Disclaimer: I own nothing, but my thoughts of AU and OC, the rest all belong to J K Rowling.

Chapter 36

Severus Snape had always felt privileged to own his ebony wand. It was his very first magical possession. He couldn't quite call those dark arts books of his mother's as his property.

Showing his wand proudly, he had asked the niggling question, while watching Mrs. Snape making supper.

"Mum, can anyone do magic with my wand?"

"Yes, only if that person shares elements of your magic. But it is difficult. Very few people are born like that. Soulmates," Eileen was in a good mood that evening. She was happy that her son was going to Hogwarts.

"Mum, has Mr. Olivander ever made a mistake?"

Looking over her shoulder the mother had frowned and then tutted," Mr. Olivander is perhaps the most perspective wizard I have ever met. Why do you ask, Sev?"

"Do wands have mates?"

Furrowing her brows, Eileen thought hard, then muttered," I wouldn't know but maybe they did, why?"

"Mum, I know you couldn't go along with me to Diagon Alley. Mrs. Evans wanted to thank you anyways for helps us reach till the magical wall."

"Rather, I should have thanked her to help you get your school items."

"Mum, Mr. Olivander is a strange man."

"Sev of all the things you saw at Diagon Alley why did you find the wandmaker so interesting? Did you visit the apothecary? And the quidditch shop? Did you try the ice creams?"

"I did. I wish Father…" the child had trailed off.

Turning halfway, Eileen had warned," Sev, you know your father hates Magic. Don't you? It was already difficult for me to make him send you off to Hogwarts. Now, why don't you keep those school supplies away and out of his reach? It's already time. The factory whistle will go off any minute.

Shrugging his shoulders, the eleven-year-old boy tried asking something else," Mum, do you think I am a freak, nor worse, like…?"

Wheeling around, the woman had held on to her son's shoulders and had given the startled boy a thorough shake," Severus Tobias Snape, you are partly a Prince. But you don't share their dark minds. You are also a Snape, but do you want to become like your father?"

Horrified, Snape had replied quickly," Mum, I will never hit or hurt you, I will never hit a girl or anyone."

Shoving him off, the mother had pursed her thin lips and warned," You better write the story of your life with your own hands. That's the least you can do for me."

The first year at Hogwarts was lonely. He couldn't remember if he had received any letter from his mother all through his school life. He couldn't remember talking to her like he had done through many years ago, showing his new wand to her.

Each year, during holidays, he would find his mother growing quieter with fresh wounds merging along with old half-healed bruises.

His mother had died in a freak accident. And his father too had died a day after Snape had returned from school for the holidays. The muggle police had called it, "Death under mysterious circumstances." The Aurors had arrived too, but without a trace of magic, they too had left, so had Dumbledore, sparing him measured glances now and then.

Because one could put trace spells on wands, and those investigating never once considered that a student could teach himself into learning rudimentary wandless magic. One had too. If one was relentlessly made the center of nasty jokes, shoved and dragged around by influential fellow housemates. And Severus had persisted on. Survived through.

He was a moaner. Moaning his mother's death. Moaning the absence of his only friend. A dear friend, he had grown fond of. And had in a heated moment hurt beyond measure. "Mudblood", if he could… he would have cursed his very throat, cut off his own tongue, shredded his unbridled anger. And his incapacity to control his emotions. Lily Evans was an angel from heaven, the most compassionate and caring person he had the grace to come in presence of. The only shining star in his miserable little life and he had insulted their bond of friendship with the venomous word.

After curfew, he would slip out of the dungeons, the other consummated snakes, watched him go but kept their vigil. If Snape was to lose points, he would be paying dearly under Lucius Malfoy's unofficial regime. During one of his nightly wandering among those deserted corridors, he had chanced upon the Mirror of Erised. And he would return to sit in front of it, till the first rays of the sun. That year would turn out to be the worst in the history of Hogwarts, until the second rising of Voldemort. That very night the school security wards had been breached and death-eaters had swum in. Muggleborn witches and wizards had been killed and students were forced to escape, with teachers managing to hold on to the castle, but barely. For the next two years, the school had to be suspended but the threat was too large to be contained. It was war, breathing over everyone's head.

He had heard whispers in the dungeons, in the dormitories. The Malfoys had plans, ambitious and bigger, and much ominous that could change the very Face of Magical Britain. He had heard the name Abraxas. He knew only one, the scrupulous father of Lucius Malfoy. A recent pass out, who had aid, in this castle- the Lestranges, the Blacks, the Flints, and the Nott. And they had been planning to prove their faith in the one who had promised them greater power, prestige and had pledged to reinstall their stand in the Magical community. Banish the stealers of Magic, the uncouth Mudbloods, and reestablish the Supremacy of Purebloods. The fate of the half-bloods like him hung by a thin wire.

After his father's burial, he was accosted by Lucius. How the other knew of his home address, was beyond his comprehension. And in no less sweet laced warning did his senior pass on the Dark Lord's condolences. The crust of the matter was he had been summoned. "Join me, don't consider yourself an orphan, you have several brothers and sisters, I will give you power, I will help you realize your dreams and You shall outshine in the years to come."

Clenching his fist, he could no longer feel the ripple of Dark Magic across his Dark Mark. It had faded after the fall of Voldemort. Yet, he never stopped wishing for a single moment of his long life, it was not there in the first place. His friendship with Lily shouldn't have ended just like that...he could be the one to hold that baby with deep brown eyes.