A/N: New story! Er, yay? I know I've been fairly dormant, but I'm back! Hopefully, my writing skills have improved. I've been practicing with original fiction.

Anyway, this story basically follows Severus Snape through his childhood in Hogwarts up to adulthood. I'm sure there will be slews of his life missing, but this isn't a biography, just a story.

WARNING: This story will be slash. Repeat. Slash. And maybe some angst. Yes, definitely angst.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Harry Potter. In fact, I haven't even read all the books... . I've read most, though, and quite a bit of fan fiction. ; Harry Potter, and any of the creations within, does not belong to me. I'll prolly forget to include the disclaimer in later chapters, so this will have to do for the whole story. So nyah. :P

Chapter 1

The Crossroad Decisions

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There's a light and a dark side,

Standing at the crossroads,

There we'll meet,

There's prophets and fools there,

The lies and the truth will be at our feet,

I got a reason to turn my head and look the other way,

It's heaven and hell here,

Which one will I live today?

--Social Distortion "Winners and Losers"

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"Remember what I've told you, Severus?"

"Yes, Father," he nodded, stringy black hair falling over fathomless dark eyes.

"Don't embarrass our name, Severus," his father's identical black eyes flashed threateningly. "Or you will regret it."

"Yes, Father," he responded, knowing that any other response could be an unintentional provocation.

"Go now, Severus."

With that, his father swung around and walked away. Severus didn't dare disobey his last order and watch, instead turning to stare around. People milled about everywhere, talking to friends they hadn't seen since school let out or bidding fond farewells to family. He got the sudden, undeniable feeling that he didn't belong at the station, in the crowd, anywhere near Hogwarts or anything to do with it.

Foolish, as he didn't belong anywhere, and here was undoubtedly better than there. Sighing, he hefted the large black trunk at his feet up and struggled towards the door of the train. His father hadn't bothered to make it any easier to carry his luggage, and Severus regretted that now. He was short and twiggy, and the trunk was almost as big as him. Both his mother and father were fairly tall people, and so he had hope that maybe, someday, he would at least gain in height.

Severus caught a familiar grey eye in the crowd, framed by almost-silver hair. Lucius Malfoy. He had forgotten that Lucius would be a Second Year Slytherin at Hogwarts. The Malfoys and Snapes were close family friends. Lucius, being a year older and talented in so many ways, was someone that Severus strove to be like. Sometimes, though, he couldn't push back a frightened, eerie feeling when he was around the older boy.

Severus shook those thoughts away as someone jostled him from behind. He turned round with a glare and came face to face with an entirely different pair of grey eyes, these framed by black. The boy was several inches taller than Severus and, despite also being skinny, was obviously stronger.

"Are you going to stand here all day?" the boy asked sharply.

Severus clenched his jaw and made his way up into the train. The slithering words to various curses and hexes flashed through his mind. Still, he held his tongue. It was not a bright idea to get in a fight the first day of school.

He made his way through the train, his trunk seeming to catch on every edge, every corner, slowing him down when all he wanted was to find a warm, safe compartment. Students grumbled about the sluggish pace, but he ignored them as best he could. Door after door swished by, each filled with cheery faces and laughing voices. Finally, at the very end of the train, after everyone had fallen out from the line of people searching for a seat, he found an empty compartment.

It wasn't very big, and the seats were worn and dirty, but it was more than enough for Severus. He shoved his trunk out of the way and sat down with a sigh. The shouts and laughter in the train were but a distant memory, dulled by location and a thick, scratched brown door. He let his eyes fall shut and slumped down.

His relaxation didn't last long. From just outside the compartment came a loud, familiar voice.

"I can't believe they kicked us out," the voice complained. "We were there first."

"They're girls," another voice joined in. "What did you expect?"

Severus stared resolutely at the seat in front of him as the door creaked open. He wouldn't give the person his eyes. In the corner of his vision he saw a head poke in, black hair and grey eyes. It drew right back out again. The door closed.

"What is it, Sirius?" the second voice asked.

"Nothing," Sirius, the jerk from the train entrance, said. "That compartment's full. Let's find another."

"It can't be full," the voice protested. "There's no other seats anywhere."

"James..."

The door creaked open again. In came black hair and brown eyes. Severus let his eyes wander a bit to his right to see the new boy better, but didn't let his head move. The new boy, James he had been called, grinned and entered, looking over his shoulder.

"Come on in, Sirius, Remus," he said, throwing a trunk in the middle of the floor and sitting. "There's only one person in here."

A meek-looking boy, most likely Remus, with sporadic brown hair and nervous brown eyes entered, followed by a reluctant Sirius. They piled their luggage with James' and settled down. Sirius fairly draped himself over his seat, looking like a sleek black cat. The train started smoothly forward.

The boy called James faced Severus curiously. "Are you a First Year, too?"

Severus nodded curtly. The boy had said 'too'. He assumed that meant they were First Years, as well. Hopefully they wouldn't end up in the same house. It wasn't likely they would, as they didn't seem Slytherin material. The idea that he himself might not be Slytherin was a chilling thought. It wasn't possible. If I he was anything but Slytherin, his father...

Severus shook the thoughts from his head. The boy had asked him a question, but he hadn't heard it. The other boy, the one he had met before, Sirius, was glaring at him.

"James asked you a question," Sirius snapped. "Answer it."

Indignation rose inside him, and he was helpless to stop the words that flew from his mouth.

"I don't have to listen to you."

"Fucking hell you don't!" Sirius jerked himself up from the seat, looking more like a savage dog than sleek cat. "Who do you think you are, acting like you're better than us?"

Severus narrowed his eyes. Before he could deign them with an answer, the angry boy was upon him, arms swinging. He was knocked down from his seat onto the floor. A sharp knuckle collided with his cheek. James' voice was egging Sirius on. Another voice, this one quieter, protested.

Severus managed to throw the boy off himself and yanked his wand from his robes. Sirius was advancing on him again, looking even angrier. He didn't seem to notice the wand in Severus' hand.

"I dare you to try that again," Sirius growled.

A few scurried words later and Sirius was pasted to the wall with spider webs. He grimaced and struggled to pull an arm out, but the thick, sticky white strands held strong. Tiny black spiders were beginning to erupt from silken pouches throughout the web. James was cursing and had pulled his own wand out.

"Take it off him!" he pointed his wand threateningly at Severus' chest. "Do it, or I'll... I'll turn you into a mouse and feed you to my owl!"

Severus flicked his wand in irritation, sending James face down on the floor. It was a neat little trick he had learned from a few of the older boys that came to visit the Snape home. It felt good to finally be on the other side of the hex.

The baby spiders were crowding onto Sirius' body, their tiny mandibles thirsting for a taste. Even more were stealing up the web to join their brothers and sisters. Sirius was straining against the web, panicked. Still, Severus wasn't worried. The spiders wouldn't do any damage, just prick at him, leaving only a strange tingling, no marks. He had had the curse done to him enough to know this.

Severus froze as he felt something sharp press into his back. Memories came rushing into his mind. Silver glinting in moonlight. Masks all around him. Slouching forms poking him, prodding him like some beast. The masks were closing in, closer and closer, hideous green, red, yellow faces. He couldn't breathe.

"Severus." A cold voice cut through the masks.

Severus was jerked from his memories with a shiver. Somehow, he had ended up on his knees, the train floor shaking beneath him. It suddenly felt like a very precariously balanced train, as if it might fall at any moment. He looked slowly up to meet sharp grey eyes framed by silvery hair.

"Lucius." Severus grimaced at the hoarse sound of his voice.

Out of the corner of his eye, Severus could see Remus standing half-behind him. His wand was held limply in hand. So that was the sharp thing poking his back. No doubt Remus had been about to demand he release James and Sirius.

"I think it unwise to be practicing such curses here, Severus," Nevertheless, Lucius' voice was faintly amused. "You'd have a hard time explaining the origin of them, I think. Surely you know that these aren't the most... Popular pranks?" A narrow of the eyes here. "I don't think your father would be pleased to hear from the Headmaster so soon.

"Of course, Lucius," Severus nodded once.

Lucius muttered a few words, waved his wand, and Sirius fell to the floor. The boy was rubbing frantically at his arms and neck where the spiders had been munching. No marks. A moment later and James was up off the floor, nose a rosy pink where it had been held tight to the floor. The glared at Severus but otherwise did nothing.

"Come along, Severus," Lucius said. "You'll sit with us today, as you assuredly will tomorrow and the rest of the year."

Severus followed obediently behind Lucius. When they had traveled a satisfactory distance away from the back of the train, Lucius stopped and turned to Severus. The older boy's eyes blazed like iron thrown into a fire. His mouth was set in a firm line.

"You will learn to exercise some restraint, Severus," he finally said. "The spiders are a Dark Curse. A weak, childish one, but Dark nonetheless. Hope that no one gets hold of what happened."

Severus nodded weakly, his tongue thick and heavy in his mouth. Lucius was so angry, and very frightening. He hated being on the wrong side of that anger, hated that the beautiful boy was scolding him. At that moment, he would have done anything to win the older boy back, away from the anger.

They set off down the train again. A few more doors and Lucius led Severus into a compartment where many Second Year Slytherins sat lounging around. They looked up as Severus and Lucius entered. Curiously, the looked to the silver-haired boy. The Malfoys were a very, very powerful family, and often even older Slytherins looked up to Lucius.

"Severus will be riding with us today. He's going to be in Slytherin this year."

Lucius jostled Severus into a seat between two boys then sat in a sit himself. Conversation immediately struck up, with Lucius in the center and Severus not in it at all. Very soon, he found his eyelids falling. His father had kept him up late last night, lecturing about behavior and the consequences to one's health and happiness if one shamed the family name. As a result, there hadn't been much sleep last night.

Slowly, the train rocking beneath his weary body, Severus fell asleep.

He woke to Lucius' cold voice calling him awake. The world was a mass of blurry shapes for the first few minutes. People shoved by him as he made his way slowly towards the exit of the bus. Dying light streamed in from open windows, painting the inside of the train a dull pink. Severus felt in a haze, wandering through a dream with bursts of nightmare-like qualities. Sharp edges and elbows, loud voices, harsh eyes.

It wasn't long before Severus was near the back of the line to get out. His feet seemed heavy, barely able to lift from the ground. His heart was beating an uneven swing, anxiety clenched close. His feet suddenly tripped up and his body went flying. He hit hard against a student in front of him. The girl caught herself, glared, and stormed away. Severus turned to see what had caught his foot.

"Severus, is it?" Sirius' grey eyes blazed. James and Remus stood behind the angry boy.

Severus was suddenly vividly aware that they were now alone. The train was deathly silent but for the breathing of the four boys. Lucius and his band of Second Years had all gone ahead. Voices loud and cheerful filtered in through the door down the way. Too far to run. Running was cowardly anyway, and he didn't dare soil the Snape family name.

"Yes, that's right," he heard himself answer coldly. A smirk clamored to his lips. "Where have your spider friends gone?"

"You little bastard," Sirius growled, starting forward. "You'll pay for that!"

Before Sirius could do anything, however, a teacher stepped onto the bus. He was tall with short, dark brown hair and gleaming yellow-green eyes. He frowned, looking between the four boys. Severus was sure they looked suspicious.

"I suggest you boys catch up with the others before you're left behind."

"Yes, sir." Sirius muttered.

Severus grasped the opportunity and left as quickly as he could. His long steps soon brought him even with the rest of the students, their chattering harsh to his ears.

Maybe he really would have been better off, safer, at home.

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A/N: Well, that's it for now. What do you think? Please review!