-Severus-
Like every morning, Severus ignores the aches in his back. His father had learned that it is easier for him to hide the pain if he hits him in the back instead of the bottom because that way he can sit in school when they force him to go. He puts on the trousers and shirt that are the most clean. Years ago, he learned to ignore how itchy they felt on his skin. He takes the dark boots that are some of the only nice things he has, putting them on his feet. They fit nicely and are comfy. His father, even in his eternal stupor, always insists that he keeps them clean and polished. Even this minuscule action lost meaning to him years ago when he tried to keep them clean, hoping for the love of his father. Quietly, he stashes all the little things he has in his darkish trunk and begins to carefully climb down the stairs. He skips the places he knows make noise; his father is sleeping today, and he doesn't want to wake him. When he passes the kitchen door—at least what they call a door—he can see his mother, as always, with vacant eyes, always with some red dust between the index and thumb of her right hand, always grinding her fingers against the dust, always making those vapors that she smells like they are the only thing she enjoys. It is one of the only displays of magic his father tolerates, and that's because the red dust works with Muggles too. He doesn't speak; he barely dares to breathe when he closes the door behind him and takes a run—well, what he can call a run when a malnourished kid tries to drag a 20 kg trunk. Each step brings him something very rare for him to feel: warmth in the chest. Today is September 1st, 1971. It's Wednesday, and he is free from his home for 9 months. He is glad that his parents don't have the intention of dropping him at the station. Honestly, he was prepared to leave his house two days early and just walk to London, but Lily told him that if the police saw him, they were totally going to stop him, and with that thought, he began to think about her. His gait reduces to a steady walk, and on his way to Lily's house, he begins to do his most common habit: wonder why Lily is his friend. He knows he is smelly. The water that is available in his house needs to be picked by him. Sometimes he sneaks to those available hoses in the backyards and hastily steals one bucket of water so he can wash himself. When he is lucky, he has some soap. He remembers at least 10 occasions when he also had shampoo. When he has bad luck, he uses the old well. Nobody besides the hobos uses that water; the water is stale and brownish. He knows he is ugly. His nose has been shattered so many times that even local hospitals began to take notice. That's why his father stopped slapping him. And he absolutely knows that her family hates him. How could they not? He can see it when they see him. He feels it when Rose Evans cannot look him in the eye. He feels it when Bernant Evans squeezes his shoulder with a little too much force. It's obviously a warning. And Petunia... He doesn't want to think about Petunia. Finally, he sees the house, and with it comes that strange feeling he always has when he is in the neighborhood: longing and profound envy. He hates himself for that. He climbs the small stairs in front of the door and with a solid two knocks, he calls the house. Some steps are heard, and the door opens to reveal an already flying Lily. coughs And now he is on the floor with a laughing Lily above him. He doesn't mind the pain.
-Lily-
The station is crowded. She has never been with so many people around her. She remembers last year when they went to see the fireworks at her granny's country house. The whole town was in the square, and she could count more than 100 people. Today there are more here. She has Sev's hand in her own. How silly of him to try to take it away when she took it. It's obvious that the best thing to not be separated was to hold hands! What a strange boy he is. This thought makes her worry. She always worries about Sev. He is always dirty, and he doesn't accept to shower in her house. He always has bad posture, and when she tries to correct it, he makes some strange faces. And when Petunia was here... Something happens to her face when she thinks about Petunia, and she needs to calm herself before Sev takes notice. It was a year since she was banished from the house, and even if she was close to her, she was 5 years older than her. She sometimes was "too grown up to play with her," so she doesn't feel so bad about it. But something happened with Severus, and she knows it. But her parents deny it. They told her that her sister left the house to live with her fiancé, but she heard the screams that night. Her father never screamed at them. What was worse, she heard her mother scream. She had never heard her mother scream before that night. Severus stopped coming after that day. Her father needed to go to Spinner's End to convince him to keep going to her house. With a squeeze of his hand, she keeps going. Sev already told her where they needed to go, and she was right in front of everybody that was with them, dragging her trunk and Severus behind her. When she arrives at a single column, she doesn't wait. She doesn't turn to see her family. She goes into Platform 9¾.

-
Her mother hugs her, and she returns the hug and gives her a kiss on the cheek. Her father picks her up and squeezes her against him. He gives her a kiss on the cheek. She feels tears in the corner of her eyes, but she forces herself to not cry and give a last hug and kiss to her parents. Turning around, she sees Sev already waiting some steps in front of her. He waves a little, and her parents return the wave candidly. For some reason, Sev turns a little pale. What a strange boy he is. She speeds towards him, ignoring her parents' plea to not run. She grabs Sev's hand again and with difficulty climbs the train. Without releasing him, she begins to walk the train to search for a spot for them. They arrived a little late because her father insisted that they went to eat first, so it's a little bit too crowded already in the majority of spots. For some minutes, they walk together, if a little awkwardly because of the small corridor. She spots one cabin with what appears to be only a person inside. She can see the back of the girl. Her hair is light brown, really light brown, close to a shade of blonde, and most amazingly, so long it reaches below her bum. How is it possible that her mother lets her do that! She knows that hair does not have that color naturally, and she feels a pang of envy. She needed to beg her mom to just cut her hair short some years ago. Turning to Sev, she tells him, "Let's go to ask here; there's only a girl." As she returns to the door, she knocks politely but still opens it without shyness. "Hi! Good afternoon, can my friend and I sit here?" she greets her. She notices that the girl is tall, almost 6 cm more than her and 4 more than Sev, she guesses. When the girl turns around, she cannot help but gasp a little. Her eyes are also light in shade; she had never seen a blue so close to white before. She looks fine, like the paintings of girls she saw in the museum with her parents. And when she speaks, it sounds totally the opposite of that. "Oh, hi! Yes, of course you can sit with us. There's only Tanya and me here, and it would be bad to force you to search for another place. Oh, sorry again, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Victoria, and she is Tanya," the girl says, pointing to the corner that was hidden from the window's view of the corridor. Turning now, both Severus and Lily gasp. In front of her, it was a fairy reading a book. She was tiny, possibly shorter than her, and her auntie told her that something like that was impossible. With an even lighter shade of hair than Victoria and with eyes that were directly more milky than blue, she stopped reading and looked directly at them.

Suddenly, the fairy was no more.