Chapter II : Son of Slytherin

Severus sat at the Slytherin table in the Great Hall the morning after. Augustus Rookwood to his left, with his shiny prefect's badge, and Mulciber to his right : thoroughly slopping through his breakfast. Severus carefully glanced over to the Gryffindor table and he was bathed in a cold shower of jealousy. There he was, with his constantly ruffed up hair, and his stupidly screwed up face. James Potter.

Severus then looked over at Lily, hoping beyond hope, that she would glance over and see him; maybe smile at him even. But she did not, for the days of Lily Evans smiling at him were long gone. She did, however, like to smile and laugh at James Potter. Severus took his knife and began to fiercely chop up his morning eggs, imagining the face of James Potter within them.

Severus was about halfway through dissecting his breakfast when Mulciber jabbed him in the side and said, through a half full mouth, "Hey Snape! Would you wanna make some more practice with that spell after breakfist?" He said with bacon falling out of his mouth. "Might even be able to go over to MacDonald again, she seemed to like the practice, eh mate?" He laughed and bacon flew across the table and hit Crabbe.

Severus recalled himself to where he was and nodded curtly. "Maybe we should do so indeed." Severus thought happily of a moment where James Potter was the one they were practicing upon. He envisioned Potter being stuck with crawling insects under his skin instead of MacDonald.

Mulciber chortled and dug into more of his breakfast. "That'll be a right good time that will, eh Snape? We'll show that bleedin' mudblood what for, eh?" He laughed uncontrollably at his own comment.

Severus felt a sick stab in his stomach as Mulciber finished his sentence. Mudblood. The very word that , Severus believed, ruined his life. He ignored Mulciber and got up from the table, leaving Mulciber behind to laugh stupidly.
As he walked sullenly out of the great hall into the open grounds Severus considered a day when Lily and himself walked together through the doors he was now exiting.

It was their first time entering Hogwarts, and they had just arrived from their boatride, with the friendly giant close behind them. He remembers how Lily's eyes were full of fascination and fear, while his were drinking up every ounce of magic in the place, as if it were a drink long denied him as he trod through a desert.

"Sev," She said above the other first year's chattering, her voice full of awe and fear "Sev, we are here now, we're in Hogwarts! Do you think I'll still be Slytherin?" She asked him as her green eyes bore into his.

He parted his black hair, which had begun to fall in front of his face, and he was carefully watching the face he knew so well. "I really think you will make it, we're alike, you and I! Aren't we?" He smiled and she did seem more at ease. That was until the ghosts arrived through the eastern wall. That was when Lily Evans jumped in surprise and her hand, for the first time ever, found Severus Snape's. He was surprised by it, and it appeared as though she was too. But despite this, she didn't immediately break off after the ghosts left.

Severus reached the edge of the Black Lake and took a seat under the great tree that offered such desirable shade from the sun. He slumped against it's cool bark and his legs folded into a crossed position. He felt the wind blowing across his face from the lake next to him. The giant squid was popping out occasionally to bask in the warmth of the sun, which seemed to make Severus feel exposed.

Severus felt his left forearm and remembered last nights' events all too clearly. He hoped that the muggle boy made it back home safely, and that his countercurse was able to take effect. It was better, he thought, that he only had to use sectumsempra – as opposed to killing him. Severus wouldn't have been prepared to do that, and then he would have been killed, and his desires would have been thrown to dust. This way at least there was still hope, no matter how little, that his ambitions could reach fruition.

He stared up at the place he knew to be Gryffindor common room, and a fresh tremor of fury swept him up. James Potter. He was the one who had been responsible for Lily disliking him. At least in part, anyway, for the reason he had called Lily that word.

"You will be the death of me Potter. Or I shall be for you." Severus swore to nobody in general as he ripped up grass. Severus shook his head violently and realized what he had just said. He didn't like these feelings he had been having the last three years. But they were in fact, rising out of him more frequently than he would have liked. He always shrugged them off as teenage angst, but somewhere inside him, he knew they were pouring out from an infected hatred implanted deeply within.

Just as quickly as the anger came, is disappeared, left to fill the void was the familiar longing he felt for Lily. He looked at the left hand which Lily had held, more often than their first night in Hogwarts, in sadness.

He got up from the tree and headed through the great hall, alone as always, and made his way to the dungeons to the Slytherin Common Room. He knocked on the brown door leading into the common room. A serpent crafted knocker on the door came to life and spoke in a slow hiss unto him.

"Severus Snape, son of Tobias Snape and Eileen Prince, half-blood born. Tell me, what would you favor most? An assurance of total power for yourself, but the death of your closest friend. Or, " It continued in a slow hiss "The death of yourself, and have your closest friend attain all you ever wanted?" The serpent knocker seemed to be considering him.

Severus looked at the knocker in distaste. "I would die, always die, to give her happiness." He looked at the serpent in it's flashing red eyes as it recoiled backwards to the safety of the wooden base.

It hissed as the door creaked open. "Some son of Slytherin, you be, Severus Snape. You insult your ancestors….proceed ye ruined man."

Severus walked past the snake, ignoring it, as he always did when he gave an answer it didn't approve of. He walked straight into his dormitory and threw himself onto his four poster and shook his head. "It must end." He said to the vacant room, and he laid down, and there he formulated what he must do.