Chapter 1: The Lion and the Snake
Long before the pair arrived at Hogwarts, young Severus Snape had already told Lily Evans all about the house system. "Ravenclaw and Slytherin are obviously the best. I'd leave if they made me a Gryffindor. Bravery is stupid," he had declared.
Sev had made the sorting sound very important. It would dictate who would be in her classes and which professor was her head of house. Severus had also emphasized that the connections she made within her house may well dictate the rest of her life.
What he didn't do was express an interest in being in the same house as Lily. He also never asked what house she thought she might be in.
And, Lily had never asked herself which house she'd like.
These oversights became obvious to both during the sorting ceremony.
After she placed the sorting hat on her head, Lily told it, "Wherever is fine, as long as I get to study magic."
The hat immediately proclaimed, "Gryffindor!"
That suited Lily fine for a split second, until she saw how Sev's face fell in disappointment. Oh right, he probably won't end up in the same house as me.
Still, there was no use thinking about it now. She was stuck waiting to see where Sev sorted. Lily forced her face blank as she went to sit with the other brave children.
Some minutes later, Professor McGonagall called out, "Severus Snape".
The dark-haired boy donned the sorting hat with a fearful expression.
After a long while, the hat announced: "Slytherin!"
Sev and Lily exchanged frowns. Then, Sev took his seat at the table at the far side of the Great Hall.
Their fates settled, Lily tried to pretend that she happy to be in a different house than Sev.
Lily's parents would almost certainly be pleased — in their eyes, Sev was a "bad influence". Lily was scolded for being a "bad sister" far more often since Sev came into her life, which was unfair. Petunia was jealous of Lily's magic and told tales about Lily and Sev.
What was Sev's fault was that he was prickly and mean. But so was Lily, even when she could hide it. Moral education, what "good people" do, had only taught her that being generous, warm, and open-minded was not natural to her. She wanted what she wanted: beautiful clothes, the exciting toys, and to be the best. She didn't quite know what she meant by "best" yet, but she was confident that she would know in time.
Talking to Sev made Lily feel powerful. She wasn't a freak because she had magic, Sev didn't care if she was a bad person, and her lofty ambitions didn't make her delusional in his eyes. Even better, Sev had told her about magic, the best thing in the whole world.
At the sudden twinge of loss for a person seated two tables away, Lily forced herself to shift her attention to the chattering of her fellow lions.
The only familiar faces at the Gryffindor table were James Potter and Sirius Black, who she already knew to be loud and crass from the train ride. She turned away from them in the hopes of finding herself an equal (a replacement for Sev, her mind supplied).
Unfortunately for her, the other first-year students proved to be just as unimpressive as Potter and Black over the course of the Welcome Feast. Several shouted questions that were answered by their Hogwarts letters or the first chapter of their textbooks.
Lily was further frustrated by the indifferent shrugs she got when she asked older students what clubs the school offered and where she could get a school map. Sev didn't know those things either, but at least he was curious. Maybe Sev's complaints about Gryffindors had merit.
Lily squashed that thought and a growing sense of loneliness down by reminding herself that she was courageous — the hat had basically just told everyone as much by sorting her into Gryffindor.
She forced herself to appear confident as she ate her dessert.
While she wasn't intentionally avoiding him, Lily didn't talk to Sev again until their first Potions class. First-year Gryffindors and Slytherins were paired together, as was tradition.
Sev walked right up to Lily in the hallway outside of Professor Slughorn's classroom. "I'm sorry about what I said… about your sister. On the train platform earlier this week."
Lily had honestly forgotten about that, but telling him would be pointless. She had been projecting a calm confidence all week, which inspired this response: "I accept your apology."
"Er, would you sit by me in this class?" Snape's eyes were unusually wide as he waited for Lily's answer.
"Okay." Lily hadn't warmed up to any of the other first-years anyway.
From that very first class, Lily and Sev excelled together at Potions. Professor Slughorn was immediately impressed with the knowledgeable and inventive pair. The class was soon the highlight of their weeks.
But not everyone was so happy to see them get along. Lily's Gryffindors and Sev's Slytherins made snide little comments in Potions class, which soon became aggressive interrogations in their respective common rooms. Lily could have ignored it and carried on doing what she wanted, but Sev was reluctant.
So, in class they pretended to merely tolerate each other while writing all sorts of little notes ranging from brilliant academic insights to goofy poems. They even had a subtle system of hand gestures to communicate so they weren't writing too many notes. For example, fluttering their fingers implied laughter.
Within a month of starting Hogwarts, Lily and Sev were sneaking around dusty corridors, unused classrooms, and throughout the school grounds to study or just talk. A handful of students and professors saw them together, but it didn't matter overmuch. They didn't flaunt their connection, so they weren't hassled for being friends.
Despite avoiding bullying about their association, Lily and Sev both were victims of bullying individually.
Professors awarded Lily a lot of house points for "excellent questions" and her ability to perform many spells successfully on her first attempt. Pureblooded students from more than just the snake house grumbled over what they labeled unfair favoritism.
Sev's marks were perfect, but he was still a half-blood, poor, couldn't take criticism, and couldn't enact revenge in socially acceptable ways.
Lily chided her friend for getting into fights every few days to no effect.
Because of Lily and Sev's low social standing amongst their peers, Sev pushed for further security measures when Lily and Sev spent time together.
Lily was skeptical of the need at first. "We're targets even if we don't talk. And if someone curses me, I'll curse them right back. I don't see why this is such a big deal."
Sev's voice was desperate. "You're forgetting that our enemies can combine forces, like Potter and his little friends. I would never lose against only one of them."
"That's true," Lily admitted.
"Secrecy has never been natural to you. I don't know why I just assumed that you'd be in Slytherin when it's obvious that you lack the necessary subtlety." He tacked on, "And, well, you're a muggleborn. It's probably for the best that you're… where you are."
Lily shrugged. "I probably wouldn't fit in better anywhere else. I'm making do." She could blend in well enough in the house of lions. It was a small price to pay to learn magic.
Sev put a hand on his chin. "You're such a fast learner. I bet you could learn how to brew something really hard, like… Polyjuice Potion. Obviously we could use it to sneak around. But just the challenge of the brew would be exciting, don't you agree?"
Lily noticed the obvious manipulation, but went along with Sev's plan.
A few months into their second year, Lily successfully brewed the Polyjuice potion. After that, it took her less than a week to transfigure various adornments worn by the students she planned to imitate.
Slytherin students were especially partial to intricate pins signaling their powerful families. Lily added her own subtle touches to the duplicates she made, like a lily or petunia flower. Her modifications gave her a little thrill. She enjoyed getting one over on the snobs she pretended to be.
With her potions and pins, Lily masqueraded as several different students to use the library with Sev.
Their deception worked for a short while, but the weaknesses of this approach became obvious quickly. The real students still existed, and the real students didn't associate with Severus Snape.
Lily tried to get Sev to take the potion as well, but he refused. "While the potion would give me their appearance, I don't have the skills to act like them. You do it better than I ever could," he praised.
Lily frowned. "You need to be more brave. I bet you could do anything you wanted, if you put your mind to it. You're just as smart as I am."
"You're wrong about all of that."
Despite many attempts to teach him to be bolder, Sev never budged.
So, Lily was stuck obliging Sev's secretive nature to maintain their friendship.
She didn't really mind, though. Sev was the most interesting person in the castle, and he was worth the effort.
Eventually, Lily learned to enjoy the subterfuge. And, it became more instinctual.
Lily disappeared for hours at a time with Sev, but often avoided directly lying when asked where she'd been. These were the sort of responses she'd give:
"Oh, I was working on Herbology (never mind who or where). Say, where did you find information on longterm storage of snorgaluf pods?"
"You can't have looked properly in the library for me. I was there all evening. But I'm here now, so what did you want to talk about?"
"I was exploring the castle. You have to have noticed that there are secret passageways, and no. I can't tell you what I've found. What would be the fun in that?"
As long as Lily's answers were either plausible or playfully mischievous, the other Gryffindors left her be.
During Lily and Severus' early years at Hogwarts, they spent lots of time brainstorming how to use the magics that they learned, both in class and from their extensive research in the library.
One dreary day in January of their second year, Sev said, "I wonder if an object could be charmed to vanish at a specific time, instead of right when we cast a vanishing spell." The vanishing spell was well beyond the second year curriculum, but of course the pair had already mastered it.
Lily agreed, and immediately had an idea: "It would be great if gum could vanish after 10 minutes of chewing." Lily was surreptitiously enjoying a piece of muggle chewing gum that had lost all of its flavor. Since they were in the library, she couldn't easily spit it out.
Sev's eyes lit up. "If we invented that, then you wouldn't have kids leaving gum under desks. If they did, it'd just disappear!"
"I bet schools would love it. Perhaps that would be the only sort of gum allowed there, which would be great for sales. Though, their aren't very many magical schools."
It went without saying that muggles and muggle inventions weren't interesting.
It also went without saying that their ideas were only useful if their ideas were widely adopted. Lily and Sev could have focused on creating their vanishing chewing gum for themselves, but they never did.
Lily and Sev's brainstorming was paradoxical: they never focused on their personal uses of their inventions even though most of their ideas started from genuine, personal frustrations.
For example, Lily and Sev frequently brainstormed ways to improve magical transportation. Neither of their childhood homes had access to the Floo network, and their families didn't use apparition or portkeys (Lily's muggle parents couldn't, and Sev's mother wouldn't).
A few days before the end of their second school year, Lily asked Sev, "Could someone create a temporary Floo connection using muggle gunpowder?"
Sev considered this, but rejected the idea. "Floo isn't normal fire. But, I don't see why more wizards don't carry portkeys. They're reusable, and most people are going to the same five places most of the time!"
"Didn't you say that portkeys are tightly regulated, though? I wonder why that is."
Sev speculated, "There might be dangers to portkey travel. Or, it might just be for antiquated, historical reasons. Magical society hasn't changed much since my mum's time."
In an alternate universe, Lily and Sev might have revolutionized magical transportation, communication, or medicine.
But, their creativity was stifled by repeatedly hitting dead-ends at questions of regulation and magical culture. They couldn't get everyone to adopt a new form of transportation if it was illegal or if magical Britain resisted their clever ideas.
Lily and Sev's desire to change the world eventually pushed them to research magical government and politics instead of dreaming up inventions.
This pivot happened abruptly and intentionally.
During one of their clandestine meetups during third year, Sev simply declared, "I'm tired of talking about all of these brilliant ideas that fizzle out in big-picture questions. We need to learn more about who's in power here. Who creates magical laws? Who enforces them?"
When he said it like that, Lily thought Sev was right. "I agree."
Sev bit his lip as he added, "We might also want to listen to our classmates. Many of them have relatives who work for the Ministry in all sorts of ways. They let all sorts of little things slip that we might want to know."
"Like what?"
Sev slowly offered, "Like, where do their families vacation? How expensive are their trips? Do any political or bureaucratic allies go to the same place at the same time?"
Lily frowned. "That seems awfully nosy."
Sev rolled his eyes. "You can bet that every Slytherin is looking at every other Slytherin like that. If anyone says anything revealing in my house, it's their own fault."
"Fine. I'll keep my eyes open. But we should also read everything we can find, too."
"Obviously."
They browsed Ministry trial transcripts and legal codes. They read issues of the Daily Prophet, both historical and current. The became informed on the important political issues of the day: muggleborns, creature management, and squib rights.
Those issues could all be described as facets of a bigger issue: the Statute of Secrecy. Wizards didn't want muggles to know that magic was real, and that required complicated and morally questionable acts.
The more they learned, the more they wanted to burn the world down.
With clenched fists, Lily told Sev, "I hate that the Ministry memory charms 'problematic' muggles."
"It's just as disgusting as love potions." Sev pointed out, "Magical people use those on each other. Magical people even memory charm each other."
"That may be true, but I don't have to approve of that either. Both are going on my list of things to work on." When we're in charge went unsaid.
A/N (updated 19 Feb 2024): This story will be 5 chapters total and sets up the Snape we see in canon book 1. Please note that this story isn't trying to *justify* canon Snape (or my interpretation of Lily) - this is a "mess around and find out" story.
This story fulfills a role in a larger series that focuses on Harry, Ron, and Hermione and a canon timeline, time-travel fix it. The rest of the series is published as The Doe in Snape's Skin.
I totally understand if you have trouble believing the Lily-as-Snape premise - it's a high bar to clear. Even if you remain skeptical, you might still enjoy Evans to Potter to Snape as cautionary tale for people who learn to act a little too well. This story's themes of acting, lying, and friendship are explored much further in The Doe In Snape's Skin.
Thanks for reading!