A Life of Love - III. Hearts Engaged - Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Severus Snape and Bethany Wright had just graduated from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.  They had been dating since fifth year.  Now it was their first summer out of school and they both had found summer jobs at the Three Broomsticks in Hogsmeade.  

Severus thought it was very sexy that Bethany was a barmaid and kept calling her 'The Drink Wench' to tease her.  She found this both annoying and endearing.  Bethany thought about nicknaming him 'The Lush’s Go-for' because he had to go get anything the drunks required from the stores.  But she knew that Severus’s father was a drunk and that Severus really did hate having to be around a bunch of drunken men, mostly older than himself, who no doubt in some ways reminded him of his father.  The only reason they were working at a bar was because it wasn’t solely a watering hole for grown-ups, unlike the shady Hog’s Head on the other side of town.  Also, it was the only place that was taking on new employees after graduation in the only all-Wizarding town of Hogsmeade.

They were both biding their time at the Three Broomsticks until they decided on careers.  This was a rather important aspect that they had overlooked in their last few years at Hogwarts because they had been so busy wrapped up in each other.  Bethany knew that she wanted to work with magical animals and had applied for several positions around England.  She was not quite sure where she wanted to live after Hogsmeade though.  

If it hadn't been for Severus, she would have found a job closer to her parents' house and lived with them for a few more years.  Her family was wonderful to her, and treated Severus as a part of it.

Bethany's parents had offered for both Severus and her to live in their home until they found permanent careers.  There was just one problem with living at their house.  The two lovebirds would have had to keep their sex life on the down low and would be paranoid about being caught every time.

Severus had suggested that they get a flat together and live far away from both their families' homes; his being a very unwelcoming place even for himself.  He resented his parents for the lifetime of abuse and neglect he received from them.  So of course he left home as soon as he had the money to live on his own.  He had spent last summer practically living at Bethany's house.  Now he wanted to be supporting himself.  There was just open problem.  Until he found a career, he didn't have enough money to rent a flat and pay for life's necessities by himself.  That's one of the reasons he asked Bethany to come live with him in Hogsmeade.  The other reason was because he loved her and ached to be able to go to bed with her at night and wake up beside her every morning.  Her love for him ran as deep.

So she told her parents that she was living in Hogsmeade and that Severus was living and working there as well.  She just conveniently forgot to tell them that they were living with each other.

They were incredibly happy together.  The only thing that came between them was that Severus didn't seem to have a plan for what he wanted to do with his life.  In fact, he did have some plans that he wasn't sharing with her.  For the last few years he and his friends at school had been delving into the Dark Arts and it seemed that the further he became involved the more sway the Arts had over him.  He had lived a very hard life and desired power above all things, except perhaps love.  He also needed to belong to a group that accepted him as he was.  Bethany was wonderful but she couldn't be everything to him.  Severus's friends were headed down a dark path and he was willingly following them.  

Severus studied and practiced the Arts when he went to visit Lucius Malfoy.  Malfoy was a rich boy slightly older than Severus and Bethany, who had taken Severus under his wing and introduced him to friends like Mulciber and Avery when Severus was first sorted into House Slytherin.  Together they practiced the Dark Arts along with a few other close friends.  Severus also practiced at home, but only while Bethany was out.  He was able to keep it away from her.  He had once lost a good friend named Lily Evans, whom he also had deep romantic feelings for, because she had been disturbed by his interest in the Dark Arts.  

Bethany was not so tame.  She knew a little of the Dark Arts herself.  But she had given up the application of them years before when she no longer needed them for self-defense and revenge.  Severus had now far surpassed her in knowledge of that area.  He was also a naturally powerful wizard.  Though Bethany was quite a powerful witch, her interests were tame comparatively.  She loved unicorns.  In fact, her wand was made of silver maple with the strand of a unicorn's mane at its heart.  She was interested in the protection and study of magical animals.  In school she had excelled at Care of Magical Creatures and Herbology.  Since then she had known that was the direction she wanted to steer her life.  

Bethany was also more subject to mood swings than Severus.  Severus generally had a good reign on his emotions and could work powerful spells in almost any frame of mind.  Bethany, however, was moved by feelings.  The more invested she was in a spell, the more powerful the spell became.  The flip side of this is that she had a quick temper, and could more easily lose focus on what she was doing.

Severus had a potions lab in a small section of their home that was designated for his work.  He accrued extra money making and selling difficult-to-create potions to those who were not so advanced in potion making as he was.  It could be said that few were as talented as him in this area.  He had specialized in Potions while in school, as well as in Defense Against the Dark Arts.  Though his interest in this last subject was simply because it let him gain knowledge of the Dark Arts in a safely-structured setting.  Severus concentrated on making potions for the time being, even creating a few new ones of his own for personal use as well as for sale.  

In the flat, he had an area all his own which Bethany did not disturb, and he kept his Dark Arts books and other items in the drawers of his desk.  Likewise, Bethany had a section of the house for her paints and charcoals since she had been expanding her repertoire in art.  Both lovers mutually respected one another and left each other alone to their separate pastimes.  Yet, they always came together at the beginning and end of every day and generally didn't need much alone time even though they worked together all day long.

Severus and Bethany were compatible, or worked towards compatibility in all things except his secret love of the Dark Arts and his new respect for the Dark Lord, Voldemort, who was rising in power to the point that he was a distinct threat to the Muggle and Wizarding communities both.  In him, Severus saw his chance to revenge himself on his father, maybe even his mother, all the people who had made his life miserable at a school, especially James Potter, and anyone else who was currently or potentially in his way.  He wanted to show everyone that he could be a great wizard, fearsome at times and just at others.  Severus desired to be awe-inspiring.  He felt he needed to be powerful in order to keep a girl like Bethany.  For though his interest in the occult had cost him Lily Evans as even a friend, Severus considered that James Potter had a lot to do with that, as well as being the source of various other tragedies of Severus's life.  

After all, he had been friends with Lily since they were nine years old, even before going to Hogwarts.  Once they were in school, they were sorted into not only different but opposing Houses—he into Slytherin and she into Gryffindor.  After that, their relationship became weaker because of House loyalty.  The strain was doubled because their new friends hated one another.  By the time they were thirteen, not only did their friends despise each other, but Severus and Lily each disliked one another's associates.  By the time they were sixteen, Lily had already broken Severus's heart by having dating and soon after having falling in love with James Potter, the Seeker for Gryffindor's Quidditch team.

Severus was ingeniously clever, with a penetrating mind, and powers of perception that were beyond normal.  He was good with riddles and made high marks at school. But academics were his specialty and he had nothing like the prowess on a broom of that fly-boy Quidditch player.  He always felt that it was Potter's skills in this sport that had attracted Lily to him.  Besides Potter was a face-man for Gryffindor.  He was the pretty boy and lovable rebel, always getting into trouble.  Yet he still won the favour of the general school populace for his curiousity, daring, and charisma as he tried, often succeeding, to pull off stunt after stunt against school rules.  

Severus could never understand.  He himself was a model student, always playing by the rules.  He was trying to make something of himself so that his parents might actual pay him some positive attention, perhaps even be proud of him for once.  Besides that, he enjoyed learning and thought that being the good student would attract Lily.  So he did all the things he was supposed to do.  Yet, who did Lily choose in the end?  She picked Potter because he looked like a poster-boy but acted the part of the scamp.  Severus loathed him, not just because Potter had flying skills or because he had stolen Lily, but because Potter thought it highly amusing to torture Severus in private and public because he knew that Severus liked Lily.  Not that Potter felt threatened that Severus could take Lily away from him, he did it more because he thought of Severus as the perfect target for bullying.  

Severus had always been dark in demeanor, a loner for the most part.  He seemed like he didn't belong mainly because he wasn't raised with normal social skills and lots of friends.  He had been isolated as a child by parents who never wanted him.  Severus felt unloved and found it hard to trust people because of this.  He was also used to doing things on his own.  However, being a loner and being different made him a prime subject for tormenting by other schoolmates.  This treatment made Severus even darker and more isolated.  He already knew more jinxes, hexes, and curses when he arrived at Hogwarts at age eleven than most students several years ahead of him.  He used these sparingly against his enemies because he was afraid that with his luck, he would be the one expelled for retaliating when the next fight occurred.  He didn't want to lose Lily altogether, so he didn't always use his knowledge and skills to defend himself against Potter's verbal tauntings and sometimes physical humiliations.  

Lily for her part, still tried to be Severus's acquaintance, despite her boyfriend's attitude.  She didn’t know the full extent of James's treatment of Severus.  When she did see it, she would try to stop it.  But James, the rogue, wouldn't listen to her because he had the support of so many friends and attracted so much attention in this manner.  Severus had at first thought Lily would help either by making Potter tone it down or by leaving him, if not to be with Severus, then because of his cruel treatment of an old friend.  

She did neither until one day that James Potter and his friends took it too far.  Then Lily had stepped in to stop the humiliation, but Severus was so mad by that time that he didn't want any help.  He was so angry with Lily for all that she had ignored before this that he called her a Mudblood.  This grievous insult made her furious and she refused to speak to Severus.  When he went to great lengths to apologize, she cut him off completely because of his interest in the Dark Arts. They were never friends from that day forward.  Though, Severus had gotten to know, started dating, and fallen in love with Bethany not long after that, he never forgot nor stopped pining for the loss of Lily's friendship.

Continued in Chapter 2