CHAPTER 03: DIAGON ALLEY
Lily ran to tell Severus that a teacher from Hogwarts was at her house, talking to her parents. She had never doubted anything he said, but she never thought that this day would come; it had felt so far away, so far in the future, she wouldn't live long enough to see it.
"Sev," she said, in the most excited tone ever. "You won't believe who's at my house right now!"
'Who?' He asked, already aware it as probably a professor.
"A professor – from Hogwarts!" She looked as though all her dreams had come true at once. "I can't believe it!"
"That's great!" He smile was as big as hers. "That means we're going together – you see, I also got my letter today!"
"Sev, our dreams have finally come true! On September 1st, we'll be on that train – heading to Hogwarts! Can you believe it?'
"I know," he said joyfully. "I told you it'd be like this. You and me, together at Hogwarts."
Lily came home late that day, and she had gotten so distracted talking about Hogwarts, she ended up forgetting about dinner. She didn't even remember she had a stomach to fill.
"Lily," her mother was sitting on the couch. She had been waiting for her, and she even had a book on her lap. It looked like she had waited for long time. "Where were you?"
Her mother was not mad, but Lily was still terrified. She had never gotten into trouble before. "I was with Severus, mum."
"Is he the boy the professor told us about?"
"Yes – he's my best friend." Lily added, as if she needed to prove he was a good kid. Petunia already thought he was troubled, she didn't need her mom to think so as well.
"I think you should invite him to dinner with us, Lily." her mother said, smiling softly. Then, she added, "I told the professor you're going to study at Hogdarts."
"Hogwarts, mum." Lily said gently.
"Excuse me, darling?"
"The school's name – it's Hogwarts, not Hogdarts."
"Oh," her mother said. "I told her you'll be attending Hogwarts, and she said she'll send you an owl tomorrow. You can tell her if you want to go buy your things with a teacher or by yourself. Do you know what that means?"
"The owl?" Lily asked, and her mother nodded. "Wizards use actual owls as mail and pets."
"Who told you that, sweetie?"
"Severus told me, mum. He knows everything about their world."
"It must be very interesting talking with him, but I'd like you to be home by dinner time, dear. You know that I'm not comfortable with you being outside when it's dark."
"OK, mum." Lily said, knowing this was her warning. Next time, she'd be in trouble.
"Now, go and take a shower. Your food is in the oven, and once you're ready I'll warm it up."
"Lily!" Severus started to say as soon as he saw the red haired girl sitting on his doorstep. "I'm so sorry about yesterday, I promise I'll never let you be late again…"
"Everything's OK, Sev." She got up and hugged him. His face got hot, and he felt like dancing and singing in joy. "Mum just asked me not to come home late again."
"Then what are you planning to do today?'
"I don't know. I thought we could go to the swings and play, or talk for a bit…"
"We could go to the park and walk around. What do you think?"
"Great! And later, you could go and have dinner at my house, Sev."
"…I don't know. I think your sister would be really mad if you invited me." He said, wishing with all his heart that he could say yes.
"But if you go there, she'll see how nice you are. And she can be friends with us!" Lily was so excited with the idea of him being friends with Petunia – and herself – that Severus couldn't find the courage to tell her how much he wished her sister never accepted him. He didn't want to share the very best thing in his life with anyone at all.
Let alone sharing her with someone as horrible as Petunia.
That evening, Severus came to the Evan's house with Lily, a smile hiding his jitters.
"Mom, I'm home!" Lily yelled as soon as the door closed behind them. "Sev, take off your shoes, please." She asked politely, following the rules her mother had made.
They both took off their shoes. Lily went into the kitchen after they washed their hands to look for her mother. Severus noticed that she liked to live by the rules.
Her mother looked a lot like her, with the green eyes, the red hair and beauty he had never seen before. She was finishing dinner when Lily introduced him.
"It's nice to meet you, Severus. Lily's told me a lot about you." she said while pouring chocolate fudge over a cake.
"It's nice to meet you too, Mrs. Evans." Severus said, trying to remember everything his mother had ever taught him about how to speak with other adults and politeness.
"Mum!" Petunia's voice came out. "What's for dinner?" An excited Petunia rushed into the kitchen, but her smile deflated when she saw their guest. "What's he doing here?"
"I've been invited." Severus said, forgetting everything about being-nice-to-Lily's-family-before-they-all-hated-him-as-much-as-Petunia-did.
"You? Invited to my house?" She said and laughed. "I don't think so!"
Severus was about to answer that with as much wizard swearing he knew, but stopped when saw the look on Lily's eyes. They pleaded him not to ruin such a nice night.
"Petunia," Mrs. Evans said before it got any worse. "Be nice to Lily's friend."
"I won't be nice to him, mom. He's a freak."
"Then, you should go to your room." She said and Petunia ran away. And Severus knew, by the way Lily was looking at him, that she had realized the three of them would never be friends. And she'd have to accept that.
He asked Merlin if he was the chosen one.
Severus followed Lily to the living room, where they talked a little bit about Hogwarts, but she wasn't as happy as usual.
When dinner was ready, they were both called to the dining room. Lily's father was sitting at the corner of the table and looking straight at Petunia. He had blonde hair and dark eyes, so his daughter resembled him a little bit, though the girl was more like her mother.
"You must be Severus," He said kindly.
"It's very nice to meet you, Mr. Evans."
"I say the same." Mr. Evans said before turning his gaze towards his oldest daughter. "I believe you have something to tell him as well, dear."
Petunia didn't look happy at all, but she did as her father said. "I am sorry, Severus. I shouldn't have treated you like that." she said, making sure he got the picture: she wasn't sorry at all. Not a single bit.
"That's more like it, honey." Mr. Evans said. "Daisy, dear, do you need help?"
"Oh, sure." a voice came from the kitchen. "Girls, can you come help me?"
It was a matter of seconds before dinner was served and everyone, even a revolted Petunia, was engaged in joyful conversation.
"So, Severus," Lily's dad said as soon as he had his first bite of his chocolate cake, "I was wondering if you'd like to come along with us to buy your stuff for Hogwarts. We're planning to take Lily there next weekend and we've got room for one more in the car."
"Severus, thank Merlin you're safe," his mother said as soon as he came in. "I was worried sick about you, son." she hugged him tightly and started walking him towards his room.
"I'm fine mom," He said, trying to squirm out from her arms. "I'm only late because Lily invited me to have dinner with her family."
Eileen Snape simply smiled.
"Oh, dear Merlin – yesterday you were just my baby boy and now you'll soon be at Hogwarts and in love." She sighed, remembering the good times. "My little Severus…"
"Stop it, mum' the boy said, very annoyed. "I'm not in love with her, she's my best friend."
"Dear, that's how the best love stories begin."
Severus couldn't quite decide how to respond to that and, for a few seconds, he imagined himself, as a highly successful wizard, with Lily by his side. And for the first time he thought that, someday, he might be happy. "Nothing like that is happening, mum."
"If you say so, dear."
"Anyway, her parents invited me to tag along to Diagon Alley next weekend." Severus entered his room and grabbed his pajamas. He really disliked them and thought they made him look like an idiot. "How am I supposed to make friends at Hogwarts wearing this to sleep, mum?" The boy asked, really frightened.
Eileen looked at her son and gave him a sad smile. "Look, Severus, I've been saving some money for you. If you want to, I can take you to a store as soon as you get back from London."
"You mean I can go with them, mum?"
"I know how much she means to you, darling," Eileen said, brushing her son's black hair. "And I want nothing but your happiness, you know that."
Severus smiled. Despite all the horrible things his father did and said, his mother always tried to be the best she could.
"Eileen!" Severus woke up when he heard his father shouting. "When the hell do you plan on taking the boy to London?"
The boy got out of bed, thinking about how great it would be once he was off to Hogwarts. That was probably the only reason he wasn't mad already.
"We're not taking him anywhere." Eileen started, when her son arrived at the kitchen. "He's going with a friend."
"Since when did I let him go with a friend?"
"Since when do you take any interest at all in him, or in magic?"
Severus left his unfinished breakfast and sneaked out of the house. How he wished his parents were proud of him, or that at least they'd stop fighting for a moment. When alone, they weren't that bad. But together, they felt like bombs about to go off all the time.
How on earth was a child supposed to learn to love in a house like that?
Saturday morning took forever to arrive; the last minutes were the worst of all. Severus could tell it, because he was unable to close his eyes for even a second – let alone sleep. All he could think about was traveling to London, with Lily and buying his stuff for Hogwarts.
Once the sun started to rise, he threw his sheets away from the bed, walked across the small bedroom, picked his best clothes and headed to the bathroom to take a shower.
It took no time at all for him to be cleaned, dressed and fed. His mother, who was woken up by the eleven year old boy's loud singing, kept trying to make him change his t-shirt. She wanted him to wear one she bought a while ago; it was large and white and had navy blue short sleeves. He didn't need Petunia to tell him how hideous he'd look wearing it.
"I'm not wearing it, mum."
"Are you sure, dear? You'll look lovely wearing it!"
"Sure, mum," Severus said and left, wondering how his mother could not know how an eleven year old boy was supposed to dress. She worked a lot, but she still saw a little TV while his father wasn't around.
Walking to Lily's house, he felt very happy about the fact that his father wouldn't be there to ruin one of the happiest days of his life – the day he would buy his first wand, his first magic books and his robes. One the days he'd been dreaming of since he could remember.
He pressed the doorbell and soon Mrs. Evans was standing in front of him. "Good morning, Severus," she said with a big smile on her face. "Lily's just finishing her breakfast and we'll be off to London in no time. Why don't you come in?"
He was led into the kitchen by Mrs. Evans. Petunia and Lily were eating pancakes and seemed to be having a great time. "Lily, you've got a visitor."
"Good morning, Sev." her smile was so big it made him want to smile too. And he rarely smiled. "Would you like some pancakes?"
"No, thanks."
"More for me," she said, going back to her plate and laughing at something her older sister had just said.
"Daisy dear, did you get the address the professor left us for the shops?" Mr. Evans came into the kitchen. "Hello, Severus."
"Mr. Evans."
"Are we all ready to leave?" Mr. Evans was getting a few bottles of water from the refrigerator.
"I'm just finishing here and the girls need to brush their teeth." Mrs. Evans was now washing the dishes and humming. "Roderick, are you sure you have her letter and everything?"
"It's all in the car. I've already checked."
Once they were all inside the car, Mr. Evans turned on the radio and drove off. Lily sat between Severus and her sister. After several (failed) attempts to make them talk to each other, she started to tell her parents how excited she was about going to buy her stuff for Hogwarts.
The way to London was eventless. Petunia kept to herself and so did Severus; he didn't want to disturb the peace by hitting his best friend's sister's nerve. When the car was parked, they headed to a very strange pub called Leaky Cauldron. His mother had told him everything about it; it was one of the ways to the most magical place in London: Diagon Alley.
The owner was behind the counter. "Hello there' Mr. Evans said, very anxious to make contact with someone from the wizard community. "My name is Roderick Evans and I'm looking for Diagon Alley."
"My name's Tom." The old man smiled and shook Mr. Evans' hand. "I own the place. I'll take you to the alley."
With that, they followed Tom to the back of the pub, to a brick wall. He took out a wooden stick and touched one of the bricks, which suddenly became an arch showing a street beyond. Lily and Severus looked at each other in amazement, Petunia stood there in shock, and Mr. and Mrs. Evans simply smiled at their youngest daughter in delight.
"I think your first stop would be Gringotts, sir. You can change your muggle money there." Tom said before leaving, and the arch shrunk behind him.
Gringotts was a white building which looked very old; as old as everything in the magical world seemed to be. When they reached the door, a small creature with big feet and hands opened the door and bowed to them. "Is that a real goblin, Sev?"
"Sure is."
Inside, there were about a hundred of those creatures, sitting on elevated benches and writing with feathers in huge books. "Good morning, sir." the nearest of them said. "What can I do for you today?"
"We need a currency change." Mr. Evans said. He turned to Severus. "Do you need something else, son?"
"I need to enter a vault." the boy said, with a tone of importance.
"Do you have the key, sir?" The goblin asked. Severus pulled a key out from his pocket, and the goblin took it from the boy's hands. "It seems all right. I'll call someone to take you there, wait just a moment. Kolb!"
Kolb was another goblin who was much nicer than the one at the door. "Where are we heading?"
"The Prince Family vault."
Severus followed the goblin to a cavern, and there were tracks there. The goblin whistled, and a cart came rushing towards them.
They climbed up and it started going faster and faster, and soon it was making dozens of turns. In the beginning, Severus tried to make sense of where he was going, but at some point he just decided to enjoy the ride. Suddenly, the cart stopped and the goblin opened a small door.
Inside the vault there were some piles of gold and silver; more than enough for him to buy his materials to all Hogwarts years. Severus took a small amount of gold from the pile and some silver coins; his mother had told him not to spend all the money at once. If he did, she might not be able to replace it in time.
"Are you ready, sir?" The goblin Kolb asked as soon as the boy left the vault with a little bag filled with coins. Severus nodded and climbed up into the cart, waiting for it to gain speed.
He was a little green when they got off again, and thanked Merlin he didn't finish his breakfast, and he met the Evans just outside the bank. "Now, kids, where do you think we should go?" Mr. Evans was reading Lily's letter and trying to make sense of everything he needed to buy.
"Let's go buy the robes first." Mrs. Evans said, looking at a rather empty shop called Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. A bell tinkled when the door slid open and, in no time, a lady rushed to them.
"Hogwarts, dears?" She looked at the children. "I think these two are first years, but I wonder… which house are you in?" her gaze met Petunia's, and the girl simply rolled her eyes.
"I don't go there."
The lady just smiled and turned to the other two. "I'll take you, and someone will take your measures and adjust the uniforms."
Soon, Lily and Severus each had an old lady bringing several shirts and cloaks.
"Any of you know which house you'll be in?" The lady who was adjusting the length of Lily's skirt asked.
"Not yet, but I want to be in Slytherin with him."
The lady nodded and continued her work, too focused on it to say that she was thinking it was very hard for a muggle born student to get into Slytherin.
It didn't take long for everyone to leave Madame Malkin's shop and head for the bookstore. The hours that followed seemed to pass in only seconds, and soon the only thing they needed to buy was wands. The only shop that sold them was very small and its name was Ollivanders. The seller was Ollivander himself.
" Do I see three more students of Hogwarts?"
"Just two." Lily said, wishing the man hadn't made that comment. She knew her sister was not enjoying any a minute of this. Here, she was the outcast.
"Oh, I see." His eyes were such a light blue, they appeared silver. "I think you should go first, then, young lady. What is your name?"
"Lily Evans, and he's Severus Snape."
"Oh, I was wondering when I'd meet Eileen's son." the man said, taking a look at the boy standing in front of him. "I remember her first wand, a very nice one. But I'm not sure about your father…"
"He's a Muggle, sir."
"I see." Mr. Ollivander said, and he started to measure Lily's arm in lots of different ways. Soon the tape measure was measuring on its own, and he was going around the shop, gathering small boxes that seemed to fill every surface inside the shop. "Let's try this one." He handed one wand to Lily. "Try it! Twelve inches, cherry, unicorn hair."
Lily waved it enthusiastically, but nothing happened. "No, this one won't do."
It took them a few more tries for a wand to make colorful sparkles in the air when she waved it. "Oh, a very nice wand. Ten and a quarter inches long, made of willow a unicorn hair core. Very nice for charms." Mr. Ollivander took the wand and packed it. "Now I'll get to you, Mr. Snape." the old wizard said, enchanting the tape and putting the rejected wands back while collecting others.
Just like Lily, Severus's first try wasn't successful and it took him a few times until green sparks flew out the wand with a wave. "Powerful wand, meant for powerful spells. Thirteen inches. Ebony with dragon's heart string. Very nice, Mr. Snape." Ollivander packed that wand as well.
With everything packed, the five of them stopped for a snack, and then left Diagon Alley and London behind.
Hi everyone,
I'm sorry for taking this long to post this chapter. I've been very busy in the last weeks getting myself ready for college (my classes were paralyzed for about a month, because of political issues), spending some nonsense time freezing at the beach, falling in love with the kitten I adopted, turning eighteen (which is kind of big where I live), and putting myself to the torture of learning how to drive in Brazil, we have an unnatural amount of theoretical classes in which we have absolutely nothing to do!
Enough with complaining, let's get down to business. I like this chapter and I think it has good length, so I'm happy with it. I do writing Petunia, and I can't wait to start Vernon - it may take ages, in my writing speed.
I just have one more comment: I know Kolb isn't a goblin's name, but I needed to do it, there's a real Kolb who was my mathematics teacher and looked so goblin-like. Every single fanfiction I write with Gringotts, has to have this goblin! And don't have much more to say about it, I'm so tired I can barely think.
As always, I'd like to thank shaddow6116 for being my beta reader.
Finally, I get to the last part: Read and review.