They weren't in the room very long, although it felt like ages to Sirius, when the trouble started.

It was nothing obvious, at first. The muggle had still been singing loudly, drunkenly, when he entered the house, and both wizards were surprised when it stopped. Sirius hoped that it meant that the muggle had fallen asleep, or rather, passed out drunk. It would be better for Severus if he had. Even though he knew that Mr. Potter wouldn't let the muggle hurt Severus, it was still better for the other teen if there wasn't even a threat of violence tonight.

The next sign that something was wrong was the voices. The muggle's voice was the loudest, of course. Loud, still clearly drunk, and infinitely amused. Sirius and Charlus looked at each other. Amusement wasn't something Sirius had seen the muggle experience. Severus' father had been angry and aggressive when Sirius had seen him. Amusement hadn't factored into it at all. What was Severus doing that amused him?

It was hard to understand what precisely Severus' father was saying, as the man was clearly drunk, but the tone said enough. It began to change, from amusement to anger, and that put both wizards on edge. Severus' voice was noticeably absent, although they could occasionally hear murmured replies. Severus' tone, from what little they could hear, was respectful and quietly worried.

It was hard to interpret the muggle's words through all of the slurring, making Sirius wonder how Severus understood, and they could barely hear Severus' replies as he spoke so softly. From what Sirius could gather, the muggle was asking Severus about his chores. He knew that Severus had finished with everything, he had even helped before they left for London, but that logic may not hold for the drunk.

As the man's words became louder, Severus' replies became softer, and it sounded more resigned than respectful at this point. The drunk was trying to find something, anything, to justify a beating.

Any excuse will serve a tyrant, Sirius remembered reading once before, and it applied now.

"We have to do something," he said desperately, looking at Charlus. "He's going to start hitting Severus soon, we have to get him out of here."

Charlus didn't want to take the boy against his will, that would make everything more difficult later, but when he heard the sound of flesh smacking against flesh, he couldn't wait any longer. They would take Severus away from here, although not to Potter Manor as Sirius wanted, and the rest could be sorted out afterwards. Right now, what mattered was getting Severus away from his father before the man could harm Severus again.

Severus had hoped that tonight would be a good night.

His father had come home from the pub in high spirits, and he had hoped that he would remain happy and just go up to his room to pass out. It had happened before, when his father had had a particularly good night, when whatever card games he played that night had paid off and he'd won, or people had bought him drinks.

He continued to sweep even as he heard his father lumbering to the kitchen, not willing to risk the good mood by looking idle. Even when all of his chores were done, if his father saw him not working, the man took it upon himself to make Severus pay for his idleness. Granted, looking busy wasn't always guaranteed to stop him, but Severus was smart enough to try anything that he could to avoid another beating if he could.

For a few minutes, Severus thought he would be fine, but then his father realized that they didn't have any beer in the house. His father had finished off the last of it last night, and he had forgotten to buy more or send Severus to buy more. Severus told him that, respectfully despite the fact that he wanted to snap that his father had drank more than enough already and that he wished that it would just stop.

And then it started. Verbally, at first, as always. The insults slid off of him by now, although a few did find their mark. He knew better than to correct his father, any hope of avoiding a beating would be gone then. His father hated 'disrespectful brats' and backtalk, and any time that Severus had stood up to him, it had always gone badly for him.

Instead, he kept his replies soft and respectful, but as his father got louder, the respectfulness was replaced by resignation. There would be no way to avoid a beating tonight.

Briefly, his thoughts flashed to Sirius and the elder Potter, up in his bedroom. They would be able to hear all of this, he knew, the walls were rather thin. They would have heard everything his father had said, and they would hear everything his father did.

Sirius had seen his father beating him once, apparently, but that didn't mean that he wanted the man to see or hear it again. Nor did he want the elder Potter to see or hear. He knew the man wanted to talk him into leaving his parents' house, but he honestly had nowhere else to go. If he did, he would have left long ago. He didn't know the elder Potter enough to trust him, and his trust in Sirius was fragile at best. He couldn't trust that they would be able to help him, that he would never have to return.

He took off his shirt when his father commanded it, baring the wounds that his father had inflicted the other night. He had hoped to have at least a week between beatings, it was better when that happened, but he honestly wasn't surprised that he hadn't been able to manage that.

He watched his father taking off his belt, thinking that he would never be able to wear a belt himself after watching his father use his this way for years, but before his father could even raise the belt, Charlus Potter and Sirius Black rushed into the room.

Everyone froze for a moment, and Severus shut his eyes. His father would be furious now, but for the moment all he felt was relief.