A/N: I don't own Harry Potter or any related characters

This is for the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Fantasy February Day Ten When putting your favourite condiment on a sandwich, you accidentally make a magical occult symbol and summon a demon.

Assignment #3 First Aid - Task #2: Call an emergency medical service: Write about needing help.

Warning: Child abuse, mention of murder.

Word Count: 1573

Severus slid the chair over to the cabinet. His mum always put the good stuff on the top shelf where she thought he couldn't reach it. She was wrong, of course. Even at nine, Severus was very clever. He climbed onto the chair and opened the cabinet door, pausing to see if he could hear his father moving around.

Once he was sure his father was still sleeping off last night, Severus started rummaging through the cabinet until he found it. Chocolate sauce! He scrambled down and walked over to the table where the rest of his sandwich was laying open faced. He'd already put the marshmallows on it and the peanut butter.

The chocolate sauce was the last ingredient. Severus loved this sandwich, not that any reasonable adult would consider it a lunch or even food. Sometimes, Severus was glad his father never woke before noon. Until then, he was free to fend for himself. That was if his mum had had time to buy the groceries between her shifts working at the restaurant.

He started pouring the sauce over the sandwich, making fancy lines crisscrossing on top of the marshmallows. He hadn't had the mini ones so he'd been forced to use the large ones. He'd cut them each in half so they'd fit better. Once he was sure he'd crossed every marshmallow, he made a circle around the rim of the bread. He smiled completing it.

This would be the perfect sandwich! He closed it and smushed it slightly before climbing back up onto the chair and putting the sauce where he'd found it. It would do him no good to accidentally leave it out and get caught. He'd closed the cabinet door and was turning around when he heard a giggle. He spun so fast he lost his balance.

Instead of falling and hitting the floor, Severus found he was hovering slightly in the air. He slowly put his feet down, touching them to the linolum floor. There was a girl sitting on the table, watching him. She had long brown curly hair, tanned skin, and was wearing a uniform similar to what Severus had seen the girls at school wearing. She also had a pair of small horns on top of her head.

"Who are you? How'd you get in here?" he asked, keeping his voice low.

"You summoned me, silly," she laughed.

"Summoned you?" he asked, staring at her. How did one summon a person? Was she a person? She had horns, what did that make her?

"You made my sign in the sauce on your sandwich, it's a fairly simple demon summoning spell. You're a little younger than I expected though?" she said, wrinkling her nose a little.

"I wasn't trying to summon you. I was just making my sandwich with the wrong marshmallows," he explained.

"Oh. So you don't need me for anything?" she asked, flashing him a smile. For a moment, Severus wasn't sure what to do. It seemed rude to tell her to leave, he had invited her here apparently, even if it had been an accident.

Severus stared at her. She seemed young, maybe his age, if she were a human.

"You like marshmallow, peanut butter and chocolate sandwiches?" he asked after a moment.

"I've never tried one."

Severus grabbed the knife he'd used to cut the marshmallows and sliced the sandwich in half.

"Here, try some," he offered. She took a bite before breaking out a in a huge smile.

"S'good," she said, her mouth sticking together from the peanut butter.

"I'm glad you like it. I'm Severus."

"Hermione, well, it's close enough to my demon name. Humans can never pronounce them correctly," Hermione explained.

"Since I summoned you, does that mean you have to stay here until I tell you to leave?" he asked, trying to remember what he'd heard about demons. There wasn't a lot.

"That's usually how it works," Hermione answered, taking another bite of the sandwich.

"My father's not going wake up for another few hours, want to play chess? Do you know how to play chess?"

"I do, but I warn you, I'm really good at it."

"So am I," Severus boasted, grabbing the chess set he'd managed to buy second hand at a rummage sale. It had been missing a few pieces, but he'd found substitutes for them. Hermione watched him setting up the board.

"Do you want to be black or white?"

"White, I like going first," she answered as they started playing. They played three games, with Severus winning one of them. They were about to start a fourth one when Severus heard his father waking up.

"You should leave. He's usually pretty mean when he first wakes up," Severus said, glancing at the doorway.

"He's mean to you? That's not very nice."

"No, but he's my father. Um, Hermione? I had a lot of fun today, do you think, maybe you could come back? I've got some other board games we could play. I don't think I could make the same design on my sandwich though..."

"I don't have to be summoned to go somewhere," Hermione answered, pulling a bright teal colored stone from her pocket. She reached over and pressed it into Severus' hand.

"If you need me, for anything, just hold it and think of me and I'll come," she stated. Severus nodded, sliding it into his pocket. They could both hear Severus' father throwing things around the living room.

"You need to go," Severus whispered. Hermione nodded, slowly becoming transparent until she was gone entirely. Severus sighed in relief. If his father had seen her, who knows what would have happened. At least now, she was safe.

DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

"You little freak!"

Severus felt his father's hand grip his arm and yank him backwards. It hadn't been his fault! He hadn't known he was magical. Sure there had been a few strange things, things that were getting more and more common as he approached his eleventh birthday. It was about three weeks away. The final straw had been the owl with the letter.

"You're not going to that school, boy. You're going to stay here and take care of my. God knows your mother was useless, giving up her magic. She could have made us rich, maybe it's a good thing she's dead then?" Tobias Snape yelled, slamming Severus against the wall. He felt his nose pop. He was sure it was broken. Severus' mother had died right about the time he got his letter. She'd fallen down the stairs. Severus was sure his father had pushed her. There was no proof though. Severus clenched his hands into fists. He knew he couldn't fight. Last time he'd tried, last time he'd ended up in a coma. His father had told everyone it had been a car crash.

"Now use your magic and make money appear," he ordered. Severus shook his head. He had no idea how to that.

"I'm waiting, freak!"

When Severus couldn't do it again, Tobias grabbed him, throwing him to the ground. Severus' head nearly hit his bed. Once he was on the floor, he tried to crawl under it. Tobias grabbed his ankle, pulling him backwards. Severus reached under the bed, trying to grab anything to anchor himself.

His hand wrapped around something roundish and cold. He looked. It was the stone Hermione had given him a year and half ago. He'd lost it a few days after she'd given it to him. Now, now he'd found it. He curled his long fingers around it, thinking about her, about how he needed to escape. The room filled with a bright light.

"Unhand him you moral!" a girl's voice screamed. Severus felt his father release his ankle, heard his father scream in pain. He crawled out from under the bed. Hermione was standing over his father, a large sword in her small hands. There was a puddle of blood on the floor. The blade of the sword caught the light and shone red

"Hermione! You came!"

"You summoned me," she said, glaring at Tobias. "You needed my help."

"Thank you," Severus whispered. "Thank you."

"He's dead, I'm really hoping that's what you wanted?" she asked, cleaning off the sword and sliding it into a hilt on her belt.

"I... I just wanted to escape," Severus admitted.

"You're free now, from him at least. What are you going to do now?"

"I got accepted to a school, for wizards. I'm going to go there, maybe they can help me?"

"I know they can, want me to come with? I'm kind of bored with the whole Hell scene anyway," Hermione said. "Besides, you look like you could use a friend, even if it's one you haven't spoken to in a year and a half?"

"I lost the stone! I even tried to recreate the pattern on the sandwich, but it never worked."

"I'm here now, Severus, and I think, I'm going to be staying a bit. Any chance you have marshmallows, peanut butter and chocolate sauce? I'm famished!"

"What about-" Severus went to gesture to his father's body, only to find it gone and not a trace it had been there a moment ago.

"Taken care of. Sandwich?"

Severus nodded, leading Hermione to the kitchen, glad they'd been out of mini marshmallows a year and a half ago. With her in his life, maybe it would finally turn around.