I've finished moving and unpacking and stressful crap. Yay me! Thanks guys for all the wonderful reviews, I appreciate it.

Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling. Also I stole the title name from an incredibly awesome Rolling Stones song. Check it out sometime.

Chapter 5

Gimme Shelter

"Get Out!"

Mrs. Snape hurled a curse in Mr. Snape's direction. It missed wildly and shattered some old china, one of the few nice things left in the Snape household.

"You run out for two full days, only to come back and tell me you've lost your job?!" Mrs. Snape aimed her next curse more carefully, but before she could fire, her husband lunged at her. He grabbed the wrist of her wand hand, wrenched away her wand and swung her violently into the ancient piano. The keys shrieked painfully and Mrs. Snape snarled.

"Maybe if you would get off your godam lazy ass and get a lowlyMugglejob you would have more right to complain. Conceited bitch!" Mr. Snape snapped and put both hands on his wife's wand, "I should have done this a long time ago," he strained and snapped the wand in two before tossing it aside. Mrs. Snape howled.

"Filth! You're all filth! How was I ever fooled by scum like you!" she spat, but there was fear in her eyes, the fight was entirely one-sided now.

Severus gripped the bars on the stairway's railing even tighter, until his knuckles grew white. What would mum do? He did not want to see her hurt again. Last time, he did not know if she would ever wake up.

Severus's father picked his mother up from the smashed piano by her neck and threw her against the stairwell wall. There was a sickening crack. Severus could hear his mother sliding down the wall. She gave a feeble moan. He shut his eyes tight.

He just wished they would stop. Stop yelling. Stop hitting. Stop it. Stop. Stop. Stop! STOP!

The piano shot across the floor, rammed into his father and smashed him against the wall. Mrs. Snape looked up and noticed her son for one of the first times in the nine years since she gave birth to him. Severus raced down to her, he was trying to move her, he was trying to make her get up—but his weak tugs on her arm stopped quite suddenly. He had frozen, his father had recovered from the blow of the bewitched piano and was glowering at him with the look of a wild animal.

With a strength and speed she did not know she had, Mrs. Snape scooped up her son and tore out the door. She raced down the rocky driveway, Severus clinging desperately to her. She looked back toward the house, no one was following yet. Would the Knight Bus sense her distress without her wand? She held out her hand and tried to summon the bus before setting Severus down.

Maybe she could go to her Aunt Villiencia's house. She would take her in surely—if she was still alive. She had not spoken to her family in years, they did not know about Severus or even that she was no longer a Prince. They would surely shun her if they knew of either. Mrs. Snape looked down at her son, he looked ragged and he smelled of the swamp and stale things. She felt a pang in her heart. When had she ever been a mother to him? The only times she ever acknowledged him was to use him to reminisce about her Hogwarts and Quidditch days or to rant about Muggles and Mudbloods. And now, she would have to leave him—it was to make an escape for both of them eventually—but she would have to leave him in this place.

She kneeled so she would be eyelevel with her son, "Severus, I will have to leave. It won't be long, but you can't come with me."

An incredible sadness overcame the boy's face that struck her chilly heart—but it lasted only for a moment, for his face hardened into unmistakable hatred, "Why not?" he asked quietly.

"Because…" she struggled with her words—empathy and reassuring sentiments were not the traits of a Prince, "Because your presence would complicate things."

Severus looked away, "Fine, I don't care if you ever come back."

Mrs. Snape sighed in exasperation and grabbed his arm, "Boy…I will come ba--"

Severus tore his arm away and bared his teeth, "No!"

Mrs. Snapes eyebrows knitted together, "N-no?"

"I hate you!" Severus snarled, "I hate you as much as I hate him!"

"Severus, wait!" she reached out to grab him again, but he dashed away and disappeared into the inky darkness of the night.

For a moment she made to chase him, but halted when she heard a hiss. Mrs. Snape turned and saw a great purple bus stopped behind her. A squat, old man lumbered out.

"Call the Knight Bus madam?" he asked.

She hesitated before nodding weakly.

&$ -- &$ --

Lily huffed in the sweltering summer heat. She would have wiped the sweat from her brow if both her arms had not been supporting a rickety, paint-stained ladder.

"Sev," she panted, "Why do we have to use a ladder to get into your house again?"

"Because," he grunted as he set up his end of the ladder against the side o f the house.

"Because what? I already told you I didn't care if your house was messy or poor like Tuney keeps going on about. So why?" asked Lily.

"Because…look, you're the one who wanted to see my room so bad, so why do you keep complaining?" Severus sputtered.

"I'm not complaining!" Lily protested, "It's just that you come to my house and my room all the time and I never get to go to yours, and," she added sheepishly, "I've never seen a boy's room before. Tuney said they're full of snakes and spiders and all kinds of awful stuff—which I think is pretty cool," she grinned.

Severus wanted to take a shot a Petunia, but kept his mouth shut when he realized that he did indeed keep a small garden snake as a pet and his attic had a large infestation of spiders. He looked at his feet in embarrassment.

"Let's just go up," he mumbled, "You go first, so I can catch you if you fall."

Lily did not hear him, she had already raced to the top of the ladder and was preparing to climb into the attic window.

"Hey, wait!" Severus called as he climbed after her.

He clumsily slid through the attic window and plopped in a heap on the floor. He hopped up quickly and dusted himself up, hoping Lily had not seen him.

She had not. She had her back turned to him and was walking slowly across the attic, dust motes floating around her like brilliant specks of light.

"This is your room?" she asked.

Severus could not see her expression. He imagined her nose crinkled, a grimace on her face. But when she turned around, it was not so. Her face was fixed with a brilliant smile, "It's great!"

He could not determine whether the wonderful smile was fake or not. Whether it was meant to spare his feelings. It was Lily's smile. He followed her nervously as she walked around the attic. He had tried to tidy it up for her, but the holey mattress still had moldy sheets and the mouse droppings and cobwebs were many.

To his relief, Lily was not disgusted but quite interested in the ugly room with its mysterious boxes and dark corners. Soon, the two were comfortably plopped on his bed, paging through his mother's magic books. He introduced her to his green and yellow garden snake, Salazar, who she was delighted to meet.

Lily soon discovered the random oversized clothing and interesting artifacts that had occupied most of Severus's playing hours before he had met her. They played happily for a while, she in a floral patterned bathrobe and admiral's hat and he in a stained Black Sabbath concert T-shirt and a lavender sunhat with a ridiculous arrangement of flowers on top. Eventually, however, Lily was put off by Severus's commands to keep the noise down whenever she laughed loudly or ran about the room.

"You sound like my mum, Sev," she laughed and began to spin around until she accidently knocked a box to the floor with a crash, "Oops," she giggled.

Severus froze. He strained his ears, listening for a grunt or moan of wakefulness.

"Quiet!" he hissed at Lily, who abruptly stopped laughing.

"What are you doing?" she asked a bit nervously, seeing how pale his face had become.

When Severus was sure he heard nothing he relaxed, "Nothing."

Lily raised an eyebrow, "Nothing?"

"Well, i-it's just that my dad's asleep right now and he—and he doesn't like to be woken up," Severus sputtered.

"That's just ridiculous," Lily huffed, taking off her admiral's hat and bathrobe, "Just wake the loaf up! Who sleeps in the middle of the day like that?"

Alcoholics with no job do, Severus resisted the urge to say. He did not want to destroy her pretty illusions of fathers being strong but warm men who read the paper with their tea and gave their children hugs and piggyback rides. She must not know of the other kind of father.

Severus pulled off his dress up clothes as well, as he did so, his shirt lifted up a bit and exposed a bruised rib cage.

"Oh my gosh! Sev!" Lily cried.

"What?" he asked, tossing the old clothes on the floor, oblivious to what she had seen.

"You're all bruised!" she nearly shouted and move towards him.

"I-I'm fine, I just fell down the stairs a couple of days ago," he said hastily.

"Fell down the stairs?" she echoed, and a pit grew in his stomach—she did not believe him.

"You sure do fall down a lot and run into things too," she said, "You're so clumsy, Sev."

Severus fought the desire to sigh with relief, she did not know. Lily led a very sheltered life. Evil people were the stuff of movies. Cruel parents meant getting grounded for an unfair reason. She could not conceive anything evil happening to her friend—who would want to hurt him? Severus had told her about his parents' arguments—watered down versions of course. Even these left her appalled. She could never know. She should never know.

Lily coughed, "Ugh, I'm thirsty, and it's getting to hot up here. Let's go get a drink." She made to climb down the attic stairs.

"No!" Severus grabbed her arm, "You can't!"

If it was one thing Lily detested, it was being told what to do. Her sister bossed her around enough at home. She pulled away from him.

"Don't tell me what to do," she sniffed, "I don't care if your dad doesn't like to be woken up."

Severus became frantic. He rushed in front of her and shoved her away from the stairs.

"Hey!" Lily yelled, but looked hurt showed in her green eyes.

"Go home!" Severus snapped.

She looked down, she did not know what to say. Why had he suddenly become so angry with her? She had never seen him look so frightening, not even on that day in the playground.

"Sev, I'm--" she began in a voice barely louder than a whisper.

"I said go away!" his voice cracked and he shoved her again, "You stupid, annoying girl, always bothering me with your dumb questions and stupid games! Just stay away, I've had enough of you!

Lily looked to be on the verge of bursting tears. No one had ever shouted at her like that before. No one had ever laid their hands on her like that before. She turned and ran for the attic window. When she was out of sight, Severus relaxed enough to realize he had made a terrible mistake. He had hurt Lily, something he could not have imagined doing the day before. He was breathing heavily and self-loathing began to tear at him like an icy claw. But it would have no time to rip him apart.

"Goddamn…fuckin'," there came a loud bang from downstairs.

No time for loathing when fear comes alive.

&$ -- &$ --

Lily looked out the window. The book in her lap had been open to the same page for the last half hour. It had been nearly a week since she last saw Severus. Ever since their spat in the attic, she had not even caught a glimpse of him. Why? Was he avoiding her? Was he still angry with her for whatever it was she did?

No, Lily thought as she came to the guilty realization that Severus could never stay angry with her. He was probably just pretending—no, he looked too scary to be pretending—or he really was angry and felt so bad he could not speak to her. Why? It was something else, but what? Her thoughts chased each other in circles.

She snapped the book shut and stood up. She would just have to go ask him herself, it was the only way she was going to find out why he was acting so strangely. The only way they could be together again.

Lily set off deliberately for Severus's house, the mid afternoon sun bore down on her. It was such a long walk. The Snape household was isolated, it was much older than the other houses and crouched on a swath of undesirable, swampy property. She trekked across the yellow, bare yard and ascended the steps.

Asking for Severus at the Snape household was very hit and miss for Lily. Often, no one answered the door even though she could hear people moving about inside. Whenever anyone did answer the door, it was always Severus. Lily would have thought Severus did not have parents if she had not caught a glimpse of Mrs. Snape sprawled on the couch or Mr. Snape lumbering about the kitchen whenever Severus cracked open the door. When she asked him about this strange behavior he flushed and mumbled something about bill collectors.

Lily resolved she would stay on the front porch until someone opened the door. She rapped the knocker and waited. No one answered, but she thought she could hear muffled voices coming from inside. She rapped again and again there was no answer. She was sure she could hear voices now. She bit her lip, mum always told her it was very rude to enter uninvited into other people's houses—but she felt as if she had no choice—something was wrong with Sev and she was going to find out what it was. She would help him. Lily turned the handle and the heavy door creaked open.

Her first impression of the Snape home was that it must surely be haunted. Everything was deathly still, even the dust was suspended. The walls and furniture looked as though they had been assaulted by angry ghouls. But Lily did not have time to feel the creeps on her skin, for the muffled voices behind the front door were actually roaring shouts and cries. They blasted in her ears.

"BROKE ANOTHER BLOODY DISH! YOU'RE JUST LIKE YOUR WHORE OF A MOTHER!"

There was a great crash and clang and a low whimper. Lily's heart pounded against her chest as she took a shaky step toward the kitchen.

"COME HERE! LITTLE BASTARD, YOU'RE MAKING THINGS WORSE!"

All the moisture had left Lily's mouth, leaving it dry as dust. She clenched her fists and walked trembling into the kitchen threshold. She let out a hoarse cry.

Severus was pinned to the hard floor by his neck, which was gripped by a meaty fist. He was kicking and clutching feebly, like some sort of grotesque marionette. There was an angry purple and black sore on his face. Over his father's shoulder, he could see her through his blurred vision. Their eyes met.

Lily snatched the closest object, a dusty porcelain plate, and hurled it at Severus's father. She let out a strangled cry, "Leave him alone!"

The plate hit him not with the strength of a little girl's throw, but with something much stronger. It shattered into a million fine shards, cutting deep into his flesh. Mr. Snape roared and whirled around, leaving Severus gasping like a fish on the floor.

At the sight of him, Lily's strength failed her. He was a monster. His eyes were wild with rage and blood from his cuts ran down his bare, muscular arms. He seemed capable of tearing her limb from limb and looked like he had every intention of doing so. She froze as he advanced. Her trance was only broken when his hand clamped around her arm. She cried out and tried to twist away but he was much too strong.

"Another little witch. Another little cunt," he snarled as he yanked her around. Her shoulder screamed with pain.

Severus had managed to support himself by clinging to the kitchen sink. He saw it, he saw his father lay his hand on Lily and his entire field of vision turned blood red before erupting in an violent flash of white light.

Mr.Snape howled and released Lily. He clawed at his face, yellow foamy liquid was gushing from his eyes, his ears, his nose, his skin. Lily dashed past him to Severus. They clutched each other for a moment, not knowing quite what to do, before Severus grabbed Lily's arm and pulled her through the back door of the kitchen.

The two crashed down the steps of the back porch. Severus stumbled and fell and Lily yanked him upward again. The earth spun beneath him, the world was a whirlpool of colors. He heard Lily's voice but it seemed distant and far away.

"Sev, hurry please. He's coming! He's coming! Oh God…please, please, please," her voice was high and on the verge of hysteria. He sped up for her, at least he thought he sped up.

Lily looked behind her again. Even in the state he was in, Severus's father was gaining on them. He was staggering closer. He would catch them. They would die. Lily was sure. She wanted her mum and dad. She did not want to die. And Sev, what if Sev died? Please no, please, please…

A great gust of wind swept them forward. Her feet felt light, Severus's nearly collapsed weight felt like a feather against her. They almost seemed to fly across the field. Behind them a wall of thick green shoots sprung up, each had a trunk wider than a man could put his arms around and they intertwined to form an impenetrable barricade. At the head of each shoot, a flower blossomed. A sunflower, a daisy, a rose, something completely unidentifiable. They sprung up wherever the children fled, growing smaller as the gust of wind died down.

Lily collapsed on her knees on the tall, fine grass, pulling Severus down with her. They clung to each other again. Every breeze sounded like someone crashing toward them. Every snap of a branch made them flinch. Lily looked at Severus's face—one eye was swollen shut but his other eye was wide with terror.

"What do we do?" she whispered and noticed that she was crying.

"I'm sorry," Severus croaked.

"What?" Lily's eyes narrowed, she did not understand.

"I just wanted to tell you I'm sorry for pushing you and yelling at you, I didn't mean it. I--" he shut his mouth, he felt faint. He leaned more heavily against Lily.

"I know," she said and pulled him closer.

"I know what to do. My mum taught me this prayer," she said slowly, jumping at the sound of another crash.

"Prayer?" Severus mumbled. The world was receding. Her hair was so nice and soft. Maybe he would sleep for a while…

"It's like magic. Let's say it together."

Lily began, "He lets me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul."

"He lets me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul."

"He leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake."

"Yea, though I…walk through the valley of the shadow of Death."

"I will fear no evil…for you are with me…"

The world around them and they themselves grew calmer. It was not crashes they heard, but wind in the trees. They were safe. They were protected.

Lily had never felt so exhausted, so absolutely drained. Severus was not moving against her. He was asleep, or unconscious. They fell together on the soft grass, peacefulness gracing their faces.

&$ -- &$ --

"Can you believe a kid managed this, sir?" asked a young man wearing a badge with two M's on it.

The older man who he was questioning shook his head, "An impressive piece of work. It was easy to wipe the memories of the Muggles who saw it—but getting rid of it. We tried burning, vanishing, everything. Jones managed to shrink them down to size. Good man, Jones."

"I sent McCarty to speak with the children's parents—one of which is proving very hard to track down," said the young man.

"Those Snapes," the old man sighed, "Trouble all around."

"The girl was the one who managed it. I'm sure a stern lecture will set her straight," said the young man.

"Quite," the old man agreed and took out his pocket watch, "Looks like everything is in order. I'll be off then," he vanished with a pop.

The Muggles never suspected there had once been gargantuan, monstrous flowers blooming in the Snapes' backyard. They accepted that there had always been a large, spectacular garden with normal sized flowers there. They always stopped to comment on its beauty during their walks and scratched their heads at how the Snapes had come by such a wonderful garden.

The garden stayed beautiful for decades afterward, through the summer, fall, winter, and spring. People claimed it as their own, adding lawn gnomes and benches and planting shady trees. They gathered and told frightening stories of the empty, dilapidated house next door. They spent their lazy summer afternoons there, reading, napping, playing. They took shelter from the harsh sun. They lay on the soft grass, well away from the roaring, frightening world to be with their friends or lovers or children.

Phew. That was a trial. Any thoughts? I'm not sure about the ending of this chapter. I like it but, I dunno. Any other thoughts are also appreciated.