Despite Severus Snape's wizarding heritage, he was raised in the Muggle dwelling of Spinner's End, which was in close proximity to the home of the Evans family. He met Lily and Petunia Evans when he was nine, and fell deeply in love with Lily, becoming a close friend of hers. In 1971 he began his first term at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry where he was sorted into Slytherin. This put him in the same year as his true love, Lily Evans. Severus became the immediate enemy of James Potter and Sirius Black and was a frequent victim of their bullying. Snape developed a passion for the Dark Arts at a young age, and had followed the pure-blood supremacists in Slytherin House, despite his own half-blood status and his love for Lily, a Muggle-born. This put his friendship with Lily under great strain, until it was eventually broken in their fifth year. After leaving school he joined the Death Eaters along with a large group of his fellow Slytherins