There were only three weeks left before Severus would be out of here until next summer, and he couldn't wait. He couldn't wait to finally be relieved of his parents, of his house, of his clothes and of that horrible school with the horrible students that went there, and the horrible people that lived in this town.

Unlike here, it would be amazing at Hogwarts. Learning new spells, not having his parents around. And nothing could stop him and Lily from spending all their time together. That was the very best part. Lily would be there with him.

Speaking of which, he was currently in her house. Her parents had taken Petunia for a day out or something but Lily did notwant to come with them, for whatever reason. Severus liked to think she had stayed behind for him, but somewhere he knew that was not the reason... Why would she stay behind for him of all people?

But since she stayed at home, alone, she had quickly told Severus to come to her house, which he obviously immediately had done. They had just had lunch, and were currently watching something on the television.

Severus had never watched television before.They didn't even have one – it was far too expensive.

"They don't even have these at Hogwarts, you know," he said as he stared at the people moving on the screen. He didn't care about those people at all. He had come to the conclusion he found television to be extremely boring.

"They don't?" Lily asked, and she was shocked.

"No, magic interferes with technology."

"Then why can we watch now?"

Severus rolled his eyes. She really didn't know that yet did she? Of course she didn't. She was new to all this.

"The amounts of magic present here are barely mentionable," he said "That's what interfering with technology. The magic in the air. And the magic of two kids isn't that much. The magic of a whole school..."

"That's too bad," she muttered. "You wanna go do something else?"

"Don't you want to watch your programme?"

"Nah, It just ended, come, let's go upstairs. My parents can't stop us now."

Severus looked at the television and the programme was clearly still going, but he didn't complain and followed Lily upstairs and was yet again in awe of how big her house was. It was absolutely massive.

He had never been upstairs before. It had always been out of bounds. He could go to the kitchen or the living room, but never upstairs.

Lily pulled him inside a room with flowers on the walls and a dark carpeted floor. There were thousands, okay not literally, of toys and books in the room.

"This is my room. Next to me sleep my parents and Petunia's across the hall. You want to see their rooms?" Lily asked him.

Severus didn't really want to. He wanted to stay in Lily's room, he wanted to ask her what certain things were, he wanted her to talk to him about memories she had of the room, about good things that had happened here. But instead he let her drag him to her parents' room.

Her parents' room was big. Big and quite colourful. There wasn't much in the room, just a bed, drawer and nightstands. But it was more than fitted in his parents' room, which was practically just a bed with a tiny closet for clothes. There was barely room to stand. But here there was more than enough.

Next up was Petunia's room. It was an explosion of pink. It almost hurt his eyes so pink was it. The walls were a bright pink and the carpet was baby pink. Almost all items in the room were pink: pink lamps, pink desk, pink chair, pink bed...

As he was looking through the incredibly pink room, he spotted something that wasn't pink. It caught his eye, and he walked up to it. It lay on the desk. He held it up, showing it to Lily.

It appeared to be a letter.

From Hogwarts.

"What is that, Lily," he asked, "It's got the Hogwarts logo. But that can't be right, can it?"

Lily approached him and took the letter from him. She examined it and pulled it out if the envelope."It's from Dumbledore," she gasped as she read the letter.

"Why would Dumbledore write to her? She's a Muggle."

"It's a reply. She… she wrote to Hogwarts. Can you believe this," she showed Severus the letter and he quickly read it. Dumbledore wrote back saying she couldn't study there and that he was sorry about it.

Petunia, wanting to study at Hogwarts? Really? That way utter nonsense.

"What? Muggles can't write to Hogwarts, that's impossible!" Severus called out in realisation what this meant.

He started thinking. "Muggles can't write Hogwarts... Unless... There must be wizards working at the post office, undercover of course, or at least Squibs, or others who know about Hogwarts. That's the only way it can happen..." he mumbled, thinking up the most logical explanation he could think of.

But Lily wasn't listening. She was thinking about her own things. "Do you think she's jealous?"

"Hm?"

"Tuney. Do you think she's just... jealous? That she wants to go to Hogwarts too and she can't and that's why she's so... mean?" She looked at the letter.

"Petunia? In Hogwarts? Come on, she's hated me since before she even knew Hogwarts existed!"

"That's true," Lily sighed. "I feel kinda bad for her, you know? That I get to go and not her too."

"She's a Muggle. It's not in your control."

"I know that. I just wish it was."

He wasn't sure what to say to that, but he didn't get the opportunity to answer anyway. The sound of a car pulling up by the house interrupted their conversation. He went over to the window and he saw Petunia get out of the car.

"They're back!" He hissed to Lily, who had been peering over his shoulder to see who it was. He hadn't been allowed over while they were away unless it was an absolute emergency. It most certainly wasn't, so he had to leave, and quickly too, if he didn't want Lily to get in trouble.

The front door opened. There wasn't time to leave.

"Hide, in my closet, go, go go!" She pushed him back into her room and ran downstairs.

Severus opened her closet door and stepped inside. Though it was bigger than his own, it was small and he couldn't say he was comfortable or anything. In fact, it was far from it. He barely fitted in. He closed the door and stood behind the row of hanging dresses, waiting for Lily to come back and tell him he could come out.

It seemed to take forever, so he let his mind wander. It naturally went to Hogwarts, and what it would be like there. He had read about it a lot, but actually going there and experiencing it was always different, always exciting. He was quite nervous about it.

He thought about what he would learn. What the teachers would be like and if they would be nicer than the ones he had had here. He hoped so. He did not like the teachers he had had in all the years he had gone to school here. He hoped the Hogwarts staff was nice. He hoped the Hogwarts students were nice as well. The students at this school were awful.

As he was going over all these points, footsteps were coming up the stairs, entering the room, and opened the closet. To Severus' great relief, it was Lily.

"They're all busy in the kitchen now," she whispered. "If you're really quiet we can get you down."

And that's what they did. He walked down the stairs as quietly as he could, and reached the front door without getting caught. Lily was right behind him. He opened the door, and that's where it went wrong. He had turned around to say goodbye to Lily when he saw Mr and Mrs Evans enter the hallway.

Lily was quick. "I'll ask them, wait here, okay?" She said, and though he wasn't sure what she was referring to, he obeyed and stayed silent.

She turned to her parents and acted surprised to find them there. He smiled a little to himself. She was so supportive.

"Can Sev eat at our place, please?" She asked.

"Well..." Mr Evans began.

"Please, Dad, he hasn't eaten all day! He won't be getting any dinner either otherwise..."

"Alright, he can eat here," Mrs Evans decided.

Lily turned back to Severus. "You can stay here," she said, smiling. He smiled back.

They went into the dining room and sat down. They waited until the adults were gone.

"You're a good liar," Severus grinned. "Thanks for helping out."

She shrugged. "Today might be a good day. Today you might've eaten. But what makes a good fib is basing it on truth. You've told me often enough you wouldn't be eating anything all day for whatever stupid reason your parents came up with."

"I never—"

"I'm not an idiot, Sev. You've hinted at it, whether you meant to or not. It's not hard to put two and two together, knowing your home situation."

He sighed. She was right. Yes, there were days he didn't eat anything, be it because he angered his father or because his parents just decided he would be fine without anything over the weekend and they couldn't afford money on it. He was on school dinners, you see. It was free because his father was unemployed, but he had had them even before then. If was simply cheaper.

That evening, the Evans family's supper was once again magnificent to him. It always felt like a true feast, and he couldn't help but wonder what the food at Hogwarts would be like.

Hogwarts. Soon enough, he would be off to Hogwarts.

The coming weeks he spent getting ready for the school. Buying his supplies and getting his very own wand. He couldn't wait to go to Hogwarts.

Oh, Hogwarts. The great, wonderful Hogwarts. He hoped he could finally find a place he would belong, a place he would fit in and a place where people actually cared about him, in Hogwarts.

He hoped to find friendship and family in Hogwarts. He hoped for a new beginning in a place where nobody would know he was from Spinner's End. A place where nobody would even know what Spinner's End was.

Hogwarts would be his one and only home.

Always.