Harry awoke shivering and too warm, which was a nice change from the way he'd felt before-frozen to the bone.  His throat was dry but at least the horrible stinging and tingling in his fingers and toes was gone.  He wriggled them experimentally, yes, they felt perfectly okay now, thank Merlin!  He rubbed his eyes and sat up, only then recalling his glasses had fallen off in the water, and all he could see was a big blur.  Until his little hand groped on the nightstand automatically and found . . .his glasses!

Huh? How did . . ? Dad must've fetched them from the lake, I guess. He stuck them on his face and the room came into focus. 

The first thing he saw was his father, sitting half curled in a chair beside his bed, his head resting on his chest, sleeping. 

Harry eyed him thoughtfully.  Wonder if I could sneak past him now? He looks awfully tired, and I really need to go.  That used to be a game he played with Severus when he was very little, trying to sneak out of bed and creep down the hallway without getting caught.  Only Sev always knew when he was out of bed and would order him back to sleep as soon as he set a toe out of the bedroom door.  He wriggled back the covers and slid out of bed, careful to put both feet down on the carpet before standing up.

His father never stirred.  So far, so good.

Harry tiptoed past the chair, across the room, and had just put a foot outside the door when a familiar voice demanded, "And just where do you think you're going, young man?"

"Rats! Uh . . .hi, Dad.  I'm going to the bathroom, that's all." Harry answered, then scurried from the room, wondering how it was that even asleep, Severus knew what he was doing? Maybe it was true, and parents really did have eyes in the back of their heads and ears like bats.  Will I get like that too when I'm grown, or does it just happen when you have kids? The seven-year-old mused as he entered the bathroom.  Yet another question he needed to write down in his Question Book for Sev to answer when he was older, along with why you should never tuck a wand inside your waistband, how did you French kiss a girl, and when you were too old to be grounded for life.

When he emerged from the bathroom, he found Severus standing in the hallway.  "How do you feel, Harry?"

"Umm . . .a little achy and I'm hot and my throat is dry," Harry answered, all in one breath.

Severus immediately put a hand on his forehead.  "You've got a fever and probably a touch of a chill as well, considering you nearly drowned.  Back in bed for you, son."

"Can I have some juice?"

"Yes, and another potion as well."

Harry groaned, knowing it was probably going to taste yucky, as usual when he took medicine.  "Merlin, Dad!"

"Never mind, mister. You don't want to be sick for Christmas, do you?"

Harry shook his head, and found himself lifted into Severus's arms before he could protest being carried like a baby, and in two strides he was in his room and tucked back into bed.  His dad could move quicker than lightning when he wanted. 

Then his dad summoned a Fever Reducer and made Harry drink it down, gave him some juice, and read to him until he fell asleep again.  But he tossed and turned and dreamed that someone was chasing him and Silver was drowning in the lake and Harry couldn't get him out . . .

When he woke again, he felt much better, and Severus was absent from the room.  But before Harry could move, the Potions Master returned, and felt his forehead again.  "No fever.  How are you?"

"I feel okay now.  Can I get up?"

"You may.   After we have a talk about your disobedience, Mr. Snape."

Harry gulped.  He knew he was in big trouble when his dad started calling him Mr. Snape, like he did his students at school.  He dropped his eyes to the comforter,  knowing he deserved to be scolded into next week for going out on the lake by himself. "I'm sorry," he muttered in a very soft very guilty little voice.

Severus felt his instinctive need to comfort warring with his need to dole out consequences for his son's deliberate misbehavior.  He firmly squelched the  comforting part for now and slipped the stern You've-Been-Naughty-and-Ought-to-Be-Spanked glare into place, before saying in a tone that was soft yet dripping with disapproval, "Look at me, Harry James Snape." He waited until the boy's gaze slid slowly from the coverlet up to his obsidian eyes before he rapped out, "What are you sorry for?"

"For . . .for going skating on the lake after you told me not to, sir."

"And why did I tell you not to?"

"B'cause  . . .I could fall in or . . .or get hurt."

"Then you knew what you were doing was wrong, correct?"

"Yes, sir."

"But you went ahead and deliberately disobeyed me.  Why?"

Harry felt his eyes mist.  But he wasn't going to cry.  "Don't know."

"You don't know? You just went skating for the hell of it?" Severus leaned forward, gripping the arms of the chair. 

"N-no.  I wanted . . .to practice by myself . . .so I could show you a new move." Harry stuttered.  He felt the awful weight of guilt lodge somewhere in his middle.   "I . . .I didn't mean to fall through the ice, Dad!" To his utter embarrassment, he started to cry, just like a whiny baby.

Severus had to fight to keep that mask on, he always hated it when Harry cried, it made him feel like a troll.  "I know you didn't, Harry, but that was precisely the reason I ordered you to stay away from there, so that wouldn't happen.  When we first came here, I went over the rules with you and you promised to obey them.  And now you've broken that promise."

Harry cried harder, for he knew that breaking a promise was one of the worst things he could do, by Severus's lights.  "I'm sorry! I'll never do it again."

"By breaking that promise, you almost died, child! You nearly froze to death a stone's throw away from the house, and I would have awakened to find a dead little boy or never found you at all if the current had dragged you under. " Severus said, his voice rising despite his best efforts to keep calm.  "If I had lost you . . .I cannot even begin to explain how terrible I would feel . . .Merlin save me, boy, but you are my life, do you not see that?" Then he was reaching out and pulling the child into his arms, hugging him so hard he gasped for breath.  "Never ever do that again!"

Harry was sobbing and babbling apologies, then he lifted his face from Severus's shoulder and asked, in a miserable, tiny voice, "Are you . . .gonna spank me?"

"I should." Severus answered, and gave him a single smack on the bottom.  Harry yelped.  It stung quite a lot. "I ought to give you the worst walloping of your life, but . . .I think almost freezing to death is sufficient to ensure you never do anything like this again. And you're grounded for a week also.  You foolish reckless child! Between the lake and that bloody wolf trying to kill you . . .!" he found himself alternately hugging and shaking his son.

"Dad, Silver would never hurt me!" Harry cried, when he could talk again, once Severus had stopped shaking him. "He saved me, he . . .pulled me out of the water."  His recollection of events while he was in the lake was fuzzy, but that much he did know. 

"He pulled you out all right . . .and was about to bite you from what I saw."

"No! He's a good wolf, Dad! He's my friend!"

"Your  friend?" Severus repeated, incredulous.  "That was a wild beast intent upon killing a helpless child.  I know what I saw."

Harry jerked away from him suddenly, scrambling back onto the bed.  "No! Dad, you don't understand! Silver is good, he's like the wolf in A Wolf in Winter! He was helping me!  I've been playing with him and he would never bite me."

"You've been playing with that . . .that animal all along? After I told you to stay away from it?"

"He's a good wolf.  He's like my best friend. He saved my life.  You gotta believe me!"

"Harry, whatever you may think, I know what I saw.  That wolf nibbling at you, howling in joy. Ready to rip out your throat! "

Harry shook his head stubbornly.  "You saw wrong, Dad.  Silver is my friend."

"I forbid you to be friends with that beast, Mr. Snape!' Severus snapped. "If I ever see it around here again, I'll hex it to the moon!"

Suddenly it was too much.  Nearly drowning and freezing and then his father thinking Silver was a menace who had tried to kill him, and then saying he would hurt the great wolf, caused Harry's temper to snap.  "NO! You can't do that! I . . .won't let you! You're a stupid idiot, Silver saved me when you couldn't and . . .and . . .you're mean and nasty and I . . .I HATE you!"

Then he jumped off the bed and ran out of the room, sobbing, leaving a stunned Severus standing in the middle of the room.

A second later, a door slammed, bringing the Potions Master out of his shock, and he spun on his heel and followed, "Harry! Come back here, this instant!"

He strode over to the only other room Harry could have gone into and turned the doorknob.  Then he swore furiously.  I don't believe this! That little brat's locked me out of my own bedroom!