DISCLAIMER: Don't own. Regretfully. Only own the characters I make up.

Snape was sitting on a chair, eagerly waiting to be sorted into his house. He wanted to be in Slytherin but he wouldn't care if he were sorted into Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw. Gryffindor, on the other hand was his worst nightmare. His mother, Eileen Prince had told him that Gryffindors were a bunch of foolhardy cowards whose energy source came from the constant adrenaline rush. Besides there was that boy on the train, named James who was with another boy named Sirius. Those two had mocked him for wanting to be in Slytherin. Obvious Gryffindors.

"Difficult, very difficult. You have a lot of courage, yet you seem quite intelligent. I don't know where to put you," The Sorting Hat whispered, only intending for Severus to hear.

The Sorting Hat was taking forever with its decision, while staying silent. Severus was beginning to worry that he wouldn't be sorted. After what seemed like ten minutes, the hat shouted out,

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Severus Snape woke up with a jolt, panting at his dream. Today he was returning Hogwarts for his "first year" and that meant he would have to be sorted again. After all he had been through, Severus wasn't sure if he was going to be put in Slytherin and he did not want to be reminded constantly of the torture James had caused him. Severus would NOT be a Gryffindor. What about Lily? He thought to himself, contemplating where she would be sorted, I don't want her to be with James, that arrogant brat but I'd much rather eat myself than be with him! None of the Marauders were decent people, they made my Hogwarts life hell. All because I loved Lily. She was the first person to truly care about me other than my Mum. Tobias (I refuse to call him my dad,) treats me no better than he would treat a piece of shit.

"Get up you lousy piece of shit," Tobias Snape yelled, his voice irritating the blanket of silence that had covered the room. Severus had quite liked the silence. "It's past nine-thirty, you need to make me breakfast!"

Groaning, Severus got out of his bed and took of his pale blue pyjamas. He must have fallen asleep after coming back to this life. Severus replaced the oversized pyjamas with ill-fitting jeans, a black smock and a white shirt. Tobias was known for being a drunk and often would use the limited income that he made to buy booze. While he was drunk, Tobias would beat on Eileen, but Severus remembered how he would take the beating for his mother, protective of the only one he loved.

Severus knew better than to ignore his father, he was a scrawny eleven year old who was underweight, due to the fact that his father or mother couldn't afford food. On average, he only had fulfilling meal a day. A fulfilling meal was what you got after you added up all the food eaten at each meal in the Snape household.

Tobias was a tall man who could easily beat up Severus in a battle. Though, in Severus' later years, he could have conquered his father easily, mostly due to the dance being an alcoholic had wreaked on Tobias's body. No child should ever be afraid of their own father, Severus thought to himself, remembering when he was the head of Slytherin and noticed several abused students. He seemed to have an eye for them, being one himself. When he had first become the head of Slytherin, his first year in that position, he saw a seventh year girl, Emily Samosa, with bruises on her neck and cheeks. She had tried to cover it up with muggle makeup and did a fairly decent job, but Severus noticed the ominous purple lurking beneath the foundation. He secretly ran a diagnostic spell on her and found several broken ribs, a broken left ulna, infected lash marks on her back and worst of all, she had been pregnant. That night, Severus had Emily in private and she secretly confessed everything, how her father beat her when he was drunk. Emily was sobbing almost too hard to be heard when she said that her father had raped her. Severus, who could easily relate (to the physical abuse), told Dumbledore who didn't believe him. Emily had to go back to her father, while her child was put up for adoption that summer. The next year when Emily hadn't returned, Snape had learned from Dumbledore that Emily had killed herself after a fairly violent beating from her Dad.

That had been the first time Severus had cried in years. He had failed one of his snakes. Her father wasn't even charged with sexual assault.

"Get over here you lazy-ass git," Tobias yelled, expecting his only son to make him a quality breakfast. He had a little too much to drink the previous night and was slightly hungover to his dismay. Tobias's head was pounding and he just wanted his lazy son to provide him a meal, yet Severus had taken over five minutes in his room. Clearly he wasn't respecting Tobias.

Severus ran out of his room, nearly tripping over his own feet, not noticing the larger figure sneaking up towards him. Before Severus knew it, he was laying on the ground, on his back. Tobias had kicked him in the stomach. "Get up!" Tobias yelled in a tone that could be heard halfway across the world. Severus attempted to sit up, but another kick to his ribs prevented him from doing just that. Tobias continued kicking his son in the ribs again and again, not caring if he broke something. His son would probably tell all of his freakish friends anyways.

Severus's eyes stinged with tears. He had heard cracking in his chest, he was certain that Tobias had broken no fewer than four ribs. Severus put his left hand in front of his ribs, but his father kicked that, breaking the radial bone. Finally Tobias showed mercy and stopped beating his son, who was barely breathing and stormed out of the house, going to the nearest place for breakfast.

Severus whimpered as blood pooled out of his wounds, he was in a lot of pain but refused to let it show. He could hardly breathe, let alone get up, so he lay there as a familiar nauseous feeling irked his stomach. The nausea was nothing compared to his arm. The bone was sticking out of his left arm, and probably was broken in multiple places.

"Severus my dear. I'm so sorry. I have your stuff in a trunk, we're gonna side-by-side apparate to Kings Crossing," Eileen said in a comforting voice, stroking the bloodstained hair of her child. She hated Tobias, but knew that he would murder her if she dared to run away.

Severus whimpered again as his stomach gave a lurch. He weakly vomited onto the floor beside him, blood mixed in with the stomach acid. He began to cry, his father was going to beat him even more for making a mess. "It's okay Severus. Scourgify. Episky." Eileen whispered, cleaning up the blood and vomit while fixing the broken bones. She summoned a calming draught and a blood replenisher and gave it to her child who quickly drank it up.

Severus felt better as the calming draught entered his system, making him feel a lot better. He took another potion that tasted like copper (the blood replenisher) while his mother healed the cuts on his body. Soon enough, his clothes were clean from all of the blood and Eileen had Severus's trunk in her hand. Severus held onto Eileen's hand as she apparated.

"Listen Severus. I promise you that I will find a way to escape your father. What he did to you was unacceptable and you didn't deserve it at all. In the meantime, I hope you make friends that you'll have for life. I already know you're friends with that Evans's girl, Lillian? Anyways, your father will not be here to hurt you. I better go before he realizes that I took you," Eileen whispered, her eyes showing a flicker of remorse, hoping her son would not be alone this time.

Severus knew this hadn't happened the first time around. He had woken up early enough to escape the wrath of his father and had made Tobias breakfast which he had criticized no fewer than ten times. Then he and his mother had flooded to Kings Crossing and his mother hadn't said anything to him. Maybe this time will be better, Severus thought.

After changing into his robes and the run-in with Potter and Black, Snape made a new decision and decided to sit in a compartment with a younger Remus Lupin. Lupin was asleep, so Severus began to cry. He couldn't believe that he was getting a second chance, a chance to make it right. He could save Lily from that good-for-nothing James Potter. He might be able to stop the second war and the fact that he had to kill Dumbledore for his godson.

"What's wrong? I'm Remus Lupin by the way?" Remus asked, wondering why the boy was crying. He had vampire-like skin and dark circles under his eyes, not unlike his own after a particularly bad transformation. Maybe he had found another werewolf. Perhaps he wouldn't be an outcast at this school, after all.

Severus was at a loss for words. The younger Lupin, before being influenced by the Marauders, actually cared about him. Before, Remus had been more of the brains in the group, the one that gave Potter and Black the logic behind their good ideas.

"Come on now, it's okay. I know some people have to go through hard things," Remus whispered, now sitting by the boy and stroking the long, luscious, soft, and black hair. He was surprised at how soft it was, Remus had thought it would be all weird and greasy feeling. It looked greasy.

Severus realized that Remus would be able to help him, perhaps give him a temporary home, breaking down walls Severus himself made. Maybe this time around, Hogwarts would be a home to Severus, "M-my D-dad got r-really m-mad at m-me," Severus stuttered, while Remus gave him a confused look, wondering why the anger of the crying boy's dad would cause him to be upset. He saw the trunk and noticed that it read Severus Snape, which Remus assumed was the boys name. "Come on Severus, you can tell me. No matter how hard it may seem, you can tell me. Consider me your friend."

Severus paused mid-sob and looked into the pale green eyes of Remus with his obsidian black ones. He was baffled why the werewolf would know his name, but knew that his trunk had it on. Why did Remus want to be his friend? Perhaps Remus was desperate for friends. It couldn't hurt Severus to tell the truth to Remus, despite the obvious fact that Tobias had told Severus that if he let it slip that he was abused, Severus would receive the worst beating of his life. Yet, Severus knew that telling Remus couldn't hurt him, after all, muggles couldn't get into Hogwarts. They only saw an abandoned building. Severus spoke quietly, yet more confidently than he had the first time, "My Dad beat me up before I got here. He broke four of my ribs and my radial bone. Then some people named James and Sirius made fun of me because I wanted to be in Slytherin. They said that only evil wizards join Slytherin and that Gryffindor was the best house. Then they proceeded to call me Snivellus."

Remus realized how serious Severus was, and hugged him, noticing how thin he was. Severus hugged Remus back and wiped his eyes on the sleeves of too-big robes. "Count me out. I thought they looked nice, they even offered to let me join the compartment, before you came in. I just needed to sleep, I've been sick. Don't worry, I'm not contagious. Besides, you don't seem like a Slytherin. I think you might be a Ravenclaw, just like me," Remus whispered, the melodious voice of the werewolf filling the room.

For the first time, Severus thought Remus could be right.

(A/N: I don't think Tobias Snape was physically abusive, but for storytelling purposes, he is.)l