They had to leave early on September first to get to London from Cokeworth. Severus had lain awake most of the night, feverish with excitement, and he felt like he had just gone to sleep when his alarm started to ring. He snapped awake and shut it off quickly, not wanting to wake his father. He stumbled across the room and snapped on the light, then struggled into his clothes. He looked down at himself unhappily, taking in the oversized trousers and shirt. It wasn't the first impression he wanted to make. He wished that he had something- anything- better to wear.

Eileen rapped on the door, bursting in a moment later. "Have you packed everything?" She flipped open his trunk and scanned the contents. When her eyes met his wand, she froze for a moment, mouth twisting. A moment later, she slammed the trunk shut. Severus winced at the noise.

"I'm not coming back if you forget anything, understood?"

"I haven't forgotten anything," Severus said quietly. He'd checked multiple times the night before, packing and repacking and cross referencing the list that had come with his Hogwarts letter. He was still nervous, but there was no point in telling his mother that.

Between the two of them, they managed to wrestle the trunk onto an early bus- getting odd looks- and onto the train at Cokeworth station. The train was quiet, and they found seats easily. Eileen immediately pulled out a book of puzzles and a pen, ignoring Severus. He wished that he could get one of his books out of his trunk, but reading books of magic on a muggle train was definitely not allowed.

And then he glanced back at his mother, who had apparently been a witch once. "My wand is made of dragon heartstring. Olivander said-"

"Did I ask what Olivander said?"

"N-no," Severus admitted, instinctively flinching away at her anger.

"Right. If I wanted to listen to stupidity, I'd ask for it."

"Sorry."

For a few moments, he stared out of the window, imagining Lily in a crowded car with her parents and sister. Her parents always wanted to talk to her. Then looked sideways at Eileen's crossword. Another idea had occurred to him. "Can I help?"

She grimaced. "I doubt it."

"I've read a lot. I know a lot of words."

"I doubt that." But she did flick towards the start of her puzzle book and ripped one out to pass to Severus. "Here. If you're bored you can do this one. Now shut up."

Severus accepted, even with a hundred questions still buzzing around his head. He focused on his puzzle for the rest of the journey. He found it harder than he expected, so perhaps his mother had been right. He knew a lot of words, but almost all of them he'd learnt from books of magic- plants, fungi, spells and famous witches and wizards. Not much that helped with a muggle crossword.

As they got closer to King's Cross, Eileen's manner became more distracted, and when they arrived she walked so briskly across the platform that Severus almost had to run to keep up. Severus was well versed in the moods of his parents, but this was new- it was almost as though she were nervous.

And then they walked through the platform barrier to Platform 9 ¾, and Severus forgot all about his mother. Just like Diagon Alley, the platform bustled with witches and wizards, and trolleys bearing magical items: cats and owls, books and broomsticks, cauldrons and potted plants. And beyond them all stood the crimson steam engine that was going to take him to become a wizard too, puffing clouds of steam over the crowds.

He noticed Lily standing a few feet away. She looked unhappy, and was arguing with her sister. Again. Probably for the best, Severus thought- they wouldn't see each other when Lily was at school, and maybe if they argued enough Lily would realise it was foolish to miss her.

The train whistled, and students began to say their farewells and move towards the train, either alone or in chatting groups. Lily hugged her parents tightly, saying goodbye. Then she offered Petunia a hug, but the muggle girl scowled and stepped away, arms folded. Lily looked heartbroken.

Severus glanced at his mother, wondering if they would hug.

"Well, are you going?" Eileen asked.

"Oh- yes." Severus hesitated. "Goodbye."

"Don't get expelled," she said. "And look after your wand."

"I will," Severus assured her. He turned and walked towards the train, his sadness at his mother's cold goodbye fading as he looked up at the scarlet steam engine. After years of wishing, he was finally leaving. Hogwarts!

Not wanting anyone else to see him in his cast-off muggle clothes, he changed quickly in one of the train bathrooms. His mother's old robes fit him surprisingly well, although he wished they were new. The right sleeve was starting to fray and there was an odd stain at the waist that Severus assumed was the remnant of a potion mishap from her school days. But they would have to do. He pulled One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi out of his trunk, and went to find Lily.

To his distaste, she was hunched in the corner of a carriage where a group of boys were talking loudly. Severus felt a moment of envy as he peered through the carriage window- one of them had already changed into his school robes, and the crisp black newness of them made Severus very aware of how much his own robes had faded. But there was nothing he could do about that.

Severus pushed the door open and entered the carriage. He passed the boys, glad they ignored him, and sat opposite Lily. But she only glanced at him before looking back towards the window, where London was flying past in a blur of grey buildings and bright graffiti. "I don't want to talk to you."

Severus glanced sideways at the group of boys, wondering if they had put her up to this. To his relief, they still seemed to be ignoring him and Lily completely. "Why not?"

"Tuney h-hates me. Because we saw that letter from Dumbledore."

"So what?"

"So she's my sister!"

She's only a-" Lily wiped her eyes, and Severus caught himself just in time. He didn't like her to be upset. He changed tack abruptly. "Anyway, we're going! This is it! We're off to Hogwarts!"

It worked- Lily gave a small smile.

"You'd better be in Slytherin," he continued. He'd decided months ago that Slytherin was where he'd fit best: it was for people who were cunning and ambitious, and Severus felt a fierce ambition to leave Spinner's End.

"Slytherin?" One of the other boys in the compartment whipped around, and Severus took an immediate dislike to him. His whole manner screamed arrogance. Severus felt he could tell this boy had never been hungry a day in his life. "Who wants to be in Slytherin? I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?" He smirked at the boy in the new robes.

"My whole family have been in Slytherin," said the other boy. Severus hated him too.

"Blimey. And I thought you seemed alright!"

The Slytherin-family boy grinned. "Maybe I'll break the tradition. Where are you heading, if you've got a choice?"

"Gryffindor, where dwell the brave at heart! Like my dad."

Severus scoffed. Of course this boy wanted Gryffindor.

The boy turned to Severus, puffing himself up ready for a fight. "Got a problem with that?"

Severus sneered. He'd survived eleven years in Spinner's End; it was impossible to be scared of a rich boy who'd never been in a fight in his life. "No. If you'd rather be brawny than brainy-"

"Where're you hoping to go, seeing as you're neither?" The second boy interrupted.

Severus turned to him with a scowl, and opened his mouth to retort.

But before he could say anything, Lily had grabbed his arm. "Come on. Severus, let's find another compartment."

"Oooo," the boy whose family were in Slytherin said.

"Come on, Snivellus," the second one said, mimicking.

Severus felt himself reddening, wanting to pull out his wand and test out some of the curses he'd learnt on them. But Lily had a tight grip on his arm, steering him outside, and she was already upset.

"What a pair of idiots!" she snarled. "I hope the rest of Hogwarts isn't like them!"

"I'm sure they aren't. But who cares if they are? We have each other." Despite himself, Severus felt a rush of relief that she was on his side. A part of him had worried, seeing her in the compartment, that she would rather have one of them than him.

They searched down the train for a quieter carriage, finally finding one near the end that was empty. Severus sat down with relief.

"You're right. We shouldn't let them ruin it for us," Lily said, although she still looked furious.

She calmed down when a few minutes later, a witch pushing a trolley of sweets appeared at the door of their carriage. "Anything from the trolley, dears?"

Severus shook his head, knowing he had no money. Lily, however, sprang up and bought one of everything. The rest of the train ride was better. They ate Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, compared chocolate frog cards and chatted about school. Outside the scenery changed from rolling fields to hills to wide moorland stretching to the horizon, and eventually to pure darkness.

As Lily walked up to the Sorting Hat and put it on her head, Severus was sure that she would be sorted into Slytherin. Maybe Lily hadn't been forced to develop the same ambition that he had, but they were meant to be together. So when the hat opened up and yelled "GRYFFINDOR", it was like the ground had fallen away beneath his feet.

Severus couldn't move as the world went into slow motion. He stared at Lily as she pulled the hat off gracefully and set it on the stool. She met his eyes with a slight smile and Severus felt a stab of fury. She betrayed him like this, and now she smiled?

And then she turned and walked towards the cheering Gryffindor table, where one of the posh boys from the train sat. Severus knew now his name was Sirius Black, which annoyed Severus even more. He knew the name Black from one of his books- A Wizarding Genealogy. They were one of the oldest and wealthiest families in Britain, and Black had thrown that legacy away to be sorted into Gryffindor. And was it Severus's imagination, or did he look triumphant, having taken Lily away?

At least when Lily sat down, she scowled and turned away from Black, looking back up towards the stage. Her eyes found Severus again, giving him the briefest of smiles. Despite his anger, Severus felt relieved- he hadn't lost her yet. He kept his eyes on Lily for the rest of the sorting, as more and more students joined the Gryffindor table. Unsurprisingly, the other boy from the train- James Potter- was amongst them, and to Severus's disgust the two high fived as Potter sat down.

Distracted, he almost missed when McGonagall called his name. "Snape, Severus." Severus crossed the stage in a few strides. His skin crawled at the feeling of all the eyes on him, wondering if they noticed his tatty second-hand robes even from a distance. He jammed the hat onto his head as quickly as possible, and almost jumped out of his skin when a voice appeared in his ear.

"Ooooh, a difficult one. There's plenty of courage there, and loyalty too…"

"Don't you dare put me in Gryffindor," he thought, although he didn't feel very brave.

"Are you sure?" the hat asked. "You could do well there, you know. You haven't seen it yet, but I expect you will. But I can see the rest, too. You certainly have a thirst to prove yourself. And oh, that ambition. Better be…" And then, louder. "SLYTHERIN!"

Cheers exploded across the hall as Severus gratefully scurried across the stage, towards the green and silver clad table on the far right of the hall. He found a seat near the rest of the Slytherin first year boys. A blonde boy with a large Prefect badge pinned prominently on his chest patted him on the back, grinning. And then the room quietened.

"Trevalyn, Rachel," Professor McGonagall called, and the sorting moved on.

When the sorting was over, Professor Dumbledore rose from the staff table. Before we eat, I have a few words." Dumbledore scanned the hall with his blue eyes, as though taking in every student in the hall. "Over the summer holidays, you may have heard rumours or read stories of strange happenings- attacks, disappearances, even murders. I want to reassure you all that everyone of magical ability is welcome at Hogwarts, no matter your background or parentage."

A few people near Severus snorted loudly. "Not just up to him, is it?" someone whispered.

"That is all," Dumbledore said simply. "I will not keep you from your dinner any longer. Let the feast begin!"

For a moment, Severus wondered what Dumbledore had been referring to. And then an incredible array of food materialised onto the table. Severus had to stop himself from gasping, his stomach roaring into life at the delicious smell. This was more food than he had seen in his life- even at Lily's house. Roast chicken, roast beef, pies, sausages, steak, potatoes roasted, boiled and mashed… It was like a hallucination from one of his hungriest daydreams. Severus immediately began some of everything on his plate, his stomach overriding his brain.

"Don't the muggles feed you?" Severus looked up to find one of the other first-years smirking at him, a red-haired boy. From the sorting, Severus knew his name was Eugene Mulciber.

Severus scowled back. "'I'm not a muggle."

"Snape's not a wizard name," Mulciber said. "So no, you're not. We don't care what Dumbledore says." He nudged the boy sitting next to him- Avery- who nodded in dull agreement.

"My mum was a witch," Severus said. He kept his head high, forcing himself to meet the other boy's brown eyes. "Eileen Prince."

For some reason that caught the attention of two more of the first years- Evan Rosier, a blonde boy with the same arrogant air as Potter, and Clarence Wilkes. Rosier smirked at Mulciber. "Oooh, Eileen Prince. Your cousins are here." He motioned down the table lazily, and with a shock Severus saw two older students who shared his mother's thin build and pale skin.

"Really?" Despite his growing dislike for Rosier and Mulciber, Severus couldn't help betraying his eagerness.

"Oh yes," Rosier said. "You should go and introduce yourself."

"They'll be really pleased you're here," Wilkes added.

All four of them were looking at Severus with unconcealed amusement. Severus scanned their faces. He could tell he was being made fun of but not why.

He was saved from his confusion by the blonde prefect. "Evan, Clarence, that's enough." He looked to Severus and spoke in a sharper tone. "They aren't your cousins. As far as anyone here is concerned, she died at twenty-one. Maybe you didn't know."

Severus stared at him blankly for a moment. His mother was alive. Were they talking about another Eileen Prince? Had she faked her death for some reason? He'd seen that once, in one of the muggle soap operas his mother was so fond of, but it didn't seem like a thing that would happen in real life.

Across the table, Mulciber was glaring at him. Rosier, however, switched his manner immediately. Suddenly he was smooth, interested. "Sorry, Lucius, I got carried away. How was your summer? I hear you stayed at Barty Crouch's holiday home in Italy." A moment later, Mulciber cast Severus one last scowl and then joined in a different conversation.

Severus went back to his food, but more slowly now. He was still starving, but his mind was whirling. A part of him was disappointed, too- he'd expected to fit in here better than he had at his muggle school, but so far that didn't seem to be the case.

Once they'd finished eating, the Prefects led the first years back to the Slytherin quarters. The Common Room was exactly as it appeared in Hogwarts: A History- a long, low ceilinged room with rough grey walls. At the end stood a roaring fire, where some of the older students had already claimed the green and silver armchairs closest to the flames.

Not wanting more confrontation, Severus slipped away to the elaborately carved staircase at the back of the room that he knew led to the dormitories. He found the right room easily enough: five four poster beads hung with velvet curtains of deep emerald green, trimmed with silver. Each of them had a trunk at the base, and it was immediately obvious which was his- it was obviously much older than the others, with scuffed corners and faded leather.

Severus felt himself redden at the thought of Mulciber and the other boys seeing it, but there was nothing he could do about it. His mother's old books hadn't had any trunk de-scuffing charms, if such a thing even existed. Maybe he could look it up in the library. He quickly changed into his too-small pyjamas, checked his trunk was locked and climbed into his four poster bed, pulling the curtains firmly shut. He kept his wand with him, tucking it under the pillow.

The bed enveloped him into a warm hug immediately, infinitely softer than the thin mattress on the floor that Severus was used to. It was so comfortable it was almost wrong, like a sign that he didn't belong. He felt for his wand under the pillow, letting its warmth creep up his fingers.

Severus was just drifting off to sleep when loud footsteps clattered up the stairs and into the dormitory. "Oooh, look at that trunk. Where d'you think he got that?" Mulciber. "It's like something out of a museum."

"I can't believe I have to share a dormitory with a halfblood," Rosier complained. "I'll be writing to my father about it."

The boys spent some more time clattering around noisily, but eventually they went to bed and the room was quiet once again. Severus lay awake for a little while, feeling unsettled. His first day at Hogwarts hadn't quite gone how he'd hoped. He told himself that it didn't matter. Rosier, Potter and Black were idiots, and he had no desire to impress them anyway. He'd faced much worse than a bunch of rich boys with wands they probably didn't know how to use. And they were wrong, anyway- his mum was a witch, and so he did belong here.

Eventually, he drifted to sleep, comforted by the fact that whatever happened he at least wouldn't be hungry at Hogwarts.