This fic exists because there aren't enough Severus/Petunia out there! This story is about Severus Snape and Petunia Evans during their childhood. You will probably find them OOC but that's because I'm supposing they weren't a greasy git and an old hag right from the start.

Just so you know this fic might never end because I only write it when I feel like it, which isn't very often. I hope you'll like it all the same ^^

At the start of the summer holidays, the young Severus Snape came back to Spinner's end to find an empty home. Ever since he had first left for Hogwarts two years ago, his father had made a point to desert the house every time Severus came back for holidays. Not that it bothered the young Slytherin that much. He would rather have the house to himself than to have to deal with a drunk and violent father. Never would he admit to anyone that the empty house he came back to every single time felt just a bit lonely.

The house wasn't that big. It had a small kitchen-dining room and a sitting room on the first floor, two bedrooms and a bathroom on the second. In the sitting room was the door leading to the tiny garden at the back of the house. The garden hadn't been cared for since his mother had died and now looked more like a miniature jungle rather than an actual garden.

The black-haired boy lifted the heavy trunk and carried it to the second floor. He dropped it into his bedroom. The room was small and only had the bare minimum in it. Severus being a true Slytherin he wouldn't let any prized possessions lie around for everyone to see. Therefore he kept most of his things in his trunk and took them with him when he went at Hogwarts. He didn't have many valuable objects anyway so it didn't bother him much. Apart from the bed which stood in the centre of the room, there was only a bookcase, which mainly contained his various Potions book.

He had his stack of Potion ingredients and his Potion material in his suitcase. There were empty vials waiting to be used in a box under the bed and the cellar would make an excellent Potions lab. Brewing Potions during your holidays was of course forbidden but the Ministry didn't have any way of checking for any infractions to this rule. And the last winter, he had managed to create a Vanishing potion which had the same effect as a Vanishing spell, which would enable him to get rid of any failed Potion. He shouldn't be found out, which was a good thing really since brewing potions was the only exciting thing to do around here.

Abandoning his trunk, he went back down stairs. He walked past the sitting room and into the kitchen. As usual, his father had left some money on the table with a phone number on a bit of paper. The phone number was in case he needed more money to last the summer. Severus knew however that he would not use it unless he was dying of hunger. He hated relying on his alcoholic father. He hated his father.

He went to the fridge and opened it. There was a bottle of milk, a few eggs, sausages, and two carrots. He would need to go shopping tomorrow. At least he had enough to eat for dinner and breakfast. He closed the fridge and walked to the middle of the room. What should he do now? He had two hours before sunset so it wouldn't be worth it to start brewing a Potion now. The only thing available in the house was the Muggle newspapers his father had left behind. Quite frankly, he didn't care for anything that happened in the Muggle world, his father's world.

If he was going to be bored, he might as well be bored outside. The coldness and emptiness of the place made him feel sick. He went to his room and took some Muggle clothes out of his trunk. A few moments later he left the house wearing a pair of black jeans and a plain black tee-shirt. He closed the door and locked it. There used to be wards around the house, but when his mother, the only witch of his family, had died, the wards had disappeared. So he had to use keys like a Muggle to prevent anyone from entering the house.

He walked down Spinner's End, towards the park where he used to hang out with Lily. She wouldn't be there, he knew that. And even if she was, she wouldn't talk to him. They had gotten in a fight at the start of the year. It had all begun with a prank of the Marauders and he had been annoyed when she had laughed with the other Gryffindors. When he talked to her about it, she had said he was being stupid and that he couldn't take a joke. He'd replied that he could take a joke but not cruel pranks like Potter and his gang liked. An argument had followed during which Lily had insulted the Slytherins and Severus had finally had enough and called her a 'mudblood'. He wasn't proud of it, he had to admit that. But he didn't think it had been wrong of him to have been annoyed. Even so he shouldn't have called a 'mudblood', not that he was going to apologise though. This time Lily had been in the wrong. If someone had to apologise it would be her.

The row had taken place three month ago so he was pretty sure she wouldn't apologise. He had already resigned himself to the fact that their friendship was lost. Perhaps that was for the best. After all, his Slytherin friends hadn't liked that he was hanging out with a muggleborn. They considered anyone who wasn't a pureblood lesser than slime. Severus being a halfblood was already seen pretty badly. He barely made up for it by being the best student at Potions.

He sat on a bench near the small lake. He watched the children playing on the games on the other side of the lake. A few years ago he had played with Lily over there. She had been his best friend at the time and he had thought she would always be. Now that he thought about it they'd grown distant ever since they had been sorted. Was it the rivalry between Gryffindor and Slytherin that robbed off on them? Maybe they had been influenced by their housemates. Or maybe they just weren't meant to be friends from the start. He would probably never know.