Chapter Ten-Hogwarts Lost

Disclaimer-These characters belong to JK Rowling, I'm just borrowing.

Severus met his dad at the pub after the party winded down. He could tell his father was totally pissed the second he walked in the door.

"So Severus is it now?"

"Um, yeah, well…I mean I wanted to use my wizarding name with them, that's all."

"Why would you use a wizarding name to introduce yourself to Muggles?"

Shit.

"Uh. Well her parents are Muggles, but Lily is actually a witch, a mudblood."

"Mudblood?"

"Yeah, a witch or wizard born into an all Muggle family, very rare."

"So you lied to me then? And apparently my name isn't good enough for ya either anymore."

Severus just looked down at the floor. He didn't want to get into a fight with his father at the pub, so he started to head home. Tobias was right behind him.

"You're still not going to tell mum?"

Tobias did not say a word. The two walked home in silence. When they arrived home it was dark, but from the top of the hill Severus could see the lights were out at the Snape house.

He went inside and straight upstairs. His father never mentioned it again and his mother never realized the two of them were even gone.

Severus felt bad that he did not get Lily a birthday present. True it appeared she did receive more than she knew what to do with but Petunia made him feel like crap for showing up to her party empty handed. He didn't want to ask for money because he knew his father would say no, so he thought about stealing some of the money he had for groceries. But then what would he get her? He'd never been to a shop other than the tiny one he got groceries at. What do you buy a ten year old witch who lives as a Muggle? Severus had no clue.

He sat on his bed and grabbed a piece of Muggle paper and a pencil. He usually drew when he was deep in thought or utterly bored and he never kept his drawings or showed them to anyone. They were not meant to be "art" they were just scribbles to help him pass the time. He sat and drew just what ever came to mind as he pondered over what to get Lily.

He drew a goat, a man with a bulging veiny eye, a house that looked haunted, a wolf, three sets of legs crunched beneath a very large and heavy tree branch, a pirate ship, a giant, a house-elf holding a tray with tea and biscuits, and lastly a unicorn. It was the last one that intrigued him. He thought he drew a very fine unicorn. He went and opened a magical creature's book and compared his drawing to the illustration in the book. His was better.

His had shadows, the fine outline of the beast's muscles, the shine of the full moon reflecting off its hoof and even ridges and imperfections in the horn.

Hmm, maybe Lily would like a picture of a unicorn? So he grabbed a large piece of parchment and drew in pencil. He was better able to use shadow effects in pencil than in ink. He took his time and concentrated. He did not reference the magical creature's book and he'd never seen an actual unicorn before. He just used his imagination and created a completely unique and stunning white unicorn. He liked the full moon effect and even drew a tiny werewolf in the background. The unicorn stood in a forest, its head lowered to drink from a running stream. There was a break in the trees to expose the full moon and the tiny werewolf set way back. He wondered if she'd even notice him. He added a couple of owls hiding in the trees and a pack of centaurs running deep in the forest, so deep and so well blended you could hardly notice them. They were not the focus of the picture after all, the unicorn was. He was pleased with his creation and decided to head over to her house tomorrow night after she got home from school to present it to her.

Severus showed up unannounced the next evening around five o'clock at the Evans house. He had no way to wrap the large piece of parchment so he rolled it in a loose tube and tied a piece of twine around it.

Mrs. Evans opened the door and welcomed him in. Even though his presence was not announced, she was happy to see him.

"Come in, come in…I'm so glad you stopped by, I wanted to give you something," she said closing the door behind him. "What's that?"

"It's a present, for Lily."

"Oh how sweet. Here let me take that for a moment, I wanted to give you this," she said taking the large rolled up parchment and placing it on the small table near the front door. She opened the coat closet door and removed a coat from a hanger. It was black and puffy, it was much smaller than the coat he had been wearing and looked very warm.

"Here dearie, happy birthday," she smiled and handed him the coat.

He didn't know what to do. He was stunned. He slowly reached for the coat and took it from her. He held it for a few moments and examined it.

"This is for me?"

"Yes, here take that old one off and try this one, I think it will fit you better."

He obliged. He removed his old coat which she took and put around a chair. He put on the new coat, which instantly fit him better and was much warmer than his old one.

"It's a little big dear, I guessed your size and I wanted to buy it a little large so you could grow into it."

Severus just smiled. He was embarrassed but happy at the same time. These Muggles are not such bad people it seems.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome honey…Lily, Severus is here!" she yelled looking up towards the stairs.

Within a few seconds Lily was running down the stairs to greet him, Petunia not far behind as usual.

"You like the coat?"

"Yes."

"I picked it out!"

"Really? Wow. Um, that is for you," he said pointing towards the parchment roll. Lily walked over and took the large tube of parchment. She untied the twine and unrolled the paper to expose his drawing. At first she looked shocked and surprised. She looked at him few times in disbelief.

"Where did you get this?"

"I drew it, my name is down there in the corner, see."

"Severus, you drew this?" her mother asked as Petunia leaned in to get a better look.

"Yeah, not a big deal really, I draw all sorts of things."

"What's that?" Petunia inquired, pointing towards a half-man, half-horse type beast running in the forest.

"It's a centaur. Muggles think they are made up but they are not, they exist. Do you see something else hiding?"

The three women stared deep into the picture to try to find what he was asking them to seek. Mrs. Evans looked deep in concentration, Lily looked around the drawing more with fascination and even Petunia looked hard, biting her bottom lip, trying to find this mystery creature that was hiding.

"There!" Lily exclaimed, pointing at the tiny werewolf off the left of the unicorn. "It's a…wolf?"

"Werewolf," Severus corrected. All three women gasped and stood in horror.

"What? Werewolves are real?" Mrs. Evans shrieked. Petunia covered her mouth as her eyes popped out of her head, and Lily gave him a deeply inquisitive look.

"Oh yes, very real and very nasty dark creatures. And if I ever meet one, I'm gonna kill it."

The three of them just stared at him for a moment. Mrs. Evans gave him a sympathetic smile, and then put her arm around Lily.

"Oh don't worry, there aren't any werewolves at Hogwarts or anything, they ain't allowed. That'd be stupid to let a werewolf go to school or teach there."

The three women exhaled quickly and loudly.

"What a relief!" Lily responded with a comforted smile on her then relaxed face. "This is a really great drawing, I had no idea you drew."

"Just something I do when I'm bored..."

Shit.

"…not that I was bored when I drew that, I drew that one for you."

Saved!

She patted him on the back and then looked closer to admire his new coat.

Petunia followed Severus and Lily into the living room while Mrs. Evans hurried off to the kitchen to finish preparing dinner. Severus sat on the orange sofa and watched Lily continue to admire his drawing.

"You keeping that coat on?" Petunia asked.

"Yes," he sneered back.

"Dearie, are you staying for dinner?"

"Umm…sure Mrs. Evans."

Petunia rolled her eyes and crossed her arms at Severus's answer. Severus continued to just stare at Lily. She looked fascinated at his drawing. He'd never done anything fascinating before. He liked how it felt to have someone admire something he'd created.

"Petunia, did you see the owls?" Lily asked never looking up.

"Sure," Petunia answered just glaring up at the ceiling, very unimpressed all of the sudden.

An hour later Mr. Evans returned home, he looked surprised and not overly thrilled to see Severus sitting on his couch. "Oh uh, Severus hello. New coat I see?"

"Yes, honey, belated birthday present," Mrs. Evans said trying to deflect any negative comment her husband might say. "Dinner is ready," she announced with a pleasant smile.

"What's for dinner?" Mr. Evans asked.

"Pork chop, scalloped potato and creamed spinach."

"Eww, gross," Petunia groaned, making the most wicked face she could muster. "Mummy you know I hate spinach."

"No one said you had to eat it," Mr. Evans roared in the direction of his daughter sitting opposite him.

"Extra potatoes for you dearie and do you like creamed spinach?" she asked leaning down to serve Severus before the others helped themselves.

"Dunno, I'll give it a try." At first he was scared; the cauliflower incident was still fresh in his mind. He stared at the thick and creamy green stuff that slopped down from in-between his fork prongs long and hard. He made a very honest and very visible face of utter disgust before closing his eyes and eating the vegetable. 'Hmm,' he thought to himself, 'creamy…bitter…not bad.'

When he opened his eyes, he noticed that all of their eyes were on him. He sat and stared back for a moment. All their faces read, well does he like it?

"Not bad."

"Good, eat up." Mrs. Evans said with a smile, serving herself a tiny pork chop. Severus must have liked the spinach more than he initially thought, since he ate all of his and went back for seconds. His table manners were still disgusting and offensive though, not that he noticed, or knew any better.

Ten minutes after pudding he allowed Mr. Evans to drive him home. He put his old oversized coat over his new one and entered his dark and lonely house.

A few days later Severus was alone in his room, drawing various things. He heard the door slam downstairs He came down to see what was going on. It was Tobias, he'd come home at a decent time.

Severus was surprised to see his mother was not only awake but cooking dinner. She was making stew when her husband surprised her.

"Oh, Tobias, you're home early tonight…uhh…dinner will be ready soon," she said with a tiny almost invisible smile. "Toby, set the table," she suddenly commanded in a much harsher tone.

"Get with the times Eileen, he's not Toby anymore, now he's Severus," Tobias said with heavy and very sarcastic emphasis on the name Severus. He glared at his son from his seat at the table. Severus did as he was told and got out the plates and silver ware. He beat Tobias's request for ale by getting it and removing the cap magically, and placing it before him within seconds of his sitting down.

"Oh is that a fact, we have a Severus in the house now?" Eileen stopped what she was doing long enough to glare at her son.

"Yes, that's what I was told, a wizarding name," Tobias said again with heavy sarcasm on the word wizarding.

Severus hated that his parents talked about him like he wasn't even there. He was thinking of about twenty different hexes he read about in one of the many dark texts that he would love to use on both of his parents at that very moment.

"So Severus is it?" his mother asked with as much sarcasm as she could muster. "Serve your father his stew."

He complied and scooped as much beef stew as possible into the very large bowl, then he served himself. He sat and just ate while his parents continued to talk as if he did not exist.

"So when did Tob…Severus tell you he'd changed his name?"

Tobias shoveled in a tremendous amount of stew into his mouth before answering with a fully loaded mouth. "A few days ago."

"Hmm," his mother said glaring at Severus. She looked at his bowl and noticed it contained nothing but potatoes and carrots.

"Your father works hard to provide us with beef and you are not eating it?"

"I haven't eaten meat in about four years…except for your fish cakes…not that you ever make them anymore," he replied, glaring back at his mother with a stare that rivaled even hers.

"If the boy doesn't like meat, he doesn't like meat okay?" Tobias said slamming his ale down.

Eileen suddenly put on her meek and shy face again. She stared down at her bowl which contained practically nothing to begin with. She'd gotten very skinny over the last few years and had practically no energy what so ever.

"So why Severus again?"

"I told you mum, it's a wizarding name, and I'm a wizard. When I start Hogwarts in couple of years I want to go by my wizarding name, not my Muggle one!"

"Hogwarts? That's what you think," Eileen said, looking down at her bowl.

"What do you mean?"

"Well who exactly is going to pay for you to go away to school? The tuition at Hogwarts is nearly half of what your father makes in an entire year, unless you plan on paying your own tuition, I see no way we can send you."

"That's bullshit!" he screamed. He got up and threw his bowl across the room.

Severus was shocked. All these years his mother had been talking about him going to Hogwarts just like she had and all the Filch's before her. Why all of the sudden is there no money to send him? Was there ever money to send him?

"What about Durmstrang then? Are they cheaper? I'd sort of prefer to go there anyway…"

"No! And no it's not any cheaper!"

"Maybe if you got a job woman, you could pay for the boys schoolin'!" Tobias interrupted. Eileen's mouth dropped at her husband's suggestion. Why should she pay for his education after he ruined her life? She taught him everything he needed to know to live in the wizarding world. He could get a Muggle job in town in a few years, save his money, purchase his own wand and then leave her alone and go on with his life.

"I can't, I have too much to do here, taking care of you and your house…and him."

"You don't do nothin' around here but sit on your ass all day, doing God knows what up there in your boilin' pot!"

Tobias yelled at Eileen. Eileen yelled back at Tobias. Severus just stood there in shock at this revelation. The two began to yell and scream more, and soon bowls of stew, bottles of ale, cutlery were all flying across the room. Severus just went upstairs and magically locked his door behind him. His eyes welled up and he began to cry, violently. He'd done nothing but prepare himself to attend Hogwarts, or Durmstrang and now it was all gone.

He grabbed a piece of parchment and a pencil and wrote a letter to his great uncle.

Dear Argus,


Mum just told me she can't afford to send me to Hogwarts. I've done so much studying and preparing for school. I've read most of the books you sent me a few years back. Do you have anymore you could send me? It seems I will have to educate myself here from home, using Mum's wand. Don't tell her I use her wand, she'd kill me.

Your Nephew, Severus (Tobias Snape)

He didn't know what to do with the letter though; the Snape's did not own an owl.

The next morning when he mother was asleep he took her wand and magically sealed the letter. He had invented his own seal. It was a black seal, his favorite color, with the inscription SS on it.

When his mother finally woke up and came down stairs, she was dressed and looked ready to head out. He asked her if she could mail his letter while she was shopping for supplies today. She obliged. He just hoped she would not open and read his letter.