(A/N: I don't really need to say "Minerva stepped into the room" every time I have a sequence from Severus's summer, do I? You'll be able to figure it out on your own, right? I hope so, because it's too tiring to keep saying that, and it's boring for the reader, too.)

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He had awoken a few hours after the punishment. He was still in the living room, red on the carpets all around him. His father would clean that up soon enough.

Wincing, he tried to stand up. No luck. There was no possible way he would be able to walk upstairs. He began to crawl slowly out of the room. Every so often he had to stop and take a break, because of the pain. He finally reached the stares, and anger flared up within him at the fact that he had to crawl on his hands and knees when other children just had to go to their rooms.

Sighing, he crawled up the stairs, painfully. Every time his climbed a step, his back burned like fire.

He reached the top and felt a single drop of blood trickle down his back. It was almost a comfort to feel them blood. If he bled it meant he was still alive.

He pushed his door open and stood up just long enough to lock the door. He fell to the floor with a dull thump. He crawled over to a small pile of soft pillows he kept on the floor of his closet where he slept when the punishments were this bad. He pulled the door of his closet shut and brought a soft blanket over his bare skin. He was tired, but he couldn't sleep.

It's not fair. He thought. He should at least give them time to heal. They never get better, reopened whenever I get in his way.

He almost shrugged, but stopped himself. That would hurt.

Well, not all the time. He doesn't always use the whip… there was the time he pushed me down the stairs. Rickety, indeed.

~Minerva shook her head. He HAD fallen down the stairs, though not out of clumsiness, as he had led her to believe.~

Or when he locked me in the storm cellar for two months. That wasn't so bad, except that I didn't have any food. I didn't like having to eat the rats.

He shuddered at the memory.

The worst was probably when he almost strangled me… well, I almost died anyways. He did chicken out at the last minute. It was painful to breath again after that… there were fingerprints on my neck for weeks.

~Minerva saw a flash of a memory. A pain so intense that screamed were impossible. A looming father laughing while he son writhed on the ground in a seething pain.~

Crucio… he thought.

He stared blankly for a while, and eventually blessed sleep took him as far away from his home as he would get that summer.

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Weeks passed. Severus wouldn't talk to the teachers, but he did seem to open up, at least a little, to James Potter. The boy visited Severus daily.

Albus had walked into the Hospital Wing only a day or so after the students had learned of Severus's family situation. He saw that James Potter was visiting, and he stepped into the waiting room, listening in without trying to.

"I don't want to talk about Father." He heard Severus say.

"But, Sev, maybe I can help! How often does he hit you?"

"Hit me? He hasn't hit me in ages. That's kiddy stuff, I haven't been hit since I was seven."

"Oh Sev, you know what I mean. How often does he hurt you?"

"Its not so bad… usually it hurts after. And he isn't always so severe."

"That's not what I think." James had crossed his arms stubbornly.

"What do you know!?!"

"I know that you've passed out twice at school due to long, bloody gashes that just seem to appear on you after every holiday!"

Severus only sighed.

"C'mon Sev. You can tell me! I'm your friend."

"I suppose… well, he only punishes me when I do thinks that are wrong."

"What are you talking about? You can't have done anything so wrong as to get your back all torn up!"

"He doesn't ALWAYS do that, you know! It's not so bad as you think!"

"You know how I get punished, Severus? I get grounded. Or extra chores. Or they take away my allowance. But they never hurt me, they never hurt me, Severus. And neither should your father!"

"You just have it easy. He is only preparing me."

"For what?!"

"The war. He says that there will be a giant war someday soon, and that the intelligent ones will fight alongside us for the glory of the one he calls the 'Dark Lord'. I don't know who he is or what he does, but he must be pretty great or he wouldn't have so many followers."

"That's bull. There isn't such a person, and there won't be a war! And NOBODY deserves what he does to you!"

"Well, I guess you just see things differently than me."

"Why? Do you like it?"

"No! It's just… hm. Look, I can beat him. I can do it myself. And I don't need teachers and kids getting in my way! That will only show him that I am weak and that I need others to protect me!"

"Severus, he's brainwashed you! You have to tell someone, and not me, because I can't do any more than you can. They can stop him! You need someone who can help you!"

"Needing help is a weakness."

"No, needing help is a human right. Don't become a mindless drone, Severus! You can still save yourself, there's still time! Please, just tell someone. If not for yourself than for me. I wouldn't be able to live with myself knowing that I could have saved you if you had let me tell someone. Don't get yourself hurt, Severus."

Albus saw James leave. He walked into the room.

"Hello, Headmaster!" Severus said. He was beginning to really like the old man. He didn't know why, but he was never the least bit afraid of Dumbledore, except that time in the Hospital Wing. The only other person he wasn't afraid of was James. They were the only two people in the world who had ever shown kindness to him, other than Professor McGonagall, but she seemed scared of Severus, so he didn't feel comfortable around her.

"Hello, Severus. I came to see how you were doing!"

"Excellent, actually. When will I be able to go to class again?"

"How does tomorrow sound to you?"

"That would be wonderful!" he smiled broadly. Sitting around bored him out of his mind, and all it did was make him think about home.

"May I see you back?" Albus sat down in a chair next to Severus's bed.

"Um, I'd rather you didn't…" Severus was uneasy with anyone looking at his back.

"Why not?"

"I really don't like it…"

"Please Severus? I really need to check your condition."

Severus sighed. He took of his pajama shirt and clutched it to his chest nervously. He ducked his head as Dumbledore examined his back.

Albus furrowed his brows. There were a lot of scars. Long, tattered scars of wounds nearly healed, but not quite. Wounds healed badly. His heart filled with sadness at the boys ragged back.

Oh Well. Soon enough they'd have his father and they'd never have to worry about it again. Tomorrow was Friday, and then a Hogsmeade weekend. Getting out of the school would be great for the boy.

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The next day was a breeze. But Saturday brought trouble.

Severus went to the Three Broomsticks for a butterbeer, as usual. He saw James, but James was sitting with a young girl named Lily Evans, and he decided not to disturb them. Instead he sat down in an empty booth. He sat and relaxed for the first time in many nights.

He felt a sudden shadow looming over him. He looked up to see his father there.

He grabbed the front of his robes and whispered something into his ear.

James Potter sat across the room. His friend Lily had just left to find one of her friends at the candy shop. He looked over as a strange man walked in. He then noticed Severus sitting alone across the room. The man grabbed him.

No… he thought.

He followed the man as he dragged Severus out of the bar.

They got a few miles away from the town before James saw the man throw Severus to the ground.

James hid in the brush nearby. He couldn't risk being seen.

Severus picked himself up. He looked at the man.

"Father?" he whispered.

James nearly cried aloud when the man slapped Severus across the face. Severus didn't seem to notice, though. James knew it was an act, Severus didn't want to look weak in his father's eyes. He ignored the blood dripping from his mouth.

"There has been TALK." He said. (A/N: I don't know what Severus's father's name is, So I'll just call him Cevro. Don't knock me for my inability to come up with a better name ;)).

"Bad talk. About me!" he slapped Severus again. He growled as Severus looked back at him, the blood smeared across his chin.

"I've been questioned! YOU'VE BEEN TALKING ABOUT ME, HAVEN'T YOU?!" he screamed, kicking Severus to the ground.

"No father…" Severus gasped, trying to stand back up. His father kicked him harder, sending him sprawling into the grass. His boot had made a crunching noise on impact, and Severus was sure one of his ribs had been broken.

Cevro looked at the ground for a moment, then picked up a sharp looking rock. He threw it at Severus, hard. It glanced off the twelve-year-olds skull, producing another trickle of blood, which soon began to bleed worse. Head wounds always bled a lot.

Cevro leaned over his gasping son and without hesitation began to hit him.

"Teach you to talk about me!" he screamed. "You've ruined my name, you little piece of shit!"

James couldn't wait any longer. He knew he didn't stand a chance against a grown man, but he could go get help.

He slipped away unnoticed. He ran full speed towards Hogsmeade. About halfway there, he began to hear horrible screams coming from where Severus was. He couldn't bring himself to think of the horrible things that must be happening for Severus to scream. He didn't scream at much of anything.

When he got to Hogsmeade, the screams were too far away to be heard.

He saw Professor McGonagall and some other teachers walking into the Three Broomsticks.

"Professor!" he screamed, running over. He was so out of breath that he could barely choke out the words.

"A man… he took Severus…" he began to sob, the reality of Severus's pain finally hitting him like a ton of bricks. "By the graveyard… I followed… beating Severus… beating him real bad… then…" his body racked with sobs. "the screams! The screams!"

Minerva's face paled, and she looked at the other teachers. They looked equally scared and concerned. Minerva remembered that the whole time Severus had been being beaten with the metal strip, he hadn't uttered a sound. What could possibly be happening?

They headed towards the graveyard as fast as their feet would carry them. About halfway there, they too, heard Severus screaming in pain somewhere in the distance. But the screams began to get softer, weaker.

When they reached the graveyard, there was nothing there. No father, and NO Severus. All they found was a small area of the yard that looked like it had been cut from a different fabric than the rest. The grass there grew red with blood. Signs of a struggle were in the glistening grass, and the smell of freshly spilt blood was almost too much to bear. And yet there were no signs of the boy who had been so brutally beaten here that the ground seemed as though one was looking through a red balloon.

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No one slept easily that night. Talk of a vicious beating and Severus's disappearance spread through the school like wildfire.

The next day, the entire school was searching for him. Many calls were made to his father, but the man claimed no knowledge of what had happened to his son, and he feigned worry.

Minerva slammed the phone down angrily. What a beastly man! How could he?! What had happened to make him so incredibly cruel and bloodthirsty?!

About halfway through the day, someone suggested the send out a search party. They thought it a novel idea, and immediately constructed a team. They went first to the forbidden forest, and what they found was terrible.

He was covered in his own blood, smeared on him like red paint. His clothes were stuck to his skin with it, and his hair was thick with it from the head wounds he had received. Deep gashes were all over his body, even on his face and across one eye. They eyeball itself seemed alright, but they couldn't be sure until they got him home. His mouth was swollen in one area where he must have been hit very hard. Bruises covered his face where there weren't cuts, and the eye that wasn't cut had a huge black eye around it. His left arm seemed to be broken. He was breathing, although so shallow it was almost inconceivable.

They put the unconscious boy on a stretcher. They could do nothing here, and were forced to take him back to the school in this condition. Students screamed at the sight of him, he was so brutally beaten that they barely recognized him.

James Potter ran up, silent. Finally, in a wavering voice he began to speak to Severus.

"Oh lord… oh dear god, what did he do to you, Severus? I told you to tell, I told you…"

Minerva took the stretcher from the shaken rescue party, and allowed James to accompany her in taking the boy to the hospital wing.

They said that they could mend the broken rib and the broken arm, but that it would be better for Severus if the other wounds healed on their own. They were many and would be a painful ordeal, but they didn't want to use too much magic on him, his tiny body might be unable to take it.

He was cleaned up and laid in one of the hospital beds. They covered him with bandages. They had to use two butterfly strips for the gash over his eye. He wouldn't be able to open it for weeks. And it wasn't even Christmas break yet. Needless to say, he would be staying at the school this Christmas.

James sat next to Severus's bed. He refused to leave the hospital wing. Remus and Sirius stayed too, to keep James company. Peter had told them he was too tired to sleep in a chair, and had slept in the dorm as usual.

Severus wasn't going to wake up for a while yet. His skin had become so, so pale. It would never reach it's full color again, but they didn't know that yet. To James, he looked like a ghost, with scarlet wounds blazing against such a paleness that you'd think he was dead.

James fell asleep, although he had meant not to. Sometime during the night he woke up. He was confused as to where he was and what had awoken him. He realized that he was in the Hospital Wing, and the events of the day flooded back to him. He realized that someone had said his name.

"James?" Severus said, almost too quiet to hear, even in the silent school.

He reached out and touched Severus's hand to let him know he was there.

"Severus!" he whispered. "How do you feel?"

"I feel pain. Everywhere... And I can't open my eye. What's going on?"

"They found you in the forest. They healed a broken rib and your broken arm. They say that your arm was broken in four places, you know."

"I know." Severus said angrily. He must have remembered the pain.

"They were concerned that since you are so small that your body might not be able to handle having all of your wounds healed at one time. Some sort of a magic overload, I guess. They decided to let these wounds heal on their own."

Severus didn't say anything. He must have been in a lot of pain. It seemed to James that every breath Severus took was agonizingly painful. And yet Severus said nothing.

James was about to ask him how he had gotten away, but then he realized that Severus didn't know he had been there. He decided his friend wouldn't like it if he knew.

"What happened, Severus?" He asked. That was a valid question, right?

"Nothing."

"Please?"

"No."

"Severus…"

"I said no. I'm tired. I'm going to sleep now. I don't want to talk about it." Severus stopped talking.

James knew he was still awake. He probably hurt too much to sleep. He decided not to push it. Severus wouldn't talk about it, as he hardly talked about any of the 'punishments' he received.

Gradually, both boys drifted into the soft abyss of sleep.