Hogwarts (Challenges and Assignments).
Assignment 7 — Careers Advice: Quidditch — task 3 — write about an abusive relationship
Room of Requirement.
Broaden Your Horizons: Angst Stories — Bad Relationship
Eileen rued the day she had ever eloped with Tobias Snape.
He used to be so kind, she thought wistfully as she stared out the window. He brought her flowers — large, beautiful daffodils and pink carnations and even little pots of fresh herbs — and he read her poetry and sang with her, their voices meshing together, his low and deep amd hers high and lilting.
She remembered the first time he told her he loved her, and what that had led to.
But she couldn't remember a single time, ever since they had gotten married, that he had treated her the same as he had before. She didn't know what had changed. Was it his view on magic? She'd given hers up. Was it the fact that she argued with his wish for her to stay home and instead got herself a job? She hadn't worked in years — though that was probably more to do with the fact that she could barely move from the never-ending pain than her accepting her fate as a housewife.
She was utterly miserable. Severus had received his Hogwarts letter, much to Eileen's relief and Tobias' anger. At least he would be safe there — safe from the harsh words and abuse she suffered double in an attempt to take away some of his pain.
Or so she thought.
When Severus visited that Christmas, she could tell from a single glance at his pale, wan, pinched face that something bad either had happened or was still happening to him. She soon learned that he was being bullied constantly, picked on and taunted because of his looks and cleverness and affinity for Dark magic.
They did it because he was different. He had something that they didn't. They didn't know they didn't, but they could feel it. And they were certainly missing something.
She tried to comfort him, tried to press him to her breast as she laid in bed and he sat gingerly on the side of the tiny cot. But it was in vain, for she knew that someday, Tobias or someone just like him would ruin all her hard work to keep Severus sheltered and safe.
She knew this from experience. Even as a young child she'd know that, one day, her hopes and dreams would be shattered.
And now they had been. Mistreated and abused, she thought of her wand, locked up tight in her mother's china cabinet. She had left it, thinking that she would be protected by Tobias, when in reality she needed protection from him.
She remembered, once upon a time, when she had been happy, all those years ago, when she had blown dandelion fuzz and watched it drift away in the wind, wishing with all her heart to someday find the man of her dreams.
Now all she wished for was death and her son's safety. The former was quite possible, given her age and the abuse she went through — but the latter, she thought with much regret, might never happen.
word count: 503