I expect you want to know why Severus had been crying that night.

He'd had his glass of milk before he went to bed, as usual, but just as he was putting the glass by the sink, he tripped and dropped the glass, which smashed at it hit the edge of the counter. Glass went everywhere. Severus stared in horror at the mess he had made. Sure enough, he heard the roar of anger from the lounge, where his parents were sitting.

"Severus!" his father bellowed, striding into the kitchen and standing over Severus, who was trembling on the floor. "Get up!" he spat, grabbing his son roughly by the scruff of his neck and pulling him upright. Severus was too afraid to meet his eyes, and so studied his own bare feet instead. "What's this?!" he shouted, pointing at the broken glass.

"I'm s-sorry, f-father. I-it was an ac-accid-dent." Mumbled Severus, terrified.

"Clean it up! Now!" Severus jumped and went to fetch the dustpan and brush. He started to brush up the glass. "Hurry up!" growled his father. "Don't take all night, boy!"

"Leave him be!" said his mother. "He's only a child."

"Don't you tell me what to do, Celine!" Mrs. Snape opened her mouth to protest, but quickly closed it again. Severus was limping slightly; he had stepped on a fragment of glass. "Quicker, Severus! Stop limping!"

"Alabastor, he's got glass in his foot. If I could just-"

"No! and stop crying, Severus, or I'll gave you something to cry about!" Severus sniffled, quickly trying to stop his tears. His foot was becoming more and more painful as the glass worked its way further into his heel. "Quicker, boy, quicker!" Severus dropped the dustpan and fell to his knees, crying with the pain and the constant fear of his father. "Get up! Stop snivelling and get up! Don't ignore me! are you ignoring me, Severus? Right, that's it. Come here." Severus ducked the blow his father aimed at him and ran on his tiptoes out of the kitchen. His father followed, enraged. He chased him up the stairs and into the bathroom. Severus locked the door, sweating and panting. He took his injured foot in his hands and hopped over to the sink. He was just going to run the tap, when – "Alohomora!" the door burst open. Severus stared, frozen for a terrified second as his father advanced on him, wand abandoned in the hall, fists raised and fury etched into every line of his face. Severus' mother stood helplessly in the doorway. As Alabastor Snape aimed a kick at his small son, Severus crawled in between the sink and bath and pressed himself against the wall, desperately trying to make himself smaller than he actually was. Suddenly a hairy arm reached in and grasped Severus by the wrist. His father yanked him out of his hiding place, bashing his head on the sink bowl as he did so. With his other hand he pinned him to the wall by his throat. Severus choked. He couldn't breathe. His mother grabbed her husband's arm and tried to loosen his grip. Alabastor seemed now to change his mind, and grabbed Severus' wrist again and dragged him to his room. Each step Severus made left a spot of blood on the carpet. His father threw him down on the floor, next to his bed. His mother went to help him up, but – "Leave him!" growled his father. "Pathetic little worm."

"That's our son you're talking about!" screamed his mother, hysterical. "Our son!"

"Our son... our son. I never wanted a child. He was an accident. A mistake!" he spat at Severus, who, lying on the floor, was listening to every word. They stung more than every kick, slap or blow his father had ever given him.

"No!" cried Celine, her voice shaking. "Never a mistake. An accident, maybe. But I still love him! Don't you?"

"Don't talk bullshit."

"It's you who's the mistake. You drink too much. You're drunk now, look at you! You're not the man I married, Alabastor. Not when you-" she cried out in pain as her husband's fist collided with the side of her head. Severus could take it no longer. He sprang up, tears of anger welling up in his eyes.

"I hate you!" he shouted at his father. "I h-" He was knocked down before he had even finished the second sentence. His nose was bleeding and filling his mouth with blood. Stars winked in front of his tear-filled eyes. Before he had time to cry out again, his father was kicking him, again and again. After about five minutes, which seemed like hours, Severus' mother succeeded in pulling his father away.

"Come to bed, Alabastor! You'll kill him! Come on, leave him now! Leave the child alone!" and he followed her out of the room. Celine closed the door carefully and got her husband into bed. When he was asleep, she crept back across the landing to see how her son was. She was not a hard-hearted woman, and the sight of her child still lying on the floor crying, hunched up with the pain, was too much for her to bear. She burst into tears as quietly as she could and crouched down beside him. "Severus, Severus, it's me. come on, it's safe now. He's gone." Severus lifted his tear-stained, bloody face slowly to meet hers.

"It hurts" he whispered.

"I know, darling," she said, choking as she tried not to let him see her cry, "I know. But let's get you into bed, see if you can get some sleep."

"Did he hurt you too?" asked Severus, once in bed, reaching up and touching the side of her face gingerly with his fingers.

"No, sweetheart," she said, taking his hand in both of hers. "No, not really." She sighed.

"Mother?" asked Severus after a while

"Yes dear?" she stopped, looked at him.

"What if we just ran away? We'd be OK, you and me." Severus' mother gave a dry laugh.

"It's not as simple as that, my darling. Your father – well, he's made it very difficult for me to have contact with the outside world. You and him are the only friends I have."

"What about Mrs. Malfoy?"

"Her?" Mrs. Snape looked revolted. "Put it this way: if she had a brain cell, it would be lonely. Anyway," she paused, "I love him. How can I leave him when I feel like that? you're young, darling, so you won't understand. But one day you'll fall in love, and then you'll see what I mean. Love is a powerful thing. Goodnight, darling, please try and get some sleep." She kissed him, smoothed the covers. "Would you like me to leave the door open?"

"No, thank you. Goodnight, mother. I love you."

"I love you too, darling. God bless." She closed the door. The 'God bless' was habit. She'd stopped believing in God long ago. Inside his room, Severus began to cry again.

And that was why he was crying that night.