Way to the dark!

Chapter 1

The young bony looking raven-haired boy was looking curiously up at the tall pillar in front of him. He shook his head and looked at his ticket, yep there it was in black and white, platform 9 ¾ and this was where it would be. His dad had drove off the moment his legs touched the ground leaving him all alone with nothing but a sneer and his lovely parting words of "keep yourself out of trouble." He knew his dad had a magic background but he had never had a chance to go to a magic school because his legal guardians were totally against magic. His mother had had her education at Hogwarts but she had died a long time ago when a crazy mud blood decided to steal her purse and because she hadn't been as defenseless as the thief's victims usually were, the robber decided to pull the trigger before she could retaliate. His mother was not supposed to see him without his mask on and as she had pulled it away from his face he had shot her. The final result was the robber had gotten away and left behind only a nearly dead body and ripped mask. When the police finally got there, she was already half dead, when the boy and his dad had got to the hospital she was lying down on the bed pale and bleeding, looking like she was already dead. When the boy took his mother's hand, she had given it a weak squeeze, and a second later her hand went totally limp. The apparatus flashed and a bunch of people dashed in and took the two of them away from the room. They just stood there, outside her door for what seemed like hours. The boy was sobbing and his dad was so far gone into his own head that he hardly realized what was happening around him. In a few minutes a tired, frazzled looking doctor stepped out of the room hesitantly and asked them to come back inside. Severus already knew what had happened, but when he saw his mother lying so calmly so white... if her skin was pale a moment before it was now transparent. She was dead.

Since then their family life had changed drastically. His dad was so depressed he couldn't even take care of himself let alone a six year old. No one really took notice of how things changed. His dad started to drink more and he was drunk almost all of the time. Severus was terrified of what his father was doing but he never told anyone about it, and to be totally honest, no one even took the time to notice the subtle changes in his behavior. Everything was fine as long as everyone thought that it was. Behind the mask he dealt will all the hard stuff. Because his dad drank all their money away they were almost completely broke and that was all people would see. Some folks pitied him from a safe distance and some used their "superiority" as an excuse to mock the small boy with hand- me-down clothes. Eventually it got so bad that half of everyone he knew was mocking and teasing him constantly while the other half just forgot he even existed, to concerned for their own safety or just clueless as to what they could do for him. He grew up to be a loner in his muggle school and secretly, he bitterly thought of everyone he knew as mud bloods or worse. These, these... people took his mother from him for no reason and now they were trying to break him, or so he thought. He had decided that he would never let that happen and he kept himself a safe distance from everyone, just him and his dignity until the very last time he was there.

Some years later when he was nearly 11 he got his letter from Hogwarts. Unfortunately, his dad had lost any of the love he had once had for his son due to the excessive drinking and he told him that he was happy to be rid of him. Besides, he could use more of the money for his booze if he didn't have "the kid" hanging around. Severus had to collect his own money secretly for his school supplies and hide it so that his dad couldn't take it, but he had done this for so much of his life that it seemed almost normal to him now. As the start of school loomed closer ahead he found himself getting increasingly excited about it. He was a little ashamed at his willingness to get away from his dad though. He had never really stopped loving his dad no matter how nasty and cruel he got. He just told himself his father was ill, it wasn't his fault. It was the damned muggles that killed his mother and the more he thought about that, the more he hated them. It was their fault that his father was this way. And without really realizing it he mentally transferred all of his father's faults to all muggles and mud bloods. That wasn't his real father, that was what the muggles had made him, that was what the muggles and were like. He grew to hate everything that had to do with muggles, including mud bloods. And he let this hate fester so long that he could barely stand to look at any of them. He was very relived when the time arrived to leave.

Now he was finally here watching as the other wizards and witches disappeared behind the stone wall, working up his nerve. Taking a deep shaky breath, he steadied his cart, and shakily walked to the wall. He had a moment of panic as he briefly thought of the possibility of not getting through, before he was on the other side.

At the same time two people were coming to the railroad station for their first time as well. Two pure blood wizard boys saw how the young bony boy with the dirty clothes and greasy hair was looking around him curiously, and they instantly exchanged significant looks, smirking to one another. Maybe Hogwarts wouldn't be as boring as they thought.

Once Severus got on the train he searched for an empty department and sighed aloud about how things were going so far. He wasn't blind to the looks that people were giving him, he knew they had already made their opinions about him and he hated it. And looking around the empty compartment, he suddenly felt very alone (Oh, if he only knew the two lovely visitors that would be stopping by.) He told himself to stop moping, he needed a plan. He would start completely over and everything would be different, he had another chance. This was a new place with new people! A bunch of wizards and witches would be around him and......NO MUD BLOODS! He knew perfectly well how jealous his dad was and knew that he was lucky that he was even here right now.

A loud rap at the door shook him from his thoughts and he looked up to see the two boys that he had seen in the station come in."Sorry mate, everywhere else is full, is that ok?" The boy with the messy black hair grinned brightly motioning to the bench across from Severus. He nodded, studying the boys, this might be a chance to make friends and he didn't want to ruin it. Both of the boys sat down on the bench and asked his name telling him that they were Sirius Black and James Potter. He told them his name and smiled at them shyly before asking if they were first years too. He got two nods and two hands as an answer as the boys reached out to shake his hand. The taller of the two, a handsome boy with long dark hair, tan skin, and a playful look in his eye took his hand firmly, pumping it up and down engergtically, and not letting go. He was just about to pull his hand away when the shorter boy snatched his bag and shoot out of the department. The second one, Black, as he would now be called, dropped his hand as if it was contaminated and dashed out after him. Severus just sat there for a minute as if he had been stupefied, completely shocked. Finally he came to his senses and rushed out of the department. Then he just stood there, thinking of what to do next, for a moment he thought about going to all of the other departments and looking for his bag but when he walked up to the next compartment and raised his hand to knock, his newly found courage and optimism betrayed him and he dropped his hand and turned around. Not noticing the way the curious gaze of a redheaded girl in the department followed him as he walked away.

He withdrew back to his own department again and sat down on the bench feeling disappointed. He decided to go and look for his bag when the train stopped and the compartments were empty again. He remembered feeling so hopeful just the moment before and planning a new beginning. He had been so stupid. He should have known better than to think that anything would be different here. Everyone had always thought he was a freak at Muggle School, and he guessed it was true. At muggle school there was always something odd happening around him. He was usually happy about his abilities because he knew he was the special one among them, but he never told anyone about himself, and the things that sometimes happened around him freaked kids out, and back then, sometimes he had wished that he wasn't different.

Once when he was locked in the toilet hiding from the class bullies while classes were starting at school he had done something really strange. He was just sitting there in the stall and suddenly the door burst open and flew through the room straight at the mirror on the opposite wall. Both his bullies turned white and ran out screaming, but Snape just gaped at sight in front of him. The glass from the mirrors had scattered around the room and the broken toilet door was lying near the sink. He carefully made his way out of the bathroom trying to avoid the shards of glass and dashed away as quickly as he could before someone came and saw what he did. Over the next few days he waited for someone to come and accuse him for the mess in the bathroom but nobody ever came. Most of the students eventually forgot about the destroyed bathroom, but the two boys that were bullying him didn't and neither did he, the boys wouldn't let him. They started tormenting him even more frequently and harshly. They kept threating him about telling what had happened if he told anyone about the way they were treating him; but he would have never told anyone about them anyway. He had a lot of pride and he hated asking for help. He became a little ashamed at his abilities around this time and he actually started to believe that those boys had it right, he was a freak. But soon after he got over this kind of thinking and decided that he would much rather have magic then be a muggle, he was special.

He was so far gone into his head that he didn't even realize when he started to cry quietly. He just sat on the bench hugging his legs while crying his bad feelings away. He couldn't even remember what his previous happy feelings of just an hour ago had felt like, everything was the same as it had always been, and he had been foolish to think that it would change. After about half an hour his tears dried, leaving tracts down his face. He was just staring forward, though not really seeing anything, and occasionally he would shake himself out of his revere long enough to check the clock. Finally, the train started to slow down and he hurried out of the door having got his composure back again; not a trace of anything about him that would suggest he had just been crying his heart out . He took a last look around the train before he started walking out, peering into each empty department as he walked out, and finally finding his bag in the last one. It looked like someone had just thrown it in. Relief rushed through him as he hurried out of the train into the empty station, dashing out the door, stumbling on a few steps that led down off the train and crashing head on into something. A very tall, something that caused him to fly back and land on the ground with a thump. He looked up and gulped, maybe the station wasn't as empty as he had previously thought............

There was a very big, very angry looking professor glaring down at him. Severus stood up and without a word edged his way around her, walking straight ahead, and trying to resist the urge to sprint away as fast as he could. He looked back and saw that she was following his every step, looming over him. The woman stopped and looked at him, obviously wanting him to come to her. He took a few nervous steps toward her, but stopping at what he judged to be a safe distance. When he stopped he raised his chin and uttered his apology shyly to the woman. For a long time there was no answer but then he finally heard cold, harsh words.

"One week detention with Mr. Filch, follow me!" She spat out. He gulped and went after her mentally berating himself. So much for making a good first impression................

As they walked on he realized they were heading toward a carriage and in front of them he saw something curious. Standing, strapped to the carriage was two very strange creatures. They looked a lot like regular horses except for the fact that they were all bones. They kept looking at him with big, empty eye sockets and he stood there, gawking a while before he realized that the Professor was trying to get his attention. She had been calling his name for a while now. Well actually, calling was an understatement since she was obviously enraged and when she spoke it was like she was spitting poison at him. He snapped out of his faze and dashed past the annoyed teacher into the carriage and sat down, starting to panic a little. Luckily it was dark in the carriage and he had sometime to pull himself together, he really didn't like to be yelled at and the swaying movement of the carriage was helping him calm down. It didn't take that long to regain his composure, he was after all, pretty used to being yelled at, and it shouldn't really still scare him at all. It wasn't that bad now when he didn't know the person that was doing the yelling but still...... After a while he cleared his throat and spoke up nervously.

"Professor... um... "He knew she was already annoyed with him, but he wanted to know the names of these creatures, and he decided to risk it.

"My name is Professor McGonagall," she said, her voice was a little calmer, though still quite stern, like she was lecturing him. Though he supposed that might just be her regular voice.

"Oh well, what are those horse things?" he asked. She paused a moment before answering and this time when she spoke he thought that there was something odd in her voice. There was still that faint tinge of annoyance, but there was something new now. When he thought about it for a moment he realized that she had been surprised at his question and he wondered why. He thanked her and then the awkward silence was back in the carriage.

He wondered idly if things would go on like this through Hogwarts. He had been thinking earlier that it was only muggles (and his father) that hated him but now seeing how biased people here were it might not be any easier with wizards than it had been with them. He let out a sigh thinking about this, but it was nothing new to him. He would manage it, he had to; he could handle the way that people treated him. The only person who actually hurt him was his dad when he was drunk (which was a pretty frequent occurrence). But when any other person treated him badly he didn't care as much, or so he told himself. The most important thing was to not show his feelings, to keep his dignity. He was deep inside his thoughts when the carriage finally stopped with a jolt and he was pulled back to reality. They were outside of a large castle. He tried to look around him but it was really too dark to see anything else. He was already preparing himself mentally for anything that was thrown at him once he got inside. He put on what he hoped was a blank, indifferent mask and raised his chin up slightly. He was ready. She opened the door and he walked out determinedly.