In your skin

The Snape's & The Marauder's

James made his way in very slowly, afraid that if he touched anything the house would come apart. The place was dark, all windows closed, lights off. He walked to one of the windows and started to open it up, but soon heard a hiss and jumped in the spot, looking back at what he could guess was a living room. From the light that got inside the house, he could see a woman laying on a very old, dirty couch, looking at him just like a cat in the darkness, her eyes filled with hatred and sadness.

"Severus, close this damn window!" she yelled at him, and before James could actually do anything, she sat up and grabbed a bottle of... something... and started to drink it down as if it was water. What the hell? Was that Snape's mum? "Useless boy. Can't do anything right. Disgrace. Disgrace to this family" she muttered, probably thinking he couldn't hear it. James was finally able to move away from his frozen spot, leaving the window slightly open just so he could see where he was going. Soon enough he saw some stairs and ran upstairs, ignoring how angry the woman sounded. She started to yell just as soon as he arrived Snape's room, if you could call that a room at all. It was a bit bigger than his own bathroom back at his house.

He closed the door and opened the window as widely as he could, ending up with one of its sides falling all the way to the ground. Great. Now he would have to fix that. But the light was worth it, and when he turned to actually see the room, it wasn't half as bad as he had thought when he first arrived the house.

Different from the rest of the house, Snape's room was actually quite organized and clean. The walls and furniture were still pretty worn out, but the rest was okay for such a small, weird house.

Snape had several books in different bookshelves, organised by theme and colour. In other shelves, he had mostly ingredients and caldrons, most of them old and rusted. There was a small closet where he probably kept the rest of his clothes, a tiny table with a lamp and a mattress on the floor, with all the sheets and blankets neatly organised over it. It was a nice room. It made James feel a little bit more comfortable in such a weird, dark house.

He slowly put the bag he had brought next to the mattress and sat down on it. It was comfy. At least that. He laid down, pulling the blankets and sheets over him and closing his eyes for a second or two. That was all he was able to do before he heard the door slamming shut downstairs. He was almost sure it had broken.

"Eileen!" he heard a man's voice yelling and curled up under the blankets. Fuck, he was acting like Peter! He wasn't a coward! "Eileen get in here NOW!"

Maybe he was. A little bit.

"What do you want, Tobias?!" he heard the woman from before yelling back. Tobias and Eileen. Were those Snape's parents?

"How many times have I told you not to drink MY DRINKS?!" the man yelled again, and then James heard something like a bottle hitting a wall and breaking apart. Those people were crazy or what?

"If you bring them home, anyone can drink it, asshole!" he heard Eileen scream again, and then more bottles breaking. "Stop it!"

"I won't stop it! You stop drinking my stuff and I'll stop destroying this shitty house of yours!" Tobias yelled back. More glass breaking. Wonderful. "Now, tell me, what else have you been doing here, on Christmas' night? Sleeping with some stranger?! Cheating on your husband?!"

"I never cheated on you! I was waiting for Se..." she seemed to cut herself short, and then a few moments of silence. That wasn't good. "No. No Tobias, no!"

"The boy is back" he said, and James could feel the smirk on his face. "Oh yeah right. He returns every year to see his mother. Where is he? I missed my son so much" he said, and James closed his eyes. If only he could use magic.

"No Tob-Tobias!" she yelled, and then there were steps on the staircase. James looked up from under the blankets and waited. And then, the door of the room opened widely and a man taller than James, thin, but strong, and with the face of a murderer, walked inside, smirking widely.

"Look... Who missed daddy?"

When Severus woke up the next day, he was surprised he was still on his body. After all, as soon as he met his parents, Potter would do all he could to vanish from that horrible place. But for now, it seemed like Severus was safe.

Or so he thought. In the minute he got downstairs to eat breakfast, he wished he would have stayed in bed all day.

Pettigrew, Lupin and Black were right there, eating with the Potters, engaged in a sweet conversation about nothing in particular. Severus saw a chance to go back upstairs, but it was too late. Mrs. Potter had already seen him.

"Sweetheart! Come over here!" she said contently, tapping the seat next to her with a grin. He tried to smile back and slowly walked to the place, watching as he was served by an elf. He was not hungry. At all. "Your father and I saw you had forgotten to ask your friends over so we did it for you"

"Thank you mum" he muttered, sending killing eyes to the other four. Black just smirked and waved it off while the others blushed. "You know I love to have my friends around"

"Yes I do" she said, poking his nose, and Severus didn't have the hatred anymore to just continue bitter. Not with such a pure aura around her. All of them returned to their eating after that, but Severus kept an eye of the three, wishing he could just die at the moment. He didn't deserve all of that.

And he didn't deserve the knowing smirk Black showed for nothing in this world.