Chapter 4: The Broken Mailbox.

The soft, September rains washed over the little northern town. Most children were at school now, so the streets were quiet and for the most, deserted. Only one lone, dark-haired boy was loitering in Spencer Street. He hovered around the last house, a dilapidated building with a garden overgrown with weeds fed by the early autumn rains. After looking around him furtively to see no one was around, he put his hand in the broken metal mailbox at the edge of the garden, and pulled out what appeared to be an old, yellow flyer advertising the arrival of a circus in town. He flipped it over and looked at the blank side intently. Then, with another quick look around him, he stuffed the flyer in his jeans pocket and hurried off in the direction of the river.

Severus Snape knew that it would not do to be seen roaming around the streets when all the other muggle children were at school. He had already been reported to the truancy officer once, a couple of years ago, and his mother had to perform a Confundus charm on the officer to assure her that her son had been at school, really.

He had received quite a tongue-lashing from his mother that day, and a threat to really enroll him in a muggle school once more, if he was caught again.

Eileen had taught him herself how to read and write when he was only four or five years old, and he had caught on quickly.

At Tobias' insistence, he had first been enrolled in a local primary school, but after a few months, it was clear to her that it had been a disastrous decision. As she knew would happen, he had been picked upon by the other children, often coming home with bruises or scratches which were not the usual playground hurts.

Tobias did not help matters by telling him not to be a ninny and fight back. As time passed, and he did not come home bruised anymore, she thought that perhaps he may be settling down, though somehow he seemed even more reluctant than before to go to school. But it was when the Teacher started to send her notes about how he somehow hurt other children, that she decided to take matters into her hands.

She paid a visit to the school and her fears were confirmed when the teacher told her, that although she had no problem with Severus during lessons, since he was quiet and already knew how to read and write way beyond what his classmates could, yet during break it was a different matter –

'He was bullied at first, Mrs. Snape, you know… some of the larger kids. But we managed to put a stop to that. He is still teased sometimes, but what worries me is that the children that do so, end up hurt.' She paused, as if wondering what to say next. 'There were times when I actually saw it happen….Severus was visibly upset and angry when teased about his torn schoolbag, but he only pointed his finger at Billy Jones and .. and... Billy's schoolbag twisted round his neck, almost choking him. I can't imagine how.'

There was a frown on her forehead, and she spoke almost apologetically, as if even she doubted her own words. When she continued, she seemed to be trying to convince herself:

'…and Emilia's coat – it ripped right down the middle – she had been teasing him about his clothes, but he only looked angrily at her, nothing else.' she paused, shaking her head. 'There were many other incidents, Mrs. Snape; some reported by other children, so perhaps not very reliable, but when John's shirt suddenly caught fire…. They always say it was Severus....'

Eileen sighed. She was glad she had started teaching Severus at home, because that is what she would continue to do now, and Tobias be damned. She pulled her wand out of her coat pocket and pointed it at the teacher.

'Obliviate!.' she said.

Back home she explained he would not need to go back to 'that stupid muggle school', and if she had had any doubts, his relieved expression was proof enough of what he thought about school.

From then on, all she did was provide Severus with increasingly difficult books and papers (both muggle and magic ones) for him to gather the needed information, year after year. By his eighth Birthday, he was already raiding his mother's old Hogwarts schoolbooks for further knowledge, without being prompted to do so.

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Severus arrived at the pool by the river, and there, sure of protection from prying eyes, he opened the flyer, blank side up. Only for him, it was not blank. In large, round, handwriting a small note was written:-

Dear Severus,

I got your note last weekend, but I haven't been able to get away, yet. However, next Saturday, I will come – come what may! Wait for me by our riverside pool.

Lily.

Severus folded the paper and put it back in his pocket, feeling considerably lighthearted. It would not be as bad as last winter, if they could meet every once in a while.

When Saturday morning dawned, however, it was rather chilly, and, in the distance, the single tall chimney of the mill, pointed up at a dark, lowering sky. A faint rumbling in the distance confirmed that a thunderstorm was on its way. Severus sighed; he hoped it would not be so bad as to keep Lily at home. He flung on his overlarge coat and set off. By the time he arrived at the pond, the first drops of rain had started to fall. He sat down on a log and held his coat over his head.

The rain started coming down quite heavily and Severus was soon drenched. He was thinking of finding some shelter, when he saw a flowery umbrella making its way through the trees. Lily peered at him from beneath it and waved. She was dressed in Wellies and a brightly-coloured raincoat. He hurried towards her, holding his sopping wet coat over his head.

'Severus, you're wet through! Come under my umbrella' and she held it over both of them. He got under it gladly, shrugging on his coat and shaking his long, wet hair out of his eyes, showering her with raindrops.

'Lily, I think we ought to ....' but his voice was drowned by a clap of thunder overhead.

He grabbed her arm and indicated that they should move out of the grove. The rain was really pelting down now. They started running. Severus, being the taller, was holding the umbrella over them both with one hand, and pulling Lily, who was giggling, with the other.

They arrived at the row of houses closest to the river. They all seemed in a very bad state but the last house was the worst – it looked abandoned and unlived in.

'No one lives here. We can go in by the back door – it's open.' Severus shouted over the storm.

She seemed to hesitate, so he pulled her after him through the overgrown garden round to the back of the house. The backdoor was old, cracked, and all the paint had peeled off. Severus pushed hard with his shoulder against it, and it slowly grated open, gauging out a groove in the dirty floor, since it had come off the top hinge. They fell inside, breathless and wet.

A sudden lightning bolt illuminated the sky behind them, followed almost immediately by a crash of thunder that almost deafened them. It had only been a split second, but they had seen the bright snaking finger of the lightning hit the mill chimney.

'Wow! I'm glad we left the trees.' said Lily 'what is this place?'

She was squinting, trying to see in the dark room. She wrinkled her nose – it certainly smelled very musty, and she was treading on what felt like broken pottery, but she couldn't see anything.

Severus seemed quite at home, however. She could hear him scrabbling at something at the far end of the room. There was a scratching sound, and Lily saw that he had struck a match and lighted a small candle.

'I've sheltered here before.' he said in explanation.

In the flickering candlelight Lily saw that they were in a small kitchen. Some cupboards lined the wall on one side, with a small, blackened space in the corner where the stove must have once stood. There was a small wooden table and chairs in the middle of the room, and a thick layer of dust and debris over everything.

Severus gave her the candle while he pushed the door half-shut.

'We should wait till it clears a bit' he said 'I'm sorry Lily, I shouldn't have asked you to come in this weather. Your parents will be worried...'

'It's only a bit of rain, Severus. They'll know I'd 've stopped for shelter. Though, I don't think they'll imagine somewhere like this. How did you find this place?'

'Most of the houses closest to the river are not lived in. This one has been abandoned for a long time. I needed shelter and the door was open...' he shrugged 'It's not much but at least it's dry.'

'Yes, but you still look like a drowned rat, Severus - I wish they had left the stove, we could have kindled a fire there –'

'I'm not too bothered, Lily, I'm used to it. And it's not winter yet, anyway. You look a bit damp, though. Here, wait –'

He went to the cupboards and rummaged around for a minute, then came back holding a large, dusty glass jar. He wiped it on his sleeve, dug into his pockets for something, which he then threw into the jar, and placed it on the table. Lily followed, holding the candle, her curiosity aroused. He leaned slightly over the jar, held both hands around it and started to murmur an incantation.

Lily watched in amazement as the jar glowed bluish-white. However, the glow faded and died out. Severus, frowning, leaned a bit closer and repeated the incantation. This time the glowing light came back brighter, almost blinding, until suddenly, a blue flame appeared in the jar.

Severus straightened up, evidently pleased with the result.

'There.' he said 'This'll keep you warm.'

He took the jar from the table and offered it to Lily.

Lily realised her mouth was still open. She shut it quickly and gulped. 'Severus, that was really amazing! How did you do it?'

Severus felt his face flushing with pleasure. He was glad that there was only the dim bluish light of the jar, but he couldn't help smiling as he handed her the jar.

'I've been practicing' he said 'It's a pretty useful fire – hot enough to warm and dry you, but not to burn you. It's not easy to produce without a wand, but I got some floo powder from home - I've found that helps.'

Lily was hardly hearing him; she was still turning the jar in her hands, wonderingly.

'You are so good, Severus.' she said finally, looking at him over the top of the jar. 'But won't you get into trouble for this? This looks like advanced magic!'

Severus grinned 'Not that advanced. Simpler, with a wand. But I decided to make the most of the few months left'.

'Few months?'

'Yes. Remember what I told you? Once we're eleven or, at least, once I get a wand, I could be punished for something like this. So I'm going to make the most of it, while I can.'

'Here, Severus, you need this more than me. You need to get dry.'

Severus, whose hair was still hanging in wet rat's tails around his face, protested, but Lily insisted, and finally they compromised by sitting on the small table and placing the fire jar between them.

'I was studying poisons these last weeks.' he said after a while.

'Poisons?! What on earth for?'

'Well, we will be doing them in Hogwarts', though I think not in the first years. Not poisons, actually but, antidotes to-' he stopped. He did not want to tell her that he was studying poisons from his book of the Dark Arts, and there were no mention of antidotes there.

'Look, I've managed to find some seeds from the Conium plant or Hemlock – highly toxic even without magic. With magic, a colourless, tasteless poison can be made that would make drinker ....Well, never mind. But you should know how to recognise it and I've just found out how–'

'How?'

'Like this-' He put one of the small, dark yellow seeds on a broken bit of crockery and placed it over the blue flame. Suddenly, it glowed green.

'Anything that has poison magically made from these seeds, will always glow green' he said with an air of having discovered something new.

'Well, I hope I will never have to test my drink this way!' laughed Lily

They played a while longer with the blue flame, turning it green with the aid of the poisonous seeds. When the storm blew over, Lily got up reluctantly to go, promising to keep in touch.

Severus watched her go, like a bright, spring butterfly among the dreary grey of the brick houses, until she was out of sight. Then he turned back and went inside. From the pocket of his overlarge coat he drew out some dried leaves and a phial of clear liquid. He picked up what was left of the conium seeds and started to grind them in a chipped old mortar. He would finish the first phase of the poison as described in his book of Dark Arts today.

The weeks rolled by until winter had well and truly set in. The mailbox in Spencer Street was kept busy. There was always a little note every weekend for Severus and he always left one in return. Sometimes, Lily only wrote to say that she couldn't manage to come. Other times, when she could, she wrote to tell him to meet her in the usual place – this was becoming, more often, the abandoned house by the river, because of the bad weather. Even when she did come however, her time was severely curtailed for she had a lot of schoolwork now and most of the weekend was devoted to finishing it.

She rebelled against this sometimes, because she couldn't see the point in beginning algebra and French dictation when she knew she would not be needing them.

The temporary respite she expected during the Christmas holidays also did not materialize, since her father announced that he would be taking them to his brother's for the holidays. Lily knew she should have expected this, because there had been several occasions when they had spent Christmas with Grandparents or other relatives, but after her experience with her cousins last summer, she wasn't so keen on spending so many days in their company. With a heavy heart she sat down to write a note to Severus. She wondered how he would spend his Christmas. From what he had let slip about his family, he didn't seem to have anything to look forward to either.

Next Saturday, when Severus put his hand in the letterbox, he was surprised to find a small, brown paper package inside, as well as the usual yellow flyer. He looked at it closely, but there was no name on the package. He glanced around him, but in the gloom of the early evenings, he was hidden from view (The street lamp closest to the house was broken). He hurried off to another nearby streetlight, where there was better light and glanced at the flyer. Lily's words were brief:-

Dear Severus,

I'm afraid that I won't be seeing you much these holidays. Yesterday Dad said we'll be spending the next ten days with my cousins in Norfolk. I know you are as disappointed as I am, so I'm leaving you something to cheer you up. Happy Christmas!

Lily

PS: My ink is getting low. Have to write shorter notes.

He tore open the package. It contained a tin of Cadbury chocolates. Severus did not remember ever receiving a Christmas gift before – it made him feel strange – elated, yet almost unbelieving. He hid both tin and paper in his pocket and hurried home.

Back in his room, he prised off the loose floorboard and carefully placed his tin of chocolate alongside his hidden book. Then he leaned back observing it. He did not want to open his tin of chocolates – he wanted to keep it as a reminder (or as proof?) that Lily had given him a Christmas gift. He knew he was being foolish of course – leaving it there would probably only attract the mice. He sighed and pulled it out again, then unfolded Lily's note. She was right of course – he had been looking forward to her holidays. He reminded himself that she had written she was disappointed too. That, and the tin of chocolates helped lift up his mood. He opened the tin and took out a colourfully-wrapped sweet ...