The Potion Master's Best Friend

Chapter 19- Repentance and Rage

Severus was woken the next morning by a firm hand shaking his shoulder. Minerva McGonagall stood above him, a frown on her face. Severus self-consciously held the blanket over his uncovered torso.

She saw this, and swiftly pulled the covers off the bed, letting them fall to the floor. Noticing the sudden draft on his bare chest, Severus felt exposed. He had many scars littering his body and the last person he wanted to see them was Minerva McGonagall. He began to shiver.

"Nice to see you sober, Severus." Minerva snarled.

He ignored her.

"How's Julia? Have you read her note yet? Or were you too drunk to see it?" She growled venomously.

"What?" Severus muttered blearily.

"I'll tell you what. I went up to breakfast, which by the way ended four hours ago, and saw neither you nor Julia. I decided to come down to see if you were alright, and I find a note on the sideboard saying that the poor girl has gone away because you got drunk and called her, and I quote, a 'pathetic wench' and a 'stupid cow'. What do you have to say for yourself, young man?" By this point she was shouting, and Severus clutched at his head in a futile attempt to ease the throbbing pain in his head.

He reached for a hangover relief, but Minerva knocked the flask on the floor where it shattered.

"Oh, would you look at that! A convenient artistic representation of what Julia's heart must now look like! You deserve this pain, you hurt-" She stopped. "What's that on your back."

Severus froze. In his desire to end the pounding in his head, he forgot to keep his back covered. Minerva had caught a glimpse of all the scars from his father's belt buckle.

"Severus, show me." Her tone had significantly softened.

With a great sense of reluctance, he turned over. It was a good thing that the older witch couldn't see his face, as many years of pent up shame and embarrassment flooded it, making him become as red as a tomato.

"Who did this to you?" She murmured as she softly traced the scars.

"My father." He grunted.

"Oh Severus, I'm so sorry. I didn't know."

"I know you didn't know. Would you have looked at me in the same way if you had?" He rhetorically asked.

"All those times when I found you crying in the bathrooms, I thought it was just the bullying from James Potter's crowd, but that wasn't it, was it?" She cocked her head sympathetically.

"They didn't help, no."

"Has Julia seen them?" Minerva was still sitting on the edge of the bed.

He shook his head, and began to get dressed. "I always have a glamour. I guess it wore of due to my... inebriation."

"So that's why you started drinking, isn't it? Oh you poor dear, you should have told someone-"

"No. If I told someone, they would tell someone else, who would then tell someone else, and soon, everyone would just be calling me the child who was so unpopular that even his own father hated him. I didn't want that." He ended in a whisper.

He pulled on his trademark cloak and started for the door.

"Where are you going?" Minerva called after him.

"To find Julia."

And he was gone.

~~~

Three days.

It took three days for him to find her.

Darkness was all Julia could see. Her father's basement morphed into an abyss from which there was no return. She couldn't return to Hogwarts. Not after what Severus said.