Severus Snape One-shots

Calm After the Storm

Prompt:
3-year old Severus is sitting in his room in the middle of the night while his parents are fighting in the livingroom below. When he hears the front door slam shut, he decides to go downstairs.

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The full moon shone in the pitch-black sky, surrounded by thousands of stars. One would say it was a peaceful night at Spinner's end, but in that case they didn't know about the happenings at the Snape residence.

Severus Snape, a small, dark haired boy from three years old sat on his bed at a tiny window, staring at the night sky while waiting for the screaming downstairs to stop. His eyes were weary as he leaned with his chin on his hands, but sleeping seemed impossible at that point. He had experienced this quite some times already, but every time he wished it to be the last time.

Usually, after a while, the screams would stop and the front door of the house would be slammed shut by his father, leaving Severus and his mother alone.

Where he went, Severus didn't know. All he knew was that he was back by next morning and acted like nothing had happened as long as they didn't mention anything.

Tobias and Eileen Snape had only started getting into fights with each other since a few months ago. Tobias wasn't fond of magic or anything that had to do with it, so it all began when Severus started getting bursts of accidental magic.

Whenever it happened, Tobias just clenched his jaw, but didn't show any anger. Though when Severus had gone to bed in the evening he exploded, which almost always resulted in him storming out of the house. This time was exactly the same.

Even though he expected it, Severus made a slight jump when the front door slammed. His dark eyes moved from the sky to the door of his small bedroom.

Usually he would stay in his room and try to sleep despite his rapidly beating heart and streaming tears.

He wasn't allowed to walk down the stairs on his own, since Eileen was way too scared he'd fall down. He was only three years old and Eileen didn't thrust the old staircase, so someone always had to come with him.

But this time, Severus really felt the need to go downstairs to his mother. He'd be extra careful walking down the steps if he had to.

He wiped a tear he didn't notice welling up away before he crawled off his bed, which squeaked loudly as he did so.

After exiting the bedroom, he tried not to make any sounds as he padded down the stairs, his slightly too big fluffy socks preventing his small feet from feeling the coldness of the old staircase.

When he was downstairs, he walked to the door that led to the living room, reached for the door handle and pushed it down to open the door slowly.

Eileen sat at the dinner table in the back of the room. She was so deeply in thought that she didn't notice her son coming in and walking towards her.

"Mummy?" Severus whispered. His small, still slightly chubby hand raised up to the sleeve of her robe to gently tug at it while he looked up at her.

Eileen turned her head, eyebrows raised in surprise while her dark eyes met the equally dark ones from Severus. She swallowed upon seeing the teary eyes of her son, but managed to smile slightly anyway.