The Summer Severus was ten, the fighting between his parents became so awful that he sneaked from the house as often as possible. With money from his father's wallet, he roamed the streets of London, window shopping, licking an ice cream, watching Muggle men and wondering if, like his father, they ever beat their wives.
Maybe it was a normal thing for Muggle men to do, and Severus continued on with the notion because it satisfied him to lay the blame else where -- in other words, to Severus, his father could not help abusing his mother because he was a Muggle. The simple prejudice satisfied the guilt he felt in hating his father and what's more, allowed him to claim that he understood all Muggles.
Severus was sitting on a bench in the park, throwing his red M&Ms to the squirrels and pondering his newfound prejudice, when he heard someone sobbing and looked up. He had become all to familiar with the sound, having heard his mother cry on several occasions, and knew that the sobbing belonged to that of a young girl.
After a moment's curious searching, he spotted her hiding between two trees in the park, her face buried in her hands. She had long red hair, which repulsed Severus on sight (for he hated the color red), and was sitting with her knees pulled to her chin. Curious but repulsed all the same, Severus crept up to her, still picking the red M&Ms from his ice cream.
"Why are you crying?" he asked the girl, his lip curling.
The girl looked up and paused mid-sob, her mouth open in her confusion. She composed herself rather like an adult, smoothing her hair, dusting her dress, and rose to her feet.
"I'm not crying," she said, though her red eyes and tear-stained cheeks couldn't have been more of a giveaway.
Severus licked his ice cream, his black eyes dancing over her curiously, "Where are your parents?"
"They're not here," said the girl. She lifted her chin and said with a proud spark in her eye, "I ran away." She sniffed. "Where are yours?"
Severus licked his ice cream a moment before he answered, "I ran away too. But I'll have to go back at sundown. My mum needs me."
"Oh? Why does she need you?" the girl asked curiously, almost forgetting her tears.
"Why is your hair red?" snapped Severus.
The girl's face flushed and she drew herself up, "I was made that way!"
"Well, so was my mum," answered Severus crossly.
"I'm sorry," said the girl humbly. "Is your mum sick?"
"My dad thinks so. She's a witch."
The girl's face brightened, "So am I! I -- I mean -- " her face darkened again and she sniffed, dragging her hand unattractively under her nose."That's why I was crying. I just found out I'm a witch and that I have to go far away because of it."
"They're locking you up?" asked the boy gleefully.
"No," answered the girl, glowering. "They're sending me to this new school where I'll be all alone and I won't know anyone!" and new tears streamed over her cheeks, unchecked. She flopped onto the grass and began to cry again.
Severus stood watching her uncertainly, his tongue paused in its ice cream-licking. He sneered, but was reminded suddenly of his mother's own sobbing and felt a reluctant surge of pity toward the girl. After another moment's staring, he sat beside her beneath the two trees, picked a red M&M from the grass, and offered it to her.
"What do I want that for?" laughed the girl through her sobbing, and she wiped the back of her eyes with one hand as Severus dropped the M&M in her other.
"It's red," he told her casually and licked his ice cream again. "Like your hair. I don't like red."
The girl laughed, "You're not very nice."
"So?" said Severus crossly, licking his ice cream.
"Want to hear a secret?"
"No."
The girl leaned close to his ear anyway and whispered, "I made an M&M fly up my sister's nose once. It was an accident, though."
Severus laughed and stared at the girl with new eyes.
"What's your name?" she asked.
"Severus."
"Don't you want to know mine?" she giggled.
"Not really."
"It's Lily Evans. My sister calls me Lilian all the time because she knews I hate it. That's why the M&M flew up her nose."
"Will one fly up mine if I call you Lilian?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because I like you," she answered in a low voice.
Severus was startled. He wasn't used to being liked. It gave him an odd sensation in his stomach; he felt as if he'd been walloped there.
"Why?" he demanded incredulously. "Why do you like me?"
"You didn't call me a liar when I said I was a witch, for one."
"Oh," said Severus, relieved. It was something that he could correct and then he could go back to the normal feeling of being loathed. "Oh, that. Well, I'm a wizard myself. That's why my dad hates me."
"I'm sorry," Lily said in a low voice.
"Had to be that way, right? He's a Muggle, isn't he?"
"What's that supposed to mean? My parents are Muggles!"
Severus and Lily stared at each other.
"Then your dad must knock your mum about."
"No, he doesn't," Lily said crossly. "They love each other very much and are kind to one another."
"Liar."
"Am not!"
"Do you still like me now?" Severus said in the hope that she didn't.
"Yes."
"Why? I hate Muggles!"
"Because you don't know any better. My dad says people only hate when they're ignorant, so you must be an ignorant." She smiled at him and held the red M&M up in the sunlight. "And you gave me a red M&M. . . . It was kind of . . . sweet."