Porcupine Quills & Potion Spills: The Second Life of Severus Snape - ShenYuan_did_not_transmigrate_for_this

Chapter 1: Sent Back in Time

Summary:

A potion accident has unexpected consequences.

Chapter Text

As the unsealed glass jar of ground porcupine quills plummeted off the shelf and toward the bubbling cauldron below, Severus realized he wouldn't be able to catch it in time. The mixture was the beginnings of a shrinking solution and, at its current stage of incompletion, was especially volatile. The potions master had only a fraction of a second to duck behind a table before the cauldron exploded. Its contents flew through the air, a bright shade of blue. Severus looked down to find himself absolutely covered in it. Then, to his shock and horror, the viscous liquid started to glow.

Blinded by the white light that suddenly surrounded him, he barely felt the strange, abnormal twinges that ran through his body like jolts of electricity. His dark eyes blinked open, squinting to see unexpected surroundings. Truly, the room he had found himself was quite familiar, but it was not someplace he had ever planned to set foot in again.

Severus currently stood in the small, rundown bedroom of his childhood home in Spinner's End.

Severus followed the directions ingrained in his memory to the bathroom, which appeared to have not been cleaned in at least a year. He stood over the yellowing sink and stared at his reflection in the mirror with wide eyes. He was small, short, and undoubtedly a child. The diminutive form of his nine-year-old self, suffering from malnutrition and a lack of hygiene, gazed back at him from the mirror. His black hair hung in greasy strands down to the top of his narrow shoulders. His skin and teeth were a repulsive shade of yellow that almost matched the bathroom sink, and his skin was dry and peeling.

His nose was still straight, meaning his drunken father hadn't yet broken it, after which it had healed crooked. That happened when he was ten years old after he had broken an empty beer bottle that had been lying on the floor. He also didn't have the scar on his pinky finger from trying to cut apples. He did, however, have the small leather bracelet his mother had gifted him on his ninth birthday. Therefore, he could conclude that he was apparently nine. Nine was a big change from his previous age of thirty-six.

Despite the impossibility of it, the potion had sent him back in time.

At the moment, he had few options. The worst would be to reveal himself as a time-traveller and be either imprisoned or experimented on in the Department of Mysteries. There was no way for him to reverse the effects of the potion and return to the future, as he had neither the knowledge nor the resources to do so.

The only choice he had was to remain in the past. This was not necessarily a bad thing. After all, in the future, Severus had been running out of time. He lived in fear, constantly looking over his shoulder for the moment when the Dark Lord realized his treachery and sent his followers to kill him. Any day could have been his last as the war worsened regardless of the incompetent Ministry’s denial. The mistakes and bad choices of his past constantly haunted him, hunting him right at his heels as he fought every day to not mess up or give away his position as a spy. Through questionable circ*mstances, he was being given a second chance; an opportunity to fix his many mistakes. Severus regretted so much as an adult. Every time his sleeve slid up his wrist to expose the Dark Mark he mourned his decision to join Voldemort’s ranks as a Death Eater. Seeing Lily and Potter's son had always left a lingering feeling of guilt for his role in their deaths.

His greatest regret was his life during his school years at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

His childhood years of schooling at Hogwarts were filled with only awful memories. He was constantly bullied by the Marauders and the other members of his own house, most of which were pureblood supremacists and loathed him for his blood. Year after year he was humiliated by the Marauders' pranks. He was isolated from his peers and had no close friends. Lily had drifted away over the years, and their relationship was left permanently strained after he called her a Mudblood. Regulus Black had been one of his closest friends in Slytherin, but at best they were acquaintances on friendly terms with each other. The same remained true with Lucius Malfoy and Evan Rosier.

In Wizarding Britain, a witch or wizard's school years at Hogwarts determined their future. Good grades and connections would allow for good job opportunities. Despite his good grades and hard work, Severus' position as a social pariah as well as the many negative rumours and opinions of him—largely false and spread by the Marauders—ruined his future opportunities. Although he finally managed to become a Potions Master, the youngest in Britain at that, he was initially denied by the Ministry-affiliated Potions Association and multiple independent Potions Guilds despite his many accomplishments in the field of potions. Although they gave him multiple reasons for their rejections, the truth was that the members’ impressions of him had already been darkened by the stories they heard from their school-age children.

His Hogwarts years were doomed from the start. The young Severus Snape was a sallow-skinned, greasy-haired, jaded and unpleasant boy. He was awkward and had no social skills to speak of. He was clearly poor, and Severus remembered that his physical appearance had only worsened in the two years before he went to Hogwarts. Although people may claim otherwise, humans first judge others based on their looks.

Severus would receive his Hogwarts letter in two years, and he could think of no way to possibly avoid attending. To get where he wanted in life he’d need a magical education, and he doubted any other magical schools would accept an impoverished, unknown, Muggle-raised British child. Ending up at Hogwarts was inevitable. At the very least, he could create new and more pleasant memories of his seven years there, which would hopefully lead to a better life in adulthood.

In order to be accepted, he would need to change himself. Mainly, he would need to improve his appearance. The first time around, Severus had refused to do this out of defensive pride and a deficit understanding of the importance placed on people’s physical aspects. His unhygienic habits had continued to unfavourably affect him as an adult. Along with his time spent in the dungeons, his complexion was sickly. The multiple times his nose was broken made it larger from swelling and hooked and misshapen from not healing correctly. Hopefully, all that could be avoided.

He rubbed dust off the wand he had stolen from his mother's trunk, admiring its craftsmanship. Its absence would go unnoticed. Eileen Snape née Prince had long shunned the existence of magic and the fact that she was a witch. Everything magic that she owned—including robes, books, and her wand—remained locked away in her old school trunk.

While Severus knew how to cast spells, he knew his magic was not yet accustomed to being directed through a wand or even being used at all. Like all children, his magical core would start out small and need to be used in order to grow, somewhat like a muscle. As a child, he hadn't attempted magic. He had been terrified of being caught by his mother, who would disapprove, and his father, who hated magic and would certainly beat him for using it.

Tobias Snape had once been a Muggle completely unaware of magic and the fact that Eileen was a witch. She had kept it a secret until after their wedding. He’d known that she belonged to a rich, influential family. He had believed that with her inheritance and his job at the mill that it would not be a struggle to support themselves. However, he found out after they were married that her parents had opposed her relationship with a Muggle and Eileen had been disowned by the Prince family. Thus, the responsibility of providing for the family had weighed solely on him. Eileen Prince was a rich pureblood who had never worked a day in her life. As Eileen Snape, she’d been expected to take care of the household. Used to relying on house-elves, she was remarkably useless at doing so. Coming home to a dirty, dilapidated house in the impoverished suburb of co*keworth after a long day of hard, manual labour at the mill only made Tobias more bitter.

Severus Snape's parents avoided each other like the plague and fought constantly when in the same room. Tobias wasn't hesitant to abuse Eileen emotionally and physically. Their love had evaporated into thin air starting even before Severus was born. Tobias was not very fond of anything—except, perhaps, alcohol—but he absolutely despised magic and anything else that he considered abnormal.

His alcoholism and his habit of coming home from work drunk didn’t truly start until the mill began dismissing workers and Tobias could no longer rely on stable employment. The man's abusive tendencies toward his wife weren't equally directed toward his son until Severus was ten years old. Subsequent to that, he had hit the boy at various moments when angry, intoxicated, or a mixture of the two. The abuse had progressed to harsh beatings that at times left Severus with fractured or broken bones. At the age of nine, Tobias Snape was still just a mediocre—if usually absent—father.

Chapter 2: To Change Oneself

Summary:

Severus makes some small changes and big plans

Notes:

Warning: there will be some character bashing in this chapter. I have very conflicting feelings about Eileen and the way she went about her marriage to an abusive husband. While not a large focus, I don't portray her very nicely in this chapter. I've tried to avoid victim blaming, as that is something I don't support. Please let me know if I am successful at this or if I should reconsider some of the wording. I'm not very nice to Lily either (I don't dislike her, I just felt she wasn't the best person as a hormonal teenage girl), but it will improve in later chapters as she hopefully experiences some character growth.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Severus had never needed spells for hair maintenance or skincare. His skills in the Dark Arts and Occlumency were matched by very few, and his name as a potioneer was well known in specific circles. He had no experience with charms or spells meant to be used on the body that weren't healing spells and harmful jinxes or curses. However, he would bet ten Galleons that there would be a book on the subject in his mother's trunk.

He left the bathroom and walked down the hall to his parent's bedroom. He remembered to avoid the loose floorboard in front of the door at the last second. It was pitch black inside the room. He didn't have to focus on moving silently, as his father snored loud enough to wake the dead. His mother rolled over in her sleep, her arm falling off the side of the mattress. Severus tried to pretend not to see the hand-shaped bruise marring her wrist.

Eileen was capable of taking care of herself. Severus had made the mistake of defending her and took several beatings for her when he was younger, but the pain he endured for protecting his mother was meaningless. She never tried to stop his father, never fought back, never protected herself or her son, never did anything. She could have left the Muggle years ago. It was her own fault for not abandoning his father due to pride.

As a child, he never resented his mother. However, after she died, Severus uncovered several secrets. While moving his possessions from his childhood home to the living quarters he resided in as a Hogwarts professor, he discovered a letter addressed to his mother. The letter was written on expensive parchment and signed by the patriarch of the Prince family, Severus’ grandfather. The man offered to reinstate Eileen as a member of the Prince bloodline on the condition that she divorce Tobias and return to the ancestral family home. Severus would’ve been welcomed into the Prince family as her son, receiving their pureblood surname, though he could never be an heir.

Although Severus would have enthusiastically agreed to this, he never got the choice. Eileen stubbornly declined the offer. She refused to admit that her parents were right about Tobias. She never replied to the letter, even when the abuse worsened and Tobias began hurting her son. She readily sentenced them both to the Muggle's anger and cruelty for the sake of her baseless pride and nonexistent dignity.

He peered into the darkness of the closet, spotting the trunk pushed against the wall at the very back. It was unlocked, but his thin arms strained to open it. Underneath A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot, he found what he was looking for: The Must-Have Handbook of Beautifying Charms for Young Witches. Severus sneered at the title, but grabbed the book anyway and took it with him to the bathroom. Once the door was closed, he propped it up against the edge of the sink and turned to the first page.

He lifted the borrowed wand and practised the hand movement shown until he was satisfied with the fluency of the motion, then he tapped into his magical core. To start, he cast a cleaning charm on his teeth, hair, and body. A moment later he decided to cast it on his threadbare clothes as well. The first spell in the book, one used to fix teeth, needed only a simple wand movement and seemed easy enough for his undeveloped core to do. After practising the incantation, he tested it. His teeth straightened and whitened several shades, but weren’t exactly white. Teeth were not naturally pure white anyway, though clearly, no one had ever notified Gilderoy Lockhart of this fact. Satisfied with the work of the spell, Severus read the next one. The boy stepped out of the bathroom roughly an hour later. With his improved appearance, he doubted that anyone who saw him would quickly recognize him.

His raven-black hair no longer looked greasy and unwashed. Smooth and straight, it fell to just above his shoulder blades. He would have to get it cut shorter, as he didn't know how his father would react to him having such long hair. Along with healthy skin that wasn't horrifically oily or dry, his appearance seemed much less revolting. If he continued to maintain and improve his physical traits, then by Hogwarts there'd be a significant difference. A majority of the problems caused by his negative image could be easily solved.

As a young boy, he faced endless bullying for being poor and unclean. His hostile temperament when hearing the insults aimed at him only fueled his abusers. However, both his appearance and reactions to other people’s actions could be changed and controlled. Severus Snape had been given a second chance, and he would not spend his years at Hogwarts miserable and constantly looking over his shoulder like he had his entire first life.

Filled with a renewed sense of determination, Severus spent the rest of the afternoon lying in his bed, planning. Would future events successfully change because of his present actions? How useful would his current knowledge be?

One thing the de-aged man questioned was his relationship with Lily Evans. Did he want to continue being friends with Lily? The redheaded girl might have been kind and intelligent, but she wasn't perfect. More often than not, she had acted selfishly and hypocritically. The isolated, lonely young Severus had clung to his first friend like a drowning man to a sinking raft. He would have done almost anything for her, but she used him over and over again. She expected his help on every assignment and essay, and for him to rush to her aid whenever she was unhappy. Furthermore, she never reciprocated these favours.

She cut off their friendship because he associated with the pureblood-supremacists of his house and dabbled in Dark magic. Yet, she happily went out with Potter when she knew that the Gryffindor boy made Severus' life hell for years. Lily had only been his friend when it was convenient for her. It was likely that she only befriended him in the first place because he was the only other magic-user she knew of in co*keworth.

Based on the facts, the answer was obvious. Emotionally, it was a lot less simple.

Before Severus’ thoughts could focus on the Sorting and the four houses, he heard his name being called from the kitchen. His mother had finished cooking dinner. The boy sat down in one of the four rickety chairs at the wooden table. Tobias Snape sat down a minute later, a frown on his stubbled face and the stench of whiskey on his breath. A half-eaten loaf of stale bread was placed on the table, followed by soup. The soup was watery, and the pieces of chicken and vegetables floating in it were as small as Knuts. Severus had only eaten a few spoonfuls before an argument broke out between his parents. At least they were too distracted to pay attention to him.

He finished his soup quickly and escaped from the kitchen, going back to the refuge of his bedroom. He eased the door shut silently, immediately locking it. The shock of time travel and the events of the day had left him exhausted. He could resume his planning tomorrow, but right now he needed to rest.

Notes:

I've decided to try using British English spelling instead of American English to make the story more canonical (though I certainly am not doing so with the events), as its what the characters (British, at school in Scotland) would use. Please feel free to point out any mistakes.

Chapter 3: A Trip to the Park

Summary:

A look into the daily life of a wizard back in time. Small plot twist ahead, but (honestly) mostly just build up to later chapters.

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Severus slung a tattered canvas messenger bag—the inside enlarged with an Undetectable Extension Charm—over his shoulder. The dark-eyed child pushed open the back door slowly, wincing when its rusty hinges whined in protest. He darted across the overgrown lawn of the dilapidated house to the edge of the road, where untrimmed bushes hid his scrawny form. Severus took in his surroundings—the broken street lights and the polluted river off in the distance—and felt a pang of nostalgia. The air of Spinner's End was just as depressing as he remembered.

Small, ageing houses lined the street. Their ageing grey bricks hinted at the red colour they'd once been; Their caving roofs and crumbling chimneys had once been sturdy and new. Smoke rose up from a few of the chimneys. On the close horizon, Severus could see the pillars of smoke produced by the factories. Spinner's End, while being part of the slums of co*keworth, was at least close to a park.

Severus walked down the street in his second-hand shoes. The neighbourhoods around him got increasingly less poor the farther he walked, and the air pollution from the factories wasn't quite as noticeable. The yards became better kept, and the stares of the people he walked past grew more judgmental. Feeling self-conscious, Severus pulled his oversized, threadbare coat tighter around his small body and gripped the strap of his bag.

Finally, he arrived at the park. The negative feelings inside of him were suddenly at ease. Ignoring the brightly coloured playground, the raven-haired boy walked closer to the woods. Just through the trees, he could see the constantly moving surface of the river. It ran cleaner in this part of the town, though not by much. Sitting among the roots of a large tree, Severus studied the nearby undergrowth for useful herbs.

A leaf fell from the tree above him. Fluttering in the wind, it slowly descended to tangle itself in his hair. Then, to Severus' horror, a laugh slipped through his chapped lips. He couldn't even recall the last time he'd laughed. Could relief, hope, or delayed hysteria have led to such an out-of-character action? Or could the laughter be attributed to a different, more worrying cause?

While presently trapped in the body of his nine-year-old self, his mind remained that of a mature, adult Severus Snape. Or did it? The time-traveller feared that his mentality was deteriorating to fit the body accommodating it. If this was the case, he could only hope the process would be slow and integrate his adult mind into that of his younger self without erasing it completely. At the moment, there was nothing he could do, so he told himself not to stress over it.

From inside the bag he’d been carrying, Severus procured several little jars he took from one of the kitchen cupboards. There were a variety of common plants useful for magic-less potions. His main focus at the moment was finding herbs for making a bruise cream. While less effective than its magical counterpart, the cream would speed up the healing of any bruises that Tobias inflicted on him in the future. Severus considered the properties of the individual herbs and how they reacted to each other until he developed an ideal combination.

Once he completed the cream, there were other things he could create with the mundane ingredients on hand. Medicinal salves, burn-healing paste, and hydrating cream for his skin were all possible for him to concoct. Severus could easily brew teas with remedial qualities or make pleasantly scented soap as well.

When he snuck back into his house, Severus didn't see his mother. He checked upstairs and found her still asleep in bed. The boy wrinkled his nose in displeasure at her actions. It was well into the afternoon, and from the state of the kitchen, Eileen hadn't even bothered to get out of bed that morning to eat breakfast. She was unfit to be a mother, neglecting the young wizard relying on her care.

Severus went back downstairs and dragged his bag into the kitchen. A pile of unwashed dishes sat in the sink. The boy grimaced at the disorderly and unclean state of the room, aware that every other room in the house was just as bad—except for his bedroom, which he had cleaned. His height stunted because of malnourishment, Severus had to move a chair in front of the stove and stand on it. At least the wizard knew that with the rich, plentiful food at Hogwarts he would get a growth spurt. However, nine-year-old Severus remained the same height he’d been a couple of years prior. Standing at about one hundred and fifteen centimetres, he had not even reached four feet.

Balancing carefully on top of the wooden chair, the dark-haired boy added a measured amount of water to a cooking pot. Using makeshift tools, Severus chopped and ground up the stems and roots of the plants, then added them to the pot. Those ingredients were followed by seeds that had been crushed under the flat edge of a knife. The stove slowly heated once turned on, and the mixture turned into a green-tinted paste that he steadily and continuously stirred.

Severus heard the front door slam open, and the unmistakable thumps of his father's footsteps neared the kitchen. Severus froze, habitually afraid of the man. He hadn't expected him to be home so early in the day. Trying to stay calm and not mess up the stirring, he watched Tobias out of the corner of his eye. Severus assessed the Muggle's mood, concerned that the man would be drunk and violent. However, his worries were for nought. Tobias walked past him to the fridge, took out a beer, and then left the room without acknowledging Severus at all.

The boy didn't have time to ponder it, as the cream was done. He lifted the pot off the stove, struggling with its weight, and carried it over to the counter. He had left a pint-sized glass jar waiting there for him to store the cream in. The contents of the pot filled the jar to the brim once poured inside. Severus twisted the lid on tightly. His arms ached, but he was content with the product of his hard work. Placing the jar and the containers of ingredients back into the canvas bag, he carried it upstairs to his room and stashed it beneath the bed. Returning empty-handed to the kitchen, his attention wandered back to the dirty pot and all the disgusting dishes gathering in the sink. Severus would have to wash those before cleaning the mess he individually made.

The task could be finished almost instantly with the use of magic; Severus just needed to avoid getting caught. He pulled out his mother's wand, which he’d kept on his person since stealing it. He conjured water with a simple Aguamenti. It filled the sink about halfway. He followed it with a water-heating charm and a vanishing spell, Evanesco. Once the water was gone, Severus finished cleaning the dishes with a Scourgify to cleanse what hadn't already been rinsed off. He put the plates, cups, and various silverware away in the cupboards by hand.

He spared a look at the kitchen. The wooden floorboards were dirty. A layer of dust lined the windowsills and almost every other surface. Severus promptly removed the dust and dirt particles with the Tergeo charm, the wand swishing through the air while he spoke the proper incantation. With a flick of the wand and a word from his mouth, the gritty floor was scoured clean by another Scourgify.

The charm brought one of his worst memories to the forefront of his mind. James Potter had used it for his mouth on multiple occasions. Growing angry, Severus could feel his fingernails biting into his palms as he clenched his hands into fists. Potter had also cast the charm on him in retribution for Severus calling Lily Evans a Mudblood. With the memory lingering, Severus imagined he could still taste the nauseating, soapy bubbles on his tongue. It made his stomach turn.

Unfortunately, the child's undeveloped magical core was nearly empty at this point. Severus hated how hard it was for him to cast magic as a child; each spell and charm left him feeling pathetically weak. Wobbling on his feet, Severus hurriedly sat down in a chair and slipped Eileen's wand into his left sleeve. The moment his head rested on the table he was out like a light.

Notes:

Please leave a kudos or a comment if you like this story. I love reading comments but I am socially awkward so I probably won't reply :)

Chapter 4: The Causes and Side Effects of Magic

Summary:

World building, backstory, and a look into Tobias Snape. NOT planning on a Tobias redemption, just making him a slightly less one-dimensional character.

Notes:

Thanks to MagicWafflez for their feedback in the comments. I overlooked the existence of the wand at the ending of the last chapter. I've gone back and made some minor changes at the end to fix this. I don't have a beta reader, so I appreciate any feedback on grammar and plot.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Unaware of the gradually darkening sky outside the window, Severus slept deeply. A moderately sober Tobias Snape entered the kitchen, took one look, and stood there, stunned. Had Eileen done this? There wasn't a single room in the house that had looked this clean in years. Then, he saw Severus. His tiny, nine-year-old son was sleeping at the table, head cushioned by skinny arms. Tobias brushed the boy's long black hair out of his face with rough, calloused fingers: a rare act of affection aimed toward his firstborn and only son. While the man hated the magic of his witch wife and wizard son, that hatred dissipated at the sight of physical features similar to his own. He felt pain in his chest, his heart unused to such rare positive emotion.

He no longer felt anything but anger when he saw his wife, constantly questioning why he had married her. They’d had nothing in common. Eileen Prince was a wealthy, privileged heiress. Tobias Snape was a dirt-poor Muggle man. Eileen didn't confess to being a witch until there were rings on their fingers. Tobias had grown up believing witchcraft to be unnatural and evil, but at first, he was willing to accept it. However, faced with the bigotry and contempt that magical people had for Muggles, the man's feelings soured and turned resentful.

He ran a hand through Severus' unexpectedly soft hair. Tobias felt the corner of his mouth curling into a smile, something not present on his face for so long his facial muscles were no longer sure how to form the expression of happiness. With an audible sigh, he lifted his son into his arms and carefully carried him up the creaking staircase. Tobias pushed open the door of the house's smaller bedroom and found the interior shockingly clean. He gently laid the boy on the mattress, believing the diminutive body was fragile and much too light—there was never enough food. Tobias pulled the blankets over Severus' sleeping form and struggled to recall the last time he tucked his son in at night.

The following morning, a confused Severus woke to find himself in his bed. The realization that Tobias had brought him upstairs to his room left him astonished. He pressed one hand to his chest, a wave of an unfamiliar emotion leaving him strangely warm and overjoyed. Nonetheless, he didn't understand the existence of the compassionate action. In his past life, this had never happened. How greatly had his trip back in time already affected the timeline? Sadly, Severus knew this didn't mean his father had somehow changed. Sooner or later, his father would get roaring drunk at the bar after work and come home to beat his mother.

Severus got off the bed, shivering from chills when his bare feet came in contact with the cold floor. He padded silently to the bathroom. The boy brushed his teeth, washed his face, and then paused to study his image in the mirror. Although the poor lighting and grimy mirror didn’t do him any favours, he definitely noticed an improvement to his appearance. He pulled out the handbook of beautifying spells and charms that he’d hidden in the cabinet underneath the sink.

The continuous performance of magic had allowed him to tap into his magic core with less trouble, and put more power behind spells. Considering that his core was still weak and not fully formed and that Eileen's wand was not suited to him, this was a miraculous feat.

There were three additional books concealed in his bedroom under a loose floorboard, all from his mother's trunk. One was an instruction manual on magical housekeeping titled How to Keep a Clean Home Without a House-Elf. The second was a textbook, A Guide to Advanced Transfiguration written by Emeric Switch. Severus planned to master transfiguration this time around, as in his past life it was his worst subject. He refused to be outdone by James Potter's natural talent for transfiguration, which the Gryffindor hadn’t hesitated to rub in his face and constantly bragged about. Additionally, as a wizard with numerous years of magical education, knowledge, and experience under his belt, he refused to be outdone by any child in any magical field. The third book was one he had never read, though there had been a copy in the Slytherin Dungeon, Nature's Nobility: A Wizarding Genealogy.

Severus Snape had initially been ignorant to his lineage in the original timeline. After finding out his mother was a Prince, Severus loathed that she had left him in the dark. The potions master spent many months researching and hunting down information. That was when he discovered ancestral magic: rare abilities passed through the pureblood lines and inherited by magically powerful witches and wizards. Some examples would be the snake-speaking ability of Parseltongue or the shape-shifting skill of Metamorphmagi.

A powerful enough magic-user, regardless of lineage, could learn nonverbal casting or wandless magic. Severus had been able to cast certain spells wandlessly later in his life, and a lesser amount of spells nonverbally with use of a wand. He had also always been impossibly skilled at Occlumency. However, that was a learned skill and not caused by his genetic relation to the Prince family.

He left the bathroom, twirling the wand absentmindedly between his thin fingers. The house groaned softly on its foundation, empty except for him. Tobias had gone to work in the early hours of the morning. Eileen, unexpectedly, had left the house. Severus didn’t know what she did when not cooking in the kitchen or withdrawn to her and her husband's bedroom, however, he couldn't find it in himself to care. He was home alone and free to do magic. Some housekeeping was long overdue.

Exercising his magical core and training his magic at such a young age would allow him to surpass most of his peers once he reached Hogwarts. Severus suspected that he would be more magically powerful this time around, which was a good incentive for the deaged time-traveller. Severus had already been notably powerful in his past life.

Pureblood children had the opportunity to practice and use magic preceding their first year of schooling. Muggle-borns normally had no idea of the existence of magic until they received their acceptance letters. The purebloods' cores had developed, while the Muggle-borns' hadn't. A witch or wizard's magical core grew in size and power with use. Thus, Muggle-borns were ordinarily less powerful. The size and strength of the magical cores of half-blood witches and wizards naturally varied, dependent on many key factors. Wizards with a better grasp of their own magic had a heightened sensitivity for other people's magic and the wild magic of the earth.

While he may never have access to the ancestral magic of the Ancient and Noble House of Prince, this, at least, he could work toward.

Notes:

Severus' thoughts in the chapter don't foreshadow that he will never come in contact with the Prince Family.
However, at the current point, Severus has no plans to contact them. I don't feel it would be realistic at this time to do so, since without his future knowledge, child!severus wouldn't have the knowledge of magic and his ancestry to take the course of action neccesary to contact his family and get in their good graces. Additionally, it is not a for-sure thing that he would be accepted back into the family without his mother at this point or age, as he has not shown the magical prowess or accomplished any achievements so far which would catch the attention of a supposedly powerful and possibly pureblood-supremacist family.

Chapter 5: Occlumency and Forgotten Memories

Summary:

The title is major spoilers for the chapter ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Notes:

Warnings: Domestic violence & child abuse & HP fanfic cliches

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Severus sprawled lazily in the grass. It was slightly damp, and the soil was cold. It was the first day of September—and although sunny—the temperature was only around sixteen degrees Celsius. Muggle primary school would start in early September. Severus was dreading it. He hated the thought of hours trapped in a classroom with dull, idiotic children. He had already suffered through it once and knew everything that would be taught to him there. It would be deathly boring and a complete waste of his time.

He also wasn't prepared to face Lily Evans.

He had seen her at the park, playing on the swings with her Muggle sister, Petunia. Severus had avoided speaking or interacting with them. This time around, he never witnessed her perform an act of magic or told her she was a witch.

Severus' friendship with Lily Evans certainly hadn't benefitted him, while Lily had fit in well at Hogwarts on her own despite being a Muggle-born. James Potter fancied her, while the red-headed witch continuously ignored him. In fact, Severus was certain that if he and Lily hadn’t been friends, Potter wouldn't have encouraged Sirius Black's cruelty as much as he did. Sirius Black, though he might claim otherwise, was not untouched by the infamous Black insanity. He almost always went too far, and someone usually got hurt. Usually, it was Potter who reigned him in before his actions crossed a line. Peter Pettigrew was too cowardly and pathetic to ever stand up to anyone. Remus Lupin never spoke against his friends' bullying, even when he possessed the authority as a Gryffindor Prefect. Whatever respect Severus might have initially held for Lupin didn't last long.

Black might’ve fooled a lot of people. Nonetheless, Severus hadn't been, and never would be, deceived by him. This time around, he wouldn’t purposefully make himself an enemy of Potter or Black. Severus would try his hardest to never catch their attention and remain off their radar for the entirety of his years at Hogwarts.

When outside, the boy secluded himself by the bank of the river, far from the other children at the playground. He picked herbs and organized his mind with Occlumency, evaluating his repertoire of spells. Occlumency would preserve his memories, allowing them to be recalled perfectly and viewed at any time. Another vital use of Occlumency was that it protected the Occlumens’ mind from outside forces.

In Severus’ mind, he built a tower. Its cylindrical form of polished stone pierced through the fake clouds of an imaginary sky. Above the clouds, the sun was always setting, brilliant colours painting the horizon. Below the clouds, it was always night. Stars, planets, and galaxies that went unseen by the human eye in the real world were all visible, floating in the dark blue-black waters of the night sky. Inside the tower, a staircase spiraled endlessly upward and bookcases lined the walls all the way to the top. However, the books weren't really books, but knowledge and memories from both this version of the timeline and the last.

While rebuilding the fortress of his mind, Severus came across a locked up memory. He opened the book and was sucked into its shredded pages.

His father was mad about the broken plate. The drunken man shouted at his mother, towering over her. In the corner by the couch hid Severus, curled in on himself to appear as small a target as possible. Tears fell from reddened eyes. Blood dripped from a split lip and a bruise formed on the pale skin around it.

The shards of the plate were spread on the ground a metre away. The greasy-haired boy wished with all his might that the plate would stop being broken, that his parents would stop fighting. As a slap echoed through the room, Severus' magic unconsciously followed his will. The plate pieced itself back together, leaving not even a crack behind. The boy stared with wide eyes before hesitantly picking it up.

"Daddy." The yelling came to a halt. "The plate's not broken," Severus said in a choked voice.

He tensed, waiting for another blow to land on his aching body. Instead, the intoxicated man just grunted and sat back down on the couch. He lifted a glass bottle of beer, but found it empty. "Eileen! Get me another beer."

Severus watched as his mother hurried to the kitchen, trying to appease his father. When she went to the kitchen a second time, he trailed after her. "I fixed the plate, Mommy. I did magic," he whispered to her.

She froze, her eyes taking on a glazed look that provoked fear in the child. "No. No, you couldn’t have. Your father doesn't like magic."

Her fingers harshly grasped his shoulder, nails digging into his skin. "Mommy?" The boy cried, holding in sobs as he was led up the stairs and dragged into his parents' bedroom.

His mother went into the closet, reappearing with a smooth stick of wood: her wand. She pointed it at him, ignoring his frantic pleas. "This is for your own good, Severus. Your father won't have magic in his house. This is to protect both of us."

As she began to chant strange words, a pain started above his navel. His mind hazy with agony, his eyes shuttering closed.

His mother spoke once more, "Obliviate."

Severus jolted out of the memory. He sightlessly stared at the library of his mindscape, in a state of shock at what he had uncovered. At a snail's pace, his brain processed it. His mother had bound his magic. She had stolen it away from him against his will, a part of his very self. Severus didn't understand. In his previous life, when he mastered Occlumency, he never came across this memory.

Moreover, if his magic was currently bound, how had he used it at all? Possibly, Eileen had only bound a portion of it so Severus wouldn’t be able to do accidental magic. Or perhaps her own magic had weakened considerably without use, which caused the bindings to start wearing off prematurely. His mother’s action, the ultimate betrayal, lingered at the edges of his mind. How could the woman have done this to him, her own son?

Anger and crushing helplessness afflicted the time-traveller. Each second aware of this knowledge added to his distress. Using Occlumency, Severus forcibly emptied his mind, then focused his attention inward. Immersed in his core, he saw the chains wrapped loosely around it, allowing small portions of magic to slip through. The glowing web of interlocked strands surrounding his core absolutely reeked of Eileen Snape's magical signature. Her magic felt so wrong: alien and nauseating. His magic was trapped by the shackles she placed on him against his will. With all the force he could muster, Severus threw himself into relentlessly attacking the foreign Dark magic attached to his core. The battle went unseen, though was no less severe. The bindings were overpowered with suspicious ease, as fragile as gossamer. His magic burst outward, surging through his veins.

His heart physically ached at the fearful thought of losing it again. Now that he had absolute control over what was rightfully his, Severus would rather die than surrender it to another.

Notes:

That scene was so difficult to write!
Also, sorry about the cliche. It actually has more to do with Eileen than Severus, but you won't really see why until later.

Chapter 6: Theories of Time

Summary:

I know in a fanfic you don't really need to explain whatever reasoning or nonexistent science was behind whatever you wrote, but I was in the mood to do so. Unfortunately, I fell into the hole of multiverse theory and temporal magic in the canonical Harry Potter books and decided to write an entire chapter about it. *sigh*

Notes:

If you don't like wibbly wobbly timey-wimey fanfic not-science then apologies ahead of time.
I feel like I kept Severus reasonably in character this chapter, so at least one thing worked out.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Eileen’s bindings on his magic now broken, Severus mentally addressed the second major issue of the day. While Severus had many awful memories of his childhood that he would rather forget, he knew with great certainty that the memory he’d found with Occlumency hadn’t simply slipped his mind. In his future, the events that had taken place in the memory—breaking the plate, Tobias’ and Eileen’s fight, his use of accidental magic and Eileen’s sudden mania in response—and the bindings on his magical core simply did not exist. So, how could these things exist now?

It didn’t seem possible for the events to be caused by his accidental time travel, as the memory had taken place before adult Severus had woken up in his child body.

Severus wondered if this timeline might not be the same one he’d left in the future. If this was true, much of his future knowledge could be completely useless. His upper incisors worried at his bottom lip as stressed panic overtook his train of thought. What events would be different? Which people would be different? Would he go to Hogwarts to find Tom Marvolo Riddle as the headmaster and Albus Dumbledore as a Dark Lord?

Feeling himself jumping to conclusions, Severus took a deep breath and tried to view the situation impartially. After all, there were countless factors that could have impacted the timeline. While he himself was a considerably large variable, Severus was not actually the first person to have travelled back in time. Most importantly, he wouldn’t be the last.

While time and temporal magic largely remained a mystery, it had been studied and experimented with for centuries. Meddling with time was extremely dangerous and could result in unwanted consequences—such as one killing their past or future self by accident—it had been attempted and achieved successfully through the use of Time-Turners. However, time-related magic was well-known to be unstable, and research had shown that a time-traveller could not safely go back in time for a period longer than five hours. Thus, Time-Turners were stringently restricted by hundreds of laws.

Severus’ potion accident, which sent his adult mind into the body of his past child self, was the only incident of its type in his knowledge. In other incidents, the individual had always travelled to a past point in time in their present bodies. The worst well-known incident of this type that Severus was aware of was the case of Eloise Mintumble, who in 1899 was sent centuries into the past to the year 1402 for five days. By the time she was retrieved to her proper point in time, the timeline had been irreparably disturbed. The incident caused fluctuations to the hourly time of the following days and over twenty people’s existence had been erased, unborn. Based on this information, Severus came to another conclusion and discarded his fears of having been sent to a completely alternate timeline.

The topography of time had yet to be properly studied. Yet, in the case of Eloise Mintumble, time could be viewed as linear. Additionally, as the Department of Mysteries was able to retrieve Mintumble after she became stuck in 1402, the future did not cease to exist, only suffered changes. From this Severus could theorize that not only was time linear, but it was a continuous linear line with no end point. Whether that line branched off in varied timelines due to changes caused by time-travel, Severus did not know. The facts he had on hand showed that, regardless, a change in the past affected the future but not any points in time before it, and that the future, despite being constantly affected by a chain reaction of changes happening in the past, never ceased to exist. Thus, his own time travel could not have affected the timeline before the arrival of his adult sentience, and his previous timeline continued despite the absence of his presence. Unlike Mintumble, his case of time-travel had been accidental, not a planned experiment by the Department of Mysteries. Whether or not his adult body remained in the future in his potions lab or had disappeared altogether, no one would think that he’d been sent back in time, and no one would be attempting to retrieve him.

Eileen’s binding of his magic, as an event that occurred in this timeline but not in the timeline he had lived through, must have been a change caused by a prior temporal disturbance. Because Severus had been unaffected by the change at the point of time in which the potion accident took place, the origin of the temporal disturbance must have come from a point in time further into the future. After Severus had been sent back in time , someone else had managed to travel back in time to a point before the events of the memory took place, thus indirectly affecting Severus’ childhood life. The term “indirectly” was key to Severus’ line of thought and permitted him great relief. The lack of direct changes to his original childhood meant that whoever else had travelled in time either did not know of or did not care about Severus’ own time-travel.

Accordingly, this meant that the unknown individual meddling with time was not Severus’ problem.

Severus was not Potter, a foolish boy with a hero complex—just like his father. Severus was not Dumbledore, a manipulative man with fingers in a lot of pies. No, Severus Snape was a bitter old dungeon bat who, in his many unhappy years as a schoolteacher, had become skilled at ignoring and refusing any involvement in the lives and problems of those around him. If this other time-traveller had nothing to do with him, then Severus would do his best for it to remain that way.

Notes:

Eloise Mintumble and the time-travel experiment she was involved in are completely canon.
Does your brain hurt yet? Mine did after writing this so here's a gift...
Double chapter update!

Chapter 7: Magic, Illness, and School

Summary:

Basically what the title says

Notes:

Enjoy the double update! Neither chapter is very long and this one is mostly light humor, filler content, and Severus being cute or grumpy. No beta, as always, so please feel free to point out spelling/grammar errors.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Properly focusing on his magic, Severus intentionally slowed his breathing. As an experienced wizard capable of wandless magic, he was cognizant of how his magic moved: dancing along his skin, singing in his brittle bones, naturally filling every cell in his body. However, it was invisible to the naked eye. A third eye, a sixth sense that previously wasn't there, could witness it. There existed no words to describe its ethereal beauty. Considerable time passed as the young wizard stared at it in breathless wonder. A luminescent ball of power hovered inside him like a radiant star. His physical eyes would have been blinded.

Severus felt complete; whole again after finding something he never knew was dearly missing.

Tapping into that power was like sticking a metal fork in an electric socket. His consciousness was pulled back to the tangible world as his magic exploded outward from his body. Power hovered at his fingertips. Severus felt unstoppable, able to defeat Lord Voldemort and his corrupt army of Death Eaters all at once.

Regrettably, the undernourished child’s sickly, delicate body was an inadequate vessel for a power that had grown untouched for many years.

Severus gasped for air, coughing instead of exhaling. There was a tightness in his throat and an aching discomfort in his chest. His ribs and lungs heaved breathlessly. The boy stood up from the flattened grass but was overtaken by sudden dizziness. Coughs wracked his weakened form. His hands clutched at his fraying shirt as dark spots flashed across his sight. His throat constricted. A mouthful of blood came up with the next cough. Discovering he was once more able to breathe, his starving lungs took in frantic gulps of air.

Severus wiped his mouth with his sleeve. The fabric was pulled away mottled by crimson. His head spun and his vision blurred. Next thing he knew, he was falling. Like a light bulb burning out, everything went black.

Blurry, charcoal-black irises gazed out from under drooping eyelids. The room was dark, the only light a shining fragment that came through the space between the curtains. Severus tried to sit up and groaned; every part of his body ached. His eyes itched and watered, and his throat was experiencing what he assumed would be the result of swallowing a handful of rocks. He had slept fitfully, disturbed by his restless magic that was still adjusting but did so by imitating electrocution. The circles beneath his eyes displayed his fatigue.

The creaking of the hinges of his bedroom door awoke him. The tall figure of his father stood in the open doorway, the glow of the hallway light making it hard for Severus to make out his face. He sat up, his right hand rubbing his eyes.

“Father?” His voice broke off in a yawn.

Tobias sat at the foot of the bed. Severus shifted nervously, hands clutching the blankets. What could the Muggle want at this hour of the morning? At least he couldn’t smell the stench of alcohol, so his father wasn’t drunk.

“I know it’s early. I have to leave for work soon, but I wanted to... check how you were feeling.”

Severus blinked, not expecting those words to come from the Muggle’s mouth. “I’m fine, Father. It’s probably just a cold. I’ll be better by tomorrow.”

The black-haired boy hoped he was right and his magic would settle by then. He wasn’t sure how much more of this he could take. Thankfully, Tobias accepted his answer. Testing Severus’ temperature by placing the back of his hand on the child’s forehead, the man then nodded and left the room.

Severus slept almost an entire day. When awake, he shuffled around like an Inferius. Thankfully, his magical core completely adjusted to being unbound by the following morning. That morning happened to be the start of his first day of primary school.

The entrance of the Muggle school was littered with children and their parents. Since accidentally going back in time, he hadn’t interacted with anyone other than Eileen and Tobias, so it was odd to observe people wearing outdated fashions. For him, it was like an image out of a history textbook. In the Wizarding world, it wouldn’t be so obvious, as the change in styles was slower and subtler than in the Muggle world.

Severus masked the sneer that would usually form on his face in the presence of children. He could not suppress a wince as he walked past a particularly bratty child who wouldn’t stop screeching to his mother that he “didn’t want to go.”

Considerably prepared, Severus quickly ascended the front steps of the school and slipped through the propped open doors. Entering his old classroom, he was hit with a rush of déjà vu. The classroom was exactly the same as the one in his memories. The walls were made of greying red bricks and the floor of dull tiles largely hidden by a stained carpet. Old, rickety school tables and chairs filled the centre of the room. They faced an aged blackboard, while along the other wall were streaky windows.

Less than half the class was already present. The students gave no notice when he came through the doorway. He gazed around the room at his classmates. They were already subconsciously separating themselves into certain groups. The girls from more well-off families showed off their brand new school supplies to each other. Their folders and notebooks were customarily brightly colored and glitter-covered. Among them, bragging about a heart-shaped pencil case, sat Lily Evans. The athletic boys, obsessed with sports, talked about whatever over-glorified game of fetch was in season. A second, smaller group of boys sat by the windows. Comic books were spread out on the carpet in front of them.

Severus cared neither for sports nor comics. However, if he didn't wish to be ostracised for the entirety of the school year, he would need to join a group as soon as possible. Preferring the calmer tones of the second group of boys over the chaos of the first group, he moved in their direction apprehensively.

He never got close to the windows. A small hand with badly painted fingernails grabbed his arm, and Severus was rudely dragged toward another group that was gathered in one of the corners by the chalkboard. The poorer girls were colouring with broken crayons and pencils provided by the school. The girl who pulled him over to the corner had her hair tied up in pigtails that made her look juvenile. She practically shoved him into one of the chairs, then introduced herself as Mary.

“What's your name?” She asked, collecting the orange crayons from several boxes.

“Severus.”

Mary stopped what she was doing and looked at him. “That's a weird name.”

“You're impolite,” he stated.

Childishly, she stuck out her tongue and threw a peach-colored crayon at him. It hit his eye, an unexpectedly painful and effective weapon. To Severus' utter embarrassment, he could feel his eyes watering and his bottom lip quivering. The teacher, an uncaring woman in a sloppy, ill-fitting dress, saw what happened. She hurried over and scolded Mary.

“You should not throw things at others. Such bad behaviour is not allowed in this classroom.” Severus understood that the woman didn't genuinely care; she was merely trying to make a good first impression.

The teacher then turned to Severus, who was on the verge of crying. He sniffled pitifully, wiping his eyes with the long sleeves of his sweater, which he wore to hide the starved brittleness of his wrists. She ushered him across the room to where the wealthier girls were now whispering in hushed voices.

"Would you like to sit over here?" She asked.

Severus quickly shook his head, too focused on not looking at Evans to have any tact. A majority of his adult life had been wasted attempting to make up for causing Lily’s death. Severus had already come to realize that the significant childhood friendship Severus had created in his head didn’t actually exist. He had sacrificed so much for Lily Evans, but this was his second chance, and Severus' life would not revolve around her in this one.

A bit exasperated, the teacher belatedly permitted him to make his own choice. Yet, when he proceeded to sit amidst the boys reading comic books, her lips thinned and her mouth puckered in displeasure. She said nothing, however, so he ignored her. The boys didn't pay him any mind, so he read one of the comics over a brown-haired boy's shoulder. He found it mind-numbingly uninteresting and made a mental note to bring one of his own books with him the next day.

Notes:

I was almost tempted to do a triple update, but gotta save something for next weekend
Please leave a kudos if you like this work <3

Chapter 8: The Events of Muggle Primary School

Summary:

Mostly fluff and filler, but some plot at the end

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

It seemed his change in appearance had different effects than Severus anticipated. Compared to Muggle children who usually didn't give a damn about how they looked, Severus was too clean and well kept. Severus was many things that others his physical age were not: neat, tidy, mannerly, and well-spoken.

Compared to the damaged, greasy hair caused by the polluted air of co*keworth, Severus' hair was considered soft and lustrous. His skin was reasonably, but not abnormally, without flaws. He surpassed even Lily Evan's brilliant red hair—currently frizzy and untamed, missing the hair products she’d one day heavily depend on—and emerald eyes.

On the second day of school, Severus became aware of the fact that his classmates and teacher had mistaken him for a girl with a similar name and appearance. That day of class, both Severus and the girl were present. Realizing that she had confused the identities of two of her students, the teacher had apologized. She seemed horrified that she’d mistaken the two, and caused quite a fuss reassuring Severus that he was a very “handsome boy.” Severus couldn’t have cared less about the mix-up. Severus knew his child-like appearance to be somewhat androgynous, but he also knew to look forward to the growth spurt he would have in his second year.

While at the house in Spinner’s End there was never enough food, the bountiful and nutritious food of Hogwarts allowed his physically stunted body to play catch-up. Severus had been unhygenic enough in his last life to avoid being mistaken for the opposite gender. His current appearance, along with the longer hair, definitely didn’t help. His hair was just so clean and soft in this timeline that he couldn’t bring himself to chop it off. However, he questioned if it may be time for a trim. He wondered how he’d ever been able to stand his hair being so greasy.

Afterward, the day passed by in a blur. The teacher's passion for guiding and educating students had died long before Severus graced the halls of the school. Severus, mentally an adult, knew everything she could possibly teach him and spent the majority of his time in class daydreaming and practing Occlumency.

Since the new term started, Severus’ spent his mornings at school. Once he’d walked back to the house, he completed his homework in minutes and usually used the rest of the day to improve his quality of life in various ways. He exercised his magic regularly during any available free time, often to the point of depleting his core entirely. Extremely tired, he went straight to bed in the evening. His sleep was dreamless, his mind tired as well.

A majority of the spells and charms he performed for practice were to continue improving his appearance and that of the house. The house had been cleaned from top to bottom many times over, excluding his parents bedroom. Severus had even used Scourgify on the exterior after it was dark and none of the Muggle neighbors would see him. Though the difference wasn't as largely noticeable on the outside of the house as it was inside, the Snape family's residence was probably the cleanest and most well-kept house on Spinner's End. Severus hoped no one found out the amount of effort and time he put into beautifying and cleaning spells, as it was truly absurd and he would be remarkably embarrassed.

Regularly coming home to a clean home had subdued his father's temper. Tobias drank considerably less when at the bar after work and came home mostly sober. Increasingly often, Severus found the man staring at him. His expression would be displaying a strange emotion before the man quickly masked it.

His mother, however, didn't show any reaction to the changes. He had always known that she was wasting away, but to not even realize the differences in her own home? Her own son? Her own husband? Severus wondered sometimes what truly happened to his mother to make the witch lose herself and neglect her magic so completely.

Thinking about Eileen Snape's unhealthy and shameful condition always left Severus feeling morose. He avoided crossing paths with her, which was easy as she stayed holed up in her bedroom except to cook dinner. He strived to elude his father as well, which was a more difficult task. Severus was at the park a majority of days when not in school. Otherwise, he studied in his room or soaked in hot baths prepared with medicinal, pleasantly scented herbs and wildflowers.

His Muggle classmates no longer bullied Severus for being poverty-stricken and unkempt. Instead, they picked on him because he was the second smallest child in the class, which made it easy for the larger boys to push and shove him around. The smallest student was a blonde, freckle-faced girl. Severus was taller than her by less than a whole centimetre. Severus was uncertain of the reason for this. In the previous timeline, Severus had been of average height by this age, even if he remained strikingly skinny to the point of being emaciated. However, it was just another unexplained difference in the timeline which he had no control over.

While the bullying was not as bad as before, the young wizard hated all of his classmates. He had to constantly remind himself of his morals to hold back from throwing hexes and curses at the ignorant little Muggle children. Not, he reminded himself, that wizard children were any better behaved or less cruel.

He sat apart from the other students during their lunch period with a paper lunch bag, eating a few measly items that he had packed himself. On the playground, he was alone on the swingset, the crumpled pages of books he had already read pinched between his deft fingers. The boy would glare at anyone who dared to approach him.

They would pull his hair, the locks of which had grown past his shoulders down to his scapulae and were as black as a raven's wings. Severus would find his pencils and markers stolen, then discover the items in unusual places. After one of his favourite books was taken he reported it to the teacher, but she didn't care. Although he accepted the chocolate bar she offered him so he would go away, her shortage of action made him hate her as well.

The book turned up the next day, after much searching. It had been behind the cage of the class pet: Harry, a guinea pig. The fact that in his last life there had not existed a class pet gave Severus many headaches. However, he found amusem*nt in the pest's name. He often sneered at it when he walked by. To the jealousy of many girls in the class, Harry preferred Severus over anyone else. When taken out of his cage, the guinea pig would squeak, squeal, and scratch until the unlucky person who was holding him handed the pet over to Severus. To his vexation, Severus couldn't truly dislike the animal. Grumbling under his breath, he would gently stroke the guinea pig's soft fur until it quieted. Once calm, Harry would dart up to the boy's shoulder and hide under his hair. At that point, Severus would place the animal back in its brightly coloured cage.

Severus walked from the school building to his house on Spinner's End, a trip that took over fifteen minutes. He entered through the front door. “Mother, I’m home.”

Severus carefully placed his bag on the floor as he toed off his shoes. Chilly air lingered inside the house. Severus appreciated what little warmth his sweater provided and pulled it further over his fingers.

"In the kitchen,” called Eileen.

When he walked into the kitchen, he saw Eileen stirring a pot of soup, which was likely watered-down to save food and money. She let Severus stand on a stool and slice the stale, hardened bread that would go with the soup. He enjoyed the task with a childish delight. It seemed his mind and mentality was slowly catching up to his physical age and body, as there was no way Severus would normally have fun doing such a simple, menial chore. However, it didn’t go beyond his notice that Eileen kept giving him strange looks.

“Your hair is getting long,” she commented. “It looks nice.”

“I think I’ll need a haircut soon,” Severus told her. He steeled himself for her reply, knowing that it cost money they couldn’t afford to get his hair cut by a barber. She would probably offer to cut it herself, which would no doubt result in ragged and uneven hair.

“Oh, I don’t know about that,” she said.

Severus stopped cutting the bread and glanced over, but Eileen’s eyes hadn’t looked up from the soup pot. Her words seemed extremely out of character, since the first time around she’d constantly trimmed his hair to a specific length to make it similar to her husband’s usual haircut. Severus decided to try a different approach.

“The other boys at school make fun of me and pull on it.”

Eileen sighed. “A haircut in town will cost too much money, but I’ll think about it.”

Sensing that the conversation had come to a forceful end, Severus returned his focus to the bread knife. The atmosphere in the kitchen, warm when he’d gotten home, felt as if it had become icy. Afraid to crack the metaphorical ice, he sliced the end of the loaf and escaped to the living room.

The television across from the sofa displayed black and white cartoons. Like many households at the time, the Snape household didn’t have one of the new, pricier colour televisions. Severus changed the channel, surfing past soap operas and comedies to a kid’s show starring cloth hand puppet animals. Severus let his childish joy engulf him.

The front door swung open, hinges whining. “I’m back from work,” a gruff voice called out.

Unable to step himself, Severus ran to greet his father as the man took off his boots. His mind didn't process any fear or caution as his arms latched around Tobias in a hug. The smells of the factory where the man worked met his nose, clinging to the fabric of his coat.

Tobias Snape barely managed to breathe, wholly astounded at the unprecedented display of affection. He was used to his son shying away from him, and he couldn’t think of the last time he’d been greeted at the door. He looked down at the boy, the aching of his back and arms from the factory labour seeming to fade away.

“W-welcome back,” Severus stammered. His impulsive bravery began to falter. Inside he seethed and panicked. Merlin’s beard! What on earth am I doing?!

Eileen stepped out of the kitchen to observe the scene with wariness. She feared how her husband would react. He startled her by lifting their son on his hip and carrying him to the dining table, the traces of what could almost be called a smile visible on his lips.

Severus was inwardly in a state of shock, still waiting for powerful blows to rain down upon him. As the blows failed to fall, Severus grew conflicted. He didn’t believe his father could change, especially not to this degree. An abuser would never be a good, caring father. And Severus knew, from going through his childhood memories of this timeline, that Tobias was already an abuser.

Tobias glanced toward the kitchen, his eyes instantly meeting his wife’s. Eileen startled. Against her expectations, Tobias’ eyes were clear, lacking the glaze of anger or alcohol she had grown used to. However, as their gazes met, his eyes darkened once more and his mouth turned downward. Eileen flinched away, her hands twisting the fabric of her apron as she retreated back into the kitchen. Soon, the sounds of soup being ladled into bowls could be heard in the next room.

Tobias sat down heavily at the head of the table and turned to Severus, who sat in the chair to his left. “How is school?”

Recovering from shock, Severus took a moment to answer. “It’s fine.”

“Just fine?”

“I already know everything,” he said truthfully.

Severus flinched as his father let out a sudden, guttural laugh and slapped the back of his chair. “Of course, my boy is smart! I know you’ll be going places when you grow up.”

Thankfully, Eileen’s soup-laden entrance stopped him from having to answer. He considered his father’s words as he grasped his spoon. His father certainly wasn’t referring to Hogwarts when he said Severus would be going places, so he might have meant that Severus would be more successful in life than Tobias himself, who would never be able to move up from his blue-collar position at the factory. However, this assumption strongly implied that Severus would have a job in the Muggle world.

Perhaps his father’s words and change of attitude could be attributed to the lack of accidental magic. The first time around, Severus performed acts of accidental magic as regularly as any other magical child. However, this time, Severus had the control over his magic that his future knowledge and maturity provided. Without accidental magic, there were no signs for Tobias to tell that his son wasn’t a Muggle like himself.

Lost in his thoughts, Severus was surprised by the clanging of his spoon against the bottom of his bowl. It was now empty of soup. He didn’t even remember eating it. Absent-mindedly, he allowed habit to dictate his movements and stood up from the table. After washing his bowl, spoon, and cup in the sink, he set them on a towel to dry and wandered out of the room.

Notes:

If you see any grammar or spelling mistakes please let me know.
I've seen it mentioned in the comments, so I thought I should address it here:
Severus is becoming more childlike and immature the longer he is in the past as his younger self. This is purposeful not only because a child's brain wouldn't naturally be able to handle an adult's brain, but also for the sake of the relationships. In the tags, I show that the future pairings involve Severus and some of the Marauders. The Marauders will be their actual ages, starting Hogwarts at age 11 and aging up regularly. I plan for Severus to de-age mentally until he is simply a smart, mature child by the time he leaves for Hogwarts. This allows for the pairings to take place without the issue of a massive age difference (which I am not comfortable writing) as all the characters will mentally be the age they are supposed to, just with Severus having future knowledge, skills, and the related wisdom.

Chapter 9: Errands With Eileen

Summary:

Severus goes on a trip into town

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

On a normal Saturday morning, Severus was rudely awoken at an abnormal time by his mother. Considering he never slept past seven-thirty and Eileen never got out of bed before eleven, he at first thought he’d dreamt it. He dropped this assumption quickly when someone knocked on his bedroom door.

“Severus,” Eileen called. “I'm opening your door.”

The door creaked open, but just a little, and she didn't enter the room. Instead, Eileen stood awkwardly on the threshold, just looking at him, as if struggling to remember how to interact with the son she often pretended didn’t exist.

“Mother?” Severus questioned. “Do you need something?”

“No, nothing…” Eileen spoke with a quiet voice, sounding nervous. “I was just wondering if you would like to come with me into town. I need to purchase some winter clothes and a pair of new boots for your father.”

Severus wondered why she’d invite him along, before bitterly thinking that she just wanted someone to help carry the shopping bags, since they only owned the one car that Tobias drove to work. Tobias only had Sundays off from work, though on Saturdays he worked a shorter work shift, getting home around three o’clock. Why Eileen couldn’t just wait for Tobias to get back from work and then use the car, he didn’t know.

He told her he’d like to go, and she’d disappeared from the doorway in the blink of an eye. He quickly dressed in worn jeans and an oversized knit sweater that couldn’t decide if it wanted to be green, blue, or grey. After pulling on socks, he looked out the window to see the sun appearing across the horizon. Just how early in the morning was it? The stores probably weren’t even open yet! Huffing angrily at the loss of valuable sleep, he made his way downstairs after a short detour to the bathroom.

The clanging of pans came from the kitchen, where Eileen was attempting to make… pancakes possibly? Severus stared in confusion, eyebrows furrowing at the unprecedented sight, and came to the conclusion that it would be best to wait elsewhere in the house. He stepped outside to water the flowerbeds with a hose, though they only currently held weeds and some struggling peonies. As a potioneer, however, he knew the weeds had more value than a Muggle would assume. The flowerbed once held a small, dwarf variety of snapdragon, but he’d transfigured a stone into a pot and now the flowers sat on his window sill. He regularly watered it and sent magic into the soil to be absorbed by the roots. Despite previously being on the brink of death, the plant now had four healthy stalks—he’d had to cut off a few browned, shrivelled ones—and was already blooming in eye-catching peach and ivory tones.

When he’d gone back inside and sat down at the table, Eileen placed a plate in front of him and announced they’d be leaving in twenty minutes. A circular chunk of charcoal rested innocently in the centre of the plate, oozing overly sweet maple-flavoured syrup. Severus poked it with his fork, causing it to crumble into pieces which he vanished with a whispered spell when Eileen went to grab cups from the kitchen. He abandoned the plate in the sink, next to a pan in bad need of washing, and hurried upstairs before his mother could ask any questions.

He closed the bedroom door behind him, heading over to his pillow. Reaching into the pillowcase, Severus pulled out a small wad of Muggle money. He didn’t know how soon he’d have another chance to go into town, so he thought it best to bring it all with him. Of course, he hid his actual stash of money underneath the floorboards, where Eileen wouldn’t happen upon it if she ever remembered to do laundry and wash the bedsheets. Once he’d received his acceptance letter and went to Diagon Alley he could exchange it at Gringotts for Sickles, Galleons, and Knuts.

Severus spent the next fifteen minutes reading before Eileen called him downstairs. He pulled his canvas messenger bag over his head so it hung by his hip and then slipped on his shoes. Eileen grabbed her purse, a tattered, ugly thing, and they finally departed from the house.

They walked in tense silence, neither sure how to speak to the other and Severus unwilling to make small talk. He focused on writing a mental list of things he wanted to buy, which included pens, notebooks, gardening gloves, and ties for his hair.

Unlike any responsible parent with a child who’d not yet even turned ten, Eileen Snape left her son outside the first store she went into, telling him to stay out of trouble and be back in two hours. Quite happy with this arrangement, Severus wasted no time hunting down the items he needed. He found two sturdy notebooks with fake leather covers at a bookstore. Looking longingly at all the books he couldn’t yet afford, he quickly left the establishment and crossed the street. He bought gloves, hair ties, and some of the less feminine hair accessories available at the family-owned shop on the street corner that sold miscellaneous items.

Before his second hour of freedom was up, he wandered into a dusty, badly lit second-hand store. No one stood at the register, so he glanced curiously into the back room of the store, which had only a curtain for privacy. However, he didn’t see anyone in that room either, so after browsing the small carvings and jewellery at the counter, he walked deeper into the dark building. Severus picked up a book from a shelf, sending up a cloud of dust that prompted him to sneeze. He quickly returned the book to its spot and escaped from the cloud of disturbed particles. On one of the lower shelves he discovered a small wooden box containing five silver, black, and gold fountain pens that appeared to be in perfect condition. Amazingly, the price on the box was barely that of a single fountain pen, let alone five. He wondered if they were actually broken, and considered leaving them on the shelf, but decided to ask whoever owned the store first.

An elderly man stood hunched over the counter when Severus walked up to the register. Setting the wooden box on the counter, Severus politely asked about the price. Despite the man’s certainty that the pens couldn’t be properly cleaned of the dried up ink and would therefore never write smoothly, Severus happily purchased them.

When he moved to leave, the man stopped him, pulling a long, thin box from underneath the counter. He placed it next to the register, where Severus caught sight of the detailed tree branches carved into the wood grain. The shop owner offered it to him for a shilling, telling Severus about a strangely-dressed customer who’d recently abandoned it in the store and then left without buying anything. The man claimed there wasn’t room on the shelves for it yet, so he’d like to get it off his hands. The story and reasoning were unquestionably suspicious, yet childish curiosity wouldn’t allow Severus to refuse the offer.

He wished the man a good day, putting the box into his messenger bag—which felt and looked no different despite the things inside it—and exited the store. The fresh air outside, although tainted with pollution from the nearby factories, felt pleasant after the stale feeling inside the shop. His stomach chose that moment to growl loudly with hunger, empty since the boy had skipped breakfast rather than die from his mother’s inedible cooking.

Luckily, the bakery down the street had just opened, and Severus stood in line with all the harried office workers and morning people who’d been pulled in by the tantalising aroma of freshly ground coffee beans. Unable to find an empty table to enjoy his pastry, Severus reluctantly sat down on a bench outside. The chilly weather left goosebumps on his arms despite the protection of the sweater. A short gust of wind sent red-yellow leaves twirling in the air. A woman's hat flew off her head, and Severus watched her chase after it, catching it several metres away. Humming, he bit into the pastry. Warm apple filling and light, fluffy dough holding his attention, he idly observed the busy people walking past him.

Bright red hair caught his eye. Glancing over, he saw two young girls walking down the street with their mother. Quickly looking away, he told himself he didn’t know them. A nauseatingly familiar voice, one he used to long to hear, complained that her shoes hurt her feet. A second, more nasally voice made a taunting remark. Severus pretended to be occupied with something in his bag, stiffening as they passed the bench without a second glance.

Minutes after he’d eaten the last bite of his pastry, Eileen rushed over. She pulled him off the bench and over to the crosswalk. “I managed to get you in at the barber for a discount. You’ll be getting a trim.”

Given no time to answer, Severus quietly allowed his mother to drag him into the small barbershop across the street. The barber, a frowning man with greying hair, sat him down in a chair and got to work. Severus watched as scissor blades flashed and pieces of hair flew into the air. Finally, it came to a stop.

With a final run of a comb through Severus’ neatly trimmed hair, the barber turned to Eileen. “There, an inch off the bottom.”

“Yes, yes. It’s perfect,” Eileen muttered, digging through her purse for her wallet.

Severus leaned toward the mirror, turning his head this way and that. His hair swished lightly around his shoulders. The barber noticed his dawdling and shooed him off the chair. “My next client is here; off you go.”

“Let’s go home, Severus,” Eileen said.

She waited by the door and took his hand when he reached her. The bell above the door of the shop jangled as they left. Severus shivered from the sudden cold of the outside air. Right hand still imprisoned by Eileen’s, he reached up with his left to feel the straight, shortened ends of his hair. Black locks interlaced with his pale, knobby fingers, he allowed a tiny smile to grace his lips.

Notes:

I don't live in Britain and am not positive what currency they used in the 1960s and 1970s. I went with shillings, but if that is not the correct currency please let me know.

Chapter 10: A Displeasing Dinner Experience

Summary:

Tobias has news

Notes:

It can be a novel thing, as a child, to see that your parents also have personal lives and friends/acquaintances...
I don't like how the dialogue turned out in this chapter, but oh well.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

As the long hand on the clock made its way steadily toward the four and the short hand stubbornly lingered on the three, a car pulled into the driveway. The heavy thud of boots gave little warning before Tobias burst through the front door, shouting for Eileen. Severus, who’d been practising Occluding his mind on the couch, lost his concentration and returned to the waking world with a jolt. He peered over the back of the couch to see the cause of the sudden ruckus. Against Severus’ expectations, his father was smiling.

His mother soon entered the room, almost tripping in her haste. “What is it? What’s the matter?”

Tobias carelessly left his boots by the coat rack, an envelope grasped tightly in one hand. He pulled a cheque out of the envelope and slammed it on the kitchen table. “I got a raise! My boss came to talk to me today. He had this envelope in his hand, and before he gave it to me he said, ‘Snape, you're getting promoted’ and then he invited us over for dinner.”

Eileen gasped, “a promotion! And your first pay cheque already?”

Tobias nodded, sinking into the chair. “I got a ten percent raise.”

Considering that Tobias had worked as an underpaid factory worker at the same manufacturing company for over a decade, both a pay raise and a promotion were long overdue. Severus hoped the man wouldn’t waste the money on booze. He tuned back into the conversation as his mother asked about the dinner, and watched as Eileen practically ran up the stairs to get ready, clearly not wanting to leave a bad impression on her husband’s boss’s family.

When Severus went upstairs, he noticed she’d locked herself in the bathroom. He rolled his eyes—it had become a bad habit—and grabbed a book from his room before returning to his favourite spot on the couch. Tobias had moved to the recliner to watch the news. Severus glanced at the man nervously from time to time, but Tobias fell asleep after a half hour. A half hour after that, Eileen finally vacated the bathroom only to lock herself in her bedroom. Severus went into the bathroom to wash his face and run a brush through his hair. Fortunately he’d bathed the night before, since he doubted Eileen had left enough hot water for more than a rushed shower. Though, if necessary, he could always heat the water with magic.

He left the sweater on, only bothering to change into nicer jeans. Bored, he practised his wandless magic by turning used sheets of paper into origami. His first attempts were abysmal, the paper simply twitching or crumpling up into a ball. His brain couldn’t focus on the task, leaving his magic to flail about with unclear intent behind it. Although pleased with his father’s promotion—which didn’t happen the first time around—he worried that the dinner would not go well. What place did the Snape family, impoverished and unknown as they were, have sitting across a table from an upper-middle class family with better jobs and expensive new clothes?

Severus didn’t have a long time to worry over it, however, as at that moment the door swung open to reveal his parents. His father, for once, was nicely dressed and recently showered, and his mother had on a simple dress and skillfully applied makeup. Severus couldn’t recall ever seeing Eileen with makeup on before.

They got into the car and drove across co*keworth, to where the houses were large and well-kept with spacious, decorated lawns surrounded by white picket fences. The car pulled into the driveway of a house disorientingly similar to every other house on the street, all with neutral paint colours and identical mailboxes. The neighbourhood appeared quite the opposite of Spinner's End. Standing on the front steps while his father knocked, Severus felt uncomfortable, hounded with a lingering sense that he didn’t belong.

The wife of Tobias’ boss invited them in warmly, telling them to just call her Pamela. She led them to the dining room, where her husband already sat at the head of the table. He stood up as they entered the room.

“Tobias!” He exclaimed joyfully, “Tobias, how are you? It’s so wonderful to finally meet your family.”

He turned to Eileen. “And you must be Eileen. It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m Howard.”

She nodded and offered him a polite smile. “The pleasure’s all ours. You have a lovely home.”

“Feel free to have a look around,” Pamela offered. “The main dish is still in the oven, so I’ll get us some drinks.”

Howard looked down at Severus, his agreeable expression shifting to practised surprise. “Who is this?”

Tobias cleared his throat, answering in his gruff voice, “this is my son, Severus.”

Giving Howard a short glance, Severus offered a quiet greeting. The man continued to talk about him like he wasn’t there. “I also have a son, Russell. I’m sure the two will get along splendidly once he comes downstairs.”

Rolling his eyes when the man wasn’t looking, Severus decided to accept the invitation to explore the house, even if the offer wasn’t technically meant for him. The dining room connected to a sitting room, which was so neat and tidy Severus questioned if anyone ever actually used it. A short hallway led to a laundry room across from a bathroom. Returning to the sitting room, he considered going up the winding staircase to the second floor, but instead went down a longer hallway to some guest bedrooms and what he considered to be a pathetically small library.

Finding nothing of interest, he made his way back to the dining room, where everyone except Howard’s son were sitting in their seats. Severus pulled out the chair beside Eileen. She asked where he’d been, and he lied to her that he’d gone to the bathroom. Several minutes of dull, ignored conversation later, Pamela started bringing food out to the table. Although nothing comparable to a feast at Hogwarts, there were several courses with a wide variety of dishes.

Howard grew visibly impatient at the absence of his tardy son. “Feel free to start eating,” he said, “I’m sure he’ll be down in a minute. The boy must’ve gotten sidetracked by something.”

Pamela excused herself from the table, “I’ll fetch him. Go ahead and eat.”

Helping himself, Severus put a small serving of each dish on his plate. By the time he went for a second serving of fish, Pamela reappeared with a small, rat-faced boy who she’d clearly been scolding. She pushed him toward the table with a hand on his back. “Russell, say hello to our guests. You’ve been very rude.”

He mumbled something before sitting down. Pamela shot him a displeased look and opened her mouth to scold him some more. Eileen quickly distracted her. “The food is delicious. I especially like the chicken.”

Severus knew the chicken was dry and overcooked, as tasteless as eating the plate, but he remained silent. Pamela smiled, accentuating the pinkish-red lipstick on her lips and the wrinkles at the corners of her eyes. “Ah, yes. I’ve been marinating it in spices since noon. I found the recipe in an old cookbook and just had to try it.”

Howard started a work-related conversation with Tobias, discussing a new schedule with different hours. The conversation ended up being very one-sided, with Tobias, being a man of few words, mostly nodding or grunting in answer. However, Howard appeared to love hearing his own voice, so he continued talking cheerfully.

Severus glanced over at the sulking child sitting across from him. Russell looked up and glared, sticking out his tongue. What a brat, he thought, he’s worse than Potter’s offspring and the Weasley combined.

His mood lightened, remembering the failing grade he’d written on Weasley’s homework assignment just hours before being sent back in time.

Notes:

I imagine Snape's time-travel potion accident taking place sometime in book 5, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix so the Battle of Hogwarts never happened, Voldemort was still alive, and Severus had been teaching and spying like usual.
Please let me know if you see any spelling or grammar errors. I don't have a Beta and Grammarly is useless without paying now, so its inevitable that there will be some.
Next up: The Ancient and Noble House of Prince makes an appearance!
(Ancient and Noble House? Noble and Ancient? Is that in the right order? I don't understand these things...)

Chapter 11: The Not-So-Pied Piper

Summary:

The Prince family ancestral magic is revealed, and Severus makes a friend :)

Notes:

The Prince family makes an appearance (though not how some of you in the comments seem to expect)
Please read the end notes!

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Severus stared in masked horror at his mother. “What?”

“I said you should make invitations,” Eileen said patiently. She opened and closed a drawer, poured her purse out on the table, and then started moving around the pillows on the couch

“Oh where is it?” She muttered unhappily. “Severus, have you seen my house key?”

Severus shook his head. “Invitations for who?”

Notes:

Please Read!
There will NOT be an update next Saturday! I will be recovering from surgery, so I will not be posting a new chapter until the Saturday after next.
Also, if you have any good wizard-y names for Severus's new kneazle friend feel free to post them in the comments, your suggestions will be taken under consideration :)

Chapter 12: Sick and Stormy Days

Summary:

Kneazle name reveal! Also I swear this isn't a sic-fic but it was just so fun to write...

Notes:

I still feel sick and this chapter reflects it, but cute cat shenanigans and family fluff so...

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Lightning flicked outside the window, thunder chasing after it. Severus sighed heavily, weighed down by the twenty pounds of cat currently crushing his ribcage. He could feel Valeriana’s purring through the blanket, though not her claws as she kneaded it.

The rain started two days ago, and it hadn’t let up since. Severus currently had no access to his mother’s wand, so he’d been struggling to avoid boredom. Yesterday, he’d cleaned his room, brushed Valeriana, practised wandless magic, and did yoga. Today, he’d spent two hours meditating to avoid social interaction with his family.

Yoga and meditation were new experiences for him. Two weeks ago he’d met a strange Muggle lady at the park, who’d reminded him quite a bit of the Lovegoods. He’d seen her there before, usually sitting or stretching on a mat, and had eventually inquired about what she’d been doing. She hadn’t found it strange for a young boy to be at the park without a parent, and had been plenty happy to explain the fundamentals of meditation, yoga, and finding “internal peace and balance.” He’d later tried it himself and discovered its value in speeding up magical development and strengthening his Occlumency.

However, he’d been unable to find internal peace or balance with the thickening hostility clogging up the house. The mill was temporarily closed for maintenance and new machinery installation. With all three people stuck in the house together the tension between his parents was at an all-time high. Severus hadn’t left his room all morning, unsure of what state he’d find the rest of the house in, but he knew he’d have to eat and feed Valeriana eventually.

“Come on,” he murmured, lifting her off his chest and propping her front paws over his shoulder to carry her easier.

On silent feet he descended the steps, the rumble of his father’s snoring almost as loud as the thunder outside. A sudden gust of wind rattled the window panes, which gave a gloomy view of Spinner’s End with a dark grey sky and pouring rain. The air inside the house felt unpleasantly humid, so he’d kept his hair out of his face with a silvery headband covered with pearlescent glued-on buttons. It had been in a sales basket at the supermarket, and Eileen had easily caved to buy it to make up for his miniscule number of birthday presents. He set Valeriana down on the couch as he made his way to the kitchen.

Mentally criticising the contents of the refrigerator, he settled for a bowl of corn flakes. Depressingly, his ten-year-old body still struggled to lift a half-gallon carton of milk. In order to not splash any on his pyjamas, he had to pour the milk slowly while leaning the carton against the rim of the bowl for leverage. He almost tripped over Valeriana when carrying the bowl to the table.

“I know, I know,” he assured her while shushing her meows. “Yes, I’m aware that you're hungry.”

He set a small metal bowl on the floor and poured the last of the bag of cat food in. He frowned, crinkling the empty bag and looking out at the storm. “I’ll have to walk to town to buy more before dinner.”

She twined through his legs, rubbing fur onto the fabric of his pants. He bent down to stroke a hand down her back before returning to his own breakfast. The spoon clinked dully against the bottom of the bowl, corn flakes sinking as they inevitably grew soggy. Between each bite he stirred the milk and reminisced of stirring potions. The loud grunt of his father waking pulled him from his nostalgia.

He watched the man stumble like an Inferious through the house, cursing when he stubbed a toe on the leg of a chair. Well, this is certainly strange, Severus thought. Is he drunk? Or…? The answer to his still developing questions came in the form of a sneeze. A second sneeze followed the first, then another sneeze, then Tobias leaned against the wall as if close to tipping over. Worried, Severus stood up. He currently liked this Tobias better than the original, and it wouldn’t do for the man to fall ill.

“Father, are you alright?” Not really expecting an answer, Severus grabbed the stool from the kitchen and stood on his toes so he could reach his father’s forehead. As he’d assumed, the man’s temperature was much higher than the healthy average of thirty-seven degrees Celsius. “You’ve got a fever.”

Tobias wondered why the room was spinning. Since when did Severus have a twin? He wondered, squinting his eyes to see if inanimate objects would stop moving. They weren’t supposed to move, he didn’t think. He didn’t struggle when Severus pulled him toward the sitting room, following his son’s instructions to rest on the couch.

Severus covered Tobias with a blanket, which the man immediately pushed onto the floor with complaints that it was too hot. Severus covered him with the blanket again, telling him sternly to stay still. He put Valeriana on top of him to weigh down the blanket and work as a living heater, then went upstairs to find Eileen.

“Mother. Mother, are you awake?”

He knocked on the door until it opened. Eileen slumped over in the doorway, greasy hair framing her face. Her pasty complexion and the dark circles under her eyes could make a vampire self-conscious. The room behind her was dark and unclean, the smell of potent alcohol detectable from the hallway.

“What?” She asked furiously.

“Father is sick,” he said, waiting to see her reaction.

“So what? I’m sure he’s fine.” She turned away and shut the door, yelling for him to go away.

He huffed, deeply disappointed with her but also with himself for hoping she’d show some human decency.

“Fine,” he stated angrily, “I’ll deal with it myself. It’s not like I’m a child or anything.”

He went to his room to pull out his collection of plants, got washcloths from the bathroom cupboard, and grabbed a whole stack of extra blankets from the hallway closet. Once in the kitchen, he set everything on the counter and filled a pot with water in order to heat it on the stove. A bowl was also filled with water, this time cold to soak the washcloths in. A cold compress should help with Tobias’ fever and any pain in his head. Leaving the water to boil, Severus carried the bowl and the blankets to the sitting room.

He noticed Tobias did not fit well on the couch, tall and broad-shouldered as he was. Arranging the blankets on the carpet in front of the couch, he convinced the man to lay on the floor instead. With Tobias’ head propped up on a pillow and a wet washcloth on his forehead, Severus decided the man would be fine until he could heal him.

When the water in the pot boiled, Severus carefully poured a small portion of it into a mug to make tea. He chose chamomile tea to help his father fall asleep and added honey to soothe his throat. He added a variety of dried plants, including dried mullein, to the remaining water in the pot to make a weak Muggle version of a Cough Potion. Increasing the heat and stirring it, he tried to think of healing charms that might work in this situation, but his repertoire of medical spells only really covered broken bones and open wounds.

The potion boiled down to a few mouthfuls of usable product, but considering his limited ingredients and subpar available tools that was more than he could have hoped for. He strained it into a small cup, then carried both the cup and the mug of tea to where Tobias was attempting to sit up. Knowing the potion would taste disgusting, he’d give him the tea after to wash it down.

Severus grew increasingly annoyed as Tobias kept pushing away the cup. He tried to sound authoritative, but not too out of character for a young child. “Father, you have to take your medicine to get better.”

After a competitive stare-off between the two Snapes, Tobias finally drank the potion, cursing at the taste. Severus quickly handed over the tea, which the man sniffed distrustingly before gulping it all down in a few sips. After Severus soaked the cold compress in cold water again, his father fell asleep. Valeriana sprawled out on the carpet next to him, grooming her paws elegantly.

Severus looked at the nearest clock, realizing he’d already wasted most of the morning. The storm still raged outside. He’d need to buy cat food, but with Tobias unconscious and Eileen drunk there was no one to drive the car. A sickening feeling sat heavy in his stomach at the thought of walking all the way to town in the wind and rain.

He dressed in his warmest clothes, layering his shirts before putting his only waterproof jacket on overtop. He layered his socks until his feet barely fit in his rain boots. In a moment of bitter resentment, Severus allowed himself to be petty and empty Eileen’s wallet. He shoved the money in his coat pocket, which zipped up so the money wouldn’t fall out or get wet. With his bag, a hat, a scarf, gloves, and armed with an umbrella, he was ready to go.

Steeling himself, he opened the door and stepped outside before he could change his mind. A forceful gust of wind almost knocked him over, his hands barely gripping the handle of the umbrella before it blew away. Slowly and steadily—at the pace of a turtle—he travelled down the street. By the time Severus reached one of the few open stores, it felt like he’d lost a year of his life just on the way there. The trip back, with him already struggling against exhaustion, would no doubt be worse.

Straightening his shoulders and keeping his head held high, he shook out the umbrella, grabbed a cart, and marched to the back of the store where pet supplies were kept. He found the usual brand Eileen bought and then walked past it to the high-quality cat food marked at twice the price. If she could splurge on alcoholic drinks, then he could splurge to spoil his cat. Picking out a bag of dry food and multiple flavours of wet food, he added up the cost in his head and decided to get Valeriana a collar. She would need one when she accompanied him to Hogwarts, after all. Buying the collar, pastel green faux leather with a silver bell, along with a fish-shaped silver name tag he’d later engrave using magic, used up the last of the money.

One less thing to carry, he thought sarcastically.

The overworked teenage girl at the checkout counter gave him strange looks while ringing up his items. Her eyes widened to the size of a House-elf’s as the large bag of dry food disappeared into his bag without a trace. Five minutes later, he left the store. The temperature had dropped several degrees, and the long walk back to Spinner’s End was tenfold worse.

By the time he reached the house, everything exactly how he’d left it, Severus had decided to reteach himself Apparition.

Notes:

Many thanks to everyone who suggested cat/familiar names! I loved all of them, but unfortunately Severus only has one cat. So, special thanks to colored0rain for their suggestion of Valerian (a pink or white flowering plant native to Europe and Asia, also a potion ingrediant). It led to the name Valeriana, which is the genus of flowering plants which includes garden valerians. Also, thanks to Thebookie, whose name suggestion was also one of my favorites and may show up later.
<3

Chapter 13: A Day On Spinner’s End

Summary:

Severus practices magic and reteaches himself some things that no normal 10-year-old wizard would know. Don't try this at home, kids!

Notes:

This chapter is brought to you by tea and technical difficulties

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Severus was home alone. He’d already taken Eileen’s wand and closed the curtains on the windows. Two circles, about a metre apart, had been drawn on the floor with a piece of broken chalk. Gazing around the room, Severus nodded to himself and moved to stand in the nearest circle. He stood straight and stiff. Wand pointed at the ground, he channelled magic into it as he rolled his wrist.

A sound, like a balloon slowly losing air, made him pause in his actions. He shook his head. Recall The Three Ds, he thought with irritation, Destination, Determination and Deliberation. He exhaled loudly, prompting a confused mrow from Valeriana as she watched from the sofa.

He tried again with the same outcome. The third time, he had greater success. The world spun around him, a loud crack! sounding through the room as Severus disapparated from the circle. He found himself a short distance away from the other chalk circle. He looked around, discovering that, to his horror, he’d missed splinching himself into the wood of the television cabinet by mere centimetres.

“Merlin’s beard!” He cursed aloud, heart threatening to pound its way out of his scrawny chest.

He decided against immediately trying again. Wandering into the kitchen, he takes his time heating water for tea. At the last minute, he changed his mind. At the back of the far cupboard a small packet, wrinkled by time and a child’s tiny fingers, had been hidden for many months. It contained a dark, sweet powder; a rare luxury in the Snape house. Severus poured the dry mix into the mug of hot water. He added a dash of milk and stirred counterclockwise with a spoon. At last, he lifted up the mug, inhaling the rich scent of chocolate.

Sipping with guilty pleasure, Severus returned to the front room and joined Valeriana on the couch. She stood, collar jangling merrily, and plopped down heavily on his lap. He scratched her chin and stroked her fur until she purred like an aircraft’s engines. They sat there as the hands on the clock ticked by. However, Severus couldn’t rest for too long, since Eileen would return home from the biweekly farmers market by two o’clock.

He stood, stretching, and walked back into the first chalk circle. Concentrating wholly on the other chalk circle, telling himself he didn’t want to be anywhere else other than in that circle. The room rang with a loud pop! and Severus found himself standing right in the centre of the circle. Confidence bolstered by his success, Severus apparated back into the first circle. Finally feeling the massive drain on his magic, Severus apparated one last time up to his bedroom. He let himself flop exhaustedly onto the bed.

He heard the soft pitter-patter of paws coming up the stairs and the jingle of Valeriana’s collar as she hopped up onto the bed. She yowled, visibly unhappy. He reached out to pet her, murmuring apologies for leaving her downstairs. She batted his hand away angrily. As punishment, she sprawled over his back, making it difficult to sit up.

“Valeriana!” He whined, voice muffled by his pillow, “you’re suffocating me.”

Downstairs, the front door opened loudly. Amongst the crinkling of paper bags, Eileen called out, “Severus, I’m back! Can you come down and help me with these bags?”

Severus shooed Valeriana off the bed and climbed out of bed grudgingly. Downstairs, he found his mother surrounded by a whirlwind of bags. Where had she gotten the money for all of this? Silently, he picked up a bag and followed after Eileen, carrying it to the kitchen. She took it from his arms and set it on the counter, pulling out several small packages wrapped in wax paper and bundles of leafy plants. Severus returned with another bag, from which she pulled out three corked bottles containing liquids of varying colours and viscosities.

After Severus had carried the last bag to the kitchen, he planned to return to his bedroom for a nap, but Eileen stopped him with a hand on his arm. “Stay here, Severus. There’s something I want to show you.”

Warrily, Severus watched and waited as she put away most of her shopping and prepped the kitchen. Prepping for what, he didn’t know, but it certainly didn’t look like Eileen planned to cook dinner. A moment later, when Eileen pulled down a small, dented cauldron from the top shelf of a cupboard, it became very obvious that she planned to show him a potion. Severus realised he shouldn’t be so surprised. In his first life his mother had taught him several potions before Hogwarts. Just because this version of Eileen was less mentally stable didn’t mean she wouldn’t act somewhat similarly to herself in the other timeline.

Disappointingly, after looking over the ingredients on the counter with new eyes, Severus deduced that she would only be showing him a simple healing potion. The bundle of leafy stalks with rounded, fuzzy leaves was just Dittany. He quickly hid his frown as Eileen pulled a stool over to the stove and directed him to stand on top.

Severus stepped up onto the stool while she turned on the stove, open flame flickering beneath the metal cauldron. She handed him a cup of water and had him pour it into the cauldron, stopping him from pouring just a second before he would have done so himself. “Don’t overfill it past this point. If you do, it may bubble over once we increase the heat of the fire.”

I know, he thought with frustration. I could teach you this in my sleep!

Clenching his jaw to avoid saying anything that would give him away, Severus obediently followed her instructions. He shredded the dittany, although he knew it would waste less of the juice to slice it properly with a knife. He grounded the wormwood when it would be better to chop it finely. As a result, the potion was not as thick as it should be by the end. At least Eileen knew to add Bubotuber pus to fix the consistency. The end result was a red potion, too cloudy to see through, with a thin red smoke rising slowly from the top. In Severus' opinion, the shade of red should be several shades darker, but for a child who had supposedly never brewed a potion before it was a reasonable colour variation.

After Eileen poured the potion into a glass bottle with a cork, she began putting away the normal, non-magical groceries. Severus left the kitchen, wondering where Eileen had bought the necessary ingredients without going to Diagon Alley and why she had decided to teach him potion-making out of the blue. Would she do this again?

Severus eyed his mother as she finished organising the last of the groceries. He noticed her slip the bottle of freshly-brewed healing potion into her pocket. Was she going to use it? Was she injured? Did she have a fight with Tobias in which he became violent?

Frowning at the gaps in his information, Severus turned away. He could investigate another time. For now, all he wanted to do was sleep. He’d exhausted himself physically and magically, and he’d been suppressing yawns for the last half-hour in order to avoid breathing in the fumes from the potion. He’d deal with adult problems later; at the moment he was just a child in need of a nap.

Notes:

I didn't have a lot of time to edit this chapter, so if you see any spelling, grammar, or other mistakes please let me know!
Next week's chapter will either be largely filler or plot heavy, there is no inbetween.

Chapter 14: The Events of Muggle Secondary School

Summary:

The prodigious child skips right to secondary school, and things happen as they are prone to do. Also, major foreshadowing for the next chapter.

Notes:

Surprise! It's a filler chapter. Wrote most of this while half asleep last night and only just re-read it for errors, so beware bad grammar and spelling.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

In the lingering summer heat of September, Severus once again headed off to school. Unlike the last academic year, this year he would not need to worry about seeing or avoiding Lily Evans. In fact, he wouldn’t be interacting with any of his previous classmates. Severus had not hidden his unchildlike intelligence as well as he’d thought. People had noticed, and, after a series of tests, he’d been moved up two grades.

Normally, Severus would have been in Year 6, and instead he was in Year 8, which should have been his second year of Muggle Secondary School. co*keworth was a large enough town to have separate school buildings for Primary and Secondary School. The Secondary School was a five minutes walk from the Primary school, thus, five minutes further from Spinner’s End. Now, Severus had to leave the house earlier in order to be at school by 8:30am.

While at first he’d been worried and still completely unchallenged by the classwork, Severus had gradually accepted his new title as a child prodigy. At least this way no one would question him supposedly leaving for a selective school when his Hogwarts letter came, since an impoverished family like the Snapes sending their son off to an expensive grammar school or similar institution was laughable.

The older students in Secondary School were not an improvement, just as dull, gross, and prone to bullying as the younger years. Severus found himself becoming a worse teacher’s pet than Granger to escape it all. His positive reputation with the teachers and staff of the school did have its pros, such as access to much higher level books in the library. Severus had taken up studying chemistry in his free time at school due to its strange similarities and stark differences to potions.

Severus often ate lunch in the library to avoid the loud chaos of the lunchroom. Today Eileen had actually packed his lunch for him, for some reason in a maternal mood. Kneeling between shelves of dust-blanketed books, Severus contently bit into a sandwich and filled his mind with the chemical elements on the periodic table.

His situation was in no way preferable or perfect, but there were few times in his adulthood when he’d felt simple satisfaction with life like this.

Severus ran, heart racing and legs pumping. The loud, crashing footfalls of his pursuers were closing in. He ducked around a parked car and bolted toward the end of the street. Angry yells rose up behind him.

“He’s getting away!”

It was a Saturday, and Severus had been walking to the park as usual. Hoping to speak with the strange Muggle woman who had introduced him to yoga and meditation, he’d left early after breakfast and taken one of the more frequented paths. Unfortunately, a few other boys from his class had also decided to spend the day outside. The boys were kicking around a ball, and one of them spotted Severus crossing the street.

As he turned to get his friends’ attention, Severus crossed to the opposite sidewalk and began to run, prompting outraged shouts and an unwanted chase. Did those dunderheads really think Severus would just wait politely to get beat up?

In his last life, bullies had been a problem in both the Muggle and Wizarding worlds. As a child, and over the summers, he had much practice running. At the first sign of trouble, he’d booked it. Now, he ran, like a fox chased by baying hounds, and cursed out those awful brats in his mind. One of them called out mockingly, mouth spewing the daft nonsensical words that children considered derogatory terms.

An open gate catching his eye, Severus changed direction suddenly and cut through a stranger’s lawn. In the shadows behind the other side of the fence, Severus caught his breath. Before his pursuers could round the corner of the house and catch sight of him again, Severus disapparated.

Stepping out from behind a copse of trees at the edge of the park, Severus released a large sigh. As he raised his head, he made eye-contact with a Muggle on a brightly-colored mat. She recognized him and waved him over, smile-lines crinkling around her eyes. Severus suppressed an answering smile.

“Severus!” She exclaimed, unrolling another mat. “So good to see you. I have another branch of yoga to teach you, if you’re interested.”

He nodded eagerly and sat down on the second mat to start his warm-up stretches. Before travelling back in time, it had been years since he’d learned something new.

The bell rang, releasing the students from their imprisonment. Severus packed his bookbag and escaped quickly, entering the turbulent river of students flowing out of the school’s front doors to the buses. However, the bus routes avoided Spinner’s End and the other bad neighbourhoods of co*keworth, plain prejudice against the impoverished families that lived there and blatant disregard for the students walking miles to get an education.

Severus had once been one of the many greasy-haired, malnourished children from Spinner’s End and its surrounding streets. He’d been part of that group, invisible except as a subject of derision, just one scrawny child amongst the others who wore the same few items of clothing everyday and showed up to school with bruises. co*keworth had higher rates of poverty, crime, and homelessness than any town within a hundred mile radius. Everybody knew, but nobody cared.

Usually, Severus walked to school from home and walked home from school. However, on this specific day, Tobias would be picking him up from school for a momentous occasion. For the first time ever, Tobias Snape had days leftover of entitled leave from work. So, for the first time ever, the Snape family was going on vacation.

Severus found himself surprisingly thrilled for the vacation trip, even though it would just be a few days in the British Midlands at a small lake-side cottage. The trip would not hold up to grand expectations; Severus would no doubt be stuck sleeping on a couch, as the cottage only had one bedroom, and Valeriana would have to stay behind. Regardless, he was full of anticipation.

Tobias would be swinging by the school to pick Severus up on his way home from work. Their luggage was packed at the house, and once they and Eileen loaded it up into the vehicle, they would begin the hour-long drive to the cottage.

As Severus stood with the other students waiting to be picked up by their parents, the Prince ancestral magic struck with little warning. After using the flute, the newly awakened magical ability had been a constant presence in the corner of Severus’ consciousness and his active magical core. At that moment, as a warm breeze ruffled his hair, he felt his magic fluctuate.

Across the road, a man was walking his dog. As Severus tried and failed to get a hold on the untrained ancestral ability, the unfortunate dog-walker was dragged across the road by the large canine over to the group of schoolchildren. Ignoring everyone else as if they—and the scolding from its owner—didn’t exist, the dog walked right up to the wizard. It was a massive animal, especially compared to the quite small and frail form of the undernourished child. Next to each other, they were practically the same height, even when it sat down and waited patiently to be pet.

The man who presumably owned the dog was apologising to the nearby teacher for his pet’s actions, although their conversation seemed to be devolving into flirtations, and neither were watching the animal in question. The dog whined pitifully at the raven-haired boy until he began to scratch behind its ears. Severus found the fur to be coarse, yet soft, and as thick as a warm blanket. The dog discovered that the small boy knew exactly the right places to scratch, its long tail wagging profusely.

Tobias arrived several minutes later, and Severus got into the backseat of the car. The canine made depressingly mournful noises as it watched Severus leave. Expression falling, Severus watched as the dog disappeared from view, feeling somewhat guilty for not staying to pet it longer. In front of him, in the driver’s seat, Tobias began listing the plans for the trip. Reminded of his earlier excitement, Severus pushed all thoughts of his mishap of accidental magic out of his mind.

Notes:

Bet you can't guess what next week's chapter will be about...

Chapter 15: The Cottage by The Lake (pt. 1)

Summary:

Severus goes on a family trip to a lake-side cottage. He tries to enjoy his vacation but trauma gets in the way. Warnings for depressed thoughts and an allusion to serious, harmful bullying.

Notes:

This chapter will be split into two parts because it is the last official chapter pre-Hogwarts. That's right, folks, we are almost to the compulsory Hogwarts Letter chapter! But, before that, Chapter 15...part 1...

Chapter Text

The car ride to the cottage was over an hour of stifling silence interrupted only by Eileen’s stilted conversation starters and Tobias’ awkward throat clearing. Severus sat tensely in the back seat, realising what an awful idea it had been to trap all three members of the family in a small, moving vehicle. With a noiseless sigh, Severus turned to stare out the window, watching the sights of the British Midlands pass by.

As time passed, the roads became smaller and less maintained until the car was rattling over gravel. The gravel road curved through the trees until a small house, barely larger than a shack, came into view. While Tobias unloaded their luggage from the trunk, Severus took a closer look at it. The walls were wood and cobbled around the base. A small, withering garden framed the front door. In the background, a rotting wooden dock led out into the centre of the lake. From where he stood, Severus could hear the rhythm of the waves against the pebbled beach.

Hearing Tobias call his name, Severus walked around to the back of the car. Tobias handed him his bag and Eileen’s purse to take inside. Eileen had already gone in to see the interior of the cottage, leaving the door open behind her. Slinging the strap of his bag over his shoulder, Severus walked up the creaky steps and peered in nervously.

He had low expectations, but was pleasantly surprised. Once he’d left his bag next to the stout, dark blue couch on which he would be sleeping, he wandered around the main room. There were two doors, one leading to a bathroom and the other to the cottage’s single bedroom. The door was closed; Eileen had already closed herself inside.

What’s the point of even coming on a vacation trip, Severus wondered, if you’re just going to do the same thing you do at home?

Scrunching up his nose in distaste, he next surveyed the kitchen. Taking up the corner beside the front entrance, the kitchen contained a sink, a coffee maker, a front-loading toaster, and a small island at which to sit and eat. Severus grimaced. Clearly, there would be very little cooking going on and hopefully no family dinners. He imagined with great horror eating a meal side-by-side with Eileen and Tobias on one of the island’s four stools. He shook his head, clearing away the absurdity of a man as large as Tobias sitting on one of those rickety wooden stools.

The lake outside the window catching his attention, Severus slipped out the back door just as Tobias came in the front door with the last of the luggage. Childishly romping down the numerous creaky steps that led to the dock, he took in a big breath of air. It tasted of dirt, fish, and failed family bonding.

Without a doubt, many families had come here for an escape, but few could possibly be as disfunctional or as baneful as the Snapes. Severus tried not to think of all the awful things that could happen at a secluded location out in the woods, but it was too late; he’d already thought about it. Reminding himself that he was, in fact, a wizard and need not fear such problems, Severus relied on Occlumency and fresh air to clear his head.

Severus decided against trusting the aged, ramshackle dock and instead sat on one of the large rocks by the shore. The sun shone down on him from above, a cool breeze ruffled his hair, and birds sang from the treeline. The weather was the definition of perfect. Kicking off his shoes, he plopped his feet on the ground and dug his toes into the blend of sand and small stones that lined the beach.

While he’d never been able to afford such leisure before graduating and certainly didn’t have any time as a professor, vacations were supposedly a great way to relax and decompress. He had four days to enjoy the trip, and his hopes began to rise. There were no Death Eaters, Dark Lords, or Dumbledores to worry about at the moment. Severus knew he could be more than a bitter, grumpy dungeon bat, and, especially as a Master Occlumens, he should be perfectly capable of relaxing like any common Muggle at the beach. Perhaps, for a period of time, he could enjoy the lake like any lake-going Muggle would. Wasn’t the weather warm enough for swimming? Wasn’t the sun reflecting on the water visually appealing?

He glanced out over the water and thought of the Black Lake. However, then he thought of Black and Potter and all the reasons he stopped going to the lake and couldn’t stand to go swimming and—

If only it wasn’t so difficult to enjoy a vacation.

Chapter 16: The Cottage by The Lake (pt. 2)

Summary:

The classic father and son fishing experience... plus angst.

Notes:

Sorry for the late chapter!
Also, I lied, because there will be a part 3... oops!

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

The stench of old fish filled the air. Severus pulled the collar of his shirt over his nose, but the smell clung to the fabric, too. With his small face scrunched up in disgust, he watched as Tobias skewered a minnow on a fishing hook.

Severus had used many gross ingredients in potions throughout the years; from viscous dragon blood to slimy flobberworm mucus, he’d gotten his hands dirty. Yet, there was something about the bait fish, all piled in the bucket with blank, staring eyes, that made his stomach churn and his hands.

“Here’s how your float, sinker, and hook with bait should look.” Tobias held out the prepared fishing hook as an example and frowned when Severus shied away. He grumbled loudly and shoved the smaller fishing rod into Severus’ hands. “Buck up, boy!”

Severus held the rod awkwardly and shot a dubious glance at the bucket of dead fish. With gritted teeth, he pinched a minnow between two fingers and stabbed it onto the hook crookedly. Then he flung the line out into the lake. Despite his frustration-fueled effort, his line dropped only a couple feet from the dock. He couldn’t help but look back at Tobias, and he quickly regretted it. The disappointment was clear on his face.

Tobias cast his line out before turning to Severus. It fell several metres out, where the float bobbed idly in the miniscule waves of the lake. Running a calloused hand through his dark, greying hair, the man released a sigh of epic proportions. Then, he began to talk.

“My father, your grandfather, used to take me fishing every summer. He taught me as a child how to properly string a fishing pole, how to use the bait, and how to cast out a line. We would catch fish and cook ‘em for supper. But… then he stopped taking me fishing… and I never thought it would be something I would ever do with my own son.”

Severus felt his eyes go wide as he struggled to process the stream of words flowing from Tobias’ mouth. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Tobias… actually talking about his childhood and Severus’ paternal grandfather? Severus had never heard anything about this before, never knew anything about his paternal grandparents or Tobias’ life before he married Eileen. Now, it appeared that his father would be sharing this information willingly.

Unable to keep his mouth shut, he asked, “why did he stop?”

“Well,” Tobias cleared his throat and squinted out at the water. “He and my mum separated. He packed up his things and left, and then I never saw him again.”

That had not been the answer Severus expected, but it prompted several thoughts he knew better than to say out loud. Secretly, he wondered, have you ever thought of divorcing Eileen?

He glanced over at the bank, where the little waves broke against the rocks. Several steps away from the dock, laying on a towel atop the gravel and sand of the beach, Eileen sunbathed. She wore a one piece swimsuit with a floral sundress overtop, so starkly different from her usual dark, modest attire. Severus watched enviously as she relaxed on the beach, soaking up the sun and the relaxing sounds of the lakeside far away from the stench of fish.

He turned back to Tobias. “Have you always lived in co*keworth?”

“Of course!” The man laughed bitterly. “No one moves to co*keworth unless they have no other options, and few people in co*keworth will ever be able to leave.”

He became solemn. “Your grandma lived and died in that god-forsaken town, and so will I.”

With the mood tense and heavy, the despondent atmosphere weighing on Severus’ scrawny shoulders, the pair sat at the edge of the dock. In the silence, Severus remembered when he, too, had thought he’d be trapped in the grungy industrial town of co*keworth for his whole life. Then, he’d received his Hogwarts letter, and he’d had hope. If only he’d known then where he would end up in life, he would have known better than to feel hopeful.

Suddenly, he felt a tug on his fishing line. He jolted, drawing his father’s attention. “I think I’ve caught something,” he said unsurely, voice barely above a whisper.

There was another tug, visibly yanking the line taut. Shouting in excitement, Tobias helped him reel it in. They struggled for several minutes. However, when they successfully reeled in the fish, it was only the length of Severus’ forearm. The fish was a dull grey and squirming for its life. Tobias held up the fish with one hand, fingers hooked under its gill plate. With the other hand, he pat Severus on the back, his innate strength almost pushing the young wizard off the edge of the dock.

“Your first catch!” He announced gleefully.

As they settled back down on the dock, a new bait fish on Severus’ hook and both lines bobbing in the water, Tobias cleared his throat pointedly. Nervously, Severus looked up at him, eyes meeting. His father’s eyes were lined from years of frowning, but at that moment, they held pride.

“Son,” Tobias said, the tips of his ears reddening, “I know you won’t be like me; you won’t live and die in co*keworth.”

Although sure he was drowning in positive emotion, Severus couldn’t help but think that Tobias would inevitably be disappointed. Severus might not die in co*keworth, but chances were he’d die somewhere worse.

From behind them, Eileen called out that she was heading inside to start dinner. Tobias grunted in reply. As they sat in silence again, surrounded by the lake and the smell of fish, there was another tug on the line.

Notes:

Please let me know if you see any errors in spelling, grammar, formatting, etc.

Chapter 17: The Deficiencies of Dittany

Summary:

Unfortunately, vacation ends on a bad note. Warnings for spousal and child abuse.

Notes:

This was originally supposed to be The Cottage by The Lake (pt. 3), but then the chapter ended up being almost 1900 words.
I'm sorry for all the sad in this chapter.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Severus woke in the night to screams.

Dark, tired eyes flickered open and stared out at the room. He thought he’d heard something that jolted him awake. The interior of the cottage was awash in pale light from the moon, which shone in through the window. Severus hadn’t closed the curtains, declining to disturb them, as the fabric was stiff with dust and cobwebs.

An angry shout followed by a high-pitched scream and the sound of something crashing to the ground came from the bedroom. Severus froze, heart dropping and his breath catching in his chest. He sucked in a breath of air and pushed back the bedsheets. Standing barefoot on the cold wood floor, he tentatively walked toward the door to intervene. But the sounds sent chills down his spine, forcing him to remember his original childhood years. Seemingly in the span of a blink, he found himself no longer in front of the door but underneath the bed sheets once again, as if the thin bedding would protect him.

He stood again and walked to the door, but as he stood before it he couldn’t move his arm to reach up and turn the doorknob. Chilled with fear yet burning with self-hatred, Severus ran to the back door instead, fleeing the house like a coward.

I’m nothing but a coward, he thought scornfully. I’ll never be more than a coward, like that rat, Pettigrew.

He stumbled to the edge of the lake, rocks digging into the soles of his feet. The outside air was cold, chilling his skin, but the tears trickling down his face felt too hot. Fog rose eerily off the lake, cloaking the dock and the treeline. Insects buzzed in a continuous humm around him. He slapped a mosquito off his arm and hugged his knees to his chest. He wallowed in his misery as the sun rose.

Almost two hours later, the sun had finally risen. By then, his ears, nose, and digits were cold and red and his exposed skin was marked with bug bites and scratches from itching. He slowly made his way back up to the house.

Inside, both Tobias and Eileen were acting as if nothing was wrong. Tobias sat on the couch, listening to the radio and drinking a beer. Severus saw his father and realised Tobias had been drinking last night as well, when the man was out on the porch. Eileen was flittering about nervously in the kitchen, making a simple breakfast of toast and sliced fruit. As she set a plate of food down in front of Severus, he saw the hand-shaped bruises on her wrist. Her fingers were shiny from the juices of the cut fruit, but from the elbow up to her sleeve the skin was specked with dried blood and scratch marks. Gone were the sundresses with short sleeves or noodle-thin straps; Eileen was dressed the same as she always did in co*keworth, with long sleeves and dark clothes that hid everything underneath.

Tobias stood up loudly, the sound prompting the other two people in the room to flinch in unison. He put on his boots and grabbed a six-pack of beer, then he left out the front door. Through the window, Severus saw him disappear into the woods in the direction of the overgrown hiking trail.

When he’d been gone for several minutes, Eileen exhaled audibly and abandoned her food preparations in the kitchen to retreat to the bedroom. The door closed, and Severus heard the click of the lock. He bit into his second slice of toast, not hungry but trying to fill some gaping void. The butter was unmelted and salty like tears.

Salt water, Severus thought, coming to a realization. Saltwater and dittany.

Making Essence of Dittany would likely prompt suspicion, as it was not a potion that Severus, as a child, should be knowledgeable of. However, it was a simple potion and shared similarities with the healing potion that Eileen had made with Severus before. Perhaps she would think it luck after trial and error.

Fortunately Severus, once the youngest Potions Master in Britain, had packed dried dittany in a jar in his luggage just in case. As if he would go anywhere without it. He put a pan on the stove and heated water, then mixed in cooking salt. While natural salt water would certainly work better, he didn’t have any on hand. The salt dissolved in the water, and Severus lowered the temperature of the stove burner while he fetched the dittany from his pack. He crushed the leaves in a bowl with a wooden stirring spoon. Once satisfied that the leaves had been crushed into small enough pieces, he scooped up salt water from the pot with a clean spoon and counted out fifteen drops.

Several minutes later, he had a bowl of successfully brewed Essence of Dittany. He daubed a handful of the potion on his arm and rubbed it in. The bug bites and the raised skin from itching disappeared. The smoke was less green than he would like, but with mediocre tools and ingredients there was little he could do. His overwhelming feeling of guilt easing ever so slightly, he knocked on the bedroom door and presented the bowl to Eileen.

She accepted the bowl silently, not replying to his words. However, used to her often strange behaviour, Severus thought nothing of it. She held it up to the light, eyeing the concoction with contemplation. As Severus grew restless, she dipped the fingers of her left hand in the bowl and smeared the potion on her opposite arm. The red, irritated scratches on her forearm disappeared, but the bruises lingered; Essence of Dittany was meant to treat minor open wounds, not bruises or other injuries hidden beneath the surface of the skin.

Nonetheless, the scratch marks were gone. Relief and trace amounts of joy filled Severus at this success. He may have been a coward last night, but he was able to help now. He looked up at Eileen, hoping the healing of her arm might have improved her mood as well. He froze. Her face looked thunderous.

“Mother?” Severus spoke nervously. “Is something wrong?”

She glared at the potion and then down at him. “There will be no more of this, do you hear me? I don’t want to see you making this again.”

Severus was frozen. He stared at her in astonishment and confusion. She didn’t want him to make potions again? He wanted to ask for clarification, but the words choked and died in his throat. He watched as she walked over to the kitchen and dumped the bowl in the sink, the precious healing potion pouring down the drain.

Eileen walked back over to where he stood in shock and addressed him once more. “Do you understand what you did wrong?”

Severus shook his head mutely. He didn’t understand.

He didn’t expect the slap that sent his head spinning, either. His cheek filled with red-hot pain and his face was now turned to the side from the force. Out of the corner of his eye, he looked up at Eileen.

“I don’t know what he sees in you,” she spat hatefully. “I don’t know why he treats you like he does, when he treats me like this. But listen to my words, boy, and I’ll tell you the truth: Tobias may treat you well now, but when he finds out what you can do”—she glanced back at the sink—”what you can make, he’ll beat you just like he beats me.”

She marched past him into the bedroom, slamming the door shut. Severus flinched into action, grabbing the potion-streaked bowl and running out the front door as a sob burst forth from his chest. He crashed through the underbrush behind the house, the bowl slippery with Essence of Dittany in his hands.

The sound of waves lapping against the shore reached his ears, and Severus found himself once again crying by the lake. Collapsing atop a large rock, he took a deep, sniffling breath. The remains of the potion smeared on his legs, and he looked down to see how much of the potion could be salvaged. Only a handful was left at the bottom, and more was escaping through a new crack in the side of the bowl. Balancing it in his lap, he dipped both hands in the bowl and rubbed the potion along his arms and legs to ease the irritation of the bumps and scratches. Lastly, he pressed a potion-covered hand to his face. The pain lessened, but didn’t disappear completely. It wasn’t a cut, just an injury to the tissue and blood vessels underneath. Eileen may have refused magical healing, but Severus wasn’t going to waste a potion that he’d made.

Catching his breath and allowing his mind to catch up with the events that had just taken place, Severus struggled to understand what he’d done to prompt this. His thoughts turned inward, combing through his Occlumency-preserved memories for answers but finding none. After an unknown period of time, he resituated to sit in a lotus position and began to meditate.

Once he’d settled into meditation, his magical core began to fluctuate. For several long breaths, he released his hold on his core and allowed his magic to settle in the air around his body. Things were awful in the cottage, and things would still be awful back in the house on Spinner’s End. However, here by the water, things were momentarily alright.

Something landed on his head. Severus opened his eyes, pulled from his meditative state and wondering if a leaf had gotten stuck in his air. Then, the thing on his head moved. He shot to his feet, flailing, hoping it wasn’t a large bug. A high-pitched chirping speech stopped him in his tracks. He turned his head slowly back to the rock and found it now inhabited by several twiggy, leaf-covered figures. The thing on his head hopped down onto his arm and waved with a squeak. He waved back weakly.

Bowtruckles. Severus concluded that he’d been sitting under their home tree. His magic must have caught their attention. He kneeled down in front of the rock, allowing his unexpected occupant to hop down from his limb and join his fellow bowtruckles on the rock. Once the bowtruckle had done so, Severus bowed and apologised. “I’m sorry for disturbing you and your home tree.”

The bowtruckles chittered amongst themselves before nodding their leafy heads in agreement and waving him over. Once he stood before them, they presented him with a twig. Awkwardly, he picked it up and thanked them, but paused at the sudden tentative pull on his magic. He gazed at the twig, an unassuming stick approximately thirty centimetres in length, and realised it had come from the bowtruckle’s home tree. Bowtruckle’s often picked trees suited for wands as their homes. Thus, this stick was of wand quality, and it was already showing its magic-conducting capabilities.

Severus thanked the bowtruckles profusely. They shooed him away and jumped one-by-one off the rock to the trunk of the tree. Left alone once again, Severus grasped the wandwood with great care and reverence.

Notes:

Announcement!:
There will NOT be an update next Saturday.
The next chapter will be Chapter Eighteen: The Hogwarts Letter. As a major point in the story and the transition between pre-Hogwarts years and Hogwarts years, this chapter will take a while. I am currently very busy with my personal life, and this is not a chapter I want to rush. So, to recap, no chapter update next Saturday but major chapter update the Saturday after.

Chapter 18: The Hogwarts Letter

Summary:

The long awaited Hogwarts letter!
Also: angst, fluff, and clothes.

Notes:

This chapter really got off track, and my love for thrifting took over. My apologies.
Keep an eye out for foreshadowing. Hint: I've got plans for Eileen.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Severus Snape's Hogwarts acceptance letter arrived on the ninth day of January on the boy's eleventh birthday. His name was written on the envelope in green ink, the letters curling in a neat cursive script. He opened it with great care and pulled out the folded parchment enclosed inside. The honey-brown owl that delivered the letter watched him from its perch on the windowsill.

“Dear Mr. Snape,” Severus read aloud. “We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment. Term begins on the first of September. We await your owl by no later than July thirty-first.”

He looked at the second page, which was the accompanying list of required textbooks and materials for the school year. The time-traveller was unsure how much the list changed in the years after he graduated from Hogwarts and returned to fill the open teaching position under the orders of Albus Dumbledore.

He spent only a few short minutes penning his reply. Unfortunately, this was a minute too long. As Severus signed his name, the front door opened and heavy boots stomped into the house. Severus hurriedly gave the scrap of paper to the owl. Tobias was home from work, and he’d seen everything.

“Is that a bloody owl?!”

Tobias snatched the Hogwarts letter off the table and skimmed through it. As his eyes flickered back and forth across the parchment, his face turned an alarming shade of puce. He turned to the owl, eyes squinted and teeth bared wildly. The bird abandoned its perch on the window, flying off with Severus’ response without even a bribe of food. Severus tried to back out of the room, but Tobias grabbed his arm tightly in one large hand.

“Eileen!” He shouted, “Get down here!”

A door on the second floor of the house could be heard creaking open. Timid footsteps descended the stairs and approached the kitchen. Eileen appeared in her nightgown, an unbuttoned sweater over top and clutched in her grasping hands.

“Tobias? Is something wrong?” Eileen didn’t look straight at her husband as she voiced her query, but was soon forced to face him as Tobias waved the mail before her nose.

“What is this?! Why is Severus getting mail delivered by—by birds of all things?!"

“It-It’s from Hogwarts.” She glanced over at Severus then, finally acknowledging his presence in the room. Her face expressed internal conflict, but Severus couldn’t start to guess what went on in her head.

Tobias used his increasingly painful grip on Severus' arm to shove him toward her. He stormed out of the room, spitting out, “it seems he’s one of your ilk.”

Eileen opened her mouth to speak. “Severus…”

The front door slammed hard enough to rattle the dishes on the table.

The room fell silent. With a heavy heart, Severus picked up the letter from where Tobias had thrown it and tucked it carefully back inside the envelope. His name on the front of the envelope seemed to blur before his eyes, tears gathering and threatening to fall. Severus struggled to take slow, calm breaths, feeling that the air itself had grown heavier.

“Severus,” Eileen said again. Dark circles lingered beneath her dull eyes, and her cheeks were gaunt.

“My Hogwarts letter is here,” he stated needlessly. He recalled her words and wondered if she’d gloat.

Instead, she hesitantly wrapped her thin arms around his diminutive shoulders in a hug. Severus stiffened, skin crawling in disgust and fear. “Oh, Severus, I know you'll be a great wizard.”

“Will we be able to afford everything, Mother?” Severus asked doubtfully, as if he didn't already know the answer. He stepped out of the unexpected and unwanted hug and moved over to the window, closing it as an excuse to leave the range of her arms.

“I don’t…” Eileen tugged on the sleeves of her sweater and sighed, “Come with me.”

She headed upstairs. Despite it being the last thing he wanted to do, Severus followed her. The witch led him into the large bedroom and over to the closet. Severus stifled an abrupt rush of fear, recognizing their positions as copies of when she’d sealed his magic and erased his memory of it. She kneeled on the floor and pulled her school trunk forward from the dark depths of the closet.

“I haven't practised magic for a really long time,” Eileen revealed after several minutes of tense silence. She unlatched the trunk but set aside the case that held her wand without opening it. She formed a pile of her first-year textbooks and compared the titles to the ones on Severus' list.

“You can use most of my old school books. However, we will need to buy a couple new ones from your list; I had different books in my year. For the uniform, do they still require a plain pointed hat, the dragon hide gloves, and the winter cloak?”

“Yes,” Severus confirmed, looking at his mother with a perplexed glance. Could she intend for Severus to wear her old robes? Eileen promptly confirmed his speculation.

“Will you try them on to see if they fit? There’s no variation in the Hogwarts robes for witches and wizards. No one would know they were mine if you wore them,” she proposed in a reluctant voice, as if expecting him to protest. Why would he protest? All his clothes were castoffs, so why would his school clothes be any different? At least these robes were expensive, quality fabric from when Eileen was young and still considered a scion of the Prince family.

Not hearing any rejections, she rummaged through the tangled fabric at the bottom of the trunk. “I only have some of my clothes from my time as a Hogwarts student, but I still have the winter cloak that I wore in my third year. I was still quite small back then, so it might fit you even if it will be slightly too large. You can grow into it.”

Eileen handed over the pile of scavenged clothes. Severus tried them on as she continued searching through her school trunk. Severus, remaining undeniably small in stature compared to other children his age, was able to wear all of Eileen's old clothes. A few items would have to be temporarily shrunken down or altered with tailoring charms until he had a growth spurt. Severus would wait until he lost his mother's attention to use magic to improve the garments.

A perfectionist of the highest degree, Severus’ hands itched to wave a wand and change the robes to his tastes. They were a bit too long, and some of the seams were stressed from rough use, but the material was overall in good condition. Although the robes were unisex, Eileen’s had been tailored to her form. Thus, they tightened slightly around his waist, but it was an easy fix with or without magic. Severus could feel his anticipation growing. These clothes were visibly made of valuable cloth and with fine craftsmanship, befitting of a rich pureblood witch or wizard. Wearing high quality clothing could help Severus start off his first year at Hogwarts with a good impression.

His excitement withered slightly as Eileen continued pulling a numerous assortment of garments out of her trunk for him to try on. It appeared that she’d begun to enjoy herself, insisting he try on this and that. How did so many clothes even fit in a trunk of that size? And surely she knew he wouldn’t need this many?

“Severus, try on this cloak. Oh, what a lovely shade of green.”

“Here, take these ties. You’ll have to practice tying them properly.”

“Put on this sweater vest. What a lovely shade of green it is!”

“Oh! My, a capelet. I remember when those were considered quite fashionable. I’m sure they still are, with how slowly wizard fashions change.”

Dressed in Eileen’s old clothing, he found himself making comparisons to how the arrival of his Hogwarts letter had gone the first time around. In the other timeline, Severus had excitedly run to show his mother the letter, and she had carefully broken the news to Tobias when Severus was out of the house. He hadn't been offered Eileen’s old school things. Rather, she had apparated them to Diagon Alley. While shopping at a second-hand store, Eileen had purchased him three sets of horrible robes.

A difference in clothing had the possibility to change many things.

The animosity between Severus Snape and the Marauders started on the Hogwarts Express. Their first meeting hadn't gone well, though Severus never thought he warranted the level of hatred the Marauders felt for him. While in the same compartment, Severus had immediately noticed the others' expensive robes and spoiled behaviour. Thus, he had become self-conscious and reacted defensively to their less-than-welcoming attitude. They had taken one look at him and called him a Dark wizard; to them, this meant evil and hideous. As anyone could expect, he took offence, insulting them back.

It had been a considerable mistake. Later on, Severus would question why he had not taken a more strategic, Slytherin approach when dealing with them. Black and Potter had tormented a lot of people, but apparently, no one fought back as aggressively or passionately as him. It made them consider him interesting. It also designated him as their favourite target for hexes, curses, and their so-called pranks. They had enjoyed humiliating him, and his resistance only made him a more amusing target.

Uninterested in a repeat of his previous life, Severus braced himself for another hour of being dressed up like a doll in his mother’s old clothes. He let out a long sigh as a black, pointed hat fell over his eyes. At least this saved money.

Notes:

Anouncement:
Next week's update will be on Sunday, not Saturday.
Saturday, I will be meeting with a potential beta reader. Exciting! Hopefully it goes well. If not, you will have to continue to suffer my bad grammar.
Remember to let me know if you see spelling errors, incorrect punctuation, etc. They're not going to fix themselves! :D

Chapter 19: Severus Snape’s Secondhand School Supplies

Summary:

The chapter title says it all. Basically a continuation of the last chapter plus some wand lore.

Notes:

Got all my wand lore information from the HP fandom wiki.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Once it appeared that the entirety of the trunk’s contents were on the floor, Eileen closed it and patted the top, where the Hogwarts’ crest was emblazoned on the lacquered wood. The aged piece of luggage was, surprisingly, a standard Hogwarts school trunk. Severus thought it strange, that as a member of a family as wealthy and notable as the Prince family, Eileen didn’t have a fancier trunk. The only personalization he could see were her initials prior to her marriage, E.P., inscribed on the left side of the trunk’s exterior just above the handle. It looked as good as new, though coated with a thick layer of dust, as if she’d barely used it.

Perhaps she hadn’t actually used it until she moved into Spinner’s End with Tobias. Severus could imagine his mother abandoning the standard issue trunk for a nicer one with the Prince crest or Coat of Arms when she attended Hogwarts, but later having to use the plain trunk to store her magical items when she lost favour and left for the Muggle world.

Severus was pulled from his thoughts as Eileen removed her wand from its case. He felt his body tense unconsciously, but forced himself to stay still as she visibly prepared to cast a spell. Eileen herself seemed bespelled by the wand, tentatively running the tips of her fingers along the wood grain. Finally, holding the wand in a firm grip, she gave it a swish.

The wand spat out a few weak sparks, which fizzled out quickly in the air. Eileen stared down at it sadly. “My wand is no longer very attuned to me, it seems.”

It seemed plenty attuned to you when you tried to Obliviate me, Severus thought bitterly.

Eileen said a few more words, but Severus didn’t hear her, too lost in thought. When he looked up, she was tapping the wand against the side of the trunk. The letters on the side changed, squirming in place like snakes until the initials read S.S. instead of E.P.

“It’s your trunk now,” Eileen told him, already folding clothes and placing them neatly inside. “For you to store your clothes and school supplies for Hogwarts. Everyone will have one for their luggage; we wouldn’t want you to stand out.”

Severus couldn’t agree more with that sentiment, no matter how strange it was to hear her say it. While he didn’t know Eileen’s motives, Severus was well aware that standing out at Hogwarts led to unwanted attention.

Eileen read over the letter again. “You’ll still need the supplies for potions—cauldrons, ingredients, and the like—as well as books and a telescope. I will have to go to Diagon Alley.”

Noticing her choice of wording, Severus questioned her promptly. “Will I not be coming with you?”

“No, Severus, you won’t. I don’t think you’re ready to go to Diagon Alley. I’ll go by myself.” She avoided eye contact with him as she spoke.

Not ready? What the bloody hell does that mean? Severus raged quietly. Outwardly he asked. “But what about my wand?”

Eileen hesitated. After a moment, during which Severus hardly dared to breathe, she set her wand inside its box and slid the box across the floor. His eyes widened in disbelief. She couldn’t possibly be implying…?!

“You can use my wand, Severus. It’s not uncommon in old, pureblood families to pass down wands. It’s not necessary to buy a new one right now. Wands are expensive, and I’m sure my wand will work just fine for you. You can get your own when you’re a bit older.”

There were many objections Severus wanted to make, but he couldn’t get the words out. To his horror, Eileen decided his lack of response was a cue to continue. She pushed the box with the wand a bit closer to him. “Go on, give it a wave. It’s an Ollivander wand, ten inches long, hazelwood with a dragon heartstring core.”

While the length and core were the same as Severus’ wand in his first life, Severus knew this did not indicate that the wand was a good match for him. Wands with dragon heartstring cores were particularly stubborn about changing allegiances. Bonding strongly with their first wielder, dragon heartstring wands would only accept another wielder if won off their original wielder. These cores were indicative of a quick learner with powerful magic and a tendency to turn to the Dark Arts.

Severus felt it was a sign from the very start of his introduction to the Wizarding world that he would become a Dark wizard. However, this time around the wand was not really his, and he wasn’t sure what that could be a sign of. The hazelwood was much lighter in colour than the previous dark wood of Severus’ future ebony wand. Wands crafted from hazel were prone to the influence of their wielder’s mental and emotional states. Severus wondered what it meant for Eileen’s mind that she struggled to even create sparks when using the hazelwood wand. Certainly nothing good.

Not wanting to see how she’d react if he hesitated further, Severus picked up the wand and waved it aimlessly. There were no sparks, but he hadn’t expected there to be. There’d been none when he’d first used it, so many months ago, without his mother’s knowledge. There wouldn’t be any now, because the wand’s allegiance was still tied to Eileen. Overall, it was a temperamental wand that would not readily accept Severus, not that he desired it to. He could feel the disharmony between the wand and his own magic and was well aware of how short the wand fell in comparison to the one he would have if he went to Ollivander’s himself.

Unhappy with Eileen’s decision but unwilling to argue, Severus didn’t protest when she packed the wand back up and placed it on top of the pile of robes in the trunk. The trunk closed and latched with an audible finality. On the floor beside it was a short stack of miscellaneous books on magic. Thankfully, Eileen hadn’t noticed the missing books currently hidden beneath his bedroom floorboards. Hoping she wouldn’t miss a couple more, Severus watched with a close eye as she stashed the books on the top shelf of the closet. He’d come back for them.

Eileen carried the trunk to the doorway of Severus’ bedroom, struggling to lift its inconsiderable weight. Although it was difficult to watch, he didn’t offer to help.

“Don’t open the trunk or take anything out. And keep it somewhere out of sight until you leave for Hogwarts; we don’t want your father seeing it.”
Severus nodded, fully planning to disregard her instructions.

Notes:

As always, please let me know of any spelling or grammar errors. The meeting with the person who offered to beta did not go well, and was quite disheartening, so you are all stuck with unrevised writing.
Next chapter should be posted on the regular Saturday schedule.
Please leave a kudos if you like the story, I could use some positive feedback after yesterday :(

Chapter 20: The Diary

Summary:

Severus makes discoveries by invading Eileen's privacy.

Notes:

Short chapter due to my busy schedule, but I am slowly building toward future plot.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

After announcing her plans to travel to Diagon Alley on Friday, Eileen went downstairs. Severus waited until he could hear her puttering around on the back porch to begin rummaging through the trunk. A weak Tergeo cleaned the trunk and its contents of dust. He stacked the books to the side, casting a few wandless Reparo for crumpled pages and tattered covers. He neatly refolding the clothes once any frayed fabric and stitching had been mended.

Severus removed any crests he found on the items, aware that any apparent sign of claiming the Prince name or lineage would have detrimental results. Unless he or Eileen were formally recognized by the Prince patriarch, Eileen’s father and Severus’ grandfather, he couldn’t legally claim the Prince name in any way, shape, or form. The crest, one such form, could not be seen on him when he went to Hogwarts.

Lastly, he took out the wand box and set it aside. Severus could never have predicted that he wouldn’t have his original wand, the wand that was his and which chose him. Its absence was a figurative ache. Although Severus was capable of some wandless magic, a wizard without a wand was an unimaginable concept. Without a wand, a witch or wizard was weakened, unarmed, and vulnerable.

Too often, Severus had been vulnerable, and he had long suffered for it. He loathed the feeling, that of vulnerability, with his entire being. He would not—no, he refused—to experience such vulnerability again. Severus would not be weak or unarmed; in this life he would be strong and never bow to others.

Brows furrowed and resolve heavy in his chest, he inspected the bottom of the trunk. Although seemingly a bare-bones school trunk, Severus did not believe that any pureblood heiress would abstain from customizing their trunk in some way. He felt the interior corners with his fingertips and prodded it with his magic. Under his scrutiny, the trunk’s secret revealed itself. He pressed down on the far-right corner until he heard a soft click as something gave way. The bottom of the trunk popped out of place, revealing itself to be fake. Underneath, at the true bottom of the trunk, was a small drawstring bag, a notebook, and a small ink pot.

The little bag contained a handful of galleons, merely pocket change to a witch or wizard of wealth. The notebook, however, gave him pause. The leather cover was well-made but scuffed from constant use. A protection charm had been cast on the notebook, but he opened it without issue after some hesitation. He opened to a page a third of the way in and skimmed a few lines, eyes widening in shock.

—the weather was frigid and windy this morning. I went up to the owlery before breakfast to send the letter, and a gust of wind almost tore the envelope out of my hands. I ran into Crockett on the way back to the common room, and he hounded me about Quidditch again. I swear I’ll hex him next time! I’ve no interest in playing on the team, and he is well aware!

I’m quite occupied with the school Gobstones team; the team is doing well this year. I’m sure the recent leap in improvement can be attributed to myself. Merlin knows Quince can’t play worth a knut. I invited Riddle to join, as I’m sure he’d be skilled at Gobstones, but he turned down the offer in a most polite manner. He always is so polite; it is truly a shame that his blood isn’t pure. The family disapproves of how often I mention him in my letters. Oh, but how could I not? Tom is so charming. His hair looks very nicely coiffed this morning.

I hope I look alright; Quince made an especially mean remark about my complexion at yesterday’s meeting, and Black made fun of my eyebrows just last weekend. How cruel! I can’t wait to see how she’ll react when she finds that I’ve spelled all her textbooks to spew ink when opened. I hope her new robes will be ruined. Oh, how she’ll scream in horror!

—

Severus felt the desire to scream in horror, as well. The notebook was actually a diary! Eileen’s diary! And his mother had once been a scornful, narcissistic, boy-obsessed young witch! Severus could barely believe it. Perhaps his eyes would catch on fire from reading the ludicrous contents of these pages. One detail, a name, stuck out to him as especially horrible: Tom Riddle.

His mother had known Tom Riddle. She had attended Hogwarts with the future Dark Lord. And, even worse, she’d found him attractive! Severus would never be able to erase the comments of “polite” and “charming” and “nicely coiffed hair” from his brain. Never before had he so strongly wished to be able to Obliviate himself.

Severus struggled to configure what he previously thought he knew with what he’d just read. Firstly, his mother had been infatuated with a school-age Voldemort. Secondly, and most importantly, Voldemort was not a pureblood wizard. What other shocking discoveries did Eileen’s diary hold? How much could Severus learn from this blatant invasion of privacy?

Severus would simply have to read more to find out.

Notes:

If evil, manipulative little child Voldemort had a diary, why wouldn't young Eileen Prince?

Chapter 21: Diagon Alley (pt. 1)

Summary:

Severus accompanies Eileen to Diagon Alley (without her knowing). Another look into Eileen's diary.

Notes:

Short and rushed chapter today, so look out for mistakes and spelling errors. I probably won't include many more excerpts from Eileen's diary until it is plot relevant, but there was a lot of buzz about it in the comments, so here is another sneak peak at the mind of a hormonal teenage witch.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Eileen left the house for Diagon Alley at exactly 10:08 a.m. Severus knew this because he’d been standing at the top of the stairs, watching, when she’d left. He’d been watching her closely all morning, aware that she’d be going to the Leaky Cauldron sometime before Tobias got home from work at half past 5:00 p.m.

He rubbed his eyes, which were red and painful from reading Eileen’s diary until the early hours of the morning, and repositioned the strap of his bag over his shoulder. Before Eileen could disappear out of sight of the window, Severus slipped out the back door to follow her. He followed her for several blocks, keeping his distance to avoid detection.

His feelings toward Eileen had become conflicted since reading the diary. While he’d found little information of interest in her writings, gaining access to her private childhood thoughts and musings had not left him unaffected. He’d concluded that she’d been a very dull girl, focused on little but boys, gossip, and school clubs. Severus had grimaced at discovering she’d been a proud member of the Slug Club.

—Professor Slughorn invited me to join his illustrious club. He said he admired my ambition, and that it would take me far in life. There is to be a splendid dinner party hosted by the Slug Club tomorrow, out-of-hours, for being social and forging connections. Professor Slughorn said that several well-known potioneers, his past students, in fact, would be in attendance. I’m sure it will be a grand and productive event. I can’t wait to see the look on Black’s face when she finds out I was invited and she wasn’t—

—My new dress robes for the upcoming Slug Club Yule party have finally arrived by owl. Hopefully my evergreen Yule wreath will be delivered soon, I couldn’t possibly celebrate the holiday properly without it. And I wouldn’t want Professor Slughorn to think I don’t take his club events seriously, then he might not show me the trick to making a perfect Felix Felicis potion—

—I sat next to Tom today during our regularly scheduled Slug Club meeting. I think he wore a new scarf from the last trip to Hogsmeade. I went to Hogsmeade as well, on Saturday. Nott asked me on a date at Madam Puddifoot's, but he never showed up! I sat there in the tea shop all by myself, while everyone else in the establishment was sitting with someone. Oh, how embarrassing! I hope no one finds out. If that awful boy dares to tell anyone that he stood me up, I’ll curse him into next week!—

At the time, Severus had simply wanted to escape his mother’s romantic recollections, so he’d quickly flipped through the next several pages. As he did so, a photograph fell out of the diary’s pages. The photograph showed Slughorn seated in a large armchair, surrounded by the student members of the Slug Club. The photo was colourless, only black and white, but Severus could easily pick out the Slytherin students from the rest. Their calculated smiles and the snakes pinned on their lapels gave them away. Among them stood his mother. Eileen had her hand on the back of Slughorn’s chair, and she had a large smile on her face.

As Severus stood at a street corner, watching Eileen wait at the bus stop to go to Charing Cross Road in London's West End, he struggled to find the smiling face of that girl in Eileen’s stern, sallow expression. He soon gave up. Instead, he then pondered how to board the bus without Eileen seeing him.

“Uh, I could hex myself right now!” Severus groaned quietly. He could have just apparated to the Leaky Cauldron and waited for Eileen there! He rubbed his temples and sighed loud enough for a passerby to glance over judgingly. Severus turned around to walk the other way, searching for a hidden place to apparate from. He disappeared with a muffled sound from behind a large, flowering bush.

Severus reappeared at the end of Charing Cross Road. The sign for the Leaky Cauldron was just ahead, hanging slightly crooked off the old, dilapidated building. The inside looked no better, and Severus soon found himself waiting impatiently at a sticky table, slowly sipping a butterbeer. He glowered at the overly sweet, caramel-colored drink. If only he looked old enough for the barman and innkeeper to consider giving him a firewhiskey.

Many minutes later, after many witches and wizards had been in and out of the questionable establishment, Eileen finally walked through the door. Ignoring a cheery greeting from the ageing man behind the bar, she headed for the back exit. Severus stood up to follow.

Notes:

Announcement! Please read!
There will be a 7-day delay before I post the next chapter due to a lot of chaos and upheaval in my personal life. So no update next Saturday, but the Saturday after next keep an eye out for Chapter 22: Diagon Alley (pt. 2).

Chapter 22: Diagon Alley (pt. 2)

Summary:

Angst and feels... and finally, a wand!

Notes:

Warnings for sad Severus Snape and Eileen being a Karen.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

“That will be twenty-one galleons.”

“Twenty-one galleons?!” Eileen exclaimed. The other witches and wizards perusing the shelves of the dimly-lit shop looked over at the sound of her raised voice. “For subpar potion ingredients?”

Severus watched, completely aghast, from behind a row of jars as his mother made a scene at the register of The Apothecary. The clerk, reasonably insulted by her insinuation that the goods sold by his establishment were anything other than the freshest and finest of ingredients, raised his voice as well. The transaction devolved into criticisms and name-calling as the other shoppers watched discreetly. His face hidden by the hood of his dark cloak, Severus took his leave.

Arguing with the clerks and shopkeepers of Diagon Alley appeared to be a common pastime of Eileen’s shopping trip. Severus was quite done with it—and becoming hungry to boot—so he’d find a place to eat before the jars of potion ingredients began to look appetising. He could catch up with Eileen later. She would have to stop at Flourish and Blotts for the rest of his required school books; Severus would catch up with her there.

A few minutes later, Severus happily found himself seated at a table with a sandwich. He’d spent a handful of knuts he hadn’t planned on spending. However, after so long surviving off of Eileen’s cooking, the sight of fresh sandwiches and tea was too good to pass up. His stomach soon settled after a bite full of aromatic bread, seasoned meat, and crispy lettuce. Severus washed it down with a sip of perfectly steeped tea. He’d have to come back here to eat again.

A pair of loud children ran by to peer into the large front window of Quality Quidditch Supplies. Severus huffed in annoyance. Noisy brats, he thought, of course they’d disturb my peaceful lunch. He angrily bit into the eatery’s complimentary pastry as the children’s parents scolded them.

As if to ruin the calm street setting further, a baby started crying shrilly at a nearby table. Severus set down his teacup with more force than necessary and whipped around to see a pair of redheads trying and failing to quiet a red-haired and red-faced baby. Severus’ eyes widened.

Scouring his memory, Severus concluded that the couple were the recently wedded Arthur Weasley and Molly Weasley née Prewett. The baby could only be their first son of many, William “Bill” Weasley. Bill had been the first and least irritating of the Weasley children Severus had taught at Hogwarts. His appreciation for the attentive student the boy would become in a decade did not endear the squalling baby to him in the least. Deciding that his meal had been fully interrupted, Severus finished eating quickly and stood to leave.

With his bag full of affordable school supplies that Severus knew his mother would fail to buy, he headed to Ollivanders. He saw Eileen at Flourish and Blotts on his way there. The wand shop appeared empty of other young customers, so Severus walked inside.

Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C., he read in passing.

A bell jingled as he walked in. Ollivander stepped down from his rolling ladder and gazed down at Severus curiously. “And who might you be, young man?”

“Severus Snape.”

“Hmm,” Ollivander shuffled some boxes around. “Snape? I’m not familiar.”

“I’m here to buy a wand,” Severus answered briskly.

“Of course, of course,” the man mumbled, stacking and unstacking the boxes. Severus stood there awkwardly, in the dark and dusty room, for at least five minutes as Ollivander ignored him.

Just give me my ebony and dragon heartstring wand and stop wasting my time, you senile old man!

Finally, Ollivander handed over a wand. Severus recognized it instantly; he’d wielded it for years, after all. It was made of ebony wood, sanded smooth and stained as black as his hair. The core was a dragon heartstring, and it was ten inches long and rigid. The wand was slim, the length of it smooth except for the handle, which was finely carved with contours and symbols that held no meaning Severus was aware of.

Ollivander sold him the wand without a word, and Severus left the store, eager to escape into the fresh air. But Severus could tell something was wrong. The wand didn’t feel right, and it wasn’t just because of the Trace. Ducking into Knockturn Alley to avoid Eileen on her way back to the Leaky Cauldron, Severus leaned back against a grimy wall and stared down at the wand despairingly.

This was his wand, so how could it be that it didn’t feel like his anymore? When he flicked it, the sparks that shot into the air were weak and fizzled out quickly. Severus stood and stared. He was no longer the same wizard he’d been the first time around, and this proved it. The wand could see the truth of him before even Severus himself. He’d changed too much for his original wand to still accept him.

A tear dropped onto the glossy wood.

Notes:

Sorry for any errors, I wrote this in a bit of a rush. I wanted to write a lot more but had to stop myself for the sake of plot pacing. Just two more chapters until the Hogwarts express!

Chapter 23: Wandwood

Summary:

Severus solves his wand problem... or does he?

Notes:

Warnings for abusive relationships and for a misogynistic slur spoken in this chapter.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Wiping tears from his face, Severus felt a tug on his shoulder. Something had yanked the strap of his bag. Severus spun around. A haggish woman in dark robes was fleeing down Knockturn Alley, the drawstring pouch of wizarding currency from Severus’ bag clenched in her gnarled hands. A thief!

“Bloody hell!” Severus exclaimed under his breath, taking off after her.

He ran, slipping between suspicious characters in hooded cloaks and navigating past questionable business deals being made in whispered voices. Armed with only the badly-matched wand, he forced his magic through it for an Incarcerous. A rope wrapped around the witch as the wand made a horrible noise, like the screeching squeal of rusted hinges being forced open. Snatching back his coin pouch, he looked down at the witch and sneered imperiously.

The signs of some of the wickedest of magic were clear on her twisted features. Along with her putrid aura, her teeth had become sharp and misshapen, and her pupils had become yellowed and deformed. The hag squinted and hissed in the sunlight as though it burned. The dark robe and dark grey underrobes she wore were ragged and filthy. They were tied around the waist with an equally filthy piece of cloth, off of which hung the hag’s own coin pouch and a string of what appeared to be human teeth.

Cringing at the teeth, Severus vengefully took the hag’s coin pouch for himself before walking away. The Aurors wouldn’t bother coming down Knockturn Alley unless the ministry had ordered a raid, so the hag wouldn’t be arrested for her actions. His Incarcerous spell would fade once he’d walked far enough away.

Moments later, Severus found himself once again wandering amongst the crowds of shoppers in Diagon Alley. He sat down on a bench and took stock. He’d almost been robbed, but instead he had become the robber. Now he had two drawstring bags of wizarding coins, but a broken wand. The forced spell had shattered the wood, causing the ear-splitting noise Severus heard earlier. He groaned, rubbing his eyes and leaning back against the wooden seat.

Eileen would be getting off the bus to return to Spinner’s End any minute. He’d have to exit the Alley to apparate to the house, but then he still wouldn’t have a working wand. The Leaky Cauldron was further up the Alley, past a large crowd of new and returning Hogwarts students and their parents. He shoved the money and the broken wand in his bag and stood with an exhausted sigh.

Severus had beat Eileen to the house by mere minutes. He hid his bag under the bed and laid down under the covers. As he closed his eyes, Eileen unlocked the front door. She took off her shoes and cloak and immediately ascended the staircase. On her way to her bedroom, she peered into Severus’ room. Finding him asleep, she continued on her way.

Releasing a breath as the door of the other bedroom clicked shut, Severus sat up and quickly went to shut the door. He waited silently to see if Eileen had heard, but the door down the hall did not open. Satisfied, Severus then dumped out his bag on the floor. The wand rolled out, its sorry state seemingly worsening the longer Severus looked at it. The wood had splintered, breaking in half, and the tip of the wand had fallen off completely. The two main halves were barely held together by the dragon heartstring. Being from a creature so large, the heartstring was quite long, stretching almost the entire length of the wand’s ten inches. It let off sparks and a cloud of multi-coloured gas with a sulfuric smell.

“Reparo,” Severus tried weakly. The wand remained broken. He hadn’t really thought it would work, but he still felt he had to try.

He moved to put the scraps bag inside the bag, unsure what else to do with the completely unusable wand. However, there was still something inside the bag, caught on one of the inside pockets. It was the twig from the bowtruckle home tree. Wandwood.

The stick of unknown wood was unquestionably wand quality. Overall unassuming to the naked eye, it was around twelve inches long and covered in bark. Peeling some of the bark off the stick with his fingernail, Severus could see the wood itself was not uniform in colour. He peeled off more bark, letting it crumble onto the floor, to get a better look at the wood grain. A majority of the wood was darker than that of Eileen’s hazelwood wand but lighter than that of Severus’ original ebony wand. However, there were uneven places in the wood grain where the wood darkened several shades in colour, almost appearing to have a bluish tinge.

Severus pulled the dragon heartstring free of the first wand’s wreckage with the utmost care. Thankfully, it looked to be undamaged. He laid the wandwood and the wand core side by side.

Then, he stopped. Severus was a potioneer, not a wand maker; he knew next to nothing about wand lore and knew even less about the wand-making process. He could do nothing more going forth until he learned how to make a wand. This would not be an easy task. No wandmaker of any real skill would be willing to share the knowledge of their craft, especially not with a precocious eleven-year-old boy. Books regarding wand-making would be close to impossible to find for the same reason. And, due to the secretive manner of the craft, wand-making was taught directly from the master to their apprentice through example and oral instruction.

Severus could only think of a few places which held even a slight possibility of containing a book on wandcraft. Two of which he could not travel to. His only option would be to go to Borgin and Burkes.

“Eileen, there’s no more beer! Didn’t you buy any groceries?” Tobias stomped over to the table.

Hands shaking as she ladled soup into a bowl, Eileen splashed the hot liquid onto the table cloth and then clumsily rushed to dry it with a dishcloth. “I was out today. I can get groceries tomorrow.”

“What do you mean you were out? Out doing what? Spending my money at the department stores?” He pulled the chair out roughly, causing the legs of the chair to loudly drag across the floor.

“N-no, Tobias! I was just out; I didn’t spend anything.” She busied herself with the silverware.

Severus came over to the table quietly, hoping he would go unnoticed. He did not.

“Boy,” Tobias addressed him, “where were you all day?”

“In my room.”

“Laying around all day, were you? While I was working at the mill?” Tobias huffed and ate a spoonful of soup. “When are you heading off to school?”

“The first day of September,” Eileen answered before Severus could speak.

Tobias kept his attention on Severus, ignoring that Eileen had spoken. “You’ll not be lying around the house for months. Once school is out, you’ll need to find something to get you out of the house!”

“He can’t get a job, yet,” Eileen cut in again. “He’s only eleven.”

Angered by her response, Tobias slammed the last beer bottle agains the top of the table and exclaimed, “you might have been a spoiled slag growing up but I’ll not have my son learning to be a layabout!”

Eyeing that Severus had finished his soup, Tobias motioned violently up the stairs and said, “off to bed with you!”

Worried and confused, Severus hurriedly headed up the stairs without complaint and closed himself in his room.

Notes:

Please Read! Sorry for the late update, everyone. Unfortunately, with everything going on right now (two jobs, trying to take care of a mentally unwell relative, and possibly losing my apartment) I will be unable to keep up my current posting schedule of every Saturday. I will be permanently changing my posting schedule to every other Saturday starting from today, and I will make sure to update the note at the end of the fic by tomorrow to reflect this change.

Chapter 24: Work

Summary:

Severus gets a job. Also, feels.

Notes:

Warnings for past trauma.
Please read end note for poll!

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

After Severus told Tobias he'd gotten a job—

After Severus got a job—

After days of convincing the owner of the local animal shelter to let an eleven-year-old walk the dogs and clean the cages and kennels for £5 payed under the table—

After a week and a half spent struggling to find employment when he was legally too young to work—

After all of that, Tobias huffed and said, “good,” before continuing to ignore Severus’ existence. Although tired and exasperated, Severus decided to keep his mouth shut and consider it a win. He'd now be getting an income, however pitiful an amount, and would be able to spend time with animals while also having a reason to be out of the house. In addition, the job itself could not have been more perfect, considering he had the Prince ability of animalia attractios. The animals loved him, and the owner of the shelter was slowly warming up to him.

Mr. Jones was a strict man with a soft spot for four-legged animals and precocious, visibly malnourished children like Severus Snape. Mr. Jones had a son who never visited and who refused to inherit the shelter when Mr. Jones got older and retired, so Severus found himself constantly compared to a young man who he had never met. However, the snacks Mr. Jones always left for him on the front desk were nice and the animal shelter was an ideal work environment.

Eileen had been unhappy to find out that Severus got a job, but with her inability to go against Tobias, she'd done little to verbally express her anger. For days she had constantly frowned and puttered about the house. She hadn't gone on any more trips to Diagon Alley. The same could not be said for Severus. He'd made several more trips to the Alleys and found a couple old books on wand-making in Borgin and Burkes and another unreputable shop.

Wandlore for the Curious Witch and Wizard was a slim book that explained the various different woods and cores used in wands. On Wandcraft was an old collection of hand-written wand-making instructions and advice compiled in a tattered leather cover. The authors of both books were unknown, since Wandlore for the Curious Witch and Wizard provided none and On Wandcraft was the work of several individuals with faded, illegible signatures.

Severus spent his afternoons at the shelter and his evenings reading in his room. Despite his rapidly increasing knowledge of wands and how to make them, he felt no closer to being able to craft a wand of his own. However, he still had plenty of time before he left for Hogwarts. And, until he crafted his own, Severus still had his mother's wand.

“Don’t walk Horatio today,” Mr. Jones instructed sternly. “He’s getting his shots later. The vet is coming by around 1:30, so he needs to be in his kennel when she arrives.”

“Alright,” Severus said, leashing a small beagle-mix. “I’ll walk Misty instead.”

“Careful,” Mr. Jones warned, pouring kibble into a row of bowls. “Misty pulls.”

“I know.”

Mr. Jones patted his shoulder gruffly. “There’s a sandwich in the fridge if you feel hungry after your walk.”

“Thanks,” Severus said. The word felt forced, with Severus so unused to stray kindness, but the man just smiled.

Misty did pull at the leash at the start of the walk, but once Severus relaxed his hold on the Prince's ancestral magic she trotted patiently by his side. The ability was exceedingly useful, but Severus tried not to overuse it. The animal’s visible adoration of the child had yet to draw suspicion, but even Mr. Jones, being an oblivious Muggle, had stated that Severus had a way with animals.

Across the street from the animal shelter on the way back from the walk, Severus pulled Misty to a stop. She whined in confusion, but sat down without a fuss. Severus leaned behind a tree, hopefully out of sight of the family leaving the building.

Petunia stood out front, holding her father’s hand. As Severus watched, Lily came through the shelter door, a small grey kitten in her arms. Her mother walked out behind her, waving back inside at Mr. Jones. Red braids blowing in the wind, Lily followed her father down the sidewalk. Once outside, Mrs. Evans handed Petunia a second kitten, its fur a lighter grey than the first.

Severus waited until they were further down the sidewalk to cross the street himself. Lily’s birthday, January 30th, was only twenty-one days after his. She would have received her Hogwarts letter, likely accompanied by one of the Hogwarts staff to introduce the Evans family to magic, just a few days ago. Perhaps the kitten would become her familiar, or would just accompany her to Hogwarts as a pet.

Severus faintly remembered his first and only familiar, a runty short-eared owl that Eileen had bought from Eeylops Owl Emporium for half the usual price due to its poor health. It was the first and only pet Severus had owned in his first life, and it hadn’t lived very long.

Before he’d established himself in Slytherin House, his housemates bullied him just as badly as the Gryffindors. Although they displayed house unity outside the common room, inside it was a different matter. In one episode of bullying, after Severus had fought back against one of his pureblood attackers, the older boy got back at him by having his owl attack Severus’ owl. Severus’ owl, small and weak as it was, hadn’t lasted even a few minutes against the large, well-bred owl the other Slytherin student owned.

Severus could still picture the boy laughing as the large, intimidating bird perched upon his arm, its beak stained with blood. Severus had clutched his owl to his chest, crying. He’d written home about it, but Eileen offered no comfort, and Severus never had another pet. He used the school owls for the rest of his time as a student and for his years as a professor.

As he walked past cages of felines to return Misty to her kennel, he couldn’t help but picture Valeriana in the place of his old owl. The image of her body, lying still and bloody, butchered by some laughing pureblood student’s overpriced pet, lingered in his mind. He swore he wouldn’t let it happen; he’d keep her safe.

That afternoon, he returned home and immediately went upstairs to find Valeriana asleep on his bed. She voiced a startled mrrp as Severus woke her from her nap to hug her to his chest. He struggled with the weight, his arms stick-thin and the cat seemingly growing heavier by the day, but he persisted until he could lay back against the pillows. Once he settled, Valeriana curled up on his lap with a contented purr.

Notes:

Another Sunday update instead of Saturday... whoops!
Important poll! I want your feedback for the next chapter, so here's a question. Please leave your responses in the comments.
POLL: Should Severus have long or short hair for Hogwarts?

Chapter 25: Fruitcake

Summary:

A fruitcake recipe leads to a violent fight between Eileen and Tobias. Warnings for spousal abuse and childhood trauma.

Notes:

The results of the poll are in! Long hair won by a landslide, so Severus will have long hair. Canonically, Severus Snape's hair has always been down to around his neck. By long, I plan for his hair to be somewhere below the shoulder blades but above hip-length. This will not be out of place in the Wizarding World, as having long hair is also a trait of several other wizards, including pure-blood wizards like Lucius Malfoy and other characters, including Dumbledore himself. How Severus will come to have long hair will be revealed next chapter.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

“The butter is two shillings, dear,” the store clerk said.

“How much for sugar?” Severus asked, dreading the answer.

“One shilling and sixpence for 2 pounds of sugar.” The woman rang it up on the register and offered him a paper bag for the items. He thanked her and handed over the right amount of coins.

“Running errands for your mother, are you?” she asked. Sure of his response, she told him he was being a good son by doing so.

Unwilling to participate in more social interaction than necessary, he offered her a shy smile and didn’t disagree with her assumption. Severus certainly wasn’t running errands for Eileen. What would she do with flour, butter, and sugar anyway? No, Severus bought the ingredients for himself.

Yesterday he’d met with the Muggle lady he’d befriended in the park. After an hour or two of meditation by the river—a fetid, dirty stream of water which ran through co*keworth’s factory district and was too polluted to swim in—she had rolled up her mat and taken a wrapped bundle out of her purse. It was a little cake, and it was delicious. She’d sent him on his way with the recipe.

Severus had thought, how hard could it be to bake? Surely it’s a bit like potions, with all the ingredients and measurements?

He’d been very wrong. That night, his first attempt had come out of the oven a burnt, acrid brick that held little resemblance to the colourful loaf of fruitcake he’d eaten before. It was inedible, and unfortunately, he’d used up all the ingredients previously in the kitchen cupboards in the attempt. Even worse, the smell had summoned Eileen from her lair. She had not left her bedroom in days, door locked with the lights off, and Tobias had been sleeping on the couch. Why, Severus did not know, but he knew the stench of alcohol in the house had never been stronger.

The only upside to the situation was that the smell would disguise Severus’ actions if made a successful fruitcake and opted to soak it in spirits instead of icing it. Whether the cupboards held any liquor that was up to Severus’ standards was questionable, so he wouldn’t plan on it, but he would keep it in mind for future attempts.

The burnt and smoking first attempt brought Eileen thundering the stairs. “What is that smell?!” Eileen yelled angrily. “You had better not be burning down the house!”

Severus had already opened the windows to let the smell out, letting in the cool evening air. He watched impassively as she rampaged through the kitchen with an uneven, drunken gait. As she knocked the last of the flour onto the floor, the front door opened.

Tobias, tired and slumped from work, was quick to rise up in anger. Severus slipped out of sight as they yelled and watched in horror as the loaf pan, alongside several other cooking utensils, went flying with a swipe of Eileen’s arm. He managed to covertly summon the pan before it could clatter loudly against the floor. He tried to drown out the screaming by repeating the recipe ingredients over and over in his mind—flour, baking powder, cinnamon, butter, brown sugar, orange juice, dried cranberries, chopped dates, chopped nuts, candied cherries—but the mantra did little to help.

After the shouting match reached a crescendo, Tobias turned his back on Eileen to go upstairs. “I’m sick and tired of you, woman! You do nothing all day but drink! I work all day and come home to this! I’m sick of you, you minger!”

“Don’t you call me names, Tobias! You think I drink too much? You love the bottle more than you’ve ever loved me! How dare you speak to me, your wife, in such a way!” Eileen’s hair was long and matted. Her face and clothes were unwashed. She looked wild as she whirled around the table to scream at her husband.

Tobias’ face hardened. “My wife, are you? You’re a witch, not a wife. I should’ve never given you a ring; marrying you has made me miserable.”

Eileen lunged at him with a cry. Severus flinched back behind the wall. His eyes shut tight, he heard the smack of a fist against flesh and a wailing scream. Footsteps started towards him as Tobias left the kitchen. Severus ducked behind the bannister, hoping the lack of light would hide him.

He held his breath as Tobias thundered up the stairs, muttering loudly. “That bitch of a woman… absolute nutter…”

Nutty as a fruitcake, Severus thought to himself, clutching the baking tin even as it burnt his fingers. He choked down a pained laugh as another round of clanging came from the kitchen.

“A witch. A witch,” Eileen chanted. “A witch, a witch, a witch.”

Notes:

Sorry for any money mistakes, I am not familiar with British currency.

Chapter 26: The Cuckoo’s Cry

Summary:

Eileen gives Severus a suspicious potion.

Notes:

Warnings for Eileen's mental health.
Word of advice, don't drink unknown things given to you by people you don't trust.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

“A witch, a witch, a witch, a witch…”

The sound of Eileen’s muttering came through the walls. Severus winced at the repetition, having heard it on and off for the past several days.

Some part of Eileen seemed to have become irreparably broken. Despite her current mental state, she was still an adult witch, so Severus didn’t dare attempt Legilimency to investigate into her mind. Severus didn’t know what to do, and Tobias had gone out binge drinking two nights ago and not returned. He might have spent the nights at the bar with friends, or perhaps the man was passed out somewhere on the streets of co*keworth. Hopefully the man hadn’t gotten himself locked up in jail for any drunken misdemeanours.

“A witch. A witch… I’m a witch!” Hoarse laughter carried up the stairs.

As he closed himself in the bathroom, Severus recalled what he’d read in Wandlore for the Curious Witch and Wizard:

Wands draw upon a witch or wizard's magic from their magical core, eventually forming a sort of semi-bond with the core after years of use. Loss of one’s wand is often associated with loss of one’s magic, especially for adults whose cores have matured and settled. For an adult witch or wizard after their magical maturity, the abrupt and complete cessation of wand use can lead to withdrawal symptoms. Loss of magic and worsening health are often seen in adults who stop using their wands without allowing their cores to acclimate to wandless use over time.

Witches and wizards who stop using their magic entirely may experience physical ailments, mental illness, and damage to their magical cores. After abrupt disuse of a wand or magical core for a long period of time, the semi-bond between core and wand withers, and a witch or wizard may no longer be able to connect with their old wand.

His recollection was interrupted by Eileen knocking on the door. She didn’t wait for him to answer, instead letting herself in. A large smile was plastered crookedly across her face, baring her yellowing, stained teeth. She clasped in her bony fingers a small, rectangular box, which she set down on the counter next to the sink.

“Mother…?” Severus inquired warily.

“Oh, Severus, I’ve been thinking recently—”

She cut herself off and puttered around the bathroom. Finally, she slowly opened the top of the box to reveal two neat rows of potion vials. “I—I’ve been thinking, since I took up potion brewing again, and I’ve made a gift for you.”

“Something for me?” Severus swallowed, feeling dread sit heavy in the back of his throat. Eileen ran the tip of one finger over the rows of vials, her fingernail jagged and untrimmed. She stopped on the third vial in the second row. With barely concealed excitement, she pulled out a glass vial of a murky, virescent potion. Many potions were of similar colour, a few being poisonous and others relatively harmless. Although unlikely that his mother plotted to poison him, Severus remained naturally cautious.

The liquid’s cloudiness could be attributed to Bubotuber pus being one of the ingredients, while its colouring could have occurred from knotgrass or fairy wings. Severus mentally calculated their effects, finding that at worst he could end up with boils. This thought did little to settle his nerves. Eileen uncorked the vial and handed it over to him. Severus' nose wrinkled at the strong odour of ginger root.

“Go on, Severus,” Eileen said, her eyes dark and unreadable. “Drink it.”

Against his better judgement and the voice in his mind screaming at him not to do it, Severus obeyed. The concoction tasted foul. His scalp itched unpleasantly. A second later his hair began to grow at an unnatural rate. Severus certainly hadn’t expected this to be the effect of the potion, and his scared and confused brain struggled to understand his mother's motives.

When his hair nearly touched his lower back, the potion's influence wore off. The woman's chapped lips curved in a smile, clearly pleased. She ran her fingers through the silken black locks. Standing tensely, Severus tried to keep his confusion off his face as he looked forward into the mirror above the sink. Reflected in the glass were two slim, pale figures with long, pitch-black hair. If Severus hadn’t put care into his appearance, he may have looked like how Eileen did now. Her skin was sallow and flaking, and her hair hung in limp, greasy locks. In contrast, Severus' hair was soft and shone under the dim light of the bathroom. The darkness of his hair caused his skin to look paler. His equally black irises stood out. The increased length softened his features, making Severus appear overall more effeminate.

Severus fought off his anger, knowing it would be bad to upset Eileen. Had the deranged woman suddenly decided she wanted a daughter?

"Boys don’t keep their hair long," he protested bravely, ignoring the fact he had already been doing so, if not to such an extent.

“It looks so much better now, Severus," she asserted, not pausing in her petting of his black tresses as she directed his head back toward the mirror. “Look at us. Look at you. You look just like a witch.”

Notes:

Sorry for any confusion about this chapter, I was trying to write in a way that somewhat reflected Eileen's state of mind and Severus' inability to understand it, so its not very clear.
Since Eileen is not thinking rationally, I'm sort of writing with the idea that she attributes her awful relationship with Tobias to her status as a witch, and jealously seeing that Severus' relationship with Tobias is better (though not good) wants to make him more like her (a witch) so that Tobias will treat them the same way (badly).

Chapter 27: Beauty in the Eye of the Beholder

Summary:

Tobias comes home after several nights out drinking.
Warnings for (badly written) feelings, domestic violence, and period-typical views of gender norms.

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Tobias arrived at Spinner’s End with a bang. Only the scritch-scratch sound of a key struggling to find its lock forewarned the large man’s appearance in the doorway. As cool night air slipped into the house carrying the stench of booze, Tobias stomped his dirty boots inside and tossed a wad of crumpled money onto the table.

“Eileen!” He bellowed. “Your useless, drunken husband has brought home £50 from playing poker. What good have you done for this household since I’ve been gone, huh? Drink a bit more, did you? Or have you convinced the next-door neighbours you’re a madwoman yet?!”

“No, Tobias!” She hissed, descending the stairs rapidly like a starved Azkaban dementor. “I have not done any of those things. I’ve been spending some quality time with our son.”

“Our son, is he?” Tobias scoffed, tossing his dirty boots beside the entryway and slinging himself onto the couch. The wooden frame creaked from his weight. “No son of mine is getting letters from owls and casting spells…”

He turned to face his wife, dark eyes unreadable. “Is he even mine, Eileen? Could you stay faithful—”

“—Tobias!—”

“—to a Muggle like myself?!”

“Tobias!” Eileen shouted. “Of course he’s yours. I’ve never slept with another man.”

“Well, then! Let’s see him!”

“Severus is asleep,” Eileen excused.

“No, I’m not,” Severus said softly, revealing himself from the shadows at the bottom of the stairwell.

Hearing the racket from downstairs, he’d crept from the bedroom to witness the fight. He’d barely avoided the creaky step, unused to having long hair falling in front of his face and obstructing his vision. Though shocked to witness Tobias’ accusations of his wife’s infidelity, he’d been more concerned of how the volatile man would take Severus’ new appearance.

And he could see it now, in the slight widening of the man’s eyes and the clenching of his jaw. Severus could tell the man was not happy with what he saw, though the man soon verbally expressed it.

“Bloody hell, Eileen, what have you done to the boy?!”

Eileen fiddled nervously with the hem of her loose sleeves. Severus still struggled to understand her motives and desired to know the answer to Tobias’ question as well. Under his father’s intimidating gaze he shied away behind his hair, finding it just as suitable of a curtain against the dangers of the world as his hunched posture and curled hands.

“Well?!” Tobias demanded a second time when Eileen failed to respond. “He’s still a boy, isn’t he?”

“Of course he is!” Eileen protested. She stood up a bit straighter in her anger. “I… I decided since you didn’t want your son that I would make Severus more like his mother.”

“Didn’t want him…” Tobias repeated weakly, staring once again at Severus. “Of course I want my son, he’s… he’s my son.”

Eileen squawked, dark fabric flapping like a startled bird. “Oh, now he’s your son!” She cried. “You accuse me of being unfaithful, but he’s your son!”

Severus winced at her shrill voice. His mind raced as the argument turned in an unexpected direction. Eileen wanted him to be more like her, and perhaps, less of Tobias. Did that also mean that she wished Severus wasn’t Tobias’ son? But, most importantly in Severus' mind, was the revelation that Tobias wanted him. Severus had been sure with the way the man had acted on his birthday that his father no longer acknowledged him as his son. To hear the man actually speak out loud the words—to hear him plainly say that he wanted Severus, and that Severus was still his son…

The wizards felt suddenly glad for the dark length of hair that hid his face, as his vision blurred and he felt a damp trail make its way down his cheek. Eileen turned her back on Tobias and crossed the room to the door. She shoved on her shoes and walked out, slamming the door purposefully behind her. Having watched her leave, Severus was startled to see that Tobias was no longer sitting on the sofa when he turned his attention back. Instead, the man was making his way toward Severus.

Severus found himself frozen as the man, always a towering figure in his past life, kneeled down before him. A calloused hand pushed Severus' hair out of the way behind his ear. As their eyes met, Severus inhaled sharply, seeing tear tracks on the man’s ageing face. Suddenly, without a sound, Tobias crumpled like a broken piece in wizard’s chess.

“Oh, Severus,” Tobias choked out, pulling the boy into a hug. “I’m sorry, Severus. My son, can you ever forgive me?”

Close to paralyzed with emotion, Severus remained silent. As the man sobbed, Severus slowly reached out and returned the embrace. He didn’t know if he could forgive Tobias, even in this life. However, at that moment, as he struggled with the memories of the man that Tobias was before but didn’t appear to be now, Severus speechlessly allowed his father to cry on his shoulder.

Notes:

As always, please let me know of any errors so that I can fix them when I have time. Thanks!

Chapter 28: Sweet

Summary:

Severus being a cute grouch.

Notes:

Sorry for the delay! I did eventually get my computer issue fixed, but I permantly lost several files, mostly photos. Part 2 of Chapter 27 as well as the original Chapter 28 were lost when I tried to upload/download them. This chapter was supposed to be 29, so I had to revise some things - hopefully it makes sense despite the missing bits. Please let me know of any errors or incongruent information so I can eventually get around to fixing them. Many apologies!

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Severus attentively examined his appearance in the cracked mirror. He aspired for everything to be perfect, or at least as close to perfect as possible, before he left for Hogwarts. It would be the first time actually encountering any of his peers, though he had seen other children shopping for their school supplies during his travels to Diagon Alley.

Eileen had gone to Diagon Alley herself after her fight with Tobias. She’d returned in a much improved mood, and she and Severus had eaten breakfast together. She appeared better than the previous night, however tired, and had gone to bed after a cup of chamomile tea. Worryingly, she’d spent most of her time downstairs talking to herself under her breath.

Severus didn’t question it too much, knowing his mother’s sanity was slowly deteriorating from her unhealthy relationship with Tobias and her internal repression of her magical core. She seemed to be withering away like the bouquets she used to arrange in vases back when she cared how the house looked, though Severus knew she was much stronger than any delicate flower. Severus found himself fearing for her, yet also fearing what she would do the next time she lost touch with reason.

He could see that fear reflected back at him in the mirror.

Refocusing his attention, he judged his reflection quietly in the cramped but pristine bathroom of the Snape house. Severus’ looks had vastly improved. His long hair fell down his back like black silk. His face glowed with a healthy pallor, round cheeks flushed with the embarrassment of an individual unused to thinking well of himself. His teeth were straight and a natural shade of white. Having destroyed the more detrimental attributes to his constitution, Severus had to admit he looked irritatingly adorable.

Severus frowned thoughtfully at the image in the mirror, unsure if this change represented a success or not. His large, black eyes presented a naive look. It reminded Severus too much of the dunderheaded first-year Hufflepuffs he used to teach for his liking. His nose hadn’t been broken, simply left straight without the input of his father's fists. Although quite likely that his objectionable features would begin to lean toward being masculine instead of androgynous as he grew older, Severus couldn’t stifle his unhappy expression.

If anything was unquestionable, it was that the boy wouldn’t be shunned for his appearance. Despite the second-hand clothes, he managed to stay unbearably cute. His cheeks flushed further, the rosy blush turning darker as he internally criticised himself for becoming a narcissist; after all, Severus only cared about his looks because other people did. It had even become a ritual to examine himself every morning.

In his other life, the opinion that he was ugly became deeply engraved in Severus' mind. His parents only worsened that notion. Tobias often called him ugly when speaking to him in the former timeline, though it never occurred in the new one. His mother also considered his looks distasteful and not worth the cost of shampoo, conditioner, or skin care products. However, her appearance was currently much worse than his.

Later that night, Severus sprawled in bed with his hair spread out around him on the blanket. He gazed sightlessly at his cracked ceiling. Things had changed beyond his ability to comprehend. Just minutes before, his father had tucked him into bed with a kiss on his temple. It was hard to imagine that in another life the man would have beat him to an inch of his life and he would be lying on the floor in agony. Surely, even his actions could not change an individual’s nature so much? Was this even the original Tobias… or…?

Severus’ thoughts froze as chills ran down his back. Such complicated thoughts and horrible ponderings about his parents were not suited to the time before sleep. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, arm reaching out to pet Valeriana. Yet, his dark worries followed him into his dreams, accompanied by flashes of vivid green light.

To keep his mind off of his impending doom, a.k.a his departure to Hogwarts, Severus took up an unexpected distraction; one that did not turn out well initially. The former Professor wondered what the people of his past would think of his new hobby. Lost in thought, he ran his berry-stained fingers through his long black hair, which was currently streaked white with flour and powdered sugar. The timer sitting on the counter began to buzz, and Severus stepped up to the oven and peeked inside. With a satisfied hum and a small, close-lipped smile, he opened the oven door and cautiously pulled out a tray of steaming hot raspberry scones.

As the scones cooled on the kitchen counter, he stirred a bowl of powdered sugar glaze. Once Severus drizzled the white glaze artistically on the scones, he took a step back. He was filled by a sense of accomplishment—a feeling once upon a time only prompted by perfect potions and pettily upstaging others. This appeared to be his best batch of baked goods so far.

Severus Snape's newest entertainment was baking. It had taken a few tries to make something he deemed edible, but the work provided ample satisfaction in the end. Most importantly, he didn't think of anything but the steps of the recipe while baking, so his mind was unable to drift off to less welcome topics.

Tobias Snape entered the house with the slam of a door and the scuff of boots. The world-weary man followed the deliciously sweet scent of scones freshly out of the oven. He ruffled his son's black tresses and grabbed a scone off the baking tray.

Severus moved in front of the man bravely, still expecting a hard cuff to the head, to stop him from taking a second one.

“You can't eat them, Father. They're for the bake sale,” he explained, voice soft.

“Bake sale?” Tobias snapped gruffly. “Whatever for?”

“The animal shelter is raising money so it can afford more supplies and put down fewer animals.”

For years, co*keworth’s animal shelter had been low on funding, and Severus had been horrified to hear that the animals they couldn’t afford health treatment for would be put down instead. Imagining Valeriana in their place, he knew he had to take action. Thus, he’d voluntarily offered his time and effort to do the baking for the shelter’s upcoming fundraiser.

Tobias huffed but didn't bother to argue. Instead, he stomped out of the room to sprawl in the large armchair by the couch. Severus could tell the Muggle man avoided going upstairs. The tension between Tobias and Eileen had only increased over the last couple of weeks. The strain was a string slowly fraying and just waiting for the wrong moment to snap. Severus didn't want to be present when that happened again.

With a dramatic sigh, Severus turned to the next page in Enchantment in Baking. He wondered if the aurors would show up if he sold Muggles cupcakes with colour-changing frosting.

Notes:

Next chapter is already halfway written... and it's the long awaited Hogwarts Express scene! Finally! I thought I would never reach it!
Anyway, to avoid confusion, it is scheduled to be posted on the 29th of the month.

Chapter 29: Severus and The Marauders on The Hogwarts Express

Summary:

The long awaited chapter of Severus' and the Marauders' first meeting!

Notes:

This chapter was supposed to be posted yesterday, but I went camping this weekend and didn't think to bring my computer with me in order to update this fic. So the post is today, and I am a lying liar who lies. My apologies and thanks to all my readers, and a special shout out to YouDoNotNeedToKnow & atemporaneo for their dedication! Hopefully the wait was worth it :)

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

“Severus, it’s time to go!” Eileen called up the stairs in her high, rasping voice.

Severus didn't bother to answer, coming down the creaky wooden steps a moment later. Dragged behind him was his mother's old trunk. He hauled it downstairs with difficulty, bitterly wondering why his mother wouldn’t spell it to weigh less or just levitate it. It wasn’t as though Tobias was home. However, Eileen behaved increasingly odd as the day and hour of his departure to Hogwarts approached.

Severus felt that he might also be behaving oddly, unsure how to handle the increased violence of the household as his parents fought more and more often. Late at night, when he knew both his parents were asleep, Severus cried. Guilt weighed on his consciousness no matter how often he told himself it wasn't his fault. Eileen could leave whenever she wanted, yet she stayed while Severus despaired at not yet having the means to leave and live alone himself. Internally he knew standing up to his father would do nothing except redirect the man's violence. Regardless, he couldn’t help but hate his inaction…

He shook his head to dismiss the negative thoughts; black, neatly brushed hair grazed his arms. He was using the Floo Network to get to Platform 9¾ at King's Cross Station. He needed to be focused, or else he risked misspeaking his destination. Eileen refused to leave the house, so he would be travelling to the station alone. He suspected that the woman didn’t want any other witch or wizard to see her in her present deplorable state.

Although annoyed, he was resigned to allowing his mother to fuss over him. She forced him into the baggy cloak she kept on one of the hooks by the door and stuck her wand in the interior pocket. Her eyes looked into his with a serious expression. Untrusting, Severus made sure his Occlumency shields were protecting his mind.

“Severus,” she said sternly, “I expect you to work hard in class and not be idle with your studies.”

He bit his lower lip nervously. Eileen had not even wished him goodbye when he left for Hogwarts in his first life. “I shall do my best.”

To Severus' shock, his mother smiled. The pureblood witch ran a hand with untrimmed, uneven nails through his hair affectionately. She tossed a pinch of Floo Powder into the fireplace. The dying flames shot upward, a bright, dramatic green reminiscent of the killing curse. His messenger bag slung across his shoulder, Severus stepped into the Floo with his packed trunk and a caged Valeriana in tow. When the boy stepped out of the fireplace on Platform 9¾, he had an imprecise idea of what awaited him on the other side.

The massive form of a scarlet steam locomotive idled patiently on the tracks. The platform was full of witches and wizards, completely swarming with activity. Steam from the Hogwarts express filled the air, along with the hooting of owls and people's voices. Severus moved towards the train, slipping between parents hugging their children and avoiding stepping on a loose toad. His heart beat wildly in excitement and trepidation. Students blocked his way inside the train, but finally he discovered a vacant compartment. He slid the door shut behind him and took in a much-needed breath of air.

He floated his trunk onto the rack above the seats wandlessly. On shaky legs, he sank down onto the closest seat and pulled his bag into his lap. After taking a minute to rest, he cast a wandless Reparo on it, restoring it from its used, battered condition. He glanced down at the slight lump in his robes where Eileen’s hazelwood and dragon heartstring wand waited to be used. He’d yet to finish his research on wandlore and wand-making, and thus his suited core and wandwood had been left at the bottom of his trunk, secreted away inside the hidden compartment. Eileen’s wand would have to do for his first year. Besides, it wasn’t unusual for a pureblooded first-year Hogwarts student to be stuck using an heirloom wand before their parents finally accepted the fact that their family could not live vicariously through their young heirs, and that their children were, in fact, their own people.

Hearing Valeriana’s displeased meows, he let her out of the cramped cage and set her on his lap. She settled down with a pleased mrow. He imagined he could feel the warm fuzziness of her contentment at the back of his mind. Though Severus lived in denial of many things, he was aware enough to recognize that his beloved cat was becoming his magical familiar, and that the process was likely accelerated by her half-kneazle heritage. He felt his nerves settle as he ran his hand through her soft fur.

Opening his bag, he took out a thick book: One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore. An interesting read to the potioneer, it would help pass the time. After all, the train ride was several hours long.

At precisely 11:00, a piercing whistle announced the train’s exit from the station. Startling at the sound, Valeriana jumped off his lap and climbed into the overhead storage rack. With billowing smoke and the hiss of pistons, the train inched forward. It rapidly sped up, the waving family members standing on the platform growing smaller outside the window.

Immersed in his reading, Severus didn't notice the compartment door open. He didn't even realise anyone had entered his compartment until someone coughed to get his attention. Severus blinked, pulling his eyes from the book's pages and raising his head. There, in front of him, were his worst nightmare: the Marauders. Sirius Black, James Potter, and Remus Lupin had apparently become bored with the game of cards they were playing. Severus frowned, a number of his plans immediately unravelling in his mind. He closed his book and returned it to his bag slowly, wary of making sudden movements.

“Hey, Dark wizard!" Potter taunted. "Too scared to even show your face?”

The cloak! Severus realised. Why did I keep wearing the black cloak? I must look like a second-rate Death Eater, he criticised himself.

He turned his condemnation outward, recalling all the times the Marauders had made him dislike himself. Too many times, and he couldn’t do this again! Hatred burned in his stomach and, to his horror, tears stung his eyes. Severus had worked so hard to change the Marauders’ first impression of him, and he’d avoided ever meeting them before in this timeline, yet they already treated him like this! Insulted, Severus tried to contain his anger. However, his childhood immaturity chose this time to rear its head. He shot to feet, causing the fabric of his cloak to shift and the hood to slide off. Potter fell silent and stared at the shorter boy with widening brown eyes.

“I am not a Dark wizard!” Severus denied, hands clenched into fists. “And I’ll definitely be a better wizard than you!”

Feeling the others' eyes on him, he swallowed. The cold brooch that pinned the cloak closed was heavy against the base of his throat. Under their scrutiny, his cheeks heated with a faint blush, making the water trying to escape his eyes burn hotter. He seemed to have surprised them, though the emotions on their faces were undecipherable.

Severus didn’t wait for the axe to fall. He stormed out of the train car, summoning his trunk behind him. He heard Remus’ voice start to call out, then become one of three startled yelps as an unhappy Valeriana made her presence known. Severus hurried away from the ruckus of feline yowling and human yelling, confident that Valeriana would show those poor excuses for Gryffindor lions who the superior cat was.

He waited in another empty car at the back of the train, and let out a sigh of relief as the jingling of the bell on her collar announced Valeriana’s appearance in the doorway. She walked proudly over to him and took her throne upon his lap. Severus scratched her chin, praising her for her victory. He loathed his cowardice when faced with his childhood bullies, but Valeriana was strong where he was weak, and she didn’t mind comforting him as he cried into the fabric of his cloak.

Damn cloak! He cursed. Those bloody Marauders! Why can't they just leave me be?

He wanted to blame the cloak for his failed first impressions. However, many witches and wizards wore cloaks while travelling, and he passed by many students wearing cloaks of various colours while rushing through the train station. But, if the issue wasn’t the cloak… was the issue… him?

With a sniffle, Severus threw a locking charm at the door, wishing he’d done so sooner. Maybe then he could have avoided this. All his planning and effort for nothing! Everything should have been perfect, so Severus didn't understand the boys’ words and actions. This time around, he didn't appear dirty or poor. Even the cloak had been clean and the brooch Eileen had pinned it with was one of her better ornaments.

Perhaps for James Potter and Sirius Black, who were rich purebloods, his poverty and Muggle upraising were still glaringly obvious. Severus didn’t understand, and it seemed he never would. It appeared that there was no fixing this; there was no fixing Severus Snape. The dark-haired boy sat, hugging his cat miserably, wondering why he had ever naively thought his Hogwarts years could go well.

Notes:

As always, please let me know of any errors and I will do my best to fix them as soon as possible.

Chapter 30: Onward to the Castle

Summary:

The train arrives at Hogsmeade.

Notes:

Short chapter this time, but Severus has finally made it to Hogwarts.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Approximately halfway through the train ride to Hogwarts, Severus changed into his school robes. With a dark look, he carefully folded the cloak and placed it in his trunk. He spent the remainder of the trip recollecting the first-year curriculum and bribing Valeriana with treats so that she would willingly return to her cage without a fuss. He reassured her several times that he would let her back out as soon as he could enter the dormitory of the house he got sorted into.

The train arrived in Hogsmeade station late into the afternoon. The sky had long become dark outside the window, the silhouettes of trees rushing past. As the train pulled into Hogsmeade, the steam from the train and the light pollution from the streetlamps fogged up the sky, blocking out the stars which Severus knew could be seen clearly from Hogwarts. The train slowed to a crawl and finally stopped.

As the noise of children exiting the train began to resonate from the other side of the compartment’s door, Severus gathered his things. He slung his messenger bag over his shoulder, but he had to leave his trunk and Valeriana in her cage behind for the house elves to unload. Of course, he didn’t leave either without several locking charms; luggage and pets would be taken to the school separately from the students, but Severus wouldn’t bet on people’s possessions never being tampered with during that time. With his luck, his trunk would end up on the other side of the castle.

Taking a deep breath, Severus opened the door and entered the stream of students as they walked down the train’s corridor. They rushed around him, forcing him to dodge a bony elbow or two and much careless shoving. Stumbling down the steps on legs numb from sitting for too long, the wizard joined the crowd of first-years awaiting instruction on the dark platform. Severus immediately missed his cloak. The air had chilled after the sun set, and the night’s breeze tugged the warmth from the cloth of his uniform.

Off in the distance and growing steadily closer was a lamp shining in the dark. The flickering flame trapped in its metal cage was held in the hand of a familiar man. Hagrid was several years younger than when Severus had last seen him, yet he looked so unchanged. His facial hair was certainly still just as bushy, and his coat and boots were as unclean as ever. Severus had to turn away, nostalgia threatening to choke him and bring tears to his eyes.

“Firs’-years!” The half-giant bellowed. “Firs’-years! Firs’-years over this way!”

Severus allowed himself to fall behind in the group, knowing he wouldn’t lose track of Hagrid, who stood many heads taller than even the seventh-year students. Around him, the children gazed at their surroundings in awe, shuffling and jostling to peer around each other with wide eyes and gaping mouths.

“Firs’-years, mind yer step! C’mon, follow me. You’ll get yer firs’ sighting of Hogwarts in just a second,” Hagrid called over his shoulder, “jus’ stunning it is…”

As the castle came into sight, the students seemed to collectively gasp. Severus grudgingly acknowledged that the castle still had its charm, even after the countless years Severus had spent in its halls. The ground underfoot changed to rocks and pebbles, and Hagrid called out, “No more than four to a boat!”

Beyond the fleet of little boats sitting in a row on the shore, the lake blocked their way to the castle entrance. In the dark of night the water appeared dark and foreboding. The only fear Severus had, however, was that he’d be stuck in a cramped, tippy excuse for a boat with a group of dunderheads.

Notes:

Next up is the sorting!
Unfortunately, my next update will probably be delayed. I am going on a trip around the Thanksgiving holiday to visit my grandparents, and I probably won't have access to WiFi until I get back (because my grandparents are technologically disconnected).
Anyways, happy holidays to everyone for whatever they celebrate :)

Chapter 31: Boats and Benign Intervention (Feat. The Giant Squid)

Summary:

Here's a chapter prompted by the comments. What will happen to Snape in the boat? Read and find out!

Notes:

Please read end note

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

If only he could have just apparated to the castle. But, unfortunately, eleven-year-olds were not supposed to know how or be able to apparate and disapparate. Additionally, now that Severus was on the grounds of Hogwarts, any underage Apparition he performed would be tracked by the Ministry via the Trace.

So inconvenient, Severus grumbled mentally.

The boat rocked worryingly as Severus climbed aboard. The ageing, creaky wood produced no confidence in his mind. This felt like a bad idea. He turned around to take a seat, saw a flash of red, and then he knew this was, in fact, an awful idea. Two children were already seated on the other end of the boat. His black eyes met green.

“Hello,” a meek voice said, cutting into his thoughts and drawing his eyes away to a repulsive pair of huge buck teeth. The teeth belonged to an equally unpleasant boy, who was looking increasingly queasy as the boat continued to rock on the surface of the water. “I’m Peter Pettigrew.”

“I’m Bertram Aubrey,” said a dark-haired boy seated diagonally from Pettigrew.

“Nice to meet you both,” a high-pitched voice responded. “I’m Lily Evans.”

Green eyes turned back to him. Severus flinched. “You’re Severus, right? From co*keworth Primary?”

He’d spent so long this time around trying to avoid encountering her and Petunia, yet here he was, trapped in a boat with her. Even worse, the boat was now magically moving away from shore, so it was too late for him to get out and find another one. Severus took a deep breath and allowed his gaze to take her all in. Her familiar bright red hair and green eyes were almost too much to bear. Yet, at the same time, he found something wrong with this picture. Her hair fell a few centimetres past her shoulders, but not in the soft waves he remembered her having at this age. Red strands were tangled and knotted, sticking out in frizzy tufts. Her bright emerald eyes hid an unknown darkness. Her hands were clasped tightly in her lap, knuckles turning white from her grip and the cold. As Severus stared into the face of a nervous little girl, who appeared to be nothing more and nothing less, he found himself startlingly underwhelmed.

What happened to the perfect, beautiful witch he spent years infatuated with? Where was the strong, intelligent woman whose death he’d spent his life atoning for? This wasn’t the Lily Evans he remembered.

“Yes, Evans,” he greeted in a polite but distant way. “I didn’t know you were a witch.” An outright lie, but she wouldn’t know that.

“Yes,” she said, shuffling her feet nervously. “I got a letter over the summer. It was quite shocking. I-I didn’t expect to see you here, though. Are you a Muggle-born too?”

“My mother’s a witch, so I’m considered a half-blood,” he stated awkwardly.

“How’s your mother doing? I heard she was ill.”

Severus didn’t know how to respond, nor did he want to linger on the topic. “She’s fine.”

Evans opened her mouth to speak again, but then closed it as she peered around him in confusion. Severus stared at her, baffled at what she could be looking at in the pitch-black darkness.

“Do… Do you know those boys?” She suddenly asked.

What boys? Severus wondered, glancing back.

In the boat trailing behind their own sat Black, Potter, and Lupin. Sitting, however, was a relative term, as all three boys seemed to be sitting as little as possible. Black was halfway to his feet, waving his arms in the air like the attention-seeking brat he was. Potter was pointing rudely, and Lupin appeared to be shouting something, but his voice was carried away by the chilly wind.

Severus cursed under his breath. Even now they harass me! Must they make me miserable every minute of every day of my time here at Hogwarts? Why me?!

“No,” Severus hurriedly told Evans. “I don’t know them. I’ve never seen them before.”

A large splash could be heard as Potter’s attempt to stand on the small water vessel caused the boat to tip and throw the boys into the lake. Evans gasped and Pettigrew mumbled in what could have been concern.

“Do you think they’re alright?” Aubrey asked.

“They’re fine,” Severus said with no inflection in his voice. “The Giant Squid can deal with them.”

Tentacles began to rise up out of the surface of the lake. The boys all screamed as they were fished out of the water. Severus felt slightly better as he heard the sounds of their terror.

Notes:

Sorry for the late update. Unfortunately, the next update will be even further delayed.
I, and many other members of my family got sick over thanksgiving (thanks conservative grandparents who refuse to get vaccinated! Especially you Uncle ****, who knew you had Covid and decided to come anyway). So, I and at least four other people now have Covid. I am writing this with a fever, so please excuse any errors. Anyways, there will be a delay in posting chapters until I am feeling better.

Chapter 32: Four Houses and One Sorting Hat

Summary:

The long awaited Sorting!

Notes:

Hello! I am finally back from hiatus...
Thank you for waiting. You have all been so patient and kind with your comments. I greatly appreciate your support.
I am planning on updating every other week again, starting this week, and I'll see how that goes.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

"Snape, Severus." McGonagall's stern voice rang through the Great Hall.

Severus walked fearfully to the stool. Finding it unreasonably tall, the small boy had to climb onto it with little grace. As the crowd of students watched, Professor McGonagall set the hat on his head. It slipped down to cover his eyes, obscuring his vision of the Great Hall.

"A time-traveller. How interesting…" An unseen voice spoke with genuine enthusiasm, causing Severus to scowl.

"Your mind is truly impressive," the hat said. "I have met many students with various degrees of experience in Occlumency, but none as naturally skilled or advanced as yourself. Although, you do have prior experience and knowledge of it, don’t you. Ah, but with such a love for knowledge you’d do well in Ravenclaw. However, with ambition, cunning, and such self-preservation as you have, you truly belong in—"

"—SLYTHERIN!" The hat announced, its voice abruptly gone from his mind.

Severus opened his eyes, seeing the Great Hall once more. Hundreds of candles floated above the tables of the four houses. The enchanted ceiling gave him a breathtaking view of the night sky.

Professor McGonagall lifted the hat from his head with a deep frown on her face. Severus paid her no mind, slid carefully off the stool, and walked over to the Slytherin table. The students sitting there applauded, even if none showed the slightest hint of excitement for his sorting into their house. Severus found a vacant spot at the end of the table and sat down.

Severus was a Slytherin. While he might have some of the traits held in high esteem by the other houses, Slythering fit him best in both this life and the last. Hopefully, this time around he would have a better experience in his Hogwarts house. The boy was—to his own surprise—hopeful. Differing from before, he understood pureblood customs and culture. He looked down the long table crowded with older students. A number of their expressions made it clear that they recognized his surname wasn’t of pureblood origin.

The Sorting finished and, after a few nonsense words from Dumbledore, the tables were suddenly laden with food. The tables groaned under the weight of so many dishes. The aroma rising from the spread of food was mouthwatering, absolutely deserving of being called a feast. As dinner progressed, Severus continuously felt people's stares burning into him. However, no one initiated conversation, so the boy kept to himself and ate his meal in silence. Why did it seem that he was receiving so much attention in this life? He wasn’t even the only child with a Muggle surname to have been sorted into Slytherin this year…

The rice balanced on his silver fork disappeared, along with the fork itself and all the plates. When the desserts appeared, Severus felt another pair of eyes staring at him. This time he had the courage to look up, and Severus immediately recognized the blond-haired boy with blue eyes watching him. He was seated at his right, on the opposite side of the table. The boy smiled charmingly at him. Despite having known him in the future, as a Death Eater kneeling, disgraced, at Voldemort's feet, Severus couldn't stop the blush that developed on his cheeks.

"Hello," the wizard addressed him.

Severus could only nod a response in his flustered state. If he had currently been chewing food, he would have choked. At that moment, Dumbledore rose from his throne-like chair and gave a speech. Severus didn't bother to listen, focused on consuming a slice of pie.

As everyone finished their dessert, Headmaster Dumbledore got to his feet again and started to give a much more rational speech about the upcoming deadlines and announcements. After a horrific singing of the school song, Dumbledore wished those present a good night. Students and staff resumed talking or began to exit the Great Hall. A Prefect began leading the way to the Slytherin dormitories. Severus had several years' memories of traversing the levels of Hogwarts' dungeons. Despite this, he almost walked in the direction of the living quarters he had as a professor, stopped himself, and then succeeded in getting lost in the labyrinth of staircases and dimly lit corridors. The boy sighed in disbelief.

"Hello there, little snake."

Notes:

While I considered putting Severus in a different house, I felt that his main motivations and character traits were still so fitting to Slytherin that I couldn't truly imagine him anywhere else. Plus, I have lots of ideas for how his second time experiencing his Hogwarts years as a Slytherin will go!

Chapter 33: A Snake Meets A Serpent

Summary:

An encounter between Slytherins!

Notes:

It has been asked several times what Severus is doing about his wand. It was mentioned back in Chapter Twenty-Nine that he would be using Eileen’s wand for his first year. I did not feel it was realistic for Severus to become a master of wandlore in just a few months, so this is research that is going to take him a while and his wandcraft won't be successful until his magical core is a bit bigger.
If anything else needs to be clarified, just let me know.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

"Hello there, little snake."

Startled, Severus peered up from behind a curtain of black tresses. The blond-haired boy was at the end of the hall and advancing toward him. Little snake? Was he serious? Mildly insulted, Severus glared at the older wizard. Evidently, Severus wasn't as intimidating in his younger years, because the boy just smirked at him.

“What are you doing here?” The blond asked knowingly. “Lost?”

Unable to come up with a reasonable excuse on the spot, Severus looked down at his shoes and allowed his hair to cover his face. For seven years, Severus had roamed Hogwarts’ halls as a student, and for almost two decades he’d stalked the passageways as one of the school’s most feared and hated professor. Yet here he was, lost. How pathetic!

An unwelcome hand touched his cheek, pulling him away from his self-loathing. The hand, attached to an annoying, smug-faced Slytherin, slowly pushed a lock of his hair behind his ear. Severus gazed up with flaming cheeks and fiery scowl. Who did this boy think he was?! Dark eyes glared with more disgust than one would ever expect of a child of eleven years. As if sensing the increasing chance of losing his fingers, the taller student stepped back out of reach, though his smirk stretched ever wider. Well, Severus recalled, he always was a psychopath, even before Voldemort got to him.

“Follow me. I'll get you to the Slytherin dorms before the rest of the first-years.” Quite belatedly, the boy introduced himself as Evan Rosier. The information was trivial. The time-traveller had already identified him at first sight, though his appearance left little to be recognized by the time traveller.

Severus scoffed a bit internally. Puberty will really hit him hard, he thought scathingly. The loss of his light blond hair had been one of the less visible changes over the years, darkening over the years into a deep brown colour that even hours out in the sun would be unable to lighten—if the boy ever went outside, that is. The most notable differences was the lack of pasty pale skin and dark circles under his eyes. And the Dark Mark missing from his forearm, of course.

He stepped closer to Severus, daring to place his hand on the younger wizard's back. Severus bristled angrily but ended up tolerating the behaviour, desperate to retire to the shared privacy of his new dorm room. The pair walked down the halls mutely until the boy spoke.

“Snape isn't a pureblood name.” It was vocalised as a statement in an indifferent tone. Severus knew the boy’s true feelings were anything but indifferent.

“I'm not a pureblood. I'm a half-blood,” Severus replied, dismissively.

“A half-blood Slytherin.” Rosier looked amused. His arm wrapped around Severus' upper back. “I always wanted a pet, and you are cute enough for me.”

Severus felt his insides boil with rage. “Get away from me!” He hissed, yanking himself out of the blond's hold and marching in the opposite direction.

Rosier's blue eyes widened at Severus' reaction. “Hey! Come on, I was only joking.” He easily caught up to him, his legs capable of longer strides. Severus walked faster. “I'm sorry. Seriously, it was a joke.”

“I don't care. Don't say senseless things,” Severus retorted sharply. He halted, scowling at the boy who seemed slightly cowed. Unfortunately, the dark-eyed boy still had no idea where he was or the direction of the Slytherin dormitories.

“I am not cute, and I am not a pet. If you call me such things again, you will regret it,” Severus threatened. “My name is Severus Snape. You shall refer to me as such.”

Severus knew it was crucial that he set boundaries now. An older Slything student taking a “pet,” or a student in a younger year or of supposedly less pure blood, under their wing was an uncommon, but not unseen, practice in Slytherin House. Severus had once been in this position himself, under the purview of Avery and Mulciber. He would do most of their school assignments for them in return for a few sickles in order to afford new parchment and quills. He’d often be put into precarious positions, forced to lie on their behalf to avoid the Pureblood heirs getting into trouble with professors. It was not a situation that Severus planned on allowing to happen again, and he would make sure Rosier knew not to bother him.

Rosier quickly apologised, and Severus grudgingly acknowledged it with a huff. The older boy smirked, charming and malicious, looking far too much like the powerful, insane wizard Severus knew he’d grow up to be. Even while angry at the other boy, blood rushed to his cheeks at the familiar sight of it. “If you are done, I would like to reach the dorm before the sun rises.”

Upon hearing the boy's tone, Rosier snickered mirthfully. The older student led the way through the castle with a confident nonchalance, as if he personally owned Hogwarts. While they walked, Severus received a hasty summary from Rosier concerning the information the Slytherin Prefect was telling the first year students.

“Our emblem is the serpent, an animal that symbolises ambition, intelligence, and cunning. The two house colours are green and silver. The location of the entrance to the common room is one of the school's best-kept secrets. The door is concealed, almost indistinguishable from the other walls of the dungeons. The password changes every week. Currently, the password is Basilisk. Don’t forget, or you’ll be locked out.”

Notes:

The blond boy here is Even Rosier! Some depictions of him have darker hair, but the first one I saw had blond hair, so my headcanon is that he's just one of those people whose hair changes over time as he ages (like myself! I used to have really dark hair but now it's almost dirty blonde!).
Its been difficult figuring out who attended Hogwarts during and around the same time as Snape, but the Wiki has been a real lifesaver.

Chapter 34: (Re)Meeting Lucius Malfoy

Summary:

Lucius Malfoy makes an appearance, summoned by the repitition of his name in the comment section.

Notes:

Wow, Lucius was hard to write; I hope I did him justice. The conversation is a bit stilted, but these boys are awkward, so oh well...

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

The Slytherin common room was awash with a green-tinted glow. Partially underneath the Great Lake, several bare stretches of stone wall were replaced by charmed glass windows. The windows viewed the depths of the lake, revealing strands of plants and the dark outlines of fish shifting in the murky water outside. Moving portraits of Salazar Slytherin and woven tapestries of snakes adorned the walls. Tables of dark, polished wood and plush sofas furnished the large room. Multiple fireplaces provided warmth in the otherwise chilly dungeons. The room was not quite welcoming, despite its veneer of comfort.

The Prefects had dismissed the first-years and most had wandered off to find their rooms. Rosier followed behind them, apparently having grown bored for the moment with leading around a first-year. Severus lingered in the common room, overcome by nostalgia. The Giant Squid swam, lazy and docile, past the window.

"You’d best be off to bed. It would not do for you to shame your house tomorrow by being late for breakfast," an older voice interrupted his thoughts.

Severus flinched, not having heard anyone approach. He looked up to see a recognizable wizard with platinum blond hair and icy azure eyes. Lucius Malfoy was a tall and handsome youth, but a cold aura encompassed him, adding to his imposing and aloof character.

"Good evening," Severus greeted politely. He managed to avoid stuttering as scrutinising eyes pinned him in place. "I was just on my way to track down my dorm room. However, the squid captured my attention."

More than anything at that moment, Severus hoped to leave a good impression on Lucius. He had been one of Severus’ closest friends. Despite being the pureblood Malfoy heir, he disregarded Severus' lower status and cutting demeanour. The wizard had guarded him against older students and remained a resourceful ally after Hogwarts. They protected each other during their years as Death Eaters under the Dark Lord's control. Lucius named Severus the godfather of his son, Draco, who Severus had taught and protected to his best ability.

However, in the past, establishing rapport had taken too long. In the preceding timeline, Severus had discovered too late that his grandparents had been interested in meeting him. He had learned of it years later, when Lucius had deemed it right to tell him. Lucius Malfoy had been instructed to keep tabs on him and report back to the Prince family. Learning that their descendant was a surly, cynical, and unsightly child, their interest faded. Severus hoped he would now make a better impression. He wondered whether this time around his grandparents would deem it right to contact him. But did he actually want them to?

The blond cleared his throat, jolting the diminutive boy from his reverie. Severus couldn't recall just what instigated their friendship, feeling the differences between them more starkly than ever. The tall pureblood stood proudly in his expensive robes and looked down his nose at the visibly poor first-year student. Their circ*mstances were vastly different. The boys themselves were complete opposites.

“You appear to be tired. Off to bed with you,” Malfoy persuaded.

His long, thin fingers wrapped around Severus’ bony arm like a vice. The Prefect frowned, noticing that his fingers touched together when completely encircling the younger boy's upper arm. The first-year was far too skinny. Loosening his grip, Malfoy gently pushed Severus in the direction of the corridor that led to the boy's dorms. The black-haired boy stumbled slightly, finally realising his exhaustion. He stifled a yawn.

“I am Lucius Malfoy, heir to the Noble and Ancient House of Malfoy. I am a Slytherin Prefect, as well. As a new student here at Hogwarts, you can come to me for help.”

“Thank you. My name is Severus Snape.” The physically older wizard's pale blue eyes blinked once in surprise at the name. Severus had wondered how soon his grandparents would tell Lucius to keep an eye on him, but it appeared he’d been expected from the start.

“A pleasure to meet you, Snape,” Lucius said. He appeared more or less honest, to Severus' frustration. The blond man always had been so difficult to read.

“Please,” the other wizard responded, “call me Severus. Have a good night.”

"Sleep well," the Prefect told him, “tomorrow will be a busy day.”

The small, black-haired boy nodded. “I will. Thank you.”

In the Slytherin dormitories, rooms were shared with three people to a room in first, second, and third year. Then, in fourth, fifth, and sixth year it was two per room. Seventh years got their own dorm rooms, and there were also suites allocated to the Prefects.

Severus went to the room that was his in the original timeline. The room was spacious and luxurious, befitting of the pureblood members of Slytherin. The furniture and the sleeping forms of his dormmates were illuminated in the green light of the lake. The shadowy shapes of small fish flickered on the other side of the charmed windows. With walls of plain stone bricks and a floor of the same, the room should have seemed quite depressing. However, the mahogany bedside tables and large canopy beds with dark green curtains did not allow for this. Along with the soft rugs underfoot and the student's trunks, the room felt pleasant.

Severus' trunk, which used to be his mother's trunk during her school years, was already at the foot of a bed. The bed was on the left side of the room, furthest from the door and closest to the window. He would have a great view of the lake if he left the bed curtains open. Currently, the opaque green fabric was bound to each of the bedposts with perfectly tied black bows. He approached the bed, tentatively caressing the green covers; they were very soft. The high quality of the carved bed frame was obvious, the wooden shapes of serpents slithering across it in patterns. The canopy bed was quite large, almost an unreasonable size for one child. In Severus' case, there was a comical amount of room left on the mattress by his diminutive form. He could lie with his arms and legs sprawled out like those of a starfish, and there would still be a whole nother half of the bed.

Severus pulled his mother’s wand, currently his wand, out of its holster on his arm. He gently tapped the tip of the wand against the headboard. Severus felt as a tendril of magic reached out to meet his own, heralding the appearance of his initials on the headboard. Three letters were now carved into the wood: an S, a T, and another S intertwined together in elegant cursive. He spelled one side of the curtains shut, keeping his view of the lake, and opened his trunk to find clothes comfortable enough to sleep in.

Notes:

There might be a two-week delay for the next update. I have to move most of my computer files to a flash drive before I do more creative writing because I am running out of memory space on my computer, but I don't know when I will be able to get around to it. Anouncement and apologies in advance! Anyways, here is over 1,100 words to hopefully tide you over for a little while.

Chapter 35: Breakfast in the Great Hall

Summary:

Severus meets people... and makes friends? Maybe?

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

The Prefects knocked on the door early in the morning, leaving enough time for the first-year students to dress for breakfast. The morning routine in the boy’s dormitory was quite awkward, as neither Severus nor his dormmates were used to sharing a bathroom. His two roommates were Augustus Rookwood and Rabastan Lestrange. Rabastan's older brother, Rodolphus, had graduated two years prior to his sibling attending Hogwarts. Bellatrix Black—Bellatrix Lestrange—had graduated the same year as Rodolphus, and the two were arranged to be married.

Severus was the first in his dorm to finish getting ready. He packed up all of his books into his messenger bag, making use of both expansion and feather-light charms. Noticing that the other boys weren’t even dressed yet, Severus didn't bother to wait for them before walking out to the common room. He spotted Lucius Malfoy's long, golden locks and went over to wish him a good morning. He got a peculiar look in return, as well as a murmured greeting.

It was a novel experience to walk into the Great Hall for the first time as a Slytherin and yet vaguely remember already doing so, although there were many differences this time around. This time, Severus wore a uniform of good quality, had a clean appearance, and knew how to act in order to not make unnecessary enemies.

“Severus, over here!” Evan Rosier waved him over, motioning to an unoccupied seat next to him.

Severus' face reddened when he realised several Slytherins had peered over to see whom the boy was yelling to. A couple of older students watched him speculatively, and he thought Lucius Malfoy glanced over at him as well. Severus debated for a second, recalling the physically older boy’s behaviour, before he tentatively walked over to the table and sat down in the empty seat. Rosier appeared smug for a second before quickly schooling his face into an expression of haughty disinterest toward his surroundings.

As Severus reached for a plate, the half-blood glanced up at the Gryffindor table. Sirius Black, James Potter, and Remus Lupin were sitting together. It seemed they had already formed a strong group but had not yet befriended their roommate, Peter Pettigrew. Pettigrew, still a rat-faced child, sat alone at the end of the red and gold table.

“Good morning, Rosier,” Severus greeted amiably.

“Aww, Severus, call me Evan.”

Severus froze with his hand holding the serving spoon for the yogurt. Debating how to respond, he finally answered with only a slight delay: “I would not be so bold as to refer you to so familiarly.”

The pureblood wizard scowled slightly, then grabbed the plate Severus held and scooped a generous amount of eggs on it before he returned it. "You should eat more; you're tiny."
Severus was now the one scowling. Rosier smiled back, apparently pleased despite Severus’ decline of his overtures. The older boy didn't think Severus could look any less intimidating. Snatching a slice of toast off a nearby platter, Severus buttered it and took a bite. “I eat fine.”

That was a blatant lie. Truthfully, Severus had grown used to going hungry, as there was never a lot of food in the Snape house. Eileen only usually bothered to cook dinner—and in his first life barely that—which was always made with the least ingredients possible and, if it was soup or stew, diluted with extra water. Unsurprisingly, Severus' body was quite malnourished and small for his age.

Rosier thankfully changed the subject. “Allow me to introduce you to one of my friends,” he said, motioning across the table. “This is Corban Yaxley.”

The serious boy sitting opposite from them nodded politely to Severus. His neatly trimmed blond hair bobbed along with the movement. He appeared tall and lanky despite sitting down, but his posture was that of a pureblood. Corban Yaxley was a fifth-year student, while Evan Rosier was a third-year. Why either cared to sit with Severus, who was only a first-year, the black-haired boy didn't know.

Moments later, Slughorn passed out the timetables. Rosier looked over at Severus’ timetable and said that having Transfiguration with the Gryffindors as his first class was very unlucky. In fact, most of his classes seemed to be with the Gryffindors. Yaxley voiced his agreement, explaining the house rivalries to Severus though the wizard paid him little mind. The time-traveller was already aware, of course, of the tensions between Slytherin and Gryffindor. Severus discussed it with Yaxley anyway, not wanting to be rude. Rosier mistook his expression for worry and gave him a reassuring grin.

“I bet you'll do well enough to show up those idiotic Gryffindors. The first week or so is mostly just theory, but if you ask valid questions, Professor McGonagall will award you points. I'm sure you will be one of the best in the class,” he added.

The honest sentiment of support and trust gave Severus a rush of warmth. The wizard's pale cheeks became a fetching shade of pink, “Ah, yes, of course.”

Notes:

Sorry for the delay posting new chapters. Unfortunatetly, it will be a while before I will have the time to write and post the next chapters. It could take anywhere from two weeks to a month, since I am reworking my outline and am very busy with life right now. I apologize ahead of time, and I promise that when I do update again it will be a double update as a thank you for your patience :)

Chapter 36: Gryffindor Nuisances

Notes:

You may have noticed the title of this work has been changed :)
Thanks for this improvement goes to E_S_Fisher
Thank you for reading!

Chapter Text

Severus finished his breakfast about ten minutes later, consuming as much of the food on his plate as he could. He slipped an apple into his bag to eat for a snack later, though he already knew the location of the kitchens. He said a brief goodbye to Yaxley and Rosier as he excused himself from the table. They largely ignored him, too busy arguing over professional Quidditch teams to do more than wave at his departing figure. Severus exited the Great Hall hurriedly. Unfortunately, with his eyes focused down at his schedule he failed to see a person in the hallway in front of him and proceeded to bump into one of the other students. Severus was both shorter and a lesser weight than the other person; the collision resulted in him falling back onto his bum. A muffled yelp escaped his throat. Severus looked up through a curtain of glossy black hair. There was not one person hovering over him, but two. Black and Potter stood watching, amusem*nt visible in their eyes and suppressed smiles on their faces.

Severus scowled, ears burning red, as he remembered many similar but much less pleasant memories. To his surprise—he reminded himself that these versions of the duo were different from the ones he knew—Potter held out a hand. He considered reaching out to take it, however, he recalled the young Marauders’ behaviour toward him on the train. Instead, he planted both his hands on the ground and pushed himself to his feet. Despite Severus’ refusal to take his hand, Potter offered him a lop-sided grin. Cheeks flushed pink with blood, Severus occupied himself with straightening out his robes and brushing off imaginary dust. Seeing a piece of parchment on the floor by his feet, he bent down to get it. Black moved quicker, snatching up the timetable and reading its contents before Severus processed what he was doing.

“Transfiguration with us, huh?” Sirius commented. His conspiratorial grin worried Severus greatly. “We can walk to class together.”

Let’s not, Severus replied internally. Mentally he chanted, Go away, go away, go away.

“Excuse me.” Severus spoke up, feigning unfamiliarity. “But who are you?”

“Forgive me, I haven't even introduced myself,” Sirius said energetically. “I am Sirius Black, the Heir of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black.”

He gestured to Potter, “this is James Potter, Heir to the Most Ancient and Most Noble House of Potter.”

The dark-haired wizard eyed them warily in response to their full titles. “My name is Severus Snape.”

Heir to nothing of the House of Nothing, he thought bitterly.

“I’m sorry for running into you. I wasn’t looking where I was going,” Potter apologised, taking the blame.

“It’s my fault, really,” Black added. “I was telling him I’d put frog spawn in his bed if he took my hairbrush again. Why don’t I carry your bag to make it up to you?”

Without waiting for a response, Black grabbed Severus’ bookbag and slung it over his shoulder. Potter began to lead the way to the Transfiguration classroom.

“There is no need for you to carry my bag, Black,” Severus protested. He tried to sound stern as he trailed through the corridor after the pureblood wizard.

Black shrugged his shoulders and replied with a smirk over his shoulder, “Call me Sirius. And there is no need for you to carry it when I am more than willing to, Severus.”

Severus gawked at the familiarity. The audacity! He reached for the bag, unwilling to let this farce continue, but the other black-haired boy kept it out of his reach with ease. Unfortunately, childhood malnutrition did not aid in increasing height, and the Black Heir was almost as tall as the Potter Heir, who himself was unreasonably tall and would only get taller with age. Luckily, Severus knew he would sprout like a weed in a few years, and one day he and Black would see eye-to-eye, though Potter would continue to tower over him infuriatingly. Severus glanced over at Potter for even the slightest change of aid. However, the Potter heir just offered a guileless smile, seeing no problem in the situation at all. Sending him a glare, Severus continued his weakening attempts to retrieve the bag back from Black before simply wallowing in self-pity.

“Just accept that we aren’t going to let you carry your bag,” Potter said. The boy placed a hand on the small of his back, leading Severus in the direction of the Transfiguration classroom. The wizard realised his bookbag was not the true hostage in this situation—he was! What on earth did these Gryffindors want from him?

With Severus busy over-thinking, the trio soon arrived at the door of their first class. He was slightly surprised the two boys knew where the classroom was. But then, was it really surprising that the two troublemakers would have explored the castle when they should have been in their dorm rooms? What had they been up to? The time-traveller narrowed his dark eyes at Black, as threatening as a kneazle kitten, and opened his mouth to protest yet again. However, he was interrupted.

“Severus? Severus Snape?”

A loud voice called from further down the quickly emptying hallway. Severus turned around, forgetting all about his planned argument against Sirius’ audacity. The witch approached him quickly, her hair billowing out behind her, the orange-red locks clashing with the scarlet-red of her Gryffindor uniform.

“Evans,” he greeted.

“This is quite exciting, isn’t it?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “I can barely believe it! It was such a shock when I got my Hogwarts’ letter, and now I’m about to learn real magic!”

She looked at him expectantly, but Severus didn’t know how to respond nor did he want to linger on the topic. Thankfully Black and Potter, who’d stood nearby listening in on the conversation, suddenly appeared by his side. Black placed a hand on his shoulder while Potter smiled charmingly at Evans. Her face immediately flushed as red as her hair when she looked at him.

Childhood romance sure starts early, huh, Severus thought to himself. An uncomfortable, sinking feeling in his stomach made itself known.

“Why don’t you introduce us to the lovely lady, Severus?” Black suggested, smirking. “How do you two know each other?”

“Um, sure,” Severus stuttered, strongly wishing to leave. “This is Lily Evans. She lives in the same town as me.”

“co*keworth,” Evans supplied.

“co*keworth?” James asked curiously.

“An old industrial town,” Severus explained evasively. “It’s certainly not a place people go on vacation, to say the least.”

“It's not that bad,” Evans insisted, only to reiterate her statement when Severus shot her a questioning look. “Well, it's pleasant enough where I live, anyway.”

“Oh, I see,” Black said quietly, looking at Severus in a different way. Disgust? Pity?

“What?” The black-haired wizard questioned bitterly, eyebrows expressing his annoyance.

Black didn’t enlighten him, however, brushing off his inquiry with a shrug. “Nothing. Anyways, it’s a pleasure to meet you, Evans. I’m Sirius Black. James and I are in the same house as you.”

“H-hello,” the witch greeted with a shy smile. Her eyes kept looking over at Potter. Clearly, she already had a crush, and if Severus’ previous life was anything to go by the feelings were definitely returned by the messy-haired Gryffindor boy

“It seems the class is about to start,” Potter announced, watching a crowd of people stream into a nearby classroom.

Chapter 37: Matches to Needles

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

As a group of Slytherins walked past, Severus stole his bag back from Black and headed toward the doorway.

“Will you sit with me, Severus?” Evans quickly inquired as she trailed after him and the other two boys.

The question surprised Severus. Why would Evans want to be around him? He understood that he was the only wizard she knew from outside Hogwarts, but even in Muggle school they hadn’t interacted much, especially since he had never called her a witch after watching her display magic on the playground swings. She already knew Pettigrew and Aubrey from the boat trip across the lake, and in his last life she hadn’t spoken to him for weeks after they were sorted into separate houses. Why did she want to sit with him now? He had the suspicion that Evans just wanted to be around Potter, who seemed unfortunately inclined to linger near Severus, but Severus had no intention of spending more time in his presence than necessary.

“My apologies, but I planned to sit with my housemates. Maybe another time.” He said. He suppressed a grimace, wishing he had stopped himself from making the offer. It was best to avoid Evans if he didn’t want a repeat of last time.

The witch appeared crestfallen at the answer, but perked back up quickly. She mumbled a goodbye to Potter and sat next to a girl almost identical to Alice Longbottom—not almost identical, she is Alice Longbottom. Severus gazed around the room, overwhelmed by all the young faces of people he once knew as adults. The two Hogwarts houses present in the room visibly divided the classroom in half, one side wearing red and gold while the other wore green and silver. Faster than Potter or Black could follow, Severus gracefully slipped through groups of chatting first-year students and went over to the empty seat by Rabastan Lestrange.

“May I sit here?” He asked hesitantly, not sure what he would do if the boy turned him down.

The youngest Lestrange brother looked up from a book at the sound of Severus’ voice. He stared at the raven-haired boy a moment before nodding in assent and giving him a small smile. Severus set down his bag and returned his housemate’s smile. This day was going well so far, and he hoped it would remain that way.

Everyone rushed to their seats as Minerva—Professor McGonagall, he’d have to remember to refer to her as a figure of authority now—entered the classroom. With her greying hair pulled back into a severe bun and her robes immaculate, she looked every bit the part of a stern teacher. Unlike everyone else in the room, she looked like she had barely changed since Severus had last seen her. Merlin! He could swear she was wearing the same robes when he’d last met her for tea before his potions mishap.

“Quiet, please,” she instructed, pointing her wand at a piece of chalk which then began writing on the chalkboard behind her. “Welcome to your first year of Transfiguration. First and foremost, we shall go over the rules of this classroom. Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn in your years attending Hogwarts. Anyone caught messing around in my class will be forced to leave and will not be welcomed back. For the sake of safety, keep your wands pointed away from your classmates. I will not tolerate any injuries in this class. You have been warned.”

Severus unpacked the required materials and set his bag on the floor by his feet. The chalk wrote another set of words on the board as Professor McGonagall continued talking. “Today you will work on transfiguring a match into a sewing needle. First practise the flick and swish motion of your wand without saying the incantation. Then, you may begin.”

A match appeared in front of each student. Severus took out his wand, his face unknowingly changing to a pleased look as the magic of the wand caressed his own encouragingly. Though unable to rely on the support of his mother when it came to his magical education, at least her wand seemed to support him. He flicked and swished it in the direction of the match. However, he put no magic behind the movement, simply refreshing his memory and muscle memory. Feeling assured, he then did the movement a second time with intent. He forgot to say the incantation, having mastered most spells wordlessly during his time as a Professor, but luckily his mistake went unnoticed. Nonetheless, the match transformed from wood into a shiny silver needle on the first try.

Noticing the quick success when she walked past, Professor McGonagall praised his work and gave Slytherin five points. Once she’d moved on to another student, leaving behind a pleased Severus, he transfigured the needle back into a match. Rabastan huffed angrily next to him. The shorter boy looked over to see Rabastan glaring at his match and waving his wand around in frustration.

“Would you like some assistance?” Severus asked tentatively, not having anything better to do until the class ended.

“Sure,” Rabastan grumbled. For a second, Severus hesitated on how to show the first-year student what to do. He was so used to teaching the stirring of cauldrons and the necessary knifework for preparing potion ingredients that he was stumped on how to show wandwork. Severus noticed Rabastan’s frown at his hesitency. However, the boy’s frustration dissipated as Severus finally intertwined their hands and showed him the correct motion clearly, guiding the movement of his hand. Rabastan tried again by himself, transfiguring the match on the third try.

“I did it!” The boy exclaimed excitedly. “Thank you for helping, you’d make a good teacher,” Rabastan complimented.

Severus fought hard not to scoff at his words, knowing he was one of the school’s most hated professors during his many years of teaching at Hogwarts. “I don’t know about that, but you’re welcome anyway. I’m Severus Snape, by the way. I don’t think I got the chance to introduce myself this morning.”

“I’m Rabastan Lestrange. We’ll be sharing a room all year in the Slytherin dorms, so you can call me Rabastan.” He stuck his hand out and Severus shook it firmly.

“Then you may call me Severus.”

Notes:

Here's the two chapters as promised. They are not edited, so please let me know if you see any errors.
Here is the rest of the Summer Update Schedule:
Sunday, June 4th - Chapters 36 & 37
Sunday, June 25th - Chapter 38
Saturday, July 15th - Chapter 39
Sunday, August 13th - Chapters 40 & 41
Late August - to be determined

Chapter 38: Severus Vs. Social Interaction (pt. 1)

Summary:

What the title says...

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Like stray dogs given scraps of food, Black and Potter followed Severus around to all of the classes Gryffindor and Slytherin shared. In Charms, they sat in the seats on both sides of him, matching smirks on their faces as dread sat heavy in Severus’ stomach.

“Today we will go over the basics of Charms before we start any wand waving.” Professor Flitwick’s words, spoken from atop a stack of thick textbooks, were met with a chorus of groans and disappointed murmurs.

“Now, now,” he added, “It’s important to go over all the rules for your safety and success, as well as that of other students. The sooner we get this done and over with, the sooner we move on to more enjoyable activities. I hope you all take note of—”

Severus’ attention was pulled away from the Professor by a poke from the idiot sitting on his left. He turned to glare at Potter, but the taller boy just smiled at his friend’s cute disgruntlement.

“What is it?” Severus hissed.

“Are you excited for Herbology?”

“Why do you ask?”

“Well, you were reading a book on magical plants when we met on the train, so I assumed you liked Botany. Even if you don’t like it, Herbology is our next class.”

Dark eyes blinked, and Severus sat silently for a moment. Potter raised an eyebrow. “I do find interest in the topic,” he finally answered, “I’m just surprised you remembered my choice of reading material.”

Potter shrugged and grinned handsomely, pushing his glasses further up his nose as they slipped down. “I’m looking forward to flying lessons. I’m great on a broom,” he boasted. “Next year, I’ll be on the Gryffindor Quidditch team for sure.”

“Oh please,” Black cut in, “I’m definitely a better flyer than you.”

“We’ll see about that,” Potter declared.

He balled up a sheet of parchment and threw it at Black. Severus ignored the two as any maturity they possessed devolved into childish behavior. He sat in his seat elegantly and took diligent notes as the two Gryffindors threw papers and quills at each other and lost their house ten points. Professor Flitwick kept them after class to scold them. Severus didn’t wait up, instead heading outside.

They caught up with him halfway to the greenhouses as he walked with Rabastan. Potter stopped beside him, but Black’s momentum caused the two to collide. The two fell to the ground, Potter’s glasses falling off his face. The two quickly stood and brushed their robes off to cling to what little dignity they had left.

Crunch. Potter froze at the noise of glass breaking underfoot and looked down at his broken glasses. He lifted his foot and picked up the glasses, mouth curving downwards in a frown.

“Bloody hell,” he cursed.

“You don't have any glass in your foot, do you?” Severus asked, wincing slightly at the thought.

“No, but my glasses are buggered,” Potter huffed. “What do I do now?”

Removing his wand from his pocket and barely resisting the urge to roll his eyes, Severus stepped towards him. “You can do magic, can’t you? It’s an easy enough fix.”

Carefully, as to not cut himself on the broken glass of the lenses, Severus took the glasses and pointed his wand at it. With a short gesture and a quietly spoken Oculus Reparo, the pieces of glass moved into their proper place in the round metal frames. Once the cracks wholly disappeared, Severus returned the mended eyewear to Potter for his inspection. The messy-haired Gryffinor gazed at the good-as-new glasses in awe before putting them onto his face and blinking as his vision returned.

“Wow,” Potter exclaimed quietly.

This time, Severus didn’t bother to stop himself from rolling his eyes at the boy’s dimwitted actions. “You’re welcome,” he drawled sarcastically. “No need to thank me or any such polite nonsense.”

“Thank you,” Potter stumbled over himself to say.

“That was an awesome spell!” Black declared loudly.

Severus couldn’t help but laugh as they walked toward the greenhouses, the two Gryffindors praising him overdramatically while Rabastan chimed in every once and a while. By the time they reached the Herbology class they had drawn quite a bit of attention. Professor Sprout, covered in multiple layers of dirt, walked out of the first greenhouse with a small clay pot of dittany.

“Hello, students!” She cheerily set down the pot on a wooden stool and brushed off her hands. “Let’s put on our gloves and get started! These plants aren’t going to repot themselves, you know.”

Severus had splurged on dragonhide gloves—and all the potion ingredients he could afford—when Eileen had taken him to Diagon Alley, since she had left him alone inside Slug and Jigger’s Apothecary while she bought a cage for Valeriana at The Magical Menagerie. Potter, however, had forgotten to bring any gloves and spent the entire class moaning and whining. Severus had to physically restrain himself from casting a Silencio on the Gryffindor to give his ears a break. However, he didn’t want to get in trouble on his first day of classes just because of a Silencing Charm.

At the end of the class, despite the gloves, smudges of dirt marred Severus’ robe. Thinking nothing of it, he shot off a quick cleaning spell. It caught the eye of the Ravenclaw girl standing a meter away from him, who quickly inquired how he’d gotten rid of the dirt. She appeared next to him out of nowhere, bluntly asking, “How’d you do that?”

“I used the Scouring Charm,” he explained. “The incantation for it is Scourgify.”

Before he could make his escape, he found himself surrounded by a quarter of the class, a single figure with green on his robes surrounded by blue. He sighed regretfully, knowing he’d be repeating himself for the next five minutes.

At least he got ten house points from Professor Sprout for his efforts, though he was almost late to History of Magic.

Notes:

This chapter is not edited, so please let me know if you notice any errors

Chapter 39: Severus Vs. Social Interaction (pt. 2)

Notes:

Sorry for not posting this yesterday! I did a silly and forgot to plug in my computer the night before yesterday so the battery died, and I had to wait for it to charge and turn on so I could post. Here is chapter 1/2 and 2/2 will be uploaded in the next ten to fifteen minutes after HTML configuration.

Chapter Text

The fourth class on his timetable was Potions, which Severus was initially excited to attend. However, Severus left the Potions Classroom with smoke practically shooting out of his ears. He’d never liked Horace Slughorn, especially when he had to work alongside him as professors, but he’d forgotten what a condescending, disgusting, suck-up the overweight man could be. Glaring at the Slug Club invitation in his hands, he viciously crumpled it up and shoved it to the bottom of his bag. His current problem was his own fault really. No first-year student could make a perfect Forgetfulness Potion on the first try, but the comfortable familiarity had distracted Severus from hiding the extent of his knowledge and experience. And now, Slughorn had put his mind to collecting Severus for his stupid club, which the time-travelling wizard would rather die than be a part of.

The first time around, Lily Evans had received a Slug Club invitation a year before Severus impressed Slughorn enough to receive one of his own. Severus had made the mistake of going to one of Slughorn’s parties as Lily Evans’ plus one. The night had ended in humiliation, and when he’d gotten his own invitation the year after he’d have turned it down if Lucius hadn’t convinced him otherwise. While the parties were a good opportunity to make connections with successful and well-known witches and wizards, the experience was not worth it overall. The social interactions involved far too much bootlicking and one-upping for Severus’ liking. Recalling Eileen’s diary entries and the photograph held within, clearly his mother did not share his negative opinion of the Slug Club.

Severus checked his schedule, pleasantly surprised to see he had a free period. He turned down the next corridor, deciding to find Valeriana so they could sit outside by the lake. As if telepathic, the large feline sat waiting patiently for him by the entrance to the dorms, drawing the attention of several older Slytherins. She perked up when she saw him, prancing over with her head and tail held high, the little bell jingling on her collar. Severus knelt down to greet her with petting and picked her up like one would hold a small child. With a kiss to the forehead, he carried her up the staircases and down the halls to the front entrance. Thankfully, there didn’t appear to be many other people by the lake, mostly older students studying or playing Exploding Snap.

Finding a good spot at the base of a tree several metres away from any other people, Severus sat down on a small blanket. Valeriana sprawled out in the sun, taking up almost half the blanket. He pulled out Eileen’s diary and read an entry.

—The weather looked so nice today, so I went down by the lake in my new dress robes. Honestly, I was hoping to run into Tom Riddle. I haven’t seen him in a while since he’s been associating with the Blacks, and Druella Black is such a shrew that I don’t dare to spend time in her presence. I just do not know what Rosier sees in her. Though,considering Rosier and his, well, everything maybe they are meant for each other. Yes, they are both so awful they must be meant for each other just like how I must be meant to be with Tom. He just hasn’t realised it yet. When I went down to the lake I saw him sitting on the rocks. He looked oh so handsome in the light of the setting sun! But he didn’t even get to see me in my new dress because it suddenly started to rain! It was awful! The sun was shining all morning and then it began to rain without any prior warning. My hair was ruined, and I couldn’t stand for him to see me less than perfectly put together. I’ll have to keep working on that potion to maintain perfect hair. I bet it will make all the other witches jealous and catch Professor Slughorn’s attention—

Nope, that was enough of that. Severus closed the diary and shoved it back into his bag, regretting reading such hormonal blathering. He took a deep breath and looked out at the lake to clear his thoughts. Severus crossed his legs, fixed his posture, and closed his eyes to meditate.

Of course, the peace didn’t last. Next time, Severus would stay in his dormitory and put up a privacy ward. Why couldn’t children in this school respect people’s privacy?

A skinny girl with wispy reddish-brown hair and a lumpy hand-knitted scarf in an eye-watering array of colours stood right in front of him, her hands on her hips. “You’re sitting in my spot.”

Severus wordlessly raised an eyebrow while Valeriana rolled over lazily. “So what?”

“Leave,” she ordered.

“Why?”

She choked. “Why? Because I am the descendent of the great Cassandra Trelawney! Find a different spot to sit, or else I’ll tell you all about your horrible future!”

“Ah,” he hummed calmly, suddenly recognizing her. Sybill Trelawney had been a Ravenclaw in the year ahead of him, but he’d never spoken to her before they both became professors at Hogwarts. Even as a child, she’d been a bit barmy. “I’m afraid I won't be moving. You will have to find somewhere else to sit.”

Her face became worryingly red, an unhealthy amount of blood rushing to her face as she screamed in frustration and stomped her foot like a toddler having a tantrum. Rudely, she pointed her finger at him and spoke through gritted teeth. “You—You’ll die a long, painful death. I foresee it!”

“How unfortunate,” he said emotionlessly, before pretending she didn’t exist. She gave up and stomped away.

Chapter 40: Do Brits Really Talk About the Weather?

Summary:

Sort of a filler chapter, but Severus makes a friend :)

Notes:

Please excuse my overuse of em dashes. I know it's too many, but I promise I took some out!

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Despite their earlier bragging, Potter and Black didn’t get the chance to show off their skills on a broom, since Madam Hooch—young and sprightly in her early thirties, her hair not yet greying—had kept a strict eye on them during flying lessons. The same could not be said for the first-year Slytherins, who seemed to manage to cause trouble every second Hooch’s back was turned. Severus stood to the side with a well-mannered Rabastan and watched in horror. If he were still a professor, Severus would have already taken several points away for the Slytherin students’ behaviour.

“I’ll be the best flyer in our year!” Mulciber claimed, turning upside down on his broom in an apparent wish to crack his head open.

“We’ll see about that,” Parkinson replied. “I’m going to try out for the Quidditch team when I'm old enough.”

The two kicked off the ground competitively, with Rookwood quick to follow them into the air. At first they hovered just a few feet off the ground, and for a moment it seemed they might rethink their actions and land. However, they did not. While Madam Hooch was distracted explaining how brooms could fly to a confused Muggle-born who’d gotten bonked in the nose with his broomstick, Rookwood had somehow managed to fly off across the field. She turned around just in time to see him smack into a stone wall. Severus winced at the thud of the impact and the following screech of Hooch’s voice as she went off on the misbehaving boy. Rabastan started up a dull conversation about the weather, and Severus happily followed along as he pretended not to see or hear the commotion.

“It’s a nice day out, isn’t it?” Rabastan asked in a thin voice.

“—never in all my years teaching flying at Hogwarts!

“Yes, it is. There aren’t very many clouds today,” Severus noted.

“—of all the irresponsible things to do on a broom!

“The sky is so very blue. Even better than yesterday, I think."

“—could’ve broken a bone!”

“I hope the weather will be nice tomorrow.”

Lunch, thankfully, was uneventful. Severus enjoyed a hearty soup and a warm sausage roll. He slipped bits of meat to Valeriana, who lounged atop his feet under the table. Rabastan stuck by his side throughout the meal and did not comment on the presence of an animal at the midday meal. They ate in comfortable silence, broken only by the crunching of crisps and the obnoxious laughter of the Gryffindor table across the room.

On their way through the halls, the young wizards witnessed as Nott tripped over a cat on his way to his next class. Catching his balance, the Slytherin boy cursed verbally at the feline. To Rabastan’s shock and Severus’ expectation, the dark grey tabby transformed into Professor McGonagall.

“Professor McGonagall, I—”

“You should watch where you’re walking, young man. I do not want to hear a repeat of such foul language again these hallways!”

“There’s a pleasant breeze outside today,” Severus said to Rabastan.

“I think I could use some fresh air,” he replied.

Later on, in the library, the two Slytherins pretended not to know Rookwood as they sat and studied quietly at their table. Looking up from his parchment, Severus watched as the unfortunate boy dropped a stack of Quidditch books right in view of a young Irma Pince. The older student, who was studying diligently, was out of her seat in a flash to tower over the young Slytherin angrily.

“I better not catch you mistreating these books in front of me again. Do you know how old these written works are?! I—”

“It looks quite nice out,” Rabastan hurried to say.

“Yes, look how still the lake is outside the window.”

The boys turned around to face the window as the Pince continued to tear into Rookwood.

“—rip, tear, disfigure, or in any other manner disrespect these books—”

“Maybe we should take our materials outside and study by the lake,” Rabastan suggested.

“—why I ought to do the same to you!”

“That sounds like a great idea. In fact, it might rain tomorrow, so we should definitely go right now,” Severus said, overhearing Pince’s threats of bodily harm.

The two first-year boys packed up their quills and ink and quickly fled the library with their books carefully in hand. As they hauled their supplies down the nearest staircase, Severus mentally concluded that he’d need to find a nice, quiet space to study if he wanted to get anything done this year. Also, he concluded, perhaps Rabastan wasn’t a bad companion to spend time with.

Notes:

Next up: Marauders, Lupin, and it's time to talk about werewolves

Chapter 41: Update Schedule

Chapter Text

Hello!
I received a couple confused comments asking why only one chapter was posted yesterday when the update schedule said there would be two. Yes, two chapters were posted yesterday, Chapter 39 and Chapter 40. However, since Chapter 39 took the place of the old update schedule that was already posted as the 39th chapter in this work, readers subscribed to updates may not have received an email notification about it since it was technically already posted before yesterday's update and was just edited with the chapter text.
For future updates: at least one more chapter will be posted this month, but after that I do not know yet.

Chapter 42: Anouncement of Hiatus

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Hello everyone!
As you may have noticed, I have been a bit MIA recently. I apologize for not posting or providing an update sooner. I am writing to anounce an official hiatus. I will not be able to write for awhile. I fell off of a horse and ended up with a broken finger, two fingers with a bad contusion, and a fractured wrist. As you can imagine, it is very difficult to write while wearing a cast and also painful. So, unfortunately, I will have to take a break from this fanfic until I can feasibly type. (Typing with one hand is very slow). My apologies for the delay in updating you all on the radio silence. Thank you for reading, and I hope you have a great holiday season!

Chapter 43: New Update Schedule - SO SORRY FOR THE DELAY :(

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Hello,
I am so sorry that I still have not updated! A lot of irl stuff came up all of a sudden and I have not had time to work on any fanfics. Based on your responses, I will be uploading what I currently have of the gamer AU HP fanfic soon. Updates for this fic will be a bit further delayed, since I do not have the time or energy to write new chapters at the moment due to everything going on. Again, I greatly apologize for setting false expectations in my previous update. I thought I would be doing a lot of writing and updating this past month, but it did not go as planned and I should have let you all know sooner about the schedule change. Thank you all for your patience, and I hope you are all enjoying great fics on AO3 with more reliable authors in the meantime :)

Porcupine Quills & Potion Spills: The Second Life of Severus Snape - ShenYuan_did_not_transmigrate_for_this - Harry Potter (2024)

Chapter 1: Sent Back in Time

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Chapter 2: To Change Oneself

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Chapter 3: A Trip to the Park

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Chapter 4: The Causes and Side Effects of Magic

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Chapter 5: Occlumency and Forgotten Memories

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Chapter 6: Theories of Time

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Chapter 7: Magic, Illness, and School

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Chapter 8: The Events of Muggle Primary School

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Chapter 9: Errands With Eileen

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Chapter 10: A Displeasing Dinner Experience

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Chapter 11: The Not-So-Pied Piper

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Chapter 12: Sick and Stormy Days

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Chapter 13: A Day On Spinner’s End

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Chapter 14: The Events of Muggle Secondary School

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Chapter 15: The Cottage by The Lake (pt. 1)

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Chapter 16: The Cottage by The Lake (pt. 2)

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Chapter 17: The Deficiencies of Dittany

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