A Happy Little Christmas

Severus watched his mother silently as she conjured green and silver baubles and floated each onto their Christmas tree with appropriate gravity. She paused to glance at the clock and started moving faster. Severus knew what that meant. He sighed. Every time he got to watching something really interesting, his father always came home. One day he had asked why she never performed magic when his father was around.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Mum,� Severus had hesitated, knowing as he asked that it wasn’t a smart question, “why don’t you just curse Dad? He wouldn’t be able to do anything to you then.� Severus had immediately flinched back from the inevitable blow, but on that occasion his mother had merely responded with a tight, “Your father doesn’t allow me to use magic near him.�

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Severus never had understood what that meant, but knew better than to push his luck and ask. He assumed that his mother meant his father would use it against her in one of their screaming matches. Every time he remembered that day – every time he watched his mother hurry to finish something before his father got home – Severus promised himself that he would never allow that to happen to him. He was never going to be abused because he refused to fight back. He had gotten into trouble at his muggle primary school several times due to the fact that every fight he was in seemed to have been started by him, but he figured that freedom from the sort of helplessness his mother had came at its price.

“Sev, Do you want to hang these? I’m going to start dinner.� Eileen turned to her son and held out strands of green and silver tinsel. “Your father should be home soon. His shift gets off at five.� Like Severus didn’t know that. He picked up a handful of the strands as an answer and began hanging each one methodically.

“Sev…� His mother had hesitated by the door. “You know that money is sort of tight now, right? I try, but most of what I make I’m saving for when you start Hogwarts. You probably won’t get everything you wished for tomorrow.� Severus nodded curtly.

“I know mother. I’m a big boy.� He sighed. The one thing he really wanted would never be given to him.


Please Daddy, don't get drunk this Christmas
I don't wanna see my Mumma cry
Please Daddy, don't get drunk this Christmas
I don't wanna see my Mumma cry


He jumped as his father slammed open the door. “Isn’t dinner ready yet? When I come home, after working hard all day, I expect some sort of edible food ready for me on the table woman! It isn’t like you do anything to help with the bills.� Severus shivered at the leer in his father’s voice. Tonight was going to be a night to take one of Eileen’s large books into his room with him. Preferably the one with the ornate lettering and all the long words he didn’t know. Concentrating on reading that might block out his parents.

Severus hated the holidays. They were always the worst time of year for the fighting. The fighting always ended up with his mother crying. Eileen was the closest thing Severus had to a friend. As long as he remembered to not to cross any lines, they could sit and talk, discuss magic and Hogwarts, and almost forget about their cruel, often drunk, third family member.


Just last year when I was only seven
And now I'm almost eight as you can see
You came home at a quarter past eleven
Fell down underneath our Christmas tree


Tobias sneered in the living room door at Severus. “Nice tree. Don’t we ever get tired of the green and silver? Red is a Christmas color. Your mum keeps saying you’ve inherited her oddity. Change them.� Tobias nodded at the strands in Severus’ hand, which had started shaking slightly. He HATED being put in the middle, but his father always shoved him right into the center of the fracas. “Red and gold. C’mon! I’m tired of these colors. Every year!� Tobias stumbled into the room towards Severus. “If you really inherited it, you can change them. Come on. Get on with it!� Tobias raised his hand at Severus, quaking now, wished desperately that his mother had agreed when he had begged to be taught some sort of magic.

Tobias turned an odd shade of puce. “How DARE you!� The blow nearly knocked Severus off his feet, and upset the now red and gold tree. “I WILL NOT have magic in my house!� Severus looked at the reddened whites of his father’s eyes and closed his eyes for the next blow.


Please Daddy, don't get drunk this Christmas
I don't wanna see my Mumma cry
Please Daddy, don't get drunk this Christmas
I don't wanna see my Mumma cry


Eileen walked into the room after Tobias. “Dear, what are you on about this ti- Good God, Severus, what on earth possessed you? How DARE you turn the tree into a f*&#ing Gryffindor beacon in the middle of our living room!?� Belatedly, Severus remembered about the houses and their colors at Hogwarts.

“I forgot! I didn’t mean to do it! I swear!�

Eileen looked at her son appraisingly and then nodded curtly. “Get upstairs.� Severus hesitated. “NOW!� He fled, stopping only once, halfway up, long enough to glance back at his parents, glaring at each other.


Mumma smiled and looked outside the window
She told me son, you better go upstairs
Then you laughed and hollered Merry Christmas
I turned around and saw my Mumma's tears

Please Daddy, don't get drunk this Christmas
I don't wanna see my Mumma cry
Please Daddy, don't get drunk this Christmas
I don't wanna see my Mumma cry
No, I don't wanna see my Mumma cry


Severus crawled under the covers in his room, silently vowing once again to NEVER let another person pick on him as his mother did, without fighting back first.