Lily's mother let him through the door. Once inside, he saw two girls playing together.
His hart skipped a beat: There was Lily, albeit a smaller version.
"These are my daughters, Petunia and Lily. What is your name, sweetheart?"
"My name is Severus." He turned his head to Lily's mother. "Can I play?" In his head he hoped he sounded like a normal child.
"Okay, Severus, why don't you play with Petunia and Lily. Would you like something to eat and drink?"
"Yes, please." Lily's mom went in to the kitchen.
The girls where both looking at him, probably questioning what he was doing here.
"I am Severus, can I play with you?" The girls let him take an 'object' to play with, and carried on playing in their own world.
Severus observed how they moved their own objects, entirely uncomprehending what these actions meant.
Lily's mother came back into the room."Here you are, Severus, something to eat and to drink." She handed him a plate with sandwiches and a glass of milk. "Do you know where your parents are? Do you want to go back to your parents?"
Severus quickly ate a couple bites of food. "I know, and I don't want to go back." He paused for a moment. "Can I stay here?"
"Severus-"
"Just till I"m eleven." He stood up. "Look." He levitated his cup "I'm a wizard."
The look Lily's mother had on her face was priceless. Now it was time to seize the moment.
"Lily can do magic too. When we turn eleven we get a letter for a boarding school that teaches us magic."
Everyone looked at Lily. Lily, being an actual small child, looked none the wiser.
Severus showed her the floating cup."Lily, can you do this?" He gave her the cup. Lily looked at the cup.
*whoosh* The cup floated up again.
Later in the day, when Lily's father arrived, she led Lily's father to the kitchen.
Another demonstration was needed.
...
When Severus had a talk with both Lily's parents, he told them that he had to transfigure his own clothes to fit and magically clean and him basically having to provide his own food. The general atmosphere in the home, with his parents often fighting and neglecting him.
Not long after, the parents had talked with services about taking him in. He used some gentle persuasion charms.
Not like they would put a kid in Azkaban for accidental magic.
...
The Evans family was his new home now.
Seeing Lily everyday was nice, it was just a pity that it just wasn't the Lily he was used to.
Still, it was calming to live in a house where there was no tension, and food. Cared for.
The parents of the family, Rose and Ben, where nice and supportive. They really liked seeing magic acts performed as well.
The same with Lily and Petunia, he just used magic to enchant some toy and they would be fascinated.
All was well.
...
Until Rose and Ben wanted Severus to go to school.
He didn't want to go, but he didn't want to give a bad impression on his new guardians.
So of to school he went, with Petunia and Lily.
In 'class' he had to 'finger-paint' some sort of nonsense. He calmly asked the teacher for a book instead.
The teacher, who was surprised that he actually could read, later asked Rose if she could talk a bit about Severus.
Apparently, he was allowed to skip grades. He loved Lily, but in the end, he didn't want his brain cells to die.
It wasn't long before he was in a higher grade then Petunia.
Severus was mostly busy with his muggle homework, and interested in the things he never was aware of before. Not what he was interested in during his youth, quite the opposite. Lily would have been proud of him, he thought. She had hated his love for Dark Magic, that, and his choice in company. 'Maybe she would've liked seeing me as a healer.' He thought. He planned to become a first-response healer during the war, a mediwizard, while helping the order of the Phoenix. The last time, during Voldemort's first rise in power, there where plenty of people needed there. Even trainees where send into the field for experience. He could make a change.
He would also need to 'invent' the wolfsbane potion, and the cure. Which he actually had invented in the future-past. He needed to not arouse suspicion, but like hell was going to let students take the risk of being bitten, and the wolfsbane potion would still take years to be invented otherwise. In sixth year or so, he could bring out the cure. Actually, he had really wanted to do that as soon as possible. But the method of inventing the cure would be strange to get by, with needing the ashes from a phoenix's burning day(He had planned to use Fawkes' ashes). Which meant, it could arouse suspicion. If he already had proof of making progress in finding a cure, and asked Dumbledore for some ashes, it would not arouse suspicion. Damocles, the original inventor of the wolfsbane potion, would not get the credit, but could help his infected friend out years earlier too.
He didn't forget the horcruxes he would have to hunt down. He still was not sure in whether he should include Dumbledore in his plans or not. Hermione and he agreed to let no one know about the dimensional time-traveling, because of careless meddling of other people, and the disastrous consequences. Telling Dumbledore some convincing lies would be very hard to do. Which would probably lead to solo missions. It would also be impossible to keep a low profile. Which meant he might need to get his hands on a time-turner.
Which meant he needed to steal James invisibility cloak.
And the easiest time to do that was on the train. Severus looked at a book he borrowed. Chemistry. Interesting.
The years from 9 to 11 where the most nostalgic for Severus.
His own birthdays where... Very happy events. That he didn't know if he deserved. Living with a normal family certainly was an exercise to be happy and comfortable, and dare he say it, loved. Which he still didn't feel completely used to being.
One big difference was, that at school, he got advanced material, and worked separately from the other kids. Lily and Petunia both saw him as the rumored 'extremely gifted' child. When the girls where playing, he would often read under the trees.
However, he was not only 'the bookworm', he would also get up to run or do an activity, to get 'exercise'. He found out about a place where he could work out in town too. When Ben heard about it, he also joined this 'gym'. Something the two 'men' in the family would do.
Lily was the same she was the last time ages 9 till 11. Wanting to know everything about magic and Hogwarts. Petunia was a bit sullen, but also nicer to him then the last time around. She cared about appearances. He sometimes forgot he looked completely different from how he used to look. He himself was also trying to be politer. When talking about the magical world he would try to include Petunia, even though she was 2 years older and, when she turned 11 and didn't get a Hogwarts letter, she would feign more and more disinterest for the magical world, and had gotten busier with middle school work and friends.
He never went to Lily anymore either: She came to him to talk about Hogwarts and magic, and they sat together on the swings, or laid down on the grass. Sometimes he performed some magic. Or they both did. He sometimes gave her magic trinkets, once he even made some in the shape of petals, floating and changing and shining. Together, they just lazed around. He wished those moment would last forever, where he was truly happy.
Years later:
"Severus, we are going to be late!" -Petunia, not wanting to be even one minute late, yelled from downstairs. She still was not happy that in comparison the two other children in the household, she was the 'plain' one. She was acting more and more like the Petunia he had known. Pity.
"I'm coming!" He grabbed his backpack and ran downstairs.
"Severus, no running in the house!" Rose shook her head and handed him his lunch. " Just when I thought you where the mature one."
"Yes Ma'am." He paused. "I had a nightmare." Rose opened her arms. Severus ran in to the hug. She closed her arms around him and began to speak. "Severus, it was just a dream, you're alright, sweetheart. Everything's fine now, hm?"
Severus nodded.
It was time to go to hogwarts.