The other four people looked at him with pity and compassion. They knew that Severus Snape wasn't a man to show others what he was feeling and never would he tell someone.
But now this man was in love with a boy twenty years younger than him. He knew that they were soulmates. But in spite of that he couldn't believe that someone could love him back.
Seamus began to wake up and looked around him. He couldn't remember what had happend. He knew he was lying in the hospital wing because he could see Poppy. The Headmaster was there, with three Slytherins.
"Headmaster, what happened...?" why was his voice so hoarse?
"Mr. Finnigan...Seamus do you remember the Transfiguration lesson with Prof. McGonagall?"
"Yes, I was so tired and couldn't concentrate..., suddenly she stood in front of me and shouted my name. And then...Oh god I think I ran away, but why?" Seamus seemed so confused. He hadn't even registered that he was naked under the blanket or that Snape was holding his hand.
"Seamus, it seems as if you had a panic attack and took flight. You ran down to the dungeons and right into Professor Snape and the Malfoys. There you suddenly stopped breathing and Professor Snape had to revive you with muggle mouth-to-mouth. We brought you here and examined you only to discover that you were abused..."
At that Poppy had to stop because Seamus had begun breathing heavily again. Now that he was cured he couldn't stop breathing suddenly, but the stress could be to much so Severus began gently stroking his thumb up the hand and the other arm he put around Seamus shoulders to support him and cradle him in his arms.
"What are you doing???" Seamus asked frightened.
"Trying to calm you, Seamus." Severus said quietly. He knew that he probably frightened the boy but he had the urge to hold him and protect him from everything.
"WHY? Can't you leave me alone? Even now you have to torture me? My dreams are yours can't you leave me alone now that you know I am worthless and ugly and used..." Seamus began to cry and tried to free himself from Severus arms.
But he couldn't let him go. If he let him go now he would never get him back.
So he held him gently but didn't release him.
"I don't understand what you are talking about, Seamus. I just want to
help you. I will never hurt you! Do you really wish for me to let you go?"
Seamus first instinct was to say yes. But then he had never felt like this ever before. He felt protected, cared for, loved...yes loved and he always thought he just had a little crush on his dark and mystirious Professor. Seamus had always known that he would never be loved by others because of what he was and what he had done. But now it seemed as if he would have to feel everything he once locked away so he could always go home to HIM.
"No..." he said meekly. "Don't let go, please hold me just a bit longer..., so I can forget about HIM..."
"I will hold you as long as you allow me to." Severus said tenderly. He couldn't believe that Seamus would want to be in his arms. The Professor knew that he had to get Seamus to tell them about HIM, who they guessed to be his father.
"Seamus will you tell us what happened to you?" Lucius asked in such a gentle tone that even Draco seemed surprised.
Draco knew that Seamus was easily startled. He thought that the four of them,
the Headmaster, Poppy, his father and himself, must look very imposing standing
over him like this. Severus sat beside Seamus with his arms around the boy and
held him secure. So he brought them all chairs to sit down, without magic.
"There is nothing to tell..." Seamus started with a trembling weak voice.
"Seamus, we know what happened but we need to know more, otherwise we can't go after him legaly." Albus explained to him. They would go after his father that was out of question. But they would to put him in prison. Preferably Azkaban..
"Please, Seamus. Tell us so we can help you." Severus had never pleaded in his live but for Seamus he would do everything.
"Why? You can't change anything. He is my father and owns me..." Seamus faltered as he noticed that he told them about his father.
"Seamus, that is not true. Nobody owns you. You belong to yourself and nobody else. Doesn't your mother tell you that?" Draco asked confused. Did Seamus mother know about this?
Suddenly Seamus eyes became glassy and he seemed to shrink in on himself. He looked like a little boy.
"My mother is always there when he takes me to their room. She is happy when I am quite for a change. I have to be quite, otherwise he hurts me more. So you see, it is my own fault he has to hurt me. When I do what he says than everything is fine. I just have to lie there quite and sometimes touch him. But when I am bad he has to take care of that and that hurts. Then he shoves his c...cock...in me and calls me names. Name calling isn't so bad, because he always tells me that I am his. He calls me whore, useless, bitch, cocksucker and slut. But this is all my fault because if I didn't make the faults he wouldn't have to punish me."
All was silent. Seamus sounded so convinced that this all was his fault that they wanted to cry for him or kill his parents.
"Seamus, nothing of this is your fault. It is your fathers and mothers doing. You didn't do anything to provoke them." Albus told him.
"But why would they hurt me? I am their son, their only child. Why do they hate me so much???" Seamus started crying again. Why can't they love him like they are supposed to? When his parents couldn't love him, why would anybody else do it?
"I don't know why they hurt you, Seamus. I would never hurt my son or any other child. I love Draco so much that I would rather die than hurt him." As he said that he could feel a hand on his arm as Draco stood beside him.
Seamus saw the interaction between father and son and felt a feeling a hadn't felt for a long time. Jealousy. He wanted a father to hold him and not hurt him. He turned his head to Severus.
"Would you hold me like that?"
As he looked into those innocent eyes he felt a dagger go straight through his heart because this was something he couldn't give Seamus.
"I am sorry, Seamus. But I can't do that..." before he could continue he felt Seamus trembling and trying to free himself from the embrace.
"Not because I don't want to. But I love you like a lover and not like a son. I would just lie to you and I won't do that." He wouldn't let Seamus go. Severus knew that if he let him fo now he would never have the chance to hold him close again.
"Why? Why do you love me? Are you like my father? Do you want me that way? For me to spread my legs and let you fuck me?" Seamus knew he was rude and unfair but he just had to know.
"NO!!! I want you, that is true but I am not like you father!!! I would never hurt you. Rather I would kill myself and be done with it. I love you, Seamus. But I would never coerce you. You didn't even know that I want you because I was sure that I had to distance myself from you. You are a temptation to me, Seamus. A student, not eighteen, a boy. Now I know that we are soulmates, but before today I didn't know and was convinced that you could never love me back. So I was meaner to you than I've ever been to Potter and always had you send to Filch for detention. I didn't touch you or made other advandes, did I?" Severus was unsure if he had done something to justify this hate. It wasn't directed at him but generally at male adults.
"No, you didn't touch me or did anthing. But I was frightened because you are tall and dark. I thought I had done the same thing with my eyes I did to my father."
"What about your eyes?"
"He said that I asked him to do all that with my eyes. That I tempted him just by looking."
Severus had to agree that these eyes were tempting. He himself saw that the first time the boy looked at him and he dreamed about these eyes every damn night.
"That is not true, Seamus. You have beautiful eyes, that is true, but your father shouldn't have been tempted by it. My son is also beautiful. I can see it and tell him about it. But I don't feel tempted and this is because he is my son. He is a part of me and will always be!" Lucius ended. He and Draco now sat on the other side of Seamus and were looking at him with kind eyes.
"Would you want us to hold you Seamus? I promise that I like you but not more or less than any other child. Be sure that I am in love with another and will never touch you when you don't want it." Lucius asked him. He would even reveal his secret to the hurt boy if he could just reassure him. And he wanted the boy to feel loved. Lucius couldn't stand the thought that Seamus had never felt the touch of a loving parent. And he began to feel like a father to the boy he just wanted to protect.
Draco looked at his father. He wanted to hug Seamus Finnigan? A half-blood? Why not? He liked the boy and could also tell that he needed it.
"Yes, Seamus, is it okay if we hug you? I like you to but am neither in love with you nor lusting after you. You could see it as a brotherly hug."
Seamus was overwhelmed. Suddenly there was a person who loved him more than his own life, and now Lucius and Draco Malfoy wanted to hug him in a fatherly and brotherly way. It was just to much. So he did the only thing he could...Lean into Severus embrace and cry. But these were happy tears and he nodded.
tbc