2- Prologue: Part 2
Disclaimer: Any scenes that seem familiar are probably from the chapter The Prince's Tale in DH. I re-wrote them, but they are, of course, Miss Rowling's creations.
"I call this one!" Lily Evans shouted out eagerly as she ran to the swing set on the playground. She happily leaped onto the seat of her choice and immediately began swinging back and forth.
"That's just fine, 'cause I wanted this one anyway," her sister, Petunia, said loftily. Lily only giggled and swung higher, her red hair flying madly around her.
Petunia scrambled onto her swing and quickly began to gain height, and for a while, the two girls went back and forth in silence.
Then Lily managed to go higher than she ever had before. Petunia, noticing the familiar gleam in her sister's eyes, shrieked, "Lily, don't do it!"
But Lily, with no regard for her older sister's warning, let go of the swing and soared above the ground for an unnaturally long amount of time. Petunia followed her sister's form with pale green eyes that were wide with disbelief. She knew that it was impossible, but it really did seem like Lily was actually flying!
Lily landed softly on two feet--entirely too softly for the height at which she had been soaring. She smiled triumphantly and turned back around to face her sister.
"But Lily, Mummy told you not to!" Petunia protested as she dragged the heels of her feet along the ground to stop the momentum of her swing. She stood up, and with a frown in Lily's direction, put her hands on her hips. "Mummy said you weren't allowed!" she said forcefully.
"But I'm fine," Lily giggled. Suddenly she produced a fallen flower and held it up to Petunia. Her green eyes, darker than her sister's, glinted mischievously. "Tuney, watch what I can do." The petals of the blossom began undulating back and forth, just as the now motionless swings had been doing moments earlier.
"Stop it!" shrieked Petunia.
"Why? It's not hurting you," Lily said as she casually tossed the flower away.
Petunia's eyes followed the flower to the ground. Never taking her eyes off it, as if she expected it to bite her, she said, "It's just not right". After a few moments, she slowly lifted her eyes to meet Lily's and asked softly, with a definite undertone of longing, "How do you do it?"
Lily shrugged uncertainly.
Though the girls didn't know it, Severus had been playing in the park earlier, and when he had spotted them coming, he had quickly scurried behind a bush. Why he had done that, Severus was not sure of exactly. Perhaps he was just used to keeping Lily unaware of his existence? But now that Petunia had asked that particular question, he saw the chance to finally reveal himself; he would tell Lily why she had these mysterious powers, and she would surely want to know more about the wizarding world. And he would gladly fill her in.
"Isn't it obvious?" he exclaimed in a loud voice as he darted out from behind the bush.
Lily and Petunia jumped in surprise and turned to face the bushes where Severus' voice had come from. Petunia shrieked and ran back toward the swings as soon as she saw the unfamiliar boy. Lily, however, held her ground.
"What's obvious?" she asked cautiously, eyeing Severus with a mixture of curiosity and suspicion. He had an air of nervous enthusiasm about him. Just being near him seemed to infect Lily with the same excitement. She took a step closer in anticipation of what the bizarre boy was about to say.
A blush formed across Severus' face as he looked at Lily and whispered softly, "That you're…you're a witch." Lily gasped.
"That's not a very nice thing to say about someone!" she exclaimed. Swiftly she turned towards her sister and marched off with her nose in the air.
"No! Wait!" Severus called. An even brighter flush of color mounted his sallow cheeks as he darted after her. "You are a witch. I've been watching you for a while. But there's nothing wrong with being a witch. My mum's one, and I'm a wizard."
"Wizard!" shrieked Petunia, who had now recovered from the surprise of Severus' appearance. A high-pitched laugh escaped her throat before she continued.
"I know who you are. You're that Snape boy!" Petunia sneered, eyeing Severus' dirty, overlong hair. "He lives down Spinner's End by the river," she told Lily, as if the fact of his residence should leave no doubt in her sister's mind that this was a boy they should not be associating with. When Lily made no reaction, Petunia started again. "Why have you been spying on us?"
"My name is Severus, and I haven't been spying," Severus asserted, staring at the ground, obviously sweltering in his bulky dark coat. Lily wondered why he wouldn't take it off. The heat was hardly more than she could bear in her light layer of clothing. Abruptly Severus looked up at Petunia and said spitefully, "I wouldn't spy on you anyway. You're a Muggle."
Petunia glared at the boy, trying to discern the insult in his words. Unable to differentiate, she finally said, "Come on, Lily! We're leaving!"
Lily obediently followed her sister out of the park, leaving the strange boy who claimed he was a wizard behind. However, her curiosity got the best of her, and just before she turned the corner, she looked back and caught the look of bitter disappointment on the boy's face.
Lily's heart softened at the sight, and she immediately thought, with childlike innocence, Well, what if he was just playing a make-believe game, trying to make some friends? From what I've seen, I'd bet he doesn't have many… Maybe if I see him again I'll say 'Hello''.
Severus watched the two girls leave, sure that he had ruined all chances of friendship with Lily Evans, the mysterious, Muggle-born witch.
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A few days later, Lily spotted the shabby-looking Severus Snape shuffling along past the park and, through much surprised stammering and stuttering on Severus' part, she managed to make amends with the boy. She left, cheerfully calling good-bye and promising to see him soon, leaving a dumbstruck Severus on the sidewalk, unable to see anything but a pair of startling emerald green eyes.
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A few weeks later, Severus and Lily were sitting in a thicket of trees set in the same large park where they had met. The sunlight bounced and glittered off of the water in the river--the same river, in fact, that passed through the town near Severus' house. The two children sat cross-legged on the ground, facing each other. For once, Severus had removed his coat, as he figured he was undercover of the cool, dark shade of the thickly-grown trees.
"It's really not a joke? Petunia says there is no Hogwarts. It is real, isn't it?" Lily questioned her new friend anxiously.
"It's real for us. Not for her. But we'll get the letter, you and me," Severus said confidently.
"And will it really come by owl?" Lily whispered reverently.
"Normally," said Severus, "but you're Muggle-born, so someone will have to come and explain to your parents."
"Does it…make a difference? Being Muggle-born?" Lily inquired hesitantly, seemingly unsure of whether she wanted to know the answer or not.
Severus faltered as his gaze caught her dark red hair.
"No," he said finally. "It doesn't make any difference."
"Good," Lily said, relieved. She picked up a twig and twirled it in the air, gesturing back and forth, and it was clear to Severus that she was imagining sparks exploding from it.
"How are things at your house? Are they still arguing?" Lily asked. A little crease appeared between Severus' eyes.
"Oh, yes, they're still arguing," said Snape bitterly. He began to rip blades of grass from the ground absentmindedly. "But it won't be that long and then I'll be gone to Hogwarts, of course."
Lily dropped the twig and leaned in toward Severus.
"Doesn't your dad like magic?" she questioned.
Color flooded Severus' cheeks, as it always did when she got so close.
"He doesn't like anything, much," he answered.
"Oh." Lily leaned back against her tree, contemplating this. "Tell me about the Dementors again."
Severus had just opened his mouth to speak when a rustling noise made them both turn. Petunia, who had been hiding behind a tree, had lost her footing and inadvertently made her presence known.
"Tuney!" Lily exclaimed joyfully, but Severus had jumped to his feet.
"Who's spying now?" he shouted angrily, glaring at the strawberry blonde-haired figure.
Petunia, shamefaced at getting caught, searched her arsenal of words for something to put "that Snape boy" back in his place. She blurted out, "What is that you're wearing anyway? Your mum's blouse?"
Crack. A branch over Petunia's head came loose and caught her on the shoulder. She took a few bewildered steps back before bursting into tears and running away.
"Did you make that happen?" Lily asked as she rounded on Severus.
"No—no, I didn't!" Snape answered, his face betraying his haughty façade by showing hints of fear.
But his lie wasn't convincing enough for Lily, and after sending him one last, withering glance, she took off through the thicket after her sister, once again leaving Severus cursing his foolishness and looking crestfallen.
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"And you swear that you'll never let it happen again?"
Severus nodded eagerly.
"And you swear you'll say sorry to Tuney the first chance you get?"
More nodding. Lily studied him for a moment before saying, "Okay then. But don't forget. You swore."
"I won't forget."
"Well," Lily said, suddenly cheerful, the sullen attitude she had worn only a few moments before no longer visible upon her face, "what do you want to do now?"
"I don't know; whatever you'd like. I don't mind," Severus responded graciously.
"Let's go back to my house. We can play with Brownie; he's been feeling lonely ever since Petunia and I started school again. Rose is still too small to play with him the way he likes," Lily said conversationally.
She kept up a constant stream of chatter all the way back to her house, and that was just fine with Severus, who was content to take the chance to look at her without interruption.
Soon Lily was marching through her front door and calling out, "Mum, I'm home! And I've brought Severus with me!" Severus followed her tentatively through the door.
A smiling woman walked out into the hallway. She had a lovely face with the same green eyes as Lily, and her face was surrounded by straight, strawberry blonde hair like Petunia's.
"Hello Severus. It's wonderful to meet you. Lily is always talking about you." She held out her hand for him to shake and he took it, not meeting her eyes.
It was true; Lily did often talk about Severus. At first Angela Evans had worried about the game of "Witches and Wizards" that her daughter talked about incessantly. However, she had eventually waved it off as merely a phase brought on by the unusual things that often occurred in her daughter's presence, and the company of a similar-minded child who was willing to play along with her.
'No,' thought Angela, as she examined the awkward boy with the same shrewdness that Petunia had inherited (though the scrutiny was perhaps less harsh than Petunia's would have been). 'He seems harmless.'
And soon the two children were passing away the day in the backyard of the Evans' home with Brownie, the chocolate-colored Labrador that Severus had seen earlier (who had been named so by choice of Petunia when she was four years old). As they played, Petunia stared moodily down at them from the second story window of her room, cursing that awful boy and the day he had jumped out at her and Lily from the bushes, convinced that was the day Lily had started to drift away from her.
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Throughout the year, Severus and Lily's friendship continued to grow, strengthened by several meaningless fights that were quickly forgotten, Petunia's growing coldness towards Lily, and a bond over the strange abilities the two of them shared.
One evening the following summer, the Evans residence received a strange visitor. Daniel Evans had opened the door expecting to reveal a neighborhood friend of Lily or Petunia's or a surprise visit from a family member. He was not prepared for the oddly dressed man before him. In orange shorts, pantyhose, moccasins, a large, lavender sweater, and a top hat perched atop his receding hairline, the man was quite a spectacle. He was made all the stranger by the dignified air that hung about him, quite contrary to his outlandish outfit.
"Uh…er… Hello?" Daniel said, wondering what this could be about. His bright, blue eyes looked over the man once more as he wondered if this man was possibly being initiated into something.
"Good evening, sir. May I assume you are Daniel Evans?" the man asked, reaching out his hand to shake Daniel's.
"Yes, I'm him," Daniel said bewilderedly.
"Ah yes. May I please speak with you, your wife, and, of course, your daughter, Lily?"
Not sure what was going on, Daniel ushered the man into the sitting room and introduced him to Angela (who tried her best to conceal her astonishment at the man's choice in leg-wear and maintain a polite face) and Lily.
After they all were situated, the peculiar man began to speak in a hurried manner.
"I am Ardos Huxleford, Herbology professor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I am additionally accredited by the Muggleborn Assimilation Board. I am here to inform you that your daughter, Lily Evans, has been accepted into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."
At this, Angela let out a gasp and glanced at her daughter, who was smiling rapturously.
Ardos Huxleford continued on, "I will be perfectly willing to answer any questions you may have after I give you the essentials of the information your daughter will need to complete her magical education. Now, to get to school, the children must arrive on platform nine and three-quarters at Kings Cross station before—"
"Excuse me," Daniel interrupted hesitantly, ruffling his dark brown hair in confusion, "but did you just say platform 'nine and three-quarters'?"
Though it did take several minutes and a table turned into a kangaroo later, Ardos Huxleford had to admit that the Evan's were not the most difficult people to convince that Hogwarts was not simply an elaborate joke thought up by the neighbors or mischievous family members.
Angela and Daniel Evans, who had always been quite tolerant and accepting, quickly got used to the idea of their second youngest daughter being a witch, once they got over the initial shock that such things existed.
In fact, the Evans were perhaps much more taken aback when they found out that witches and wizards largely populated the neighborhood they resided in. When they exclaimed over the fact that the magical community hid their existence from Muggles so well (the Evans had quickly adapted to the new terminology of the wizarding world) Ardos Huxleford exclaimed, "Oh, yes, I have authority to remove your Memory Charms now!" With great efficiency, he eliminated the charms that had modified their memories when Petunia had been chased down the street by a rampaging hippogriff at the age of seven.
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Lily was ecstatic that she finally had tangible proof that Hogwarts existed. The letter Ardos Huxleford had given her lay wide open on her dresser, and she often read it upward of six times a day. She was, however, quite disappointed that she did not get to receive her letter by owl, and she told Severus so the next day after she had joyously informed him of Ardos Huxleford's visit.
So it was with great pleasure that later that night Lily opened her very first letter that had been delivered to her by owl, to the thanks of one Severus Snape and his Uncle Boros, of whom Severus had requested to borrow an owl without his father's knowledge.
Excitedly Lily took the letter in her hand, hardly able to take her eyes off of the real, live owl that was now perched on her bedpost, staring at her arrogantly.
Finally she opened the letter to reveal Severus's scrawled writing.
We'll still be friends at Hogwarts, right?
Lily smiled and quickly scribbled a response on the back, sending off the owl through her window, watching it soar towards Spinner's End.
Severus apprehensively opened the reply, afraid of what it might say. He glanced at it and breathed a sigh of relief, smiling exultantly over the words that held so much promise for him.
Always.
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On another day, slightly cloudier than the days of the previous summer, Lily proposed to Severus that they once again return to her house to play, saying, "I bet my mum's made some cookies. You know she usually does on Fridays. I think she's made my favorite today. Gingersnap."
Severus, who would have done what Lily suggested, cookies or not, was quick to give his consent. It was an unspoken agreement between the two that they would never venture to Severus' house to play.
As the two children walked in the door, Angela called Lily, Severus, and Rose (Petunia was off at a friend's house) into the kitchen to receive their cookies. All Lily and Severus caught of Rose was a fleeting, dark-haired blur as she grabbed a handful of cookies and immediately fled the room. Rose hadn't mentioned it to Lily, who seemed to hold Severus in such high esteem, but he made her uneasy. The faded black coat he always wore, along with his oddly cut, greasy dark hair, gave him the appearance of an oversized bat.
"So, have you ever actually been to Diagon Alley before?" Lily asked. She had found that Severus' visual description from an earlier day left something to be desired.
"Well, no; you know how my dad feels about all that, but my Uncle—" Severus was interrupted as Brownie bounded into the room with the energy that had been pent up in him all day. After making a lap around the kitchen, Brownie turned abruptly and darted for the table where Lily and Severus sat, his eyes on the prize of the still-hot, gingersnap cookies.
"No, Brownie!" Lily cried out as the dog leaped upward, but she was too late. Brownie failed to clear the table and crashed into it, making several cookies, letters, crayons, and various other items rain down on him.
"Brownie! Bad dog!" Lily admonished the mutt, but he had already sped through the doorway with a good amount of cookies in his muzzle. Lily sighed as she looked around at the mess on the floor, as any child would do when faced with a clean-up task. "I guess I'd better get to it."
Severus offered to help and though Lily protested at first, trying to spare her friend the trouble, she eventually allowed Severus to help her clean up.
"There, I think that's all," Lily said with a satisfied smile, returning to her seat, fully prepared to immerse herself in Gingersnap Heaven. Turning to Severus with a mouthful of cookies, she began to ask, "What do you—" but stopped short at the look of incredulity that had come over Severus' face as he stared at something on the table.
"What's wrong, Severus?"
"It's a letter--from Hogwarts. Addressed to your sister." Severus said the last part slowly as he picked up the letter and handed it to Lily to show her.
'No, no, Petunia can't be coming to Hogwarts!' he thought, wildly losing his head in disbelief and momentarily forgetting that Petunia was older than the eleven years of age that students started attending Hogwarts. 'She is the most Muggle-like person ever, and everything would be ruined if she came!'
Lily, however, did not share Severus' harsh feelings, though hers were admittedly still quite far from outright enthusiasm. 'Me and Tuney, learning magic together,' Lily thought, wondering what the outcome of that experience would be. Petunia's disparagement of magic had only increased in ferocity once she found out about the hippogriff incident. Lily glanced around quickly to make sure that her mother was nowhere in the vicinity, then tore open the letter. She frowned as she quickly scanned the lines of ink on the parchment. This was not the same letter that she had received from Ardos Huxleford. It was written in loopy writing and signed by someone named Albus Dumbledore.
"Can I see?" Severus asked. Lily handed the letter over to him, now thoroughly confused. Severus scanned the letter.
"It looks like she wrote the headmaster and asked if she could go to Hogwarts, too. And this is his response."
"Does she get to go?" Lily asked dazedly.
"No."
Lily wasn't sure how she felt about that answer.
"It looks like she practically begged him to accept her." Lily was too busy pondering why Petunia would have written a letter to the headmaster at Hogwarts to notice the scathing tone in Severus' voice.
When he finished reading the letter, Severus looked up and said, "I never knew that a Muggle could write a letter to Hogwarts. There must be wizards disguised as Muggles in the postal service or something…" He trailed off as he realized that Lily wasn't really listening.
"Come on, Lily, let's go out back and play and forget the letter. It doesn't really change anything," Severus said, taking a step closer to her.
Lily desperately wanted to ask Petunia about the letter, but she knew that doing so would only incite her sister's anger, which Lily was only too happy to avoid, especially since she seemed to be the focus of it more and more often lately.
"Okay then," Lily said, wanting relief from the confusion that the discovery of the letter had brought. She grabbed a glue stick from the kitchen drawer that contained various odds and end, and tried to re-seal the letter. Once she was done, she held it up and scrutinized it. It looked good enough to her. After throwing the letter back onto the table, she grabbed Severus' wrist, making him blush profusely, and dragged him outside where they played happily for hours, almost forgetting about the strange letter in their joy at one another's company.
A/N: Okay, so this chapter has been re-edited, too!
Any ideas for improvement would be lovely. Special thanks to those who have reviewed so far, and to those who are keeping up with this story! The next chapter will be the last of the prologue ones!! Then we will get to the story that doesn't jump forward so much all the time, which (as of right now) will begin around the end of their sixth year or so... If I don't change my mind. :) I remind myself of Libba Bray, always changing my mind...(author of A Great and Terrible Beauty--check it out, it's awesome!).
Oh my goodness, I feel like a terrible person! I totally didn't thank my betas in the last author's note!!! Gaaahhhh! Silly, silly me! Okay, so my beta readers are Severus/Lily, Mrs PotterWeasleyMalfoy, PadfootSQuidditch, and a girl named Katie from Perfect Imagination. They are SO awesome, and between them they catch all of my really stupid mistakes and my more serious ones, and they tell me when things are confusing so I can clarify and they are just cool and I am so thankful for them. :-D Yay for my betas!!! 'Cause they're super cool. I'm mean, they are really, REALLY cool. Heehee.
And lastly, reviews are greatly appreciated. Really. ;-) Thanks to all the people who have reviewed thus far!!! I really, really love it.