Freak

Severus Snape was not a particularly kind or patient man. He hated children, damn Albus, and damn the Dark Lord both for ordering him to become a potions professor. As a matter of fact, he hated a great many things. He hated Potter more than anything, even now, though he had been dead for five years. It had been several years since Lily had been murdered, and every single day he cursed Potter for dying before her and never having to live in a world that she was not in. Potter got all of her, and Severus only had childhood memories tainted by hunger, tainted by bullying, and worst of all, tainted by grief. he knew he had made mistakes, he knew that as a teenager he had fallen victim to the idea of power and gotten with the wrong crowd. He had allowed their views to cloud his judgment and because of that, had lost his Lily, his very reason for existence. He could not understand her refusal of his apology at the time and scorned her because of it. Believing her to be cruel, believing she had abandoned him, rather than the other way around. Then, he had made the worst decision of his life, he had taken that blasted mark and, however accidentally, caused her demise. He deserved any punishment given for that crime, being a professor, living in a world in which she was not, and vowing to watch over the Potter brat. All of it he knew he had the responsibility of bearing, He deserved it all. That did not mean he had to be happy about it, damn it.
He stopped. The Potter brat. Where was he? Severus was supposed to watch over him, how did he not even know where the blasted creature was? He would need to fix that immediately. Albus may have assured Severus that the boy was safe and happy, spoiled even, with his family. But Severus needed to check for himself, he had made a vow to Lilys’ memory to keep the boy safe, after all. Severus could not recall any Potters remaining, and Rose and Henry Evans had been dead long before the brat was born. That couldn’t be. Potter was with his family? He was happy? Spoiled? Wasn’t his only remaining family Lily's awful sister Petunia and her equally awful husband, whose name Severus frankly could not recall. He had met the man just once before Lily cut him out of her life, after all. How did he know the man was awful? Well, because he had married “dear” Tuney, of course.
Severus remembered very well how Petunia acted towards Lily and himself when she discovered she could not have magic. Severus, she had always treated with disdain. Lily, though? Petunia and Lily were rather close until he had told Lily of magic, of Hogwarts. When Petunia learned that Lily was special and she was ordinary, she treated anything different, anything special, as if it were the scum on her shoe. She had gone from dressing Lily up, and taking her everywhere, to avoiding her at best. Lily had always wanted to think the best of her sister, but Severus had witnessed many a spat between the two of them. Lily did not want to lose her big sister. To lose the friendship they had had when she was young, but Petunia? Petunia could not be rid of Lily fast enough. The jealousy had eaten her from the inside out, leaving her a rotten woman who despised anything special, anything different. A woman who actively put her sister down and did everything she could to make her feel inferior for that which made her special. When they were young, before Lilys’ magic had truly manifested, Petunia had adored Lily. He recalled seeing them around Cokeworth, Petunia would dress Lily like a doll and push her in a toy trolly. She would braid her sister's hair and talk about how her little sister was the prettiest girl ever and anyone would be lucky to have her, to despising her so quickly it could give one whiplash.
How could Petunia, the woman who went from adoring her little sister to hating her in the blink of an eye, love and care for a toddler she had never met? A child known to have saved the wizarding world, a child her sister had died for, how could Petunia, the rotten woman who hated everything special, everything unique, spoil a boy that represented everything she hated? Severus knew Petunia, and he knew that boy must be anything but spoiled, anything but happy, anything but loved.
Blast it all, now that he had come to the revelation that Albus’ words could not be true he had to check on the boy. The vow, damn it to hell, was pulling at his chest now. Pulling so hard it felt as though if he did not follow the pull it would tear his very heart out. He supposed Lily was his heart, and it was fitting that she would abandon him again if he did not check on her son. The boy she had died for. So damn it all of course he had to make sure the boy was safe. It was his duty to Lily.