The Best Christmas Ever

Severus sat sweating in the closet, covered by old boots and coats. It helped to muffle his father’s screaming voice and the crashing of dishes in the kitchen.

He hated being weak and hiding but his mother had forced him into his bedroom closet when his father came home drunk two hours ago and began tearing up the house in his rage. Severus only knew that his father had not gotten the Christmas bonus he had been expecting and was now taking it out in pints of beer and beating his family. Severus was certain he liked drinking and beating them more than anything else in the world.

He didn’t remember falling asleep but he nearly flew out of his skin as someone brushed his hair back.

“Severus, its mum. It’s ok.”

He looked at his mother’s bruised face and began to cry.

“Oh, dear, I am OK. It’s nothing that a little wand waving and some cream won’t take care of. Come, I am sending you to the Evans’ for Christmas. It will be safer for you there.”

“They’re muggles.”

“Severus, you shouldn’t listen to all the pureblood rubbish. If purebloods never married anyone but purebloods, then the magic race would die out. Squibs are born from magic parents and they are no different than muggles. Always, always remember that.”

Severus nodded as he and his mother packed his Hogwarts trunk and two small suitcases of most of his clothing.

“I have called the Evans on the telephone. We are going to meet them at the park. Hurry, before you father awakens.”

“He’ll beat you if he finds you gone.”

“No, he won’t. You don’t worry about me; you just have fun with your friend Lily.”

They trudged through the snow to the park. Severus was cold and shivering by the time they arrived and he was certain his mother was not any better off. He wondered why she hadn’t used her wand to charm them from the cold.

As they approached the park he saw the car sitting there with four people in it. One was Lily and she was waving furiously out the window at him.

Lily’s father, Tom, stepped out of the car and grasped Severus’s trunk.

“It’ll be a tight fit but I think we can get it in.”

Tom wrestled the big trunk into the rear of the car and tied some ropes about it to keep it from falling out.

“You get in the car and warm up Severus,” he smiled and motioned for Severus to get into the car.

Severus climbed in beside Lily and watched as Lily’s parents talked to his mum. Petunia was sitting against the other door looking like she was going to be ill.

“Why doesn’t your mum come too? Did your father do that to her?”

Severus nodded but could only watch as his mother waved at him and began walking away. He rolled down the window with some difficulty.

“MUM!”

She turned and waved, “I love you Severus, be good. I will see you off at the train.”

Severus watched as she headed down the hill and out of sight. Lily’s parents had gotten back in the car and began to drive away. Severus had an unearthly fear he would never see his mother again. He bolted out of the slowly moving car and began to run after her.

“MUM!”

He saw her sitting on a bus bench crying. “Mum?”

“Severus. Please go with them. I’ll be fine.”

“We can leave mum. Go away. We don’t need him.”

“Severus. Your father is a good man. Bad things just happen to him and he doesn’t know what to do. I’ll be fine.”

Severus watched as she fingered something and he pulled it out of her bluing fingers. He unwrapped the object and found her wand, broken to bits inside the tea towel.

“He did this?”

“It’s fine. I can get Olivander to fix it. Don’t worry. I was just waiting for the Knight Bus. Now please, go with the Evans’. Please Severus.”

He looked at her pleading eyes, hugged her hard and placed the wand bits back into her hand. He turned and climbed into the car, as Tom Evans had driven by the bus stop and was waiting patiently for him.

Once he was securely in the car again and they were off, Severus saw Tom looking at him in the rear facing mirror.
Tom replied, “Severus, where do you live?”

“Why?”

“I have a friend who is a Constable. I want him to check in on your mother. He can take care of your father, by putting him in jail for a while. No man should ever do that to a woman.”

“She told you he did it?”

“No, said she fell down the stairs. I don’t believe a word of it. Does your father beat her?”

Severus did not reply, he merely looked out the window.

Lily had not spoken at all; she had just held his hand.  She did begin to chatter as they pulled into the driveway of a large white house with blue shutters and a picket fence and decorated trees in the front yard.

Lily dragged him up to the room, “You’ll be here. It’s small but private. Dad uses it for a study but we put the roll-out in here and I think you’ll like it. You can always come in and talk to me, my room’s here and Tuney’s is there and mum and dad’s that door there. Here’s the lavatory and there’s one on the other side of the kitchen by the mud room and …”

On and on she rattled as she drug Severus around the house, showing him the Christmas tree, crowded with gifts for tomorrow’s celebration. Severus was acutely aware that he would have no gifts.

“I am going out. Be back in a jiffy,” Tom said as he kissed Lily’s cheek, then Tuney’s then Lily’s mother. He shook Severus’s hand.

Severus was shocked at the action. He was even more shocked when Tom returned with sacks later on and Lisa, which he had found was Lily’s mother’s name, helped him carrying things into their room. Severus watched them oddly.

They seemed so … happy. It was odd to see Tom help Lisa in the kitchen while everyone was put to work doing something for the dinner.

As they were setting the table, Severus bumped into Lily and dropped a plate on the floor. It shattered. He looked up at them in horror and ran from the room. He slid under the bed he was to sleep in and awaited the punishment, shaking in terror.

“Severus?” came the sound of Tom’s quiet voice, “Oh, now boy, accidents happen, come here. No, no, I won’t hurt you come here.”

Severus slowly crawled from under the bed. Tom grabbed him and Severus began to struggle until he realized that Tom had pulled him onto his lap on the bed.

“It’s OK boy. I don’t know what’s been done to you but it won’t happen here.”

Severus didn’t know how long he cried in Tom’s arms, but Tom Evans held him in his arms until Severus was composed enough to wash his face and head downstairs for dinner.

Dinner was like something from Hogwarts and so was breakfast Christmas morning. Severus was surprised at the joy and life in the house. Even Tuney was being nice and there were gifts for him under the tree. His mum’s owl brought him a gift and a picture of her new wand and a small potions kit. There was a letter from his mother too about his father being arrested at the bar for disorderly conduct and he would not be let out for two to three weeks due to some other things his mother did not understand from the muggle auror.

Severus looked at Lily as they sat eating Christmas cookies by the fireplace, “This is the best Christmas I have ever had.”