(minor punctuation correction, September, 2015)
Disclaimer: I am not J K Rowling. I do not own Harry Potter.
Note: The following is set in an alternate universe, in which Severus Snape, whilst growing up in the Spinner's End district, has a girl his own age living next door to him, who he is friends with. This impacts his character, and some of his interactions with others. The narrative is from the point of view of Tracy Eagle, that girl who lives next door to the Snapes...
Tracy Eagle, the dark-haired, brown-eyed daughter of the feminist professor, Angela Eagle, lived next door to the Snape family. The two families were unlike one another in many ways. For example, Mr. and Mrs. Snape were married and argued a lot; Tracy's mum was single, and so didn't have anyone to argue with. The Snapes had a boy, Severus; Angela had a girl, Tracy. The Snapes were poor; Angela and her daughter, if not exactly rolling in it, certainly weren't short of a penny or two to rub together thanks to Angela's best-selling line of books and occasional celebrity lectures.
And then of course, there was the magic. Mrs. Snape was a witch, and Severus was in theory a wizard in training. Neither Tracy nor her mum could defy the laws of physics.
Angela had once found out about the magic, after a particularly loud argument from next door. Then the men with pointed wooden sticks had come and made her forget she had ever discovered it.
Tracy had been lucky enough to be out in the garden next door with Severus when that had happened. The men with the wooden sticks (wands, Severus had called the sticks, although they weren't black and white, like proper magic wands) had ignored Tracy, assuming she was part of the Snape family and allowed to know about magic.
'Ministry obliviators', Severus had called the men with sticks who made Tracy's mum forget that magic existed and that she lived next door to a magical family.
Tracy was very careful not to say anything about Eileen and Severus Snape being magic after that, in case the obliviators came for her.
But despite their differences, Tracy and Severus had grown up next to one another and were best friends. Well, until that redhead came on the scene, and Severus decided he wanted to spend a lot more time looking at her. After that, Tracy and Severus were just good friends.
Tracy hoped that some day Severus would get bored of the redhead (whose name was Lily Evans) and come back to being her best friend, but then Severus found out that the Evans girl was magic, too, and Tracy's hopes were dashed. She had to resign herself to being there for Severus for when he and Lily had argued (which happened seldom) or when he and Lily's sister, Petunia, had argued (which happened a lot more often, and resulted in Lily not being allowed to speak to Severus for nearly a month on one occasion). Tracy and Severus muddled along, until one day there came the catastrophe of the Hogwarts letters.
"I'm going to be going away to school in Scotland, next school year." Severus told her one morning. "To a place where they'll train me to be a great wizard."
"Oh." said Tracy. "Well you'll write to me, won't you? And to," she shuddered, "Lily too?"
"I'll write to you, yes." Severus said. "But I won't need to write to Lily, because she's going too."
"I thought you said she's not from a proper wizarding family." Tracy fumbled for the words, a nasty sinking sensation filling her stomach. "I thought you said she's… muddleborn?"
"Muggle-born." Severus corrected her. "But she's clever and very magical, so they've invited her anyway."
Life wasn't fair thought Tracy.
But she was a brave girl, so she didn't do more than perhaps blink away just a couple of tears, that she wouldn't be seeing Severus for ages and ages at a time, but that Lily girl would be there with him.
Author Notes:
Just a basic introductory section. Whilst book 6 of canon paints the Spinner's End district as pretty run down and dilapidated, with Severus Snape practically the only person still living in the area, this is set in the seventies, and I have taken the liberty of assuming there are still people living in the area.
As far as I know, I have not based Tracy or Angela on any actual living people.