Scenes from a Different Romance

Chapter 2 – A Breach of Etiquette

Severus lay in bed, scowling, killing flies with his wand, wishing that they were his father. Suddenly, with a snarl, he jumped up from bed and started beating at his door wildly, yelling, "You fucking bastard! Sextus, I swear to all the Gods in the sky that if there's so much as a bruise on her when I get out that I'll turn your fucking bones to fire!"

Growling, knowing it was useless, he ripped himself away from the door and started pacing violently up and down the room. His father had always beaten his mother, it was a rule of life. Unfortunately for Sextus Snape, his son hated rules. When he was only ten years old Severus began to learn dark curses and using them on Sextus for the sole purpose of infuriating his father so much that Sextus would come after him instead of his mother. It used to work, but while Severus was at Hogwarts, Sextus had developed a taste for beating his wife again. Now, whenever he got the itch, Sextus simply locked Severus in his room with a powerful imprisonment charm.

Roaring, he leapt at the door again, screaming, "You're fucking pathetic! What kind of man beats on innocent fucking children and women? And I know what you did to Julia before the left! You sick fuck! You better not ever unlock this door, Sextus, because I'll fucking rip you apart with my bare hands!"

Severus let out a final, primal, desperate scream and then sunk to the ground with his back to the door, near tears. He felt so useless locked up like this, knowing that his mother was going through hell nearby and that there was nothing he could do about it. He would be let out eventually, but Severus could do nothing, despite his threats. His mother forbade any retribution on his part, and, despite his most fervent hatred of his father, he loved his mother more than anything in the world.

He let out a long, jagged sigh and stood up. His room was in pieces; he'd raged for hours before his brief repast of fly-killing in bed. His desk chair was broken, every mirror he owned had been punched through, the doors of his closet were ripped off the hinges, and his wardrobe had been toppled over. This had been a bad one.

"Fuck it," he said, shrugging. He'd repair it all later. He flung himself onto his bed, and lay, scowling, with his hands behind his head.

If I'm in this state when Sextus lets me out I'll kill him, no matter what Mother wants, he thought, taking a deep, steadying breath. He had to calm down, had to, and there was only one thing that always worked.

Veritaserum, he thought mechanically, is the most powerful truth potion still in use today. In several ancient texts there is mention of a truth potion, used exclusively by Dark Lords, which was over one hundred fold more powerful than Veritaserum and lasted as long as the subject lived, but this potion, if it indeed did exist, has been lost forever. Veritaserum was invented over fifteen hundred years ago in the British Isles, some say by Merlin himself. The ingredients of this very difficult potion include…

Slowly, ever so slowly, he felt his breathing return to normal and his skin stopped burning. By the time he had reeled off the last procedure of the instructions, he was certain that if his father opened the door Severus would be able to resist killing him. Sighing calmly, he rolled over onto his side and glanced at his clock, only to find that he had shattered it in his rage earlier. Chuckling, Severus sat up and picked up his wand. Twirling it through his fingers, Severus was about to repair his damage when he heard a tapping on his window. Startled, he glanced up and saw a large, brown barn owl sitting outside on the ledge.

Curious, he lifted himself up from bed to let the animal in. Not that he cared, but whomever owled him was committing a serious breach of conduct among Pureblood Society. It was proper etiquette to send any letters, no matter who they were for, to the Master of the house so he could inspect them first. But…Severus didn't care in the slightest. Pureblood Society could burn in hell.

Taking the rolled up parchment from the animal, he unrolled it and quickly checked who it was from. When he saw the signature he thought, Well, the breach of etiquette makes sense now. Smirking, imagining what his father's face would look like if Sextus knew Severus was receiving correspondence from a "mudblood", he made his way back to his bed, reclining on it as he read the letter.

Dear Severus,

I know this letter is probably a shock, but I need help and you're the only one I can turn to.

Severus' eyebrows shot up at that, wondering what the hell could possibly be the matter. Interested, he read on.

James Potter has now asked me TEN times to visit him and I cannot come up with a nasty enough way to turn him down this time. I'm utterly out of replies, so I decided to turn to the master. Please, please, please, please help me teach this jackass some humility!

Desperately,
 Lily Evans

Severus, despite himself, burst out laughing as he read the letter, and, afterwards, felt better than he had in days. He had hardly set the letter down on his covers when a solution to both Lily's and his own problems came to him. Rushing to his desk he took out a quill, some ink, and a sheet of paper and began his reply to Lily.

Evans,

The solution to your problem is quite obvious (and, in fact, you would be doing be a great service for me as well): Simply tell our dear Potter that you cannot visit him because you are coming to visit me. That should be sufficiently nasty enough, my dear Lily, for what could possibly sting Potter more than losing his 'beloved' Lily to the Dark and Evil Snivellus? If you feel like doing me a great favor, then you would simply have to follow through on your claim and come visit me at our manor. For reasons that I am not comfortable going into at the moment, having you here for a week or two would put me forever in your debt. Please tell me your decision as soon as possible.

Snape

Severus rolled the parchment up quickly and gave it to the owl, saying, "Take this directly back to Lily, and don't stop pecking her until she responds."

The owl flew off at top speed, and Severus watched it go with a smirk on his face. Oh, the look on Sextus' face will be priceless…