as he pointed accusingly at his wife.
"And you should be able to control yourself down at the docks! You brought this plague to our family and you've no one to blame but yourself!" Eileen had snapped at him, her arms crossed and her dark eyes furious. "If you wanted babies you should have been doing it at home, anyway!"
Tobias had slapped her hard before turning on his heel and leaving the house again.
Severus had sincerely hoped he would never come back. But he had, several days later.
"Maybe you're right," Severus said sharply to Lucius. "But there's nothing to do about it, is there?"
"You should join out little group near the fire, Severus," Lucius said with a tone of finality. "I think you'd learn quite a bit."
Severus felt his eyebrows go up, but nodded and followed Lucius to a group of older boys that had claimed two couches near the fire the very first night they had been at Hogwarts.
"Everyone, you remember Severus Snape," Lucius said as they approached the cozy group. "Our mothers were both in Slytherin when they attended Hogwarts."
Oh?" Rodolphus seemed to be sizing up Severus, his eyes lingering on the scuffed shoes that were poking out from under his too-long robes. His face slid into an easy smirk. "And what's your specialty, Severus? Charms? Magical animals?"
"Well, mostly I do defensive spells," Severus said awkwardly. He knew all of the boys seated here were years ahead of him in their magical skills.
"Oh, good show!" Thor looked cheerful at this. "We could use more in the dueling club! Do you have a signature spell yet? What's your favorite?"
"Well, I'm really good at the Crucio spell," Severus said happily, feeling a flutter in his chest that he usually only felt when he was around Lily. "But I've been working on the Body-Bind!"
The faces around the fire went slack and Severus couldn't help but notice some of the others in the room had gone silent as well. A faint buzzing of whispers started. He suddenly felt cold creep over him. What had he said?
""You don't say." Rodolphus smiled widely. Severus noticed he had large white teeth that looked almost menacing when he smiled like that. The older boy rose and offered his hand to Severus. "Why don't you sit with us, Severus?"
"Thank you," Severus said politely. It seemed strange, shaking hands with schoolmates, and he tried to shake off his discomfort.
"The pleasure is all ours, Severus," Thor said. "Undoubtedly. So, tell us about what other types of spells you know."
œ
Severus made his way to the Great Hall for breakfast with Lucius and Thor. Lucius kept smirking as Thor peppered Severus with questions about 'defensive' spells and facing larger opponents.
As they walked through the enormous room to the Slytherin table, the voices around them dropped to whispers.
"News travels fast," Lucius remarked to Thor with a smirk.
Severus looked at him quizzically as Thor just chuckled.
They sat at the Slytherin table and Severus began salivating at the plates of food that lay waiting for them.
His eyes automatically went to the Gryffindor table and he saw Lily rise and start towards him. He smiled at her, but her face was serious.
The whispers started again as she approached the Slytherin table and sat across from the three Slytherin boys.
"Can we help you?" Lucius asked coldly.
"This is Lily," Severus said happily. "She's my best friend from the neighborhood."
"Oh, indeed," Thor gave Lucius a sideways smirk. "And what have we done to deserve this honor?"
"Severus, you need to keep your trap shut," Lily snapped. "You've got the whole castle buzzing that you're a dark wizard."
"What?" Severus blustered. "What are you talking about?"
"Those defensive spells your mother taught you are illegal!" Lilly whispered urgently.
"They are?" Severus' jaw dropped in astonishment.
"Yes, and they're really bad ones, too!" Lily hissed.
"But I didn't know that!" Severus spluttered.
"Mr. Snape?"
Severus turned around to see Professor Dumbledore standing behind him.
"Yes, professor?" Severus asked in a very small voice. They couldn't just chuck him out for a rule he didn't know he had broken, could they? Was he going to be arrested?
"Follow me to my office, please," the Headmaster said levelly.
Severus swallowed hard and rose from the table, his eyes darting from Lucius to Thor and back to Lily who looked as if she had swallowed something that had made her ill.
"Miss Evans, how nice to see you're already working on your skills with inter-House relations," Professor Dumbledore remarked as Severus struggled to get off the bench in his too-long robes. "I wish the other students would share in your enthusiasm.
"Er..." Lily fumbled as Lucius and Thor struggled to look cordial. "Thank you, sir."
Severus followed Dumbledore out of the Great Hall and through the long, twisted corridors of Hogwarts. After some time, they finally stopped at an ugly stone gargoyle.
"Ice mice!"
Severus frowned at the password as the stone gargoyle jumped to the side and a staircase leading up was revealed.
Severus reluctantly followed the Headmaster up the stairs and through a thick, wooden door into the Headmaster's Office.
Severus tried not to stare at everything in the office. There were so many cabinets and books and shiny objects he couldn't identify, he didn't know where to look first.
"You are not here because of the rumors, Mr. Snape," Dumbledore said as he turned around to face the small boy. "I think it's become fairly self-explanatory as to why you knew those curses and you know now that you are not to ever do them in the future."
Severus felt relief wash over him as he nodded with wide eyes at his Headmaster.
Dumbledore reached over to pick up a small blue bowl with a domed glass lid. "Lemon drop?"
Severus shrugged and took a lemon drop. He didn't particularly like them, but his mother did and they reminded him of her. It clacked against his teeth as the sugar coating melted in his mouth.
"Sit down," Dumbledore said invitingly as he gestured to two comfortable looking brown leather chairs.
Severus sat down and Dumbledore sat across from him.
"Severus, I'm afraid I have something very difficult to tell you..."