Disclaimer: I don't own Severus Snape or his broken childhood

Chapter 2:

The Prince's Unveiling

Severus sat quietly reading his Potions textbook in the sitting room, occasionally looking out the front window and inwardly cursing the rain outside for choosing to make it's appearance on the one day his father was guarantied to be home.

"What is it you want?" His father's voice carried to the sitting room, scathing and harsh to whoever he was on the telephone with.

"I was having a lovely Sunday with you out of my sight!" he heard his father say.

It must have been his mother. Who else would Tobias want out of his sight? Rationally, Severus knew there were many people his father would prefer out of his sight, but perhaps none more so then his wife Eileen.

He heard a silence for a while and figured his mother was biting back at him in her own words. Honestly, only Tobias and Eileen Snape could find a reason to start an argument as far away from each other as across town. All he could do was pray this weather didn't hold up all summer and his mother didn't go off on any more ridiculous shopping trips. At least when his mother was home with him she would mostly leave him alone, even if she did tend to act like he didn't exist. But it didn't bother him, mostly.

It had been years since Severus was left alone in the house with his father all day. He couldn't even remember such a time, although he was sure it must have been unpleasant as Tobias was a very unpleasant man to be around. Severus always made it a point to stay out of sight on his father's day off, usually holding up in his room or going off to Lily's house for a few hours until Eileen would expect him home for dinner in the early evening.

Unfortunately, Lily was away this weekend, off with her family on a camping trip Severus felt too awkward to push an invitation for. To his astonishment, Lily told him a week prior that her sister Petunia was going too (probably due the their parents insistence) and she wanted to use this time with her sister to make amends. Severus didn't have the heart to warn her it would backfire. In Petunia's narrow little mind she has no sister and as long as Lily lived there was nothing she could do to chance her mind. It was a fact that Lily would have to learn to live with in time, but for now Severus would just have to be there for her when she comes to him crying about Petunia and how she's managed to convince all of her muggle friends that she has a freak for a sister.

A faint click told him Tobias was off the phone and in a few minutes he heard his father come in from the kitchen, scowl evident in his voice like always.

"Busy as usual, are you? I don't suppose you could sacrifice a few minutes of learning magic tricks to set the table while I fix lunch?" Tobias said, words dripping with sarcasm .

Severus sent a cold look to the man while put his textbook down on the coffee table. He wasn't sure where it came from but he could his patience running on a short fuse.

"I'm not reading about magic tricks, and for your information I am busy." He spoke through gritted teeth. Tobias' face darkened immediately and Severus found himself wanting to reel in his words somehow. The annoyance still bubbled inside of him but he was sure he would catch it if he said anything more.

The man approached him, feet making little noise as possible. Those eyes made Severus want to disappear.

"You know better than to argue with me. You do as I say, when I say without giving me lip. Understood?"

Severus nodded without much choice, not really wanting to antagonize the man further. He followed Tobias into the kitchen and got out the silverware while his father turned up the burner on the stove. He blinked as he watched this, slowly catching on to what he said a minute ago.

"You… you mean you really are making lunch?" he asked Tobias, not believing that his father could even cook.

"I was planning on it," Tobias said, pouring store-bought chicken stock into a pot on the stove. He still sounded mad.

"But I suppose I could let you starve if that's what you'd prefer."

Severus ignored that remark rather easily, turning his attention to the kitchen table instead.

He then remembered how long ago it was since Eileen left. Shouldn't she have been back by now?

"Where was she when she called? That was Eileen wasn't it?" He asked his father.

"Still downtown. The roads are too slick and you know how she hates driving."

Severus nodded, knowing all too well how she felt about using muggle cars, shopping at muggle department stores and dealing with muggles in general. He looked around for the napkins, opening drawers and peeking in cabinets. He hadn't had to set the table since he was ten.

"What did she go to town for, anyway?" Severus thought to ask.

Tobias shrugged, "To buy you new shoes, I think."

"Shoes?" He distractedly slammed a drawer shut, almost caching his fingers, "But I don't need shoes, I need underwear."

"Well take that up with your mother, you ungrateful whelp, I don't shop for your clothes. And by the way," Severus turned around to see that his father held out a handful of napkins, "I believe this is what you were looking for."

Severus nodded a silent but hesitant 'thanks' and took them, preceding to set the kitchen table as he was told.

Scuffed, pinching secondhand shoes was the last thing he wanted to return to Hogwarts with, he certainly got enough grief from the others about what he normally wore. And what if the shoes were scuffed, pinched and smelled funny? James Potter and his goons would have a field day with that. He couldn't even hold back a shudder.

Tobias managed to scrounge up from the refrigerator four tomatoes and an old, tired-looking onion. "Come here a minute," he called, "Make the sandwiches while I get started on the tomato soup. There's some leftover ham from last night's dinner in the fridge. And be quick about it."

"Do you think…" Severus started, feeling at fourteen sandwiches were a little below his skill level, "…that I could make the soup?"

There was the soft rumble of thunder outside before his father spoke with one eyebrow skeptically raised.

"You? Are you indicating to me that you can cook?"

"I can brew. It's the same thing."

Tobias sneered again, "I somehow doubt that. But…if you're bent on it, go ahead." he stepped aside to let Severus by and set the vegetables on the counter, rubbing his temples as if he were getting a headache.

"Now at least let me show you how to dice-"

"I know how to dice," Severus insisted, "I dice all the time in Potions class."

"No one likes a know-it-all, Severus," his father chided, drawing a knife out of the knife block and handing it to him, "It's far more effective to prove your talent than to boast of it."

And so with his father's dark eyes peering over his shoulder, he prepared and added all the ingredients per instructed, meeting every barked order with a sour expression that he imagined was very much like his mother's. It soon started to resemble tomato soup despite Severus's skepticism that chicken stock could make it look like anything other than chicken soup.

"Let it simmer a while but stir it in five minutes." Tobias said, pulling his son by the shirtsleeve back over to the kitchen table, "Meanwhile, sit here and stay out of my way for a bit." He got out a pan and began to fry the ham for the sandwiches while Severus sat back and watched.

"I didn't know you could cook." He said after a several minutes of silence. It was true. Looking back, he never knew a time when Tobias made anything more in the kitchen than a pot of coffee.

For a second he thought he saw a fleeting smirk on his father's face but was gone in an instant.

"Naturally, Severus, there are many things about me you don't know. And stir that pot, you silly boy, don't let it boil over!"

Alarmed, Severus turned to the mess on the stove and grabbed a spoon and a pot holder before disaster struck. He could feel his father looming over his shoulder, sneering at him once again, "So much for your 'brewing skills'"

After some time, lunch was cooked, on the table and then eaten in relative silence except for the intensifying rain outside. The soup was delicious but naturally Tobias scowled at and called it too runny, and the sandwiches were about as good as leftover ham and day-old bread could possibly taste but Severus wouldn't admit that it wasn't Tobias' fault that the bread was stale or the ham was too fatty. As they gathered up the plates and put them in the sink the lights shut off without warning. Every inch of the room was coated in blackness except when a brief lightning strike flashed and coated everything in pale blue light.

"Did you do this?" He heard his father's accusing voice coming from where he remembered the sink to be.

"Do what?"

"Stop playing tricks on me." Severus felt his father's hand find his upper arm, "The lights. You used your magic didn't you?"

"N-no. It's raining, don't you hear it? The power was bound to go out."

"Well then, use your magic to turn the lights on."

"I can't. It's the Ministry of Magic's law, no underage magic." He toyed with the idea of telling Tobias about the Dementors that guard Azkaban prison but decided to save that tale for a time when he could see the horrified expression on his father's face.

Surprisingly, Tobias scoffed at the idea, "All that time you spend at that school and you aren't even allowed to use magic? That's the most ridiculous rubbish I've ever heard."

"We can use it at school. It's just illegal at home… unless maybe if we're supervised."

"I'm your father, I'm supervising you. That should be enough." Tobias said, sounding thoroughly annoyed.

Severus shook his head, "No, it's no good if you're a muggle." he replied quietly, wishing he could use his magic to vanish into a dark pit for a while. He didn't know if Tobias deliberately ignored what he said or if he honestly didn't hear it. Either way, thankfully, he dropped the subject."

"What about candles? Are they illegal too?"

"Of course not."

"Then go find some you loathsome little imp." He urged, nudging his son forward, "I'll light the fireplace. Does it still work as a fireplace or can it only be used as a magical taxi service?"

Severus indulged in rolling his eyes, the gesture safely concealed in the darkness. Typical of his father, always complaining.

After Tobias left it took several minutes for Severus to find the box of used candles in the kitchen cupboard and by the time he found the holders there was already a dull fire in the fireplace guiding him back to the sitting room. Severus' eyes widened when he saw his father sitting cross-legged in the armchair by the fire, looking through (or rather, snooping in) Severus' Potions textbook.

"'Property of the Half-Blood Prince?' Is that a codeword of some sort?" Tobias said, giving a knowing smirk.

Severus stepped forward, angrier at his father then he'd been in a long time. That was his book! Everything he wrote in there he never meant for his father to see! His eyes burned like coals as he struggled with his words.

"You…have no right…"

Surely not the most effective thing to say but for the moment it was the best that he could do.

"Don't I? I read all the time that parents need to be proactive in their child's schooling. Now isn't that all I'm doing?" Tobias' voice was remarkably calm as he dared to slowly turn page after page.

"That wasn't yours to see…" Severus croaked out, struggling to regain some composure.

"Then has your mother seen it?"

"No! And don't you dare show her!"

"Why not? It's her book, I know that much," Tobias closed it to read the cover, "She might find it amusing. Or rather sweet-"

At this point Severus ran for the book trying to snatch it out of his hand but Tobias released it immediately.

The air grew still and hot for a few minutes as everything in the house seemed to abruptly stop. Severus clutched his Potion's book to his chest, trying to find it within himself to explain the whole thing to him but Tobias spoke first.

"Severus, I've never been one for popularity contests. I never won them as them as a child and I certainly don't win them now. Believe me, this-" the made a sweeping gesture towards the book and everything in it, "-is really no surprise to me."

Severus shook his head vigorously. It wasn't supposed to come out like this. "No. You're getting it all wrong. Those children… I just felt… I only wanted to be good enough!"

"Good enough for your mother you mean." It wasn't a question and Tobias didn't present it as one. "You may not think I know about magic but I've been married to Eileen for a long time. I hear the way speaks of blood purity and Slytherin ideals, how pure-bloods are superior and muggles are all weak-minded bigots. I don't know the rest of the magical world judges one's self worth but I've always believed it should be based on one's ability to work hard and survive, not whether or not someone's father can wave a magic wand or travel the world through a fireplace."

At first he thought it was in his imagination that his father's voice had softened but he looked up to find that his eyes had softened too. But only just a bit; Severus was sure most people wouldn't even see a difference.

Yay! The second chapter's up! Now we're down to the drama! What do you think about Tobias' reaction to finding the Potion's book?

Leave a review, I love to read them! ^_^