Nightingale Cliché

Author's Note: This story is a cliché. It's just one big Romeo and Juliet story. If you read this then don't bother telling me it's a cliché, I already told you that.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the HP characters nor am I making money off of this

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The five year old boy that cringed in the corner behind the door had dark oily hair and black burning eyes. His knees where tucked up against his chest and his small grimy hands were wrapped around them as though if he let go he would die. He heard shouting coming from the other room. "Who do you think you re, saying that to me?" the woman's voice, his mother's voice, was shrill, almost desperate. Don't hit her, the child thought, please don't hit her. The door burst open, almost hitting him. He crouched down further into the corner, hoping that his father wouldn't see him. His father did see him.

"Severus! Severus Snape get over here!" His father's face was red, frighteningly red, and his breath reeked of alcohol. Severus looked about for an escape rout but there was none. He slowly crept towards his father, muscles tense and rigid. "Why where you eavesdropping boy?" His son was mute. "You have no answer? I'm your father I expect and answer when I ask a question."

"I wasn't eavesdropping…" the sound of flesh hitting flesh resounded through out the room; his mother gave out a little gasp of shock and horror her eyes going wide. Somewhere upstairs a small child began to cry unheard, unthought-of.

"Liar." His father's face was white now, livid. "Don't you ever lie to me boy."

"Tobias!" his mother sounded shocked. "Shame on you, hitting your own son." Her husband turned on her. She cowered back, shoulders hunched, arms clenched over her stomach.

"You're reprimanding me you worthless whore! Why do I even bother with this boy? He's probably not even mine!" The boy's mother just cowered back further, not saying anything, not denying it. "He's probably just some filthy bastard whose fathers too much a cowered to come get him. He takes after that father. Look at him, the sniveling cowered." He kicked the boy with his foot. Sniveling cowered… Sniveling cowered… Sniveling cowered! The accusation rang itself in Serveus' head, like a bell growing louder and louder, imprinting itself in the boy's mind forever. And his beloved mother never denied it.

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The boy was eight and going on a walk with his little sister, Kyran, born just one year after him. The little girl's curly hair was black and shining in the summer sun. Her eyes, like her brother's, where black as well, but full of warmth and friendliness. She still remembered how to laugh, something her brother had forgotten long ago. And she's losing it too, her brother thought, she's losing it too. Up a head the stone house loomed ominously, filling the very air they where breather with hatred and violence. The front door was locked. Severus tugged at the handle in dismay. A bad feeling was welling up inside his chest. This was bad, he thought, this was very bad.

"We're home early." Little Kyran insisted, curls bobbing furiously. "We're home early. That's why the door isn't open." She grabbed her brother's hand. "That's all."

"Right," Severus said sarcastically, "and that's why all the blinds are drawn is it?"

"Yes," She nodded, "it's because we're home early."

Severus sighed. Sarcasm was lost on Kyran when she got like this. But he was starting to feel nervous. "I think I'll go and see if the back door is open. You stay right here, o.k.?" Kyran sat down on the step and nodded once. Severus started off around the house, through the tangled shrubs and long grass, sometimes tripping on an old scrap of metal or some other piece of junk. He was three quarters of the way around the house and covered in scratches when he heard a noise. It sounded like a human cry. He looked up at the house. One of the windows, a little ways in front of him was open a crack. He crept over to it but wasn't tall enough to see in. And something told him he had to see in. He ran to the back of the house and grabbed an old crate from among the junk scattered about. Dragging it back to the window, panting, he placed it beneath the window and climbed on top of it. The room inside was dark and neglected looking. It was lit by a single lamp that stood on small table in the middle of the room. The shadows of a man and woman danced angrily on the walls like two great demons. They where arguing, yelling. The woman yelled something, something the boy was not supposed to hear, but he heard it. His face going white, eyes opening wide with shock, chest heaving, struggling to get a clean breath out of the filthy air. The man raised his fist in rage. Inside the room there is a crash. A woman screams, a man laughs, the world is swirling, swirling. The boy is falling now. The last thing he sees a little girl with dark hair staring at him, her mouth opening in it's own scream of horror, her black eyes wide. The anguished scream of the woman, the horrified scream of the girl, and the mocking laughter of the man twine together until they are one sound, one cry defining life.

The boy awoke in a small room old, but clean. Near by Kyran sat curled up in an armchair. The only other furniture in the room was the bed he was lying on and a table, on which rested a lamp, book, and a plate of food. A pitcher of water and glass were at the foot of the chair.

"Kyran? Kyran, what happened?" he asked. The girl raised her head. Her eyes where red and bloodshot. Her lips trembled. Then she smiled.

"Oh, good, you're awake. I thought you would never wake up. Are you hungry? Or thirsty?" She picked up the pitched of water from the floor by her feet, her small arms shaking and straining. He shook his head, anger beginning to wake in him, slow and sluggish.

"Where's mom?" He glanced around worriedly. Kyran was giving him an odd look.

"We're not at home. A neighbor saw you fall and brought you over here with me." Kyran looked nervous, clenching and unclenching her hands, squirming, shifting from foot to foot.

"What's the matter?" Severus cautiously asked his sister.

"Father doesn't know we're here."