Severus's Secret.
**This is an AU, it's also called FANfiction, meaning fiction by the fans, if you don't like this, don't read it. I don't care if it doesn't follow cannon, that's why it's AU and Fan fiction, if you don't like that, stick to cannon.**
This story is a Marauder Era AU and will feature and OC, don't like, don't read. This is how I write and if you have a problem with it, go jump into the Black Lake.
Chapter 1
Helena Eileen Prince, more commonly known as Helena Eileen Snape was born February 16, 1965 to Eileen Snape née Prince and Tobias Snape. She was their second and last child, proceeded by her elder and only brother, Severus Tobias who was older than her by five years. Once happily married, Tobias and Eileen's marriage had been falling apart, resulting in numerous verbal and a fair few physical fights. These fights only got worse after Helena was born, and they grew more and more violent until the smallest thing set Tobias off, often beating his wife and on occasion, his young son. Helena grew up among such occurrences until Helena had her first major spurt of accidental magic - right in front of Tobias. Before Tobias could do anything, Severus was curled protectively over his three year old sister, taking the blows that were about to land on her. When Eileen saw what was happening to her eight year old son, she protected Severus and Helena, putting herself between her once loving husband and her young children. Severus did only what he knew to do, he picked up his sister and he dared to try and slip away. Before running up the stairs, he looked back to see a horrid sight that made him tremble and sink to the floor in fear. Tobias, for he could no longer call the man father, was wildly beating into Severus' mother. Eileen was a frail and sickly woman already, plus her previously acquired wounds and now this, there was no doubt that the two children would lose their mother tonight. And they did, and watched in horror as Tobias beat the life out of his spouse, oblivious to the onlooking children. When Severus saw that his mother was dying, nearly dead, Eileen locked eyes with her son and mouthed 'Go' and so he did. Just before Tobias had beaten the life out of Eileen, Severus had made it upstairs with Helena, and he allowed himself to cry for the first and last time in years. Both he and Helena, though the latter was still a bit young to understand at the time, were haunted by the death of their mother and would be for years to come.
The next two years passed miserably for Severus and Helena, more so for Severus who took most of the beatings, both his and Helena's. It only became worse when the local mill their father was employed at was shut down. Tobias used the majority of their money on alcohol, the man was nearly always drunk nowadays. Now ten and five Severus and Helena would use every chance they got to get out and away from their home with Tobias. It was by chance they stumbled across the small park on the day Lily and Petunia Evans were there. It was also by chance that Lily was showcasing her magic to Petunia, which attracted Helena's attention. Vaguely, the five year old could remember her mother showing her magic tricks, so to we someone else do it captivated the small child. Naturally, Helena did what any child would do, she ran towards it.
Lily was showing Petunia her magic trick with the little flower when a small, black haired, shabbily dressed little girl came running out of the bushes, staring at Lily. Not a second later, a similarly black haired shabbily dressed boy her age came running out after her.
"Helena!" He scolded lightly to the giggling little girl, scooping her up before noticing Lily's trick. "You're a witch!" He exclaimed excited.
"That's not a very nice thing to say" frowned Lily before Severus hastily corrected himself.
"No, no, you're like me, I'm a wizard and you're a witch" he tried to explain. "We can do magic" his voice dropped to a whisper on the last word, as if he was afraid something would attack him and what must be his sister for saying it.
From that day on, a friendship was formed between Lily and Severus and soon Lily began to help Severus with Helena and suspect his and his sister's life at home.
"Sev" Lily spoke quietly to her similarly ten year old best friend cautiously, eyeing him as he cradled his Helena's head in his lap as she slept. Severus had shown up after dinner with a limping Helena and after speaking with Mr. and Mrs. Evans it was decided that they would spend the night in the Evans' living room.
"Yeah" he prompted, not looking up.
"You and Helena don't have a good home life with Tobias, do you?" Severus said nothing, only slowly nodding his head after a good minute of hesitation. "Does, does he..." Lily trails off, unable to finish the question.
"Does he beat us?" Severus finished for her; "Yes, he does. Normally," he pauses, looking down at his sister "normally I can stop him from hurting Helena, but I couldn't. I couldn't get to them in time, she had an incident involving accidental magic in front of Tobias and he beat her for it." At this point Severus choked up, unable to continue as he tried to swallow the sob building in his throat. He remembered the panic he felt when he saw Tobias standing over Helena, beating her with his thick leather belt. And he remembered how his mother looked two years ago, in that same position, weak and vulnerable as Tobias beat into her. Severus saw the light leave his mother's eyes and, powered by anger and determination, he jumped in front of Tobias. Severus had allowed his biological sire to lash into him, taking hit after hit for Helena who was sobbing brokenly under him. After another half hour, Tobias turned away with a warning to stay put as used the bathroom. As soon as Tobias was gone though, Severus and Helena fled to the Evans', hoping that Tobias would forget to beat them worse the next day for running.
Lily simply pulled Severus close to her, rubbing his back as he allowed tears to slip from his eyes as he fell into a light and fitful sleep.
I've been gone for a few months, I know, but I'd like to think that I've improved quite a bit. I've also grown more confident in my ability, something I sorely lacked, and moved my focus into another fandom. The last few months I've been consumed by a Harry Potter frenzy and have finally regained my courage to write again. I hope I can be given the chance to regain your interests once more. Please review and tell me what you think, keeping in mind that all reviews I consider flame or bug me about my OC or AU or any other story element that isn't encouraging or assisting will be deleted because I don't have time for that.
~Peace!