Harry shook his head in disbelief, there was no way his father had been a servant of Voldemort, a spy. Snape had to be lying, but why? What did Snape have to gain from lying to a stranger? He had to keep reading.
I will start from the beginning. I met Lily Evans when we were children, and I knew even then that she was special. She had been playing at the neighborhood park with her ignorant sister, Petunia. From the moment Petunia and I set eyes on one another we knew that we despised the other. Petunia had been whining and complaining about Lily being different, about her using magic. I am a half-blood wizard, and could recognize from the magic I had seen my mother perform that Lily was a witch. From the day I approached them on that playground, to the day I draw my last breath on this wretched Earth, Lily has been my only, my dearest, friend. At first I think it was curiosity that drew her to me, curiosity about her abilities and about the magical world. She is muggle-born, and therefore knew nothing of what her powers meant. That day, when learned that she was not a freak as her sister had told her, when she saw that I too could perform acts muggles could not explain, she looked at me with what I could only describe as friendship. In those green eyes I saw, for the first time in my life, someone who understood what it was like, to be feared, disliked, alone. I think I loved her from that day all those years ago.
When we received our Hogwarts letters we were both excited, but underneath I admit now that I was afraid. What if we arrived at Hogwarts and she no longer desired my company? What if we were sorted into other houses and she never spoke to me again? The night of our sorting I was as nervous as the rest of the students, but not about my own placement, about hers. When she was sorted into Gryffindor my heart sank, for I knew that my fate likely resided in Slytherin or Ravenclaw. When she sat at the Gryffindor table I saw a boy our age introduce himself, and I thought then that my friend was gone. I have learned since that that boy was James Potter. When I was sorted into Slytherin and trudged my way to their table, I saw Lily smile to me and wave, much to James' chagrin, and my heart lightened.
I wish I had known then what James was; I'd have cursed him into oblivion that very night. It started as childish taunting. James and his friends took particular pleasure in torturing me, in class, the hallways, meals, it never seemed to end. The only solace I had was Lily. She hated James as much as I did, and when she saw him attacking me, she would always stand in my defense, even when the rest of our peers only laughed. No one understood why the popular Gryffindor girl was friends with the weird Slytherin boy. I didn't need them to understand, I didn't need their approval, she was all I needed. At first it seemed as if James hated Lily as much as she hated him, but as weeks went on, that changed. He made excuses to talk to her, to approach her, much to her, and my, irritation. I admit that I would taunt James, that I would purposely walk up to talk to her when I saw that he was about to corner her. I knew it meant a harsher taunting session later, but it was worth it. She noticed of course, and though she was grateful, she was worried for me. We started exchanging letters after classes by way of my young owl Artemis. I had one of the few Slytherin dormitory rooms that had a small window, barely big enough for the owl to slip through. We talked about anything, everything. Many of the other Slytherin boys made fun of me, and would try to steal her letters, but I didn't care. All through our first year, even as James' torture sessions grew worse, I found solace in those letters. Sadly during later events I had to destroy them for fear that they would be discovered by the Dark Lord.
Our second and third years passed relatively without incident. James' attempts to woo Lily intensified, as did her loathing of him, and therefore so did his bullying. Lily and I grew closer and I knew that I loved her. I did not admit this to her, for fear of rejection, but even then I think she had begun to have some feelings toward me beyond those of friendship. In our fourth year, I began activities that almost ended that forever. It was in my fourth year that I began to explore the dark arts. It started as research, purely academic. I did not tell Lily, I knew that she would not approve. I wish now that she had known, that she had stopped me, maybe things would have turned out differently. My research soon evolved into actions. Spells, potions, jinxes, I felt as if I had discovered a whole new world. It was Avery who found me one night in the restricted section of the library, and instead of turning me in, he smiled, and brought me back to the common room. It was from him, and several other Slytherin boys that I first heard of Voldemort. He was merely a rumor at that time, a whisper, a ghost. All we knew was that he was powerful, that he knew of dark magic, we thought that he could make us powerful. We were so naïve.
I wish then that I had asked how these boys knew about Voldemort, maybe I would have been able to end the madness before any real damage done, but I was young, I was stupid. I learned years later that it was James who had first told the boys about Voldemort. They did not know it was him of course, even though they respected James as a fellow bully, he was still a Gryffindor and not to be trusted. James' mother was Dorea Potter, formerly known as Dorea Black.