Marauder's Mistake
Chapter 5: Chocolate before Breakfast
James blinked wearily as the morning light broke through his bed hangings. It had been five days since they got Severus the toddler, and they had managed to settle into a reasonable routine with the boy. They had to get up around six-thirty to brush hair and teeth and get the active little boy dressed, which took the combined efforts of all three Gryffindors since Severus seemed to think that this was the perfect hour for chases and tickle fights. Then they would make their way to breakfast, after which Severus would be occupied with drawing in the common room since it was too cold for outside play in the mornings. Then they had early lunch, a nap around twelve that typically lasted two hours and gave the boys a much needed break, followed up by plenty of playtime.
James grinned as he crawled out of bed; once again he was the first one of the Marauders to wake, which meant he'd be the one getting Severus ready. Which after all seemed fair since Sirius was usually the one to see to tucking the tot in each night and Remus had taken over bathtimes. He stopped grinning when he opened the curtains to find Severus's bed empty though. "Severus?"
He received no answer. Nor were there any giggles to signal that the boy had gotten up early to play hide and seek. Ok Prongs, no need to panic just yet. There's nothing to say Sev is hurt. He's just gone to play in the Common Room… at six thirty in the morning… riiiiiigght.
"SEVERUS SNAPE!" he shouted at the top of his lungs, causing two other Marauders to leap out of their respective beds and land on their faces.
"Bloody Hell James! What was that for!!" Sirius growled angrily, dragging himself to his feet.
"I have to say I agree." Remus interjected, "There is absolutely no need for screaming inside, I mean we've been telling Severus not to and- James what's wrong?" Remus had just noticed the look of terror on James face as he hurried around the dorm room, obviously looking for something.
"It's Severus! He's not in his bed and I can't find him!" he cried, panicking.
That was all it took for the other two boys to take action, throwing on their school robes over their pajamas they tossed James his and ran from the clearly Slytherin-free dorm room.
"But I don't understand! He's never run off like this before!" James moaned as they came down and found an empty Common Room. Sirius was looking behind the overstuffed red armchairs in vain while Remus was standing by the fireplace grate, trying desperately to think like a four year old. The only trouble was; he couldn't imagine a single reason the boy may have for getting out of bed this early and hiding.
"Okay, here's what we're going to do" he said finally, causing the other two to stop running around. "We are not going to panic, we are going to go and get the map and use it to find Severus and when we do we can calmly ask him why he ran off. James, the map was in your trunk last."
James gave a curt nod and ran to go fetch it. When he returned they activated the map and began sweeping the castle and its grounds swiftly.
"There! The library!" Sirius exclaimed, and sure enough there was the tiny dot with the name Severus Snape on its marker. Like a flash all three boys dashed out of Gryffindor tower and made their way to the library, James frequently checked to make sure that Sev was staying in one place.
When they reached the library Remus indicated that they should be very quiet to prevent Severus from knowing they were there. The boy had already proved that he had been abused to
some extent and that he may have run because he thought he'd done something for which they would be angry. Silently and quickly they crept through the empty aisles, heading towards the one in which Severus was located. They peeked cautiously around the corner and saw the little boy halfway down the aisle, hunched over but not shaking or showing any signs of distress.
"Severus?" James called hesitantly. The three teens heard a sudden gulping noise and Severus shot to his feet, but stood stock still.
"Sev are you okay?" James asked as they began approaching the boy, who in answer gave them a swift nod that made his hair fly but refused to turn around.
Finally James was able to lay his hand on Sev's shoulder and turn the boy around manually. "Could I have a verbal… answer?" he asked, his voice slowing as he saw that the mini Slytherin's face was covered with chocolate. Sev looked guiltily at his footie pajama clad feet.
"Severus Snape is that chocolate on your mouth?" Remus asked him, having a pretty good idea on where the boy had gotten it. I knew I should have moved that bar from my trunk when he spotted it yesterday! Of course the important question is…
"Severus how much of that chocolate did you eat?"
Severus scuffed his foot on the floor, his Mooney was gonna be mad at him for sure. He'd stolen that bar, and eaten all of it. But the insistent voice from far above his head came again. "Severus."
"Ateitall." He said the awful truth in one word.
"I beg your pardon, could you repeat that a bit slower please?" his voice was not unkind, but it was firm. Severus sighed and repeated "I ate it all Mooney" looking at his shoes the whole time.
Suddenly he was scooped up by two muscular arms and settled against a strong chest. He looked up sadly to see it was a stony faced James who had picked him up.
"I'm sorry Prongs!" he wailed, frightened of the awful angry look his Prongs had on his features.
The petrified voice from the pajama-clad boy in his arms brought James back to earth, he had planned on bringing his charge back to the dorm for a time-out, and to discuss a spanking with the other two boys but now he looked down into two large tear filled obsidian eyes.
"That's good that you're sorry Severus, but you are still going to have a time-out." He said, collecting himself and making his voice as soothing as possible.
Severus sniffled and looked down, then back at Remus who was following, hoping for a reprieve. "Mooney, I am sorry! Please don't put me in time-out, I'll be a good boy!" he begged.
"Severus it's good that you're sorry but you're still in trouble young man. I told you not to touch that chocolate, and furthermore we've told you that there are no sweets before breakfast. Yet you stole that chocolate, and since you knew what you did was naughty you ran off to hide from us; didn't you?"
"Yes" came his mumbled reply.
"Well then, you know that naughty behavior gets you a time-out; and in this case you made us all very worried when we couldn't find you, so I'm not altogether certain a spanking is out of order."
Severus snapped his head up at Remus, "Not a spanking too!" he cried. "That isn't fair Mooney!"
"I think it's very fair, after all, you stole and broke a serious rule all in one and compounded that by running off and worrying us all. If you had just faced up to misbehaving you would only be dealing with a time-out."
Severus sniffled even more as he was brought into the Dorm Room. It just wasn't fair, he'd apologized and everything and he was still in trouble! He knew he had been very naughty but that didn't mean he wanted a spanking!
When James put him down he hid behind his hands, "I don't want a spanking Prongs!" he reiterated in a whine.
James rolled his eyes, seeing as Severus wasn't watching, and struggled to hold onto his temper. He's a little boy, just four years old and he's scared and upset. He's not doing this just to be difficult, so be the adult and be as understanding and gentle as your own dad would be with you.
"Severus, this is not negotiable. Now I know you don't want it but if you did then it wouldn't be a punishment would it?"
"No; but Prongs I-" he started only to have James put his fingers over his lips softly.
"No buts, now let's get this done with so we can go on with the rest of our day. Remember how we were going to go skate on the lake this afternoon?"
"Yes…" he nodded, he had been very happy about that last night, but now it didn't seem to be as cheering a thought. What if he fell on his bottom and it hurt even more because he'd just been spanked? He let out a heavy sigh and stood between James's knees.
Sirius chose that moment to lean around James with a damp washcloth and wipe away the chocolate still on Severus's mouth. "There ya go Sevvy, now you won't leave chocolate everywhere you go." Apparently it was the straw to break the camel's back because at that point Sev cried and hugged James's belly as hard as he could.
I can't take anymore of this, if I don't do it now I'll never get it done with! So he steeled himself to play the big bad (and no offense to Remus) wolf and picked Severus up, deciding to put him on his shoulder instead of over his knee so the little guy could hug his shoulder. He opened the seat of the footy pajamas Severus was wearing and bared the tiny, and currently pale, bottom. Holding him in place firmly he focused his thoughts on the stolen sweets, the fact that they were eaten before breakfast and that he'd run away, and he brought his palm down with a thwap on his bum.
"You do not steal (smack) or eatsweets (smack) before breakfast (smack) and without our permission (smack smack) and you never ever (smack) run away (smack) because you know you're in trouble for being naughty (smack)or at all for that matter (smack)."
Once he had landed the ten swats, which had been long ago decided as the maximum punishment, focusing the last two on the bottom of Severus's cheeks which made them extra pink, he pulled the boy down into a hug.
Severus cried as his bottom was spanked and made to feel much warmer than was comfortable for him, and when his Prongs finished he squeezed his neck tightly. He was so happy that Prongs was cooing at him and rubbing his tiny shoulders comfortingly, his father never did that for him. He felt a hand on the back of his head ruffle in a familiar sort of way and knew it was Mooney, sort of the same way he knew the gentle fingers on his arm belonged to Padfoot. He stopped crying outright and just sniffled, tucking his face into his Prongs neck and hoping he could keep being hugged just a little bit longer. As a boy, he would never admit that he liked group snuggling and so much focused attention, but that didn't mean he was above drawing it out for as long as he could when it happened.
James mumbled senseless little platitudes into the messy mop of inky hair as the other two Marauders sat beside them, he knew he was being overly gooey about the whole thing, and smirked
at the thought of the teen Snape's face when he recalled this particular snuggle. Still, when he felt the mini Slytherin's face turn into his neck and the gentle sigh he gave he just had to give in and hold him a bit longer. After a few moments that he told himself were just to make sure Sev was cried out (even though he had not sniffled for at least ten minutes) he held the boy back from himself and took in the blotchy wet face with the nose that still wasn't too big for it and the big obsidian eyes with their thick, and currently tear clotted, lashes. Severus managed a small smile, barely a twist at the edge of his lips really, but it was enough to convince James he would be fine.
"Let's wash that face and go catch us some breakfast Sev, how does that sound?" he asked quietly.
"Sounds good Prongs, can I have bacon though? That chocolate made my tummy hurt." The little tot admitted sheepishly.
"Sure, lots of plain toast and then some bacon, that'll make it settle back down." He said kindly, standing up to take him in the bathroom. He set Sev on the sink and rinsed out a clean washcloth under warm water before applying it carefully to his ruddy and tear-stickened cheeks.
"Really? But how do you know that Prongs?" Severus was practically amazed at the way his friends always had answers to things.
"Let's just say that when I was your age I had my own share of upset tummies from too many sweets as well." He said, swiping away the last trace of tears with a wink.
"Woooow." His friends would never stop surprising him it seemed, although Severus found it a bit hard to picture Prongs Padfoot and Mooney in trouble. Really, that was just ridicules!
To be continued…