Lily rushes through the door still holding onto Sev's hand, tugging him along behind her, "Mum?!" She called out.
Her mother emerges from the kitchen still wearing an apron with a tea towel in her hands "Lily you're back early, what's wrong dear?" she asks, looking at her with concern.
"It's Severus, I think he's hurt" she blurts out stepping aside to reveal her exhausted friend.
Her eyes follow Lily to where her friend's stood huddled by the front door looking down uncomfortably and trying to make himself look as small as possible. She looks him up and down before making a decision and approaches him, her kindly face etched with concern "I see, come on dear let's get you into the front room so we can have a look at you" she says reaching out.
"It's alright, you don't have to really" he says quietly trying to object, keeping his eyes fixed on the floor.
"Nonsense, come on dear it's going to be alright" she reassures him, putting a hand out towards his back to comfort him and steer him in the right direction noting with concern how he flinches away from her. Being unused to physical contact being a positive thing he has come to associate adults touching him with his father and the promise of being beaten within an inch of his life.
She leads him over to the sofa before helping him up and carefully sitting him sideways on her lap "let's see, we'd best get this jacket off first so we can have a good look at you"
"No please, I can't let anyone see, he'll kill me" he pleads in a voice barely more than a whisper, feeling mortified at the idea of allowing someone to see the way his father treats him. He clamps a hand over his mouth as he realises what he's just admitted and looks up at her fearfully.
"Hush it's alright you're safe here I won't let anyone hurt you. I'm sorry if it makes you feel uncomfortable, but I need to see what I'm dealing with so I can make it better" she tells him gently.
"You won't judge me?" he asks nervously.
"No, of course not dear, I just want to help you" she reassures him.
"You won't tell anyone? I'll get in trouble if he thinks I've been blabbing"
"I'll make sure you don't get in trouble"
He risks glancing up at her and senses she means it, maybe he can trust her, he lets out a sigh of relief "ok" he nods and reluctantly allows her to slide his jacket off.
She looks down at the back of his shirt. It's already more discoloured than the front and covered in dark, wet stains, which she assumes must be blood. She notes how grubby he looks, all his clothes look faded or discoloured as though they're old and well used and haven't been washed recently.
She notices Lily watching her with concern from the other end of the sofa "Lily would you be a dear and fetch me some things? Can you get me a clean cloth and a nice soft towel and I'll need the first aid kit" she looks up at her glancing worriedly at her friend, then nods before lowering herself from the sofa "oh and can you stick some warm water in a bucket and see if you can find one of your Dad's old shirts for me, thanks dear" she says smiling appreciatively at her daughter.
She waits until she's disappeared before turning her attention back towards Sev, hoping he may feel less embarrassed with Lily out of the room. She helps him unbutton his shirt before turning him so his back is towards her "it's ok" she reassures him "now let's get this shirt off you, it looks like it's stuck so this may hurt a bit. You ready?" he nods, steeling himself "brace yourself dear" she says grimacing as she peels off the offending article away from the dried blood and scabs, cringing as she hears them ripping away.
He jolts forward, trying to resist the urge to cry out as the pain causes his eyes to water as the old sores on his back are broken open again and he feels trickles of blood running down his back. He freezes as he feels soft hands carefully rubbing the unbroken skin on his shoulder "it's alright I'm sorry sweetheart, I know it's not nice, look, we're going to make it all better in a minute" he nods shakily, curling in on himself. He feels so ashamed at someone seeing his bruised body and the way his father treats him, nothing but a pathetic worthless freak that's what he's had ingrained into him. The idea of someone else seeing that makes him feel ready to burst into tears "it's alright" she soothes him, quietly humming an old children's rhyme.
She takes in his back, it's a bloody mess of open sores and raised red welts that look painful and tender with bruising indicating where the old wounds have started to heal only to be covered by more open sores, many look to be infected weeping blood, pus and clear fluid. His arms were also covered in dark bruises with deep lacerations running down them. Her heart aches for this frightened, abused child.
She wonders who could have been so heartless as to have done this to a defenceless child, she doesn't know much about his home life but she has an idea who it might be. Most of her friends and neighbours know his Dad. He's identifiable by the smell of booze coming off of him, he's well known for getting drunk and brawling, and swearing outside the local pub, she can only imagine how he must act towards his family at home.
She decides to take advantage of Lily being out of the room to ask him, hoping he might feel more comfortable opening up without her there to judge him "who did this to you dear, was it your Dad?" she asks him.
He looks up at her fearfully eyes wide with terror, for a minute she thinks he's not going to answer before he nervously nods slightly before looking away tears forming in his eyes.
"I'm sorry, I know you probably don't feel comfortable talking about it, you don't have to talk about it if you don't want to. It's alright, it's going to be ok now" she says, placing a hand gently on his shoulder, feeling tears in her own eyes. He curls himself up tentatively resting his head against her chest, seeking out the reassurance she offers. He feels all the shame and embarrassment of his home life threatening to overwhelm him as he gives in to tears and wants nothing more than just to hide away from the world.
She holds his thin body tight to her as he's wracked with sobs wondering how anyone can treat an innocent child like this. She tries to comfort him by finding some unbroken skin to rub and carefully sticking his shirt back over him so Lily won't see when she comes back in, noting with concern how big the shirt is and how thin and small he looks compared with Lily, so scared and vulnerable
After a few more moments Lily returns with the items "thank you, dear, can you fetch me a glass of water and some paracetamol?" she asks, waiting until she returns with the medicine before mixing some of the tablets into the glass and offering it to him "here drink this dear, it'll help with the pain" she says, he makes a face at the unfamiliar taste but downs it with some encouragement.
She tests the water, satisfied it's not too hot or too cold she swivels him around so she can see his back and dips the cloth into the bucket "Severus I'm going to clean your back, now this may sting a little but it's important to make sure they don't get infected, alright you ready?" he nods bracing himself.
She starts going over his back gently dabbing the sores and wiping away the dirt and dried blood before carefully drying his back with the towel and rubbing some of the alcohol in. He gasps in shock as he feels tears in his eyes from the stinging sensation, he tries not to whimper and jump away "I know it's not pleasant, it's alright nearly done, you're doing very well" she says constantly whispering soothing words to him as she works.
He looks across and sees Lily sitting on the other end of the sofa, she smiles encouragingly at him trying to hide her concern before putting her hand on his. Spurred on by this he tries to put on a brave face and smiles uneasily back through the pain.
She finds the soothing creams and ointments she normally uses and rubs them in well in soothing circular movements and is careful not to put any unnecessary pressure on the sores before wrapping them up with the dressings humming an old children's song as she works. She helps him into the old shirt before allowing him to relax in her arms.
Sev sighs, it feels nice having someone look after him. His Mum always used to heal him with her magic potions, dittany and murtlap essence when he was hurt and his father wasn't around but lately, she'd been so tired that she didn't notice and he felt guilty asking her not wanting to disturb her rest or draw attention to himself or her knowing how unpredictable and violent his father could be. His Mum always seemed so lacklustre when she was treating him as though she'd lost the will to live. This felt different, Lily's Mum was kind and gentle with a warm smile and rosy cheeks, she was able to soothe and reassure him just like he imagined that a mother should.
Up close, he can smell something nice and breathes in the reassuring aroma. She feels warm and smells of cinnamon and something else he can't identify, a homely sweet smell that makes him feel more relaxed like when he'd walk in to find his Mum was baking in the kitchen. Then there was that song, it seemed so familiar but he wasn't sure where he'd heard it before he thought drowsily. He felt so physically and emotionally drained by everything that had happened and it felt so strangely nice and safe to be held like this, he felt like he could just go to sleep right there.
"Shall I go fetch the blanket?" Lily asks softly, noticing him drifting off. Her Mum looks up at her before nodding.
Moments later she rushes back in, passing the blanket up "Mum is he going to be ok?" she asks, looking at her friend with concern.
She sighs, spreading the blanket out so that it covers him before tucking it in around his small body, soothing him as he shivered and whimpered in his sleep. "Come here dear," she said, indicating for her to move up next to her on the sofa and allowing her to snuggle up close before replying.
"It's not that simple. He's been hurt a lot and that leaves scars. Some of those are things that we can see and heal easily like the physical scars but other scars aren't so easy to see or treat, this kind of trauma leaves mental scars, it may take a long time to heal his mind from all the trauma he's been through. You understand?"
Lily absorbs this thoughtfully and nods resting against her "I think so" she looks at her friend worriedly, "he's not going to have to go back there is he?"
Her Mum sighs "I hope not, I'm going to go talk to his Mum in a minute and see if he can stay here for now, at least until he's healed a bit more. Right now I think what he needs is time to rest and recover and a whole lot of love"
"We can give him that can't we? We can make him better and be his family, I think we've got enough love to go round"
She smiles at her daughter's simple statement that so sums up her kind and compassionate nature"yes dear I'm sure we've got more than enough love for all of you, we can heal him and be his family if that's what he wants of course"
"I wish I'd noticed sooner but, he's always so shy and reluctant to show when he's hurt or talk about things at home" she says looking down sadly at her friend.
"I know but you can't blame yourself, I'm sure you've been a good friend to him, he probably didn't want you to know how he was treated at home. The main thing is he's safe now"
She made sure she had a good hold on him before standing up and gently placing him back down on the sofa, sliding a cushion underneath his head. She turns to Lily, "I'm going to go talk to his Mum, I won't be long, can I trust you to look after him while I'm gone?" she asks.
Lily nods solemnly before moving to lie down next to him, embracing her friend protectively as he seeks out the warm comfort of her body. She smiles at her little girl bending down and adjusting the blanket so it's covering them both before stroking each of their hair in turn, noting how greasy his hair feels as she brushes it off his pale face.
Author's Notes:
Thank you as always for all those who have enjoyed and shown their support and muchas gracias por su apoyo to the two people who left their reviews in spanish (you can thank google for the translating). Before I get onto the reviews then I wanted to clarify a few things and answer some of the questions that have popped up.
Firstly I forgot to mention it in the last chapter but the story starts in the summer of 1970. The basis for this is what's mentioned in cannon which tells us that Severus and Lily were both born in January 1960 and started Hogwarts in 1971 and suggests that they met when they were around 9 or 10 years old so working on that basis this gives them a chance to have established a friendship while also giving Sev roughly a year to adjust to a new home and family before starting at Hogwarts.
With regards to the length of the story I think it's going to be roughly the same length as one of my other stories Sev and Harry which is probably my longest story so far. Most of the stories I'm uploading at the minute have already been written and for this story I've already written it up to them being sorted at Hogwarts, after that I've lost a bit of traction so I'll probably try to add some one-shots to it that show important moments in his journey at Hogwarts when I find the time to do so.
Since it's a similar length to Sev and Harry then I was intending to try and post a new chapter once a week but I've managed to make quick progress as it doesn't seem to need as much editing so I might try to add a new chapter at the start and end of the week if possible.
I generally don't tend to do spoilers but in response to one person's comment, it may not be covered directly in the story but I will confirm that Severus is definitely not going to join the Death Eaters in the storyline, oh and I know it may seem a bit upsetting now but without revealing to much things are definitely going to get better for him from here on in.
Next up Mrs Evans meets the Snape's
Reviews:
Raymond 21:
I totally agree with you, it's not entirely clear what happens in his childhood in cannon but it's clearly not a happy childhood, it's not hard to see the implied neglect and imagine him suffering from abuse as well. This combined with the fact that he's clearly not a popular student and is regularly harassed and embarrassed by the Marauders and ends up losing his best friend two times over it's easy to see how he's become the bitter character we see in cannon, it's quite likely that he didn't have anyone to help him heal except Lily and he may well have been too ashamed and embarrassed to share that part of his life with her. Still he's getting a second chance now to have a better life and a loving family who will help him heal.
Maxisaraviamgs:
Thank you for your support, it's always much appreciated. I hope the above answers your questions
PhoebeSmilee:
Thank you, glad you like the idea and yes this is only the start of the changes for Severus and one thing's for certain he's not going to join the Death Eaters
Fredoom89justice:
Thank you I hope you like this installment