Lucy Snape and the Tale of the Knights (Book One)

1: The Girl Named Lucy

Chapter 1: The Girl Named Lucy

The unforgiving wind whistled down a lonely street in the very heart of Spinners End, Cokeworth. It rustled the leaves on the trees that hung for dear life before the turn of autumn began and the street was once again transformed into something even more unforgiving. Spinners End was not pleasant at the best of times, the sunshine that poked through the rotten houses only highlighted the grime that adorned the seemingly endless rows of terrace housing. One didn't like to think of the prospect of a house fire starting and the whole neighbourhood disintegrating within an hour or so. Alas, perhaps the fire would finally add some colour to the place.

Severus Tobias Snape happened to be thinking about the prospect of flames licking up houses as he walked down the same lonely street. It was one of the things that occupied his thoughts when taking an evening stroll through the neighbourhood; the destruction of muggle houses. The same said muggles who had caused him grief his entire childhood and now his slow but sure depressing descent into adulthood.

But this walk didn't only have the sole purpose to imagine the misfortune of others. Instead it was a routine exercise which had taken up the past week for Snape to clear his head before his inevitable return to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy. Soon he would find himself without a minute of free time and instead would be drowning in the ever building piles of unmarked exam papers, taunts from newcomers and unfortunates to teach. But for now these spare moments were treasured, where he wouldn't be bothered and could glare at muggles if they gave him an unwanted look.

And yet, he seemed to be the only soul on the street tonight, basking in the moons pale glow and feeling the fresh air nip at his exposed face. The rest of him was covered in head to toe in his seemingly only outfit; black suit and black robe. The only addition to his look that didn't reside in school time was a black scarf, tucked under his chin against the cold. It was nights like these that he thought about the people he had cared for most. It was nights like these that he could almost see the red hair at the bottom of the street, seeing her lips and hearing her call his name over the sound of the wind.

The wind picked up as Snape turned into a narrow street, with shops tightly packed in. It might resemble the feeling of being in a tin of sardines, only with the lid peeled off to reveal the night sky splattered with specks of white. Snape regarded the decor of the closed shops with disgust; muggles never got anything right. He almost considered apparating right home on the spot as the view was so distasteful but quickly thought better of it, who knew what muggles were lurking around at this time.

He continued on past the muggle shops and decided to head home, too much fresh air wasn't good for him he decided. Besides, he surely had some more packing to do for Hogwarts and there must be some other housekeeping jobs to do before he left. Then he'd sit down with a glass of wine and the daily prophet in his arm chair and read through meaningless article after meaningless article.

Another gust of wind blew towards Snape and he quickly wrapped his coat around him to try and gain some warmth. But he just shivered. It was becoming threadbare but he didn't have the heart to change it so he braced the wind and carried on. He tried to ignore his inner voice telling him that Harry Potter would be joining Hogwarts this year and he'd be forced to stare at him while teaching. Snape thought about a lightning scar on a faceless boy who resembled Lily in only the slightest and shivered again but this time it wasn't the cold.