Prologue

He would never see her again after that night. The wind had been a torrent of cold, which had rattled the windows and shaken the walls. The shutters outside his bedroom pane had banged against the outer wall, frightening him. The air wafted through Diagon Alley like a sharp blade, a weapon propelled through the tunnel of houses and shops lining each lane. He watched, curled beneath his meager comforter, as the snow swirled beyond. He shuddered as the roof creaked above his head.

      A voice rose up in the darkness; his mother’s voice, a hollow cry of anguish. He started. Her sounds seemed to flutter in tandem with the stampede of the wind, were lost amidst the terror of the storm. And then his father’s yell rose into the rafter’s, to join the chorus. Afraid and alone, the young boy slipped from his bed and walked unsteadily to the door, out into the hall, and to the top of the stairs.

      They were standing in the kitchen, but there was only silence now, except for the bubbling of the stew. They stood opposite one another. Her chair still rocked, as if she had stood abruptly. Sanguine against scuffed tiles, the boy hiding in the shadows noticed his mother’s knitting on the floor by her feet. She had dropped the item as though it were an offence. His father looked angry, yet frightened. Not afraid of the weather as the child was, but something more intangible, and yet more immediate, which hung in the air.

      “This is … there is nothing to say of this,” he spoke, “How dare you! How can you stand there and tell me … after all this time,” his voice elevated in pitch with every word, face red, eyes watery. “You … you would just leave … just abandon us?” The man stepped forward. The woman stepped back. The boy clutched his nightshirt.

      “You broke the promise you made,” she replied, “You gave me your word and I gave you my trust, but … you’ve failed me after all.” She looked unhesitant, yet dismayed. “…I must leave.”

      “Mummy…” The boy whimpered.

      “No!” The man shook.

      “You can’t stop me,” her voice cracked, like the ice on the pond when the water began to warm. He moved closer, rounding the table to where she stood. “I would even kill you…” she said, her voice low, a settling mist. “But the child,” she looked up, “he is yours now. I pray you’ll look after him.”

      “Oyuki!” The man flew at the woman. His hand, a viper, snaked around her boney wrist. Their eyes locked and she twisted in his grasp. There was a crack and she howled in pain, crouched beneath his tall imposing frame. The window shattered. Wind blew into the room. The kitchen froze around them.

      “No!!” The boy screamed.

      Then there was a low creaking sound, as though the house were shifting on axis. The man let go of her wrist and tried, instead, to wrap his arms around her hunched skeletal frame, but as the storm entered their home, the breath of the wind seemed to catch her and carry her, and then there was only nothing. Had there ever been a woman standing there? The man stumbled backwards and let out a sob. He bumped into the table, covering his face with his hands, a moan escaping his lips.

      The little boy sat in the chill and stared at the shape of nothingness where his mother once stood. He looked down at the yarn. He looked up at the chair, as it continued to rock backwards and forwards, yet slowing. And he looked at the broken window, as the room filled with cold and with snow. He knew in that moment that he would never see her again. His eyes filled with tears.


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Note: This story may or may not be continued. However, if I do continue, the plot will take place, primarily, in Japan. The character focus: Snape and Hermione. Thank you for reading.

Disclaimer: Everything related to Harry Potter belongs to Rowling et al. Oyuki is from Yuki-Onna monogatari (The Snow Woman, a Japanese folktale).

The above scene was inspired by Order of the Phoenix, in which Harry - with the use of Occlumency - views the memory of a hook-nosed man yelling at a cowering woman, as a child watches. In Snow, Snape is the child, and his mother is the Snow Woman.