Educatum Esse

Severus Snape is twelve years old the first time the headmaster comes to fetch him. He awakes to darkness and the old man gently shaking his shoulder, and allows himself to be quietly led out of the dormitory while his friends slumber on. It doesn’t occur to him to be frightened, not even when he catches a glimpse of the common room clock and sees that it’s after midnight; he’s done nothing in recent memory to warrant anything more than a few days’ detention. He wonders, briefly, if perhaps one of his parents has died.