"The difference between school and life is that school teaches you a lesson and then gives you a test, whereas, life gives you a test and you learn the lesson.'

Unknown

By the time Severus turned down the street he knew the school was on, the day had already reached stifling temperatures. The ten-year-old made no notion of removing the rather oversized, worn jacket he was wearing, however. The last thing on the boy's mind were his clothes - for the moment at least. All that occupied his thoughts was that he hoped he wasn't late.

The sound of the bell ringing from the Muggle building told Severus that he wasn't, however, and a rare smile (something more like a slight upwards quirk of his lips) appeared on his face. Though, and unlike any normal child hearing the sounds of the other children laughing as their learning came to a close for another day, Severus' steps slowed as he carefully made his way unnoticed closer towards the courtyard, closer to those very sounds of playing and merriment.

Managing to go either unnoticed, or unseen - one was just as good as the other in the ten-year-old runaway's mind - the boy headed towards a spot he'd found not a month earlier behind a large tree, his eyes looking on attentively as two sisters played on a set of swings nearby. His dark gaze was fixated upon the younger of the siblings as they swung higher and higher, red hair blowing back and forth ever so freely in the wind.

It had been that exact same day one month prior that Severus had first spot the siblings. He had been taking shelter from the rain, his usually spots being taken by older, more volatile runaways, or by the random person unfortunately caught out in the downpour. But it had been here, under this very tree where he had seen the redhead do something that had him enthralled.

"Lily, don't do it!" the redhead's sister suddenly screeched, and Severus found himself greedily taking in the scene before him as, just at the very height of its arc, the girl - Lily - let go of her swing and flew into the air. Dark eyes watched rapidly as their spying once again paid off, and the redhead quite literally flew through the air, launching herself skywards with a tinkering laugh before touching down softly upon the ground; not at all in a way that a Muggle should or could have been able to.

There could only be one reason for that in Severus Snape's mind.

Magic.

"Mummy told you not to!"

The boy's dark gaze snapped back to Lily's sister as the blonde dug her heels into the ground and brought her swing, and herself, to a sudden stop. And the moment she came to a halt, the girl was out of the swing with her hands on her hips. "Mummy said you weren't allowed, Lily! Especially at school! Someone could have seen!"

Thin, pale lips couldn't help but curl at the blonde's patronising tone.

Severus really didn't like that girl.

"But I'm fine," Lily replied to her sister, straightening her clothes out with a roll of her eyes. She couldn't see what the big deal was. It wasn't as if someone had stuck around after the last bell just to spy on them playing while they waited to be picked up. "There's no-one here, Tuni," she added, giving their surroundings a glance - just to be certain.

Though, and as she did so, something caught Lily's eye and a smile bloomed on her face, something that almost stole Severus' breath away. "Tuni, look at this," the redhead cried to her sister as she suddenly dashed off - and straight towards the tree that the spying ten-year-old was hiding behind.

Severus stiffened, panic overwhelming him, and he was ready to flee at a moment's notice as the girl fluttered about just on the other side of the trunk barely concealing his form; Lily trying to reach for one of the tree's many flowers. And it was only when she finally managed to snag the one she was after, turning back to her sister who was still waiting by the swings to call, "Come on! Look what I can do!" did the boy manage to take in a much needed breath.

That had been close.

The moment Lily's green eyes turned away from her pale-haired sister and back to the flower in her hand, focusing on the yellow bloom, it seemed as though her sister had come to a decision; Tuni crossing the distance between them so she could see what Lily was doing. The flower sat in the redhead's palm, and three pairs of eyes stared in utter silence as the petals begun to open and close, open and close, over and over again.

Severus found himself once more breathless. Though this time it was as if Time itself had decided to join him in his moment, all but coming to a halt as he felt her magic in the air, coursing through the courtyard like a gentle scent on a summer wind. The boy watched with a mixture of fascination and longing, his heart pounding within the confines of his chest as all the doubts he'd been harbouring of the redheaded girl being a Muggle fled.

Was this what Hades had felt when he'd stumbled across Persephone playing within that meadow?

The comparison between Lily and Persephone, Hades and himself, hadn't been intentional. Though, and at the same time, Severus' young mind couldn't stop from drawing parallels between the two now the thought had managed to take root within his mind. He knew that he was no God, that he ruled no realm or kingdom; the recently-turned ten-year-old nothing more than a runaway with untapped potentials, and of whom was hiding away from two worlds that had no interest in trying to understand him.

Yet, in that precise moment of time, Severus also couldn't help but feel a profound connection to the God of the Underworld, captivated by the innocence and untrained power that the girl before him did possess. He may not be a God, nor rule over a realm, but it didn't stop Severus from longing to be closer to the witch, to be a witness to her magical displays - the power he knew she didn't even know she possessed - in a more intimate manner. And as the flower within Lily's palm continued to do its eerie, yet breath-stealing dance, dark eyes could not be torn away.

It was as if Time itself had come to a slow crawl around the glade, the world falling into the background as Lily continued to manipulate the flower's petals with her magic, and Severus realised, in that singular moment, that he'd stumbled upon something far more than extraordinary, something that transcended the boundaries of his young life (and had nothing to do with the original Author setting him up for utter humiliation in his later years). It was as if he'd come across a small piece of a world he did so long to be a part of, and for the first time in his young life, Severus felt the first beginnings of hope spark to life within his heart.

He glanced between the two sisters, to their expressions of wonder and curiosity, before his eyes returned to Lily. Her fiery hair caught the sunlight, and it cast an otherworldly glow upon her. To the ten-year-old hiding behind the tree (seriously, this is how their friendship started?), she was a beacon of light and magic in the mundane Muggle world they resided within. And he, well, Severus was nothing more than a runaway who didn't seem to fit in anywhere; a bloody nobody who was just feeling an inexplicable yearning to be a part of her world and bask in her magical radiance.

While he didn't see himself as Hades, and he wasn't a God by any means, it didn't stop Severus from wishing that he could be the one to protect and cherish Lily, to be the one standing by her side as she explored the depths of her magical potential. He knew that he'd stumbled upon a rare and precious moment, something that would forever change the course of his life - even if he couldn't fully comprehend just how much at the time.

For Severus Snape, meeting Lily was like discovering that light in which he'd been seeking ever since running away from his parents, and he was determined to find a way to remain in her presence, no matter the cost.

(Think I played it up enough?)

"Stop it!"

(Yeah, thought so too... Back to the story.)

Black eyes snapped once more to Lily's sister at the girl's exclamation, and a sneer was soon pulling at Severus' pale lips. He could see the hatred within the girl's eyes, the envy that burned within their depths.

"It's not hurting you," her sister ever-so-casually brushed off, yet their hidden observer found his ire towards the blonde growing as he watched the flower in Lily's hand be crushed before she tossed it carelessly to the ground.

She shouldn't have to placate a Muggle! his mind raged. She was a witch! Not someone who-who's cursed!

"It's not right," Tuni retorted primly, unknowingly stoking the flames of Severus' anger even more as her eyes followed the flower's path with that envious glint in her eyes. "How do you do it?" she added, unable to hold back her curiosity and longing as her gaze returned to Lily.

It made the boy want her to disappear. The thought shimmered within him, irrational and fleeting, and just like the dark magic that danced at the edges of his understanding. Somewhere deep within, he truly wanted Tuni to vanish, to fade away from the presence of the extraordinary girl who'd captivated his fascination.

He knew, deep down, that having found a witch within the Muggle world was far more than a fluke, that it was the beginning of something far more significant in his life, something that would shape his world in a way that he could not yet fathom. And Severus Snape wasn't about to let some blonde-haired bint get in-between him and what he perceived to be his fate.

The ten-year-old's anger and frustration with the pale-haired sister only intensified as realisation hit him like a brick.

Lily was the one producing magic.

Lily was the witch born within a Muggle family.

And it was Tuni who did not understand the world he was glimpsing through Lily; a world he knew to be filled with wonder, magic, and endless possibilities.

There was no way he was going to let the Muggle destroy that vision, and without a second thought, Snape stepped around the trunk of the tree.

"It's obvious, isn't it?"