A/N: Here's an update. I'm so sorry to leave you lovely people waiting a week for an update. RL is being mean and not letting me play with Severus & Lily as much as I'd like to. I've also fast-forwarded to them receiving their Hogwarts letters. Every time I tried to pin the plot bunnies down to provide filler they kept wriggling away so I just went along with them in the end. So, without further ado, I present chapter 4:
Chapter 4 – Hogwarts Letters
January 1971
A week before Lily's eleventh birthday, a stranger knocked on the Evans' door. And he really could be no stranger. He was almost as wide as he was tall, he wore a deep plum suit, highly polished brown shoes and was carrying a very thick parchment envelope sealed with red wax.
Mrs Evans answered the door. "Hello, can I help you?"
The strange man answered in a deep voice, "I rather think you can. May I speak to Lily please? I have a letter for her here that I need to deliver to her personally and I will probably need to explain the letter."
Mrs Evans allowed the man into her home, sat him in the living room while she went to get Lily.
"Here she is, Mr…sorry, I didn't catch your name?"
"Slughorn, dear, my name is Horace Slughorn."
"Mr. Slughorn would you like some tea while Lily reads her letter."
"Yes please, my dear and cake? Do you have any cake?"
Lily could hardly contain her excitement. She knew what was in that envelope as soon as she had set eyes upon it. Her Hogwarts letter had arrived! She carefully prised up the wax seal and took out the parchment pages. She absorbed and savoured every word of this glorious letter. She was vaguely aware of her mother bringing in a tea tray with the good cups and saucers and she had even plated up the Battenberg cake she had been saving for Grandma Evans' visit on Sunday.
"So, what's in your letter Lily?"
"It's a letter from Hogwarts."
"Isn't that the school that Severus is going to? I've heard you two whispering about it."
At this point, Horace Slughorn cleared his throat and said "If I may intervene here, Mrs. Evans, your daughter also has a place at Hogwarts. You must have noticed that she can make some very remarkable things happen when she wants to."
Mrs Evans got noticeably paler. "I had thought I was imagining things or that it was just coincidence."
"No, my dear, Lily has some very powerful magic. She will make a very formidable witch when she is properly trained." Horace Slughorn stayed for as long as it took to explain to Mrs. Evans and Lily all about Hogwarts and the wizarding world, Gringotts and Diagon Alley; and also to finish off the Battenberg.
"If that's everything," Horace said as he stood up, looking at the tea tray just to check the Battenberg had all gone. "I have another call to make while I'm in the area. I heard you mention Severus, would that be Severus Snape, son of Eileen Prince?"
"Yes, well she's Eileen Snape now, but yes, they live just around the corner."
"Thank you, my dear. I shall see you in September, Lily, and I'm so pleased to hear that you have been practicing some potions already."
Lily's cheeks blushed slightly at the praise from her soon-to-be Potions Master.
As Slughorn approached the Snape's house, he thought the Muggle woman must have pointed him in the wrong direction. There is no way the heir to the Prince fortune would live here. It was so small and rundown.
He knocked on the door of his once-favourite student. When she answered, he could hardly believe his eyes. She was barely recognisable, she was so thin and looked as tough she had the weight of the world on her shoulders.
"Eileen," he said softly, "Is that a black eye?"
He saw the characteristic shimmer of a glamour being applied. "No," she replied hastily. "It must have been the shadows. Come in, Professor Slughorn. This is a nice surprise. We were expecting Severus' letter to come by owl,"
"Well, I was in the area, delivering a letter to one of your neighbours, Lily Evans. Nice girl. She said you'd been helping her with potions. You'll put me out of a job."
Severus heard a man's voice from downstairs and for a moment he was terrified that his father was back. It was never good if his father was home in the day. He crept to the top of the stairs and heard the man talking about potions. His heart leapt in relief! He ran down the stairs two at a time. His Hogwarts letter! He had been so worried that it would never arrive.
