Thanks to: LunaAliceMason, Zorba'sdaughter, Tuxy1999, LillieGhoul, Greg, and DesirePassion, and Sev11 for reviewing! Awesome name by the way Greg , short and simple!
On to the next chapter!
Severus stared curiously at the small barn owl fluttering outside the window. It was pecking insistently on the glass, demanding to be let inside. He frowned at it, wondering why on earth the creature had not flown in with the usual morning post.
"So I heard from a few people that all you need to do is tickle the pear and… what are you looking at Severus?" Remus came to a halt when he noticed his friend was distracted. Wordlessly he pointed to the owl. "Isn't that your mum's?"
"Yes, it is" he strode over to the window, opened it, and the bird swooped inside, dropped a small envelope onto the floor in front of him, and with a dignified hoot flapped off to the owlery. Severus bent down to pick it up and ripped open the letter. He read the first line and immediately all the color drained from his face.
"Severus are you alright?" asked Lily, concerned.
"I am fine, I just need to…go. I will see all of you later" with that, Severus calmly down the corridor and disappeared around the corner.
"Well that was strange," Peter commented.
"I think I'm going to check and see if he's okay, you guys go on ahead to the kitchens we'll meet you there" Lily said, worriedly taking off after her best friend.
Severus quickly found himself an empty classroom and sunk to floor in a heap. He glanced down at the letter in his hand, gulped, and forced himself to start again.
My dearest Severus,
I really do not know how to tell you the news, so I think I'll just come out and say it. I kicked your father out. It actually happened several days ago, I was just not sure what to say to you. He has gone out of our lives for good and can never hurt us again. I have warded the house so he can't come near it and am filing for a muggle divorce. It will take some time but I expect it will be done with before you come home from Hogwarts. Please let me know how you feel about all of this. We'll get through this, but know no matter what happens I will always love you Severus.
Mum
Severus stared blankly at the bottom of the parchment. His father was gone. He was gone and would never be coming back. A whirlwind of emotions was raging inside of him and he was too shocked to do anything but sit and stare at the wall. He took a few calming breaths and tried to make sense of the storm of feelings. He felt happy but also conflicted, drained, and nervous. But most of all he felt immensely relieved, as if an enormous burden had been lifted of his shoulders. He had not been afraid of his father for many years, only harbored an immeasurable amount of hate for the man. But he could not pretend that he hadn't been scared to face him after decades of coping with horrible memories of abuse from him. For all his confidence, deep inside he had been terrified that once he faced his father he would once again turn into the scared little boy who hid in his closet to avoid a beating. He involuntarily shuddered and clutched the paper closer. But his mother had taken care of that, had taken care of him. He didn't know why she was different this time, but he felt tears of complete and utter relief fill up his eyes. He jumped when there was a soft knock at the door and the door opened to reveal a very concerned looking Lily. Her beautiful green eyes were so worried and full of love, love that he never thought to see directed at him again, that a wave of raw emotion swept over him and the tears escaped, pouring down his face.
"Oh Severus," she said softly, closing the distance between them and wrapping her arms around him. Severus clutched her tightly and wept into her shoulder as she hummed quietly, rubbing his back. When Severus finally cried himself out Lily lifted his head up and gazed into his dark eyes.
"What happened Sev?" Lily had never seen her best friend cry like that, and knew something big had happened to him. Severus was never the emotional type, preferring to keep his emotions bottled up even to her.
"My father is gone" he said, his voice hoarse. "My mother kicked him out."
"Sev, that's a good thing isn't it?" she said hesitantly. "He was not a good man, and or a good father to you."
"I know… I am glad he's gone. I never want to see his face again. I just... it's hard to explain."
"Try to, I'm here for you Sev" she said. His lips twitched up in a small smile.
"I never thought he would actually… be gone. He was always there looming over my shoulder, and I got used to the threat of violence and humiliation. I lived with it every day of my life, and it changes you Lily. You're not… free. But he's gone now, that threat is gone, and I can't even describe what that feels like. I can really start my life now."
Lily beamed at Severus. The look of utter bliss and freedom on her friend's face was heartbreaking and she resolved then and there to help him make his new life the best it could be. She rushed over to him and pulled him into one of her famous hugs. Severus sighed into her fiery hair and gently hugged her back.
Neither one noticed the disillusioned headmaster stroll away from his place at the door.
After receiving the letter from his mother the months flew by for Severus. He chose not to reveal what it said to his other friends, feeling it wasn't necessary to tell them about such a horrible part of his past. He really didn't want to talk about it anymore, just move on with his life.
The springtime was gone a flash and the school was buzzing in anticipation of summer break. However they had to get over the gigantic obstacle that was the end of year exams. The library was bursting with students desperately wading through the sea of homework assigned in response to the approaching finals. It seemed every first year was high strung except for those who didn't care one bit and Severus. Severus Snape was a master potioneer, legilimens, death eater, and spy. He could hand first year finals, so he sat back and amused himself with watching his fellow first year Gryffindors suffer. Peter, Lyra, Remus, Lily and himself were all situated around the fire in the Gryffindor. Peter and Lily were seated on the couch working furiously on the transfiguration essay McGonagall assigned, while Remus and Lyra were once again laying the floor and quizzing each other on charms.
"I have never understood why the two of you feel it is necessary to sit on the floor. Care to enlighten me?" he asked lazily. The pair looked up from their textbooks and after glancing at each other gave him an offended look.
"We happen to like the floor Severus" Remus said indignantly.
"It is very comfortable, and you are missing out on the wonderful things associated with floors" Lyra added.
"Such as?"
"Closer proximity to the roaring fire, we never have to wait for someone to get out of our seat, the carpet is actually a very nice plush one, and maybe we we're just weird that way," Lyra stated. Remus nodded in agreement and went back to his textbook. Severus snorted. Lyra glared at him and threw her quill at his face so it bounced off his large nose. Remus snickered.
"That is absolutely hilarious," Severus growled, rubbing ink off his face.
"Yes it was wasn't it?" Lyra smirked. Severus opened his mouth to retaliate when the portrait hole opened to admit a near hysterical James Potter and Sirius Black. James was laughing so hard he didn't notice the venomous look Severus gave him when he collapsed onto the arm of the armchair Severus was sitting in.
"That was great Sirius, we need to do that again!" he almost shouted.
"I think I may vomit if I hear more of your moronic nonsense Potter, now if you would be so kind as to get off my chair?" Severs spat at his old enemy.
"Take it easy Severus I'm getting off," James retorted. "Hey, mind if you look at my Potions essay genius boy? I think I messed up in a few places" James asked.
Severus grimaced. "Your repeated use of that ridiculous nickname is not going to persuade me to help you."
"Alright, sorry, can you look at it?"
"You'll owe me a favor Potter, and when I come to collect you better do what I ask."
"Deal!" James declared, pulling the essay out of his bag and handing it Severus, oblivious to the mischievous intent of his fellow Gryffindor.
"I'll get it back to you by dinner," Severus said dismissively, turning away. James nodded and trotted back to Sirius who was talking to a group of second year boys.
"I know that look," Remus said eyeing him. "What have you got planned?"
"I have no idea what you are talking about," Severus replied innocently, dipping his quill into some red ink to correct James's mistakes.
"You would have made a great Slytherin Severus, you're so sneaky. You have got to let me in on this" Lyra pleaded.
Severus smirked again, wondering what she would say if he told her he had actually been a Slytherin. "I think I'll make this one a surprise." Lily just rolled her eyes at him and continued with her essay.
The next morning Peter and Severus woke much earlier than their housemates. Severus had kept his promise the Peter and had been tutoring him for several weeks. Initially it was beyond frustrating and he had nearly given up on the whole thing, but he knew if Peter could just learn to stand up for himself, and rely on his own skill and knowledge he might not be inclined to join Voldemort later in life. He may even become a decent person instead of the groveling, hero worshiping, pathetic man he had been before. So far he had successfully taught Peter the obscuro spell, which blindfolded your opponent. He thought this would be useful for him since he could easily blindfold Peeves and run away so the poltergeist wouldn't be able to follow.
Severus led Peter into yet another abandoned classroom. For a moment he wondered why on earth there were so many of these in Hogwarts, but mentally shrugged. It fit his purposes just fine. He quickly cast a silencing charm around the room to make sure they wouldn't make any noise and turned back to Peter. Inwardly he prepared himself, it had taken two months for Peter to master the obscuro spell, it could take just as long for him to master the one he was about to teach him.
"Okay Peter, before we move on to the next spell cast obscuro again. I want to make sure you still understand the technique." He nodded and shouted out the spell, pointing his wand at Severus. Immediately a dark blindfold appeared over Severus's eyes. He vanished it before nodding in approval at Peter.
"That was great Peter, you're doing well" he praised. Peter beamed at the compliment. "We'll now move on to the "Tornare" spell. Have you heard of it before?"
"Err… no," Peter said nervously.
"If an object is coming towards you, it will send it back to its source. So if Peeves throws something at you, and you cast this spell, it will get thrown right back at him. Now the correct wave movement is like this…"
Severus showed him how to do the wand movement, which was to make a slashing motion from the right to the left.
"Imagine that there's a box in front of you. Now put your wand in the top right hand corner and slash it diagonally to the bottom left one," Severus instructed. Peter did it a few times.
"Good, you're doing exactly right. Now I'm going to start throwing pillows at you and I want you to cast the spell as fast as you can before it hits you."
With that, Severus levitated a cushion from the ground and sent it hurtling towards Peter. He let out a squeak and ducked, but was too slow and it hit him in the face.
"Try actually casting the spell Peter. It might help," Severus said sarcastically.
"Right, sorry," he said blushing. Severus continued to throw pillows at Peter, and although it was entertaining to watch the small boy get hit in the face he was disappointed that his unexpected pupil wasn't getting the spell.
"Okay, let's try something else," Severus said slightly disappointed "How about I levitate them towards you slowly and…"
"No!" Peter suddenly said forcefully. Surprised, he raised an eyebrow at him. He looked sheepish for a moment before replying.
"I need to get this Severus, don't let up on me. All the other teachers make things easier for me and they don't think I can do anything. You're… really the only teacher I have that hasn't already given up on me."
Despite himself, Severus felt rather touched by this revelation. He merely nodded however, and continued hurtling pillows at Peter who had a new look of determination on his face. After three tries Severus once again sent the cushion towards Peter who cried "Tornare!" and sent it flying back at Severus, hitting him in the stomach. He let out a loud grunt and gave him one of his rare smiles.
"Well done! Let's see if you can do it again" he told Peter, who was jumping up and down in excitement. Snorting at his behavior, he began throwing pillows at him again and by the time they were finished Peter had cast the spell correctly eight times. Feeling rather proud of his friend, Severus patted him on the back before heading off to the library to meet Lily.
Hope you liked it! I just want to take a moment to explain Snape's reaction to the news. Severus is a very strong person, but I do believe that since he had such a traumatic experience with the abuse he got from his father, he would have reacted that way. I don't see Snape as someone who would confront his abuse, and he had it festering inside of him for years. Before I think he would have been too closed off to discuss anything like this with Lily, or anyone, and the news that Tobias was out of his life for good set him off. He finally released all those emotions that had been building up in him, or they would have continued to be bottled up.
Review, review, review!
