Wished I could be the one you need
Monday July 21st, 1975
A monster stood in front of the door as he waved Delilah out to visit a friend of hers. He insisted on driving her but she felt like using her bike. Something she hasn't done in a while. Tobias grips the iron knob of the door. Peter not aware of how Severus viewed his father, shoveling the food his mother made, in his mouth. The father's jaw hardens at the sound of spoon scraping against the bowl.
He circles around the table and Severus would've kicked him under the table to stop it but he wanted this fatso to suffer. Specifically, suffering forever. Tobias grabs the boy's head and before Peter even could make a peep, his head is shoved in the bowl. 'You filthy swine!'
Peter begs with his eyes for Severus to help but his eyes is fixated on the table. Long black locks shielding his eyes. Tobias pulls Peter's face back again and smashed the bowl in his face. Shards flying everywhere stained by the blood that began to pour of the broken skin. Peter cries as the man shouts 'Living on your poor mother's back like a bitch! You should man up!' As Peter continues to crying, the man grabs him by the collar and drags him off of the chair.
Strength he never met prior in life. Even his friends were more of a peer pressure kind of strength. Actual brutal physical strength was different. Especially when the man flung him on the floor, to do push-ups and lose that fat. Tobias' eyes now cut to his son. Scoffing in clear rejection, but skinny was better than a fat pig. As if his girlfriend will look after a swine. Over his dead body. He leaves Severus alone but steps on the boy's hand begging shamelessly on the floor.
Pettigrew knew if he'd use magic, he could get in trouble and there was also the factor of Snape tattling on him to his dad. Similar to how Snape felt about his situation. He could beat his dad but who says his mother would be willing to oblige and go along with him. Tobias took the liberty upon himself to sit in the best single dad chair in the living room. Severus put on his coat and got out. Leaving a crippling Peter behind in that damned house.
Peter's town wasn't much different than Snape's. No, it was pretty much the same. Large groups of teens hanging out in the open. Sketchy folks, especially the men seeking privacy in the alleyways, but he keeps his head just right enough to look at where he is walking and looking on his sides, small children playing in the front yards and on the pedestrian walk.
He chose a place to sit in the park and read some of homework. Alas, he tried to. Every word he struggled with to proces. Mind of his wandering at any given chance to Peter. How will school even function? Ignore each other but that fatso could use this against him. He didn't really have dirt on Peter yet, aside the fact he's a coward.
Potter led the band of idiots around the school. Strutting thorugh the hallways, receiving anything as a compliment with open arms. Even though he claims to love Lily, he is sometimes found with a fangirl now and then. That's right. James Potter has fans that threw themselves for the fame and devilish looks. Severus saw how Lily began to crumble under all that charisma too. Was it truly that unbelievable, he's a prat? A bully?
A housists? Merlin, Snape feels pathetic creating that name but there was no other way to describe James. He loathes Slytherins for merely being Slytherins while professing his love towards Lily. Great, loving parents unlike those psychopaths of Black. Doted on with gifts, compliments, surrounded by supposedly good friends and he did get the girl. He got Evans.
Black was his right-hand man, his trusted confidant, and some even assume they'd fuck for a living. Whenever James was present, Sirius was at most a step behind. If James achieved the girls through charming smiles, accomplishments, and money. Black had harlots throwing themselves at him by merely breathing. Breathing. They'd look in those ugly gray eyes, calling them stormy gray and look past all his mishaps.
Snape was furious after he swore an oath to never rat out Remus. For months he felt puny, restless, unjustified, and every other words a victim would need for that treatment. Then an eerie thought nestled. If people knew about Sirius his plan to almost kill him, would they finally see him in the same light Severus saw him or just outright ignore it? Somehow shifting the blame to Snape that it was his choice to go there in the first place. Knowing his school that ignored the five years of bullying prior, he felt some comfort he was saved from that humiliating eye-opening wishful act.
Severus sighs and sinks in the bench. Tapping on his notebook. All he did was doodle circles. He shakes his head and focuses on the first sentence. Assignment of Horace Slughorn is to go for.... Snape's attention dwindles again. He apologised to Lily but she seemed more than happy to cut things off. Last he also heard that Remus hit Sirius in the face. He should've been there. Nobody knew why but he knew. He like the other three knew why, the five of them were aware of why. Even he cannot fathom what went through Black's mind to not only spill his friend's secrets but apparently bring out his worst fear. Harming another with the same curse Remus was dealt with.
Speaking of Remus, that was the only time that spineless mutt stood up to them. Of course it was for his own sake. They pushed him far enough for him to snap. Out of the four, he was more or less quiet but that was his charm. No matter how many robes he tried to throw on his body. His athletic build screamed their presence. Scars only added mystery to his charm. When people asked Severus for help in subjects, they looked as if they were sent into a lion's den. When people ask Remus, the toughest girls seem to begin twirling their hair around their finger. It was unfair on many platforms.
Not to mention those pity ofering-help hands he received from that cursed dog whenever his friends ravaged him in one way or another. Clothing, books, looks, interests and friends. All he wanted was payback. They were sneaking around and he thought they were doing something worthy of acting so suspicious. Something worthy enough to get their asses expelled. It was worthy, but more worthy than he'll ever be apparently.
While Remus laid back. Peter didn't mind giving him a few punches either. Though his hits seem crueller than the other three. Because he tends to only be praised and seen with the other two in sight. Without them there is nobody in the building that even gave him the attention of the day. Every chance he got, he shifted all the ruckus on Severus. Trying harder to impress others by being meaner to Snape.
But the moment the two of them met alone, he scurried away like a rat. Everyone knew about his crush on Mary Macdonald. Ignoring all his advances to bat her lashes at Black. Not like anyone could blame her if she was just one of the many. Peter is that stargazing fanboy of Potter and Black. No matter how malicious his stunts were, he'd shine even less than Remus who many expect to become a headboy. That portly boy growing like fungus in their shadows.
He snaps out of his thoughts when the droplets hits his skin. Folding his books and hurrying home. Finding Peter's body by the doorway and steps over it, vanishing into the bedroom. While drying himself from the bath he just took the rat-faced bastard stumbles into their shared room. Sliding against the wall. 'Your dad is awful.' he coughs.
Severus couldn't leave it and scoffs 'Imagine that as your youth, thinking Hogwarts is your way out and meeting... you lowlives.' Peter's blue eyes blink his own tears away. Accepting that truth. Snape sits shirtless on his bed. Looking down on him and the moment Peter does what he expected him to do, he shows a mocking smile at the boy using magic to heal himself.
'I wouldn't do that if I were you.'
Peter shrugs it off but almost sightless with the bare eyes. 'He hates magic, you know.'
'But' Peter winces as he tried to purse his busted lips. 'You have magic.'
Snape chuckles, tilts his head sidways to Peter 'So? '
The kid stammers 'M-my mom has magic'
'Hmm, goodnight anyway. Pettigrew.'
'Wait, my mom won't stand seeing me like... like this.' Severus quirks an eyebrow at that unsteadiness of the kid's own sentence.
'I hope for you she won't.' Or else the kid might as well live like Snape too but Peter has friends while he doesn't. He crawls under the blanket as he hears Peter heal himself. Blond kid hears his mother's entrance and stays upstairs until he is called for dinner. Else he might have to sit with that awful man in silence. Meanwhile he couldn't believe Severus actually fell asleep without dinner. Explains his thin demeanour. Delilah ends up calling both of them so he shakes the raven to wake up.
Strange.
Very strange.
Odd to feel Severus this close without anything done to him. Sleeping peacefully without a frown or crinkle on his face. Peter didn't have long to look before Tobias barged in 'Pig, your mum called so you better go down there and make her happy.' Peter scrambles off the floor and stutters in his steps when the man did not inch away from the door. Flinching as the man closed in, grabbing and squeezing his face, threats barely pass on speaking volume 'You dare eating like a swine and I'll make you bleed like one.'
Peter casts Severus a pitiful look but hurries away from beneath that adult's scrutinising gaze. Tobias closes the door with his eyes glued on Severus. He towers above his son's unconscious frame. Ever since his wife left, fury wasn't as present with their child. Allowing him to mourn for a staged loss. Skin thick from hard and tough work caresses the smooth skin of his boy's cheek. Brushing the soft strands aside. Mix of emotions crash on his own subconscious. Guilt in his heart. Repressed tears and a smile tugging his lips.
He sees the tears rolling down his son's cheek. Tobias wished he could just scoop his child in his lap and hug him tightly, but he's sadly not that kind of dad... and that will never happen. He leaves him be and goes downstairs. Calming Delilah down with her fretting over his son too.