Half-Blood Prince's Tale (Hp Si as Snape)

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

[An: So I am new to this site and this is my third fic.Its a rewrite too. I always liked a hp fic with an Si/oc set in the marauder era but there are so few of them that I decided to write one.

Do tell me how it is and constructive criticism is appreciated. I am not very good with grammar and English isn’t even my first language so I most probably made mistakes.

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I think I am dead. The last thing I recall was feeling a sharp pain arching up my spine, followed by a feeling of extreme tightness in my chest.

A wave of dizziness hit me as I struggled to breathe. A feeling of dread rose along with growing pain in my chest until I couldn’t remain standing anymore. The dizziness made my vision blurry but I could make out the floor nearing me and just before impact, everything turned black and then there was nothing.

……
If darkness was called the absence of light, then this was certainly darkness…

I found myself in a dark place with endless…..well, darkness. Recalling the last moments of pain and terror, I can safely conclude that I died.

Of course, I could be wrong but something tells me that’s not the case. I think I experienced a sudden heart attack and considering that I lived alone, the chances of me receiving medical attention was abysmal so this makes me stick to the theory that I died.

And I can’t help but get angry at the world for it, I died just like that….I had many things to get done, dreams of becoming rich and powerful , living a happy life but now all of that remain just that, dreams…..just expectations and hope bundled together as a product of an active imagination.

I died young, I had not even reached 25. I wasn’t a good person but I wasn’t a bad one either.As much as I hate to say it, I was an ordinary guy with nothing special. I had a few hobbies, an unstable job and average looks.

I had quite a few things I regretted but alas there was nothing I could do now, perhaps if I was more optimistic, I might have said , “‘Oh well’ there are worse ways to die.” but unfortunately I was not and now I was dead floating in what I assume is limbo.

Science had progressed a lot over the years but scientists still can’t tell what a dying person thought and felt before dying. Nobody knows what happens after death.

Majority of the world believed in one of many religions and thought after death they would go to their respective afterlives. Others think that death was the end and there was nothing after and some just don’t care.
The second group's view looks the most accurate.There was no heaven or hell and instead there was just endless darkness encompassing everywhere. I am….or ‘was’ not an overly religious person so I didn’t know what to expect when I died but an empty devoid void of nothingness was not what I was expecting.

I was all alone now floating in limbo as a soul , mind or whatever remains of you after you die. Nothing to see, hear ,touch or feel, it was a rather disturbing ‘feeling.’

Maybe this was not limbo but hell? After all being trapped here all alone would drive even the loneliest person to madness.

I really hope something happens now…

…….
[ ? ? time later]

‘Somebody please get me out of here, I can’t take it anymore!!!’

I don’t know how long I have been here as there is no way to gauge time around here but I can’t stand it anymore.

This sensory deprivation is getting to me. I don’t claim to be a very strong person, maybe above average but in this place, I will crack soon…
……..
[?? time later]

‘God….Devil, whoever exists, I beg of you to get me out of here.’

‘If there is a ROB out there, I pray for your help….I will entertain you, do anything you ask but please get me out..’

‘System’

‘Statuts’

‘Game?’

‘Anything there ? Is there anything I have to do to unlock you…hahahahaha’

……..
[?? time later]

‘Peace….inner peace. I must achieve inner peace, maybe if I do, I can get out of this place.’

‘Om~’

It’s not working...It’s not working, why is not working ?!!..
……
[?? time later]

After being here for God knows how long if he...exists, I don’t feel anything now, at some point, you would feel emptiness and then you are one with the void…

Wrong...it doesn’t get any better. It’s still a hellish place,no….in fact hell would be kinder than this...anything is better than this.

‘I hate it I hate it hate it’

I hate this place.

‘What did I do wrong to have deserved this ?’

‘Am I destined to remain in this nothingness, in a place where nothing exists ?’

‘Are you saying that all I have lived for was to welcome this end…’

‘No…that would be too much... I will get out of this place, I must get out of here…’
…..
[?? time later]

I don’t know how long I have been here now and I feel that I am on the brink of insanity if I am not already insane.

But something happened….I almost didn’t believe it but no way I was not going to check it out.

There was a white light that I could make out, it was at the far edge of the void. I couldn’t tell how far it was but I made my way towards it. I didn’t have a body, not anymore but I could still somehow move or at least float about.Floating around was one of my favorite pastime activities until it started to feel like I never made any progress.

The light was my only hope and even though I couldn’t determine the distance, I didn’t give up. Many not so positive thoughts campe up within my mind as it started looking I was not nearing it anytime soon.

‘What if it's just an illusion?’

‘What if I am like a moth flying towards the sun deluded by my time in the void to think I can actually reach it?’

But desperation or optimistically ‘hope’ is a great motivator so I pushed these thoughts behind and kept moving.

I don’t know how or when but suddenly I found myself nearing the light. If I still had a face, it would have had the biggest smile it could make.
………

I finally reached the white opening after what felt like years. I successfully managed not to go insane I think…. as I kept my thoughts centered around the white opening.

I gave myself one last push and entered the light.
…….

What happened next is hard to describe, one moment I was out there in the void entering the opening and the next second I was accelerating through space, a wormhole or something along those lines….I was not very good at science.

With no time to comprehend what was happening, I experienced a change that was unlike anything I had ever felt. It felt like my body or soul was stretched to the limits in all directions and then put back together crudely all at the same time.

It was a strange and disorienting experience but what came after that made me swallow all my complaints.

*thump* *thump*

Two sounds, two very distinct and familiar sounds greeted my ears. It was, no doubt about it, the sound of a heart beating. The sound grew fainter as other sensory information started appearing.

I could feel the rise and descent of my chest as I inhaled and exhaled. I could feel my heart thumping against my chest. I could feel….and the feeling was fantastic!

After having been deprived of all senses, finally feeling them again was a surreal experience. To feel alive after so long almost made me cry and I cried as I felt tears roll down on my face.

No longer was I in the endless darkness but instead I found myself in a small room, with a desk and chair next to a bed.

It was an unfamiliar room as I don’t recall ever having a room like this. While memory was never my strong point, I still knew how my room looked and this was not how it looked like.

I had expected my memories to deteriorate in the void but they didn’t. I actually wanted that to happen at one point as being mindless meant I would suffer less but that didn’t happen.

I raised my hands up to my eye level and I immediately noticed another thing amiss. The hands I saw were smaller than I remembered and were even somewhat pale but before I could solve this mystery, a sharp pain enveloped my entire being.

Memories, Images and thoughts not my own bombarded my mind and before I could react to them, I blacked out.
….
I was still in the same room when I regained my consciousness. The room was not unfamiliar anymore as I had received the memories of the body I was currently inhabiting.

Turns out I didn’t wake up in my own body, in fact I didn’t even wake up in the same world as in my world Severus Snape was a fictional character and magic was not real.

I let that sink in for a few moments as I slowly processed it. No doubt about it, I had transmigrated like all those characters had in the books I used to read. Reading was one of my hobbies and it also included fanfics and webnovels where this was a common trope.

I couldn’t believe it even though I had thoughts of being in the exact situation many times. It all felt surreal but looking at the face staring at me in the mirror proved that it was real.

Of all the people or ‘characters’ to wake up as, Severus Snape wouldn’t be on my mind.

I took a better look at myself and saw the face of a young boy with some baby fat still present. I had a pale countenance and a better face than my previous one with long hair that extended till the back of my neck.

The attire I was wearing was not something I would be caught wearing in 2020 or any time for that matter. A big baggy shirt with unwashed stains and pants with faded color.

The memories I had were that of a young Snape who was only 10 years old. I didn’t get all his memories but I did get enough to conclude that he had a shitty childhood.

His childhood if you could call it that painted the very picture of a dysfunctional family. His father was a typical drunk bastard of a father who abused his wife and son. All memories Severus had of the man Tobias Snape were bad ones, not a single one radiated positiveness.

The man didn’t resemble Severus much and the only thing Severus seemed to have inherited from the man was his oily hair. He looked better in Severus’ earliest memories of him but now he was just a wife beater sporting a beer belly.

Him being unemployed also didn’t help the household, not when he spent what little money his wife got after selling heirlooms indulging in his vices- mainly drinking.

Overall Tobias Snape was barely a human. No wonder Severus hated muggles, I would too if Tobias was the first muggle I had to interact with.

I was not sure what action to take when I learnt I had to deal with an abusive dad but one thing was sure, I wouldn’t take it lying down like Severus did.

But these were things to deal with later so I just sorted my memories along with Snape’s. I don’t know how I could do this but I instinctively knew how to do it. Maybe it was because of the two sets of memories? Maybe Snape’s talent in Occlumency was showing? Or this was an effect of the void?

I had no idea and had little information to even test things out so I decided to put that at the back of mind in a list to investigate and searched for memories related to the thing I was most excited about. Magic.

 

The second chapter took a while…..I was busy with irl stuff and covid issues. Anyway, here you go.
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Ah...magic, something almost every kid dreamed of at least once in their lifetime. Now that I was in a world where magic was real, I couldn’t help but get excited.

There were so many things I could do with magic, so many things I could accomplish that just thinking of them made me giddy.

The magic system so to speak in this world was not very well explored by the author and I am not even in the same period as the protagonist

My canon knowledge of the plot is pretty much useless and any action I take could drastically change it without me knowing anything.

It still had some use as it did give me an insight into things that would have otherwise remained hidden from me. This knowledge would help me choose a path however I want and gives me many options.

Coming back to magic, I had already set up a goal of sorts to reach with it. Some would call me delusional for having it, most would call it a pipe dream but it didn’t matter as I didn’t want to go back there. By there, I meant the place I went to when I died,... the void.

Therefore my goal was to become immortal thus avoiding going back...there.I didn’t know whether I would even go there if I died again but I didn’t want to take my chances.

The void was a terrifying place, just thinking about it filled me with a sense of dread and helplessness and I never wanted to go back there ever again.

No wonder Voldemort was afraid of death if this was the place that awaited one after death, it was natural to fear it and only immortality would keep me away.

Voldemort had a similar goal and he did everything he could to accomplish it but his biggest mistake was being hasty. He found one option and without assessing the risk went along with it and he was supposed to be smart.

….heck he didn’t even bother exploring other options until later when he lost to Lily Potter, not Harry because he didn’t do anything. It was Lily Potter’s sacrifice that saved him after all.

Worse still, he didn’t even wait for graduation and went ahead with the ritual.

Granted he succeeded and how to make a Horcrux wasn’t a question that would appear in his O.W.L.S or N.E.W.T exams but it was basic sense to try it after doing more research on it and its effects.

Many theories or fanfic theories to be accurate, suggested or even outright stated that Tom Riddle went insane after making his first Horcrux.

I didn’t know how much of that was true but from what I saw, he already had a few screws loose.

His impatience was his first big mistake and the second was a very ‘Hermione’ mistake that is believing in a book blindly. Now I knew that not all books were wrong but the one Riddle believed in was not accurate nor did it explain in detail.

It only vaguely mentioned that Horcruxes were evil and foul with a ‘don’t try it at home’ warning. In fact, Riddle had to sneakily consult Slughorn who gave him even lesser information.

He was a gifted student but being gifted didn’t equal making wise decisions apparently as time and time again, he kept making worse decisions.

Maybe, just maybe...if the book was written by the creator of Horcruxes, Herpo the Foul himself then perhaps it could be trusted. Even then I wouldn’t be willing to take the chance unless it was the only option I had left.

But...that was not the case, with my foreknowledge I had many more options than Riddle ever had and better yet even had a general idea on how to accomplish them.

He didn’t stop after making one Horcrux but kept going like a madman.
He mutilated his soul seven times, making it smaller and weaker each time. I still couldn’t believe how he didn’t notice that he couldn’t sense his Horcruxes. Harry destroyed most of them before he learnt that they were getting destroyed.

His empathy for the living or at least what little feelings he might have ever had for humans were lost and he went from killing as a means to an end to a murder hobo who relished in it.

I didn’t know if dark magic messed with his psyche and turned him into what he became at the end so dark magic was a field I would approach with utmost caution if I didn’t want to lose myself to its seduction...kind of the dark side of the force but less obvious.

But all things considered, Horcruxes were still an option, it was the easiest path to immortality compared to the deathly hallows whose effects were never confirmed or the philosopher’s stone which was not foolproof.

Any object that is made into a Horcrux turns into a pseudo sentient dark artefact that is near indestructible by normal means. Even house-elf magic has no effect on it. The object also tries possessing a person who holds it.

If I could resist the effects of possession with occlumency, something which was a must to learn, I could make Horcruxes or at least have others make them and then use the object that is used in making them as a weapon or an artefact.

It was a very crude and inhuman way of making high-grade artefacts. But it was effective and relatively easy to make. Of course, it came with side effects like the artefact trying to kill or corrupt its wielder but it could be overcome if the wielder was skilled enough.
They were nearly indestructible and even elf magic couldn’t destroy them but I was not sure about this as it could have all been attributed to charms and curses Voldemort put on them.

As for living Horcruxes like Harry, they could be viewed as a higher level of the mark but they were double-edged swords as I could become vulnerable to the person who I was technically inhabiting.

I decided to look into this later but the mark idea reminded me of another snake man who also dreamt of being immortal.

This man was none other than pedo sannin Orochimaru. His curse mark was like the dark mark but better and also shared similarities with Harry Horcrux.

I could try and replicate it with magic but those were thoughts to be explored when I am proficient in magic.

It enhanced the curse bearer’s power but slowly increased Orochimaru’s influence over them making them seek him out for more power and in the end, they only served to increase his power.

As I thought about it, Orochimaru was just a better Voldemort. Both pursued the same goal,i.e immortality but the paths they took were different. Voldemort took the easy way out and didn’t work hard for immortality.

He just went along with the first option he got and never looked for more whereas Orochimaru on the other hand actually tried to understand immortality and made his own path.

Voldemort abandoned manipulation as a means to get people on his side and just ruled through fear while Orochimaru used both.

Voldemort was prejudiced against muggles and muggleborns. This narrow-minded approach limited his following and thereby limiting his options.
Next up was the fabled philosopher’s stone, a stone whose elixir granted immortality.

The stone which is described as the pinnacle of alchemy was made by Nicolas Flamel. Nothing much was told about him in the books but he did make an appearance in the recent movies which also didn’t give much info about him.

I only knew that he was Dumbledore’s mentor at one point and that they worked on something?

Something about dragon blood I think…

Back to the stone, I couldn’t recall when it was made nor did I remember how old Flamel was supposed to be. The time period was not as vital as the fact that it was man-made.

Flamel made it but how come no one else made it? Was Flamel that good that no one was his match, was it a fluke?, or did Flamel even make it? For all I knew, he could have found it, snatched it from some chap and pulled a Lockhart move.

But still considering that it was actually man-made, I could try making it. I would have to learn alchemy….Yet another thing to do on my to-do list.

The stone though was not as appealing as it didn’t grant true immortality. It may be an artefact of “immeasurable” power but it has its limits. The elixir produced by the stone merely extends one’s lifespan and doesn’t stop ageing.

It slows it down but doesn’t halt it. But I still decided to make it because it has many uses and an extended lifespan means more time to reach my goals.

And finally, last but not least were the deathly hallows. By far the most interesting one of the lot. First, it didn’t state that it granted immortality, only that the one who gathered all three would become a 'master of death’ whatever that means….

I had a general idea of where they were but I was far too weak and young to get any of them.

Deciding to shelve these thoughts, for now, I looked around the room I was in. It was a dingy old room with little space to move around and a cracked mirror on the wall.

I slowly made my way towards it to see my new face. What greeted me was a young boy with a malnourished body and hair that reached his neck.

Running my hands through it, I found that it was not as oily as depicted in the book. Perhaps it was the potion fumes that made them so. Nevertheless, I was content with this body.

I stretched my body and got used to it. After tidying my hair a bit, I finally decided to head out and thus start my new life.
…
The house too wasn’t in better condition than the room. It had gloomy vibes all over with paint rolling off the walls, dirty mats and I could go on.

I began familiarizing myself with the house as I jogged Severus’ or ‘my new’ memories.

….That was a bad decision as most if not all of them were bad ones. I was not looking forward to meeting Tobias….

While I was observing the room, a woman walked in. It was none other than Eileen Snape nee Prince aka the woman who should have known better.

If there was a word to describe her, it would be ‘tired’. She looked like she was exhausted with life.

A weary look marred her face and you could almost tell that she was in depression.
“Morning” I greeted her.

Her eyes widened, clearly not expecting this as Severus rarely ever greeted her.

Taking a closer look at her, I clenched my fist as I felt my anger rising. She had several signs of abuse that she had tried to cover up but clearly hadn’t been too successful.

“M-morning...Severus.” She finally replied awkwardly.

An awkward silence descended as I ran out of things to say. Severus didn’t talk much and I had not talked at all in a long time.

My conversation skills were more than a bit rusty. I had tried talking to myself in the void but had to stop when I started threatening myself.

Shaking myself out of these thoughts I broke the silence, “So….what's for breakfast?”

“I-I made some toast with eggs.” She didn’t wait for me to reply and went inside the kitchen to get it.

Watching her leave, I began looking through memories of her. Now that the pain had subsided, I could browse through them with more ease.

Eileen was a pitiable woman. She made the worst decision of her life when she fell for Tobias. She abandoned the world she grew up in, left her family all to marry this animal and what she got was a miserable life.

Initially, they were a decent family. Browsing through Severus’ earliest memories, the family looked alright but cracks started appearing as Tobias’ true nature began showing.

Eileen picked the worst time to show her magic to him. Tobias was an incompetent man who had been fired at that time so Eileen wanted to earn money by using magic.

But things didn’t go as planned when Tobias’ narrow mind somehow attributed her magic as the reason he got fired.

Regardless to say, things went on a downward spiral from there. Tobias’ temper and poor character didn’t get him any better job or the ones he got didn’t work out well.

Instead of working on his flaws, his twisted mind found a convenient scapegoat….his wife. He began blaming her for his faults and eventually started abusing her.

It started with verbal insults like a witch as the politest but as expenses became tighter, he...started venting on her.

I felt my anger rising yet again as I looked through the memories. Eileen had tried resisting at first. She had been in disbelief when he hit her and tried confronting him but he just switched targets.

He began targeting the then 6-year-old Severus who had begun manifesting magic.
Eileen couldn’t bring herself to kill him, a part of her broken and in denial, so she did the worst thing she could do. She gave up...she pleaded, begged and submitted to the monster.

I did have a theory though...wizarding oaths were pretty serious and I was sure that they took oaths when they had their marriage vows. The foolish woman might have taken one-sided wizard vows which restricted her.

Then again I couldn’t be too sure...I could only speculate for now.

After that the memories were hazy. I found it a bit weird considering how the memories before were clearer but the ones after looked like Severus didn’t want to remember them.

I could forcibly read them if I tried but something told me I wouldn’t like what I would see so I stopped. I didn’t want to have breakfast with terrible traumatic memories playing in my head.

I skipped these parts and quickly went through the parts about magic. Eileen had taught him some magic as a precautionary measure to prevent accidental magic.

Apparently if one began using magic consciously, accidental magic didn’t happen often.

The magic she taught him was fairly simple. She taught him some basic 1st-year charms.

Since Severus didn’t have a wand of his own, she had tried getting him to use her wand but she had no choice but to teach him wandless magic when it turned out to be incompatible.

His innate talent shone through as he quickly got the hang of it. He could cast all 1st-year charms within a year without a wand.

Eileen tried teaching him other magic but her own magic had stopped working. She could still use it but as days went by it deteriorated.

I had a few theories in mind and could recall similar situations. Magic heavily if not primarily relied on emotions. In fact, emotions could even be regarded as fuel for magic.

Tonks if I recalled correctly couldn’t use her metamorph ability well when Remus denied her affections. Dumbledore’s sister was traumatised at a young age and her magic turned volatile.

This could be the reason or she just didn’t want to teach Severus magic. Anyway, her magic started ‘malfunctioning’, she started teaching Severus potions. Severus excelled in it like the others but so far she had only taught him the basics.

I pretty much caught up to the current date after that and soon enough, Eileen came in with the breakfast.

The smell hit me more than I had expected. I did my best to hide my excitement as I saw food, genuine food that I could eat after a long time.

I think Eileen noticed my excitement but she kept quiet which won her some brownie points from me.

After tasting the first bite, I nearly moaned and just managed to hold myself back. The food just tasted so good! It was the equivalent of giving food to someone on the verge of death due to starvation.

I knew this effect would not last forever so I savoured the bite and chewed slowly.

“This tastes very nice.”

I complimented Eileen. It was very underwhelming praise for something so good but I didn’t want to come out too eager and besides it would be breaking Severus’ character which I wanted to maintain at least till I get my thoughts sorted out.

But clearly, even this compliment did the trick as Eileen’s face lit up. I let out a sigh as I felt sad for her. She probably hadn’t heard a compliment in years and seeing her tiny smile I made up my mind.

I didn’t think I could accept her as my mother...yet but I would do my best to be a good son at the very least.
….
After breakfast, I bid Eileen goodbye and set out for the location where Severus frequented most, the park. It was the place where he practiced magic and needless to say I was excited about trying some magic.

 

A/N: Nothing much happens in this chapter but I just wanted to briefly show the time period he is in. Also thanks for the positive response. It really keeps me motivated. Thanks for reading.

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Seeing the sky after such a long time was an exhilarating experience. It was not the sky blue I was expecting but was a dull grey colour.

It was the sixties now and the effects of pollution were showing. People didn't take it as seriously yet and while pollution was still a problem in the future, people were at least trying to reduce it.

Here though, they just made haphazard attempts and called it a day.

I took a good look at my house and saw its dilapidated condition. It was your usual run of mill one storey house made of bricks. It had several cracks running through the walls and had a chimney on top of the roof.

I walked through the town as I went through the memories of it. It was becoming easier to sort through the more I used it and my thoughts were also clearer.

The town I lived in was called Cokeworth and it was somewhere in the middle of England. I wasn't too sure about this as I was not good at geography and Severus had dropped out of school.

As I walk through I observe the houses on the street. They were all similar to mine with each being brick, terraced houses with chimneys and in a state of disrepair, some even worse than mine.

It was a surreal experience walking through the town in a different era. It felt weirdly refreshing. There was no internet yet, phones were not available, cars were moving pollution factories and had none of the safety features and the world seemed bigger.

I read and memorised the signs at the end of the streets as it seemed one could easily get lost here with all houses looking similar. I learnt the name of my street and it was called Spinner's End.

I tried recalling if this street was mentioned in the books. I knew that Lily lived in the same town but I couldn't recall where.

Putting it off, I observed the people. Not many were out during this time of the day and the town was not too populous either. The few that were out didn't look like they wanted to be out.

Nearly every person I laid my eyes on had a resigned look on their face. I suppose it made some sense as the world was approaching the end of the sixties.

The seventies were not a pleasant time to live in. Britain had enjoyed an economic boom like many other countries in the sixties. It had just about recovered from the war and things were looking good.

But the seventies changed that. I didn't have any memory of things that happened during this decade but Severus used to be a paperboy and I could draw some memories from the papers he glanced at.

The manufacturing had increased, unemployment was everywhere and Tobias himself was a victim of it or not….he would have been fired regardless.

If unemployment was not a bad sign already, then another issue was the inflation of prices. So this meant that people were poor with no way to earn money and things were getting pricier.

Naturally, the people weren't happy with their status quo. They were angry and hungry to the courtesy of being poor so they succumbed to their base desires and showed violence.

Riots were common and any person with a loud voice and a bit of charisma could start one. Kindness was an expensive commodity and the economy kept plummeting.

Speaking of riots, the most recent ones to start one were the garbage collectors. The ones from Cokeworth had joined in too so the streets were littered and the already bleak, gloomy town looked worse.

There were some interesting developments as well like feminism. Women didn't want to stay confined and started protesting. Feminism was now fighting for equal rights and was quite tame compared to the one I knew.

I dreaded the day it would change to the feminism I was accustomed to….

I tried racking my brain for more facts and tidbits about the seventies but couldn't recall much. The most substantial info I could force out were some bands and musicians that were from the 70s.

I guess that explained the long hair most people kept. This might have influenced Severus as well as he kept it too.

I could maintain my hair better than him so I had no problem letting it grow but if it proved too troublesome I would cut it short.
…

I soon reached the park. It was one of the few places with greenery in this dreary town.

I pushed the rusted gates open and walked up the mound to get a better view. I could see the horizon of the town and it looked depressing.

It painted a dull picture with monotonous buildings in bad conditions and some factories on the other side-emitting smoke. All in all, it looked like a stock air pollution image.

I made myself comfortable and sat down on the green grass. I decided to try magic.

Shifting through the memories, I tried to emulate the feeling Severus felt when he used magic.

Sure enough, it didn't take long before I felt something. A warm feeling washed over me and I tried channelling it like Eileen had taught Severus.

I picked a small rock, the size of a fist, as my test subject and willed my mind to lift it. At first, nothing happened but then the rock started shaking.

….And that was it. It would be an understatement to say I was upset. I knew I wouldn't immediately be as good as Severus but it turned out I had overestimated myself as I couldn't even lift a damn rock.

I couldn't understand what I had done wrong. I had clearly followed the steps as seen in the memories but it didn't work.I felt sour and disappointed as I was looking forward to using magic and while I technically did use it….it was pitiful, to say the least.

Feeling frustrated, I tried doing it for the umpteenth time but this time I felt something different. Instead of the warm feeling, I was getting accustomed to I felt like I was falling freely, kind of like a hypnic jerk.

I didn't have time to get used to this feeling as I ducked. The stone I tried pulling zoomed past me and crashed against a tree with a thud.

And just like that, I had an epiphany. I understood why my magic didn't function properly. The answer to this was something I hadn't included while performing magic.

In fact, I felt stupid for not thinking of it sooner. The answer was, of course, the thing that drove magic...emotions.

I had tried doing the magic by looking through my memories, I had subconsciously treated it as a how-to video.

Thus with a new mindset, I attempted it again and this time it worked. I felt the familiar tug and focused on the rock.Albeit a bit wobbly, it slowly levitated. I made a gesture of pulling with my palm and it came towards me and landed in my hand.

I felt happy, so happy in fact that I broke out into giggles which soon descended into full-blown laughter.

It was hard to describe the feeling I got when I succeeded in casting my first bout of magic. If I had to describe it though, I would say it was…..magical.
….

[A few hours later]

It didn't take too long for me to get the hang of magic once I figured it out. I still had spells I couldn't perform as well as Severus could but that was understandable.

It had not even been a day since I woke up in this body and I reckoned it would take some more time getting used to.

"Lumos" I gently uttered the incantation and watched as a small light appeared on my fingertip.

The intensity of the light was not too much and it was much brighter when used with a wand but I was satisfied...for now.

Besides wands were in the end just a tool to channel magic. Sure wand-making has been evolving over time and good wandmakers like Ollivander can make wands that give out benefits to the user.

For example, some wands are suited for light magic, some at the transfiguration and so on. Wands are a great tool to use to up your chances of success while performing magic but the wizarding community didn't know how to utilise them well.

Instead of learning magic wandlessly first and then starting with wands, these fools began using it at age 11 with wands.

Since most wizards and witches start magic with a wand they are unable to perform it wandlessly.

So in an ironic twist of fate, the wand, a tool to assist in magic became a crutch limiting the potential and weakening the wizards.

Of course, not everyone was ignorant and talented wizards and witches could perform magic well before arriving at Hogwarts like Riddle for example.

He could move objects around with his mind and could do many other things. Well, even I could do that.I was not at his level yet but that was because I had just gotten a new body and Severus never tried exploring this much.

Honestly, it was not that hard...or maybe it was for someone with a lower talent. I had no idea how magic talent worked but I was sure that it existed.

Amongst all the characters in the series, Severus was near the top and in my opinion only lower than the top brass like Dumbledore, Voldemort, Grindelwald and to some extent Harry.

While it looked like Harry only won through plot armour, it was not true. True plot armour played a big role but Harry was not a weakling either.He only had a few spells and he stuck to them. He was kinda like Naruto in that regard. Both had few moves so naturally, they were very good at using them.

Anyway, I kept experimenting with magic to see the things I could do with it. I could move objects around with my mind like Riddle but I was not as accurate as him yet.

All I had to do was just fine-tune my magic to find something I dubbed the rhythm. I didn't understand much about it but I knew how to achieve it.
Once I did so, my control became more accurate. I wanted to understand it but I was still a novice in magic so I put it off and focused on other spells.

"Wingardium Leviosa" I uttered and a leaf rose in the air.

The levitating charm was not that useful to me as I could do the same without the spell and it didn't work on humans.But it did have some use. It let me make up for my control as the object I lifted using it was much easier to control.

I kept trying magic out and didn't even notice as time flew by. There were other first-year spells that I knew but couldn't perform as they required a medium.

The locking and unlocking charms needed a medium which I didn't have.I had success with other spells but didn't get good targets to truly test them.

I kept practising magic and didn't notice the time fly by. It was only when my stomach growled that I stopped.The sun was now visible and was shining down on me. I was feeling hungry as well so I decided to head back home.

I looked forward to eating lunch but I had to stop when I saw a vehicle parked outside the park. It was an ice-cream van.

I checked my pockets for any money I had and fortunately, I did have some. It was not much but it was enough to get me an ice lolly…..hopefully.

---

[A/N: Feel free to leave your thoughts and questions in the comments.]

 

Thoughts: ' '
Dialogue: " "

---

Eileen Snape couldn't believe it, she was having a good day. She couldn't recall the last time she had felt this happy.

Her day started out better than usual as her husband was not home. Of course, all it did was delay the inevitable abuse that awaited when he came back.

Did she regret marrying him? Yes. Did she regret having Severus?No….

While marrying Tobias had been her worst decision, Severus was not after all he was the only one who was on her side. Her parents had tried dissuading her but her young self was a vain woman filled with delusions and fantasies about love. In the end, she abandoned them and she couldn't even attend their funeral.

She had grown up in a household where both her parents had married each other after their families arranged for it. Typical Pureblood tradition.She had a fiance too, a pureblood one, but he was snobby and older than her by 10 years. She ran away from her house after she turned 17 and had graduated.

She fled to the muggle world where she found Tobias who treated her well and was a sweet talker. She fell for him and then the rest is history.

The reason she was happy today was because of her son. Over the years, her relationship with him had grown worse and it had reached the point that he would not even acknowledge her existence.

It made her upset and guilty each time he just ignored her. The only time Severus was happy with her was when she taught him magic.

But as her magic stopped working properly, she had to stop. Severus didn't believe her and thought that she was lying.This soured their already deteriorating relationship and slowly they drifted apart.

But all that didn't matter now as Severus had changed. It had been a surprise seeing him up so early in the morning but what surprised her more was that he greeted her.

He finally acknowledged her presence again. She also noticed other changes in him. He didn't appear cold as before. In fact, he even approached her.

But she messed up and couldn't hold a good conversation. It had been a long time since she held one after all. Still him trying to hold a conversation with her was enough to make her day.

Another thing she noticed about her son was that he had lost the hatred in his eyes. Before his new change, she could see his hatred. He hated everything in the house and always had a grumpy face but today he had a smile on his face and looked happy.

She couldn't recall the last time he actually smiled. Behind his smile though, she could sense that something was wrong but she couldn't guess what.

Then she made breakfast for him and this was where things became weirder. He ate the food with such vigour that one would think he had not eaten in years.

She also didn't miss the excitement in his eyes when he consumed it.

'I wonder what changed him so much…'

She was curious but she didn't have the courage to ask him. Clearing her mind, she began doing the chores.
…
It was around midday when she heard the bell ring. At first she thought that it was Tobias but she calmed down as she knew the man wouldn't ring a bell and would just start shouting.

She opened the door and saw that it was none other than Severus who had returned.He looked exhausted and out of breath. Sweat trickled down his temple and he was panting.

"Oh it's you Severus, you are home early" Eileen asked as she gestured to him to come in.

"Yes..it was quite sunny today so I came back. Also here take this." he said, handing her an ice lolly.

"F-for me?" Eileen asked as she unwrapped it.

"Obviously. Why would I give it to you then? Eat it quickly, it's already begun to melt."

She had never eaten one and she had only seen it on the tele so she was excited to try it out.

'Severus got this for me…'

"T-thank you Severus."

A smile bloomed on her face and she was about to take a bite out of it.

"Stop!" Severus interrupted her.

She was startled but she did as he said.

"What?"

"What were you about to do?" he asked her.

"I dunno..? Eat it I guess…"

"Oh I am not talking about that. Tell me, were you about to bite into it?"

"Yes?" she answered feeling confused as to why he was asking her this.

His eyes widened in shock as though he couldn't believe it. "Have you never eaten this before?"

She nodded.

"Wait...for real?!"

Once again she nodded.

"Haah…" Severus sighed, " I guess that explains it...You are eating it the wrong way."

"Am I?...I never ate one and just saw them in the tele sometimes so I…" She trailed off as she became self conscious and her cheeks turned red.
'Merlin's beard... I am feeling so embarrassed, I must look like a complete fool in front of him. I can't even eat something the right way...'

Severus chuckled making her even more flushed.

"Oh well...there's a first time for everything. So the way to eat this is to just lick and suck on it...you know like a…"

"Like what?"

Severus was about to answer but he stopped himself . "N-nothing...yeah...so just suck and lick. Don't bite it as you might get a brain freeze.."
She didn't understand why he looked embarrassed but she didn't pry and just started eating like he told her.

As soon as she put it on her mouth, she was overwhelmed by the sweet and sour taste. It was lemon flavoured and while it tasted weird at first, she liked it.
…..
[POV change]

Seeing Eileen eat the lolly with enthusiasm I felt happy. As it turned out the lolly was much cheaper than I had expected so I bought two.

I wanted to go back to trying out magic but I felt extremely tired and hungry. I also had a mild headache which was getting worse.

I had a guess as to why this had happened. I think that using magic like I did tired me out. This meant that magic consumed energy and I couldn't keep using it continuously.

I was surprised I lasted as long as I did. Perhaps the only reason I could do so was because the spells I kept trying were weak basic ones.

"So how was your day?" Eileen asked, breaking me out of my thoughts.

"It was okay I guess. I just tried magic out in the old park."

"What?! But that's dangerous...what if someone saw you?" she said with worry in her eyes.

"Don't worry..I made sure nobody was around.."I said trying to reassure her.

"But still…" she began but I cut her off.

"Alright I will be more careful next time….so what's for lunch?" I asked, trying to divert her attention.

"I don't know. I usually start making it much later but you came home early today so I haven't….hey! Stop trying to change the topic."

"Tch"

"Look Severus, I know you love using magic but it is not something to be taken lightly. Just imagine the consequences if someone saw you."

She did have a point now that I thought about it. In hindsight, I was too excited about trying magic that I kind of disregarded the consequences.

"Yes...mother. I apologize for being too careless. I will be more responsible about it" I said,calling her mother felt weird but I had to eventually get used to it so no harm in starting now.

"Alright...it's good that you understood what I am trying to tell you. Just be more careful about it next time, okay?"

I nodded to show her that I agreed.

We just talked in general after that and I did find some topics to talk about. It was still somewhat awkward talking to her but she was opening up to me.

I tried asking her to teach me magic again but she refused. I didn't give up and kept insisting and finally she conceded a little and let me read other books.

Of course, she told me not to try anything and I agreed. Even if I wanted to try them out, I didn't want to be hasty and rush in without knowing anything.

We kept talking but then a loud banging noise was heard.

"Hey bitch! Open up...It's boiling out 'ere." An annoying voice was heard, I recognised who it was and I felt anger rising within me.

Eileen who was talking with me went quiet as the colour drained from her face. Her eyes turned glazed and I noticed her hand shaking.

Seeing just his presence elicit this response from her showed how deeply he had scarred her.

"...I-I will get the door.." Eileen muttered.

I watched her leave and began thinking of ways to get rid of Tobias.I knew he had to go. I had just started my new life and I didn't want to suffer in it.

*Slap* *thud*

I heard a crisp sound and then in came Eileen stumbling as she fell onto the floor with a red cheek that was swelling.

Following behind her, a figure walked in.

"Why did you take so long to open the door?! All you do is laze around in my house and then you have the audacity to make me wait outside!"

"S-sorry...it won't happen again.."Eileen muttered in a tiny voice.

Eileen endured all this humiliation without uttering a word and didn't even try to resist. Her eyes showed her despair.

Tobias' attention finally fell on me. "Oh...look what we have here, somebody is home early." he said, a malicious ugly smile grew on his face.

Tobias was a relatively tall man with a large beer belly. His face was round and he had oily,slimy hair. If I had to describe him, I would say he looked like a poorer edgier version of Vernon Dursley.

Seeing that I didn't trotted over to me.

I almost gagged as a foul smell hit me. It seemed that he had not taken a bath for a long time. Couple this with alcohol and it was one of the vilest smells I ever had the misfortune of smelling.

No wonder Severus was such a good potions master, he had already gained resistance to smells.

He seemed to have noticed my expression as he asked, "What's with that look you have boy?"

"You are disgusting."I said calmly.

His face morphed into another terrible visage and he was upon me with his hand raised. Just before he could reach me, Eileen grabbed his hand.

"Please forgive him Tobias, he doesn't understand, he is just a kid…" she grovelled before him with sheer desperation in her tone.

He pushed Eileen off his hand and frowned. "You know…."he began, leering at Eileen.

"I think I should teach your witch mother a lesson. Just so that I know you will learn." A smile appeared on his face as he said this.

The smile was one that Severus in his young mind couldn't comprehend. He thought it was a cruel smile but I understood that smile. His gaze was filled with lust as he looked at Eileen who had grown white as a sheet and was almost trembling.

The fuzzy memories became clearer now. I could understand why Severus had tried forgetting them. The moans and cries that came from his mother's room and the hollow look she would have was too much for him to bear.

I finally couldn't hold my anger in anymore and my magic manifested as Tobias was thrown against the wall a few feet away. He crashed against it like a bowling ball and landed on the floor with a loud thud.

"You...filthy...animal" I uttered as I walked towards him. I turned to look at Eileen who had a stunned look on her face.

Tobias was trying to get up. His head had been struck by some shrapnel and he was bleeding from his forehead.

He was not the only one in pain as my head felt like it would explode and my arms felt heavy and tired. I had used too much magic in the morning so I couldn't use it well.

I cursed at the bad timing and ignored the pain.

I turned to Eileen. "Mother...are you ready?"

"H-huh?"

"Today is the day you are gonna get your freedom back. Will you do it or should I continue?"

"W-what are you t-talking about?"

"You have suffered enough under him. He has abused you, broken you and inflicted pain upon you. It's time to get rid of him don't you think?"
"You didn't fight back and just gave up instead. I am giving you the chance to fight back. Go get your wand and kill him."

"B-but Severus he…"

I cut her off, "Yes or no..just answer me."

"I-I can't Severus I am sorry…"

I felt disappointed that she didn't stand up for herself but I guess it was a given as if she could do so she would have done it already.

"I see…" I said and moved towards him.

"Severus you don't have to do this...we can figure something out together. He is your father." she tried dissuading me but I had made up my mind.
"No mother, he has to go...things will only get worse if he stays."

"Severus please…" She begged me.

"I am sorry mother but somebody has to be strong in this house. Since its not you, it has to be me…"

"H-how dare you use your freak powers on away from me." Tobias said as I approached him.

His trembling hands gave away his fear. "Tell me dear father, did you ever feel bad for doing the things you did? Did you feel anything when you struck her? Did you feel anything when you hurt her? Tell me."

"What are you talking about? Why would I feel bad? She is a witch, a freak like you. Its her fault that I got sacked, its all her fault that I live miserably. She cursed me!"

"I see...you don't feel remorse then."

"Just you wait boy, once I get my hands on you, I will beat the freakishness out of you.."

Clearly anger had ridden over his sense of judgement. His mind couldn't understand the situation he was in.
"Since you don't feel anything, I won't feel anything either…"

I channeled magic again, my head hurt and I could see black spots in my vision but I kept focus. All the rage, helplessness and negative emotions Severus had accumulated burst forth giving my exhausted magic reserve one final push.

*Crack*

Tobias' head turned the other way and with a thud his body fell to the floor. After witnessing that I lost control over my body and my vision turned dark.

---

[A/N: Do leave comments. It is appreciated.]

 

The next time I opened my eyes, I was greeted by the sight of a familiar ceiling. I sensed a presence next to me and indeed Eileen had pulled a chair out and was sitting beside me.

As soon her eyes landed on me, she leapt at me.

“Severus, you are awake!”

A pair of arms grabbed me and I was pulled into a hug. I awkwardly hugged back.

“How are you feeling, Severus?” she asked with a look of concern in her eyes.

“I am fine, just a bit hungry,” I answered as I observed her. I noticed that she had changed. Not physically but more so the way she carried herself.

There was a certain grace to her actions now and her face still remained stoic but it gave off a calm, collected vibe rather than the depressed one.

“So what happened?” I finally asked.

“I-I am so sorry Severus for being such a bad mother to you. I was too weak to fight against that man and you had to suffer for it. I should have known that taking those vows was a bad decision, they forced me to have some lingering feelings for that monster and I couldn’t harm him even if I wanted to.”

Huh...so my guess had been right. I decided then to always make sure I don’t promise anything carelessly. One wrong vow could potentially fuck me over.

“It's alright mother, you couldn't have known. Besides, my actions did save you so I am happy with it.” I said trying to reassure her.

“But...you shouldn’t have been forced to take such an action in the first place…To kill at such a young age...”

“I would do it again if I had to free you from that man. I do not regret killing him.”

“I see..” a sad smile forms on her face. “How...d-did you feel now? Mentally I mean..”

Hmm…it was a good question. How did I feel? I had just killed a man after all. I thought about it and oddly I didn’t feel much. I didn’t feel any guilt or horror for having taken a life.

Was I a bad person for not feeling anything? If so I was fine with it. I never claimed to be a good guy so it didn’t matter. Heck, I felt killing Tobias was letting him off easy for the abuse he did to Eileen and Severus.

But I guess this was an alright outcome as well. I don’t think Eileen would have liked seeing her son torture a person.

The only thing I felt was a bit of anxiety. I was not worried about the kill per say but more so the consequences that came after carrying it out.

“Not really, I just feel a bit squeamish I guess? I don’t remember it that well” I said, putting on a confused expression. Better to act clueless than act like I didn’t feel anything.

“Oh...It must have been a harrowing experience then. I won’t pretend to understand how it must have felt for you but I am your mother so you can always come to me if you feel troubled.”

“Thank you mother, I will be sure to keep that in mind.So….what did you do with the body?”

“Well, I can use magic like before so I just made him disappear.” She answered, her tone taking a happier note at the mention of magic.

Another theory of mine seemed to have been true as her magic returned after Tobias the oppressive force keeping her was removed.

“Oh...so can you teach me magic again then?” I asked.

“Yes I can but you still don’t have a wand so you can’t use any complex magic but we can get you started on potions. You will need a wand for that too but you would have pretty much learnt the entire recipe except the wand part.”

“I am fine with that too but won’t making potions require ingredients?”

“Of course we need ingredients but for that we need money. I will go reclaim what little if left of my family’s fortune and then think of a way to earn money but you don’t worry, your mother will be the one to take care of you now.”

Seeing her confidence was a pleasant surprise. The change was sudden and much faster than I had expected.

“Alright, I will leave that to you then.” I said getting out of my bed.

“So are you going to only teach me potions?”

“Well yes…” she began. “Oh...how could I forget, I was planning on teaching you occlumency which is the art of defending your mind from external attacks but…I am rubbish at it. Even I know only the bare basics so there’s not much I can teach you.”

“I learnt it from my mother who was quite skilled at it but alas I never paid much attention to her and always looked for excuses to get away from the lessons. Still in the end, I did learn a few things….”

“So...how do I learn it then?” I asked feeling disappointed. I guess it made sense since if she was good at occlumency and legilimency, she would have seen through Tobias easily and would have never ended up like this.

“Well there is not much we can do right now but I could teach you what little I remember. Just some basic exercises for the mind, I know a bit of legilimency, just about enough to read surface thoughts so I could try that on you. How does that sound?”

“I...am fine with it. I suppose I can always learn it when I am older…or are there any books from which I can learn?” I said.

“Hmm...there are a few books on this but they are rather hard to find and at our current state, we can’t afford one….” she replied and looked down with a frown.

“Its alright...I will focus on other things for now. You can just teach me what you know.”

Eileen nodded and patted my head.

“So.. do we start now?” I asked with anticipation.

“Nope~ not today young man, when was the last time you rested? Look at you, you seem tired. So no magic today for you. Just stay in bed and your mother will tend to you.”

I wanted to protest but seeing her determined gaze, I backed away. It was not like not doing magic for one day would harm me. The only reason I wanted to try it was because it still had some novelty and I just wanted to see what I could do.

I let out a sigh and leaned against the bedpost. “Alright..alright, have it your way. I will rest for...today but you can’t expect me to stay in bed all day.”

Her gaze softened, “Hm...well it can’t be helped then. You can just watch me renovate this hovel of a house and then we can go out and do some shopping. How does that sound?”

“Wait...you are renovating the house? Are we gonna live here? Also aren’t we a bit tight in the finances?”

“No..I am just renovating the house to sell it. I doubt we would get much out of it as its more of the location than the condition of the house. Nobody wants to live in this dreadful town but the condition might convince some poor chap moving in here.”

“Now as for where we are gonna live, I want to move to the magical side again...if that's not an issue with you?” She asked with some nervousness in her eyes.

“Go on...I have no problem with living with magic.”

“Of course, you would see it that way.” She rolled her eyes and continued, “ Well there is a problem though, I have to see how quickly I can get the Prince name back. I am sure my parents didn’t remove me from the family tree considering I was the only child they had. I was a…. terrible daughter but they might have hoped my offspring would inherit the family.”

She had a melancholic look on her face as she spoke about her parents. She sighed, “When I get back my family name, I can access the vaults and if there is enough money left in it, I plan on opening up a potion shop and selling potions.”

“We could move in now but moving in as a pureblood gives you way more benefits and leeway than a muggleborn would get. Besides we are too broke to live there anyway…”

It was a lot to take in as I slowly digested what she said. I felt like a burden was taken off my back. I felt relieved to see that she had made plans to sustain us and it was well thought out too.

“Oh...and as for the money part. I had been secretly saving some. It's not much but we can have fun with it for a day at the very least.”

“I see...you seem to have thought of everything then. I am glad you are doing well now mother.”

“Its all thanks to my lovely son~ “ She smiled at me.

“I still feel guilty for making your childhood horrible…... You were forced to mature because of your weak, incompetent mother and I know it seems selfish of me but I beg you to give me another chance to set things right.”

“I haven’t been a good mother till now but I swear I will be one now. Please let me make up for all those years of suffering you went through...please give me another chance to be your mother.” She confessed and awaited my judgment. Tears were about to erupt from her eyes and her eyes had a tiny flicker of hope.

I sighed internally as I thought of an answer. First of all, I was not her son Severus and had not suffered like he did. I had suffered too but it was a completely different matter. Next, I didn’t know what Severus would have done if he were faced with this.

I took a breath and cleared my mind. As my mind cleared, I made up my mind. Sure I was not her son but I was the one who freed her. Also, I didn’t need to care about what Severus would have done, I was not him and I was the one with his body. He was gone now and I had free will.

Having made up my mind, I uttered, “Okay.”

Just one word but it seemed to have done the trick as her arms wrapped around me and this time I hugged properly. She sobbed into my shoulders as I held her.

I had cleared the obstacle that stood in my path and now I could start walking the steps to my dream. I might fail to reach it, I might succeed but one thing was sure, I would walk my path with no regrets.

---

[A/N: As usual leave some comments and likes if you enjoyed reading. See you soon.]

 

[A/N: Important announcement: I am gonna be a whole lot busier from now onwards so I won’t get much time to write. Therefore, the update speed will be reduced to 1-2 chaps a week.

But I will try for longer chaps.]

---

“Are you ready?” Eileen asked.

Taking a deep breath, I gave her a nod. It was time for my first occlumency lesson.

“Well then, let's get started.”

“Occlumency is an ancient field of magic that is used to protect one’s mind against legilimency. There are no wand waving or flashy things involved in it and it requires discipline and order.” She explained with a solemn look on her face.

“Severus, I must ask you to show patience while learning this art. Its requirements are high but the return is low...initially at least so you must not be discouraged if you don’t get it easily.”

“Yes, mother.”

“Alright then, today I am just going to teach you or atleast make you understand the basics of Occlumency. Is that clear?”

I gave her a nod.

“Right, so the first thing you can do if a legilimens is trying to read your thoughts is to not give them any. Of course, this won’t stop a legilimens as he can just break into your mind but doing so would mean exposing himself. He would have to keep eye contact to initiate the spell and if he is not extremely advanced,he will have to use a wand.”

“So for today’s lesson, you will have to learn to clear your mind, to make it blank and empty. It might sound easy but you will soon learn that it is not as simple as it seems. Even a single stray thought will reveal your intentions so make sure there is nothing in your mind.”

“Don’t focus on anything and...just let go.” She finished and gestured to me to give it a try.

I did as she instructed and closed my eyes. It didn’t take long before I felt a serene feeling wash over me and sure enough my mind was blank and empty as she put it.

Opening my eyes I said, “Done.”

She raised an eyebrow at that, “Are you sure about that?”

I nodded.

“Well let me see if you are telling the truth. There is no way you could have cleared your mind so quickly..” she said and then looked me in the eye.

Her expression quickly turned into a shocked one. “Y-you….actually did it….b-but how?!”

Well I only did as well because this was something I already knew. Being in the void with no way of sleeping, this had been something I had come up with or more like learnt in the void.

I would clear my mind when my thoughts became too pessimistic and it kind of worked. I could not keep it up forever but it did buy me time.

“Tell me Severus, how did you do this?” she asked, breaking me out of my thoughts.

I just shrugged, “I dunno...I just followed what you said I guess?”

She let out an exasperated sigh, “Haah...it seems you are gifted in this field. I would have thought you were a perfect occlumens had I not seen the lack of barriers around your mind.”

“What's a perfect occlumens?” I was curious to know what it was.

“Well do you know what a perfect legilimens is?” she asked. “Oh..you probably don’t but there are some individuals who are born with the ability to use it. Kind of like an innate talent.”

“A perfect legilimens can read minds passively and while they can be stopped by occlumency, a trained one can easily penetrate the barrier. Similarly, a perfect occlumens is one who has in short extremely high resistance to legilimency and is usually born with a barrier around their mind.”

I was fascinated by this tidbit, I recalled a character who could have been a perfect legilimens. Queenie Goldstein did fit the bill. I wondered if there were any perfect occlumens.

Eileen continued, “ But these people are very rare. You hardly see one in a century and even if there are more, nobody can tell especially for an occlumens as people don’t go around digging into other’s mind.”

“I thought you were one but you aren’t as I could read your memories if I wanted to.”

My lessons went smoothly after that. She didn’t teach me more and asked me to keep working on clearing my mind. She gave me an old dusty book about Occlumency and asked me to go through it.

Overall occlumency was a success.
……..

Staring at the familiar dingy old pub, a wave of nostalgia hit Eileen.

‘It hasn’t changed at all…’

It had been years since she last came here but nothing had changed. The rusty sign still hung with the words ‘Leaky Cauldron’ written on it. It still had the same welcoming vibe and she felt her mood get better just by seeing it.

A part of her still had trouble believing the fact that she could use magic again. Being under that man had made her feel like using magic was a sin but now she felt joy each time she used it.

Nothing she ever did would amount to the gratefulness she felt for her son. She didn’t have anything to repay him other than be the best mother she could be for his sake. She was glad he had accepted her.

She didn’t know what she would have done if he hadn’t. Now that they both were free to do as they pleased, they had to face reality. Tobias had used up pretty much all of their savings and had even used up hers as well.

The money they had wouldn’t last for long and Eileen being the adult had to provide for both of them. It had been nearly a month since the incident and they were already almost out of money.

She regretted spending money so haphazardly and even bought Severus along with her. Worse yet, she had spent most of her money on those pretty dresses she had seen in the tele.

She had always dreamt of wearing them but she knew that even if she had gotten them, things would only be worse if Tobias noticed it so she had kept mum.

But all things said, she just couldn’t help herself. It had been too long since she had some time for herself and Severus was to blame too, he had spent quite a bit on food and...shampoos.

‘Is he at that age already?’ she thought. The boys at Hogwarts hadn’t cared about their personal appearance until third year except some snobby purebloods who smeared makeup like pigs.

But she remembered Severus telling her with a serious tone, “It's for a future investment. My future self will thank me if he ever decides to keep long hair.”

She couldn’t help but chuckle at this. Seeing him with a serious expression talking about investment had been funny. He always seemed so mature for his age but a nine year old kid talking like that would make anyone smile.

With a smile still on her face, she walked into the pub. It was still as she remembered. Dark and shabby, with a bar and tables shrouded by shadows.

Now she understood why the Muggleborns she knew used to call the wizarding community out of date. She had been living in the muggle world for quite a while now and coming back to this pub made her feel like she was in a different era.

There were some old women seated at the corner with their dark robes and pointy hats, a man was smoking a long pipe and the entirety of the pub was filled with such individuals. She felt out of touch with the place, the only thing common she had with these people were the robes she was wearing.

‘I am glad I decided to wear my old robes, I would have stood out too much if I wore any muggle clothing.’

“Ay..how may I help you, Miss?” A voice called out to her.

Eileen turned towards the source and found a tall,bald man. It was the landlord Tom if she recalled correctly.

“Um...I was just looking to get to Diagon Alley…”

“Ah..come along then, it's at the back.” he said beckoning her to follow him.

She did as told and walked with him. He took her to a courtyard behind the pub.

“Here we are,” he said once they were faced with a wall. “ I take it this is not your first time here?”

“No..I have come here several times but it has been some time since my last visit.” Eileen replied.

“I see...do you need help accessing the wall? You will need to pay a small fee for that though..”

Eileen jogged her memory trying to recall how she had opened the wall and fortunately enough, she remembered it.

“That won’t be necessary, I know how to open the wall.” She replied.

“Very well, call me if you can’t get it open.” he said and left the way he came.

She pulled her wand out and tapped the bricked wall in the sequence she remembered. It turned out to be the right one as the wall parted to reveal the crowded cobblestone streets of Diagon alley.

Taking a deep breath, she moved forward.
….
[POV change]

Eileen had left for diagon alley leaving me to tend the house. She had finally decided to go get her name back and maybe get a job somewhere.

Tobias had also left a debt for us and the debtors had come to collect. They were the typical goon lackeys who threatened people but they were dealt with easily, a quick obliviate with a confundus was enough for them.

Seeing as how more people might come, Eileen set up a muggle repelling barrier. The muggle repelling charm worked...like a charm and people just ignore the well kept house in the desolate street or remember something urgent and leave.

It kind of worked like a weaker fidelius charm with half the functions. It did the trick though and no more thugs came looking for trouble.


My magic studies were coming along decently with Eileen teaching me potion theory in the morning to Occlumency sessions in the evening.

I had not made much progress in occlumency as she wanted to teach me slowly. I had gotten to the point where I could clear my mind as soon I felt a probe.

She did say she would teach how to defend and set up barriers soon so I was excited for that.

As for potions, it was only theory so I had not made much progress in that either.She just had me memorize the potion recipes and formulas which was not a hard task with my enhanced memory.

This was something I had noticed. My memory had become sharper and it was easier to comprehend things too. I couldn’t explain it so I attributed it to either Severus’ brain power being more than mine or it was a side effect of my time in the void.

Coming back to potions, Eileen also had me get used to cutting and slicing things so that when I got the ingredients, I would waste them.

Last but not the least, I had started studying Science again. While I didn’t know if I could incorporate it in magic, I had to give it a try. I had to study for this though as I had never been a good student before.

The subjects I was focusing on more were chemistry and mathematics. Chemistry because it had connections with Potion making and Alchemy, both highly advanced fields and Maths on the other hand had some relations with Runes and arithmancy.

I had just about read the basics this month and planned on slowly expanding upon it. I wanted to start languages as well especially latin since it was the language the spells were in but there was no duolingo to help and I couldn’t find any books that taught latin either.

I decided to put it off till I found a tutor for it or any other means to learn it.

Reading the subject books though was still an unpleasant experience. I didn’t feel any of the excitement I felt when I studied the magical subjects but I forced myself to push through.

Funny how dying changes a man. If it had been me before death, even if I had been transmigrated I would have probably slacked off. My procrastination skills were too high but they had been reset after my time in the void, something which I was thankful for.

Eileen was a bit surprised by me asking for muggle books as Severus had never shown interest in them but was more than happy to help and got me some second hand books from a sale.

Speaking of second hand books, I would most probably be using Eileen’s books for my time at Hogwarts. The new books were expensive and while the latest editions had minor improvements, they also omitted things.

This was most likely the Ministry's attempt to restrict knowledge given to the common populace or maybe some elaborate scheme of the Purebloods I didn’t know. But according to Eileen, the Ministry had been removing things from the wizard books after Dumbledore’s duel with Grindelwald.

I could guess why they did it. They didn’t want people to grow as strong as those two. It didn’t stop Voldemort though and his followers were purebloods who had access to all the knowledge they wanted so in a way this backfired and weakened the Ministry.

I didn’t fret too much since the Hogwarts library would have everything I needed and more or so I hoped.

I don’t know if the Room of Requirements worked the way it did as portrayed in certain fanfics but I hoped for it to work that way. It would make things much easier for me.

If not I just had to be the teacher’s favorite and since Slughorn still taught at Hogwarts, I had hopes of pulling it off. I just had to not act shady like Tom.
…

It was afternoon by the time I left for the park.

I started my jog towards it. I made it somewhat of a habit of mine to give my body some exercise.

I didn't know if having a strong physical body had any effect on my magic but it didn't hurt to stay fit.

I wanted to try other exercises but didn't because I wasn't sure if it was good for my young body.

I missed the times when I could just google things I wanted to know about. The lack of means to access information was frustrating but I couldn’t do anything about it.

So I just did the bare minimum to keep my body fit and healthy. By the time I started feeling out of breath I had already reached the park.

The park was surprisingly not empty like usual. What greeted me was the sight of a familiar redhead crying under the tree. She looked about my age and had distinct green eyes. Who else could it be but Lily Evans.

It seemed that the time had finally come to meet my first significant canon character. I had not anticipated this happening so soon but it was nothing troubling, I just had to adapt a little.

Wiping the sweat of my brow, I approached her.

---

[A/N: I wanted to make this a longer chapter but after coming back to write after a long time, I couldn’t write well and my mind was blank so I ended it. Sorry for the abrupt end.]

 

[A/N: Too busy nowadays but here you go.]

---

“So you're telling me that it's gonna take at least six months before I can access the vaults?!” Eileen exclaimed as she felt frustration and worry seep in after hearing the goblin’s words.

After reaching Diagon alley, she had headed straight for Gringotts. She had it all planned out. She would get her name back and then see how much money was left and then decide according to that whether to start her own business or save it.

But things didn’t go as planned when she reached the imposing building. Like all wizarding buildings, it remained the same.

The Goblins were as she remembered too, short ugly creatures and they were ruder than before. She had thought that being a former Prince, she could easily get access to the vaults but the damned Ministry had made new laws over the decade she was away.

Since she had left her family and married a muggle, she had basically renounced her name. She could reclaim it without much issues before and only had to go to Gringotts and prove that she was really who she claimed she was.

Of course, if she had been kicked out or if the head of family didn’t want her to access the vaults, she would have been helpless but that was not the case for the Prince family which only had her and Severus as the direct members.

Now she had to send in an application to the Ministry and get it approved by the legal department after they looked through the British Ministry of magic Records room . Only then would she be able to reclaim her name back. And the Ministry was as incompetant as ever.

Even six months was considered a quick response from them. This wouldn’t have taken this long if another member of the family had been alive but alas she and Severus were the only ones left.

There was another option which was letting Severus become the heir. All he had to do was pass the blood test which considering he was her son, it wouldn’t be hard to pass.

But there was a small problem...he was too young. According to law, he can’t become an heir or have anything to do with the vaults till he was 11. He could only access it through a guardian but she, his guardian didn’t have access to it too.

“Please, there must be a faster way…” she asked one more time.

The goblin adjusted his spectacles in clear annoyance, “It's not our problem.” he said drawing the word out.

“We don’t deal with this anymore, if you have any issues go talk to your Minister. Don’t waste my time now.”

Seeing that he wouldn’t budge she didn’t have any choice but to leave. Dejected, she walked out of the bank.

‘What am I going to do now?’

‘I didn’t think it would turn out like this….’

She was feeling stressed now that she was pushed into a corner. She had been confident that she would have had to at most wait for a month but it backfired and now she was back where she started.

‘I just need enough money to get by till Severus turns 11…’

Severus was nearing ten now so she needed to last for a year more.

She wanted to sell potions but she didn’t have a permit from the Potions associations, she didn’t have her family name which made things worse if she wanted to apply for one.

She could make potions and sell to the shops dealing with potion trade but all of them had suppliers and besides she couldn’t make enough potions to meet their demands anyway.

Her mind started thinking of other jobs she could do but nothing came to her mind. The problem was not that she was not qualified for the jobs but the fact that she had been away from the magical world for 10 long years.

She went to the apothecary to see if they would hire her but they said they were not hiring. Now if Eileen had been a Potions Master then she wouldn’t have any worries. People would be lining up to buy her potions but she wasn’t a Master.

She had wanted to but she had run off to marry Tobias as soon as she graduated. One wrong decision had screwed up her entire life.

She could take up muggle jobs but since she couldn’t use any magic while working, she would be useless as she never learned to do things.

The Ministry might be incompetent but the ICW wasn’t. So if she got caught using magic in the muggle world, at best her wand would be snapped and at worst, she would end up in Azkaban.

After Tobias started his abuse, she just shut down and didn’t try interacting with anything.

Another issue was that her documents and ids in the muggle world were not proper and if asked about it when applying for a job, she would be stumped.

She could forge them but she didn’t know where she could do that and she was also a bit worried that she would be exposed if things went wrong.

As she walked down the alley with these thoughts, she didn’t notice a figure walking in front of her and bumped into them.

Realising her mistake, Eileen immediately apologized, “I am sorry, Miss. I should have been paying more attention.”

“Well you should have..but I forgive ya” the woman answered. The woman had a round figure, a pretty face and blonde hair. She exuded a mature aura of an experienced woman.

She squinted her eyes as she looked at Eileen, “Have we met before? You...look familiar..”

Eileen too observed the woman in front of her, she too had felt she was familiar. Before she could reply though, the woman’s eyes widened. “Wait...Eileen? Is that you?”

“Y-yes…” Eileen replied and at the same time even she recognized the woman in front of her.

“Rosie…?!” she blurted out. The woman was her Hogwarts junior who she had been friends with. Rosmerta Allen was a halfblood hufflepuff witch who had been good at potions and she had gotten along well with her.

“Oh boy...that's a name I haven’t been called in a long time…” Rosmerta said.

“It really is you…” Eileen couldn’t believe it.

“Yep~ It's me alright but I can’t believe it has been so long since we last met.”

“So what brings you here? How are the husband and kids?” Rosmerta asked.
At the word ‘husband’, a shadow casts over Eileen’s face and she looks down.

“It’s a long story….” she began.

“Well I've time to hear it so let's catch up...so how about we get some ice-cream and you tell me what happened?” Rosmerta suggested, a concerned look in her eyes. She had sensed that something was wrong and she knew a good ice-cream would help.

Before Eileen could protest, Rosmerta dragged her to the Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour.

……

“So go on then, tell me what happened?” Rosmerta asked once they had settled down. They had ordered their ice creams and were waiting for it to arrive.

“Well…” Eileen took a deep breath and began explaining. She started from how her marriage was not a happy one to how her abuse began after Tobias was fired.

She downplayed it but Rosmerta didn’t buy it as her eyes hardened listening to her. She had clenched her fists and made up her mind to break the man who had made Eileen suffer so much.

Eileen continued and concluded her tale but didn’t tell her that it was her son who killed Tobias but instead changed it to herself.

She looked up to see Rosmerta’s expression but she felt a pair of arms wrap themselves around her.

Rosmerta hugged her and didn’t say anything. Eileen couldn’t hold back her tears and a few trickled down her cheeks.

Rosmerta comforted her and they talked for a long time about other topics. She was happy that her friend Eileen was free now but felt regretful that it took so long.
“Why didn’t you ever try contacting me? I could have helped….” she asked.

“I..was too afraid and I just didn’t want to trouble you…”

“Bah...you silly girl, why would you ever be a burden to me?!” Rosmerta sighed.

“I..I know but I was not in the right state of mind back then…if it hadn’t been for Severus..”

“Guess I have to thank your son then, he seems like a good kid…” Rosmerta praised Severus, her impression of him was high.

“So why were you here today? Got your family vault back?” she questioned Eileen.

“No…it seems that the Ministry has made new laws since I was gone…” Eileen explained the situation to her.

“That seems troublesome...good luck having those old bastards go through your application and approve it. Maybe if you promised them half the vault…” Rosmerta rolled her eyes. She disdained the Wizengamot. She was a half-blood and had to go through trouble to inherit her three-broomsticks inn.

“You know I can’t...Severus will have to go to Hogwarts soon and since he qualifies as half-blood, he can’t even get the muggleborn fund.”

“I see...then what are your plans now?”

“I am not really sure...I thought of applying at the apothecary but they are not hiring. I tried all the apothecaries in Diagon but the same thing happened. Only place I didn’t check would be Knockturn but I am not going there…” Eileen answered.

“Hmm….you haven’t considered any jobs in the muggle side?”

“Well I did but I don’t have any of the documents and besides I wouldn’t know what to do...I am useless aren’t I?” Eileen sighed.

“Now don’t look so glum...when I am here, I have a job offer for you.” Rosmerta said.

Eileen’s eyes lit up, “Really? What do I have to do? What's the pay? When do I start?”

Rosmerta chuckled, “Merlin’s beard..slow down will you. I will answer your questions one at a time.”

“So the job is just to help me manage the pub and inn. I recently reopened it after finally getting it under my name. I don’t have much savings left after renovating it so I can’t hire many people.”

Pausing to see Eileen’s expression, she continued, “ The pay will be decent. Since you will not be doing one specific job, the pay will be higher. Also you must help me come up with new drinks, you are decent at potions so you can help me with mixing. You can start from tomorrow if you want..”

“There...have I answered everything?”

Eileen immediately nodded, “Of course, I will start from tomorrow. Thank you so much, Rosie. I-I.. don’t know how to thank you..”

“No need to thank me Eileen, this is the least I could do..”

“B-but..” Eileen protested but Rosmerta didn’t let her.

After that they chatted for a while before Rosmerta left after apparating. Eileen wanted to apparate too but she was out of practice and didn’t want to splinch herself.

She bought some ice-cream for Severus and left Diagon alley. She was relieved that she got a job. While things didn’t go as well as she had wanted, at least she was not helpless anymore.

………………
[POV Change]

As I neared Lily, I noticed what she was doing. She was using magic to change the colours of the flowers.

She noticed me approaching and quickly wiped her tears and stopped her magic. Her face still had the telltale signs of crying though. Her eyes were red too.

“Hello there.” I greeted her as I reached the top of the mound.

“H-hello..” she greeted back but her voice cracked. She blushed at this and kept her head down.

I sighed as I knew this was going to be awkward.I had just about gotten used to interacting with Eileen and even then I felt awkward sometimes.

She knew I was mature for my age but I was still a kid in her eyes….

Now in front of me was Lily, a canon character but more importantly was still a kid. Moreover she appeared to have been crying. Comforting others was something I was never good at and I didn’t know how to approach the situation.

Still I knew I had to at least give it a try. Making a good first impression was important and I was sure I would make a better one than canon Severus.

“Right..” I began. “Haven’t seen you around, you new?”

“Y-yes...I just moved in.”

“I see...well then, I am Severus or Severus Prince if you wish to be formal. Welcome to the neighbourhood I guess…”I said, giving her a hand.

“L-lily, Lily Evans.” she greeted me back and shook my hand awkwardly.

“So now that we are acquainted…” I started and sat beside her on the grass. “..What's gotten you down? Is it the dreary town because if it is...I totally agree with you.”

“No...it's just that..” she began but couldn’t finish her sentence.

“You don’t have to tell me since we barely know each other but I heard that confiding in others helps..” I suggested.

I could half guess why she was upset but I wasn’t too sure. My most probable guess was that it had something to do with Petunia, her jealous sister.

“Well its nothing much but I had a row with my sister...Tuney.” She began.

Taking a deep breath, she continued, “You see, we were always close sisters but then something happened and then things changed. I don’t know why but she keeps shunning me and always makes fun of me….I tried to be good to her but she just hates me…”

I calmly listened to her. She paused several times to think and I also noticed how she omitted anything magic related. I guessed she didn’t trust me enough or her parents forbade it.

Or she is worried about my reaction to it. I didn’t want to wait for her to slowly open up so I did the thing I was sure would make trust me. I decided to show her my magic.

Of course not immediately as that would be too shocking and suspicious. I listened to her and tried comforting her.

After a while, her cheery self as portrayed in the book started emerging and she kept on talking while I made small remarks here and there.

Honestly I was glad she was this active as I wouldn’t know what to talk about. I was not only not her age, I was not even of the same era so I would have just made the situation worse.

Besides everybody liked a good listener.

“So how did you do it?” I asked in between.

“Huh? Do what?” confused she asked me.

“Well I noticed you changing the colours of those flowers you know…”

A shocked expression appeared on her face as she quickly denied it, “W-what are you talking about?”

“See those flowers.” I pointed at the colourful flowers a few feet away.

“T-those were always like th-that…” she began but I interrupted her.

“So you are telling me flowers grow like that?”I said. The flowers were in different colours each and it didn’t look natural at all.

“Um...I...that…” she stuttered.

I could see that she was clearly nervous as sweat trickled down her temple and her eyes darted around.

“Well I can only think of one explanation for what I saw Lily.”

She looked up eager to hear what I had to say.

“You are a witch, Lily.” I stated.

“I am a what?” she asked with a confused face.

“A witch.” I repeated. I kept a stoic expression but inwardly I was feeling amused.

“B-but that can’t be true...I am not a bad girl.”

“I never said you were one though?”

“But you said I was a witch..”

“What does that have to do with you being a witch?” I asked, pretending to be clueless.

“I saw on the tele that witches were bad…”

“Oh..I see. You don’t know about the magical world then?”

“Magic?” she asked with confusion in her voice.

“Yes, what you just did is magic and a person who can use it is a witch.” I said.

“Really? How do you know all this then?” she asked not believing it or not wanting to believe it.

“Well I know all this because I can use magic too.” I said and then lifted my hand.

The flowers nearby were uprooted and came floating to my hand. I turned all the flowers to white and presented it to Lily.

“Now do you believe me?”

“Y-yes..” she said, not taking her eyes off the flowers. “You are a witch too then?”

My eyes twitched at that, “ The more accurate term would be wizard.”

“Oh...I see. How do you know all about this?” Excitement shone in her eyes.

“Sit down...this will take a while.” I asked her to sit down again. I knew I had her as her expression gave away her curiosity and eagerness to learn more about her powers and the magical world.

---

[A/N: A minor change,

Spoiler: Spoiler

I made Eileen younger and Rosmerta older than their actual age according to canon to make them friends.

]

 

[A/N: Here’s a quick chapter. I have a minor headache so this is not edited well. I just wanted to get this over with so I posted it. Next chapter will have some short timeskips and then Severus will finally go to Hogwarts in a few chapters.]

---

It was evening by the time I finished explaining things about the magical world. Lily had way too many questions but I answered most of them.

Honestly I still didn’t know what to do with her. I was not canon Severus so I didn’t feel anything for her.

I was just interested because she was a canon character and she was good at magic. I figured that I might need her help in the future so it wouldn’t hurt to know her.

That said I didn’t want her to go the same route as in canon. I didn’t care whether Harry would be born or not. From the moment I arrived in this world, it was inevitable that there are going to be changes from canon.

I can’t rely on plot too as I am here pre-canon so the only thing that's useful for me are that I know things from an outsider’s perspective. I could even say that I have an insight into traits of characters but I can’t be too sure as the story was told from Harry’s point of view and me being before canon also means that characters could have been different before.

So I had decided not to bother whether my actions would change plot as my very existence probably already did so.

Speaking of Lily, she was not present in canon and was already dead so what little I knew about her was all from memories of other characters and people tend to glorify dead people so I didn’t have a proper assessment either.

And besides all they said was that Harry had her eyes and that she was good at magic.

People forgot about her even though she saved Harry. I could see why they hailed Harry as the one who defeated Voldemort since he was the one who lived.

Also why did no one even try to investigate what happened?

Nobody even bothered how he survived. Dumbledore just bought a group of meatshields together who didn’t accomplish anything in the end.

I didn’t believe Dumbledore was some evil mastermind but I did think he was horribly ill suited to lead people. He used his reputation to bring some people together and did nothing.

Coming back to Lily, I decided to inform her more about the magical world so that she doesn’t go in blind and naive otherwise she would end up as a useless Order of phoenix member.

For now though, I just told her about Hogwarts and briefly mentioned what magic was.

I decided to hold back on purebloods and muggleborn issues for now as I didn’t want to scare her away.

I just had to set her mentality right and once thats done, I could tell her more. I had to make sure not to portray it as some magic filled utopia and that would be enough to make her cautious.

Also had to show her that Gryffindor was not the only house there was. I would prefer her going to Ravenclaw which would prevent her from falling under Dumbledore’s influence.

That old man never let any gryffindor go and with his good grandfatherly vibes, he got them onto his side.

I had no doubt that if Mcgonnagall came to Lily’s house then she would subtly mention her house whether consciously or not, it would still make the kid subconsciously prefer her house.

No wonder most of the Muggleborns ended up in gryffindor. The ones who couldn’t went to Hufflepuff.

Ravenclaw and Slytherin had the least number of muggleborns with Slytherin not getting any usually. If they did though...then they wouldn’t last very long there.

Lily after becoming a gryffindor had been influenced by their opinions and probably even felt the bias they had against Slytherins. This put a dent in her relationship with Severus and one blunder from him was enough to sever it completely.

To be honest, I felt Lily gave up on him too quickly, didn’t even give him a chance to set things right but she forgave James for all his pranks and bullying he did to Severus.

From what I recalled, Lily only started dating James somewhere between fifth year and seventh year so I had enough time to make her not fall for him.

……….

Eileen was already back by the time I reached home. She greeted me with a smile which made me think things went well.

“So..I presume things went according to plan?” I asked.

She tilted her head, “Well...they didn’t go exactly as planned...We can’t access the vaults for now. Once you turn 11, you will be eligible to become the Heir and then we can open it or we have to wait at the very least six months before those geezers in the Wizengamot move a finger.”

I wondered why she was happy then.

“..But don’t worry, I met an old friend who offered me a job. I will start working there from tomorrow. The pay is decent and I don’t have to do much either.”

“Old friend? What's the job?” I asked.

“Ah...we went to Hogwarts together. Rosmerta is her name, she was a Hufflepuff a year below me and we bonded over potions. She inherited the three Broomsticks inn.”

I just raised an eyebrow. The name felt familiar but I couldn’t recall it.

“Of course, you wouldn’t know it but the three Broomsticks is probably the oldest building in Hogsmeade and Hogsmeade is the village outside Hogwarts just so you know...Anyway Rosie reopened recently and offered me a place there. I don’t have to do much here and just help her around there and give some new ideas for drinks.”

“I see…”

It was an unexpected outcome. Who would have thought Eileen would meet her friend and get a job. I felt the name Rosmerta was familiar and then I remembered who she was.

She was there in canon and was probably a milf. I kept these thoughts to myself and asked, “She seems like a nice person.”

“Yes...she is, she was understanding when I told her about my situation…”she answered.

I felt my back stiffen. “Wait, you...told her..”

Seeing my expression, Eileen said, “Ah..I didn’t give her all the details and I told her that I was the one who killed him..”

My lips twitched, “That doesn’t make much difference you know….a murder is still a murder. Aren't you worried she might tell anyone? Also you could have just stuck with the ‘he ran away’ statement we used here…”

I couldn’t believe that she had done this. This was too risky and admitting to a murder never leads to anything good.

“Severus, you don’t have to worry so much...Rosie wouldn’t tell anyone and besides I would just say I killed him in self defense if the Ministry questioned me. They wouldn’t convict me as I am a witch and Tobias was a muggle.”

“At worst, some nosy Gryffindors might frown but that's it.”

While this calmed me down, I still felt it was a bad decision on her part. But I decided to let it slide for now. Her answer gave me more insight into wizarding society.

For them, muggle lives were not as important as theirs and it was understandable. Eileen being a pureblood would also give her more leeway. And if Rosmerta did keep her mouth shut, then there wouldn’t be any problems.

“Alright...but don’t tell more people okay?”

She nodded and tried patting my head but I dodged her hand.

“So what ideas are you going to pitch to her?” I asked her. I did have some ideas from the modern world that might do well in Hogsmeade but they might fail too as wizards had weird tastes.

“I don’t know but I will think of something..”

“Want me to help?” I offered.

Her eyes brightened and she flashed me a smile, “Sure...that would be great.”

“Hmm...I will write some ideas down later. For now,you could try introducing some muggle beverages there. Who knows they might do well there?”

“That's a very good idea. I am sure nobody has muggle drinks there and with the inn being the only one selling it, we would make a good profit if they did well.”

I was about to head back into my room but I remembered something. “Oh right...I almost forgot, I made an acquaintance at the park today..”

“You made a friend !!” Eileen shouted with unhidden excitement in her voice.

“I guess...you could call it that too.”

“Severus, tell me is it a boy or a girl?!”

Her excitement was a bit jarring. “It's a …” I began but before I could answer.

Eileen said, “ It's a girl isn’t it?”

I nodded. “You guessed correctly…”

“Oh I never guessed Severus, I knew it was a girl. I just asked to make sure.”

I just stared at her speechless.She smiled and asked, “So tell me more about her? How is she? Is she pretty? What’s her name? Where does she live?”

I sighed at this bombardment of questions, “Could you please calm down mother, why are you so excited anyway?”

“How can I not be excited? You made a friend and it's a girl at that…”

I couldn’t refute that. I had seen Severus’ memories and he didn’t have any friends and certainly not a girl. No wonder he fell for Lily so hard, she was literally the first person he interacted with after his dysfunctional family.

“Well for starters, her name is Lily and she lives on the other side of the town. She recently moved in...I think her dad’s a factory supervisor or something. But most importantly she is just like me and can use magic.”

Eileen’s eyes widened, “What?! Are you sure about that, Severus?”

“Yes...I saw her transfigure the colors of flowers. She also told me of some incidents where she used accidental magic.”

“Wow...this is just..I mean what are the odds of this happening..” Eileen was rendered speechless by my revelation.

“She seems to be a muggleborn as her parents don’t understand her magic. I told her a few things about magic and agreed to meet her tomorrow.”

“Severus did you show her your magic?”

“Yes…”

She sighed, “ Severus you have to be more cautious about this. You can’t show your magic to people just like that. Imagine your new...friend telling her parents about it and how they might react. Muggles don’t like things they can’t understand and they might react like…” She trailed off but I knew what she was getting at.

She thought Lily’s parents might act like Tobias and it did seem logical from her point of view but she didn’t know about Lily’s parents like I did. I knew they didn’t fear or hate her so even if Lily did tell them, they wouldn’t react violently.

Petunia was the only one who didn’t like magic but she was powerless to do anything.

“I suppose but I don’t think her parents will do anything. They know about her magic and don’t fear it, they just don’t know what it is.”

“B-but still….” She began but paused to think.

“They might be nice people but I want to make sure..Tell you what Severus, try asking her if I could meet her parents. Tell her that I want to explain in detail about our world to them. I will go meet them and make sure they aren’t mistreating her.”

It seemed too much of a hassle but sensing her concern, I agreed. It wouldn’t hurt to have her talk to Lily’s parents. It might even save me the effort of explaining to them myself.

I shrugged and walked back to my room to practise magic.
………
[POV change]

The sun shone in through the windows and a petite figure woke up. This figure was one Lily Evans, she stretched her arms and got off her bed.

Her mind recalled the memories of the previous day.
‘So it was not a dream huh…’

She was excited to meet her new friend Severus. Never would she have thought that she would meet someone just like her in this depressing town.

When she had seen him use magic, a feeling of relief had spread through her. After all, she had been called special by her parents and her sister hated her for it.

Sometimes she felt bad for having these powers and even hated them for ruining her relationship with her sister but after meeting Severus, these feelings had faded.

Knowing that she was not the only one with magic made her happy. She wouldn’t feel lonely anymore , there was someone out there who could understand her.

Clearing her head, she quickly completed her daily routine headed downstairs. Her father was sitting by the fireplace reading his newspaper and her mother was in the kitchen preparing breakfast.

“Ah...Lily you are up early today.” Her father said seeing her in the hallway.

“Morning Dad.” Lily greeted him.

Her father greeted her back and went back to reading his paper. This was his daily routine and he disliked having it interrupted. He was a man of timing and had a schedule he strictly abided by.

Harold Evans seemed cold and strict on the outside but he was a loving father on the inside.
….
It was breakfast time and Evan's family were sitting at their seats. Petunia had not woken up so she wasn’t present much to the displeasure of Harold. He felt his eldest daughter was becoming worse as she grew. She didn’t have half the manners Lily had.

“Lily dear, why are you in such a hurry today. Eat slowly.” Rose Evans scolded Lily who was gobbling the food up.

“...Yes, Mum but I need to go to the park.” Lily answered with some food still in her mouth.

“The park? Why would you want to go there? Her father asked.

Lily thought her words over and answered, “Well….I made a friend there and promised to meet them today.”

“A friend? Who is it?” her mother asked.

“Its a boy..” Lily began. Her father’s face stiffened at her words.

Before he could retort Lily continued, “His name is Severus and he lives here in town and..he..”

‘Should I tell them that he is like me too..’

She couldn’t hold it in any longer and decided to tell. “He is gifted like me too.”

Both her parents stopped doing what they were doing and a solemn expression appeared on their face, “What did you say?” her father asked.

“H-he can use magic too…”Lily answered.

“Magic?” her mother questioned.

“Yes…” Lily took a deep breath and explained what Severus had told her. Her parents didn’t interrupt and listened attentively.

After she was done, they exchanged looks with each other and turned to Lily. “Lily if what you said is true, then we must know more about magic. So when you meet the boy today, ask him if we could have a talk with his mother. You said she was magical too right?”

Lily nodded. Severus had indeed said so. He had told her that she was a muggleborn and that his mother was a witch too.

“Alright can you do that?” her father asked.

Lily thought about it and felt nothing wrong about it. She was curious about Severus’ mother too so she agreed.

“Sure..I will ask him, I don’t know if he will agree though…”

She got ready and left for the park.

Harold and Rose looked at each other. “So do you think its true?” Rose asked Harold.

“Well...it was too detailed so it most probably is. What do you think?” he answered.

“I think so too.”

“We can’t do much now except gather more information and understand more about this magical world. Hopefully Lily convinces the boy to get his mother. She must know more about this.”

Rose nodded. She had a lot of things to take in and she felt worried about Lily. For now all they could do was wait and see.

---

 

[A/N: Longest chapter yet. Nearly hit 4k. I expected that this would be shorter than usual but in the end it became the longest chap till now lol.]

---

“So your parents want to talk to my mother?” I asked Lily. I had arrived at the park to meet Lily and also take her to Eileen.

But as it turned out, Lily had told her parents about me and they wanted to meet me and Eileen.

“Well..yes. They said they want to ask her about magic...so will you ask her?”

“Sure...besides mother also wanted to meet you. Since we aren’t in a hurry, we could go meet up with my mother and then we can all leave for your house? How does that sound?”

Lily nodded and with that we began walking towards my house. She walked curiously looking around. She was new to the town so she didn’t know most of the places.

Before long, we arrived in front of my house. The muggle repelling charm was still in place and no people wandered around the house. Of course, Lily was a witch so she had no troubles.

“Wow...this is your house?” Lily asked in wonder.

I could understand her reaction. Compared to the other houses in the neighbourhood, mine looked better.

Eileen had completely renovated it and used magic to make it look new and the garden was well maintained and trimmed too so it looked pleasing to the eye to say the least.

“You like it?” I asked her.

“Of course I like it, it looks so pretty.”

“Right...do you want to just keep standing there or do you want to come inside too?”
Lily blushed in embarrassment and came up to me. I lead her into the house and Eileen came to greet us.

“Ah..Severus you are back quite soon..” She began before her eyes fell on Lily.

“So you must be Lily.” She said looking at Lily.

“Y-yes...Mrs. Prince. Good morning.”

Eileen smiled, “You don’t have to be so formal dear. Just call me Eileen.”

Seeing her friendliness, Lily didn’t refuse.

“Lily, Severus told me that you can use magic? Is that true?” Eileen asked.

I went inside my room to get some books I had already finished reading more than once. I picked them up and came back to see Lily interacting with Eileen.

It seemed that Eileen had taken a liking to her. Well Lily did have high charisma stats, she had that well behaved temperament that parents loved and her cheery attitude also helped.

“Here are some books that might get you started on magic history.” I handed the books over to Lily who grabbed it quickly and started going through them.

“Thanks Severus, I can’t wait to read them. These books seem so cool and old.” She said.

“They are over 20 years old after all..” I answered.

After that Lily asked Eileen whether she could teach her magic but Eileen disagreed since she wouldn’t be home often and thus couldn’t supervise her.

I offered to teach too but she refused. It was understandable though as a nine year old teaching another nine year old was not something you could believe. Moreover it was magic that I was teaching which was dangerous if done wrong.

Even grown wizards ended up injured or dead because they uttered a wrong spell so Eileen wasn’t taking any chances.

Lily was a bit bummed but Eileen agreed to lend her more books which Lily didn’t refuse.

We talked for a while and Eileen questioned Lily about her magic. Lily narrated her experiences of her accidental magic.

After an hour or so of talking, we left for Lily’s house. I wondered how her parents were. I was not looking forward to meeting Petunia though. From what I heard from Lily, she was already on the way to become like her canon self.

I could see why she would be envious of Lily having powers but I felt the hate towards her was unwarranted. If I had been in her place, I would have been envious too if a sibling could do things I couldn’t ever do.

But I wouldn’t hate them for it. In fact, I would maintain a good relationship with them. I would stay on the muggle side but I could ask them to get me magic items and then use those to lead a comfortable life on the muggle side.

Petunia on the other hand hated Lily. I guess she blamed Lily for all insecurities. But I didn’t come to a conclusion yet as I hadn’t met her yet. I only had Lily’s one sided experience.

Even in canon, Lily had fought Snape, it hadn’t been only her fault. Severus too had been hanging out with death eaters to be and he had no hesitation joining the death eaters.

Besides I didn’t see any use for Petunia except for using her as development for Lily maybe…
……..

Harold Evans didn’t know what he was expecting when he thought of meeting an actual witch but this was not what he had been expecting.

The witch had introduced herself as Eileen Prince.

‘A pompous name’ he had thought inwardly, it was probably her maiden name as he found it hard to believe that a name like that existed in the ‘normal’ world.

He was pleasantly surprised by her demeanor.She looked young, he couldn’t believe at first that she had a son the same age as his Lily but the way she carried herself made him overlook her age.

Speaking of her son, he was worried when he learnt that Lily had befriended a boy like every father but seeing the boy eased some of his worries. The boy too had a mature vibe to him and he didn’t dress like the hooligans on the street.

He was dressed in clean ironed clothes and he had well kept hair reaching his nape. The boy Severus had introduced himself perfectly and seemed calm all the while.

Inwardly he was pleased with his demeanor and had relaxed around him.

Rose Evans was a fashionable woman and seeing Eileen come into their house wearing the dress she had seen in the tele, her eyes shone.

She just greeted her and brought her and her son to her husband who was waiting in the guest room.

When she had first seen Eileen, she had been surprised seeing how young she was. The way she carried herself too was noble and was pleasing to the eye.

Rose inwardly decided that she would try to befriend Eileen. They had moved to this town recently and she had not made any proper acquaintances.

Then came the boy her little Lily had befriended. He kept a calm face, almost stoic even. He had only shown a little smile when greeting her.

She liked the boy. He was polite and reserved. His dress sense was a bit old fashioned but he pulled it off well. Her husband seemed to like it at the very least.

She was glad Petunia was still asleep in her room. She didn’t know who she would react seeing Eileen so she let her sleep more.

“So...Ms. Prince, I would like to begin by first apologizing for asking you to come on such a short notice...I believe that I was a bit hasty in asking Lily to get you to come here. It's just that we want to know more about Lily’s powers or magic as you call it ..”

“Ah..no need to apologize Mr. Evans, I wanted to meet you as well. Muggleborns are so rare and to find one living in the same neighbourhood was unexpected. Besides I can understand how you feel...Magic is something you don’t understand and naturally you want to learn more about it.”

“Muggleborns?” Asked Harold, noticing the word.It felt odd as he said it.He wondered if it was a slang for something.

“Oh...Muggleborns are just what we call wizards or witches born in non-magical families. It is widely believed that they inherited magic from a distant magical ancestor or because of a squib marrying a muggle. A squib is a person who is born into a magical family but can’t use magic.” Eileen explained.

Harold listened with interest.

“Lets get your questions over with first.” Eileen suggested.

Harold didn’t have a problem with that. He proceeded to ask her about magic and what it exactly was.

Eileen hadn’t brushed up on magic theory in a long time so she just gave him a basic explanation and it seemed he was satisfied with it.

“So you are saying that one of us had a magical ancestor?” he asked, pointing at his wife.

Eileen nodded. “Most probably or you descended from a squib. Either is likely. Magic usually resurfaces in such families.”

“I see….what about Petunia, she is my other daughter. Is there a possibility of her being magical too?” he asked.

“I am afraid not. She would have shown signs of it otherwise. I have heard of people being late bloomers but they all usually show signs of it before 11...how old is she again?”

“She will be turning 13 soon…” he answered.

“I see then I think she is not a witch.” Eileen said.

Harold sighed. He had mixed feelings about this. He knew how much Petunia wanted to be like her sister but he also didn’t want her to leave him. He took a deep breath and asked a question that had been worrying him.

“ Lily mentioned a school for magic... Is it mandatory that she must attend?” Harold asked the most pressing question. As much as he wanted Lily to know more about her powers, he wasn’t fully committed to the idea that she stop her current studies to go to some magical school.

Eileen knew this was a tricky question, she took a deep breath and began, “Well you could have her not attend Hogwarts but I would advise not to do that….For starters, Lily won’t be able to get a wand, a tracker will be placed on her because she won’t know how to use her magic and she can accidentally cause problems.”

‘And they will erase your memories to uphold the statute of secrecy...’ she said inside her head. From the few sci-fi movies Severus had shown her in the tele, she knew muggles did not take anything messing with her head.

She felt a little guilty not telling the parents this but she didn’t want to make them paranoid. All she was doing now was giving them a brief explanation of the magical world.

She didn’t want to scare them away and even if she gave an explanation, they needed to see it to truly come to a decision. She just wanted to see if they were good people.

She was already satisfied with them. They both seemed to love and cherish their daughter so it seemed unlikely they would ostracize her because of her magic.

Harold was deep in thought after hearing Eileen’s reply. He weighed the pros and cons of sending Lily to the magic school. In the end, he finally decided.

“Very well...we will send Lily to the school..” he answered.

“A wise choice.”, Eileen said, showing a relieved smile. She felt happy that they were willing.

After learning that Lily could be in danger if she didn’t learn to control her powers, he just had to send her there.He was a bit disappointed as he had plans for her but he just had to deal with it. He still had his other daughter after all.

But he also couldn’t help but ask, “Can Lily continue her studies here?”

“Hmm...she can but only if it doesn’t conflict with her magic studies. I recommend her self studying and giving exams privately instead otherwise it will be too troublesome.”

“I...see.” he looked at Rose, his wife and they both decided to discuss Lily’s studies later.

“So...what can Lily do with magic once she learns it?”

“The question would be what can’t she do, Mr Evans.” Eileen answered. “Magic is a wonderful thing and you can do pretty much everything you want with it.”

“There are many fields in magic and I won’t be able to explain them all as it would take far too long to explain everything but I can give a brief introduction.”

“That would be acceptable,” Rose said as she brought some cookies she had finished baking.

“Here, Ms. Prince, I made some cookies and I wish you would try them.” Rose said.

Eileen had not eaten breakfast so she nodded. “Thank you and you can just call me Eileen.”

She picked one up and took a bite.

‘It's so good..’

The cookies were delicious and were very well baked.

‘Severus will like them...Maybe I should ask her how she made them later.’she thought. She had noticed that he liked eating food.

She knew her cooking skills were not great so she wanted to get better. Tasting Rose’s cookies made her consider asking her to teach her some cooking.

“These are wonderful Mrs Evans. You must teach me how you made these...” Eileen complimented. She blushed after realising what she had said.

‘Merlin’s beard….now they must think I am some gluttonous woman.’

Rose blushed seeing such a sincere compliment. “Oh...thank you Eileen and you can also just call me Rose.”

Inwardly Rose was pleased too. She sensed a place to start their friendship. She decided to ask her about her fashion later.

“Okay..”

“Here Dear, have some tea.” Rose then poured tea for her husband.

After eating the cookies, Eileen explained the various fields of magic to them.

She told them about charms , transfiguration , runes, potions and other fields. She kept it brief and didn’t tell them much about curses and other dark magic.

Muggles had always associated witches with it so she wanted to break that image in their eyes.

………

[Meanwhile]

Petunia Evans had woken up. She was surprised that her mother had not come to wake her up. Usually she would be scolding her by this time.

Shrugging she got off her bed and completed her daily routine.

‘How strange why is no one here to wake me up?’

She started climbing down the stairs when she heard voices from the hallway. She paused and peeked from the stairs.
She saw a woman dressed elegantly talking to her parents. She also saw a boy next to Lily.

‘He looks handsome…’

But then she saw Lily talking to him. She gritted her teeth as she came to the realization that the boy had come to visit Lily.

‘Why does the freak always get everything she wants….’

She didn’t know when she started hating her sister but it was probably around the time she was six. Lily and her were as close as sisters could be and were always together.

But things changed when Lily began doing things that seemed impossible. At first it was small things like her hair growing long even after her mother cut it and soon Lily could make things happen.

Her parents were surprised to see all this happening but they reacted positively to it. From then, Petunia and Lily slowly grew distant. Gone was the little sister who once looked up to her.

Lily had transformed into a perfect girl who could perform miracles while she got scolded by her parents. Her parents never seemed to be mad at Lily and got her whatever she wanted.

Lily had also inherited the better genes so she looked better than her. A festering feeling began building up inside her and it finally exploded when she couldn’t hold it in any longer.

All the envy she felt for Lily and her powers turned into hate and aversion towards it. Lily still wanted to keep a good relationship with her but everything she did seemed like she was looking down on her.

Petunia couldn’t think of anything she was better at than Lily and began hating herself but after a while she started blaming Lily and attributed it to her powers.

She made Lily’s friends think Lily was a freak and made them leave Lily. It worked and they indeed left Lily. Lily was heartbroken and seeing this had finally made Petunia feel good.

Lily tried making new friends but Petunia had already spread rumours about her.

Pity all her efforts came to an end when they had to move again. Now they had arrived in Cokeworth. A town that Petunia felt was too depressing to live in.

She thought that Lily wouldn’t make any new friends here but seeing her bring a friend in so soon irked Petunia

She felt her envy rise up again when seeing Lily’s luck. ‘I will make him hate her too….that freak must not have any friends..’

Petunia strained to hear the conversation in the room and she could hear bits and pieces. After learning that the people there could use magic too, her heart started beating fast.

‘Wait..if there are more people like the freak then does that mean I can have powers too…’

As much as she hated magic, it was all because she couldn’t use it but after learning that there were more people capable of using it, she was excited about it.

But her hopes were crushed when she heard the woman say that she couldn’t use magic.

Tears welled up in her eyes and her nails dug into her fingers as she clenched her fists.

‘It's not fair..why does she get everything and I don’t get …’

‘It's all her fault, she took everything from me…’

She couldn't stand there any longer and headed back to her room. Little did she know that she had been spotted by Severus.

‘How interesting…’he thought seeing Petunia’s expression go from hopeful to one of despair.

He could tell by the look she left with that the chances of her reconciling with Lily was close to nil now. In canon, she had only learnt that she wouldn’t be accepted into the wizarding world after Lily turned 11 but now that her hopes were crushed early, she felt worse.
…..

I watched Petunia leave with a look of hatred on her face. Lily and the others seemed to have not noticed her.

I didn’t really want to interact with her. From what I had heard from Lily, she was already miserable and hated everything Lily did. It was not a good sign and I wondered why her parents hadn’t done anything.

Maybe they were neglectful of her?

Anyway I didn’t care about her and Lily was just an acquaintance at best. I didn’t know how my presence would change her. She did have her hopes crushed earlier this time.

Maybe she will realise that her hate was misguided and pointless or she becomes worse than her canon self. Either way she didn’t really matter for me.

That said I did pity her as she had to marry a man like Vernon. Hopefully she is saved from that fate this time.

I didn’t bother notifying others of what I saw and the conversations went on as intended. Eileen told them about the types of magic but I did notice how she didn’t mention the dark arts and curses.

I could guess what she was thinking and I agreed with her. No parents would send their children to learn dark magic. Dark magic is not evil per se but it had a stigma against it and an inherent bias in people that it was something to be avoided.
That said I was beginning to get bored too. After talking for a bit more, Mr Evans left for his factory work but since Rose suggested that they stay for a while, I couldn’t leave.

Mr Evans leaving seemed to have removed some sort of barrier because Eileen began talking more freely. Maybe she was nervous around men or felt uncomfortable in Mr Evans’s presence?

They began talking about cooking and fashion. Eileen wanted to learn cooking from Rose who was happy to help. I felt a bit happy too seeing her wanting to learn cooking.

I had become accustomed to eating food again and my sense of taste had returned. Eileen’s cooking was beginning to taste bland. Hopefully she gets better after learning from Rose.

Lily and I continued discussion on magic but it shifted to normal topics like our tastes and other things like music, tv shows etc.

I was a bit out of touch with this era so I found it hard maintaining the conversation but Severus’ memories helped me out a bit.

I still sounded like an ignorant kid who knew nothing but at least it was not as bad as it could have been.

The only band I knew from the 60s were the Beatles and I was not familiar with anything else.

I did know some bands from this ear but they didn’t exist yet or were not big yet. If I recalled correctly, the queens would start soon.

Finally after an hour of grueling boredom, Eileen decided it was time to head back home.

I bid goodbye to Lily and her mother.

“So what did you think of them?” I asked Eileen once we were out.

“Well..they seem like nice people. Rose especially was very kind.”

“A new friend then?” I asked.

“Oh...we just got acquainted. She agreed to teach me cooking, her cookies were pretty good weren’t they?”

I recalled them and I had to agree. They were pretty decent. I nodded.

“Hmm..oh and I agreed to make her some cosmetic potions.” Eileen said.

“Are you sure it works on muggles?” I asked. I didn’t want Lily’s mother to get some unintended side effects.

“Why wouldn’t it work?” she asked puzzled.

“I mean...it is intended for wizards and witches right? So wouldn’t it have….I don’t know...some side effects or something if used on muggles?”

“I don’t think so...muggles are not really different from us. They are not immune to magic and magic still works on them, it's just that they can’t perceive it and can’t use it.”

“Hmm…” I nodded.

“Well hopefully it works on Lily’s mother.”

“Don’t worry it will, it's been a while since I made potions so I need to get some practice in. Also we can finally begin your potions training. I have asked Rosie to lend me a cauldron.”

I felt happy at this news. Potions was something I was lagging behind in due to not being able to brew any. I was excited to finally apply months of memorizing into practice.

---

[A/N: Finally completed this chapter. Was dissatisfied with it a bit. I wanted to have Petunia meet Severus but decided it was too tedious. She won’t be a major character anyway.

So I just showed her thoughts and will now describe her appearances in future briefly.]

 

Time passed more quickly than I had expected. Before I knew it, a year had passed since my ‘rebirth’.

After the first few chaotic months, I had settled in well and fallen into a routine.

I had also received my much awaited Hogwarts letter. It had arrived by owl-like in canon. It was a strange sight to see an owl carry a letter though.

The contents were as follows:

---

HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore
(Order of Merlin: First Class, Grand Sorc. ,Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. Of Wizards.)

Dear Mr Prince,

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.
The term begins on 1 September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July.

Yours Sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall
Deputy Headmistress.

---

The letter was what I had expected but damn did Dumbledore have a lot of titles to his name. It gave me a clearer idea of his power and the influence he holds.

Pity he didn’t use it to its full potential.

Coming back to the letter, it came attached with a parchment listing the things I needed to buy if I decided to go to Hogwarts.

The uniform required me to get a set of robes, a pair of protective gloves and for some reason a pointy hat…

I think the last one was just for formalities sake because I don’t think anyone actually wore those.

Next up were the books which I already had except for the DADA books which needed to be bought because they kept changing the teacher every year and each one preferred a different book.

The rest of the books I had were Eileen’s books which I could still use. The curriculum at Hogwarts had not changed much over the years so her books could still be used.

And last but not the least, I needed to get a wand. Eileen had promised to take me to Diagon alley for shopping soon. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t excited about it.

Over the years Eileen had continued working at the Three Broomsticks Inn and it was doing quite well.

I had met Rosmerta too when she took me to Hogsmeade. Speaking of the magical village, it truly was a fascinating sight.

The buildings were old fashioned and outdated like I had expected and the road was made of cobblestone. It reminded me of a medieval RPG village with all its shops and places.
Anway after I learnt that Rosmerta was looking for suggestions for new drinks. I had an idea. I proposed to her that I would give her some suggestions for the drinks and other foodstuffs if I got a cut of it.

She was sceptical at first but agreed to humour me. I had her introduce some popular muggle drinks that were popular in the era I was in. I changed the names of some that were not whacky enough and made some small changes to them.

I also gave her the suggestion of a different type of Butterbeer. I am not sure if this was the one she made in canon but the one I gave the recipe for was the Butterbeer from the theme parks.

I had gone there a few times in my previous life and had quite enjoyed it. As for how I knew the recipe, I had googled it when I was bored.

Anyway, the butterbeer was sweeter than the other variants and the products used to make it were cheaper. Rosmerta liked it after tasting it so it should probably do well.

I had many other ideas like introducing milkshakes, more cocktails and other stuff from canon that didn’t exist yet but I held them back. I didn’t want to give her all my ideas at once.

I would instead release them slowly which would make her appreciate me more and thereby giving me better deals.

The drinks I suggested worked within my expectations with some exceeding them too. Eileen was ecstatic and Rosmerta was happy too.

Her business was booming with my drinks being the main selling point. I was sure the others would catch onto this soon but for now, I had a monopoly of these drinks which earned me a hefty profit.

That and I wasn’t too worried about others copying me since the wizarding world had this weird tradition or more precisely mentality of sticking to one shop. Especially the purebloods who use the same shop for generations.

I didn’t know why they were so hesitant to try other options.No wonders half the shops in Diagon alley lasted for centuries. They had built up such a high reputation that no competition stood a chance unless they did something unique and better.

So being the pioneer of wizard drinks, I had a headstart compared to others. Well, I still couldn’t beat Ogden’s firewhiskey but it wouldn’t be long before I came up with something as whacky….

The money I got from these drinks was actually pretty decent and I gave it to Eileen who bought potion supplies and began making potions.

She sold them as a batch in the inn every weekend when the students visited. It was an idea I suggested and it worked well.

There was a potion shop in Hogsmeade but the prices were way out of a common student’s budget. Eileen sold them in bulk at lower prices so students piled money and bought sets which they then shared amongst each other.

This side business also bought in some good money. Honestly, at this rate, I felt that the vault wasn’t even needed but of course, I wanted the vault. You can never have too much money after all.

I had many more ideas to make money like this in the magical world but I didn’t reveal them all. I couldn’t get too hasty since I didn’t want to attract too much attention.

I decided to hold them off at least until Eileen opened her shop and I got my heir status.

This would deter half the bad people since the laws for a pureblood and laws for a muggle-born were different, to say the least. Well I was a half-blood but being a heir, the laws of pureblood applied to me.

Thus before I knew it, a year had passed and it was finally time for my Diagon alley visit.
Eileen wanted to get Lily and her parents to go with us but they had received a letter through Mcgonagall who insisted that she be the one to show them around as it was tradition.

Speaking of Mcgonagall, after learning that we lived in the same neighbourhood, she had come to visit us just to check upon us.

She came to our house to thank Eileen for informing Lily and her parents. I had not expected her to do this as I was under the impression that she would not like what we had done.

I then realized that I had been holding a bias against her and I felt stupid. Reading so many fanfics and theories had built this up in me and me comparing all canon characters to their book parts had made me biased.

From that point, I decided to let go of all biases I had against any canon character and then judge them on my own.

Of course, I would still be suspicious of some characters because of their actions in canon but I wouldn’t let that affect me too much. I would just take the ‘trust but verify approach.

McGonagall also came to see how Eileen was after marrying Tobias. She had been quick to spot the signs that the marriage had not been a happy one.

She was also sympathetic to me since she grew up in a household similar to mine. Of course, her father was not bad like Tobias had been but she understood how Eileen felt giving up her magic.

Her mother too had married a muggle but hadn’t said that she was a witch. Eventually, she had to after her young self started manifesting magic. But the relationship between them was never the same again.

She didn’t criticize Eileen for her poor decision either but even called her brave for leaving the wizarding world to marry a muggle. She found it regretful that Tobias turned out to be such a man.

It was quite interesting to learn more about Minerva who I hadn’t known much about other than that she was a teacher.

Overall I had a better impression of her than I did before.
….

“Are you ready?” Eileen asked.

I gave a nod as my answer.

“Hmm..hold my hand now, we are going to apparate.” she gave a hand which I grabbed.
Eileen nodded and with a loud crack, we apparated. Apparating was a weird experience and the next moment we were in the streets.

Apparition felt like being folded and thrown around like a ragdoll. I felt nauseous but fortunately didn’t throw up.

“Oh you did well on your first try Severus, most people puke on their first attempts,” Eileen said.

“I can see why…” I retorted trying to fight nausea. I recalled a life hack I had seen long ago. I don’t know how I even remembered it but it helped. I pressed my thumb on the tendons between my fingers.

It seemed to have done the trick as my nausea reduced significantly.

“Are you alright? Want to take a rest somewhere?” Eileen asked, seeing me hunched over.
“That's not necessary, just feeling a bit nauseous. I feel better now.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes..”

Eileen nodded and proceeded to walk as I followed her. We received a few stares for our attire but Eileen didn’t pay it any heed.

I didn’t care either although inwardly I felt weird wearing the robes. I had just about gotten used to 70s fashion and now I was wearing something older.

Soon we reached a street called Charring Cross and right in between a tiny bookshop and what seemed to be a record shop was a dingy inn with the sign ‘Leaky Cauldron’ that seemed out of place.

When I said out of place, it really felt out of place like a hut in between two skyscrapers.The building if you call it that as it looked more like a shack seemed ancient. The people around didn’t notice it at all seemingly walking past it as though it didn’t exist.

“This is the leaky cauldron huh?”

“Yes...it's been here before the street was even planned,” Eileen answered.

“So do they use muggle repelling charm to keep these people away?” I asked pointing at the oblivious people.

“Yes ever since it was invented, the Ministry regularly strengthens it. They also have wards around it that power the spell. I did read that they used to use a fidelius before but it was too hard and expensive to maintain...Though they did put it under a fidelius again during the war with Grindelwald. Only those that could be trusted were allowed to know the key.”

“Well then, now that we are here, shall we go in?” Eileen asked.

I agreed and we went inside. Once inside, I was met with a bizarre sight. It felt like I had walked into a time capsule.

The pub was filled with people wearing clothes from the medieval ages- robes, pointy hats and all the generic witch or wizard attire.

The movie had portrayed this but it couldn’t have shown the awful smell and dirty filth everywhere.

People were noisy and loud like most pubs had. They were spilling their drinks, gossiping and animals were running around. The empty chairs were arranging themselves.

The tables cleaned themselves albeit inefficiently as they just made the floor dirtier instead.
Some people were wearing some muggle attire may be trying to blend in but they were the ones who stood out the most because they were wearing clothes that went out of fashion years ago.

Ignoring the smell, I followed Eileen who had walked up to the innkeeper, a man named Tom who nodded at her and led us to the backyard.

“Severus, look at what I do care. It will be helpful for you if you ever come here on your own.” Eileen pulled her wand out of her holster and began tapping the bricked wall in a pattern.

I did as she suggested and memorized it. I did have plans to come here after all.

After she finished tapping the walls, they parted one by one to reveal a narrow pathway.

Eileen beckoned me to follow and I trotted along beside her.

“Is this the only entrance to the alley?” I asked. I knew that one could use floo powder like Harry did but I was curious to know if there were more.

“Well, there are a few more ways to enter the alley. First is the one we just came in through. Second would be the floo powder by which we can appear directly inside but you need to get your house registered before you can floo in and the house must not be from some other country.”

“Besides the floo doesn’t work for long distances so you can’t be too far. Portkeys are the best for long-distance travels.”

“I see, what about apparition?”

“Ah yes...I almost forgot you can apparate but not around Gringotts where they have set up a ward. I was not sure if they expanded it over the years so I apparated outside.”

“The last one would be apparating to Knockturn alley but its not a good place to apparate too. The people found there are shady and might jump you if suddenly apparated there.”

Hmm...Knockturn alley sounded like a grey black market of sorts. I might need to procure some hard to get things from there in the future so I put it on my places to visit.

Of course, I wouldn’t step into it until I was sure I would not be completely defenceless. Only after I was confident in dealing with the threats there would I go in there.

We soon reached the end of the path and we entered an open space. The cobblestoned path extended into forks and diagon alley was before my eyes.

The name was a desperate attempt at a joke that I didn’t want to comment on. The place looked like a worse version of Hogsmeade. The shops were much older and when they wanted to expand it, they just built stuff on top without a care.

Truly an architect’s nightmare. The building’s were probably only standing and had not collapsed because of magic. No wonder the weasleys had such a house, if this was the norm then I wouldn’t be surprised to see other buildings which followed minecraft logic.

It almost looked like an npc town with all the weirdly dressed people walking about.

The street was filled with people to the brim. It was Hogwarts season and I guessed everyone was here for the same purpose as me, to shop for supplies.

There were a few signs indicating where the shops were.

“So which place are we hitting first then?” I asked.

“Gringotts. Its time to get the vault back from those goblins.” Eileen answered, annoyance in her voice.

“Alright.” I was a bit excited and nervous about visiting Gringotts. I was eager to see what an actual goblin looked like but was also nervous as I wasn’t sure if I would pass the inheritance test.

 

The Gringotts bank was an imposing building right in the middle of Diagon Alley. It was also the tallest building in sight. We climbed the white stairs which led us to a tall pair of silver doors manned by two goblin guards.

I kept my expression neutral when I saw my first goblin. Well they weren't too weird. The goblin was wearing a uniform of gold and red colours or to be polite, he looked like a human midget with slightly sharper features and dome shaped heads.

Pointy ears were the first sign that indicated that he was in fact not a human and the second one was that he had pointy ears.

The goblin stared at me while I walked. The doors had words engraved on them that said:

---

Enter, stranger, but take heed

Of what awaits the sin of greed

For those who take, but do not earn,

Must pay most dearly in their turn.

So if you seek beneath our floors

A treasure that was never yours,

Thief, you have been warned, beware

Of finding more than treasure there.

---

A grim poem that served as a warning. Though ironically enough I was more interested in the building itself than the treasures found in it. Its high security wards was something I was fascinated by.

I had put warding on things I must learn as I would have a lab of my own some day for experiments of the nefarious kind and knowing good wards would be helpful.

We reached the main hall after passing the silver doors. The hall had a high ceiling and it looked bigger on the inside.

I found it ironic that the goblins of all creatures had such a large place to themselves while Hagrid, a literal giant lived in a house more suited to them.

There were many rows in the hall with each one having goblins sitting on high tables doing their jobs.I saw many wizards and witches too who were waiting patiently in a line.

Eileen approached a goblin and I followed behind her.

"Excuse me." she said trying to grab the busy goblin's attention.

The goblin looked up with clear annoyance having been interrupted.

"What is it, witch?" he asked.

"We are here to get him registered as heir." Eileen stated and pointed towards me.

I had to look up to see the goblin over the tall table.

"Right…what's the house name?" he asked.

"Prince." Eileen answered.

The goblin grunted and began looking through a thick book.

"Lets see...Prince...ah yes the house doesn't have an heir."

"So you want to have him try the heir verification?" he asked, looking at me.

"Yes. He turned 11 a few months ago and will start Hogwarts soon so I want to restore his pureblood status." Eileen replied.

"Very well, Adgrot !" he said and another goblin came running. This one looked more goblin like than the other ones. He had a pointier nose and longer ears.

"You called master Burgock?" the goblin asked once he arrived.

"Take these two the Prince vault and get a heir ring ready." the goblin, Burdock said.

"Alright Master." Adgrot said and beckoned us to follow.

He led us out of the hall to a doorway that descended into the ground. The door opened to reveal a cave. It painted a stark contrast to the white marble outside.The cave like mine extended into the darkness and it had some torches on the wall with tracks descending into the abyss.

Adgrot didn't talk much and gestured to us to stop. He pulled a lantern hanging on the wall and lit it before clapping.A sound of screeching was heard as the sound what seemed like minutes, a cart came rushing up the tracks and stopped before us.

"Come along wizards." Adgrot said and got on the cart.

The next few minutes were thrilling and I had to hold myself back from screaming. The goblin minecart was perhaps the longest and the best roller coaster ride I had ever been on.

Of course, it was dangerous too as there were no safety features but one would be relatively safe as long as they did not piss the goblin off.
Once we got off the cart on a floor I couldn't tell, the goblin began leading us deeper into the cave.

"So what number is our vault?" I asked Eileen.

"Our family is not very old so we didn't get the higher security vaults that the older ones got. Ours should be...vault 545." she answered.

I thought back to the history of my house. The Prince's had started off as a branch family of a pureblood house and they could be traced back to 800 years ago. The main family died out allowing the Prince family to become the main one.

They specialised in making potions and were a relatively well known family back then and even had ties to the other craftsmen families like the Ollivanders.

They had been at their peak somewhere in the middle of the 16th century but they suffered a heavy blow during the witch trials.Being a family specializing in potions, they were discovered more quickly and many were hunted down.

From that point onwards, the Princes who were a family that used to belong to the 'light side' turned into a muggle hating house. After years of generational brainwashing, it didn't come as a surprise that Eileen's parents hated her for marrying a muggle.

Well it didn't matter now. They had passed away and left their fortunes for me or so I hoped.

They had been in decline when Eileen left and I don't think they did better after that. They had been caught up in the war between Grindelwald and Dumbledore and being a craftsmen family. They were targeted to stop supplies.

Being on the losing side didn't help too. Coming back to the vaults, we had arrived in front of it.

It was a cave-like hole with a metal door on it. Adgroft pulled a ring out of his pocket and handed it to me.

Eileen nodded at me and I put it on. I was about to comment on its large size but it adjusted itself to fit my finger perfectly.

"What should I do next?" I asked.

Adgroft tapped the vault a few times and an arm sized hole appeared.

"Put your hand in the hole, young wizard." he said with a nasty smile.

"Go on Severus, don't be afraid. Worst case, it fails and we can't access it." Eileen said, trying to reassure me.

"Wait….so there are no repercussions if I fail?" I had been under the impression that failing meant I would have to face some issues.

"Of course not, only the dark families do that. Our family didn't put any curses on the vault. Failing means you won't be able to try it again. That's it, no curses or repercussions…"

I felt all my nervousness disappear and without hesitation, I clenched my fist and inserted it into the hole.

I felt a prick which I assumed was the drawing of blood. The wall glowed and then with a pop sound, it opened. I quickly removed my hand and the vault opened completely.

It was a bit anticlimactic but I wasn't complaining. I saw coins littered around the vault and some potions rack and cauldrons at the corner.

There were some other things like a cabinet filled with cutlery and a bookstand with some old books in them.

"Severus you did it!" Eileen said and patted my head.

"Congratulations….heir Prince." Adgroft commented.

I inadvertently gave a smile and scooped up some coins.

"How much do we have?" I asked Eileen.

Eileen looked at Adgroft who pulled out a parchment and began reading it out.

"Vault 545- Prince. Let's see….it has 10000 galleons, 18000 sickles and 80000 knuts."

I had read about wizard currency and knew that galleons were the highest valued coins. 17 sickles made a galleon and 29 knuts made a sickle.

I quickly calculated the amount to galleons and we had roughly around 12000 galleons. Quite a decent sum. It was on the poorer side when it came to pureblood houses but then again, the Prince family was in decline so it made sense.

From what Eileen had told me, an average pureblood family had around 50000 galleons in the vault. Of course,this was not taking their assets from businesses into the picture so they probably had more.

But still 12000 galleons was a huge amount for the average common household. The weasleys for one would be able to live lavishly for years with this amount and could probably support more kids.

It seemed I had a long way to go before I became rich enough to buy whatever I want. I was sure I could reach that level if I played my cards well.
I had made around 200 galleons this year courtesy of my suggestions to Rosmerta and Eileen had earned around 100 from working at the inn and selling potions bringing up our total as 300.

But once Eileen opens her own shop,this amount could easily be doubled and maybe even more if my ideas did well.

"How much do we need?" I asked Eileen.

"Hmm...let's withdraw 3000 galleons first, 500 will be enough to cover two years of your term and with the rest, I will buy some place in Hogsmeade to set up the potion shop."

So after registering me as the heir, we withdrew the money and left the bank.

"So does this mean we get the house as well?" I asked Eileen.

"Yes we will move there once your term starts. I will put our current house for sale once we get back."

We had talked about this before and had decided to move back to the magical world once my term started. The Prince manor was in Godric's hollow and it was more convenient for Eileen too.

I had not told this to Lily and there was a high chance she would get upset but I wouldn't change my mind for her. The chance to use magic freely and observe other people use it was too precious to give up.
…
After coming out of Gringotts, Eileen decided to first get my uniform. We went to Madam Malkin's Robes for Occasions.

Malkin was an annoying woman who fussed a lot. I just wanted to get the robes and leave quickly but she was taking far too long.

I was glad I had the books already since Flourish and Blotts was filled to the brim and there was a long queue there.

Moving on, I had to buy a new cauldron since Hogwarts didn't allow the one Eileen used or the ones we found in the vault.

"So what do you want to get next Severus?"

"A pet…." I replied. Though I was eager for the wand, I wanted to keep it for the last.

"Alright then, lets go get one, which one do you want?"

I thought about it for a few seconds and answered, "Cat."

I always liked them and wouldn't mind having one so I chose a cat but then again, the other options were not appealing.The owl had practical uses but Eileen was already buying one for the house so that was out. A rat was useless and paying for it seemed like a stupid thing to do.

The rats sold in the pet shop were not special too so there was no point in paying for it. You just had to look in dirty places and you would find one.

As for frogs, I didn't find them appealing and didn't know how to take care of it. So the only option left was the cat.

"Very well..let's get a cat."

We walked around the street till we arrived in front of the pet shop- Magical Menagerie.

We were greeted by a guy with cheeriness. "Welcome Madam to the Magical Menagerie, the best place for all magical pets."

"Go on, tell him what you want Severus." Eileen said.

"I would like to look at some cats." I answered.

The man grinned and said. "Of course, Sir. We have all kinds of cats, which type would you prefer?"

Before I could say anything, he started speaking, "We have the popular siamese breed, the persian, the shorthair, a few burmese and if you are looking for something magical, something exotic we have…."

I just let him ramble. He had paused for dramatic effect but I wasn't gawking like he expected so he carried on surprisingly without much awkwardness.

"We have a special cat, one which is half breed with the blood of a nundu running through it!"

A nundu….one of the most dangerous magical creatures which needed 20 trained wizards to subdue. I was curious about it and at least wanted to have a look at this half breed cat.

"Absolutely not ,young man" Eileen said. She seemed to have noticed the glint in my eyes.

"It probably costs a fortune to buy and even more to maintain so we can't buy it. Moreover, it has Nundu blood running through it for Merlin's sake! It's clearly a dangerous creature."

The man awkwardly smiled.

I didn't let him start talking and quickly said, "Just show me some good regular cats Mister. Preferably young."

"A regular cat?..." the man's enthusiasm took a hit. He had clearly mistaken us some wealthy purebloods.

"Sure we have those too, come along." He gestured to me to follow.

He took me to the back of the shop where there were various pets and brought to me a row filled with cats.I looked at them. There were many but I picked a small black one. A kitten judging by its size.

"I will have this one." I pointed at the black one which was now sitting upright and cleaning its paws by licking them.

"Hmm…" the man hummed and unlatched the cage to pick it up. He grabbed it roughly, startling it in the process and then handed it to me.

I inspected its gender and found that it was female. I brought my palm under her chin and rubbed it gently, making her relax her guard and purr into me. I grabbed her by the nape and adjusted her on my arm.

Once we were back in the front, Eileen paid for her and we left the store.

"So what will you name..her?" Eileen asked.

"How did you know that it's a her?"

"Well...my mum had a few when I was young so I would tell what gender she was."

I looked at the little kitten in my arm and pondered over the name.

"Nyx" I uttered. After going through some odd names, nyx seemed the most normal sounding. It was better than some japanese names I had been considering at least.

"Nyx..huh, that sounds apt for her." Eileen agreed on the name and thus it was decided that the cat would be called nyx.

Nyx seemed sleepy so I put her back in the cage she came with. Eileen then decided to get an owl from the owl emporium but since it was on the other side of the alley, we decided to part ways.

Eileen brought me to Ollivanders and then left to go get the owl. The shop looked ancient with a sign that read Ollivanders:Maker of Fine Wands since 382 B.C.

I found it a little hard to believe that it survived for so long. This place was older than Diagon Alley itself.

I was a little curious about wand lore. How did the wand choose a wizard? Was it affinity? Certain traits? If so how did the wand know?

I was also curious about wand cores and the wood used. Why use phoenix feather, Unicorn hair or dragon heartstrings specifically? Why couldn't other parts be used?

I put these questions to the back of mind and entered the shop.

 

[A/N: Two updates in a day!!!]

---

The shop inside felt quiet. There was a pin drop silence which was broken by a voice next to me, “Good afternoon.”

I didn’t get startled as I had seen Ollivander staking out by the window. The windows were tinted but not opaque so I had noticed him.

So without flinching, I replied, “Good afternoon Sir.”

“Ah...so you are the young Prince…” he said before coming out to the open.

Ollivander more or less looked as described in canon. He had grey hair though not quite as much as he had in canon.

“I remember your mother walking in here to get her wand you know….Maple and unicorn hair, nine a half inches, rigid.”

“Cool…” I replied unsure of what to make of that.

“Well then I assume you are here to get your wand?” he asked.

“Yes…”

“Right..let's get to it then.” he shuffled across the floor and began pulling out some boxes.

“What's your wand arm boy?” he asked, placing the boxes on a short stool.

“Um...right I guess.” I said.

“Alright give me your hand.” he asked and I complied. He stared at it for a few seconds and then made his way to the back of the shop leaving me to my own devices.

The silence was oddly uncomfortable so I began looking around the shop. The shop itself wasn’t massive and except the counter, the rest of it was disorganised with stacks of boxes everywhere.

I spotted a table with some sketches on it and went to take a closer look. They seemed to be rough sketches of wands and some formulaic things were written that I couldn’t understand.

I also saw some notes about wand cores with dates to use them. This made me wonder if Astronomy played a role in making things. I recalled that the animagus potion needed specific conditions to work so this seemed like a plausible idea.

As I was pondering, I heard footsteps approaching from the back of the shop. I quickly made my way to my previous location just in time for Ollivander to arrive with a stack of boxes that reached over his head.

Pulling out one box, he took a wand and handed it to me.

“Ash, with unicorn hair, 11 inches stiff...give it a try.” he said.

“Okay.” I gripped the wand and gave it a light flick. A small spark formed at the tip and whizzled within a few seconds.

Before I could give it a try, he snatched it from my hand.

“No that definitely won’t do.” he pulled another wand out. “Here try this, Ebony with an old Hungarian horntail core, 9 and a half inches, flexible.”
I held it once again and this time the wand had a slight curve to it and had a rubbery feeling. I gave it a harder flick.

A red light struck a vase in the direction I had pointed at and it exploded into pieces.

“Sorry?” I quietly handed the wand back to him.

“Ah no worries my boy, this happens sometimes. It seems you are a tricky customer.” he said with a smile.I felt that he was happy that I was a ‘tricky’ customer.

“Hmm...have a try at this. Elm, with a ukranian ironbelly core, 10 inches rather bendy..” he flexed it in his arm and handed it to me.

“Are you sure this will work?” I asked, not wanting to damage more things.

“Maybe it will maybe it might but the more wands you use, the more I can sense what kind suits you...so give it a try. Don’t fret as I am sure we will find something for you. In all my life, I haven’t had a customer who was walked out of here without finding a wand suitable for them.”

“Right here I go then.” I gave the wand a twirl this time and a strong gust of wind knocked some stacks of boxes over.

“Oh dear, this won’t do either.” he took the wand away and went back again. He soon came back with a few more boxes muttering something about unusual combinations.

“Right...I have a good feeling about this, here have a go.” he said and gave me another wand. This one looked like a typical wand with a black polished body but was the longest of all the others he had shown.

“Hawthorn, with phoenix core, 13 inches, rigid.” he stated.

I held the wand and immediately could tell that this was different from the other ones. It felt cool on my skin but I felt a warm feeling running up my arm.

I clutched it tightly and gave it a gentle flick.

I had pointed in the direction of the vase again and this time a zap hit the pile of broken glass and they all started floating to each other. Within a few seconds, they attached and the vase was restored.

I raised an eyebrow and turned to look at Ollivander. He was sporting a curious expression.

“Well it seems the wand has chosen the wizard...but I must say it's quite an interesting combination.”

“How so?” I was curious to know about my wand.

“You see...the feather of the phoenix used in the core was from a phoenix that gave it just before its burning day or in simple terms, its rebirth so to speak and as for the wood, it's a contradictory one.”

“I don’t use hawkthorn much but my rival who has more experience with regard to hawkthorn described it accurately.”

I listened with rapt attention. The word ‘rebirth’ had pulled me in.

“He said that hawkthorn makes for a strange, contradictory wand, as full of paradoxes as the tree that gave it birth, whose leaves and blossoms heal, and yet whose cute branches smell of death. It is a curious wand to say the least but it as they say, it is the wand that chooses the wizard and the wizard that puts it to use.”

“I see…” I replied absentmindedly. The wand was oddly ominous. From what I heard, I was positive that my ‘rebirth’ had made me get this wand and this was not Severus' wand in canon.

“How much do I owe you , Sir?” I asked already knowing the amount but I wanted to make sure it remained the same.

“7 galleons will do my boy. Nothing more nothing less.”

“Oh..how much does a wand maintenance kit and a holster cost?”

“1 galleon and 7 sickles.” he answered.

I nodded and pulled out the required amount and handed it to him.

After getting the things packed, I left the store and was back into the buzzing streets. It was a bit jarring after that short period of absolute silence.
…
I was so dazed and deep in thought that I didn’t even notice Eileen until she was right in front of my face.

“Did you get your wand Severus?” she asked, pulling a trolley behind her with a grey owl in a cage on top of it.

“Ah..yes, I got it.” I said, showing her my wand.

She examined it and handed it back to me. “What core is it?”

“Phoenix, with a Hawkthorn body” I said, recalling Ollivander’s words.

“Oh..phoenix eh, quite rare from what I heard..good wand Severus.” Eileen said.

“Yes...so what did you name the owl?” I said pointing to the grey owl.

“Diana is her name. Do you like it?”

I shrugged, “Sure..sounds nice.”

We walked around a bit and visited some other stores. I observed the shops in the alley and noticed that most were aimed at students as their main customers.

We bought some supplies for me like a telescope, quills and other miscellaneous items.

I saw many kids around my age and older roaming about dressed in robes and some even in muggle clothes.

It was Hogwarts season so naturally it was crowded. The queue around Flourish and Blotts hadn’t reduced so Eileen suggested another bookstore which wouldn’t have all the books I wanted but would have at least some.

I agreed to go there since I didn’t want to be in that long queue so I followed Eileen who led me to a small place called Obscurus books.

She explained that Obscurus was a publishing company and had published many well acclaimed magical books.

They only had books published by their company so I couldn’t get some of the books I wanted but managed to get my hands on a few.Newt scammander’s Fantastic Beasts and where to find them was a bestseller and still sold like cakes. I bought one to browse later on. The second book that I luckily managed to procure was a book about alchemy for beginners written by none other than the Headmaster of Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore with afterword by Nicolas Flamel.

That was about the last place we visited. We left Diagon Alley and since I hadn’t had my breakfast, we apparated to Hogsmeade.
….

I had been visiting Hogsmeade for the past year so by now I was familiar with its shop and some of the locals even recognized me.

It was a quiet village with less people and they all seemed relatively friendly or polite. I quite liked coming here. We headed to Rosmerta’s inn as we decided to have breakfast there.

It was already midday so it was more of a brunch by this point. The inn had few people around and it was not as noisy as usual. The students and teachers were not present since it was holiday time for them.

“Hey there...look who it is.” Rosmerta said coming up to us.

“Done with your shopping?” she asked me.

“Yep~ got everything ready. Set me up something to eat, I am starving.”

She nodded and went to get me some food while Eileen went to one of the empty rooms above to keep all the things we bought.

Rosmerta came back with some typical breakfast and even brought a saucer with milk for Nyx who I let out of the cage.

“So...what are your plans? When are you going to move in?” Rosmerta asked.

“Well mum said she would put the house in cokeworth for sale so once its sold,we move into the family manor.Oh..I nearly forgot, I am an heir now” I said smugly.

“Heh...now I can brag that I know an heir to the folks around. Might get some customers too.”

Seeing her business mind, I rolled my eyes. I was an heir of a pureblood house but it was one in shambles so I didn’t think it was a big deal.
“So...got any new ideas?” she asked as I took a bite of the food.

Well I did have some but since things were going so well, I didn’t give them away.

“Well...I haven’t really had time to think of new ones but don’t worry if I got any, you will be the first one to know..”
Rosmerta smiled, clearly happy with the preferential treatment.

We kept talking for a while when a tall bearded man with grey stringy hair entered. He spotted Rosmerta and came over.
“How are you doing lass, go get me some of that butterbeer.” he said.

Rosmerta sighed as she got up, “You know….I usually don’t say this but you have been drinking too much of it. At this rate, I won’t have enough for the others.”

“Hey...I pay for ‘em” he answered before his sight fell on me.

“Whose this kid? He Eileen’s” he asked.

“Yes…” Rosmerta replied turning to me, “Severus...meet Aberforth, he is the owner of the less...successful Hog’s Head Inn.”

I wiped my mouth and greeted him, “Hello.”

I was a bit surprised seeing him. Even though I visited Hogsmeade frequently, this was my first meeting with him. I had nearly forgotten he had existed. Aberforth Dumbledore, Albus Dumbledore’s brother.

“Aye..nice to finally meet the business prodigy, the names Aberforth Dumbledore kid and yes...I am related to Dumbledore.”

“Nice to meet you Sir, I am Severus Prince.” I greeted him back politely.

“No need to be so polite with me, just call me Abe or uncle Abe if you feel the latter is weird.”

“Sure...Uncle Abe.” I said testing the name out.

“There ya go, I knew your mother and this lass when they went to Hogwarts.”

“Really? How was mum like?” I asked.

“Well she was a shy dainty lady who drank ale like it was tea.” I was glad I wasn’t drinking anything when he said that.

I chuckled imagining a young Eileen drinking ale from a jar like it was tea.

“What about her?” I said pointing at Rosmerta who was taking orders from another customer.

“Ah...she was a vile temptress. She used to bring some upstuck noble kids, play with them and have some drinks with them then she would bolt leaving the boys to pay for her.”

“She is still like that today...If I were you, I would be careful you know... She likes the younger ones from what I heard.”

“I see…” I said awkwardly. I didn’t know what to do with this information.

“So….if you have some good ideas, you can come to me…” he offered. Now I understood what he was trying to get at.

“Oi...trying to steal him right under me eh?” Rosmerta who was coming upto us with a plate and butterbeer said.

“..I was just showing him that there were other options besides you..” Abe said, flashing a smile at me.

“Right..” she said, giving him the stink eye. “Severus, you don’t need to go to him. You can just come to me if you have new ideas.”

I didn’t answer and just took a sip from my mug. Inwardly I was thinking about Abe’s offer. From what little I knew about him from canon, he was good at dueling and a strong wizard.

If I could convince him to teach me some tricks, my strength would double at the very least.

Once Rosmerta left, I turned to Abe, “I do have some ideas if you are interested….” I offered.

“Hoh...go on tell me, if you want we could go up to my place.”

“Well I can just write them down for you but I need some compensation. I can’t give them for free after all.”

“Sure...I can pay you how much she pays or a bit more too if they work.”

“I don’t need money right now so I want another form of compensation..”

“What would that be?”

“Simple..I want you to teach me magic or more specifically dueling.I heard you are good at it so I want to learn from you.”

“I see….that's doable but I don’t have any experience teaching so it will be upto you to grasp what I show but first tell me your reason for wanting to learn. Be careful with your answer as if it doesn’t satisfy me, I won’t teach you.” Abe warned.

I could sense that he wanted to test me so I thought about my answer. I didn’t think I would be able to lie to him and I didn’t want to give some dark answer and be marked as a potential threat.

I thought about why I wanted to learn it, the answer was for power but that would make me seem like Riddle and might ring some warning bells in him.

I thought harder about other reasons and I found one, that feeling of helplessness I had in the void made me want power but also I didn’t like being powerless.

When Tobias was abusing Eileen, I had frozen. I didn’t know what to do. If I hadn’t been lucky enough to use my magic instinctively, she would have been at his mercy.

I clenched my fists thinking about and answered, “I don't want to feel powerless….”

Abe stared into my eyes. “You must know about my mother by now I assume?”

“Yes...I heard from her” he said.

“I hated not being able to do anything when he struck her...I don’t want to feel like that ever again. So will you teach me?”

Abe stared harder. I didn’t know if he was proficient at legilimency as his brother but I could tell he was good at reading people.

“Very well…” he sighed. “I shall teach you what you want. We can start from tomorrow if you want. I can understand your reason, I too couldn’t save a loved one….”

His eyes went glazed as he seemed to reminisce about something, probably his sister I thought.

“Alright, we can start from tomorrow.” I agreed. I had got my wand too so I was eager to try it out.

---

[A/N:Might do a pov for Abe soon, I felt I couldn’t explain his thoughts much through Severus’ pov.]

 

[A/N: My exams are nearing so I won’t be able to update anytime soon.]

---

I had wanted to get better at occlumency but I learnt that Eileen wasn’t very good at it. In fact, she just knew the bare basics of it.

I guess it made sense, occlumency required mastering one’s emotions after all and Eileen didn’t master hers. She wouldn’t have fallen for Tobias if she was good at legilimency.

She just knew how to put a barrier around her mind but her meagre skills had already regressed so much over the years of abuse that she couldn’t manage it now.

So it was upto me to help myself. I had Eileen buy me a book about Occlumency which was hard to get commonly. Fortunately Flourish and Blotts took orders for books if you are a pureblood which I was now.

I ordered a book about Occlumency written by a French author and it had been translated into English. Opening it up, I was not too disappointed by its contents. The book had ample information about the mind arts although it was more of a general knowledge book than an occlumency one.

It stated that Legillimecy and Occlumency are classified as mind arts but mind arts as a whole fell under the Mind magic category.

Basically it meant that the Mind arts were a subcategory within Mind magic. As for mind magic, it consisted of all magic that affected the mind. For example, the obliviate charm or the false memory charm fell under this. In fact even potions like the love potion were considered Mind magic.

I was totally surprised by her revelation. It broadened my horizons completely and I felt stupid for not thinking of this earlier.

Coming back to the mind arts, it seemed that while both legilimency and Occlumency were related, one didn’t have to be adept at both.

Of course, I wanted to be a master at both but I didn’t have anyone to test legilimency on and I wasn’t even sure if I was any good at it.

So I focused more on the occlumency part. Occlumency was the art of protecting one’s mind from magical penetration, the most common form being Legilimency.Those who practised this were called Occlumens.

The most immediate functions of Occlumency were that it prevented anyone from accessing your thoughts, feelings, memories or even influencing them.

The book briefly stated that it could enable the practitioner to resist the Imperius curse and even less briefly that it gave resistance to Veritaserum. Also Occlumency was classified into ‘levels’ based on the user’s skill.

A novice level Occlumens could clear their head making it harder for a legilimens to read their thoughts. The legilimens would have to just spend a bit more time, this time depended on their skill level.

Next was the intermediate Occlumens. In this stage, the occlumens could detect their mind being invaded and could push the intruder back. This wouldn’t deter a legilimens who could enter the mind undetected.

Then there was the advanced level where the Occlumens could do what the intermediate could and could counterattack or trap the legilimens if the latter’s mind was weaker.

And the last level was the Master level, same as the previous one, the occlumens could do what the other levels could and could also create fake memories. The legilimens might be fooled by it which may prove fatal.

The book didn’t state that learning Occlumency gave any extra benefits so my theory of me being able to process things faster because of the void or reincarnation gained just a little more credibility.

The other use I could think of for it though was that it also prevented one from being possessed.

Seeing the explanation written in the book, I could understand why this branch of magic was difficult to learn. Part of the reason why it was so was because for it to work, a person must completely empty themselves of emotion.

Humans are beings of emotions though so letting go of them was not an easy task. One also had to start early as it required dedication and a kid’s mind learned quicker. That and they have better imagination than adults which also helped.

An occlumens needs to make their mind blank and empty. This was what Eileen had asked me to do a year ago but she had put it off since then.

This was something I had already mastered in the void. I could clear my head within a matter of seconds. I just needed to reduce this time further and I would be set.

More advanced users could suppress their thoughts,emotions and memories completely and then above that some could even change them to a degree.

Again I could somewhat do half of that already. Suppressing thoughts and emotions were what kept me sane in the void after all. As for memories, I had two sets of them now and while I could look through them with relative ease, I couldn’t change them.

The book then went on about the requirements which were willpower and a high degree of mental and emotional discipline.

Then it also talked about legilimency. It defined it as the act of magically navigating through a person's mind in order to reveal their thoughts, feelings and memories, as well as correctly interpreting them. A witch or wizard that used this particular branch of magic was called a Legilimens.

The process to learn legilimency was a slightly different one. It actually required the use of a spell to enter the target’s mind. Though skilled practitioners could do this wandlessly and chantlessly.

The things a legilimens could do were many and it ranged from being able to detect lies to being able to access the target’s thoughts, emotions and memories. Of course, this was if the target was not adept at Occlumency.

A highly skilled Legilimens could plant false memories and visions inside a person’s head and while eye contact made it easier to perform legilimency,it was not really necessary.

This information gave me a broader understanding of the mind arts. It seemed Legilimency was more powerful than I had anticipated. I had thought that Voldemort sending Harry visions had been due to his bond with him but it turned out, he did it with legilimency.

Legilimency was also classified like occlumency with novice legilimens being able to read surface thoughts only and required eye contact with the target to retain accuracy.

An intermediate Legilimens could read surface thoughts and even look through memories but they didn’t have any attack power so any occlumens who were in the intermediate stage could push back. The only way the legilimens could stand a chance was to enter the mind undetected.

As for advanced legilimens, they could not only read memories but also break the barriers around an occlumens mind.

And lastly a master Legilimens could plant suggestions, visions and false memories inside their targets head.

I closed the book after looking through it, although it didn’t teach me Occlumency, I had a better understanding of it than before.

Over the few weeks, I tried making a mind palace. I didn’t know if it actually helped in Occlumency but since it was used for memory enhancement so I hoped it would prove useful in Occlumency as well since it dealt with memories and information associated with them.

First, I visualized a complex place, I needed something I was comfortable with so I chose a large library. It was easy to visualize and then I added memories to the books.

There were a lot of books in them, more than the memories I had at the very least so I filled them all in a random manner and kept the important ones hidden in secret places. I couldn’t make fake memories yet so I just kept a loop of my time in the void in some books.

They wouldn’t do much but they were quite long so they should buy me some time.

It was a rudimentary palace at best but for now it did the job. I could expand upon it as I progressed in my studies.

I needed someone to use legilimens on me to actually make progress in my occlumency but I couldn’t think of anyone I would trust with my memories. Maybe they won’t see my previous life memories but I didn’t want to take the chance.

The only other option I had was hoping that the Room of Requirements would be able to help me but I wasn’t sure if it would work that way.

I asked Eileen if she knew a solution and she did have one. She suggested hiring a teacher to teach me under a contract binding them to never reveal what they saw in my head and a few other clauses.

Apparently this was how the noble houses taught their children mind arts if they didn’t have anyone proficient in the house.

But we couldn’t employ this idea for the foreseeable future because they charged a lot of money for their teachings. Eileen inquired and it came upto 2000 galleons a year and since most people didn’t learn it in one year with the average being 4-5 years this was an astronomical amount.

No wonder only the Noble families attempted it. Though most didn’t need to as if the head of the houses had learnt it when they were young, they could just teach the heirs themselves.

I realised that the money we were making was not enough. I decided to use more of my quick money making ideas. I also had to read up on wizarding law about importing Muggle things to sell and also see if there would be any repercussions if I was caught investing in the Muggle world.

…..
[Aberforth Pov]

Aberforth Dumbledore was not sure about his decision to teach the boy. He didn’t really need the money as he made enough to get by but he had been stuck in the same place for a long time and he had a desire to travel. But travelling was expensive so he wanted to make some extra money.

He could ask his brother of course who would be elated to give him money but he didn’t want to rely on him ever again.

While he had agreed to teach the boy after seeing the look on his face, he wasn’t sure how he was going to teach him.

After all it was not like he was a teacher with experience in teaching. As much his brother wanted him to continue his studies, he couldn’t bear to leave his sister unattended after the incident and thus he had dropped out.

He had failed to protect her when she was attacked by those muggle boys in the village. The attack had damaged her permanently and his father had cursed those boys leading to his arrest.

His father, a good man, was sentenced to azkaban because he didn’t want his daughter to be locked up at St.Mungo’s permanently.

After seeing all this happen, he had been determined to protect his sister. He began training seriously and while he was pretty good at magic for his age, he couldn’t hold a candle to the brilliance of Albus, his genius brother.

Still he suppressed his jealousy and kept working hard but tragedy struck again. In his seventh year just when his exams were nearing. He received the news that his sister had lost control of her magic and killed their mother.

He couldn’t take it any longer and dropped out to take care of Arianna. He had trusted Albus to take care of her but he had become neglectful as he was lost in his pursuit for glory with that detestable friend of his,Grindelwald.

When he heard of their delusional plans of enslaving muggles, he couldn’t sit by and watch any longer so he confronted Albus who came to his senses. This however enraged Grindelwald and a fight broke out in which his dear sister became a casualty.

Regardless to say his relationship with Albus was strained.

Coming back to the boy, he had heard all about him from his mother Eileen. He felt enraged when he heard she had suffered at the hands of her husband. He was also concerned about the boy but it seemed that boy had a stronger mind than he had anticipated.

When he heard his reason for wanting to learn from him, he felt that it resonated within him. Whereas he had failed to protect his loved ones, the boy had succeeded.

He didn’t want the boy to be in the same situation as him and so he agreed to teach him. While he wasn’t sure if the boy would even learn much from him, he would do his best to impart his skills which were not low after all even being in the shadow of Albus Dumbledore was no small feat either.

---

[A/N: A short chapter. I had to edit it. Initially I had planned for Eileen to teach Severus Occlumency but it made her a bit too op so I removed that.]

 

[A/N:Might feel a bit rough around the edges since I had to write this chapter in many parts because I didn’t have enough time to write in a sitting or two.]

---

“Sev….will it really work?” Lily asked with a nervous expression on her face.

“Don’t worry it will as long you utter the incantation perfectly.” I reassured her.

“Okay...here goes.” she pulled her wand out and pointed it at a rock on the ground.

She gave her wand a twirl and uttered the magic words, “Wingardium Leviosa.”

The rock started floating in the air gently.

“It worked Sev! I did it on my first try!” Lily said and waved her wand around and the rock moved along with it before dropping to the ground.

“Yes...you did good.” I praised her.

It seemed that Lily had some talent in charms just like canon. I wasn't gifted in all fields of magic so having Lily who was good at charms by my side would prove helpful in the future.

I had gotten close to her these few months. It was a bit annoying to deal with her initially as I was still an adult inside a young body but over time I had relaxed a little and I could tolerate her.

Things had settled down and I wasn’t under any pressure. I still have some nightmares about the void but Occlumency helped me get dreamless sleep.

“How long did it take you to do this Sev?” she asked me. She had started calling me by this shortened name recently and I had gotten used to it.

“Well...I started without a wand so I took far longer than you did. Maybe around a week or two?” I replied recalling the duration it took for Severus to learn this.

It was only a few weeks ago that Lily had asked me if I could teach her and I had agreed.She was sad that I was going to move but after I showed her the floo powder, she was happy.

Speaking of the floo powder, it was another mystery of the wizarding world. I tried looking for information about its composition but in the end, I found very little.

The Floo powder was invented somewhere in the 13th century by a witch named Ignatia Wildsmith. Its manufacture to this date is regulated and the only licensed producer in Britain was the Floo-pow company.

It was located in the Diagon Alley but no one ever answered the door. No shortage of Floo powder had ever been reported. No one even knows who makes it.

The price has remained constant for the past two hundred years at 2 sickles a scoop. No wonder even the Weasleys used it.

The main ingredient was Floo but the precise composition of it was unknown. Many had tried to make their own Floo but no one had succeeded yet.

It would be a lie to say I wasn’t fascinated by this mystery. This was basically the coke of the wizarding world. I wanted to study it when I was older. Who knew what else it could do?

Coming back to the networking of it, the Ministry regulated it again and made sure that no muggle fireplaces were joined up. They even had a department dedicated to it called the Floo Network Authority.

Eileen registered our soon to be shop for the Floo network and even helped the Evans set up theirs. Since Lily was a witch, it made their muggle house eligible for the Floo.

She got the hang of it after the first few uses. Their parents were a bit wary about me appearing in their fireplace but they got used to it and even kept it empty and clean.

We used the head only transport to check on each other and if convenient, we would visit the house.

I did meet Petunia a few times and she was unpleasant to say the least. I just did my best to ignore her and it infuriated her. I didn’t want to interact with her, she just seemed too annoying to deal with.

She freaked out because of the Floo powder transport and complained to her parents but fortunately they didn’t listen to her. Rose didn’t listen at all as she had become quite close to Eileen and wanted to keep in touch with her.

Eileen had gotten her some beauty potions and Rose taught her cooking. Rose had convinced Eileen to make these and after she learnt that we were gonna open a shop, she suggested selling Muggle cosmetics too and wanted to see if they could be modified to be better by magic.

I was intrigued by this idea and decided to give it a try. There were not many shops that catered to this and most of the ones that did usually only sold magical potions and whatnot which took effect immediately but would wear off in a short time.

Well there were permanent ones like the cure for boils which removed boils from one’s body but they don’t prevent more boils from popping up. Moreover potions were not so cheap that everyone could afford them so selling cheaper alternatives would sell well.

So I discussed with Eileen about this and in the end decided to start a small cosmetics section where we would sell muggle cosmetics but in a different packaging and see how it went.

Using the same packaging meant it was only a matter of time before some muggleborn noticed it and then it might turn messy and they might even try to copy us.

That said I wanted to increase their potency with magic and see if they could be made more efficient and maybe even reduce the time they took to change the face. I could see those at a higher price by making them ‘premium’.

I got more ideas of selling Muggle items in the wizarding world but first I would wait and see how these did and then if it was a success as I hoped, I could bring in more things.

Like pencils for example, I could even add self sharpening charms with unbreakable lead. A pencil was something simple and was not electronic so charms would work easily on them.

Not only pencil I could think of so many other things like it. I jotted them all down and made some plans on the charms and enchantments used on them.

I felt giddy thinking about exploiting this empty market with no competition. Sure some people might catch onto it and try copying me but they won’t be able to as I could go get a patent and then have complete monopoly.

It won’t be illegal as well since we are modifying it and not selling them raw and besides half the companies and stores that have stood for centuries all did the same.

Diagon Alley is filled with such shops which enables them to have near monopoly in Britain.

Muggleborns who get this idea in the future might despise me but they will be helpless to do anything about it. Maybe if Hermione became Minister again and made better laws for Muggleborns but with me here, canon is pretty much fucked.

As for the ones who might have had this idea before me, they probably didn’t succeed as starting a business as muggleborn was hard. I hadn’t seen a single shop run by a muggleborn till now.

The only jobs they got was either in the Ministry or they worked for other businesses.


Lily’s dad Harold basically accepted me with open arms after I showed him a magic camera. He took a lot of pictures and seemed pleased with the magic equivalent of a gif.

I did have some ideas about upgrading the outdated cameras the wizarding world used and even get teles in there but that would have to wait for a while since I had to figure out how to make it work with the electric parts or make it work without them.

…….
Coming back to Lily, she visited me a few times by Floo, she loved Hogsmeade and was fascinated by the magic village and people. In fact, she seemed reluctant to leave.

I showed her around the place and I even took her out to some places to eat. I showed her the Hogwarts Castle and she became awed by it.

She was much more eager to start her term there.

Eileen and I lived in the potions shop now.Tobias’ house had been put up for sale and we had moved here. The shop itself was a small building with two storeys. The ground floor was where we displayed potions and other items we wanted to sell and the second floor was where we lived.

Eileen got expansion charms cast on this floor. It was slightly expensive but the large space was worth it. We had space for two rooms there instead of the original one.

The shop was ready to open but needed to get approved by the Potion’s Association.Fortunately they weren’t as slow as the Wizengamot so this should be done soon.

There was also the Prince manor in Godric’s hollow that we could have moved into but Eileen didn’t want to live there yet as she needed to manage her shop and she would get lonely there when I went to Hogwarts. She did say we could move in there later when her shop settled down.
…..
Over these few months I had made some decent progress in my magic. After getting my wand,spells became much easier to cast. I could see why wands were so preferred. They basically did all the work while you had to only say the spell incantation and wave it.

I tested out all the spells I could and they all worked well. The same spells that I could do wandless were now better when performed with a wand.

Before long the wand which I had considered as a mere tool had become an extension of my arm. After studying the spells, I could finally cast some chantlessly and wandlessly.

They were basically like my own magic now. I did have to make some gestures though like snapping my fingers or pointing in a direction but I felt that I could cast them without them too just that my accuracy would be reduced.

The same gestures could be used to cast other spells too like by snapping my fingers, I could cast lumos and incendio.

I couldn’t get all spells to this proficiency but I was satisfied with the ones I did get up to this level.

My training with Aberforth was also coming along well, I hadn’t known what to expect when he had agreed to teach me. I just knew a little about him from canon and had known that he was strong so I had asked him to teach me.

Well it turned out to be a good idea as he did teach me some useful things. At first, he checked what I could do. He was a bit surprised by my progress but wasn’t too phased after all he grew up with Dumbledore who must have been better than me. After that he made me do all spells by wand and then made me learn some other spells that were related to them.

For example, the levitation charm was basically an improved version of the floating charm, the hove charm and to some extent the rocket charm.

It could do all the things the other three could do. These spells were not in curriculum so Aberforth taught me the spells himself and eventually he made me learn similar versions of different spells.

This played a big role in me mastering these spells thus being able to cast them chantlessly and wandlessly. Honestly mastering these spells was not that hard but it would only get harder from here on out as the other spells didn’t have as many variations or similar spells from which I could comprehend from.

As for my part of the trade, I initially wanted to give Aberforth the recipe for Fire whiskey but after seeing his love for goats, I just gave him some ideas for goat milk based recipes. Fire whiskey would have done well but I was reluctant to part with it for just some basic training.

He seemed pleased with the goat milk recipes though and they were doing moderately well. I didn't think they would do well in the muggle world but they did well in the wizarding world.

Other than training my magic, I also helped Eileen out in brewing potions. I had finally begun brewing potions and it was coming along well.

Eileen was not a potion’s master but she was not too far from it. Watching her brew potions was a valuable experience. I noted the important points and even began looking for ways to reduce production cost.

I just had to find cheaper ingredients with similar properties and then by trial and error swap them out.

I believed that Severus in canon also did something similar as he was able to improve the recipes of the potions. I also focused on learning chemistry and other muggle subjects albeit I was taking it slow as I didn’t enjoy it as much as magic.

And lastly there was Occlumency. I did make some progress in it and my mind palace was a bit more refined now.

I could also change memories but only Severus’ set of them. The book stated that doing it hastily might affect the user and they might fool themselves into believing the fake ones but since the memories were not mine to begin with,it didn’t affect me at all.

I still couldn’t make big changes and I couldn’t change my memories yet but I was content for now. As for the mind palace, I made some other structures within it and changed the library layout as I felt it was too small and gathering all memories in one place felt dangerous so I made a maze based on a horror game from my previous life.

The maze was basically a manor with lots of corridors and rooms with most rooms having hidden bookshelves within bookshelves with normal books which I had read. It took quite some time to print them based on suppressed memories and looking for them was hard too since to print a book word to word from memory was not easy.

This would not only serve as a distraction,I could also come back and read them in here. Most books were just scribbles now as it took a lot of time to get one book “printed” but for now I made some copies of some books I reread.

I could write and publish them but I didn’t have any plans on doing so until I was older.

Coming back to the maze, its layout was ever shifting and only highly skilled legilimens would be able to sense it changing but even then they wouldn't be able to navigate it easily.

All this was just a setup for more. Once I got better at Occlumency and reached Advanced level. I could place traps in the entire layout. For now the only ‘traps’ were getting locked in a room or running into a dead end with the wall closing around you.

This didn’t harm the legilimens and would only delay them but if they couldn’t figure out a way to escape, they would be forced to leave.

Overall I was quite pleased with it. It's a good thing that Occlumency didn’t have any age limit. While starting early was considered good, it wasn’t a requirement. Anybody could be skilled at it with the right mindset but after that it was a mixture of talent and dedication.

Anyway I was currently in a good position and was waiting eagerly to start Hogwarts.

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[A/N: Phew...finished this quicker than expected. Just tossed in a few ideas for future development. Next chapter will finally have Hogwarts.

The horror game mentioned is Dark Deception. I was playing that the other day and the second lvl gave me this idea.]