Severus woke up. He blinked furiously trying to work out where he was. There were thousands of tiny lights shining before his eyes. Where on earth was he? Cold was biting at every inch of his body, he realised now that the tiny lights were stars. He'd fallen asleep outside in the field, but he'd woken up here too. No-one had found him. How long had he been unconscious for? It must be almost morning, maybe even a couple of days had passed by now. He sat up slowly, wincing at the stiffness of his body. He was too cold to stay here and wait to be found he decided, so he headed off towards a group of houses nearby. He planned to walk amongst the houses until someone found him, a wizard maybe even, and asked him if he was okay. The houses were much nicer than the one he lived in, they were on the nice side of town. He realised as he walked amongst the homes that it must be evening as most of the houses had their lights on. He could see into living rooms and bedrooms. People watching TV and decorating their Christmas trees and eating dinner and levitating a book and-
"levitating?" he gasped to himself as he peered through the window of a particularly nice house where a young girl, about his age he imagined, looked to be using all of her concentration to lift a book a few inches into the air just with the power of her mind. Her parents looked awkward, not surprised exactly, but like they were quite unsure of what to do. Muggles he thought to himself decidedly, as he found himself rolling his eyes slightly. The girl was intriguing, her long red hair fell over her small shoulders, her large eyes he could see from here, were a bright green and they sparkled with the excitement of the magic she seemed to be able to do. Does she know? He thought to himself. Does she know what she is? He moved closer to the window, but his movement appeared to have startled the girl. Her concentration broken the book fell to the table beneath it and she looked up sharply to the window. Her parents too looked towards the window where their daughter was gazing suspiciously. In the shadows Severus moved backwards quickly, and with one last longing gaze upon the house he turned and ran home. His heart was pounding as he reached his front door and knocked. How long had he been gone? A day?
"Mum" he breathed as she opened the door.
His mother didn't even look at him as she pulled him into the hall and closed the door behind him.
"Mum?"
The woman chose not to hear him as she walked towards the kitchen. Severus was at a loss, he was so prepared for her to be sobbing with relief at her son's safe return and was so ready to forgive her as she apologized that he didn't even know what to make of her icy reception. He realised that his Dad was watching the same film as when he left, he must only have been gone a few hours. Tears of anger started to prick at his eyes but he would not let her see, he ran up to his bedroom. He closed the door and took a few steeling breaths. He lay down on his bed, his arms by his side, fists clenched. She did not matter to him, because clearly he did not matter to her. He would not think of her. He would not let her hurt him. He breathed slowly and imagined an invisible wall being formed around his heart. He kept breathing and kept imagining the wall thickening. She was weak, she was a fool he did not need her. Finally when Severus felt not even the smallest urge to cry, he unclenched his fists and thought of the red headed witch on the nice side of town.