Saved by Love (Severus Snape / Original Female Character)

Alcoholic Beverages

Christmas Day

Florence and Eileen spent a beautiful Christmas day in Hogsmeade – despite the sadness they both could feel hanging in the air every time they fell into an unusual and uncomfortable silence.

But the village was beautifully decorated and there was even a band in the main square singing Christmas songs.

Eileen asked Tiffany to pop into her house a few times during the day to check on her son.

"He's drinking," reported the elf that evening, "Expensive firewhisky, for the bottle Tiffany could see on the table."

"Drinking?" Eileen was furious, "He's an underage dunderhead if he thinks I will allow that!" and she walked outside to the backyard, finding the apparition spot and disapparating to her own backyard.

She stormed into the house, quickly reaching the kitchen, too angry to be deterred by the dizziness that apparating usually caused her.

She saw the bottle Tiffany had mentioned still on the table so she picked it up, going to the sink to dump it down the drain.

"Mum!" Severus shouted from the kitchen door, "What are you doing?"

"What am I doing?" she vociferated, "What do you think you'll find at the bottom of this bottle, Severus?"

"I wasn't going to drink it all! I was just-"

"You shouldn't even be drinking at all!" she shouted, tears in her eyes, "I don't care how shitty you feel, you must promise me you'll never drown your pain inside a bottle!" she put the empty bottle in the trash can.

He stared at her in shock, realising where her fear was coming from, "Mum, I wasn't going to drink the whole bottle. I am not father."

Eileen sobbed, tears running down her face as she tried to control the fear that was running through her body, making her shake.

Severus walked to her, pulling her into a hug, letting her cry against his chest, noticing for the first time that he had grown taller than his mother.

Eileen's hands grabbed his shirt, holding him close.

"I'm sorry for scaring you, mum, I..."

"Promise me you will never use alcohol to forget your problems. I don't want to see you turn into him."

He nodded. "I promise. I won't ever become father. I'll look after you, mum. I won't drink myself senseless and leave you to fend for yourself."

She wiped her eyes and touched the face of the son she loved dearly.

"Just... be careful, my son. You haven't been thinking before making decisions lately."

Severus knew what she was talking about, so he just nodded silently.

Eileen continued: "Florence is heartbroken. And I'm so worried about you."

"I'm just their potions master, mum," he shrugged.

"Didn't you kill someone last night, to pass their test?"

He hesitated, choosing not to lie: "Yes. I did. But... it was merciful, mum," his voice soft and sad, "They had tortured this girl to an inch of her life, she couldn't have been more than fourteen," he looked disturbed as he remembered, "Then they wanted me to keep torturing her and they even..." he closed his eyes briefly, "They even said I could do whatever I wanted with her," he paused again, the memory making him want to vomit, "I killed her because I couldn't save her. And I couldn't let them keep torturing and raping her. So, yes, I killed someone."