Thanks for your patience, everyone! This chapter was supposed to cover all of Severus's seventh year, but (a) this is already plenty long for a chapter and (b) it's taking me really long to write the rest of the year, which turns out to be a really rough time for our protagonist. I suspect that Year 7 will actually end up as three chapters (4, 5, and 6)! Here's the first installment.

Chapter Four: The Third Wish, Born From Anxiety

The first two people Severus saw as he stepped onto Platform 9 ¾ were James Potter and Lily Evans—wrapped around each other, kissing like there was no tomorrow.

Why today? he asked himself. Of all the days to find out, why did it have to be today? His emotions were still too raw to talk to people, so he strode past his classmates brusquely and found an empty compartment at the rear of the train. Any time a younger child looked through the window, he scowled at them until they went away. When the train began to move, he was still by himself.

He wanted to be with his mother to reassure her, but she wasn't there. So he called for the one who was—"Aziz?"

"Here, master."

"Will it work?"

"I think it will. And I know McGonagall—she won't leave you hanging. She'll let you know."

Severus closed his eyes. "There's no way for me to get Lily, is there?"

"I can't say for certain, but it's not likely."

"Even if you made me exactly the sort of person she could love?"

"Even then. You could be the perfect person and she'd still be free to choose someone else."

Breathing heavily, Severus managed to squelch the sob that was welling up in him. "So I'll be alone forever."

"I can't say that either, master."

"But there's no one like Lily."

"No," said the genie gently. "But there are others who can be just as kind as Lily—kinder, even. There are others who are just as smart as Lily—smarter, even. And maybe you would even find some of them just as attractive as Lily."

"But I can't just wish for someone to love me."

"Well, you could," said Aziz practically, "but I couldn't fulfill that wish."

A tear ran down Severus's cheek.

"Poor boy. You're so lonely."

"I shouldn't be. I have you—and Rosier—and Wilkes—and—"

"They call themselves your friends, and yet none of the Slytherins see you for who you really are."

"You do."

"But I'm not human, Severus, and you are. I'm not mortal, and you are. We can never be equal, and that's what you need—an equal. You'll find one, sooner or later."

"But if I did—" Here Severus looked up at the genie pleadingly, "If I did, would she even love me?"

"If you were the right sort of man for her, she absolutely would. What sort of woman do you think you need?"

Severus shrugged. "I'm not sure I know. What sort of woman do you think I need?"

Aziz scratched his ghostly head with one hand as he stared out the window. "Brilliant. Powerful. Loyal. Tender-hearted." He paused, then turned and grinned at his master. "With more than a little bit of attitude."

Severus steepled his fingers, thinking, and then nodded. "Yes. Aziz, I wish to become the sort of man that a brilliant, powerful, loyal, tender-hearted, sarcastic woman would fall in love with."

Aziz curled his hands into fists and rubbed his eyes. "Well, you are already brilliant and powerful yourself, and your sarcasm needs no work. I will help you to become more loyal and tender-hearted." He stopped, regarded Severus carefully, and then said: "I'm not sure how I know this, but it's going to be a while. A good long while. So we'll work on your patience as well."

~~SS~~

"How was your summer with the Muggles?" Narcissa Black sat very correctly upright in the armchair positioned just a few feet from the bearskin rug where Severus lay sprawled in front of the fire.

"My father is hopeless," Severus said morosely. "The most useless Muggle in all of Muggledom."

Narcissa waved her hand gracefully. "But haven't you said before that Muggles aren't useless?"

"Generally not," growled Severus. "But my father is an exception. If he would just drink himself to death, the world would be a better place."

"What a hopelessly futile wish. Have you ever thought of, well, showing him who's boss?"

"All the time. But I never did, for Mum's sake."

"Is she safe with him?"

"She's not with him anymore. Whether she's safe or not, I don't know."

"Dear, dear. Perhaps I shouldn't say that's what happens when you marry a Muggle, but I'm afraid it seems to be true. You do know that my sweet Lucius has some rather nasty hexes that might be useful in teaching your father a lesson, don't you?"

"I'm sure he does," sneered Snape. "But I'm sure I have some that are better." In his third year at Hogwarts—and Lucius Malfoy's fifth—he'd been challenged to a friendly duel. Lucius's best hex at that point was Bat-Bogey. Severus had cast a non-verbal Levicorpus followed by a quick stunner, thereby winning the match. Lucius had been trying unsuccessfully to best him since then.

"Oh, but haven't you heard?" asked Narcissa sweetly, lowering her voice to a whisper. "Lucius is in the Dark Lord's inner circle. There is no dark magic that is banned there. He told me that he's becoming quite astute at the Cruciatus, among other things."

Severus had heard of the Unforgivables, of course, but had never even tried to cast them. All of the books that discussed how to cast them had long ago been removed from the Hogwarts library, and Aziz merely shook his head and flounced back into his lamp when asked for more information.

"When do you come of age, Severus?" asked Narcissa.

"January ninth," he replied.

"Just after start of term. A pity. But if you wanted, you could join during the Easter holidays. The Dark Lord would love to have an adept potion brewer in his service, and I'm sure he would be glad to teach you more of the dark arts."

Severus hadn't felt so excited in a long time.

~~SS~~

Two weeks later, in Transfiguration class, James Potter "accidentally" hit Severus with a stray spell right at the end of class, leaving him with a pig's nose. "Potter! Five points from Gryffindor!" reprimanded Professor McGonagall. "Class dismissed—but not you, Snape. Come here so I can fix you."

As the professor pointed her wand at Severus's nose with her right hand, she surreptitiously took his left hand in hers. He felt a crinkle of paper. As his nose twisted painfully back into its normal beaky shape, McGonagall whispered: "Destroy it when you're done. It's secret-kept." Her normally stern face softened, and she added, "It's hard on everyone, these first few months. I remember all too well."

Severus nodded and ducked out of the room, hurrying to the his common room for a bit of privacy. The small slip of parchment read:

Eileen Prince lives at Tabby Cottage near Lockerbie.

He clasped the paper to his heart briefly before casting it into the fire.

~~SS~~

"I don't understand," Severus said towards the end of November. He and Aziz were sitting under a willow (the normal kind, not the 'Whomping' sort) near the edge of the lake, braving the chill, in an effort to gain a little privacy. "Weren't you supposed to help me become tender-hearted and loyal?"

"All in good time, my dear fellow," rumbled Aziz, who was sitting cross-legged and seemed to be crocheting something with translucent yarn. "Have you sent your mum an owl yet?"

"I can't! What happens if someone sees the owl disappearing into nothingness? They'll know where her cottage is!"

"I'm pretty sure that's not how it works."

"I'll bet she's lonely. She probably has no one to talk to! Is she scared that Pops will find her? Is she bored, hiding out all the time? How am I supposed to give her a Christmas present if I can't see her?"

"Shhhh!" said Aziz calmly. "Don't get all worked up. It interferes with Occlumency, remember?"

"How can I not get worked up?!" snarled Snape. "She's my mum!"

"Close your eyes. Breathe in: one, two, three, four. Hold: one, two, three, four. Breathe out: one, two, three, four. And hold: one, two, three four."

Severus had learned to follow Aziz's instructions without question, and he sank deep into the breathing exercise. Eventually he opened his eyes. "My heart may not be pounding, but it still hurts like hell."

"Feeling a bit…tender, are you?" Aziz winked at his master.

"That is not what I asked for! I'm supposed to be tender-hearted for the woman who will love me!"

"Severus, dear child—if you want to win the heart of a tender-hearted woman, you must feel compassion for every human being under the sun. Do you understand? So take these feelings that you have for your mother and spread them out to everyone."

"Everyone except my father," said Severus with feeling.

"Including your father," replied Aziz. "Especially your father."

~~SS~~

Coming up in chapter 5: Christmas with Mum, followed by Easter with Pops…or is that Lucius I see?