41 Chapter 41: Daily Newspaper

SWI, SCoP main hall, July 11, 1976.

At breakfast the next morning, when Severus appeared in the main room of SCoP, all kinds of whispers suddenly appeared in the room where they were having breakfast.

Severus noticed that many people were already holding various newspapers or magazines in their hands, but he played it down and went straight to the table where he usually ate breakfast.

When Severus took a seat at the table where Freyja and Gwen were already sitting, he was about to greet them but it was Freyja who spoke first saying very excitedly:

"Severus you have to see this! It's amazing! You're on the front page of the USA newspaper!"

"First of all, good morning Freyja, Gwen" Severus greeted them with a smile, it was always good to start the day with a happily excited Freyja.

"And as for the paper, I already guessed that something like this might happen, it's no big deal, give them a few days and they'll have forgotten what I did."

"Oh, you say it's no big deal and they'll forget in a few days, I don't think you know that many newspapers from not only America but also from all over Europe are reporting on you today? It's not a small thing Prince, even the most prominent potioneers magazines mentioned your name!" said Gwen rolling her eyes at Severus' lack of judgment.

"Wow, I didn't know that, it's even more amazing, Severus is now famous all over the world," Freyja said with stars in her eyes as she looked at Severus.

Severus could only nod with a smile, amused to see them more excited about this than himself.

After talking for a bit, Severus read the paper along with Freyja and Gwen who were chatting about what they had posted about him.

It seemed that even if the "Daily Prophet" mentioned a lot of things about him.

Evans' House, Muggle London, July 11, 1976

Lily Evans looked at the front page of the Daily Prophet in surprise.

Normally, she could only laugh at the crazy headlines and false gossip stories that this yellow tabloid newspaper produced.

But despite the lies and bad journalism, she read it every day to keep up with happenings in the magical world.

Obviously the paper hardly ever talked about the maniacal madman Lord Voldemort and his death eater who was terrorizing the British magical world with their attacks on Muggle-borns, the raids on Muggle villages along with the destruction of stores in Diagon Alley, the Daily Prophet either didn't mention all this or just downplayed it to such an extent that people didn't give it a thought.

But little by little that became impossible as things started to get worse this year and Voldemort became more aggressive and decisive in his attacks, and even the newspaper could not minimize his actions.

For that very reason, instead of reporting every life lost in every attack Voldemort made, they decided to write about the magical upper class and the Ministry's new bureaucratic laws.

Lily shook her head.

'What the Order needs most now are wizards willing to fight and oppose Voldemort, not people who would rather watch the conflict pass from afar and wait for someone else to sort it out' Lily thought dejected with the way things were going.

Lily had found out at the end of her 5th year at Hogwarts about the Order of the Phoenix.

Apparently, Professor Dumbledore had decided to include her along with other Gryffindors to prepare them for what was to come in the magical world.

But this time Lily's surprise was because today's Daily Prophet journalism had on the front page a picture of Severus receiving the prize of a potions competition at SWI and another forum receiving the "G.M.M." at the Magiconcreso in the USA.

"That's Severus!?" said wondered aloud Lily, drawing the attention of her parents who hadn't heard her name their young childhood friend in a long time.

If she hadn't known Severus years ago as she did, it would never have occurred to her that the rather handsome young wizard with a smile was the ever-dark, angry, distrustful, nervous, socially awkward, and thin teenage Severus Snape, she couldn't believe.

The black locks Severus used to have were always unkempt and greasy, but now they looked shiny and smooth, his pasty pale skin full of porcelain stains, was now unblemished and his crooked yellow teeth were pearly white and straight.

He too seemed to have trained his lean, scrawny form into a much more athletic figure, he wasn't muscular or anything, but he looked good.

He was dressed in smart, fashionable clothes, apparently, he wasn't wearing his typical big black tunics.

He was so different from the Severus that she knew that was Lily stunned.

" Sweetie, what do you mean it's Severus?" asked calmly Mrs. Evans who already knew that something had happened between Lily and Severus but decided not to meddle in her personal affairs before.

"I..., it's nothing mom" Lily answered her trying to calm down and see why Severus was on the front page of the newspaper receiving awards and so different.

But then when she carefully read what the paper said next to the pictures, her eyes widened at the information in the article.

But she shook her head in denial: 'Why should I care what Severus is doing in the USA?'

But despite that being said, she took a moment to study the photos and read what the article said.

"What? What do you mean Severus Prince?" she said again out loud drawing the attention of her parents who looked at her with confusion and doubt, to which she just smiled and said it was nothing again.

She went on to read what the story in the article said.

The headline of the article's story read in big bold letters: [Severus Prince young Lord of the Noble House of the Prince at only 16 years old won the SCoP Potions competition and was presented with the G.M.M medal by the President of MACUSA himself.]

'Wait... What...Severus Prince young Lord of the Noble House of the Prince...since when...I knew Severus was a half-blood but he never mentioned anything about such a great heritage' Lily wondered very surprisedly, to the point where she almost thought she was reading about someone else, but she would recognize Severus no matter how different he was in those pictures.

Such was her surprise upon reading this that if she could with her magic burn a hole in the paper with her eyes, she would have burned herself to ashes by now.

Stunned, Lily had continued reading about everything that happened at the SCoP potions competition.

She read the entire story in the article silently not wanting to bring it to her parents' attention again.

She didn't want to have another awkward conversation about Severus.

Getting to the end of the article, Lily saw that there were more pictures of Severus in the contest with little stories attached about comments from SCoP students who knew Severus.

This could only mean that Severus could not be interviewed and so they talked to people who knew him.

The photos showed Severus thanking the various contest judges and also the Magicongress USA staff.

Apparently, the award was given to him by the MACUSA's Director of Magical Security.

But the pictures that caught Lily's attention the most were the ones in which he was talking, laughing, and smiling with three beautiful women who seemed to be very close to him since, in all the pictures that he was not with the judges, he appeared along with the three of them.

In the moving pictures, you could see how they hugged him tightly, congratulated him, and laughed happily with him.

As for the SCoP students' comments about him, they were mostly very good:

"He's handsome, smart, talented, strong, has a great future, oh and he's British, he's definitely my type!" Commented one of the witches who are in the SCoP program.

"He's terrifying when he's dueling, but I think that makes him even more interesting and desirable" Commented one of Severus Prince's classmates in the SCoP dueling classes.

"Well, Grimprince may be a bit scary but he's certainly a brilliant wizard! Not only in potions, but in dueling too, it's amazing what he can do with a wand in combat! And he's only 16! In a few more years I can't imagine what kind of excellent wizard he'll reach to be" A comment from Ethan Hale, Severus Prince's roommate.

"I think I speak for all the witches in the SCoP program when I say we love listening to him speak in class, he is so smart, formal, polite, calm, kind, and if you add that British accent! A 10 out of 10!'

"Mr. Prince is a uniquely talented potions student, the brightest student I have ever taught or met. Definitely, SCoP and SWI would like him to stay studying at our school..." said Dean Stacy of Salem Potions College.

The article ended with a personal comment from the reporter:

"That's right my dear British readers, a new genius has been born into our community and it is with immense happiness that I tell you that I see a great future for Britain in the hand of Mr. Prince."

"And it is the humble opinion of this reporter that the Ministry of Magic should do everything possible to keep this talented young wizard studying at Hogwarts where he belongs."

"Now that it is known that there is a great interest from the American community for him to stay in that country is the time to act, we cannot afford to lose talented magicians who are the future of our community, I urge the Minister not to waste time. Greetings and stay tuned for more news!"

-Rekon Bidder reporter for the Daily Prophet.

Lily had been shocked.

Seeing him so different, so physically changed, so happily, happily, laughing and hugging people.

That was not the Severus she knew.

Yes, there were times when they hugged her, laughed together, and all that, but she had never seen him act like that with anyone else.

And the times he did with her it was at rare moments and only when no one was around because he was so embarrassed.

Her heartfelt so strange, she didn't know why this affected her so much.

She had already decided to go on with her life without him, but that was because he had left her no choice in the matter.

She would never have expected to see him so different, so carefree, happy, and free in front of a camera.

The Severus she knew would never let that happen.

She knew better than anyone, she might have ended her relationship with him, but that didn't mean she didn't know him anymore.

And the only picture she had of him being carefree and being himself was a picture taken with a muggle camera she had managed to take of him when he was explaining to her in detail and passionately how the magical world was and how amazing potions were

This picture was already quite old; she had taken it in the summer before her first year at Hogwarts when magic was still something very new to her and her only contact with that magical and unique world was Severus.

She was always glad she had been able to take that picture, because it was the only memory she had of a passionate, happily, carefree Severus.

Instinctively Lily went looking for the photo in her room.

The photo was full of creases and torn edges.

She still remembers how hard Severus fought to burn and destroy the photo, but she stopped him at all costs.

She remembers how hard it was but with the promise to never show it to anyone he ended up agreeing to let her keep it.

And even though she now knew how to fix it to make it good as new, she didn't want to fix it.

It was a keepsake that should be kept as it was.

Lily looked at the photo and couldn't help but think that their friendship ended up just like the photo: worn and tattered around the edges.

A part of her was very happy and proud to see his accomplishments, to see that he seemed to have really changed and for the better.

It was a relief to her that he had managed to move on and defeat his dark inner demons, escape the poverty and abuse of Spinner's End, the constant mistrust he had, and the low self-esteem he suffered from self-confidence issues.

It was devastating for her to walk away from him after he called her a mudblood knowing everything he was going through.

But she couldn't forget his insult, it didn't matter if he had begged her with his teary face and eyes, his voice broken and anguished that she would be his friend again and not leave him in a world of despair and loneliness.

He had betrayed her, he had called her by that vile name that insults, scorns, and views as inferior to all those of Muggle heritage in the magical world.

He had classified her as a lesser human being who did not deserve to be called a witch within the magical world.

That insult combined with a lot of things that happened, like his bad friends who live by making mean jokes and mocking or insulting the Muggle-born along with his obsessive studies in the Dark Arts to the point that he wouldn't listen to her when she advised him to stop, was what made her have to walk away from him unable to accept his apology no matter how much it hurt.

She could no longer accept his apology and be his friend.

When they had met all those years ago, Severus had promised her that having non-magical parents was not a problem in the magical world.

He had motivated her and had driven away all her fears of not being a good witch.

He had taught her not to fear her magic and learn to use it, he had given her the feeling that he was the only one who understood her completely, until she got into Hogwarts and met amazing, good, happy, and protective people.

But before all that, he had been the one who had motivated her since she was a child to be a great witch.

That's why it hurt her so much that he called her that, it was a betrayal of everything he ever told her, everything she kept rowing their friendship for despite the bad friendships and dark thoughts he had.

He betrayed her, he hurt her like no one had ever hurt her before and why?

Because of the shame, humiliation, and anger, he felt at that moment.

She could understand that, she knew he had a very bad attitude towards others.

The two of them had always argued about many things because their thoughts differed so much.

But it never occurred to her that her best friend could say something like that to her, he destroyed the trust she had in him and also destroyed the friendship she had worked so hard to maintain.

It was thanks to her friends that she was able to move on, they advised her to cut all ties with Severus, as much as that hurt.

They always warned her that he was going down a path of no return, that his ideals were other, and that he would never understand her point of view of things because he nodded.

They warned him that sooner or later Severus would become a death eater because that was the path he was going down.

And they warned her that at some point, he would hurt her too.

She didn't want to believe it or she didn't want to see it, she didn't think her friend was a lost cause.

But that day when he called her mudblood, he proved to her that her friends were not wrong.

From that day on she understood that he could no longer be her best friend.

And even though she had missed him like crazy and cried into her pillow every night for several weeks,

She managed to learn to live without him, to go her way and let him go his.