Chapter 3: A Day Gone Wrong (Age 7)

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot. Warning for violence.

Severus felt like skipping as he walked home from the park. Lily was magical, just like him and his mum! He kicked a stone as he walked down the cobbled street. As he drew closer to the main bridge in Cokeworth, the houses became shabbier. The houses near the park and up the hill were well manicured and stately compared to the likes of Spinner's End. Cokeworth was home to a now mostly defunct mill where his father sometimes managed to find meager work. Most of the old mill workers lived in the old brick terrace homes that lined the narrow streets of Spinner's End like rows of tired sentries. Across the river, newer and nicer homes had been built for families with higher paid jobs in nearby Manchester. Severus would always gaze up the hill as he sat in his glade in the park and imagine what it would be like if he lived in a house like that, with a normal, hardworking father. He figured that Lily and her sister Petunia must live in one of the nice homes on the hill by the way Petunia seemed to feel about people from the other side of the river.

As he was contemplating how to approach Lily and her sister to introduce himself to tell Lily all about the wonders of magic, he realized he had reached the end of Spinner's End. He gazed up at the brick edifice, darkened from the smog of the mill. The front garden was overgrown with tall weeds and the fence was broken in several places. The back garden looked much the same. Severus sighed and made his way up the crumbling stoop. The door creaked as he opened it.

"Mum?" he called. No response. He crept inside in case his father had passed out on the couch again. If he woke Tobias, there would be hell to pay. He didn't see either of his parents downstairs. The old floorboards creaked as he peered around the small living room. The stained sofa was vacant and the small television was switched off. "Mum?" he called again. No response again. And then he heard it, quiet sobbing from upstairs.

All his excitement from seeing Lily do magic completely drained from him as he rushed upstairs. The rickety stairs creaked as he ran up them and down the short hallway to his parent's bedroom. He paused by the door long enough to hear that his mother was certainly crying. He quietly pushed the door open and was shocked to see his Mum sitting in a heap on her bed, holding a bloody handkerchief to her lip and staring down at two small shards of wood on her threadbare comforter.

"Mum?" Severus whispered. "Mum? Is that your wand? What did he do to you? You're a witch Mum! How could you let him do that to your wand?" Severus was shocked.

Eileen slowly lifted her head to meet Severus' eyes. The image of his Mum's face was haunting. Her left eye was swollen and bruised. Her lip was split and her tears mixed with the blood on the soiled handkerchief. She fixed him with a vacant stare, almost as if she was looking through him. She looked like her spirit had been broken. In that moment, Severus wished so badly he could be a fully-grown wizard so that he could rescue his Mum from the horrors of Spinner's End. If his father tried to stop him, he imagined hitting him with some horrible hex or curse so that Tobias could have a taste of what he constantly tortured his family with.

Severus gently picked up his Mum's broken wand. The two pieces were held together by a thin, glistening strand. Probably the unicorn hair core, he thought. He didn't think it could be fixed and he doubted she could afford a new one. He placed the pieces back down on the bed. His Mum stared down at her shattered wand, a tear mixed with blood dropped onto the comforter.

Severus gently tugged the sleeve of his Mum's housedress. "Come on Mum, let me help clean you up", he said gently, attempting to get her up off the bed and lead her to their small washroom downstairs.

"Go", she whispered, and pushed Severus away.

When he didn't let go of her sleeve, she fixed him with an absolutely broken look that Severus thought would be burned into his mind for the rest of his life.

"Go away Severus", she whispered again, and pushed his hand off her sleeve.

He took one last look at the crumpled form of his Mum, then turned and rushed from the room. He then stopped by his own, tugged the thin quilt off his bed, grabbed a potions book, and ran for the front door. He ran until he reached his glade down by the river in the park, his lungs burning from exertion. He curled up against the old beech tree, wrapped himself in his quilt, and only then did he allow his tears to fall.

(***)

Since the day he had come home to find his Mum utterly broken, things had only gotten worse in his home. His father now came home drunk more often than not, and Severus and Eileen were his favorite things to take his frustrations out on. Severus was losing track of the number of nights he went to bed with too many bruises to lay down comfortably. He knew his Mum wasn't much better off. Ever since the day Tobias had broken her wand, he seemed to have no reservations about hurting either of them and his Mum seemed to have given up trying to stop him. Since that day, she'd given up on their lessons too. They no longer spent peaceful afternoons together learning simple spells or studying the geography of Britain. Eileen had become a shadow of what she once was, moping silently around the house, sometimes spending an hour listlessly dusting the same piece of furniture. To make matters worse, Tobias was out of work again, and what little money they had went to the pub. Somehow their lack of money was always Severus or Eileen's fault.

Tonight, was no different. Severus was clearing the table after a pitiful dinner of a cup of tea and stale bread he had managed to convince his Mum to consume when the front door banged open.

"Eileen? What's for supper? I've been out of the bloody house all day long trying to support this damn family", Tobias slurred.

"We haven't got any food", Eileen mumbled.

"What's that woman? Speak up. I can't hear a bloody word you're saying."

"We don't have any food left, Toby. We ran out of money yesterday and I haven't got enough to buy anything at the market", she whispered, a fraction louder.

At this, Tobias exploded. "You damn witch! You and the damn boy! What good are you? Where's your magic now, you useless woman? You're worthless the both of you. I don't know why I bother to put a roof over your heads. I'm the only one that contributes to this bloody family and you can't even put dinner on the table. I don't know why I even bothered coming back tonight."

Severus cowered in the corner of the room as his father shouted at them, his long dark hair falling in curtains around his face as he curled in on himself. He peeked at his Mum who was standing in the archway between their tiny kitchen and the living room. Her face was devoid of expression and he wasn't even sure she was registering what his father was saying.

"Are you even listening to me woman?! Get out of my damn sight, I don't want to see either of you for the rest of the night", Tobias shouted. He picked up the nearest object to him, which happened to be one of Severus' trainers, and hurled it at Eileen's head. Thankfully, being completely addled meant that his aim was rather poor, so instead of hitting its intended target, the trainer sailed into one of the remaining picture frames on the wall, shattering the glass with a resounding crash and knocking the frame crooked.

Severus took the momentary distraction as a chance to tug his Mum out of the doorway and towards the staircase. He bolted for his room, hoping she would follow him upstairs. He locked his door, even though he knew it wouldn't make much of a difference and slumped against the wall.

His room was no less shabby than the rest of their house. It had one window, which Severus occasionally would use as an emergency escape route to retreat to the park if things got especially bad. He had an old brass framed twin bed with a thin green quilt and a splintering nightstand. The sole light source was a single, uncovered bulb dangling from the ceiling. Squeezed in between his bed and the narrow closet door was an old-fashioned desk and chair, covered in stacks of books and parchment. On days when he remained inside, this was where he spent most of his time.

However, tonight, even books could not comfort him. Severus peeled his back off the wall after hearing the couch downstairs groan under Tobias' weight, soon followed by the drone of the television. It seemed like his father had settled down for the night and was unlikely to heave himself off the couch in his drunken state to bother his wife or son. He only hoped that his Mum had made it to her room and would fall asleep soon. Thankful that they had at least escaped physical harm for tonight, he peeled off his clothes, threw on his nightshirt, and practically fell into bed, letting sleep embrace him.

(***)

Yellow morning light filtered into Severus' room through the thin sheer curtain on the single window. He slowly blinked awake, realizing his father hadn't bothered to come up and disturb them at any point in the night. He hauled himself out of bed and threw on a clean pair of trousers and an overlarge shirt. All his clothing was second hand and threadbare. His Mum had even thrown a few of her more masculine high-quality blouses from her younger years in his closet in an attempt to provide him with proper clothing. Unfortunately, it just made him look more ridiculous and he'd lost count of how many times the neighborhood boys had mocked him for his clothing. They were just as poor as his family, but apparently their mothers had a better grasp on second hand muggle fashion than his Mum.

He quietly pushed his door open, at just the right speed so it wouldn't squeak, and tiptoed to the staircase landing, avoiding the squeaky boards. He peered down into their living room and saw his father still snoring sprawled out on the couch. He wasn't sure if his Mum was awake yet, but did not want to risk making enough noise to wake his father. Deciding sneaking past Tobias to make a break for the front door was a bad idea, he silently returned to his room. He sat back on his bed, staring at the cracks in the ceiling plaster.

I never want to be like my father, Severus thought to himself. He thought about Lily and her sister Petunia at the park and wondered how different their life was from his own. He glanced at the stack of books on his desk, contemplating how to spend the day, and suddenly it struck him. His Mum had all her old school and magical things tucked away in the attic of their home. He doubted his father even remembered the house had an attic. The entrance was actually through a trap door in the ceiling of Severus' closet. He had never been up himself, but his Mum had handed him down some of her old books when they did lessons together. He crept back over to the door and listened. He could still hear his father snoring downstairs on the couch. Figuring it was safe enough, he quietly opened his narrow closet door and peered up at the attic trapdoor.

There was a short string attached to the door to pull it down, but it was too high to reach. He silently pushed his desk chair into his closet and was just able to catch the small length of old cord with his fingertips. He gave the door a tentative tug, crossing his fingers that it would not make too much noise. Surprisingly, the door slid open without a creak. He unfolded the skinny ladder attached to the underside of the door and began to climb.

As soon as Severus poked his head up into the attic, he was shocked by how much stuff had been stored in the place. He half wondered if his Mum had cast some kind of spell to dissuade his father from venturing into the attic when she'd still been well, because he was certain his father would have been happy to sell his Mum's old possessions for a pint.

The attic was big enough that Severus could stand completely upright in the center, under the top eave of the roof with several inches to spare. There was one small, yellowed, circular window at the far end of the little room, as the Snape residence was the last house on Spinner's End and only had one conjoining neighbor. It let in just enough light to let him study the objects in the room. There were six big crates pushed to the edge of the attic where the eaves made the ceiling too low to stand. At the far end, just next to the window, was a large trunk with ornate brass letters spelling out E.A.P.

Severus could barely contain his excitement, he'd found his Mum's old school trunk! He slowly crept towards it, taking care to keep his steps silent so as not to alert either his Mum or father downstairs. He flipped the latches and tried to push it open but it didn't budge. He pushed again, determined to get it open, and this time he heard a latch click somewhere within the trunk and the lid popped open. He figured at one point his Mum had sealed the trunk magically and he'd managed to open it with his own accidental magic. He smiled an excitedly rummaged through the trunk. He pulled out an ornate wooden chest that smelled strongly of herbs. When he opened it, he saw neat compartments labeled with the names of various potions ingredients. Best yet, the chest wasn't empty, it was full of neatly organized ingredients. Severus couldn't believe his luck. He knew from his lessons with his Mum that some potions required fairly expensive ingredients and now he had a whole stash of them to experiment with. He pulled out his Mum's old cauldron, a few phials, a scale, and a copy of Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger. He placed the cauldron and supplies in the center of the attic, and grabbed the chest of ingredients and the book to take back downstairs to his room.

(***)

That day Severus promised himself that he was never going to turn out like his deadbeat father. He threw himself into studying anything and everything he could find from his Mum's old things in the attic. He wanted to know as much about the magical world he belonged to before he went to Hogwarts. He'd filched a box of matches from the kitchen when his father had been out and had started practicing simple potions from his Mum's books in the attic. He'd been very proud of himself when he had successfully brewed a bruise salve, although it was not nearly as potent as claimed in the book he had gotten the recipe from. He suspected the age of the ingredients reduced the potency of the salve. He had started experimenting with the method of preparation for each ingredient to achieve maximum potency despite their age.

Often when his Mum was sleeping, he would creep into her room and apply some of the salve on any of the bruises he could see. He knew it wouldn't heal them completely, but it did help with the pain.

Severus would often daydream about a day when he'd be done with Hogwarts with a respected career and a big home of his own. His Mum would come live with him and she'd smile and laugh again, and Tobias wouldn't be able to bother them anymore. Occasionally, when he was daydreaming about the future, a certain redhaired girl from the park would pop into his thoughts, and he'd imagine staring at her bright smile as he told her all about the magical world that they shared. Now, he just needed to get up the nerve to talk to her.

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