Light in the Dark

Severus' Story

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Back again? Well then let us not dillydally then. The Prince's story, while lighter than the King's is also one wrought with tragedy. I know, I know, you want a happy tale, but sadly this story is not your standard fairy tale.

This part of the tale begins with a young child found wandering the streets of Cokesworth, England. Cold and hungry, no memory other than her name and that she knows magic. She is found by an elderly pair of Witches who take her in and adopt her as their daughter. She grew up surrounded by love and magic and was encouraged to pursue anything that caught her fancy. And the art of Potions called to her, sang to her blood and magics of the mind and the art of healing. She grew into a talented witch, one of the brightest in her age!

And then she fell in love with a Muggle man, he was kind and he was handsome. They courted for years before they married and they were blessed a year or two into their wedded bliss they were blessed with a bouncing baby boy. The man could not be any prouder, his wife tired, but beaming as she held her child. His name is Severus Tobias Snape, he was her little Prince. And their happiness continued until one day, the man was called into his employer's office one day and handed a pink slip and dismissed. Devastated, he went to the local pub and drowned his sorrows, trying to think of a way to tell his darling wife and his precious son of the unfortunate news.

Unknown to him, his wife was home teaching their son, who was showing early signs of magical ability how to control it, to lessen his accidental outbursts. Also teaching him the magics of the mind and potions, healing was too much for him so young, but when he was older and had more control of his power, she would show him the advanced mind magics and the art of healing. They were brewing potions for headaches and stomach aches when Tobias Snape stumbled through the door early and quite drunk. They all froze, staring at one another in shock before the shock turned to rage on the Muggle's face and for the first time in nearly 7 years of marriage, he rose his hand and struck his wife.

Little Severus tried to stand before his father, to protect his mother, but he was then smacked and kicked until his little bones made terrible cracking sounds and he spit up bile and blood. His mother screaming and trying to shield him, her own delicate bones suffering until Tobias could no longer muster the energy to attack and stumbled from the house to drink so more, cursing his terrible luck to be fired from his job and to learn he had a Witch for a wife and her devil's spawn for a son.

After that the happiness was gone from the home. Everyday Severus and his mother suffered at his father's drunken rage. Gone was the kind man who read to him at night, who taught him to be kind and a gentleman, but most of all gone was the love and the safety he once felt. Gone was home, now it was the House at the end of Spinner's Street, dubbed Spinner's End. Gone was the smile on his mother's face, gone was her happiness and her laughter, but never her love and protection. Tobias forbade them from practicing magic when he was in the house, began to wash the walls in a strange concoction that smelt sickly and made them feel icky.

His mother, Eileen, had one day slipped his father a sleeping potion and took him to the park where she used her magic to carefully build and ward a safe haven for him to run to. She would send him to it everyday, giving him food in a basket and books, her old wand to practice with and his own little cauldron to brew his own potions. And everyday, he left her to face his father's wrath, though he protested and attempted to protect her in turn, but in the end his mother's will would be done. One day a pair of girls stumbled upon his little safe haven, they looked close enough to obviously be sisters, but one was much prettier than the other.

One sister had dark red, almost brown hair with dark hazel eyes. She had a long horse-like face with sharp features making her look like an old shrew, her body painfully thin to match, all sharp angles and not enough rounded curves to make her even remotely appealing. Severus almost felt sorry for any man who would ever marry her, they would be trapped with a harpy who would use any child they had together to keep them in their marriage. The other sister on the other hand, while thin, was more filled out, her curves softened her sharp angles and features. Her hair was a fiery red and her eyes were a brilliant emerald green. Both were pale and couldn't be more than a year or two apart.