Just a note before I continue the story:

Because this is a retelling based on fact, I'm trying to keep as many of the details surrounding Lily and James as accurate as possible (Snape's family situation, Spinner's End, etc.) but there are definitely some things that aren't going to be 100% accurate (for example, the fact that James and Snape first meet on the Hogwarts train).

Please bear with me – I'm just trying to make this story as entertaining (and heartbreaking? Is that a good word? Probably not) as possible.

Thank you and keep reading :)

Severus' hand yanked at his mother's pale one as they walked through the neatly paved paths. "Come on, come on, come on!" His eyes swept over the towering list of books and items required for his first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. His mother barely smiled, her eyes sunken and hollow, as if the mere presence of sunlight was painful to her withered stature. Severus couldn't remember the last time she'd left the house; he wondered if she ever did at all anymore.

He pulled his mother into a store embellished with the words Flourish and Blotts and gaped at the towering shelves of books lightly dusted with smoke and the customary old-book reek. "Mum, look at this."

Finding all of the books on his list was no simple task, but he divided up the list with his mother and they both worked together to conquer the intimidating scrap of parchment. "Standard Book of Spells, Grade One," he read off. "Wow. There's a whole book of spells… Wonder all of the things I could do with that."

After collecting almost all of the items on the supply list, Eileen guided Severus to a modest looking shop painted with swathes of pastel colors. The store's sign read Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour in mint green letters. Severus and Eileen sat down and ordered two cones, loading them with scoops in various colors. Eileen paid for the sweet treats with the thick gold coins that had been used as currency throughout this entire alleyway. "Galleons," the shopkeeper at Gringotts (who had looked oddly inhuman to Severus' eye) had mentioned. He couldn't wait to tell Lily about this.

Lily. And there she was again—floating, soaring in his mind's eye, an ever-present part of his thoughts. Lily would like this ice cream. I wonder if Lily's bought this book? I hope Lily's been able to come to Diagon Alley. He'd told her to come today in hopes that they would meet each other, but so far he'd seen not even a fleeting glimpse of her blazing red hair.

"Mmph," he mumbled as the ice cream touched his teeth and worked a chilly sensation through his entire mouth. "Mum, where next?"

His mother stuck her spoon into her last scoop. "Ollivander's," she said quietly, her face sallow. "Wand shop."

Wands. In all the stories his mother had told him, he'd always asked after the wands. "What kind, Mum? Was it pink? Did it glow in the dark?" Now, finally, he'd be able to get his own.

Severus and his mother polished off the ice cream as it dribbled into their fingers and headed for Ollivander's. Though shops poked around every corner and jutted out from every alleyway, the wand shop was all that clouded Severus' mind. He couldn't help but imagine what his wand would be like. Would it be able to perform spells as well as the others? Would it double as a broomstick?

At last, the musty old wand shop came into view. Eileen led her son to the door, where a man and woman were hovering worriedly.

"—left her with the Denbys, I hope she's not putting up a fuss—"

"—never seen a place like this, it's a wonder that it even exists—"

"Come on, Mum!" Severus practically bounded into the shop and gasped at the sight of tall, daunting shelves assaulting him everywhere he looked, stacked from top to bottom with what resembled shoeboxes. From deep within the store, he heard a cacophony of voices—most of them children. Another voice pierced the humid air, though—an older one, tinged with aging, but with wisdom as well.

"Come over here, we can try this one, let me just get it out from the top…"

"I'm going to try and find the shopkeeper," Severus whispered, and dove into the thick of the store. He began to feel faint at the way the shelves seemed to close in around them, as if the wands themselves were inviting him to try them out. He followed the voices, which got louder as he passed, and noted that there seemed to be a few boys present. He turned the corner and then heard a clear, high voice—one he swore he'd never forget.

"Mr. Ollivander, what about me?"

Before he could stop himself, he was running, nearly tripping over his own feet in anticipation. It all made sense now. The people at the front of the store must have been her parents—the girl they'd mentioned Petunia. And the girl inside the store?

BOOM.

Everything jerked to the side and Severus slammed into the creaking floorboards with a thump. Pain erupted at the top of his head, and he felt a lump the size of one of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans starting to surface. He'd ran straight into a stack of boxes—and found Mr. Ollivander.

Flames ate at his cheeks as he forced himself into a standing position. Tentatively, he ran a hand through his hair and it came away covered in a film of gray particles. Severus looked at the scene before him: three students and a wizened, elderly old man with graying hair and almost transparent eyes. The man took Severus in with surprise. "Another first year, I see," he said huskily. "Come along, I'll pick up the wands later."

Still shocked but too much so to do anything but oblige, Severus fell into line with the other students. He quickened his pace until he was side by side with Lily, her auburn hair in a messy braid, who was talking to a tall, cocky looking boy on her other side. His dark hair looked both neat and messy, and he grinned toothily at Lily whenever she spoke. The boy gawked when his eyes fell on Severus. "We saw your tumbling act just there," he said, pointing at the stack of dilapidated wand boxes that served as the aftermath of Severus' spectacular entrance.

Severus blushed. "Yeah, I couldn't find you all," he mumbled, hastily turning his gaze to the ground.

Lily turned to the boy with a fierce expression. "You don't have to talk to him like that, James," she fired back, a protective look in her eyes.

The boy—James, Lily had just said—shrugged. "Whatever." He turned his nose up as he looked at Severus' robes, which were lightly smudged with dirt. He'd chosen his finest for his first trip to Diagon Alley, but "finest" wasn't a common word in Spinner's End. It had been hard enough convincing his mother to make the trip—she was fighting with his father yet again, and wasn't too keen on spending the day with him, Severus—and he hadn't wanted to trouble her with clothing on top of everything else. "Nice robes. Don't worry, I'm sure they're the best you could find back where they dump the trash at Fortescue's—you're lucky as it is to scrounge that mangy old thing."

Lily swatted James' hand. "Leave him alone. What's he done to you?" She scoffed at him and grabbed Severus' hand. "Come on, Severus. We don't have to listen to dirty-mouthed codgers like him." Still steaming, she pulled the two of them ahead and kept walking.

Finding his wand was perhaps the most exciting experience of Severus' life. Running his finger over the delicate wood gave him a sense of overwhelming anticipation, and his fingers trembled each time Mr. Ollivander held one out to him. "Dragon heartstring, supple, slightly pliable… Unicorn tail hair, resistant, ten and a half inches…"

At last, when both he and Lily, along with James and the boy following him, had selected their wands—or rather, the wands had selected them—they filed out of the shop and surveyed their Hogwarts lists. Severus had only a few things left to collect before his trip to Diagon Alley was complete. "Just one more thing—a cauldron," Severus said to Lily.

"We went to Potage's Cauldron Shop just before Ollivander's and got one," Lily informed him. "I reckon you should go there, too. It's just around the corner—a right and a left."

"Okay," said Severus, already rising from his chair. "It's okay, Mum, I can do it on my own," he added hastily at the sight of his mother getting up with him. "Lily says it's close enough. I have some Gall-yons in my pocket, anyway. It should be enough. I'll be back in a bit!"

Severus eyed James warily before leaving, but he was deep in conversation with the other boy, who was sporting light brown hair that constantly fell over his face and eyes that glistened with worry, as if he were afraid of the ground itself. Severus couldn't hear his name all that properly; it sounded something along the lines of Rufus, but he wasn't completely sure.

Reaching in his pocket once more to make sure the Galleons were there, he took off down the alleyway in search of Potage's Cauldron Shop. "Now, what did Lily say again?" he murmured to himself. "Around the corner, then a left—or was it a right first?"

Lost in thought, he didn't even see a fifth year balancing a precarious stack of books in front of him—and regrettably, she didn't see him either. (Who could blame her—it's a wonder she saw anything at all with a stack that high in front of her.) "Oof!" All of the books clattered to the ground, and the girl shot Severus a very nasty look.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, didn't see—"

He took off in pursuit of one of the books, which had been thrown all the way into the crook of a darkened shop. Severus picked up the book—and then gasped at the sight of a long, dark alley leading to the right. Small groups of witches and wizards spoke quietly in front of shops lit by oil lanterns. Forgetting the book momentarily, Severus took a few nervous steps towards the street, passing by the street name on the brick wall. Knockturn Alley.

Knockturn Alley snaked down through large clumps of shops. Severus' eyes swam across the names as he walked: The Coffin House, where a particularly slimy looking wizard acknowledged him with a yellowing bone clamped in his right hand; Borgin and Burkes, in which he could see nothing but darkness; Noggin and Bounce, where a shriveled looking head winked at him and caused him to considerably quicken his pace, and—

"Hey, kid."

Severus yelped as he felt something hard hit his shoulder. He whirled around, his hand fumbling in the search for his wand. It took him a few moments to realize that, even if he could find his wand, he knew no spells with which to defend himself. He was going to die here, alone in this godforsaken dark street, where no one would even know, not even Lily—

"Whassa matter? I just wanna talk."

Severus took in the sight of the man, who watched him with beady eyes. His shaggy hair fell over his face, which was covered in wrinkles and dark red and black lines. In his hands was a thick black book with a picture of green smoke on the front.

"I have to go," he told the man, already backing away.

"Wait a second! I saw you at Flourish and Blotts, kid, you must be a first year… here, just take this book. You seem like the kinda kid who would do it proud. Just take it… take it and read…I take it you'll like what you see…" The man pressed the book into Severus' hands, saluted him with a dirt-covered hand, and took off down the other side of Knockturn Alley.

Severus stood there for a moment, too stunned to speak. Then, he turned the book over in his hands and ran his fingers over the title, which had been engraved into the thick cover:

Touch of Oblivion: An Introduction to the Dark Arts

"The Dark Arts," Severus whispered to himself. His mother had told him of spells such as the Jelly-Legs Jinx and Oppugno, but never of anything related to the Dark Arts. He'd once asked his mother if there were any bad spells, but she'd dodged the question.

"What is dark ought to stay in the shadows," she'd reminded him. And he'd never questioned her judgment, never asked after dark spells after that. The subject had since failed to arouse his curiosity.

Until now.

His mind whirred and clicked, trying to rationalize the situation. It's just a book, he assured himself. Books help you learn things. This book could help me in school. What if the Dark Arts are important? It's my first year at Hogwarts… I don't want to fall behind… This book could help me in school…

Pushing the subject from his mind, he stuffed Touch of Oblivion into the crook of his arm and ventured deeper into Knockturn Alley for Potage's Cauldron Shop.

It's just a book. It's not like it'll change me.