-Chapter One-
The sounds of children laughing and chattering happily drifted through an open window and into the manicured garden behind a large brick house. A painfully thin, dark-haired boy named Severus Snape sat on one of the garden benches with his back to the window and his large nose inches from the pages of the book he held close to his face. When a loud chorus of cheers erupted from the window, he scowled heavily and snapped the book shut. He left the bench, tucked the book under one arm and slouched away from the house and further into the garden.
Even as the sounds from the house faded behind him, a new set of voices turned Severus's attention to a large thicket of bushes. The laughs coming from this direction had a far different tone than the ones that came from inside the house. These voices were older, jeering and full of malevolence.
"You'll kill it if you keep that up," drawled a familiar voice.
"That's the point, isn't it?" another voice responded.
Carefully picking his way around the bushes, Severus saw four teenagers crowded together in a little group. One of them, the only girl, was pointing a wand at something on the ground. Severus tried to edge closer for a better look when a twig snapped under his right foot. He froze, but it was too late. All four of the teenagers quickly turned around, the girl raising her wand to point it in his direction. When she saw him, her alarmed expression morphed swiftly into a sneer.
"Snape," she said, her voice dripping with mockery. She didn't lower her wand. "Look, it's the poor little orphan boy. Why aren't you inside with all the other little brats?"
"Florence probably kicked him out," said the owner of the familiar voice; a tall, blonde-haired boy who Severus knew was named Lucius. He was smirking, but his words were amused rather than malicious. "She doesn't like him."
"Your sister always had good taste," said the girl, baring her teeth at Severus.
"She'd better get used to having him around more often," Lucius said casually. "They're starting Hogwarts together in a few weeks and if they both go to Slytherin, they'll be in all the same classes."
"This one, in Slytherin?" the girl screeched incredulously, jabbing her wand in Severus's direction. "Not a chance. He's got all the makings of a Hufflepuff."
The other two teenagers, a pair of boys who looked almost exactly alike but for a few inches in height and width, guffawed heartily at this pronouncement.
"He's a Prince, Bella," said Lucius through a soft chuckle.
"He's half a Prince," the girl corrected him, her dark eyes fixing on Severus as a vicious smile spread over her face, "and half…something else."
The four teenagers stared at Severus as though they had asked a question and were expecting him to answer. Severus glared back at them, his expression full of guarded anger.
"I will be in Slytherin," he said quietly. The girl opened her mouth to respond, but Lucius cut her off when a particularly loud cheer rang out from the house.
"Sounds like they brought out the cake. We should go get some before Crabbe and Goyle have at it."
The girl stuffed her wand inside her robes and followed Lucius as he walked away toward the house, a derisive sneer curling her lips when she passed Severus. The other two boys trailed after them, jostling Severus aside far more roughly than was necessary.
Severus watched them over his shoulder until he was certain they'd left and then turned back to the spot on the ground that had held them all so captivated. There on the grass lay a small brown-spotted toad, twitching and flailing as if it were under attack by an invisible predator. Its golden eyes were swiveling around in its head at a dizzying pace and its mouth was stretched to a grotesque width. Severus watched it jerk madly in place for a few moments with an inscrutable expression on his face. Then he lifted his leg and crushed the toad under his shoe.
Later that evening, Severus was still sitting alone in the garden, but he'd given up trying to read his book in the waning sunlight. Instead, he was using a stick to dig patterns into the dirt beneath the shrubs that edged the patio, and casting frequent glances in the direction of the open French doors. Just beyond the doors was a huge pile of parcels with bits of ribbon and wrapping paper strewn about the ornate carpet around them. Most of Severus's glances were focused intently on one of the parcels that had been left open; one that revealed a beautiful mahogany-handled broomstick.
With an abrupt gesture and a firm clench of his jaw, Severus tossed his stick beneath the shrubs and walked swiftly to the French doors. Stepping inside the house, he paused just long enough to lift the broomstick from its packaging, and then he moved back out over the patio and into the garden. He kept walking until he'd reached a small clearing between a cluster of willows, the drooping branches effectively obscuring him from the view of anyone who might happen to look out over the garden from the house.
Severus ran his hands along the smooth handle of the broomstick, his fingers tracing over the gold lettering that spelled the words Nimbus 1001 near the top. He brought the tail closer to his face and turned the handle around in his hands to gauge the alignment of the twigs. He was just about to measure its height in relation to his own when a taunting voice suddenly chimed out behind him.
"So go on already."
Severus whipped around to see a girl about his age glaring at him with her arms folded. She was dressed in a white party frock that seemed to glow in the dusky light and her long golden hair was held away from her face by an emerald green velvet ribbon. She would've looked perfectly angelic had it not been for the scornful smirk on her face.
"Go on," she repeated, her smirk broadening. "Try it out."
Severus's hands clenched reflexively around the handle of the broomstick. He watched the girl, who he knew very well as Lucius's younger sister Florence, with a horrible sinking feeling as her smirk deepened into a triumphant expression.
"No, thank you," he whispered, holding the broom out to her.
"If you don't try it out, I'll tell Uncle Quirinus that I caught you trying to steal it."
Severus slowly lowered the broom, his face clouding over.
"I wasn't trying to steal it."
"Want to see which one of us he believes?" she asked in a saccharine, mocking tone.
Gritting his teeth, Severus positioned the broom next to him and tried to straddle it between his legs. The broom made a sudden lurch as he swung a leg over it and the shaft caught him just behind the knee, dragging his leg apart from the other until he had lost his balance and fell backwards, landing hard on his backside. He looked up at Florence, who smiled down at him smugly.
"Hm, you must've done something wrong. Try it again."
"No," he said as he stood, his voice shaking with quiet rage. Florence's eyes narrowed.
"I said, try it again. Or you'll be sorry."
This time, the broom allowed him to straddle it properly. But as soon as he tried to lean back into a sitting position, it began to buck wildly beneath him, lifting him up a foot or two before swooping back down and jarring his legs with sharp stabs of pain each time his feet crashed into the ground. Florence had burst out laughing, her folded arms dropping down to hold her stomach as she watched him struggle to stay upright.
Grasping hard on the handle, Severus tried to lean forward and grip the shaft of the broomstick between his knees, hoping to steady it enough to dismount. The broom, seeming to sense his intent, made a violent pitch forward and tossed him into the air. Severus landed face-first in the grass and Florence's laughter reached a raucous pitch. Severus picked himself up from the ground, tears of pain and humiliation burning behind his eyes.
"I couldn't have asked for a better birthday present from you, Severus," she said, wiping away her own tears of mirth.
Severus stood stock-still, fuming in silence. He could feel a warm wetness on his face and guessed that his nose was bleeding. He watched Florence wind down from her hysterics, his fingers twitching as if he was actively suppressing the impulse to wrap them around her slender neck.
"Ah, well, at least I know the charms work," she said, flashing him a wide, predacious grin. "Anti-Mudblood, you see."
"I'm not a Mudblood," Severus growled softly.
"Well, something set it off. Maybe it was your filthy hair. It has a Self-Cleaning Charm on it, too."
Before either one of them could say anything more, a voice from somewhere near the house called Florence's name. Sighing as though she was disappointed, Florence scooped the broom from the ground and looked over at Severus sharply.
"If you ever touch any of my things again, I won't be the only one laughing at you, Severus Snape. Make sure you keep that in mind when we get to Hogwarts."
She turned and walked away, leaving Severus alone in the burgeoning darkness, balling his hands into fists and swallowing furiously against the urge to cry and scream at the same time.