3. The swings
Severus Snape x Regulus Black
Originally written for Happy Snape week on Tumblr
There is usually one moment, one thing that defines you gives you wings and ends your beginning and gives you that thing that the old call purpose and the young call blood and heat and for Severus Snape it were always the swings.
The swings had been there since he had been born. Squeaking sounds and blinding light coming off the chains on a good summer's day. The seat worn and leathery scratched and battered. They had stood there taunting him and attracting him at the same time.
He went to look at the swings every day.
Sometimes he sat on them in his old baggy jeans and felt the rusty chain links under his fingers. On those days the playground- if you could call it that - was empty. Most days though he hid in the shadows, watching as other kids yelled, laughed, and damaged the old swings further. Kids were mean, he did not need to learn that the hard way, he had seen it for himself from his hiding place.
Today he left the house early while his mother and father were still asleep. It was Saturday and he had helped himself to a bar of chocolate and had put on an overcoat that was two sizes too big. It was a sunny day in March but one could never be too cautious for rain. He walked slowly breaking off a piece of chocolate from time to time and savouring the sweet and bitter taste of it. The air smelled of coming summer but the wind tossed his hair and pricked his cheeks.
Severus had promised himself that this year, this summer would be the last one that he was going to visit the swings. He was going to go to Hogwarts this September, his mother had confirmed it and he highly doubted that wizards, respectable wizards the kind he was going to be, spent their time with watching stupid muggle toys like swings. He was going there today for the last time. Just to say goodbye he told himself, just to look at them once more and try to feel whatever it was he was going to feel. He was a little afraid of what that was going to be.
He came to the end of the street and turned right stepping cautiously around a stone on the road, his head lowered as he reached the crop of trees he usually stood by when he watched the swings. This time the still air was slashed trough by voices. His hands clenched into fists without him even noticing.
'Sirius look!'
The voice sounded very young, high and excited. Severus stopped beneath the trees and looked over at the playground. The swings were abandoned after what seemed to be heavy use. They were swinging wildly and the chains screamed.
There were two boys in the playground. From first sight, Severus knew they were brothers. They looked not so much identical as a continuation from young to old. As if they were showing each other, what the other one was going to look like and had looked like. They were both dark haired and tall but there was a distinct difference in the way they stood. The older one closer to Severus stood as a king straight back, his chin in the air as confidence allowed to stand. He looked already aware of himself and his handsomeness.
'Mother said that you may not!'
He stared down at his younger brother.
Severus looked at the two of them feeling jealousy rise within him like a snake that had been asleep but now awoke to an all too familiar song. He had always wanted a brother, a sister, anyone that would be just his that he could tell his secrets to that could help him deal with mother and father...he bit his tongue in a deliberate attempt to stop thinking. Somewhere a bird cried.
'Freak! You're a freak!'
Severus blinked. Blinded by the feelings rising within him he had not noticed that the boys were having an argument. The older one was shouting at the younger who looked defiant and hurt. Where his brother seemed almost majestic this boy was scrawny and handsome in an underappreciated way that did not hut. It was hard to look away from him.
'You're a freak Regulus!'
The boy named Regulus looked petulant. Severus moved closer to be able to hear better and saw that Regulus was holding a flower in his hand. The petals were moving on their own opening and closing in a calm rhythm.
For a moment Severus was too startled to register what he was seeing. The older boy, Sirius, looked at the moving petals with a disgusted, frightened expression that twisted his lower lip and made him look pettish. Regulus was looking from his brother with sad eyes. The petals of the flower on his hand continued moving. One word flashed in Severus's startled mind.
Wizard
The other boy was a wizard.
He felt like he was breathing someone else's memory of air instead of the real thing. There was a fire in his chest and his eyes were watery as if he had bitten into a rotten lemon. He felt like he could look at the boy forever.
The boy was a wizard. A wizard. Just like him.
'I am telling mum and dad!' Sirius was yelling now 'I am telling them you are a freak!'
'He is n-no-not!'
Severus didn't remember moving but suddenly there was no longer the protection of the trees and he was standing right in the open looking at the two stunned boys the fire in his chest souring as Sirius frowned. Both boys stared at him. Regulus dropped the flower, his mouth hung open slightly.
'He is a wizard! You are a wizard.'
'A what?' Regulus asked startled.
'I know you' Sirius said 'You are that Snape boy' he stepped away from Severus as if scared to catch a disease.
Regulus stepped closer 'A wizard?' he said doubtfully 'there is no such thing.'
'There is' Severus said 'I bet there is loads of things you can do. I-' he paused, he never spoke about this with anyone. Regulus was looking at him with wide eyes but Severus bit his tongue. Thoughts were forming into words faster than he could control and he felt them pressing against his lips in messy rows (and if he spoke what then?).
'You're a wizard. Like me.'
Sirius huffed but took another step away.
'I set our couch on fire once' Regulus said in a disbelieving tone of voice. 'Mum and dad thought it was an electrical accident, but it was me.'
Severus smiled.
'I can fly' he whispered.
'You can?'
'Come on Reg we need to go.'
But Regulus did not hear his brother. Slowly tentatively, his lips formed the word 'magic'.
'Are you really a wizard?'
Instead of answering Severus looked at the ground. There were sticks and stones there and ashes and dust. They made a pretty whirlwind when lifted.
'I can fly.'
Regulus looked at him his eyes sparkling, a slow smile playing on his lips.
Together the two boys went to the swings.
