The Summer Project
Chapter 3: The Angels Warden
"To a warden, Utopia is an escape-proof jail."
-Gregory Nunn
James was startled awake by the sound of a door slamming. He heard a crash from downstairs and it took him a moment to remember where he was. He looked around and hurt a loud shout.
"SAMARA!" He heard a man yell from downstairs. He was barely aware of a shirtless Severus as he jumped over James and ran out the door. James sat up and heard shouting from downstairs. Severus more than not trying to quiet his father down, or calm him down one of the two. But his father would have none of it. He heard a loud smacking noise, like flesh hitting flesh and jumped up. He moved to the stairs and saw Severus on the ground. The man, presumably Severus father moved towards him.
"Don't get involved!" Severus yelled. His father was probably not even aware of what Severus was saying let alone knew that someone else was in the house. His father took of his belt and folded it in half before bringing it down on Severus, the leather kissing his skin leaving large red marks. Again and again the belt came down for nearly five full minutes before his father got tired of it. The man kicked him once knocking him to the ground as he tried to get up and moved into the living room. Severus lay on the floor not moving, his back and sides bleeding but James didn't dare move from his spot on the stairs in fear that his father would come back and take his anger out on Severus once again. He could tell the boy couldn't take anymore.
After a few moments Severus got up off the floor and slowly made his way to the stairs. James was startled as Samara came up next to him, looking through the bars on the banister at her brother. Tears formed in her eyes. She understood what had happened. James didn't. It all happened so fast that.... why had Severus gone downstairs to confront his father? Why didn't he stay upstairs? He turned Samara's face away from her brother and lead her back to her room. She surprisingly trusted him enough to tuck her back into bed before he moved back into the hall. Severus made it back to the top of the stairs and was moving back towards the bedroom.
"Severus?" He asked wanting to help him. Severus held up his hand to stop him and moved into the bedroom. James followed him. "Severus..."
"Just go to sleep James. Where's Samara?" He asked.
"She's in her room." He started to say but a small sniff from behind him startled him. He turned and saw Samara standing in the open door way. She had her hand in her mouth and she was crying. Severus held his hand out to her and she ran to the bed. She jumped up on it and hugged him. He hissed slightly as she hit the open gashes on his back but didn't say anything to stop her. James felt awkward standing in the bedroom while this was going on. It was... he didn't belong there.
Samara moved away from him and laid down on the bed next to him. Severus smiled at her sadly.
"Go to sleep James." He said before he laid down next to his sister. James stood awkwardly shifting his feet a few moments before he laid back down on his blanked on the floor. Was this normal for him that he could just take it and deal with it so easily?
Either way Severus wasn't inclined to talk about it.
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
The next morning James woke up neither Severus or Samara where in the room. He moved slowly out of the room poking his head out the door to make sure that Snape's father wasn't there. Seeing the hallway free he moved downstairs hearing Snape's voice. He moved into the kitchen and saw Severus sitting at the table with his sister. There was a bag with a container of milk in it and a box of cereal. He watched as Severus poured some into a bowl, put some milk into it, washed a spoon and gave it to his sister, repeating the same for himself.
As Severus sat down he noticed James standing in the door way and slid the box towards him. He poured himself a bowl and stood by the counter like Severus had the night before.
"Thanks." He said. He could tell that Severus wasn't leaning against the back of his chair, and he didn't blame him. He heard foot steps on the stairs and froze. Severus' father came into the kitchen rubbing his temples. He paused and looked at James.
"Who's this?" He asked Severus.
"He's a friend from School. We have a project we have to work on over the summer so he'll be staying the weekend here." He said.
"Mmm.... don't make a habbit of it." Tobias said as he moved to the fridge a moment before slamming it shut again. James watched him completely confused. This man was nothing like the one that had come in the night before. "So what's this project you have to do?" He asked. Severus took a bite of his cereal and pushed the box and the milk towards his father.
"There's a list of things we need to do or questions we need to answer." He said showing his dad the card that he had been looking over before James had come into the room. His father looked over the card and sneered.
"Looks like nothing but an invasion of privacy if you ask me." He said tossing the card back down. "Tell you're partner a secret huh?" He asked. "What you tell him?"
"Nothing yet... that's why it's not crossed off." He said.
"Why don't you just cross them off yourselves." He asked. James chose then to pipe up.
"It's magically crossed off on it's own when the task is done. They also add to the card through out the summer so we don't really know what we'll end up having to do." He tossed down the card as if he had been burned.
"Eh.... probably wind up having to fuck each other. Final exam?" His father laughed. James' face turned a scarlet red and Severus didn't react at all. "Here's a secret for your little card game, little shit here's a fag." Severus once again didn't react as he finished eating and washed out his bowl. The man sat down in the chair where Severus had been sitting next to Samara and James saw her physically shrink in her chair and try to move away.
She was terrified of him. Something told James that her father did more than beat her. He shifted uncomfortably. Loosing his apatite he placed the bowl in the sink.
"Wanna go over to my place and work on this for a while?" He asked. Severus looked down at Samara before looking at his father.
"I'm taking Samara out for a while okay?" He said more than asked. Tobias shook his head.
"No... she stays here with me." Severus could see the panic in her eyes.
"Dad I haven't seen her all year, I want to spend some time with her." He said. Tobias looked at him before looking Severus up and down.
"Didn't know you where into that shit kid, but fine..." He said moving so that Samara could get away from the table. She ran straight for Severus. "Make sure she's home before I get back." James saw Severus physically shiver at that comment. He knew why Tobias wanted Samara home and it made him sick.
He quickly ushered both James and Samara upstairs to get dressed. "Can we just floo to your place from here?" Severus asked. James nodded.
"Yeah... the faster we get out of here the better." James said.
"Just be glad you've only had to deal with it one night." Severus muttered as he got dressed. He checked in on Samara and helped her finish getting dressed before they made their way to another room.
"This is my mothers room." It was dusty but it looked like nothing had been touched in years. "My father refused to sleep in the same room as her after he found out she was a witch. It's the only room in the house that contains any magical items in it... my father is too scared to come in here scared he might hex himself on something." He laughed and moved to the chimney.
It wasn't long before they arrived at James house. "You're parents won't be mad that we're... or you're here early? Or that we're here?" He asked suddenly realizing that he didn't even ask James if it was okay if Samara come. Though he doubted James would have said no after what he had seen.
"No. They won't care." He said as he moved into the house. It wasn't long before they found his parents who had greeted their son with open arms. Severus couldn't count the times he wished he had parents like that. Who would even acknowledge his presence for something other than something that would profit them.
"And who is this strapping young man and this fine young girl?" James father asked. James turned to Severus and his sister and introduced them both and explained why they where there. "Well it's nice to have you here. I'm sure some change in here will be greatly welcomed."
"Hey is it okay if Severus stayed tonight?" He asked.
"I have to get my sister back tonight." Severus said though clearly was not happy about it.
"You guys aren't going back there. At least not tonight." He said. "Dad can I talk to you a moment in private?" He asked. Severus didn't like the look of this as James and his father left the room.
((An.... Poor Sevy.... Poor Samara.... but.... more to come.... what does James have planned? Find out in the next chapter.... hopefully))
