Thank you for all your reviews, I love hearing what you guys say.

All the speech and events of this chapter comes from Snape's memories in the Deathly Hallows, but I thought it was necessary for the timeline to include it, so it's the same as in the book, just from Severus' perspective.

Disclaimer: I am not JK Rowling (in case that wasn't obvious) and I don't own the characters.

~The Lonely Geek

Chapter 10

3 months later

I smile as we sit facing each other, cross legged on the grass. "...and the Ministry can punish you if you do magic outside school, you get letters." I remind her. Her face turns pale in panic for a moment.

"But I have done magic outside of school!" She says, her voice sounding scared.

"We're all right." I reassure her. She doesn't need to worry, we can't control our magic yet. "We haven't got our wands yet. They let you off when you're a kid and you can't help it." I explain before adding. "But once you're eleven, and they start training you, then you've got to go careful." I nod. There's a pause in the conversation and Lily picks up a fallen twig an twirls it in the air. I smile. She's clearly imagining it as her wand. Real wands have a magical core though. Then she drops is and leans in, looking slightly anxious.

"It is real, isn't it? It's not a joke." She sounds almost cynical, like she doesn't really believe. "Petunia says you're lying to me." Of course. She should know better than to listen to her, she is only a muggle after all. "Petunia says there isn't a Hogwarts. It is real, isn't it?"

"It's real for us." We'll go to Hogwarts together, in a year and a half from now. In less than a year, Lily's family will know about magic and then maybe Petunia will stop being so horrible to her. I hate Petunia, but I try not to be too rude about her when Lily's around because I know that she misses her friendship. I personally think that if Petunia lets something as stupid as jealousy get in the way of their friendship, then Lily's better off without her, but that Lily's decision to make, not mine. "Not for her. But we'll get the letter, you and me."

"Really?" Lily breathes with excitement. I don't know why she's so distrusting of me. I showed her that magic is real so why would I lie to her about Hogwarts.

"Definitely." I smile at her. I can't wait until we go to Hogwarts together. These last few months we've grown so close together.

"And will it really come by owl?" She asks quietly, still sounding in disbelief. Despite all our conversations about magic, she still sounds amazed by it all.

"Normally," I tell her. "But you're muggle born." I begin to explain, probably for the hundredth time. "So someone will come to your house and explain to your parents."

"Does it make a difference, being muggle born?" She asks. I hesitate. Some of the kids there may be prejudiced against her because she's muggle born. There have started to be a few disappearances of muggles recently. They say that there's a powerful wizard behind it. My mum told me about it, but she wouldn't say anything else. It's probably nothing to worry about, but if he has supporters then their kids will probably hold the same beliefs. She also can't be in Slytherin because she's muggle born, but she's not cunning anyway. Even if she weren't muggle born then I could never see her in Slytherin.

"No, it doesn't make any difference." What harm can a small white lie do? It'd only make her worry more, and the odds are, she won't even be affected by those people anyway. If they do try to bully her, I think I've studied the theory of enough spells to be able to get them to back off anyway.

"Good." She says, relaxing slightly. It's a good thing I didn't quite tell her the truth. She had been worrying about it anyway. Now she won't be as anxious about going to Hogwarts.

"You've got loads of magic." I add. "I saw that, all the time I was watching you..." I trail off as I see her attention turn elsewhere. She stretches out on the ground so that she is lying on her back and staring up at the leafy canopy overhead. I smile slightly. She seems so content.

"How are things at home?" She asks me. My smile vanishes from my face. We've not talked that much about my parents in the last few months, but she keeps asking and I keep trying to change the subject. I don't want to talk about them. Lily is the one person I can truly be me with and I don't want her tainting memories of our time together with talking of home.

"Fine." I say quickly, hoping that she doesn't intrude further.

"They're not arguing any more?" She doesn't look across at me when she asks this. I decide to trust her a bit more.

"Oh yes, they're arguing." I tell her whilst absent mindedly picking up some leaves off the ground near me and start tearing them apart, as if taking my anger for my parents out on the leaves.

"Doesn't your dad like magic?" Would any muggle if they knew? They just get jealous of us, my dad, Petunia.

"He doesn't like anything much." I reply dully.

"Severus?" Lily asks. A smile crease of a smile comes across my face. Lily sounds exactly like a 5 year old when they're asking a parent for something.

"Yeah?"

"Tell me about the dementors again." Why does she want to know about the dementors? Again. She always seems to want to know more about them. I don't know why, they're one of the vilest creatures in the world. And it's not like Lily will ever go to Azkaban.

"What d'you want to know about them for?"

"If I ever use magic outside of school-" But I cut her off here.

"They wouldn't give you to the dementors for that!" I nearly laugh at the thought of it. Did she really think that wizarding law was that harsh? "Dementors are for people who do really bad stuff. They guard the wizard prison Azkaban. You're not going to end up in Azkaban, you're too-" I am about to end the sentence with good, when Petunia stumbles out from behind a tree. Was she listening to our whole conversation?

"Tuney!" Lily sounds surprised, but there's a welcoming tone in her voice. I jump up to my feet angrily. How dare she accuse me of spying on her when I first told Lily that she was a witch when she's now spying on us now?

"Who's spying now?" I shout, annoyed that my time with Lily has ended so abruptly. I wonder how many of these conversations she's listened in on. She pauses for a moment, as if stunned that we saw her.

"What is that you're wearing anyway?" She sneers at me, pointing towards my chest. I ignore her. It's not my fault my dad doesn't earn much money so most of the clothes I get are second hand. "Your mum's blouse?" She says with a mirthless laugh.

Crack! A large branch suddenly falls from the tree above Petunia and she stumbles back from the impact and tears fall down her face. It was definitely accidental magic and I think it was me. I thought I had got my magic under control. The last time I did accidental magic must be over 6 months ago when I crumbled that wall when I was getting beaten up.

"Tuney!" Lily calls, but it's too late and Petunia has already turned and run off. In seconds she's out of sight. "Did you make that happen?" She turns on me, her green eyes blazing angrily.

"No." I lie, I can pretend it was just pure coincidence. Lily would never forgive me if she thinks that I did it on purpose. I didn't, but she may think that. I need to calm Lily down. She has lots of magic and if she gets any more upset then she might end up attacking me. I didn't mean to hurt Petunia, I was just so angry. I was lucky not to have seriously hurt her.

"You did! You did! Your hurt her!" She says, sounding more and more upset as she steps back away from me.

"No-no I didn't." I protest, but Lily isn't convinced and all I can do is stand and watch as she races off into the thicket where Petunia ran off.