Thanks to all of you who took the time to review my story!
AN1 2020-08-21: Chapter now betaed by the wonderful Miette :) No plot changes but some scenes were added or developped for better coherence with the rest of the story.
AN2 2020-12-10: Huge thanks to dstone12 who kindly offered to proofread my story for the mistakes Miette and I don't catch as non-English native speakers.

Severus watched with fondness as in his memory, young Severus brewed with Mother. He had many memories of brewing with her and while it had been a necessity to earn money, it had also been the moments when they were the closest.

This time, they had as many cauldrons as they dared set up in the space they used as the laboratory. During the past year, Mother had not been able to brew as much without Severus here to help her and as she was no master, she could not handle the more profitable but harder to brew potions. Thankfully she had had money on the side from the prior years but she had had to be more careful than ever with her expenses. Her emergency stash had dwindled and now they had to gain enough this summer to last through his second school year.

Severus remembered she had allowed him to brew more complex potions this summer but had reduced the time allotted for his experiments as they could waste neither ingredients nor brewing time. She had not even been sure she could afford the Transfiguration books Lucius had recommended, even second hand, but the problem had resolved itself when Lucius' eagle-owl deposited the books as a late birthday gift from his mentor—his birthday was in April but Lucius had not known it at the time.

Young Severus had been over the moon when he received the gift. He had feared Lucius would forget all about him after his graduation but the gesture had proven the contrary.

Severus smiled. He and Lucius had kept in touch regularly since then. Lucius offered him rare Potions books or books to help with his studies, Severus gifted Lucius with potions experiments, the only gifts he could afford and be proud of. Lily, Evans and Jonathan also received potions experiments for their birthdays and Christmas but Severus took great pains not to offer the same potion to any of them, and to give them one they would enjoy using.

Brewing was as natural as breathing for Severus, and he knew he was lucky that Mother let him help as much as she did. It did not prevent him from being disappointed not to be able to use his wand at home. After nine months in Hogwarts being able to learn and practice spells, two weeks after coming back home, he was itching to hold his wand and use it. In addition to his desire to keep learning new spells, Severus worried that two months without using his wand might decrease his chances to bond with it. But Mother would not allow him to practice with his wand.

In theory, underage Wizards were not allowed to practice magic outside of school. In reality, the ministry was far more interested in preventing magic from being noticed by Muggles and did not have the manpower to watch over all underage magical children.

Consequently, the ministry's surveillance consisted in looking for magic in muggle areas, then checking if the magic had been performed by an underage or not, and if it had been noticed or not by Muggles. As it was, a five-year-old could use a wand in Hogsmeade without worries because it was a magical community whereas a lone Muggleborn surrounded by muggle houses would be caught right away.

Purebloods benefited from this as they lived in magical areas. Pureblood children could practice without fear, giving them a seemingly unfair advantage over Muggleborns.

The ministry had come to the same conclusion during Severus' first year, and had aimed to compensate for this unbalance. As usual, they had been unable to get it right.

Severus shook his head as he remembered that morning of July when he had definitely lost any faith in Minister Birkins and his government.

"Hey Sev!"

"Hello Lily!" answered Severus with a small smile.

His friend was bouncing on her toes, vibrating excitement and anticipation. He braced himself for another of her crusades to save stray cats or build secret huts in the park.

"Guess what? I received a letter from the ministry yesterday, and they've created places available to underage Muggleborns for magical practice during the holidays! There's one only ten minutes from here if we take the bus!"

This was… perfect. For once, the ministry had managed to do something useful.

The current Minister of Magic, Minister Birkins, was the leader of a powerful pro-Muggleborns movement which aimed to compensate Muggleborns for all their perceived disadvantages compared to Purebloods. Minister Birkins was in his second mandate and had decided to go further in his improvement of the Muggleborns situation, confirmed in the rightfulness of his actions by his re-election. It irked several Purebloods, especially those from a line old enough to possess one or two ancestors who had been burned for sorcery by Muggles. Several came from Slytherin, and knowing Slytherin's history, it was no wonder the slytherin Purebloods did not see eye to eye with Minister Birkins.

Severus tended to agree with his House' opinion of the current Minister as they had yet to solve the root of the problem they claimed to be fighting. For example, they had decided to cancel the class on wizarding traditions in Hogwarts because one muggleborn student had been severely injured attempting a Samhain ritual to speak to his recently deceased grandfather. At the same time, most books on Wizards' tradition and culture had been moved to Hogwarts' restricted section, meaning they could only be taken out by a student if he had the authorisation from a member of the teaching staff. As the students could order books or speak with pureblood students, they could still access the rituals information and attempt them but with a higher risk of failure and injuries as they would not have the details of the ritual they were attempting. He would have preferred that Hogwarts spent more time teaching the students how to properly perform those rituals. Another example was that the fund for Muggleborns had once more been increased, but to the detriment of the fund for orphaned Wizards as the ministry took for granted that all orphans were taken care of by their relatives who had to have enough resources to let them attend Hogwarts.

Severus wondered why he had not received a letter too, but figured the post might have been delayed.

"This sounds great Lily;" said Severus with a smile, already thinking about all the spells he wanted to try out. "When do you want to go?"

"Now!" answered Lily as if it should be obvious.

Severus bit his lip. He did not think Mother would object to the practice, however he would need to be back before his father was back from work. He would need to use a timer but it was doable.

"Alright, but I need to fetch my wand," answered Severus, excitement bubbling now that the possibility of using Magic was realistic.

Lily nodded.

"Me too, Mum forbade me to go to the park with my wand."

"Which bus do we need to take?" asked Severus. Depending on the stop, it might be quicker to meet back there directly instead of making a detour by the park.

"321, at the Bridge stop. We'll go down at the Top hill stop."

"So, meet there in twenty?" proposed Severus.

"Perfect, hurry up!" said Lily as she dashed towards her house.

Smiling, Severus could not help but run too, eager to practice.

"Already back, Severus?" inquired Mother, lifting her eyes from the shirt she was mending.

"Lily received a letter from Professor McGonnagal, the Ministry has set up places where we can practice Magic during the holidays. We'd like to go now," explained Severus.

Mother nodded slowly.

"Be back before your father's home."

"I know," answered Severus.

He made it to the bus stop in fifteen minutes, but Lily was already waiting for him impatiently.

"Finally!"

He stuck his tongue at her in answer, earning a playful swat as well as a laugh.

He was lucky that the bus did not take long to arrive as Lily kept jumping around as she waited. Such a Gryffindor.

They did not speak much in the bus as they kept having to stop from pronouncing magic words around Muggles. It was a relief to get down at Top hill.

Lily put out a small map, and they watched in wonder as a small manlike shape indicated where they stood, and a small arrow indicated the way they should walk to reach the practice place. It was represented by a purple house on the map, which made Severus wonder if the colour had a hidden significance.

They walked five minutes before the map helpfully informed them they had reached their destination. It was an unassuming looking house, with nothing different from her neighbours.

Lily knocked on the door firmly.

"Good morning children," answered a woman who looked like she was Mother's age. "How may I help you?"

Lily handed her the pass that Professor McGonagall joined to her letter and the woman smiled.

"Come in."

They followed her inside. The entrance was bigger than it looked from the outside, with a big desk and two chairs forming a welcome space.

"I need your name to check that you're on the list," said the woman.

"Lily Evans and Severus Snape," answered Lily.

"Alright, here you are, Miss Evans. And… Mister Snape, you're listed as a student but not a Muggleborn. You may use the practice place but you have to pay a fee of 10 gallons per hour," said the woman as she looked at Severus.

He did not have the time to get over his shock at first not being on the list and two the astronomic sum of money they asked if he wanted to practice. Lily was already angry for him.

"What do you mean Sev is not on the list and must pay to practice with me? We live barely ten minutes apart!" exclaimed Lily.

"I'm sorry Miss, but your friend is not on the Muggleborns list so the ministry considers he already has a place where he can practice safely."

"But Severus lives in the muggle world like me!"

"I do not make the rules," answered the woman, though she had the grace to look apologetically to Severus. "You may write to the ministry to signal a mistake and ask for free access. I can give you the name of the person who's in charge of this program."

"Yes, please," answered Lily, calming a bit in front of the offered solution.

They left with the information and Lily immediately made Severus write the letter that she then sent with her owl.

Severus had no illusion of a letter changing anything and was proven right two days later when he was refused access to the practice area because his Mother was a Witch. Nobody in the ministry had thought that she could be living in a muggle area all the time because nobody at the ministry could imagine living in the muggle world instead of the wizarding one if given the opportunity. They forgot that as he was a Halfblood, his father was obviously a Muggle and might not be so keen to live among people harnessing powers he he did not have.

Truly, Severus was part of a minority nobody cared about—nothing new here. Halfbloods were not common because Muggleborns tended to marry other Muggleborns. Sometimes they would marry with a Pureblood from lesser families, almost never into the oldest lines as the Black or the Malfoy and even less with Muggles. Purebloods mainly married within their own group, sometimes accepting a Muggleborn among them but never a Muggle. The few times it had happened could be counted on Severus' hands from what Evan had told him, and it had always ended by the disinheritance or the death of the Pureblood daring to attempt it.

To Severus, it seemed logical that marrying someone who did not have the same background and capabilities as yourself was asking for disaster—his parents were the living proof of it. He could only approve of wizards staying among themselves. Of course, Muggleborns should be able to see their Muggle relatives but aside from that, he did not see the point for Wizards to have contacts with the muggle world—except for obtaining some potion ingredients or audio tapes of some muggle music bands that were quite good. In Severus' experience, brief contacts with the muggle world could be highly beneficial to a Wizard but lasting ones could only lead to jealousy and heartache in the end. Merlin! Lily's own muggle sister Petunia was jealous of her sister's powers and becoming nastier to Lily with each passing day.

Severus sighed wistfully.

He had spent the entire summer brewing or in the park with Lily. She had refused to use the practice place in a show of solidarity with him. His Slytherin friends had written to him and they had corresponded a few times. They had invited him to spend a week at their home but he had declined, knowing Mother needed him to brew for her. The invitations had warmed him and he had vowed to go next year if they invited him again.

He had barely seen his father who had spent most of his time away from home. All in all, despite being unable to practice spells, it had been a good summer.

The difficulties had begun with his return to Hogwarts.

Money being tight, Severus had taken Mother's books again but also wore second hand clothes. Lily, Evan and Jonathan had said nothing of it, but he heard a few derogatory comments from other students he did his best to ignore.

It was the year pranks from the Marauders began to more frequently target him. The rude glasses guy from the train in first year had been James Potter, his acolyte being Sirius Black. Both had been sorted into Gryffindor—an utter surprise for Black as Severus learned from Evan that the family was notorious for being Slytherins and slightly mad. In Gryffindor Potter and Black had found two other idiots, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew and together the four boys formed the "Marauders", a "pranksters" group. During his first year, Severus had barely noticed them. Their pranks had been innocuous then and focused on random targets which sometimes included him. Second year had been different. While the Marauders had still pranked a number of student groups, they had behaved differently with Severus, singling him out as the lone victim of numerous pranks.

A memory slammed into view. Young Severus was soaked. The Marauders had just spelled water balloons to erupt above him "in an effort to make him more presentable". Since his return to Hogwarts, they had been among the ones mocking his poor clothes—except Lupin whose clothes, while not as bad as Severus', were far from new—as well as his oily hair. Sadly for Severus, a summer brewing potions and not enough money to buy a shampoo that would clean the potions residues from his hair coupled with the beginning of puberty had left his hair in a sorry state. Mother had refused to have him cut it as long hair was traditional among Purebloods.

The humiliation hurt but it was nothing compared to the damage done to his Charms book. His book was dripping ink and water, its protective charm long worn out and never reapplied by Mother. For the first time in a long long while, Severus was near tears as he knew he could not afford to buy another one.

The Marauders were laughing at their prank along with several other students when Potter suddenly exclaimed:

"Hey, isn't Snape crying?"

"Are you sure it's not the shower he just took?" replied Sirius coming closer to Severus to have a better look.

"No, no," crowed Pettigrew, "he's so crying like a girl."

"Oh, poor little snivelling Snape is crying like a girl over a book," laughed Black. A glint appeared in his eyes and he smirked. "Guys, I just got a sudden bout of inspiration. From now on, this poor crying little Snapey will be snivelly Snape!"

Pettigrew and Potter sniggered.

"No no Sirius, you got it wrong," laughed Potter. "He is Snivellus Snape!"

They all laughed out loud, other students joining them even if Severus now noticed Lupin seemed to force himself. Patting each other in the back for their good word, they left young Severus to try and find a way to salvage his book while struggling not to cry openly.

From then on, the Marauders had called him by that hated name. It infuriated Severus and they knew it, which was the whole point. Lily had been furious but her rants could not undo the damages already done.

Yet, he had been happy at the time, reflected Severus. Hogwarts had still felt safe during his second year. He had ignored the pranks and the other students as best as he had been able to and enjoyed his three friends as well as his studies. Moreover, he had been in high spirits because he had begun to feel a pull between his wand and himself that he suspected of being a bond. The pull had been different from when he brewed potions, it had felt like it connected deep within himself, with his magical core he had theorized. He had also noticed he had better control of his spells, and managed to dose out the intensity he wanted to put into them more easily. Flitwick had even commended him several times for well attuned charms. It did not help with Transfiguration but Severus had kept studying following Lucius' advice. He had still been the last of his year, walking a thin line between passing and failing.

Another memory shimmered into view and Severus felt a bitter smile form on his lips. It was the day he had heard about Lord Voldemort for the first time. He had been so full of hope. After all, the Lord's goal only was to apply Slytherin's rules outside their House so the entire wizarding world would benefit from them. How could he have guessed it would reveal the deep fracture between two parts of their society and the pettiness of those already in power? How could he have known it would cause many disagreements between Lily and him?

Young Severus was in his common room, doing his Transfiguration homework with Jonathan as Lily had told him she needed to help one of her friends with Charms and could not meet him in the library as usual. They had been about halfway to their second year and Lily had begun to spend more time with her Gryffindor friends. Severus spent more time with Evan and Jonathan as well, and as they still saw each other regularly, he had thought they had found the balance between all their friends.

He snorted at how naive he had been and returned his attention to the memory, where Evan had just sat with his two friends, excited.

"Have you heard the news?"

"I don't think so but I'm sure we will soon," drawled Severus.

Jonathan playfully attempted to swat him, which he evaded gracefully.

"Come on Severus, I'm sure Evan would not waste our time with useless gossip and you know you want to know what he has to share."

Rolling his eyes, young Severus made a gesture toward Evan to impart the so important news.

"Remember how Father is always railing against the ministry because they do so much for the Muggleborns to the detriment of us Pureblood and without asking for anything in exchange? That he keeps saying it's high time that someone stands up to stop this nonsense?"

Both boys nodded.

Severus had definitely labelled Minister Birkins as incompetent after the summer's debacle. He had been reinforced in his opinion when he had learnt of the following measure taken to support Muggleborns that also excluded Halfbloods.

The currency rate between pounds and galleons was highly disadvantageous for Muggleborns, as one galleon was worth five pounds. Buying all the materials necessary for a year at Hogwarts required a fair number of galleons for a wizarding family but was considered to be a worthy investment. For Muggles, it was a lot of pounds to spend when they knew next to nothing of the prospective future it would offer their children. To counterbalance this, a fund was created to provide Muggleborns with what was estimated to be the cost of one year at Hogwarts. Every year a Muggleborn studied at Hogwarts, he received this stipend.

Of course, nobody had thought about the few Half-bloods students. All of them had at least one parent working in the muggle world, which meant at least half of their parents' income was in pounds. As it was, the fact that Mother was paid in galleons for her potions had made it possible for her to run the house and put some money aside while Severus had been home-schooled. Now she had to pay for his Hogwarts material and sold less potions without her son to help with the brewing. She had to be much more careful about her expenses as he had seen during summer, especially with his father taking his fair share of this income. To this day, Severus still did not understand why she had not put all her money in a Gringotts account, safely away from her husband's greedy hands. Why had she not…

In his memory, Evan smiled with a conspiratorial air.

"Father has met this bloke that came back from several years of travelling. His name is Lord Voldemort and apparently, he plans on forming an opposition group to the ministry. He said that the ministry gives far too much to the Muggleborns whose parents are not even taxed as we are. He said that for now, the ministry is only focusing on muggleborn students but that soon they will propose laws favouring the adults. He said he heard them talking about quotas of Muggleborns to be admitted in post-Hogwarts curricula, as well as some creating designated housing for them in the most wanted magical areas. He also said they are trying to undermine Purebloods. You just need to look at what they are putting into place for Muggleborns while refusing Lord Malfoy's proposal. This Lord Voldemort said his proposal would have achieved a lot more for Muggleborns than the ministry's measures while uniting Purebloods and Muggleborns."

About two years before Severus' first year, Lord Abraxas Malfoy had proposed to have every Muggleborn and Half-blood child sponsored by a Wizard who came from a wizarding family of at least three generations in order to be taught about the wizarding world and its traditions. Sponsorship would begin as soon as the child's magic was detected. It would mean putting into place a list of sponsors after checking all of them were law abiding citizens and suited to the task of introducing Muggles to magic. It would also mean paying those sponsors for their work, even if Lord Malfoy had included in his proposal a list of potential sponsors who were willing to be volunteers. In exchange, it would protect Muggleborn children and help them integrate their new world. It was close to Slytherin's proposal but factored in the sensibility of those believing in family before everything else. All Slytherins had been disappointed when it was rejected, and according to Jonathan's father, they had not been the only ones.

"Father is waiting to see how it goes but it seems that at least the Malfoy are also interested."

Young Severus knew—thanks to his political lessons with his friends—that the Malfoy being interested meant that Lord Voldemort had potential. Of course, they would have to wait and see as "Rome wasn't built in a day", but changes might well happen before they left Hogwarts.

Evan turned to Severus, telling him eagerly: "You will love this Severus. This Lord also said that Half-bloods children were forgotten too often and that, as it could never end well between Wizards and Muggles, it was our duty to watch out for them and take them in if needed, to help their magical inheritance flourish. Father said Lord Malfoy already had a candidate in mind to test a sponsorship, recommended by his son Lucius."

Severus flushed.

"I don't think he was talking about me Evan."

"Come on Severus," said Jonathan, "Lucius tutored you in Transfiguration and is keeping in touch with you even though he graduated last year. He was dead impressed by your potions skills and rightly so. You told us he loved your potion experiment gift, the one that allowed him to grow Anadenanthera peregrina in Malfoy Manor gardens to woo Narcissa Black when it's only supposed to grow in South America. He even gave you a gift for your birthday. I don't see who else he could have recommended to his father."

"Think about it, Severus," said Evan excitedly, "With a sponsorship from Lord Malfoy, you could become the greatest potion master of all times!"

"Hmm, Evan, I think you're a little too enthusiastic," said Severus. "To become a potion Master grade III would already be an enormous achievement for me."

"Severus!" scolded Evan, "You need to stop thinking so poorly of yourself. You're the best of our year!"

"Not in Transfiguration," interjected Severus.

"But you will be good eventually," continued Evan, imperturbable. "Think of all you could do. I'm sure if you keep on studying like you do, you could even obtain several masteries together."

"Come on Evan, I'm only this good because Mother taught me at home some of the first and second year stuff. It won't be the same next year."

Jonathan snorted.

"So did we Severus, as every Pureblood who attends Hogwarts. And don't tell me you're not still studying in advance. I'm pretty sure you could take your potion OWL now and pass."

The three friends continued bickering merrily, and the older Severus smiled longingly. His two friends had believed in him so much even then. Now that he had taken the exam, he knew he indeed could have passed it in second year. Severus sighed. He did this a lot lately he reflected. Time to go to third year, when their world had begun to change…