The boy was too young to understand why his parents were fighting. All he could understand were the loud voices, the angry faces, and the way their house-elf Barnabas shushed him and shuffled him away from the living room.

The boy was too young to intervene. All he could do was play quietly, eat his sandwich without complaint, and turn a brave but tear-stained face up to meet his mother's when she sank into the comforting darkness of her room afterwards, matching tear tracks glistening on her face in the darkness.

The boy was too young to know about his abilities. All he could know was that sometimes he felt tingly, he could read people's moods just by looking at them, and his father watched him carefully with distrust shining in his eyes.

At three years old, he did not know he was destined to be a great and terrible wizard.

oOo

Eileen and Tobias Snape were arguing again. Little Severus hated when they argued. His dad would get louder and louder while his mum would cry harder and harder. Eventually there would be a loud "thwack", his dad would leave, and then the house would fall silent. That was when Severus knew to go find his mum and curl up in her arms.

He hated when his mum was sad. She was always sad, it seemed like, so Severus was always sad too. She would hold him and kiss him and tell him stories. Severus loved her stories. They were always the same – a brave young boy named Sev found out he was a wizard with real magic, and he went away to school with other magical children and they were all friends and had great adventures. Severus wished it was true, because he thought if he could take his mum away to the magic school then they could be happy together.

The next time they fought, Severus was stuck in the room with them. He hadn't meant to be, but he'd been in the study with his mum, playing pretend wizard, when his dad burst in, yelling about something. His mum had quickly pushed him behind an armchair. He wasn't sure what had happened to him, but suddenly he couldn't speak or cry or anything. It was like he was frozen. Severus was scared. If his dad found him, he'd be unable to run away.

Severus could feel the tears running down his face, but he couldn't even blink. He listened to his dad yelling at his mum, listened to her crying, listened as his dad started to hit her. If he looked very carefully, he could just see around the edge of the chair. He wished he could move, because he'd – he'd – do something. As he crouched behind the armchair, stuck in place, silent, he felt the weird tingles that came sometimes when he was very upset. But this time, the tingles were different – they were very strong. It felt like they were running up and down his whole body.

There was a loud thump as Severus' dad shoved his mum to the floor. The tingles grew warmer and stronger, and Severus wasn't sure how it happened, but suddenly his dad was yelling about something new. The tingles seemed to ripple out from him into the whole room. Looking carefully at his mum, Severus realized that his dad couldn't get close enough to touch her anymore. That was good. Severus wanted to run over to her, to tell her she was safe now, but he still couldn't move.

Tobias' face was turning an uglier shade of red than usual, and now he was threatening to kill Severus' mum if she didn't stop using her magic against him. Magic? Severus thought his dad knew they had just been playing pretend. He wished he could tell his dad that it was all just a game, and then maybe he wouldn't be as mad.

His dad ran out of the room, madder than Severus had ever seen him. All of a sudden he could move again, and he crept towards his mum. She was sitting up slowly and Severus saw the blood gushing from her nose. He stopped, not sure what to do. She smiled, though, and opened her arms for him. Running, he nearly knocked her over again with his enthusiasm.

"Mummy loves you, Sevvy," she whispered, over and over. "It's going to be alright. You're going to be alright."

When Severus asked her why he couldn't move, she just smiled sadly and told him it was part of their game. When he asked her why Dad couldn't reach her anymore, her smile got bigger and she said it was because Severus' love was very powerful magic. Little Severus nodded seriously. He loved his mum a lot.

It wasn't until he was much older that he realized his mum had cast the Body-Bind on him to protect him. It wasn't until he was much older that he realized his magic had first shown itself when he was three years old and he wanted to protect her.

A/N: Thank you to my beta, Obsessed14! Written in response to MissSadieKane's Death Eater Childhood competition on HPFC. Snape was taken by someone else first but they exchanged him, so I ended up with him! I write a lot of Snape/Hermione stories, but somehow, being given the task of Snape's childhood has been VERY intimidating! If you think I've done him a disservice, let me know. I am not J.K. Rowling, even if I did spend a weekend at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Florida. Frustrating how that doesn't magically turn you into a brilliant author!