the half-blood prince

Severus was late. It wasn’t like him to absent-mindedly lose track of time, but these days it didn’t take much for him to get lost in his thoughts. It was breakfast in the great hall, and he had been drifting whilst reading some drivel in the daily prophet. To him, it had only been a moment since his friends, if you could call them that, were sat around him discussing their hatred of mudbloods over a slice of toast, which as always had made him uncomfortable. If the conversation ever turned to his opinions, he would merely nod or murmur in agreement, which was usually enough of a response for them. 

Looking sleepily over to the timepiece on his wrist, Severus slammed his newspaper down. Transfiguration. Flustered, he checked his robe for his wand and hurried along the corridor, paying no attention to the figure he was about to collide with. 

“It’s okay- it happens. I can always press more.” Lottie spoke kindly, offering a soft smile up at him. Thankfully the hallway was rather quite compared to usual. Meaning fewer people to accidentally step on her delicate fingers as she carefully plucking up the loose petals and weeds to place back in her notebook. “Thank you-” The Gryffindor paused, to gentle take the daisies from his hand to put back in her notebook. “It was my fault too I was too distracted talking to one of my doormats when really I should have been looking where I was go. You don’t have anything to be sorry for truly. Accidents happen and no harm done. Oh-” The blonde spoke before adding: “If you need to go by all means- you don’t want to be late for Professor McGonagall.” @s-s-snape

Severus held up a posey in front of his eyes and stared at it. “What are they for?” He queried without thinking. “If you don’t mind me asking..” He followed up with, apologetically. “They’re... very beautiful.” He smiled awkwardly once again. She spoke kindly to him, and he felt himself ease up a little. “McGonagall won’t miss me.. I’m practically invisible to most.” He shrugged, he wasn’t wrong in his mind, he was mostly known by Gryffindors as the Marauders’ target and ‘the one that called Lily a mudblood’, and by all others as a nobody. 

Severus was late. It wasn’t like him to absent-mindedly lose track of time, but these days it didn’t take much for him to get lost in his thoughts. It was breakfast in the great hall, and he had been drifting whilst reading some drivel in the daily prophet. To him, it had only been a moment since his friends, if you could call them that, were sat around him discussing their hatred of mudbloods over a slice of toast, which as always had made him uncomfortable. If the conversation ever turned to his opinions, he would merely nod or murmur in agreement, which was usually enough of a response for them. 

Looking sleepily over to the timepiece on his wrist, Severus slammed his newspaper down. Transfiguration. Flustered, he checked his robe for his wand and hurried along the corridor, paying no attention to the figure he was about to collide with. 

Lottie had just been heading down to the green houses so that she could check on her saplings and water them. Though she enjoyed all of the classes she took, Herbology had always been a keen favourite of hers and it showed in her love and care for the plants. Walking with an air of grace as she always did, the blonde had gotten distracted offering a kind smile and passing conversation to a friend over her shoulder. So much so that she didn’t see Severus coming towards her until they collided into one another. Sending Lottie’s books and pressed flowers scattering across the floor. “Oh Merlin-” The blonde spoke moving to pick up her belongings before anyone could step on them. Glancing up at the figure quickly recognizing him from slug club; she offered an apologetic half smile as she spoke: “Oh Severus I’m so sorry, are you okay? I didn’t step on your toes did I?” @s-s-snape​

Severus began to picking up the books and flowers strewn across the floor. “I-I’m alright, I’m so sorry about your blooms.” He picked up a pressed daisy and handed it to the pretty blonde. Making eye contact, he gulped, recognising her as Lottie, a fellow member of Slughorn’s exclusive club. “Sorry to have startled you...” He returned her expression with an awkward slanted smile. "I’m running late for transfiguration...” His attempt at initiating conversation was very poor as usual, and he felt his palms clam up and his pale cheeks flush. 

Severus was late. It wasn’t like him to absent-mindedly lose track of time, but these days it didn’t take much for him to get lost in his thoughts. It was breakfast in the great hall, and he had been drifting whilst reading some drivel in the daily prophet. To him, it had only been a moment since his friends, if you could call them that, were sat around him discussing their hatred of mudbloods over a slice of toast, which as always had made him uncomfortable. If the conversation ever turned to his opinions, he would merely nod or murmur in agreement, which was usually enough of a response for them. 

Looking sleepily over to the timepiece on his wrist, Severus slammed his newspaper down. Transfiguration. Flustered, he checked his robe for his wand and hurried along the corridor, paying no attention to the figure he was about to collide with. 

Slightly startled, Severus looked up to see a familiar face. Instantly he recognised the girl as Lily’s friend Seo-Yun and the nerves began to build. He had to be careful with his actions, he was sure if he stepped wrong it would be reported back to a scorned Lily. “No no..” He replied sheepishly with a small smile, an attempt at friendliness. “It’s perfectly alright, I’m late for class, I wasn’t looking..” 

After an brief but awkward silence, Severus tried a hand at ‘small talk’, something he was never talented in. “Where are you headed?” His eyes darted down to the floor and back up to the girl, his expression almost apologetic. He was conflicted, the kind-faced Gryffindor was close friends with the marauders, his tormentors. But he figured, she had never joined in with their antics, and if he were to ever speak to Lily again, he’d better try and improve his reputation. 

Severus was late. It wasn’t like him to absent-mindedly lose track of time, but these days it didn’t take much for him to get lost in his thoughts. It was breakfast in the great hall, and he had been drifting whilst reading some drivel in the daily prophet. To him, it had only been a moment since his friends, if you could call them that, were sat around him discussing their hatred of mudbloods over a slice of toast, which as always had made him uncomfortable. If the conversation ever turned to his opinions, he would merely nod or murmur in agreement, which was usually enough of a response for them. 

Looking sleepily over to the timepiece on his wrist, Severus slammed his newspaper down. Transfiguration. Flustered, he checked his robe for his wand and hurried along the corridor, paying no attention to the figure he was about to collide with. 

Some days Bella chose to get up early and attend breakfast, other days she woke up with enough time to stop by to grab a cup of coffee before heading off to class. Either way she enjoyed as little time at the table so when she finished her coffee she didn’t expect another to be rushing into her. “Watch it,” She snarled, steadying herself by grabbing the edge of the table before looking at the culprit. “Severus. In a rush this morning I see then.”

Looking even more flustered than before, Severus gathered himself and replied to the raven-haired fellow Slytherin. “Bellatrix... apologies for the collision, I find myself late for transfiguration.” He spoke awkwardly, his eye contact poor, this girl intimidated him. His eyes quickly darted down to his watch again, his curiosity could spare a minute or two. “What are you doing? Skipping class?” Severus asked pointedly. “I don’t know just how you seem to get away with it every time...”. He mumbled sheepishly afterwards. 

SEVERUS SNAPE II SIXTEEN YEARS OLD II SLYTHERIN II SIXTH YEAR

“I’ve never been good at emotional stuff. Except anger. Anger I’m good at.” - Hannah Harrington

↳ BIOGRAPHY:

Growing up, the last place Severus Snape ever wanted to be was home. It’s not that he hated Spinner’s End - in fact he liked it quite a lot - and he loved Cokeworth, the bigger town he lived just outside of. The problem was his specific home. Severus knows that at some point his parents must have loved each other. There were pictures of them, much younger, throughout their house smiling and looking at each other with a look Severus had never seen before. Whatever love had brought them together, it was long gone by the time that Severus was born. Perhaps he was one final attempt to bring them back together, but it hadn’t worked. The Snape home was cold at best and violent at worst. Severus never knew what mood his father would be in when he got home, so Severus usually tried to be as far from his house as possible. 

Because of this, Severus often wandered around Cokesworth during the daytime. His lessons usually ended around 11am when his mother decided she couldn’t be bothered anymore (surprisingly, his father had never insisted he go to a proper muggle school) and she didn’t really notice whether he was there or not the rest of the day so he did as he pleased. It was on one such outing that Severus met Lily Evans. He noticed her right away, it was hard not to with the shocking red hair, but he wasn’t sure how to approach her at first. Severus had never had friends and he couldn’t even remember the last time he’d talked to someone his age aside from the boy who worked at the butcher down the street. It was three days of noticing her before Severus finally made his move. She was reading in the middle of the park and the blonde girl who usually accompanied her had run off with another little girl, so she was blissfully alone. 

Severus approached and started making light conversation about the book she was reading - one of his favourite muggle authors - and she met him with a bright smile and an enthusiastic conversation. This continued for a while, Severus would head to the park after his mother got tired of him and sooner or later Lily would show up and they would sit and talk or read together. Eventually, the blonde girl was introduced to him as Petunia, Lily’s older sister, who immediately wrote Severus off as a creep (he couldn’t say he was too fond of her either). Severus and Lily began to know each other pretty well. He wasn’t very good at hiding the bruises from her, so she heard all about his father and how he wished his son was never born. Lily shared how she always thought she was a bit of a freak and felt like there were hardly any people - aside from Sev and Petunia - who understood her.

 It wasn’t long before Severus began to agree with her that she was different - though certainly not a freak. The one thing Severus hadn’t shared with Lily was that part of the reason his father hated him so much was that he’d inherited his mother’s magical blood. The blood that earned both mother and daughter the bruises that seemed to take so long to fade. Severus was nervous at first to share his secret with his best friend, but when he did Lily began to perk up and seemed to believe him. Petunia, of course, called Severus crazy, but none of them could deny it when Lily showed up to the park one day with a letter from Hogwarts nearly identical to the one in Severus’ hand.

Unfortunately for Severus, the moment they got to Hogwarts, everything seemed to start falling apart. First, Lily was sorted into Gryffindor. Severus knew from the various wizards and witches that visited his mother throughout his childhood (before his father banned these visits all together) that Slytherin was the only respectable house to be sorted into. He was proud when the Sorting Hat placed him there, but he couldn’t help but stare at the ginger mane across the room. Then, Severus learned about blood purity. It wasn’t something that was ever discussed in his home, but it only took one night in the Slytherin common room for Severus to discover that being pure-blooded meant that you were worth something and that Mudbloods were likely thieves of magic. It was hard to think of Lily as someone undeserving of magic, but Severus knew how to watch his back and pretended that his father had magic as well as his mother. 

This earned him friends like Lucius Malfoy, Evan Rosier, Spencer Mulciber, Rabastan Lestrange, Regulus Black, Melchior Parkinson and Richard Wilkes. Severus didn’t exactly enjoy the company of the boys, but he’d never had male friends before and he just wanted to fit in. Perhaps worst of all, Lily had befriended some of - in Severus’ opinion - the worst people at Hogwarts. The girls weren’t too bad, Dorcas Meadowes and Alice Lightwood were skilled witches, if annoying to be around. Marlene McKinnon was too much for Severus’ tastes, but certainly not the most intolerable girl at school. Mary MacDonald, of course had the unfortunate affliction that Lily had of being muggleborn. The trouble wasn’t that Severus hated the girls, it was that they despised him and the company he kept. The real problem though were the boys. He wasn’t sure when it happened but more and more Lily began spending her time with the Marauders. 

Severus loathed the Marauders. James Potter was cocky and arrogant and obviously had a thing for Lily, and the rest of the boys were bullies at best. They preyed on Severus’ friendship with Lily and teased him mercilessly for his crush on her, hexing him left and right whenever they felt like this. Severus really hated them. He became almost obsessed until one night when Sirius Black convinced him to check out something at the Whomping Willow and Severus had gone along with it, coerced by the mention of Lily. What he was met with was a real life werewolf (Remus Lupin, he later figured out) who nearly killed him. Severus was outraged and reported this all to Lily who, to be fair, seemed to chew the boys out but that wasn’t enough for Severus.

Tensions had been growing high between Severus and Lily throughout their years at Hogwarts. They were both convinced that the other hung out with the wrong people and the older they got the harder it was to find time to spend with one another. It didn’t help that Severus’ “friends” in the Slytherin house were rather convincing and he listened to them drone on and on about blood purity day after day, year after year. That’s how the worst day of Severus’ life came to pass. They were in one of the fights that had become common between them by their fifth year, though this time with an audience. Lily was defending Remus Lupin - the Remus Lupin who had nearly murdered Severus - and that had him enraged, but when Lily started defending James Potter, Severus lost it. He spat out the word he’d only said safely inside the Slytherin common room. The instant he said it, it was as if the world slowed down. He felt a chill run down his entire body and a gasp echo across the hallway. 

He’d never forget the face Lily had made, shocked and hurt, before she slapped him across the face and ran away as fast as she could. He’d run after her, of course, but her friends stopped him and he knew better to push them after he’d called her that. That was the last day Lily Evans spoke to him as a friend. Of course, Severus tries nearly every day to get back into her good graces. Not only is she his best friend, but he’s completely in love with her, but a part of him wonders if she’ll ever be able to see him the same way.

Life at Hogwarts became a lot more complicated and a lot less complicated at the same time for Severus. He’d lost his closest friend and ally, and the respect of a lot of students. However, he’d gained the respect of a lot of other students and they began to trust him completely. The incident with Lily only caused the Marauders to bully Severus more, and he realized that the magic he was being taught in school wasn’t enough to defend himself with - wasn’t what they deserved. He started to come up with his own spells, finding that he was actually quite good at it. He’s yet to use any of them, but he jots them down in the margins of his potions textbook as Slughorn drones on and on about draughts that he’s not even teaching correctly. Severus has a natural talent for potions which has earned him a place in the Slug Club (which he only goes to to see Lily), but his true love is Defense Against the Dark Arts. Unfortunately, he’s far from top of the class, but he knows in his heart that he’s better than all of the other students and he won’t stop until he proves himself right.

↳ CHARACTER STATS:

✗ Blood Status → Half-blood ✗ Family → N/A ✗ Friends → Lucius Malfoy, Evan Rosier, Spencer Mulciber, Regulus Black, Melchior Parkinson, Rabastan Lestrange, Richard Wilkes, Walden McNair ✗ School Functions → Potions Club, Slug Club ✗ Future Information → Potions Master at Hogwarts, Head of Slytherin House, Hogwarts Headmaster, Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor at Hogwarts, Death Eater (eventual traitor), Member of the Order of the Phoenix ✗ Face Claim → Devon Bostick