As I reached the almost deserted playground, I spotted two girls swinging that I've spotted before. I went to hide behind a clump of bushes. I've had run ins with the older one prior, she was always rather nasty. Some of her friends attended the same school as me, she would have no problem joining them while they bullied me outside of class.
I preferred to watch the younger one, I believe her name was Lily. Lily was special, she was like me. Maybe one day I'll possess the courage to approach her.
I watched the younger of the two girls swing higher and higher than her sister.
"Lily, don't do it!" shrieked the elder of the two.
But the girl had let go of the swing at the very height of its arc and flown into the air, quite literally flown, launched herself skyward with a great shout of laughter, and instead of crumpling on the playground asphalt, she soared like a trapeze artist through the air, staying up far too long, landing far too lightly.
"Mummy told you not to!"
Petunia stopped her swing by dragging the heels of her sandals on the ground, making a crunching, grinding sound, then leapt up, hands on hips.
"Mummy said you weren't allowed, Lily!"
"But I'm fine," said Lily, still giggling. "Tuney, look at this. Watch what I can do."
Petunia glanced around, thinking the playground was deserted apart from themselves. Lily had picked up a fallen flower from the bush behind which I lurked. Petunia advanced, evidently torn between curiosity and disapproval. Lily waited until Petunia was near enough to have a clear view, then held out her palm. The flower sat there, opening and closing its petals, like some bizarre, many-lipped oyster.
"Stop it!" shrieked Petunia.
"It's not hurting you," said Lily, but she closed her hand on the blossom and threw it back to the ground.
"It's not right," said Petunia, but her eyes had followed the flower's flight to the ground and lingered upon it. "How do you do it?" she added, and there was definite longing in her voice.
"It's obvious, isn't it?" I could no longer contain myself, I jumped out from behind the bushes. Petunia shrieked and ran backward toward the swings, but Lily, though clearly startled, remained where she was. I was a bit embarrassed at being caught spying. I could feel my cheeks redden as I look at the younger girl, Lily. This is the girl who will be attending Hogwarts with me. She looked at me without judgement, and for the first time, I felt truly seen. Suddenly I saw the perfect opportunity to be someone else entirely, someone free of my history.
"What's obvious?" asked Lily.
I lowered my voice and said, "I know what you are."
"What do you mean?"
"We're...you're a witch," I whispered to her.
She looked affronted.
"That's not a very nice thing to say to somebody!"
She turned, nose in the air, and marched off toward her sister.
"No!"
The sisters were holding on to one of the swing poles, as though it was the safe place in tag.
"You are," I said to Lily. "You are a witch. I've been watching you for a while. But there's nothing wrong with that. My mum's one, and I'm a wizard."
Petunia's laugh was like cold water.
"Wizard!" she shrieked, her courage returned now that she had recovered from the shock of my unexpected appearance. "I know who you are. You're that Snape girl! Her father runs that whorehouse down Spinner's End by the river," she told Lily, and it was evident from her tone that she considered me to be scum of the earth. "Why have you been spying on us?"
"Haven't been spying, and I'm not a girl! Besides I wouldn't spy on you, anyway," I added spitefully, "you're just a Muggle."
Though Petunia evidently did not understand the word, she could hardly mistake the tone.
"Lily, come on, we're leaving!" she said shrilly. Lily obeyed her sister at once, glaring at me as she left. I stood watching them with bitter disappointment as they marched through the playground gate.
"...and the Ministry can punish you if you do magic outside school, you get letters."
"But I have done magic outside school!"
"We're all right. We haven't got wands yet. They let you off when you're a kid and you can't help it. But once you're eleven, and they start training you, then you've got to go careful."
There was a little silence. Lily had picked up a fallen twig and twirled it in the air. Then she dropped the twig, leaned in toward me, and said, "It is real, isn't it? It's not a joke? Petunia says you're lying to me. Petunia says there isn't a Hogwarts. It is real, isn't it?"
"It's real for us," I beamed. "Not for her. But I've gotten my letter, and soon you will too."
"Really?" whispered Lily.
"Definitely." I felt like a new person around Lily, I felt something akin to what I imagine hope must feel like.
"And will it really come by owl?" Lily whispered.
"Normally, but you're Muggle-born, so someone from the school will have to come and explain to your parents."
"Does it make a difference, being Muggle-born?"
I hesitated. "No, it doesn't make any difference."
"Good," said Lily, relaxing. It was clear that she had been worrying.
"You've got loads of magic," I commented. "I saw that. All the time I was watching you..."
My voice trailed away; she was not listening, but had stretched out on the leafy ground and was looking up at the canopy of leaves overhead. The way she made my heart leap was incredible.
"How are things at your house?" Lily asked.
That question dampened my mood a bit.
"Fine," I said.
"Your father didn't hit you again did he?"
"You know how he is." I picked up a fistful of leaves and began tearing them apart "But it won't be that long and I'll be gone."
"Doesn't your dad like magic?"
"He doesn't like anything, much."
"Severus?"
A little smile twisted my mouth when she said my new name.
"Yeah?"
"Tell me about the dementors again."
"What d'you want to know about them for?"
"If I use magic outside school--"
"They wouldn't give you to the dementors for that! Dementors are for people who do really bad stuff. They guard the wizard prison, Azkaban. You're not going to end up in Azkaban, you're too--"
I felt myself turn red again and I shredded more leaves. Then I heard a small rustling noise behind me: Petunia, hiding behind a tree, had lost her footing.
"Tuney!" said Lily, surprise and welcome in her voice, but I had already jumped to my feet.
"Who's spying now?" I shouted. "What d'you want?"
Petunia was breathless, alarmed at being caught. I could see her struggling for something hurtful to say.
"What is that you're wearing, anyway?" she said, pointing at my chest. "Your mum's blouse?"
I felt a burst of anger, and there was a crack. A branch over Petunia's head had fallen. Lily screamed. The branch caught Petunia on the shoulder, and she staggered backward and burst into tears.
"Tuney!"
But Petunia was running away. Lily rounded on me.
"Did you make that happen?"
"No." I attempted to lie to her.
"You did!" She was backing away from me. "You did! You hurt her!"
"No-- no, I didn't!"
But the lie did not convince Lily. After one last burning look, she ran off after her sister, leaving me miserable and confused...
I was hurrying along the corridor of the Hogwarts Express as it clattered through the countryside. I had already changed into my school robes at the first opportunity to take off my dreadful Muggle clothes. At last I stopped, outside a compartment in which a group of rowdy boys were talking. Hunched in a corner seat beside the window was Lily, her face pressed against the windowpane.
I slid open the compartment door and sat down opposite Lily. She glanced at me and then looked back out of the window. She had been crying.
"I don't want to talk to you," she said in a constricted voice.
"Why not?"
"Tuney h-hates me. Because we saw that letter from Dumbledore."
"So what?"
She threw me a look of deep dislike.
"So she's my sister!"
"She's only a--" I caught myself quickly; Lily, too busy trying to wipe her eyes without being noticed, did not hear me.
"But we're going!" I said, unable to suppress the exhilaration in my voice. "This is it! We're off to Hogwarts!"
She nodded, mopping her eyes, but in spite of herself, she half smiled.
"You'd better be in Slytherin," I told her, encouraged that she had brightened a little.
"Slytherin?"
One of the boys sharing the compartment, who had shown no interest at all in Lily or I until this point, looked around at the word, He was slightly attractive, black-haired and had an indefinable air of having been well-cared-for, even adored.
"Who wants to be in Slytherin? I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?" James asked the boy lounging on the seats opposite him, the boy did not smile.
"My whole family have been in Slytherin," he said.
"Blimey," said James, "and I thought you seemed all right!"
Sirius grinned.
"Maybe I'll break the tradition. Where are you heading, if you've got the choice?"
James lifted an invisible sword.
"'Gryffindor, where dwell the brave at heart!' Like my dad."
I made a small, disparaging noise under my breath. James turned on me.
"Got a problem with that?"
"Nope, if you'd rather be brawny than brainy--"
"Where're you hoping to go, seeing as you're neither?" interjected Sirius.
James roared with laughter. Lily sat up, rather flushed, and looked from James to Sirius in dislike.
"Come on, Severus, let's find another compartment."
"Oooooo..."
James and Sirius imitated her lofty voice; James tried to trip me as I passed him.
"See ya, Snivellus!" a voice called, as the compartment door slammed...
"Evans, Lily!"
I watched as Lily walked forward on trembling legs and sit down upon the rickety stool. Professor McGonagall dropped the Sorting Hat onto her head, and barely a second after it had touched the dark red hair, the hat cried, "Gryffindor!"
I let out a tiny groan. Lily took off the hat, handed it back to Professor McGonagall, then hurried toward the cheering Gryffindors, but as she went she glanced back at me, and there was a sad little smile on her face. I saw one of the boys from earlier move up the bench to make room for her. She took one look at him, seemed to recognize him from the train, folded her arms, and firmly turned her back on him, which made me smile.
The roll call continued. At last, when only a dozen students remained to be sorted, I heard, "Snape—" I interrupted Professor McGonagall before she had a chance to call the rest of my name.
"It's Severus!"
I walked to the stool, and placed the hat upon my head. "Slytherin!" cried the Sorting Hat.
And I moved off to the other side of the Hall, away from Lily, to where the Slytherins were cheering me, to where an older blonde boy with a prefect badge gleaming upon his chest, patted me on the back as I sat down beside him...
