New chapter is live.
Settle in, take your time, and let’s see what waits in the dark 🖤
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Today was the day for Diagon Alley.
After learning that Lily and Petunia’s friends were magical children too, the Evans family had been very willing to take both Snape and Callan to Diagon Alley with them.
Their car, however, only had four seats, and it would have been a squeeze.
Through Lily, Callan politely declined the invitation, though he still said he would buy the supplies on the list that same day.
They would simply have to go separately.
Snape sat in his dark bedroom, idly using his mother’s wand to shoot flies near the ceiling while he waited for the time he and Callan had agreed on.
His hair was still greasy.
His eyes drifted, almost by accident, to the small cloth pouch nearby.
It held the student aid fund Dumbledore had brought during his home visit.
Whether intentionally or not, Dumbledore had arrived while Snape’s father, Tobias Snape, was not at home.
He had given the Galleons to Snape’s mother, Eileen Prince, and she had passed every coin on to Snape himself.
Snape was not an orphan like Callan, but years of Muggle life and his family’s extreme poverty had still qualified him for assistance from the school.
When he thought of that, and of the quiet relief his mother had shown at the time, the aim of his wand began to drift.
Irritation pressed at him for no clear reason.
At last, he stood up and checked his only set of clothes again in the cracked mirror.
There was no real need to check them anymore.
Callan’s alterations had been perfect.
The clothes were almost unrecognizable compared with what they had been before.
Even Tobias Snape had shown rare surprise when he saw them, though his attitude had remained as foul as ever.
Eileen, meanwhile, seemed to think of something.
She had only murmured, “Making friends is a good thing. It is a good thing.”
Snape did not know why his mother had said that.
They spoke so rarely that mother and son had become strangers to each other.
Eileen had never told him what had happened at school, and for as long as Snape could remember, she had always worn the same weary, downcast expression, as if she had never been happy in her life.
Snape grew restless again.
A wave of impatience and anger rose in him for no clear reason.
He did not know why.
Was it anger toward his father?
Disgust at his mother’s weakness?
He did not know.
Perhaps he did not need to know.
Before long, he would be going to Hogwarts.
There, he would be free.
And Lily would be there too.
At the thought of Lily, a faint smile touched Snape’s mouth.
It was a rare, gentle expression that neither Callan nor Lily had ever seen.
He only allowed it to appear when he was alone.
But when he thought of Callan, the smile slowly faded.
Yes.
There was Callan too.
Snape still remembered Dumbledore’s home visit, the look that had seemed able to see straight through him, and the only question Dumbledore had asked.
“Mr. Snape, what kind of person do you think Callan Ashworth is?”
What kind of person?
Annoying.
Talkative.
Dramatic.
Someone with an outrageous hatred of Dark magic, yet who would still read about it if the book was put in front of him.
Someone almost madly hungry for magical knowledge.
In that short span of time, Callan had already gone through all of Eileen’s magic books.
Snape did not know how much he remembered, but it had not been a small number of books.
“A very strange person, Professor Dumbledore.”
That was how Snape had answered in the end.
Yes.
In Snape’s eyes, Callan was strange, and full of contradictions.
He liked magic, yet did not hate Muggles.
He preferred spells that did no harm, yet he drew a clear line when it came to the Dark Arts.
Then there was the way Callan treated him and Lily.
It was almost a kind of careless concern.
Callan’s methods were not exactly pleasant, but the results were not bad.
After staring blankly into the mirror for quite some time, Snape slowly exhaled.
He put his mother’s wand back into his drawer and straightened his clothes one last time.
This would probably be the last time he ever used that wand.
Snape went down the narrow attic stairs and saw his mother cleaning the house.
He did not understand why she refused to use magic for something like that and insisted on doing it the stupid Muggle way.
It was foolish.
Even if she was his mother, it was still foolish.
Eileen looked up, revealing the same tired, downcast face she always wore.
When she saw her son standing silently by the stairs, she lowered her head again and went back to cleaning.
It was as if this was the only way she could speak to him.
“Are you sure you do not need me to go with you?”
Snape turned his head away.
He did not look at his mother either.
His fingers unconsciously smoothed over a crack in the wall as he answered in a low voice, “No. I’ll meet Callan first, then buy supplies with the Evans family in Diagon Alley. It shouldn’t take long.”
“That is good.
That is good,” Eileen murmured, then added, “Making friends is always a good thing.”
It seemed she wanted her child to treasure this hard-won friendship.
For some reason, though, those were the only words that came out.
Silence settled over the house.
Only the soft sound of Eileen cleaning remained.
Snape felt as if the silence might drive him mad.
Just as he had never liked his parents’ arguments, he hated this wordlessness with something deep and bitter.
The Evans family was never like this.
Lily had never had this kind of misery, at least not that Snape had ever heard.
Even Callan never seemed to miss his parents.
‘If I really were an orphan, maybe that would be better.’
It was the first time Snape had thought it with such malice.
After wrestling with herself for a moment, Eileen suddenly walked over to him.
It was the first time Snape could remember seeing his mother this close.
He seemed to guess what might happen next, and panic rose in him for no reason.
But Eileen only kept her head lowered.
She took a wad of wrinkled pound notes from her apron and slipped them into the pocket of his outer coat.
Awkwardly, she said, “Buy something with it. At least… do not buy second-hand robes.”
Eileen lifted her head and looked at her son.
Her arm moved slightly, as if she wanted to touch his face, the way mothers usually did.
In the end, she lowered her head again and returned to the housework that seemed as if it would never be finished.
For a moment, Snape felt as though he could not breathe.
He stood there trembling faintly.
This time, however, the silence did not disgust him.
Instead, he felt almost grateful for it.
“I’m going,” Snape said at last in a hoarse whisper, then left.
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Want to keep going?
I hope this chapter gave you another reason to stay with the story.
There’s still plenty ahead, and things are only starting to unfold.