"I hope you enjoyed our trip and that you will keep using the Knight Bus."
"Thank you," Severus muttered as he stepped off and drew a deep breath. He already felt better than the first time. Without looking back, he headed for home, and the bus vanished, leaving only a light gust of wind and the astonished faces of ordinary passersby.
Muggles could not see the bus. They did not have magic, and the International Statute of Secrecy, signed in 1689, forbade revealing magic or performing it in front of them. When secrecy was breached, Muggles were subjected to Obliviation, a Memory Charm that altered recollection, and the wizard responsible was punished.
As Severus approached Spinner's End, the poor street closed around him like a dirty fist: cramped houses, soot-stained bricks, and the sour smell of damp. He frowned as the tracking spell he had placed on the house winked out. That meant only one thing: someone had broken in.
Looks like my vacation is postponed.
His expression did not change. He could still sense someone inside, and he did not want to scare them off.
He opened the door calmly, looked toward the basement door hanging slightly ajar, and raised an eyebrow.
I am impressed. They even found this door. I can almost praise the wizard who saw through the illusion charm.
"Please, stop doing this. Let us get out of here." an agitated female voice carried up, and Severus frowned. He recognized it at once.
A few seconds later a red-haired girl dragged a grown man out of the basement. The man kept trying to twist away and stumble back down the stairs. The moment the girl saw Severus watching, she went pale and snatched for her wand. Before she could cast anything, it flew out of her hand and landed neatly in Severus's.
"Lily. so that is why you have been so restless," Severus muttered, irritated. With telekinesis he slammed her against the wall, hard enough to rattle the frame. Then, walking past the trembling Evans, he cleared the living room with a single impatient gesture, shoving chairs and junk aside as if they weighed nothing, until only the table remained. The cauldron landed on it with a dull clank, steady and heavy.
"Why do you keep pestering me?" he asked coldly. "You have James. Go to him and leave me alone. You have no idea how hard it is for me not to kill you and solve the problem at its source."
"S-Sev, w-why are you doing this?" Lily's voice shook, tears gathering in her eyes.
Women really are strange creatures. Severus shook his head and stepped closer, lifting a hand toward her throat.
Lily squeezed her eyes shut, expecting the worst, but nothing happened. When she dared to open them, a lock of her long red hair lay in Severus's indifferent fingers.
"First you say I am not him, and now you are calling me him," Severus said. "Make up your mind."
"Sev would never hurt me."
"You may be right. He would not." Severus's fingers moved sharply to her slender throat and tightened, just enough to make the point. "But I can. And I will not."
He released her, turned to the cauldron, and drew his wand.
"I swear by my magic that I am Severus Snape and no one else."
Light flared above the wand. Lily stared, stunned, as the oath confirmed it.
"Lily, you never understood me," Severus said, voice flat. "You decided I was some Dark wizard, and I would not be surprised if in your head you put me on the same pedestal as Death Eaters."
"That is not true! I have always thought of you as my friend!"
"Then why did you never support my studies?" Severus asked, irritation sharpening. "Why did you only criticize them? Because Dark Magic is evil?"
Lily bit her lip.
"You are too narrow-minded." Severus shook his head. "Tell me, do you consider Merlin a Dark wizard? Evil incarnate?"
"Of course not!"
"But he was a Dark wizard, one of the most powerful of his time. He used light magic too, but in battle he relied on dark, because it was stronger. If we follow your logic, he was even more evil than Voldemort."
Lily flinched at the name.
"And you criticized my friends," Severus continued.
"Because they were terrible people!"
"I am not arguing," Severus said. "But did you want me to live in complete solitude? Like a puppy waiting for its owner's whistle?"
"N-no. that is not true, I just wanted."
"Help me? Open my eyes to them?" Severus cut in, gaze cold. "Did you really think I did not already know? Lily, I was in Slytherin, a house full of pure-bloods. Who was I supposed to befriend? I am a half-blood. In times like these, when the Dark Lord started recruiting, do you think anyone would be eager to associate with me, a half-blood, a not-quite-pure wizard?"
He let the words sink in, watching her eyes dart as if she was finally seeing the edges of a cage she had never noticed before.
"And when people finally did appear, you immediately started criticizing them and telling me to stop associating with them, meaning I should lose the only friends I could make in my house. Lily, that is selfish. While you had friends to laugh with, I was alone, and at your first call I was supposed to run to you that second. That is what you wanted, is it not?"
"No! No, I never thought that! I just."
Severus raised his palm, cutting her off. He went back to the table, pulled out a pouch, and began taking out black needles. In seconds they turned back into jars of ingredients.
"Sev. why did you do that to your father?" Lily asked quietly, voice trembling. She stared toward the basement, where indistinct muttering still drifted.
"It is called revenge."
"Revenge?"
"Yes. Hey, you damn oaf, get up here!"
Tobias stumbled out of the basement with heavy steps. He swayed from side to side, hands twitching, and his eyes, once full of drunken rage, held only terror now as they fixed on Severus.
"Tell me," Severus said, "why am I tormenting you?"
"Y-you are a m-monster."
"A monster?" Severus shook his head, almost disappointed. "So that is what you think. You still have not understood your mistake, and I wanted to keep you alive."
He glanced at a photograph lying in the corner of the room.
"Tell me. What did you do to my mother?"
"I. I. beat her to d-death." Tobias forced the words out, pale as a corpse.
Lily went rigid. Shock flashed across her face. She had not even known Severus's mother was dead.
"And what did you feel at that moment?" Severus asked.
"I. I was. happy the w-witch. died." Tobias choked out each word, trembling.
"I see," Severus said. "And when did you beat her over the last ten years?"
"I. I felt alive! That damned witch should have died long ago and left me alone!"
"Now do you understand why I am doing this?" Severus asked Lily, smiling. Her face was as pale as Tobias's.
"Sev. stop." Lily's voice broke. "You should not sink to his level. I understand he did something terrible, but."
Before she could finish, Severus's hand struck her cheek.
"Lily, you are too naive," Severus said quietly. "You do not understand that our world is not a fairy tale. If you keep thinking like this, you will die young. Mark my words."
He lifted his wand.
"Obliviate."
//===================//