Dear Mr. Snape
On the morning of Severus's eleventh birthday he woke up very early and sat on the front step of his small home watching the sunrise and fidgeting incessantly with his own fingers in anticipation. Finally a little after six the long awaited owl arrived carrying his Hogwarts letter. He fed the bird a bit of toast, snatched up the letter, and bolted to Lily's house. He wrapped on the door excitedly, knowing Lily would already be up waiting for him.
A bleary eyed disheveled Lily Evans answered the door in her nightgown, a beaming smile crossing her face. Both youths began jumping up and down in unbridled enthusiasm. Severus sat at the Evans's kitchen table waiting impatiently for Lily to get dressed so they could go sit under their tree and read the letter together. As soon as the redhead was finished the pair dashed off to their favorite spot.
"It's real," Lily gasped outloud having still had the tiniest inkling of doubt after two years about weather there really were more people like her and Severus, more people who could do magic even a whole magic school. Severus threw up his hands in an exasperated fashion, "I told you," he signed insistently. "Just wow," Lily exclaimed, "When can we go to this diagon alley place? How do we get there? Will people like us at Hogwarts?" She prattled on an endless stream of questions all morning neither stopping to breath nor to give Severus any chance to reply.
Several weeks later it was Lily's turn to recieve her own letter and she too immediately went to find her closest and only friend to share her joyous enthusiasm with him. Lily's parents agreed to take the pair to diagon alley the next weekend to get their things. Though far from wealthy, the Evans often took care of Severus as if he were their own as his parents preoccupation with their own issues and lack of care and concern towards their son was self evident.