Although Rose and Savin were born within a month of each other and would eventually end up on the same train to Hogwarts 11 years later, the time in between those events went very differently for the two children. While she grew up as the beloved daughter of a tiny, close-knit family, barely spending a moment apart from one parent or the other for the first 3 years of her life, he barely saw his parents during that same period. Savin grew up as the heir to a pureblood house, raised primarily by nannies, governesses, and house elves. As a very small child, while Rose was spending her days beside her mother's desk at the public library, Savin spent his time in the nursery of Silther Manor. When he was a baby, his mother visited him in the nursery almost every day, though she didn't stay there long, and his father only saw him on special occasions. As Savin grew older, and therefore more interesting and better behaved, his parents spent more time with him, though still in much more formal settings. His upbringing was intended to make him an asset to House Silther, and a worthy heir to his father. Rather than attending school, he had expensive tutors at the manor, teaching everything from reading and writing to magical history and etiquette.

For Savin, magic was a fact of life. He grew up with house elves cooking his food and doing his laundry, writing with a quill pen and visiting the family owls in their tower. For his fourth birthday, while Rose was still grieving the loss of her mother, Savin was given his first broomstick, one which rose only a few feet off the ground. He flew it around Lady Linette's sprawling gardens, amusing the adults who were gathered for a garden party in his honor. He nearly crashed into an elaborate fountain in the center of the lawn, and did land in one of his mother's prize rose bushes. Savin couldn't recall a time when he hadn't known he was magical. His parents claimed that he had summoned a favorite stuffed animal that had fallen out of his crib when he was only two years old, and while he was not entirely sure he believed that, he certainly had been performing small accidental magics from a very young age. Whether it was the inkwell exploding all over his history tutor when the man wouldn't shut up about goblin rebellions for the 3rd hour straight, or the valuable antique vase which repaired itself in front of a panicked Savin who had just knocked it off its pedestal while running through an area of the manor that he was not supposed to enter, magic was all around him.

As Savin grew older his father and tutors began to teach him more about politics in the wizarding world, which families were aligned with each other, and what their different ideologies were. He learned to identify the major players, the ones who came to his family's dinner parties and the ones who they refused to associate with. On one notable occasion, after a dinner party where talk had strayed into blood politics, Lord Ancelin attempted to explain to his son the Silther family's position on the matter. Savin summarized the conversation in his journal as "Father believes non-purebloods are bad, but doesn't want to say it too loudly in case anyone thinks he truly supports the Death Eaters." Not long after that conversation, Savin was sent to his room without supper for asking his father too many times why exactly non-purebloods were bad, and if they were bad then why not declare support for the Death Eaters, since that was what they thought too.

Over time, as Savin began to understand the situation better, he also learned to keep his mouth shut about his own opinions. He learned quickly that his parents didn't want to hear him say that muggles didn't seem so bad, or that muggleborns didn't really seem any different than other wizards. So Savin kept his thoughts to himself and dutifully parroted back the doctrines that his father and tutors taught him. He flew broomsticks and played in the garden with the sons of his father's allies, boys picked out to be good companions for the Silther heir. He tried his best to avoid having to spend time with the daughters of his mother's tea group or book club, knowing that if he spent too much time with any of the little girls their mothers would get it into their heads to start musing about possible marriage prospects. Savin even behaved himself when required to attend the society wedding of the decade, that of young Lord Lucius Malfoy and Narcissa Black, and a couple years later attended the ball celebrating the birth of the new Malfoy heir, Draco.

Less than a year and a half after young Savin attended that birthday ball for Draco Malfoy, an event occurred which would impact everyone in the wizarding world, especially those in the Silthers' circles. On October 31, 1981, the Dark Lord Voldemort was defeated. Savin was nine and a half years old, but he remembered the aftermath of that night for the rest of his life. The Silthers under Lord Ancelin had always kept themselves hovering just at the edge of the Death Eater circle. Ancelin himself never joined the Death Eaters, never met with Voldemort, and made sure no other members of his family had either. However, he had never made much of an attempt to hide his pureblooded ideologies, and had given support to political agendas which themselves had Death Eater backing. Most of the family's social contacts were in similar positions or worse. Some were actively accused, arrested, tried, imprisoned for crimes of being Death Eaters. Others managed to get themselves out of trouble by trying to pretend they hadn't been as deeply involved as they had been, or had done so under coercion.

The Silthers got through the interrogation, and Ancelin was never tried with anything. The Ministry might not have been positive that he hadn't been involved in anything, but they had little enough reason to think he was a Death Eater, and plenty of reason to assume he would have covered his tracks well enough to avoid any incriminating evidence, so they simply decided to accept what Lord Ancelin claimed and leave his family alone. Savin privately suspected that his father's large donations to various political campaigns and charities may have had something to do with it too, but knew by then that this was a good time to keep his mouth shut and avoid trouble. He may not have agreed with all of his father's ideals, but he knew that Lord Ancelin had not actually been a Death Eater or actively supported them enough to merit punishment for it. And, at least as importantly, Savin did love his parents, and had no intention of doing anything that could cause them as much harm as testifying against them in some way would have.

Some might have looked at Savin's childhood with horror, thinking it a stifling, lonely environment. He had no real friends, only acquaintances, and those chosen carefully by his parents. He spent his days with tutors and nannies, rather than with his own parents. He was forced to dress up and parade around for social events where any little boy should have been bored to tears. But while all of these individual things were true, Savin generally was happy with his life. Of course, others might say, how could he not be happy? His family was rich, he lived in a mansion, had servants to see to his every whim. His parents didn't even ignore him, constantly giving him presents, bringing him to events, even occasionally sitting down to have a conversation. And those things were true as well, though they did not stave off the loneliness caused by a lack of true friends, or an openly loving relationship with the Lord and Lady Silther.

Savin's 11th birthday, coming a few weeks before Rose's, was significantly less surprising than hers. While Rose had no idea that she was a witch, and had no particular reason to think that anything momentous was going to occur, Savin had been aware for years. He had always known that he was a wizard, always known that he would attend Hogwarts when he was older, always known that his official letter would arrive on his eleventh birthday. One might think that this should have made it a less exciting occasion – after all, he already knew exactly when he was scheduled to receive the letter and what it would say. Sure, he didn't know the exact phraseology of the letter, might not know exactly what would be on the supply list, but he had a pretty good idea. On the other hand, though, this would still be a special moment, the official acknowledgment that he would be going to Hogwarts in the fall, and Savin was understandably excited. The fact that he knew his parents were planning a large birthday bash for him the same day, and the hints they'd been dropping about getting him his own owl, certainly didn't do anything to help make him less exciting in the days leading up to his birthday.

When the day finally arrived, Savin was awake before the morning owl post even arrived. His parents exchanged knowing looks when he came down to the breakfast room that day; Savin usually ate breakfast in his room, but all of the morning mail was delivered directly to the breakfast room, and he didn't want to risk missing the arrival of his Hogwarts letter. Finally, after what felt to Savin like an eternity of making small talk and eating toast, the mail arrived. Lord Ancelin sorted the mail: a few cards for Lady Linette, some letters for himself, and a single thick envelope sealed in red and addressed in green to "Mr. Savin Silther." The usually poised boy was surprisingly quick to grab the letter and carefully tear it open. He read through the whole thing once, twice, grinning from ear to ear. It was really happening. He was going to Hogwarts! It wasn't until Savin was holding the precious letter in his hands, reading his name on the envelope, that he realized just how worried he had been that somehow there would be a mistake, and he wouldn't be invited to attend. With the assurance of the letter's arrival, he knew that was a foolish fear, yet he couldn't deny that internally he was very relieved. The rest of the day was taken up with birthday celebrations, combined with congratulations for his acceptance to Hogwarts, as well as making plans for when he could go to Diagon Alley to buy his school things. That night Savin went to sleep still smiling, his Hogwarts letter sitting on his bedside table. He was almost there. Just a few more months, and he would be away from his increasingly overbearing parents, making his own way at Hogwarts.