Disclaimer: Miss Rowling owns it all I'm just messing with it

I feel like I could potentially like Sev but he has done nothing in the books to convince of it as yet. I don't think anyone could be that nasty without some extenuating circumstances and due to the little scene Harry saw in Snapes head in OotP I think we're all pretty clear on what those circumstances are. Anyway, this is just a little drabble piece on what could have been the start of his problems. Tell us what you think, even if you do think I'm way off base.

Cheers

Sway

* * *

He liked to think his life would have different, better, if it weren't for the sister that never was. Yes it would have been much better. It made no difference whether she was born or if she had never been conceived, either option would have greatly improved the state of his life.

Before his mother had been pushed down the stairs and the lifeblood of the child she carried inside her had bled away, she had been a strong woman. His parents had been, well never equals, but at least his father seemed to have some respect for the woman he had married. After she fell though, the woman he had called mother was replaced by the shallow husk of the woman she had been. After her child died within her womb his mother seemed to have no other desire then to join her. Before the fall Severus had been protected but after, his mother seemed only too ready to let Severus bare the brunt of his angry father.

He liked to keep the bruises when he could. He was in no way masochistic but the marks on his arms and torso served as a reminder of what had happened, so that in the morning his father's indifferent attitude and his mother's silence did not make it all seem like some horrible nightmare but was in fact the reality in which he lived. Visible bruises on his person were cared for as soon as they appeared but not out of any regret or wish to spare his son pain. It was of course to keep the neighbors from talking.

Severus remembered the screaming matches they would have, only to end with a dull thump and echoing silence. He would then tend to his mother and she would call him her sweet boy. She would promise that she would protect Severus from everything and that some day they would find a way to leave. If the child had been born perhaps risking the safety of both her children would have spurred Constantine into action. They may have gone to Grandmother Darkraven's small home in Beaumaris. Severus had always enjoyed the few times they had spent holidays there visiting his mothers Welsh kin, of course he had enjoyed it, his father would never come on those trips. Or if the child had never been conceived maybe the never ending violence and the strain of keeping up appearances would have convinced Constantine that they could have a better life elsewhere.

He soon grew to hate his mother for being so weak. He was only nine, he couldn't really understand the psychological consequences for a woman that has just lost her child after five months of pregnancy. All he saw was his mother abandoning him to the acid tongue and hard fist of his father. Nine is a tender age to have your entire world ripped up from beneath you. He had put so much stock in his mother. She was his whole world and that world had suddenly turned its back on him.

The days and months dragged by and Severus withdrew further and further inside himself. The only way for him to escape the strained atmosphere the oppressive Snape household was to retreat into the library. There he discovered his sanctuary, the hundreds of volumes of dark arts books in his father's collection. This was what his father was always on about, this was the power that he claimed was the greatest of all magic. Severus made a decision. He would have this power too. He would not be weak like his mother and just give up, he would not be weak like his father who for all his posturing did nothing with this so called great power. He would be greater then his father and he would find someone who was worthy of his affections, someone who could replace the family that cared nothing for him.

Yes, maybe his life would have been better with or without the sister that never was but there was nothing he could do to change that now and as Severus examined the envelope that held his invitation to Hogwarts he knew that was where his new path in life would begin.