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PATH to DARKNESS by Tyde
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Author's note: Thanks for the review K-da-great. It's hard to know when to time these things so people are on-line to read them. Then of course there is the possibility that they may find the description boring and not click on it anyway. Thanks for clicking, reading and reviewing – I appreciate it!
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Chapter Three – Beginnings
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'All systems are go!' Severus shouted downstairs to his parents. D-day (as he liked to call it) had arrived and he literally bounced out of bed to triple check that his trunks were all packed. 'Mum, Dad, let's go now!' he yelled as his pounded down the stairs to where his parents were enjoining some tea in the kitchen. He thought he was about to burst with excitement. Hogwarts held so many opportunities that he couldn't fathom.
'But Sevi dear the train doesn't go until 12.30 – we'd be waiting around for 5 and a half hours! Besides, you're still wearing your pyjamas'
'Please Mum!' he whined while pulling off his pyjamas and tossing on some Muggle clothing from the washing basket in the hall.
Jyliana Snape smiled at her son. She'd never seen him so excited about anything in his life. If he was anything like her he'd be impressing the potions master with his already inherent skill. He took to potion making like a giant squid to water when she first started teaching him on his second birthday. Severus was a sharp little boy and he picked up many of the standard potions quite well. By the time he was ready for school he already had a great deal of medicinal potions under his belt and a few to ward off evil spirits (just a touch of Propulsare potion behind your ears kept away most evil ghosts and poltergeists). He'd been an avid student and Jyliana had been quite happy to teach him. Who knows, maybe one day he could be a potions teacher at Hogwarts or work in the Medicamentum Lab in London that did potion work for the Ministry of Magic. As his mother mused about his future young Severus dragged one of his trunks out into the driveway so he could start loading it into the back of a 1962 Morris Minor his dad had borrowed from the neighbour next door. Paxen Snape had obtained special permission from the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts division to enlarge the boot of the car so they would be able to fit everything in. As Paxen tended to be a little forgetful it was up to Jyliana to remember to fix the boot back to it's original size so poor old Mr Dotterington didn't have a heartattack when he opened the boot to discover it was now the size of a small lounge room.
Severus looked around at the other houses in Coluper Crescent, the little street he'd grown up in. Old Mr Dotterington had left his gardening tools in the front yard again, Mrs Parkinson from across the road was kissing her husband good bye as he left for work and she waved as Severus. He waved back and noticed an owl perched on her roof. Was she a witch? Or maybe the owl was resting after flying a long way to deliver a message to somebody. As he looked more intensely as he realised that the owl wasn't moving he discovered it was just a bronze statue of an owl sitting next to the rooster on the weather vane. He looked up and down both sides of the street in the hope that someone else was packing fervently for Hogwarts but all he saw around him was Muggles. He knew for a fact that in the next street – Acredula Circuit – there was an old wizarding couple that worked for the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts division but their children were long grown up and Severus had never found another fellow young wizard to be friends with. Not only was he excited about going to Hogwarts for the new lessons he would learn in magic but he was also anxious to make true wizard friends that he could play with in summer and send owls too when he was bored.
As Severus had been told countless times by his grandfather Crispin, Paxen's mother had been a Muggle and didn't even know Paxen's father was a wizard until the boy was born and odd things started to happen. Paxen liked to stay close to his parents so that is why Severus grew up in such a Muggle intensive environment. It was good for the young boy as it helped him to grow up well rounded and tolerant of other peoples and cultures. It also left him a little naïve in how the world operated and he assumed that if he told people he was a wizard they would accept him just as people were accepted when they told others about their differing religions and beliefs. When he started going to Muggle school he was pulled out of the middle of class by his father who was steaming at the ears. He told him in no uncertain terms was he to freely announce to his classmates that his father and mother were magical people. 'Muggles don't understand' he had said. 'Their brains function differently from ours and telling them something like this will spread rumours and cause the Muggles to jump to conclusions.' Severus just nodded his head numbly and promised never to bring it up again. He'd never seen his father so angry. Unfortunately for him the damage was done and Severus became the butt of everyone's jokes and whispers of 'freak' were heard frequently as he passed the other students in the hall.
Jyliana joined her son in the front yard and helped him shove the trunk into the boot. 'Sevi why don't you go in and have some breakfast. I cooked you some moon cakes with red bean paste this morning'. She didn't have to tell him twice and he almost tripped over his own feet in his haste to get into the kitchen.
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'All aboard! Hogwarts Express to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and Hogsmeade due to leave'. The black haired young boy stuck his head out of the window of his compartment to wave goodbye to his mother and father.
'Bye Mum! Tootles Dad! Remember I tested Bekla with 5 pounds of sweets so feel free to send her along in a week or so.' He noticed his mum had a little tear in the corner of her eye and he realised that as her only child she'd be very lonely without him around. 'Don't worry Mum – I'll be home at Christmas and you can organise to meet me in the fireplace whenever you want – after I tell you what house I'm in of course!' He noticed his dad was wearing his Hufflepuff tie and he grinned. 'I'm gonna be a Gryffindor Dad, just like Grandpa, I know I can be. I'm heaps braver than I was last summer, truly I am!' The train jerked then and he watched out the window as his parents became smaller and smaller and were finally whisked from view as they whizzed around a corner. He munched on a few Botts beans (watermelon, grass and pickle) and watched London whiz by. A few girls had joined his carriage but apart from the usual 'hellos' nobody had really said anything. One girl was quietly reading a book called 'Firebolt the Fearless Dragon' and the other two were swapping wizard cards from their chocolate frog packets.
An old wizard came along the passageway with a trolley full of goods but everyone seemed stocked up so he just kept walking. Appearing from behind him was a boy of 11 with bright blue eyes and a nervous twitch on the tip of his nose. He walked rather cautiously into their compartment and walked straight up to Severus.
'Hello there. M-m-my name is Slatero. Slatero Quirrell'
'Hello Slatero, I'm Severus Snape.' He offered his hand and Slatero grabbed it gratefully. He kept looking behind him to the door of the compartment as if frightened that a dragon or something would come bursting through it.
'May I sit?'
'Please do.'
'You must excuse my nervousness, but a couple of compartments down they appear to be attempting spells and they just set fire to someone's hair.' He flattened his hair as he said this and Severus noticed it was a kind of dull blonde but loads of springy curls. 'I couldn't imagine having to wear a hat all the time until it grew back. It would look rather queer* don't you think?'
'What about a wizard's hat? That wouldn't look queer*. Wizard's wear them all the time.'
'Could you imagine trying to get a hat on over all these curls? It would be ridiculous!'
'But if they set fire to your hair you wouldn't have any curls to interfere with the hat would you?' Sevi was quite enjoying this conversation, after all they were talking spells and wizard hats – already a notch up from any conversation he'd had in primary school.
'Good point.' Slatero tried to smooth down his hair again as if afraid they'd somehow set it on fire without him noticing.
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'Come along now. All first years this way. Hurry up now' A very tall, thick set man with an enormous bushy black beard was swinging a lantern by the windows of the compartments making sure that all first years had stumbled towards him. Severus looked up at the groundskeeper and smiled. His mother had told him about the groundskeeper that had been at Hogwarts when she was there and he knew this one would also be taking them across the big lake in little boats towards the castle. He looked rather young to be a groundskeeper, though Severus was sure he wasn't more than 20 or so, but he made up for his age by his immense size.
Severus and Slatero grabbed a boat and the girl that had been reading the book in their carriage also took a seat in their little boat but said nothing. They were beginning to think she'd lost her tongue or something.
The little boats took off across the lake and Severus didn't think he'd ever felt something so exciting. He could see Hogwarts looming up before them and it truly took his breath away. The turrets seemed to reach so high into the clouds that they never stopped. He could see the edge of what must surely be the Forbidden Forest and a flag waving in the distance that was perched atop a quidditch stadium. His heart thumped with delight and he could see that his new friend Slatero was equally enthralled. The girl never seemed to take her nose out of the book though but that didn't matter. He was in an enchanted boat with a fellow witch and wizard heading towards a school of witchcraft and wizardry. Finally after so many years of tears and frustration he would be attending a school where he belonged. Where, although they each had their individual personalities, they were the same, the same because of the blood of magical folk that flowed through their veins.
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Author's note: *Queer meant unusual before it meant anything else, okay? Oh and before you start thinking it, the girl in the boat isn't like Hermione – you don't even get to find out her name, I just wanted three people in the boat :o) I seem to be updating every day this week, it probably won't continue as such though :o(