What If: Year One (rewritten)

by Aurea Thalia Aurora

AU: When you change one or two things and the ripples cascade and become something that is unrecognizable.

8. Chapter Eight

Disclaimer: Of course, I do not own Harry Potter. Slight yelling chapter.

Saturday 9 January 1971

Not long after Christmas had finished, Severus noticed the girls exhibiting strange behaviour, they would whisper and giggle in a huddle, but whenever he got close enough to hear what they were saying, one of them would warn the others and they would all stop. It was utterly nerve-wracking and Severus had the sudden fear that the girls would tell him they no longer wanted to be his friend.

The words never came out of their mouths and even Petunia was exceedingly polite and friendly towards him, the nervousness, paranoia and worry, all culminated in Severus jumping out of his skin when he was jolted awake by his father the morning of his eleventh birthday.

'GIVE ME BACK THAT RUDDY LETTER!' his father's voice bellowed throughout the tiny house.

'IT'S SEVERUS' LETTER! YOU'RE JUST GOING TO RIP IT UP!' His mother screamed

Severus sighed as he looked out his bedroom window and saw that it was still pitch black outside, Knowing it would not be safe to go downstairs,

Severus quickly got dressed in his warmest clothes, hoped his letter to survive the encounter with his parents and eased open his bedroom window.

Climbing out Severus perched himself on top of the bathroom roof, shimmied down a drainpipe to the back garden and out through the broken fence, the last thing Severus heard was his father's voice.

'I AM NOT PAYING FOR SOME CRACKPOT OLD FOOL TO TEACH HIM MAGIC TRICKS!'

Not wanting to stick around in this shoddy neighbourhood, Severus made his way to the park where he had met Lily and her sisters for the first time two years ago. Curling up underneath the slide in his thick jacket, beanie, gloves and scarf Severus tried getting a bit more sleep.

'Sev?' a voice softly asked, drifting through his conscious mind.

CRACK

Startled with fright, Severus ran headfirst into the underside of the slide, eyes streaming with tears, he carefully examined his head where it had come in contact with the metal.

'Easy there son, careful with your head'

As the tears cleared from his eyes he looked up and there kneeling in front of him was Mr Evans dressed in a green jumper, grey tracksuit pants and black trainers.

'Mr Evans?' Severus asked, baffled.

'That's right, looks like your memory is still there' Mr Evans said smiling. 'I was out on my morning run when I came across your little hidey-hole here. Let's get you home.'

Mr Evans gently took Severus by the arm, and after he no longer felt dizzy they started walking slowly up the street toward the Evans' house.

'Severus, I just want you to know that our house is always open for you, any time day or night if you need somewhere to stay you will always be safe with Hyacinth and I, please feel free to come to us.' Mr Evans offered

Huddling down further into his coat to hide his bright red cheeks, Severus shuffled along, not really sure how to respond to Mr Evans' generosity, he was thankfully spared from answering as they had just arrived at the Evans' house.

'Why don't you go and get settled in on the couch.' Mr Evans suggested after he opened the front door. 'I'll go and grab you a blanket. You should be able to get a bit more sleep without too many interruptions before the girls come thundering down from their rooms.'

Taking off his coat and shoes Severus snuggled down on one of the sitting room couches, he could hardly believe that he was safe and warm in the Evans house rather than still lying in the park underneath the slide shivering in his sleep. He knew that Mr Evans was a kind and gentle man towards his daughters, but Severus never really expected Mr Evans' kindness would extend to him, especially with an offer of a place to stay in the Evans' home. Severus ended up falling asleep with a small smile on his face before Mr Evans came back.

'Sev' a female voice called softly and a small hand gently jostled his shoulder. For the third time that morning Severus was jerked awake, blinking in the sunlight he saw Mrs Evans smiling down at him from where she was standing next to the couch

'Sorry I woke you dear, but the girls will be awake soon and they are far less gentle when waking someone up.' Mrs Evans remarked

Severus sat upright, yawning wildly and a cream blanket slipped down to his waist, it must have been the blanket Mr Evans had gotten for him. He was in the process of getting up off the couch when a small body collided with him knocking him off balance and back onto the couch.

'SEV!' a voice squealed happily. Looking down at the ball of brown hair that had attached itself to his chest Severus saw the happy smiling face of Rose beaming up at him. 'Happy birthday Sev!'

'Good morning, and thank you.' Severus mumbled, gently manoeuvring Rose off of him

'SEV IS HERE!' the happy squeal of Lily was heard through the house followed by loud enthusiastic running as she made her way to the sitting room, positioning Rose out of the firing range, Severus braced himself for the onslaught as Lily flung herself into his arms.

'Happy eleventh birthday Sev! We got you something.' Lily announced

'Lily Jade Evans!' Petunia scolded as she moved Lily out of the way and gave him a warm hug. 'Happy birthday Severus, Mum is probably making you a nice big birthday breakfast as we speak, so we should all help you consume that before you open presents.'

'Aww but it's so much more fun ripping into presents before breakfast.' said the voice of Tansy, Petunia simply rolled her eyes and stepped back as Tansy exuberantly lunged at Severus joyfully squeezing his ribs in a big hug.

'Breakfast!' Mrs Evans called from the kitchen,

The girls all raced out of the sitting room leaving Severus behind chuckling to himself in amusement at their boundless enthusiasm. The Aroma of freshly made hot chocolate, toast and fried eggs wafted down the hallway to the sitting room, Severus' senses were pleasantly tantalised and with a rumbling stomach, he made his way to the kitchen.

'There you are Severus, Happy Birthday dear. I have a nice hot chocolate for you and some breakfast.' Mrs Evans placed a plate loaded with what looked like twice as much food then what was on the girl's plates. 'Now I want you to eat as much as you can Severus dear, We don't want you getting sick after being out so early in the morning.'

'Why were you up so early Sev?' Rose asked inquisitively as Severus eagerly consumed his food.

'Girls, I'm sure that it is none of our business.' Mr Evans scolded gently. 'Severus is more than entitled to his privacy, especially on his birthday. If he so chooses to tell us it's his choice.'

'Eat your breakfast, girls.' Mrs Evans incentivised, plying him with hot chocolate and second and third helpings of the hot breakfast she had made. At the rate she was going Severus just hoped he would still be able to fit into his clothes.

When everyone had finished off their breakfast Mr and Mrs Evans collected everyone's plates from the table.

'Now Severus, you can look in the paper and pick out a movie as a special treat for getting into Hogwarts.' Mr Evans offered, handing Severus his paper.

'Are you sure Mr Evans? I would hate to be a bother.' Severus asked

'Oh, it's no bother dear, go on and pick one.' Mrs Evans encouraged

Looking in the advertising section of The Yorkshire Post Severus saw that there was a movie called The Aristocats, a G-rated Animation.

'This one, The Aristocats, a G-rated animation, looks like the only one suitable. How about the 1 pm Matinee?'

'Wonderful dear, that fits in nicely,' said Mrs Evans, starting to clear the table. 'What're you all up to this morning?'

'Could we play some board games this morning?' Petunia asked

So that was exactly how the kids spent their morning, sprawled out in the kitchen playing various games until it was time for lunch. After a quick lunch of sandwiches and water, the girls dragged him into the sitting room

'SURPRISE! Happy birthday!' The Evans all chorused

Severus looked around the sitting room and was once again decorated for a party with balloons and streamers, the coffee table had cups of juice and snacks sitting on it, and a fold-away table had been again positioned underneath a Happy Birthday banner, with presents placed on top of it once more.

'Do you like your party Sev? We all organised it.' Tansy asked

'I wanted to invite a few people but Mum and Daddy wouldn't let me,' Lily said, making a face at her parents.

'Some people prefer just to have a small group of friends, Lily bug' Mr Evans explained patiently, sounding like this was something that he had said multiple times before.

'Everyone should have lots of friends!' Rose said bossily in a tone of voice Severus had never heard before.

'Don't be such a baby Rose' Petunia spat out 'Severus should only have the right sort of people as his friends'

'Girls' called Mr Evans

'So you're just encouraging him to leave us? Tansy yelled angrily, her bottom lip quivering.

'Of course not! I've spent far too much time cultivating Severus as a friend and we don't want Severus to go making friends with the wrong sort.'

'And who exactly is it that decides who is the right or wrong sort?' Lily's face was starting to go red with anger.

'Girls!' Mr Evans warned

'Me of course.' Petunia gloated arrogantly. 'I'll have been at Hogwarts a whole year so I know who is right and wrong.'

'You can't just go around deciding some people are wrong!' Rose argued.

'Severus should have tonnes of friends!' Lily shouted loudly

'Should not!' Petunia and Tansy yelled

'Should so!' Rose and Lily yelled

'GIRLS!' Mr Evans hollered having finally lost his temper. 'Time out! Now!'

'MUM?' the girls wined, but Mrs Evans was already shaking her head

'You heard your father girls, when you come back you all owe Severus an apology for such rude behaviour'

Looking extremely unhappy all four of the girls stomped out of the room in anger, and Severus was left alone with Mr and Mrs Evans feeling awkward and uncomfortable.

'I'm sorry for getting the girls into trouble.' Severus said, hunching his shoulders.

'This is not your fault dear, our girls are perfectly capable of causing trouble all by themselves.' Mrs Evans assured. 'Now, how about I make us some warm drinks?' Mrs Evans asked rhetorically as she bustled out of the room leaving him alone with Mr Evans.

'Why don't you come and sit down?' Mr Evans asked. When they were both settled into chairs Mr Evans continued. 'By now you may have realised that my daughters aren't exactly the delicate little flowers Hyacinth and I named them after.' Mr Evans had a look of fondness and chagrin on his face and Severus just knew that he couldn't be too angry at them.

'That is mostly my fault I'm afraid. You see when my mother was rescued from her family at 11 years old, she had no one to protect her and there were a few times when she got hurt by bigger children at the orphanage. Thankfully nothing serious, but it could have been. That's why I've made sure that all of my daughters know how to defend themselves no matter how much Petunia and Rose protested. I never want them to feel as helpless as my mother felt growing up.

Now you may think I'm telling you this to scare you off, but I'm not I promise, I'm telling you this because I noticed you have a bit of a bad habit of letting the girls walk all over you, and while I appreciate that you treat them extremely well, you are allowed to have an opinion and say no to things when you don't like something.'

Mrs Evans came back into the room carrying a tray with tea and hot chocolate on top of it. When she placed it on the table Severus noticed the four girls standing in the doorway with looks of remorse on their faces.

'Here you go dear,' Mrs Evans said, passing him a cup of hot chocolate, 'come along girls you can grab a cup of hot chocolate and apologise to Severus one at a time.'

'I'm sorry for my rude behaviour,' Petunia said collecting a cup and sitting next to Severus

'Sorry that I was rude, Sev' said Lily, getting her cup and sitting on Severus' other side.

Rose walked up to him next, still visibly upset. 'Sorry Sev' she whispered, her voice quivering with emotion Mrs Evans handed her a cup as she sat on a chair.

Last but not least was Tansy, peeking out with soulful brown eyes from beneath her fringe. 'I'm sorry, we were all so rude to you, Severus.' Tansy said, curled up on an armchair with her hot chocolate cupped in her hands.

Finishing off his hot chocolate Severus was happy to see the girls slowly cheering up from their punishment.

'Twister anyone?' Mrs Evans called

The girls cheered happily running over to the small cupboard at the end of the room next to a desk and rummaging through the board games.

'Found it!' Petunia announced holding up the game. The girls brought the game out to the middle of the sitting room and set it all up. The game consisted of a large plastic mat spread out on the floor by the girls, and a square board with the words left foot, right foot, left hand, and right hand in its corners with a black plastic spinning arrow in the centre of the board.

Severus had never seen this game before the mat had 4 colours; red, yellow, green, and blue laid out with 6 dots of each colour and the square board had the corresponding colours in each of the corners.

Petunia spun the black needle and it went around the spinner board several times before stopping at the red dot in the top right-hand corner which had the words right hand above the four colours. She nodded in satisfaction and passed the spinner to her parents. The girls then ran and stood on the mat.

Petunia and Lily stood side-by-side facing Rose and Tansy who were on the opposite end of the mat, they each had a foot on one of the circles so that all 4 coloured were covered.

'Come on Sev you stand on the middle two red circles.' Lily called beckoning him over

'Does this game have any rules?' Severus asked feeling a little awkward

'I'll explain them to you, dear.' Mrs Evans offered, she opened up the pamphlet that came with the game and read;

'The referee, that would be Richard and I, spin the spinner and then we call out the body part and the colour that the arrow points to. For example, if all of you had started the game when Petunia had spun then every player must try to place their right hand on any vacant red circle. If the hand or foot is already on a circle of the called-out colour, you must try to move it to another circle of the same colour.'

There can never be more than one hand or foot on any one circle. If two or more players reach for the same circle, the referee must decide which player got there first. The other player(s) must find another vacant circle of the same colour. Never remove your hand or foot from a circle unless you're directed to by the referee after a spin and If all 6 circles of the colour are already covered, the referee must spin again until a different colour can be called out. Any player who falls, or touches the mat with an elbow or knee, is immediately out of the game.' Mrs Evans looked up and must have seen a doubtful look on his face because she smiled encouragingly and said 'just try your best dear and if you feel that a new position is impossible, or will cause you to fall, you may eliminate yourself.'

Mr Evans spun the black needle and it went around the spinner board several times before it came to a stop.

'Right foot, yellow' Mrs Evans called, the girls all jumped into action, jostling each other as they placed their foot where it was meant to go. 'Girls no pushing your sisters over or you can sit out!' Mrs Evans warned. Severus who saw two spare dots moved himself more sedately.

Mrs Evans spun this time.

'Right hand, Green!' Mr Evans announced as Severus and the girls manoeuvred themselves around the mat. The game continued with Mr and Mrs Evans taking it in turns to call out the moves and spinning the arrow.

Rose, who was back to being her sweet and loving self, had been the first one to take a tumble as she had a bad habit of being kind and allowing others to take the less difficult spots.

Tansy the smallest of them all didn't last for long after Rose as she had found it difficult to stretch across the mat.

Severus, feeling extremely awkward about having to reach between the girls' legs to complete his move deliberately dropped his elbow and "fell" onto the mat.

'You're out Severus dear.' Mrs Evans called

Trying not to bump the girls, Severus untangled himself and sat down next to Rose and Tansy as Mr Evans spun for the next move.

Lily's left hand slid and she tumbled onto the mat after two more moves and Petunia, looking slightly insufferable, basked in triumph at having won the game.

'Time for your presents Sev!' Lily called happily.

Severus collected his presents from the table under the expectant eyes of the girls. Opening the first one he saw a homemade card from Petunia sitting on top of a paper plate of Ginger biscuits that were wrapped in cling film for Severus to take home.

Lily's gift turned out to be a homemade card sitting on top of a paper plate of chocolate chip cookies.

He opened Rose's gift to find shortbread biscuits on a covered paper plate with her homemade card.

Tansy's present was a homemade card with delicious-looking chocolate fudge brownies.

The last present Severus received was a thick hand-knitted black sweater from Mr and Mrs Evens.

An hour later everyone headed out to the local Cinema. Mr Evans paid £3.10 for everyone's ticket to get in making Severus feel somewhat guilty that he had done nothing to earn the movie.

The Aristocats turned out to have a lot of musical numbers dispersed between the story that revolved around a family of aristocratic cats, and how an alley cat acquaintance helps them after a butler had kidnapped them to gain his mistress's fortune which was intended to go to them.

It was a fun and energetic movie that even Severus found entertaining and catchy. He was especially happy to see the girls dancing in their seats with their eyes glued to the screen. Singing a tune from the show on the way back to the Evans' house, Severus realised the only time he felt safe and happy was with Mr and Mrs Evans and their daughters.

It was night-time before Severus was able to sneak back home, his house was now quiet and dark bearing no sign of either his mother or father, gently easing open the back door. Severus wondered whether his letter had survived and if it had, where his mother might have hidden it.

Peeking into the sitting room he saw that it was indeed empty of anyone, he decided to search the house from bottom to top, drifting through the sitting-room he went down to the cellar below searching through the boxes and discarded bottles littering the ground he couldn't see anything that resembled his Hogwarts letter, ghosting up the stairs he looked and saw that the sitting room was still empty, he did a quick scan of the room, even checking the fireplace but there was again no sign of his letter, it wasn't in the kitchen or bathroom either.

Going up to the next level where the bedrooms were located, Severus crept silently past his parent's room. The door to his room didn't look like it had any damage done to it, it wasn't bowed or broken like his father had tried to break it down. Severus tested the door, it stayed firmly shut, the bolt on his door was still unbroken so he would need to climb back into his room from the outside.

Gliding into the attic, Severus' quick sweep of the room yielded no results. Severus sighed; it looked like his letter was lost, quickly going down two levels to the kitchen Severus stepped out into the backyard, shimmied up the drainpipe and climbed into his now freezing room. Quickly closing the window, Severus lit up the candle lamp, hoping it would at least dispel a little of the chill, and slumped down on the bed in disappointment.

Something crumpled underneath him jumping up with sudden hope Severus turned around and saw there on his bed was his letter. His mother somehow had gotten it into his room. After all this time here it was, his letter had finally arrived and addressed so plainly there could be no mistake:

Mr S. Snape

The Smallest Bedroom

13 Spinners End

Cokeworth

The envelope was thick and heavy, made of yellowish parchment, and the address was written in emerald-green ink. There was no stamp. Turning the envelope over, his hand trembling, Severus saw a purple wax seal bearing a coat of arms; a lion, an eagle, a badger, and a snake surrounding a large letter H. He opened the envelope, pulled out the letter and read:

HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY

Headmaster: ALBUS DUMBLEDORE

(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)

Dear Mr Snape,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment. Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.

Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall,

Deputy Headmistress

Severus grinned in anticipation, digging in his second-hand Hogwarts trunk, Severus pulled out a roll of parchment and his calligraphy set. With his tongue between his teeth, Severus rested the parchment on his rickety bedside table and carefully scribbled a note to Professor McGonagall;

Dear Professor McGonagall,

I have received my letter and would be pleased to attend Hogwarts, in the coming year.

Yours Sincerely

Severus Snape

Putting his letter on the window sill, Severus would have to wait for the morning to borrow the Evans' Owl to send it.

After spending an hour re-organising his Hogwarts trunk and underlining all the items he already had from the list of supplies Severus changed into his pyjamas and climbed into bed.

Severus woke up the next morning to a thankfully quiet house, he checked his pocket watch and saw that it was 8 am. Severus made his way over to the Evans' house where Mr and Mrs Evans were more than happy to allow Severus to use the Evans's Barn Owl, who had never been given a proper name and was just called E.B.O by the kids.