Lily Evans' summer went well for the first half.
It was only when she invited James Potter and his friends for a quick lunch did everything gone into chaos in the Evans residence.
Her parents kept frowning at the bespectacled boy's antics and pursing their lips in slight distaste as they watched her entertaining the four boys with Muggle contraptions such as the television and oven. Marvin Evans was somewhat cordial to Sirius Black who was interested with his motorcycle while Cecilia quite enjoyed Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew's company.
However, her older sister, Petunia had side-eyed Potter with such loath that Lily couldn't help but to wonder just who she hated more; him or Severus Snape.
The four Marauders ended up staying for the week and after taking them to a trip to Muggle London, they decided to explore the rather gloomy neighborhood of Spinner's End.
As Lily followed them, she wondered if they would meet Severus along the way. Despite being his friend for seven years, she still didn't know where his house was; he always asked to stop at the park whenever they came back from Hogwarts.
"Man, Evans; never knew you'd stay at this kind of place," James broke the silence as they headed to the playground.
Lily frowned, "Are you saying you expect somewhere else?"
"Well, duh," Sirius joined in, "No offense Lily, but this is more of a place Snivellus would live in."
Her eye involuntarily twitched upon hearing the unpleasant nickname. "Don't call him that," she warned to which they snickered. Lily only sighed to herself; she wasn't that close to her female friends who still kept whispering nonsense about Severus to her. Perhaps they all had been wrong? What exactly was the truth?
Lily was so deep in her thoughts that she barely registered James spoke, "Hey, look." When she raised her head, her face immediately went pale.
Severus was at the old oak tree where they used to hang out, apparently taking a short nap. Beside him was a plastic bag that she guessed was full of groceries for his family.
Oh, how she wished they were all at somewhere else than there.
"What are you doing?" Remus asked in incredulity when James and Sirius approached the sleeping boy. The two only shushed him out and tip-toeing before taking the plastic bag.
Lily knew she should stop them, tell them to leave Severus be and return home. Yet, the thrill of seeing the Slytherin boy's possible reaction was intriguing and as they all looked around before casting the Disillusionment Charm onto themselves, she couldn't stop feeling giddy.
She always knew she was a tomboy, after all.
James and Sirius shared a wide grin and inflicted a Stinging Hex to Severus, who yelped as he jolted awake and quickly took out his wand, his onyx eyes wildly looking around and he groaned in dismay upon noting the missing groceries.
The five of them tried hard to contain their mirth when Severus took out a wallet from his pockets and counted the money bills he had, and were still smirking at each other as the raven-haired boy went behind the oak tree to Disapparate, seemingly would buy another bag of groceries.
The moment Severus left, James and Sirius' laughter rang across the playground, with Lily, Remus and Peter simply smiled. "That was horrible," she finally said between chuckles.
The bespectacled boy only grinned. "Hey, it is a good prank." They then placed the plastic bag they took under the tree again and walked back to Lily's house. After exchanging farewell to them, Lily entered her home with a spring in her steps only to stop in her tracks upon seeing Petunia was standing in front of her, her foot was tapping the floor impatiently.
"I can't believe you did that to him," the blond hissed and Lily's green eyes widened in horror. Had Petunia witnessed the whole thing?
She simply chuckled offhandedly, "It's not like we did anything bad."
Her older sister's glare intensified. "Look, I may hate Snape but at least he didn't take any advantage over someone's weakness! Or when they're most vulnerable!" she scolded before stomping on the stairs to her room.
Lily could only blink over Petunia's reaction, trying to smother the guilt that bloomed in her heart. What was wrong with having a little fun?
Severus just knew the Marauders were around when he returned from his second trip of grocery shopping later.
Seething in anger upon seeing the other plastic bag, he took it as well and unceremoniously put them in front of his parents' house before leaving to Prince Manor. He was still fuming as he thought back of what had happened just then. Those damned four boys had to have a reason to be in Cokeworth, and his blood boil upon realizing what it was.
Lily Evans.
So, she really wanted to be a part of those bratty Lions. Well, it was more the reason to forget her and he couldn't wait for the day where he finally could get rid of those pesky memories.
Severus ended up spending the month of July rotating between watching his mother from afar in Spinner's End during the day, and Prince Manor at night where he would put more memories of him and Lily in the grey book he used for his current experiment. All the while, he tried using the two items he took from Albus Dumbledore back in January.
He quickly noted the Invisibility Cloak was a very useful item, and had a feeling it was the same one James Potter and his goons had used to sneakily attack him. The wand on the other hand, was… frightening; Severus could barely contain the enormous surge of magic he felt as soon as he held it. Was this the reason why Dumbledore was applauded as the greatest wizard in the century? If so, the old man certainly wasn't as powerful as he thought.
Severus then realized he now had seven wands in total, including the yew wand he used for Rogue's resurrection last year and his mother's ash wand. But just what a master of seven wands would be in the future? He supposed he could ask the old wandmaker in Knockturn Alley for more information about wandlore, perhaps even learning the art of making wands along the way.
By 28th July, Severus went to the cottage behind the British Library and exchanged quick pleasantries with Mrs. Rose Davis, telling her once again he would try coming in early August for his summer job. He then entered the shack and cleaned it up a bit before making himself comfortable.
Severus casted a silencing spell to make sure no one would hear any possible sound he made at the time he would proceed with the next step of his plan. He took out the goblin-made dagger and the jar full of basilisk venom from his satchel and set them up on the table, unsheathing the small weapon before putting it into the glass container and watched as the blade slowly absorbed the potent venom.
While waiting for the process to complete, Severus sat on the nearby couch and grabbed his supposed memory-storybook. As he flicked through it, he realized that there had been lesser wonderful moments he shared with Lily as the years passed by. By the time of their fifth year, there were only about ten instances where he genuinely liked her presence.
Upon watching the memory where he told Lily of his 'suspicions' about Remus Lupin in early of their fifth year, Severus wondered just how he had ignored practically what she did to him; was he really that starved for her attention in his teenage years? Dismissing his words was one thing, but actively defending that pompous brat James Potter?! And his worst humiliation to date was merely the ultimate downfall of their inevitable fate.
No, this was the right thing to do. He wanted nothing to do with her anymore.
Taking the dagger that was heavily doused with basilisk venom, Severus looked at his reflection on the blade before taking a deep breath and closed his eyes; trying hard to clear his mind of any lingering regrets and sincerely hoping that his calculations were correct.
He then plunged the weapon into the center of the carved runes on the grey leather cover of the book.
A sharp rush of pain immediately assaulted inside of his head and Severus tried his hardest to keep holding the dagger in place, biting his lower lip until it bled as he witnessed blurry flashes of images fleeting through his closed eyes and he screamed when he couldn't contain the terrible sensation in his mind.
Severus only had the time to see the grey book's pages were entirely scorched before everything went black.
Meanwhile, Septimus Prince waited anxiously for the heir to return home.
Ever since Severus told him of the possible way to break the loyalty bond, he was afraid. He would very much want to join the rest of his family in their portraits, and yet he liked being a wandering spirit in Prince Manor. He was an anomaly to the family who was content with their lives; that enjoyed being the outcasts to other purebloods simply by taking in some of the Squibs, so what was another outsider to them?
Though most of all, he didn't want to forget his loved one. Miranda Selwyn was a beautiful girl, yes, and they had the most wonderful friendship ever since they entered Hogwarts. But she had taken advantage of his naivety (a trait that turned out to be in most, if not all Princes) and broke their promise to not reveal their deepest secret to other people.
And thus, Septimus haunted the gardens where he died for generations to come, though he occasionally made his appearance in the mansion. Severus had left earlier that day, so he spent his time by roaming inside the manor. He was in the third floor when he heard someone calling his name and curious, he glided down to the hall full of portraits that were all waiting for him.
"Septimus, you have to see this!" his cousin and Severus' ancestor, Claude Prince exclaimed excitedly as he pointed to the family tree's tapestry from his frame. Frowning, Septimus followed his gaze and his jaw dropped in utter disbelief when he saw what had happened.
Lily Evans' name was disappearing from the link she had with Severus. The light blue strand of light that connected the two names trembled and they all watched as it shook wildly, seemingly not wanting to break the loyalty bond.
But as it was, all things would eventually give in to pressure and everyone gasped when the blue strand cut in half and withered away before finally faded from the tapestry. The girl's name also glowed briefly for a final time and it vanished from sight as if it hadn't existed for the past seven years.
Only silence filled the room as they all tried to make sense what occurred just then. Someone finally cleared their throat after a while and spoke, "Well, I'd be damned; that Severus sure was something!"
Septimus only watched as the portraits cheered and lifted their glass full of wine to applaud the heir's success, not knowing what to do of the sudden event. Would Severus' method work on ghosts too? Still, he joined the rest of his family to toast for the youngest member of the Princes.
"Here's to Severus Prince's new life!"
It was 30th July, and Lord Voldemort was inside Malfoy Manor's library, thinking hard about what Severus Snape- no, Severus Prince had told him about the Squibs and Muggle-borns that plagued everyone's minds about their existence. He frowned as he looked back at some of the paperwork he did in attempt to convince his Death Eaters to rebuild the wizarding world. Was Severus' information enough to get their attention and bring in more supporters? It certainly was worth a thought.
He was also surprised to know one of Severus' ancestors was a Gaunt who was also a Squib, yet she still had the Parseltongue ability in her blood. So, the boy really was the best candidate to be his heir. And he'd be damned if he ever let the boy out of his sight after this.
Taking another look at his mysterious family ring, the Dark Lord put it on and stepped out of the library, exchanging quick nods with Lucius Malfoy before leaving to Muggle London; he had a lot of things to do.