The summer before he was to start his fourth year at Hogwarts, Severus did not see much of his friend Lily. Ever since the incident in the library, it seemed a steady rift had been growing between them. Afterwards, they had rarely met in the library anymore or on the bridge or even in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.
It seemed Severus's coldness had stung Lily badly, and she gave in to her popularity with a reckless abandon she'd never weilded before. Instead of turning down dates she began to accept them, and soon she was one of the girls who giggled constantly behind their hands as they gossiped about the cutest boys in the school (this, Severus felt, was going a little too far for Lily and he marveled at how far girls would go for revenge). She went to dances and joined clubs like a madwoman and had soon taken on so many friends that even the Slytherins admired her both in talent and in personality. And sometimes, she was even nice to 'That Potter.'
Yet Severus's resent did not stop him from often dreaming of Lily as he strolled the dark streets of Spinner's End alone. A part of him hated her for being the one to forget the summers they'd spent together running amuck in London. But the tiny reasonable part of him liked her all the same -- for he'd been the one who'd driven her away, afterall.
And worst of all was this: Severus could not understand why he'd done it. For he missed Lily terribly once their friendship hit the rocks. He began to realize that the absence of their daily meetings left a gaping hole in his life, and to fill it he only delved more deeply into the Dark Arts, taking comfort in their gruesome spells.
When Severus reached his home that night, it was to find the same shouting going on behind the door. He paused on the front steps, listening darkly, his hand gripped tightly on his wand in his fury. His parents were fighting again.
"Gone! Do you understand! I want that kid gone! If he flashes that wand at me one more time -- " It was Tobias's voice and he was screaming about Severus again.
"What do you want me to do?" Eileen screamed back. "Throw him out into the cold? Make him live on the streets!"
"I will if you won't!" Tobias yelled.
There was a crash and Eileen screamed.
His fury mounting, Severus burst through the door. His father froze in the act of striking his mother, who he was holding up by the shoulder. Eileen was slouched on the floor against the sofa, blood dribbling from her temple.
"Well, look who it is," Tobias said, sounding irresistably like Potter and Black as he shoved Eileen away. "Come to teach me a lesson?"
Severus said nothing. His eyes darted worriedly to his mother, who was crawling toward a bendy willow stick lying on the carpet.
Tobias whirled on her in a flash and dragged her back by the hair.
"What did I tell you about that thing, woman!" he growled, shaking his wife. He raised his hand to strike her again and froze, his eyes on Severus.
Severus was standing with his wand aimed at Tobias's face, his own face etched in lines of fury. "Take your hands off my mother," he said in a low voice.
Tobias stared at him a moment, then it seemed his pupils shrunk and he burst into laughter.
"Or what? What will you do, boy? Turn me into a tea cup? Make tentacles sprout out of my face?"
"No," answered Severus, "such things are beneath you. But killing you seems about right."
Tobias laughed again, threw Eileen into the wall, stalked over to Severus, and towered over him. "Go ahead," he whispered down into Severus's glowering face, "Let's see you try."
Severus raised his wand, but in the next moment a blinding flash of green light illuminated Tobias from behind and his expression went blank as he fell onto his face. Severus looked down, his chest heaving. Tobias was dead.
"I should have done that years ago."
Severus looked up. His mother was leaning against the couch, clutching her ribs with one hand, her hair tousled and the same line of blood streaming now into her eyes. She was staring at her her dead husband down her hooked nose, sneering faintly as if he were dog mess on the floor.
"I should have done that the first time he hit me," she said breathlessly.
"What's going to happen to us?" Severus said in a small voice. "Mum, they're going to arrest you!"
But even as he spoke, there was knock on the door.