Severus was a teen boy around 13 and he was your younger brother. He has been attending Hogwarts for five years now and he was so very good at potions and Dark Arts- in fact he'd brew his own potions and create spells and counterspells. You were proud of him and you loved him dearly- sadly, he was constantly bullied by the Marauders and sometimes you happened to suffer from their mockery as well, but you didn't care..you needed to protect your little brother. They'd insult him, hex him, hit him, humiliate him.. anything to feel satisfied with his pain.

Things at home weren't different.. Tobias, your father, hated Severus. He wished he'd been dead because he preferred you- the older, more mature, more promising, better looking kid than the greasy-haired, skinny, pale, uncool git. Tobias abused Severus as a hobby, just to lash out his anger or tipsy-ness. And although your lovely mother and you tried to shield his already weakened self, you'd end up in Tobias's claws too while attempting.

It was a rainy day in Spinner's End, London. The dim light in the kitchen cast eerie shadows across the small house and the clattering of rain drops against the window and on the roof served as a more pleasant background than the screams in the building. Tobias was drunk again and he was complaining about Severus again..sadly you weren't home so he had leeway in shouting and beating up the boy while your mother cried helplessly in a chair, holding her aching torso after a failed attempt at stopping her husband from touching his son. The beating continued, but Severus held on, despite feeling himself slipping away from the pain- he didn't know what was best: the quiet, refreshing sound of the water against the lake shore while he read, despite the Marauders or the comfort of having his mum always there for him even though his father would always find a way to reduce him to a shell.