The year went by with Severus occasionally making stops to the Evanses, although it wasn't something that happened very often. It was only whenever Lily was certain both her parents were fine with it, which was often when they weren't home themselves. He never came unannounced.

Until now.

It was a harsh autumn Saturday in 1969 and inside the Snape house it was freezing cold. There wasn't much to be done about it with the amount of money they had, and Severus' father fixed this by just drinking so much he wouldn't notice the cold. His mother would keep cooking by the warmth of the fire she cooked on, resulting in a lot of prepared food.

Which, in turn, pissed off his father because it was wasting food.

Severus had attempted to sneak up to his room during this argument, but his father caught hold of him before he reached the stairs. "Where do you think you're going?"

"To my room, I -"

"I don't think so! We aren't through with eating yet!" His father shouted, making no sense to him anymore as just seconds before he had announced he didn't ever want to see food again because his mother had cooked so much.

"If he wants to go, let him go," he heard his mother say.

"Fine! Have it your way," his father grumbled and dragged him out the front door, pushed him to the floor roughly and spat "you're not getting in here until tomorrow. See how you like it now to go."

Severus had fallen down on the cobblestones harshly and he let out a cry of pain as when he landed, he heard something crack. And his wrist was killing him.

His cries angered his father, he knew that, but he still couldn't stop. He heard the door open and heard his father shouting something at him, but he couldn't focus for his wrist hurt too much. He caught bits and pieces of what his father was yelling — something about him being a cry baby and his father giving him something to cry about — and the pain spread.

No. More areas started to hurt. It took him a few seconds to realise why or what was going on, but then he knew it. His father was kicking him as he lay there helplessly. He curled up in a ball to protect himself as good as he could but it was no help. He felt his father's pointy shoes hit him in the stomach and on his ribs, against his shoulders and his back. He couldn't protect all areas of his body at once.

He didn't know how long it lasted before his father left. Severus lay still for a long while after, afraid he'd come back and too sore to move.

But it had started to rain and he was growing colder and colder and he knew the cold could kill. He knew he needed shelter somehow.

The only thing he could think of was Lily. Lily could help. But she lived so far away and he had no way of letting her know where he was.

He felt terrible.

And worst of all, he didn't have his mother's wand with him.

He gathered his strength to get up as he started to get soaking wet. His wrist was throbbing and painful, as was the rest of his body. But his wrist was the worst. He made his way through the town, barefoot since he hadn't had time to put on shoes as his father threw him out, and cold without his coat on.

But he did reach Lily's. By the time he got there it was well after supper and he hoped Lily would still be awake as he rang the doorbell.

Mrs Evans opened the door, much to Severus' disappointment. The look of horror on her face as she saw the beaten, soaked nine year old... it made Severus wish he hadn't come at all.

"Oh dear, what happened to you..." she mumbled. "Come in, come in, you'll catch something if you're out there in the rain," she ushered him inside.

"Take off those wet clothes now dear, I'll get a hot bath ready for you. I'm afraid we don't have any boy clothes for you, however," she told him and left him in the hallway to get the bath ready.

Severus tried to get the buttons of his blouse to open but his wrist made it hard. He let out a cry of pain as he got the first button to open.

Mrs Evans came running back at that. "What's the matter?"

"I — I can't," he whispered, wiping away a few tears with his right hand. Mrs Evans saw the state of his wrist.

"What happened to you..." she sighed.

"I — I fell, I —"

"It's alright. I'll help you. Let's get you warned up and then let's take a look at that wrist of yours."

Ten minutes later Severus was sitting in the bathtub, the water warming his cold body. Mrs Evans sat on a chair by the tub and was examining his wrist.

"It looks really bad," she said. "I think we might have to take you to see someone, it could be broken."

"No!" He pulled back his wrist.

"Why not?"

"I — I'm not — I don't —" he took a breath and steadied himself. "It'll heal. I'll look for a spell when I get home. I can handle it."

"If you're sure..."

"I'm sure. Thank you Mrs Evans."

After he was clean — it must've been his first bath ever, he couldn't remember ever taking one, and Mrs Evans had even washed his hair, which gave it a funny smell — and dressed in an old nightgown of the girls, Mrs Evans had taken him into the living room where he was sipping some tea as she spoke with Mr Evans in a hushed tone.

His wrist was really hurting a lot.

After he finished his tea, Mr and Mrs Evans announced he would be sleeping here tonight, and they had gotten blankets. He could stay on the sofa.

And so, Mrs Evans tucked him in and they said goodnight to one another.

It was the best sleep he had gotten in ages, and he wished he could stay here forever. He knew they were only being nice to him because of what his mother had told them, but, it was still nice.

He had woken up early as always and had just been lying on the couch, feeling content, when someone shrieked. Petunia.

He jumped up and her shriek turned into a laugh as she saw him in her old gown.

"What are you wearing that for?" She chuckled.

"Your parents only had girl clothes," he said defensively. "It's not by choice!"

"Why are you here anyway? Parents kick you out? Even they must get tired of you sometimes."

"Petunia!"

He looked up to see Mrs Evans had entered the room.

"Go set the table for breakfast. He's our guest, treat him with respect."

Petunia reluctantly left him alone, and Severus was eternally grateful for her help.

After breakfast he changed into his now washed and dry clothes, and said goodbye to the Evanses. Lily insisted she walk him home so he agreed she could come, but not into Spinner's End.

During their walk back to his house, Lily asked him all sorts of things, about why he had been with them that night or why his wrist was so swollen. He answered them all truthfully, and she made him promise to go to them every time his father was in a bad mood and hurting him.

So from then on he did. He'd try to escape his father and go to the Evanses every time. Afterwards he always felt immensely guilty as he saw his mother got it extra bad because he fled the house, but she ensured him it was alright and she didn't mind it. He found it hard to believe that, but he never argued.

This new system really started to work well for Severus, and he found his life getting better. Not just because of his escape to the Evanses, but also because of him being allowed to use his mother's wand, which he gladly did, and often.

One of these moments was on his tenth birthday. It was night time, he found he could concentrate better at night. He hadn't even noticed it had become his birthday, he was too focused on his spell-casting, when he heard footsteps approach and he turned quickly, wand pointed out. He sighed, relieved it was only Lily. But why was she up? And why was she all the way here in Spinner's End?

"Hey," she said. "Thought I might find you here." She sat down next to him like it was the most ordinary thing for her to be up way past her bedtime and in a part of town she didn't belong.

"What are you doing here?" Severus asked. He still didn't understand why she was here… in the middle of the night…

"It's your birthday, isn't it?"

He thought a moment and checked his watch. "Well... yeah."

"I wanted to say happy birthday."

"Oh."

"Is that a real wand?" she asked him, looking at his mother's wand in amazement.

"Oh, yeah, it is."

"Can I... try it?"

Severus smiled and handed her the wand. Remembering she had never really preformed magic before, he told her through the steps of a simple levitation charm: it was easy enough to get a positive response on the first try, even with a borrowed wand, he thought, and so it would be a good thing to start with.

He watched her as she tried the charm and her face lit up when she was successful. She was beaming and Severus warmed up inside by seeing her so happy. This truly was the most important thing — seeing her happy.

Forget wands, spells and incantations. Lily's smile was by far the most magical thing this young wizard had ever seen.