The summer had passed quickly for Severus. Between foraging in the woods, doing work around the neighborhood, and covertly brewing calming draughts and sober-up potions to slip into Tobias' coffee and food, Severus had been very busy, and mostly out of reach of his parents' dysfunction.
Lily was still avoiding him.
Severus wasn't sure what to do about that. The harder he pushed, the creepier he would seem.
He still hadn't told her she was a witch.
Petunia had been passingly friendly to him, whenever they crossed paths. It was a jarring change, but Severus was beginning to think that Petunia was his in with Lily.
If he could find an anti-muggle ward nearby, and show Petunia that she could see something muggles could not, maybe she would take the initiative to show her little sister.
Because Lily and Severus were not friends.
It was so odd, every time that realization smacked him in the face again.
It would be odd to be friends with a nine-year-old, too. His own fragmented attention span annoyed him, let alone the hyperactivity of other children.
He could only hope that his tolerance for people his own physical age would grow and level out by the time Hogwarts started. If not, he was going to be in for a long, rough second life.
He was, in fact, gearing most of his time and attention towards planning ahead to make his Hogwarts education tolerable.
He had a small tin of savings hidden away in his room, and hoped that it would continue to grow. Other than the odd food item to keep his parents pacified, Severus could get by without spending any of it until Hogwarts. He had a growing list of things he would need that he hadn't had last time around. New, sturdy clothing. Shampoo and soap that could stand up against potion fumes. New or only lightly used textbooks. Extra notebooks, parchment, and quills. Little things that would portray a casual assumption of non-poverty.
He was going to make an effort to tone down his fascination with the Dart Arts, too.
Severus was just heading back home from the fishing hole when Petunia came running up to him.
"Severus, hi! I made something for you; I hope you don't mind. I've been practicing my sewing, and I had some extra fabric that was too masculine for me."
Severus blinked, and accepted the tunic that Petunia shoved at him. It wasn't a style he would have chosen for himself, but it was sturdily made, and the fabric was good quality, too. Severus doubted that the material was extra scraps, as Petunia claimed, but he didn't make a scene.
It was a surprisingly thoughtful gesture.
"Thanks Petunia," Severus said, holding the shirt carefully away from his little stockpile of fish. "You're becoming a really good seamstress."
"I was about to give up on it before you complimented my dress back at the beginning of summer," Petunia admitted. "Mum didn't have much time to help me. I figure I owed you for giving me the push to keep going."
Severus smiled at her, the first truly genuine smile he'd ever directed at the girl or the woman she'd become.
"That's kind of you. This feels like it will last a long time, so thanks again. I'll put it to good use."
Petunia grinned. "By the way, I'm getting pretty good at telling weeds from flowers in my parent's garden, so if you are still doing yard work next summer and want to expand, it might be fun to work together."
"I will consider it. It would be nice to get more houses signed up. I'm hoping I'll get some word-of-mouth customers next year."
"Well, let me know. I found some new shoes I want, but my parents won't buy them for me, because they're expensive."
"I'll keep you in mind."
Severus watched in bemusement as Petunia skipped away. She was so close to shedding her carefree childishness for good, but it was still clinging to her. It would be a shame if she turned into the pinched, unpleasant woman Severus remembered all over again.
School was starting back up, soon. Severus had a thicker skin this time around, and more confidence, but he knew that kids were cruel, and his new discolored eye gave him something else to be mocked over.
He knew that the opinions and insults of nine-year-olds shouldn't bother him, but he was only human, and when those kids were the only social circle he was immersed in day after day, it was bound to grind away at his psyche.
It was not too different from enduring Death Eater meetings with a bunch of blood supremacists, really.
They'd just be shorter.
Severus was hopeful that muggle school would afford him the opportunity to study the sciences with an eye for magical compatibility, but he did not dare stop his odd jobs over the winter, and the physical labor was taxing on his little body, so he'd have to wait and see how much energy he had.
The last thing he wanted was to accidentally exhaust himself into stunted growth or an immune deficiency. His emotions were also difficult to wrangle at this age, and he suspected that he was as susceptible to tired crabbiness as the next child.
He had to admit that it was tempting to blow his savings on trendy muggle clothes that would make him blend in with the crowds. He had to prioritize Hogwarts, though.
Far better to suffer the humiliation of ostracization for a single year amongst muggles than to repeat the misery of seven years headlined by Potter and his goons, and buttressed by elite pureblood snobbery within his own house.
A set of new robes and shoes for school would be a much better investment than muggle clothing he'd likely outgrow before Hogwarts even started.
The opinions of muggle children didn't matter, in the long run.
Just Lily.
Some things never changed.
When he made it home, Severus carefully deposited his fish into the kitchen sink and cleaned his hands before taking his new shirt up to his room.
He didn't know why he was so excited over the thing, but he could not resist the urge to try it on.
It fit passingly well. The seams were a little uneven, and it was too big in the shoulders, but overall, Petunia had done an admirable job for her age. If she kept it up, she'd become a first-class seamstress one day.
It was hard to imagine her becoming anything other than a first-class bitch, but Severus knew, from looking back at his own first life, that small decisions made early could snowball into large impacts later in life.
Perhaps there was hope for Petunia, yet.
Severus changed back out of his new shirt, folding it carefully and saving it for his first day of school, before heading back down to clean the fish he'd caught and cook dinner.
He cooked more days than not. Once Eileen had discovered that he had a passable skill at the task, and was responsible enough to not burn the house down in the process, she had effectively abdicated the kitchen to him altogether.
She was growing more and more passive and despondent, actually. Severus could not remember if she'd been on one of her down swings at this point last time, or if this was new.
He slipped her simple cheering potions occasionally, but they would lose their effectiveness if taken too often, and Eileen sometimes used her apathy to protect herself against Tobias' rage, so Severus did not feel comfortable drugging her all the time.
He felt no such restraint with his father.
His potions were all rudimentary, given the ingredients he had access to, but they were enough to take the edge off Tobias' nastier qualities, and that was all Severus needed.
He could not afford for a stray fist to the face to further disfigure him, or saddle him with a more debilitating injury. His nose had not yet been bent and swollen out of shape, and Severus was vainly hoping he could keep it that way. He would never be an attractive child, but he was fine with average, if he could manage it.
So no, Severus refused to feel guilty that he was drugging his father on a regular basis, and would continue to do so, even if his father eventually withered away into a comatose shell of himself. The bastard would deserve it.
The only hesitation that he felt at all was the prospect of what would happen once he left for Hogwarts. He'd probably have to ween his father off the potions before he left, or the sudden return to violent lucidity would not only give Severus away, but provide Tobias with an additional reason to hate magic and take his hatred out on Eileen.
Severus did not want to be responsible for that, no matter how useless his mother could be.
That was a problem for the future, though.
Tonight, Severus decided to focus all of his attention onto finding the perfect seasoning for his fish and chips.