Add a Pinch of Newt's Eye
(The Chronicles of Severus Snape – Book 1)
A Fanfic penned by Ishtar
Please see Bibliography for copyrights and permissions.
Chapter 1- Waiting for an Owl
A rather pale and gangly looking boy of about eleven twittered about excitedly in the family garden. It was a hot July day in the English countryside, yet he poked and prodded at the insects buzzing in and out of the lavender bushes, holding an imaginary wand. If the cottage had not been set far back off the main road, passers-by would have thought the boy were conducting some sort of imaginary insect ballet. Or perhaps he was pretending to sword fight with Legionnaires, for if there had been any neighbors nearby, they would have sworn the boy was shouting out things that sounded rather a bit like Latin. But there were no neighbors, nor passers-by; for the Snape family owned all 12 acres of hillside at Rooksnest, a country cottage located a good three miles from the nearest town of Lambourn.
The way in lie down a long dirt pathway, this was to ensure that no- one unexpected would come knocking at their front door. The reason for this would be clear had you been fortunate enough to make it down the pathway, for the Snapes were not your typical English family, they had a secret. They were wizards, and if it hadn't become obvious by the multitude of charms they had placed all along their property to keep people out, it would start to dawn on one as their yard contained many strange and exotic plants for potions, and looked more like a apothecary than your typical rose-laden hobby garden.
The boy, Severus, finally ran out of energy, and plopped down practically on top of a plot of widowsweep berries growing under the kitchen window. He stuck his face down as close as he could near a beetle crawling across the grass. He stared at it with eyes that were almost as black as the shell of the very insect he was trying to examine, until it suddenly flew off agitated. He realized at once he had accidentally bumped it with his nose, which despite his mother's best curative efforts didn't quite fit his face having been broken on a number of occasions. He then yawned and dazed wearily at the sky, he realized he'd been up for several hours already, after all how could he sleep? He'd been up at the crack of dawn every day this summer, and the summer before that, waiting patiently.
His heart sunk. What if this summer was like the last one? He had sat in this very garden each day looking for a sign, hoping that an owl would come to deliver the parchment letter written in green ink. Like the one both of his parents had received years ago, and their parents before that, and well you could trace the family line as far back as the 17th century and there wasn't a one who had not attended the very school whose admission letter he awaited. Yet not even a feather was dropped in the sake of delivering anything to him that summer. No this year, this summer it would be different. He had been studying since the day he could read of course, but his birthday fell on February 13th, and how could he expect a notable school such as Hogwarts to accept even the most pure-blooded and determined student at an age of only ten. Now that he was eleven, he was sure it would come.
He stared off at the clouds, and like many boys his age started imagining animal shapes in the clouds, yet unlike most boys his age the animals he imagined weren't rabbits and puppies, but lizards, serpents and spiders. Dozing off, it was probably fortunate for the neighbors that the Snapes did own so much land, for the snoring noises that started coming out of the poor child's broken nose were a bit like a large sawmill concentrated into a small bottle for model ship building. The racket didn't last long fortunately, for no sooner had Severus begin dreaming of becoming head-boy, when a sharp pointed object smacked him in the forehead. He opened his eyes blearily and pushed his grimy black hair away from his eyes. As he did he caught a glimpse of a tawny owl flittering off to the east. He jumped up immediately and grabbed the envelope; there it was in all its glory, the smell of parchment filled his nostrils, the jade green lettering sparkling in the sunlight. It read on the outside:
Mr. S. Snape
Asleep in the Garden
Rooksnest, Nr Lambourn
Berkshire
Severus stared at it in awe for about a minute, and then looked around the garden realizing the address implied that someone was spying on him, possibly even playing a trick. But as his suspicions subsided, he tore open the purple seal bearing the Hogwarts coat of arms, and unfolded the letter inside. It looked much like the ones both his parents had shown him, except of course that the headmaster was different, but he had already known that from the article in last weeks Daily Prophet. He read aloud, despite the lack of audience (unless you counted the insect ballet troupe/imaginary Legionnaires):
HOGWARTS SCHOOL
of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY
--------
Headmaster: ALBUS DUMBLEDORE
(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock,
Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)
Dear Mr. Snape,
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts
School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of
all necessary books and equipment.
Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than
July 31. Yours Sincerely, Maurice Mauldin Maurice Mauldin Deputy Headmaster
Severus ran into the house waving the letter above his head fervently. As he did, a broom with no person controlling it scurried over from where it had been cleaning soot out of their large inglenook fireplace, and followed quickly behind him. He realized in his haste he had forgotten to remove his shoes, and had tracked dirt across the entire living room. Severus was suddenly quite glad his mother was the only person at home at the moment. He continued his sprint into the kitchen, were all manner of pots and pans were tidying themselves up while his mother stood in the middle, this time holding a real magic wand, but still looking very much as her son had when waving his imaginary one at insects out in the garden earlier that day.
Mrs. Juniper Wensley-Snape was a woman of about fourty years old, though you'd probably guess younger to look at her. Her long flowing black hair stopped at her waist, and it framed her glowing milky skin in a way that made her son think of the veils the contessas wore. Her eyes were a blue-gray, piercing yet pleasant in a way that reminded one of a fog settling on the sea. Just a hint of blush flushed her cheeks, as if she were constantly getting caught in the act of doing something she wasn't supposed to. You could stare at her face for days, and finally realize you had only looked at half of it, for what seemed like miles away you would finally get to her rosy pink lips, which lay quite literally a good three or four inches away. Mrs. Snape's nose, much like her son's was just about the longest nose you could imagine seeing on a person without it looking like it belonged to someone else. Unlike Severus, his mother's nose suited her, as it had been untouched, and it lay there long, thin and beautiful.
Juniper immediately stopped what she was doing as she saw the glint of green call out from the letter in her son's hand. She immediately grabbed him in a large swooping hug in order to congratulate him. Severus' face scrunched a bit, for he found as he got older, despite the fact that he cared for her dearly, that he sometimes just couldn't bear how his mother fawned over him all the time, he was after all not a young boy anymore, and the letter proved it, he was about to enter the first journey which would make him a man.
"Oh! I'm so very proud of you", Juniper warbled, "Look at this list of things we need to get! We should go right away so you can get started."
Severus had no problem with this, while it was true he read just about every book available to him from his family's extensive library, it was in theory only that he had been able to practice anything. For he had no wand, and even though he had wanted one since his fifth birthday, it was well known in the wizarding world you could not purchase one, not even in the shadiest shops, until you had received your acceptance letter from one of the wizarding schools. Besides, he felt this need to prove himself, he had had very little contact with other boys or girls his age having grown up in the middle of nowhere, he wanted to ensure his first impression at Hogwart's was a lasting one.
(The Chronicles of Severus Snape – Book 1)
A Fanfic penned by Ishtar
Please see Bibliography for copyrights and permissions.
Chapter 1- Waiting for an Owl
A rather pale and gangly looking boy of about eleven twittered about excitedly in the family garden. It was a hot July day in the English countryside, yet he poked and prodded at the insects buzzing in and out of the lavender bushes, holding an imaginary wand. If the cottage had not been set far back off the main road, passers-by would have thought the boy were conducting some sort of imaginary insect ballet. Or perhaps he was pretending to sword fight with Legionnaires, for if there had been any neighbors nearby, they would have sworn the boy was shouting out things that sounded rather a bit like Latin. But there were no neighbors, nor passers-by; for the Snape family owned all 12 acres of hillside at Rooksnest, a country cottage located a good three miles from the nearest town of Lambourn.
The way in lie down a long dirt pathway, this was to ensure that no- one unexpected would come knocking at their front door. The reason for this would be clear had you been fortunate enough to make it down the pathway, for the Snapes were not your typical English family, they had a secret. They were wizards, and if it hadn't become obvious by the multitude of charms they had placed all along their property to keep people out, it would start to dawn on one as their yard contained many strange and exotic plants for potions, and looked more like a apothecary than your typical rose-laden hobby garden.
The boy, Severus, finally ran out of energy, and plopped down practically on top of a plot of widowsweep berries growing under the kitchen window. He stuck his face down as close as he could near a beetle crawling across the grass. He stared at it with eyes that were almost as black as the shell of the very insect he was trying to examine, until it suddenly flew off agitated. He realized at once he had accidentally bumped it with his nose, which despite his mother's best curative efforts didn't quite fit his face having been broken on a number of occasions. He then yawned and dazed wearily at the sky, he realized he'd been up for several hours already, after all how could he sleep? He'd been up at the crack of dawn every day this summer, and the summer before that, waiting patiently.
His heart sunk. What if this summer was like the last one? He had sat in this very garden each day looking for a sign, hoping that an owl would come to deliver the parchment letter written in green ink. Like the one both of his parents had received years ago, and their parents before that, and well you could trace the family line as far back as the 17th century and there wasn't a one who had not attended the very school whose admission letter he awaited. Yet not even a feather was dropped in the sake of delivering anything to him that summer. No this year, this summer it would be different. He had been studying since the day he could read of course, but his birthday fell on February 13th, and how could he expect a notable school such as Hogwarts to accept even the most pure-blooded and determined student at an age of only ten. Now that he was eleven, he was sure it would come.
He stared off at the clouds, and like many boys his age started imagining animal shapes in the clouds, yet unlike most boys his age the animals he imagined weren't rabbits and puppies, but lizards, serpents and spiders. Dozing off, it was probably fortunate for the neighbors that the Snapes did own so much land, for the snoring noises that started coming out of the poor child's broken nose were a bit like a large sawmill concentrated into a small bottle for model ship building. The racket didn't last long fortunately, for no sooner had Severus begin dreaming of becoming head-boy, when a sharp pointed object smacked him in the forehead. He opened his eyes blearily and pushed his grimy black hair away from his eyes. As he did he caught a glimpse of a tawny owl flittering off to the east. He jumped up immediately and grabbed the envelope; there it was in all its glory, the smell of parchment filled his nostrils, the jade green lettering sparkling in the sunlight. It read on the outside:
Mr. S. Snape
Asleep in the Garden
Rooksnest, Nr Lambourn
Berkshire
Severus stared at it in awe for about a minute, and then looked around the garden realizing the address implied that someone was spying on him, possibly even playing a trick. But as his suspicions subsided, he tore open the purple seal bearing the Hogwarts coat of arms, and unfolded the letter inside. It looked much like the ones both his parents had shown him, except of course that the headmaster was different, but he had already known that from the article in last weeks Daily Prophet. He read aloud, despite the lack of audience (unless you counted the insect ballet troupe/imaginary Legionnaires):
HOGWARTS SCHOOL
of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY
--------
Headmaster: ALBUS DUMBLEDORE
(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock,
Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)
Dear Mr. Snape,
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts
School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of
all necessary books and equipment.
Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than
July 31. Yours Sincerely, Maurice Mauldin Maurice Mauldin Deputy Headmaster
Severus ran into the house waving the letter above his head fervently. As he did, a broom with no person controlling it scurried over from where it had been cleaning soot out of their large inglenook fireplace, and followed quickly behind him. He realized in his haste he had forgotten to remove his shoes, and had tracked dirt across the entire living room. Severus was suddenly quite glad his mother was the only person at home at the moment. He continued his sprint into the kitchen, were all manner of pots and pans were tidying themselves up while his mother stood in the middle, this time holding a real magic wand, but still looking very much as her son had when waving his imaginary one at insects out in the garden earlier that day.
Mrs. Juniper Wensley-Snape was a woman of about fourty years old, though you'd probably guess younger to look at her. Her long flowing black hair stopped at her waist, and it framed her glowing milky skin in a way that made her son think of the veils the contessas wore. Her eyes were a blue-gray, piercing yet pleasant in a way that reminded one of a fog settling on the sea. Just a hint of blush flushed her cheeks, as if she were constantly getting caught in the act of doing something she wasn't supposed to. You could stare at her face for days, and finally realize you had only looked at half of it, for what seemed like miles away you would finally get to her rosy pink lips, which lay quite literally a good three or four inches away. Mrs. Snape's nose, much like her son's was just about the longest nose you could imagine seeing on a person without it looking like it belonged to someone else. Unlike Severus, his mother's nose suited her, as it had been untouched, and it lay there long, thin and beautiful.
Juniper immediately stopped what she was doing as she saw the glint of green call out from the letter in her son's hand. She immediately grabbed him in a large swooping hug in order to congratulate him. Severus' face scrunched a bit, for he found as he got older, despite the fact that he cared for her dearly, that he sometimes just couldn't bear how his mother fawned over him all the time, he was after all not a young boy anymore, and the letter proved it, he was about to enter the first journey which would make him a man.
"Oh! I'm so very proud of you", Juniper warbled, "Look at this list of things we need to get! We should go right away so you can get started."
Severus had no problem with this, while it was true he read just about every book available to him from his family's extensive library, it was in theory only that he had been able to practice anything. For he had no wand, and even though he had wanted one since his fifth birthday, it was well known in the wizarding world you could not purchase one, not even in the shadiest shops, until you had received your acceptance letter from one of the wizarding schools. Besides, he felt this need to prove himself, he had had very little contact with other boys or girls his age having grown up in the middle of nowhere, he wanted to ensure his first impression at Hogwart's was a lasting one.