AN: This little one-shot came to me after a discussion with a reviewer who was of the opinion that Severus Snape is a decent bloke who's gotten a bad rap. I tried to find some evidence of this in the books and checked out the points the reviewer raised and I came across a rather curious inconsistency.

In the fourth book we learn that when Snape came to Hogwarts he knew "more curses than most of the seventh years" and that he was "famous" for his fascination with the Dark Arts. Since Sirius says that we can take it with a pinch of salt, but that still leaves: Snape knew curses by the time he came to Hogwarts.

In Harry's fifth year he sees a memory of Snape's father yelling at his cowering mother (presumably at least) while Snape himself cries in a corner.

In Harry's sixth year we learn that Snape's father was a muggle. This means that he must have learnt about those curses and the Dark Arts from his pureblood mother.

In the seventh book we are shown that Snape has felt disdain for muggles since his youth. It is unlikely that his father taught him that attitude. If his father was abusive then Snape would be likely to view him with fear and if we follow Plutchik's Theory of Emotions (made easily and impressively visual through the Plutchik-wheel) then we can see that fear is almost as far removed from disgust as it can be (and it is a little hard to feel superior to someone who can make you piss yourself in fear). The two feelings don't match in other words. Of course, I'm no psychologist, but something isn't quite adding up here.

How is it that the Dark, pureblood witch is shown as the abused spouse, while her son's personality is what we would expect from a Dark pureblood? If Tobias Snape was really that dominant, then where are these ideas of 'muggles are inferior beasts' coming from? I've got an answer to that question.

Warning

This story contains severe spousal abuse including references to sexual abuse and torture.

Disclaimer

Harry Potter and all associated characters, locations and what not belong to J.K. Rowling and whoever she sells the rights to. I have borrowed these characters, locations and what not in order to mess around with them. In some cases I have lifted a piece of dialogue or scene directly from the books as a touchstone. I do not own anything except the plot and I am not making any money from this endeavor. This applies to the whole story.

Forgive me, Lord, for what I am about to do. I know that I will be damned to Hell for this, but Hell cannot be worse than where I am now. Tobias Snape sat in one of the last pews of St. Matthew's Church in Cokeworth. He had been raised in the Anglican faith as everyone in his family had. Everyone except my wife and son.

Fifteen years ago Tobias had met the woman who would become his wife. Eileen Prince had been a beautiful girl when he had first seen her in a pub in Leicester. Tobias and some of the other young men from the factory had made the trip down to the big city as a treat to themselves after the union had forced the bosses to give them a raise. Even in those days Tobias wasn't considered a catch. He wasn't the best looking of his mates, nor was he charming, intelligent, wealthy, graceful or particularly gifted in any other attribute that might make him attractive to the fairer sex. Predictably his mates had quickly abandoned him for some local girls. Tobias hadn't even blamed them; if he had been offered a similar chance he would have leapt at it too. He had simply leant against the bar, nursing his pint and watching the others dance.

Then she came. Raven-black hair and eyes that were such a deep blue colour that he would later swear that they had been purple. Her face was aristocratic and her body slender. She moved like a willow branch in the wind and the air around her was alive with the scent of lilacs. How I've learnt to despise that fragrance.

"Will you dance with me?" Her voice had been slightly deeper than he had expected, but smooth and melodic. Tobias' heart had been lost then and there. After checking to make sure that she wasn't just asking the bloke next to him he had accepted the invitation in stunned disbelief. The girl had led him out onto the dancefloor with a secret smile and Tobias had done his best to keep up with her graceful movements. He did not know how long he had danced in a lilac dream, but he did know that when he had booked them a room for the night the other factory workers had been throwing jealous looks his way. What followed had been one of the best nights of Tobias' life.

The next morning the girl was nowhere to be found. Tobias had made his way back to Cokeworth in a daze. In the weeks that followed the mysterious girl from Leicester dominated his thoughts. His shiftmates had given him a right good ribbing about it for a while, but when his only reaction turned out to be a distant smile, they had tired of the sport. For three months Tobias had nothing but memories of the most entrancing woman he had ever met.

That changed on a windy night when he heard a loud knock on the door of his small redbrick house in Spinner's End. Tired from a long day on the line, Tobias had opened the door with every intention of sending the inconsiderate berk that was calling at this hour on his way. To his surprise he found the girl from Leicester instead.

"May I come in?" she asked timidly. Tobias had shaken himself from his stupor with difficulty and shown her into the house. He sat her down at the table in his modest kitchen and made her a cup of tea to warm her from the storm outside.

"What are you doing here?" he had asked at last, still marveling at his luck. Tobias had watched in fascination as she drew a delicate length of wood from her sleeve. When the woman he had dreamed of since meeting her spoke again she had put paid to Tobias' sense of wonder and looking back it should have told him what his life would be turning into.

"Crucio." Tobias' world had exploded in pain. He had been sure he would die and years later he wished he had. When the pain faded to a searing ache he had found himself lying on his floor, trembling like mad. There was spittle running down his chin and he had apparently wet himself if the acrid stench of the puddle he was lying in was anything to go by. "You will not speak to me like that, muggle." a voice had hissed above him.

"M-muggle?" Tobias had managed through chattering teeth.

"Yes, you filthy creature, you're a muggle. Barely above a beast and born without magic. That I have allowed you in my presence is more of an honor than you deserve and more of a punishment than I deserve. Despite that, you are so crass as to make demands of one who is clearly superior to you."

"If you're so superior, why'd you sleep with me?" Tobias gritted out. I've stood on a picket line while the bobbies were rushing us; like hell I'll roll over for someone who claims to be a witch.

"Because Bellinda Blishwick tricked me! That miserable cow gave me a fake ritual which she claimed would change me permanently to match the glamour I was wearing at the time."

"Glamour?" Between the pain and the strange words, Tobias wasn't sure what she was telling him. Eileen waved her stick- wand at herself in response and Tobias half expected her to start screaming like he had, but instead her appearance changed. The beauty that had haunted his dreams for the past three months ran off of her face like melting wax and he was left facing a sallow-faced, straight-nosed woman with maliciously glinting eyes so dark they were almost black. Her hair turned raggedy and hung limply past her almost birdlike face. If it wasn't for the scent of lilacs that still hung around her, Tobias wouldn't have recognised a single feature.

"For years that bitch made fun of my looks, jealous of my talent in Potions. I should have known better, but I believed her when she told me about the ritual she had supposedly used to gain her looks. Perform it while wearing a glamour and then consummate it with a muggle to prevent magical interference that makes you look like a hag."

"Didn't work then." Tobias grunted out, determined not to surrender; it was a mistake.

"Crucio." Once again he was writhing and screaming on his kitchen floor. When the curse was lifted this time, Tobias couldn't stop the whimpers that were slipping out from between his lips. He felt the sharp toe of a boot in his cheek turning his head and he could just about see Eileen standing over him through eyes that were refusing to focus. "It didn't do what Bellinda said it would, but I can only wish that it hadn't worked. It turns out that she gave me a fertility ritual. I am now carrying your spawn. My family has thrown me out for rutting with an animal so it will be up to you care for myself and the mongrel you saddled me with." The toe of the boot left Tobias' cheek and was driven hard into his ribs. Air rushed out of his lungs and his body flinched back, rolling him further into the filth on his floor. "We will be wed and then you will dedicate your life to me, like a decent pet should." The last thing that Tobias heard before his battered body gave up its grip on consciousness was the sound of high-heeled boots leaving his kitchen and heading up his stairs.

The next morning I could barely move. It's a miracle that I wasn't fired. Today I'll repay that debt. Severus is still my son; my responsibility. The man who had covered for Tobias all those years ago was still working at the factory, though he had been promoted to foreman now. He and Tobias had never really been friends, but they respected each other the way any two men who had shared a picket line would. Today our shifts finally match. I'll speak to Foreman Evans and then I'll finally be able to escape from this hellhole.

Tobias raised his eyes and nodded one last time at the image of his god before standing up and walking out the door. Outside he jammed his cap on his head, checked that the package he had been carrying with him for weeks in anticipation of this moment was tucked safely inside of his overalls and turned his steps towards the factory. He put in a full and hard day's work despite having no intentions of ever returning to this job. As his shift ended and he punched his time-card, Tobias took his chance.

"Excuse me? Mr. Evans? I was hoping I might have a moment of your time." Tobias stood with his cap in his hand and endured the piercing look his superior raked him with. To think that I once believed his eyes to be the closest thing to sorcery I would ever see.

"What is it you want, Snape?"

"I- I need to talk to you about our children. I believe my son attends the same school as your daughter and there is something that I need to discuss with you about that place." Evans' look somehow sharpened. "I was hoping we might meet in the Crown?" Tobias asked, referring to the local pub.

"Very well, Snape. I'll be there in two hours when my shift ends." Tobias just nodded in response and turned to leave. Thank the Lord. I was worried that he wouldn't have come. I shouldn't have been, of course; he's a far better father than I am.

As he trudged down to the pub with the rest of the men who just came off of their shift, Tobias contemplated his wife and his only child. The boy had been born only six months after his parents' wedding to Tobias' great shame. He had never intended to father a child out of wedlock and the act of doing so had seen him largely shunned by the parish and his own family. Tobias had not spoken to his own father again before the older man's death a few years ago. The disappointment Robert Snape had felt in his son had all but broken the devout elder of the the Church. Tobias had attended his father's funeral as a stranger; an acquaintance from long ago. His brothers hadn't thought it right to have him standing near the coffin as it was lowered into the earth with how the two had left things between them, but they couldn't deny him his right to say his goodbyes.

Tobias' son, meanwhile, would never be blessed with any brothers or sisters. Eileen had flat out refused to let Tobias near her body again after the wedding night and Tobias couldn't honestly say that he had tried to change her mind. He still shuddered in fear and humiliation when he remembered that ordeal. Eileen had used her magic and he had been nothing more than a doll for her entertainment. Magic had hardened him so that their marriage could be consummated and once the deed was done Eileen had gone on to show him the depravities that unnatural force was capable of. I still wonder if she wasn't of a purpose to frighten me from her bed. If she was, it worked.

His son had no fear of his mother though. Eileen had largely neglected the boy for the first few years of his life. She had wanted nothing to do with 'the little stain' until the day he performed his first magic. Once she knew that he was like her, Eileen had taken Severus under her wing and proceeded to teach him all she knew of her terrifying powers, her ability to encapsulate offenses against nature in a bottle and her hatred of anyone she considered 'lesser'. The boy learnt well.

Eileen and Severus' absence from village life in the boy's earliest years had been explained away as Tobias' overly hard-handed hold on the life of his family. The first time he had heard that Tobias hadn't known whether to laugh or cry. The idea that he ever could lay a hand on either magic user was ludicrous. Eileen took care to remind him of that whenever she felt he might forget; or if she'd had a poor day or if she was simply bored. Nevertheless, Tobias was reminded that he was branded as a man who struck his wife and son as he stepped into the Crown. Hard looks told him that he would not be welcomed at any group's table; that no man would call him friend before another. Today of all days, those looks could not touch him.

Tobias ordered a pint of bitter at the bar. The moment the publican had set it on the bar and taken his payment Tobias made his way over to a small, rickety table that was tucked out of the way under the stairs. Once he was seated in his usual spot he started nursing his drink. Two hours. If Evans honours his word, this will all be worth it; if not… Tobias shuddered as he imagined his wife's wrath should he come home so late and with so little money left over. His hand drifted up to his chest as he checked his package once again.

Tobias passed the next two hours drinking and praying; hoping against hope that the foreman would listen to what he had to say. No, I can't think like that. I'll find a way to get through to him; no matter what. He was just staring at his fourth empty glass when a new one was set down in front of him. Looking up Tobias found a pair of eerily green eyes studying him. He took the pint he had been given, well aware that it was likely only there due to the unspoken custom that the richer man paid for the drinks between brothers of the union.

"Foreman." he greeted respectfully.

"You said that you wished to speak of our children." Evans said ignoring any pleasantries. "I'll warn you now that if you have ill to say of my little girl that I will take it out of your hide."

"No, I have nothing ill to say of her." Evans nodded and sat down.

"What did you have to say to me then?"

"I want to warn you. Keep your daughter away from Severus." Tobias saw the way Evans bristled. "That's not a slight on your daughter, Foreman. It's a warning, straight and true."

"Explain." Evans ordered with narrowed eyes. Tobias sighed and took a long drink from his glass.

"I know what you must have heard about me; about my family. Whatever it is you heard, I doubt there is any truth to it." Evans' sceptical look wasn't promising, but Tobias forged on. "My wife has the same talent as our children… and she is not shy about using it. When I first met Eileen I didn't know a thing about what magic could do; about what it could take from you." Tobias spoke of how he had met Eileen and what had happened on that night all those months later. "The day we were married neither my family nor hers attended, both shamed by the match. Back home I discovered the true terrors that a witch holds for muggles like us." Looking up he saw those green eyes looking at him with compassion and doubt warring in their depths. Whatever it takes; even if I have to lay my shame bare. "I pray that you will never know what it is to feel your bones leave your limbs before they sodomise you without your consent, that you will never be kept alive by potions as someone cuts you open and shows you your innards, that you will never know the ignominy of having a force you cannot control stiffen you before you are stimulated with those same innards." As he spoke Tobias opened his overalls and the shirt underneath enough to show Evans his scars. He felt that he could do so with the stairs and the other man shielding him from the eyes of the rest of the patrons.

"Good God, man." Evans whispered in horror.

"He forsook me years ago, Foreman." Tobias said as he buttoned his clothes up again trying to ignore the cold seeping into his bones that had nothing to do with his recently bared chest.

"Why tell me this?"

"Because you need to know. Your daughter is being taught this. Not by the school, I am sure, but by my son. He and Eileen would not complain as they do of the rest of that society if it were different, but your daughter is listening to him. You need to warn her, stop her."

"You think that he's-"

"No!" Tobias cut Evans off before he could speak the words and make his fear real. Better to leave those horrors in the dark where they belong. "No, I do not believe that it has gotten to that stage yet. I do not know that we could save her if it had." Tobias lifted his glass to his lips and was disappointed to find it empty. Evans drew a hipflask from his pocket and passed it to Tobias.

"Your need's the greater." he said evenly. Tobias just nodded and tossed the liquor down his throat letting the burn ground him in the here and now.

"Eileen has taught our son her ways. He believes, as she does, that those without magic do not count, that they are nothing more than beasts for sport or labour. I found a letter from Severus addressed to Eileen that mentioned that he thought he was making some headway in converting your daughter to their twisted beliefs. I know where that path leads and I would not wish it on anyone. Please, get your daughter away from Severus." Evans just sat there for a long time as he apparently tried to digest what he had been told. Tobias took the time to fetch them both a glass of gin. When he set it in front of his foreman he received a questioning look and shrugged in response. "I reckon you could use it." Evans looked at the drink in front of him and abruptly slugged it back.

"What do you recommend we do?"

"Move. Find somewhere else to live. The children may share a school, but at least you can limit their exposure to each other here, where Eileen can add to the damage." Tobias reached for the packet in his breast pocket. He drew out a full envelope and pushed it across the table to Evans. "I realise that moving isn't easy, even on a foreman's salary. Take this and I just hope it helps you." Evans looked into the envelope and dropped it on the table like it had burnt him.

"I can't take this, Snape. I'm not a charity case. Besides if you are to escape your nightmare, you'll need it more, like as not." Tobias was already shaking his head and simply gripped his gin, his fingers lacing over each other around the glass.

"It's not charity, it's recompense. I was never strong enough to stop her. The one time I managed to get her wand away from her and tried to force her to allow Severus to learn about the good done in our world, without magic, by honest men and women... I failed. She looked so scared and helpless; she pleaded with me to stop and told me she would stop her poisoning of our son's mind. I believed her and she made sure that I regretted that once I gave her the damn wand back. I think it may even have worsened Severus' opinion of normal folk." Tobias slugged back his own gin and set the glass back down with a trembling hand as he remembered the weeks after he had cowed his wife for the first and last time. Focus. You have a mission to accomplish here.

"There is more." he warned the man across from him. He watched as those green eyes grew resigned and Evans gave him a nod to continue. "There is some kind of magical nob that Eileen and Severus have been talking about. He's apparently got it in for folks that have no magic or have parents that have no magic. They're convinced that they can get him to accept them if they show enough skill with their magic and brewing. If your daughter remains here they will attempt to draw her in and that will lead to a confrontation between her and either you or them. I can guarantee you that confronting them is a bad idea. Even if they somehow manage to avoid a clash, Eileen might decide to sacrifice your family to get accepted into the bastard's graces. She's still not learnt a thing about how to live without magic and I doubt she'd be able to find you if you move without telling people where you are headed." Tobias nodded at the envelope between them. "Take the money, Foreman, and right what you can of my mistake. It's all my savings; I'll not succour that leech anymore than I already have." Actually, it's my life's savings and as large a loan as I could take out. I'll be damned if innocents get caught in her web.

"I- Margaret and I have spoken of moving South; perhaps Surrey. I've even received an offer of a job with a drill-maker there. Are you sure about this, Snape? Giving me this?"

"I am, Foreman. I took out enough money to see my own plans through." Evans hesitated just a moment more before he stuffed the bulging envelope in his own breast pocket.

"Thank you, Snape. I owe you more than I can repay for this warning."

"Just don't look Eileen in the eye from now on. She'll pluck the thoughts right out from your mind."

"The more I hear of her, the more I wonder if we made the right choice in sending Lily away to that world."

"I can't answer that for you. I hope she's bright enough to see through them, but given that she's still not seen Severus for what he is or just doesn't care…" Tobias trailed off and shrugged helplessly. "I couldn't see any other course than coming to you." Evans nodded and held his hand out across the table.

"If there is ever anything that I can do to repay you, you only need to mention it."

"Just keep your family safe." Evans stood up and for a moment Tobias thought that he might say something more, but clearly the foreman thought the better of it and with one last understanding look he left the pub. Tobias allowed his shoulders to slump. It's done. He believed me.

Numbly Tobias stood up and made his way over to the bar. The publican looked suspicious when he ordered two bottles of gin with the last of his money, but sold the drink anyway once it became clear that Tobias intended to take them with him. Tobias left the pub carrying his two bottles and made his way down to the river that flowed through Cokeworth.

He had been born and raised here and as he walked along the banks he had played on as a child he uncorked one of the bottles of gin. He remembered games of tag with friends. He remembered how they had played soldiers trying to kill the Kaiser as their fathers had spoken of. He remembered his National Service, years later, when it was no longer a game. Tobias had only just missed the final days of the war before he was called up and had never seen combat, so his memories of those eighteen months were fond as well. Tobias found himself at the edge of Cokeworth by the time he had finished the first bottle. It was not a particularly impressive feat of walking and had likely only taken so long due to the drink.

Humming a melody from his youth to himself Tobias opened the second bottle. He continued along the bank which had turned grassy as the paved streets of the town proper gave way to country roads that were still little more than dirt tracks and would remain so until the government saw fit to allocate enough money to change that. I rather hope it doesn't change too soon.

By the time the second bottle was empty Tobias had no idea of where he was anymore. He tilted the bottle up to the moon and peered into it through the neck to make sure that he wasn't imagining that it was empty. The action caused him to overbalance and fall down. As he lay there he felt more peaceful than he had for a long time. This is good. I did what I could and now I can only hope that God forgives me for my weakness and my sins. The stars in the sky above him seemed to spin and formed into the face of the girl from Leicester; Eileen before he knew what she was, before he had been so harshly torn from his dreams.

"Why couldn't you just be that girl?" Tobias slurred up at the stars. The heavens didn't answer him and in all honesty he hadn't expected them to. "I'll just come up there and get my answer, shall I?" he asked instead. He rolled over and began crawling along the bank. His hands questing along the ground found and excavated pebbles and stones which he slipped into the pockets of his overall.

Once he was convinced that he was ready, Tobias managed to heave himself to his feet with great difficulty. He stumbled over to the water's edge and swayed there for a moment before taking another determined step. The water didn't seem to be as cold as he would have expected it to be with spring not yet fully in the branches. I have no money. I have no family or friends to miss me if I disappear. I have nothing at all left in this world. Tobias stood far into the river now, the current tugging on his heavy, sodden clothes and the water passing so closely under his nose that he was vaguely aware of the stench of factory waste drifting along with it. He tilted his head back up to the heavens with a smile as a single tear ran down his cheek. I am finally free. With that last thought Tobias Snape stepped forward into the river's embrace and let it welcome him like an old friend.

AN: Well, that's my take on it; or at least one of them. I can think of a few directions to take this in, but I'm curious what other people might come up with. Anybody want to take a shot at figuring out a reasonable explanation for the weird discrepancy in the relationships in the Snape family?

Until next time: happy reading.

LeQuin