Severus had nightmares that night around a sharp clawed little boy and a horde of ministry officials all insistently declaring that he be locked up for the safety of those around him. He awoke with a start, his heart beating quickly under his pajamas as he tried to rid himself of the frightening images.

Lighting a small bedside orb with a wave of his hand, he tried to calm himself by sneaking a glance down at his son, only to be surprised by the sight of the little boy staring back up at him.

"Why are you awake?" He asked in a low voice.

"You had a bad dream daddy," the child told him somberly.

"I did, didn't I," Severus agreed easily enough, bringing up a hand to lightly stroke through his son's unusually wild mane of hair.

He watched Harry lean into his hand and he smiled a bit.

"Did I wake you up?"

His small boy looked down, biting his lip uneasily.

"Did I?" Severus turned his son's head back towards him.

"You were sayin' my name daddy," his child said slowly, looking up at him worriedly.

"I must admit that my dream featured you quite strongly," he said, forgetting that he was talking to a four year old. At his son's blank look, he mentally slapped himself and adjusted his statement. "In other words, you were in my dream quite a lot."

"Was I bad?" The little boy looked imploringly up at him.

"Not really," Severus said, dodging the question for the moment. "But there were others that were trying to take you away from me."

Abruptly, his small child began nodding knowingly at him.

"Have you had that dream too?

"All the time," his son whispered as he snuggled deeper into Severus's embrace.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

His son shook his head in the negative.

"Hm," Severus said thoughtfully, still looking at the boy as he began falling back to sleep. "Should you change your mind, you are still welcome to talk to me about it sometime," he said in a very soft voice.

"Yes Daddy," was his son's sleepy murmur.

Severus turned off the light with another wave and then lay back down. His small messy haired boy was already breathing deeply from where he lay atop his chest. Severus wrapped his arms around the child and then closed his eyes again, hoping against hope that his dreams would be clear this time.

. . .

It was torturous having to watch his sister doubled over in misery from the pain of keeping her magic inside. Ever since the incident with the muggle boys, she had been terrified of letting it out again. His family had tried to make her understand that it wasn't her fault, that her magic wasn't at fault, but she either wouldn't—or couldn't listen to them.

They simply couldn't make her understand.

So his mother had brought in professionals from the outside; all intent on making her use her magic, on making her see that magic wasn't scary or Merlin forbid, wrong.

But her plans had all failed, all backfired one by one, until all that was left was this shell of his sister. She was still Ariana, beautiful little Ariana, but now she possessed a mercurial temper that twisted and broke out of her at random times, regardless of what they tried to do to stop it.

And yes, they had tried to stop it.

They had all tried, and it had all been for naught.

By the time Albus had been about to start his first year at Hogwarts, his mother had finally gotten fed up with the prying eyes and whispers that followed them throughout Mould-on-the-Wold, and relocated them to Godric's Hollow in hopes of starting anew.

And in turn, his sister had turned into the dark closeted secret of his family. She wasn't spoken about outside of their household. If ever they were to go somewhere—a very rare occurrence because of the inherent difficulties that always arose with Ariana—they did not take her with them.

It was almost as though she didn't exist.

When visitors came over—also rare—she would be hidden away in her room and their mother would cast silencing spells over that area of the house.

And yet, they had still loved her, still treated her like a member of the family, at least from inside their house.

"Come on Ari," his younger self cajoled as they watched from the shadows of the room. "I just want you to watch me do this spell. You don't have to do anything else."

Like in his memories—and his nightmares—she refused; her hands over her ears and her eyes closed tightly against the invasive demonstration.

"Just leave her alone, would ya Albus?" Aberforth came up behind the younger Albus with an angry look on his eight year-old face.

Although Albus had not seen it at the time, he certainly did not miss the look of gratitude that came over his sister's face this time.

"Aberforth had always gotten along better with her than I," he admitted to James after they slipped back into the hallway.

"Did that make you angry then?" James asked carefully.

"No."

James looked doubtfully back at him, and he sighed.

"No, my anger didn't appear until later."

. . .

After breakfast the next day, his daddy sat them both down on the couch and proceeded to have a talk with him.

"What happened last night must not happen again," his daddy said softly, looking down at him as he waited patiently for little Harry's response.

"But they was being mean to you!" Was his indignant reply.

"And to you; yes, I was there. But son, you can't just attack other people like that. You must learn to have more self-control than that."

"But they was laughing at you," he tried again, his lower lip quivering slightly without his noticing it.

"It is not your job to protect me. In fact, it is quite the other way around."

"But—," he tried, only to be cut off with a long finger laid across his lips.

"You will listen to me now, understand?" His daddy asked quietly, his eyes gentle.

The small boy nodded.

"I know that your 'Auntie' did not ever show you how a real adult should act around children. And perhaps that's why you feel the need to stand up for me. However, since I am a real adult, you should know that I can take care of myself, and you. Understand?"

Little Harry nodded earnestly.

"Not to mention the fact that since I am the guardian of a not yet legal child," his daddy said with a direct look at him. "Any time that you cause harm to anyone else, I am the one who will get in trouble for it."

He felt his eyes go wide as he stared up at his Tall Man in fearful shock.

"I didn't mean to Daddy! Please, I'm sorry! Please," he begged, frightened that they would be separated because of his stupid self.

"Calm down Harry," his daddy said in a deep voice, pulling him up against his chest.

"Please," he said, shivering with fear.

"I just wanted you to be aware of the consequences. That doesn't mean that I'm going to leave you or let anyone take you away," his daddy rumbled against him soothingly.

He couldn't help but burst out into relieved tears as he wrapped himself tighter around his Tall Man. His daddy let him cry for a few minutes, and then as his tears were drying up, his Tall Man gave him something else to think about.

"Besides, I have such wonderful punishments that I can dish out to anyone who hurts you. You can only make them miserable for a short time, but I can cause them much more distress over a longer period."

His daddy smiled down at him and he tentatively smiled back.

"Like what, Daddy?" He asked shyly, still clinging tightly to the man's neck.

"Hmm," his daddy looked thoughtful, "I suppose that this warrants a display." His daddy stood them up and walked to the fireplace. He reached for a jar of something and pulled out a handful of something sandy looking.

"Now, this is called traveling by 'Floo.' You must not let go of me, and you'd best close your eyes, got it?"

"Yes daddy," he said, eager to see more magic.

"Right then," his daddy said, tightening his arm around little Harry's back. He threw the handful into the grate and green flames erupted out. "Hogwarts Infirmary!" His Tall Man shouted, before walking forwards into the strange fire.

The shock of the experience caused the tiny boy to inadvertently do everything his daddy had told him to do; clinging to the man's robes as though a drowning victim might do to their rescuer.

Then abruptly, the swirling feeling around them stopped and soon little Harry was blinking into the light of a new room. As his vision cleared, he realized quite suddenly that it was the infirmary, and there was that Poppy lady he had met before, coming straight to them!

"Hi," he waved shyly from his daddy's arms.

The smaller woman's face softened with a smile as she recognized them.

"Well, Mr. Harry! You certainly are a bit chipper than when I last saw you," she exclaimed, putting her hands on her hips and staring bravely up at them both.

"This time we don't have the added joy of just having spent the last hour with the headmaster," his Tall Man added with an annoyed sound to his voice.

"Humph," was the tinier woman's only response.

"If you don't mind, we are here to say our apologies to the reprobates who started the whole mess last night," his daddy continued haughtily.

The tiny boy looked up unhappily at his daddy, but thought it better than to say anything. After all, his daddy had mentioned something about a demonstration.

"That's very polite of you, Severus," the woman said, looking suspiciously up at them.

"No trouble at all," his daddy answered with a toothy grin that made Harry grin too.

"Uh huh," the woman replied with a knowing look. "No permanent damage, young man," she said, wagging a finger at them. "I'll just be in my office if you need me."

She left them alone. Harry looked up at his daddy once more in anticipation of what would happen next.

"Let's go pay the piper, shall we?" His Tall Man answered with a smirk.

. . .

He walked them to the beds where the boys were, stopping at the foot of the closest.

"Mr. Brockley, Mr. Hurst and Mr. Stickley, I don't believe that I ever introduced you to my son," Severus said with a dark look at each of the Gryffindor boys in turn.

"Isn't that right?" He added with a bit of a menacing snarl. He'd teach them to mess with his boy.

"No sir," the boys responded quickly, in unison. Their faces were getting paler by the moment, and Severus was happy for it.

Turning the child in his arms around, he presented his son to them, stating in a clear voice, "This is my son, Harry Potter-Snape." He grinned as their faces paled even more, and the one to his right—Mr. Hurst—began trembling. "You might know him better as the 'Boy-Who-Lived," he added nastily, turning the child around to perch securely on his hip.

"Harry, tell the idiot boys that you're sorry for not letting me do my job as your father," he said, trading a secret grin with his son.

"Am sorry," his child said grudgingly, even with Severus's promise of impending doom.

"Do you accept his apology?" He asked the boys with a dangerous look.

The teenagers only hesitated for a moment before nodding and trying to apologize as well.

"Good," he answered in a low voice. "Now, to make sure that you will not forget about this anytime soon," he pulled out his wand and waved it at each of them. "This will help you to remember," he said with an evil smirk.

He was very proud of his son. The child managed to wait until they were safely back in their quarters before bursting out with delighted laughter.

He had transfigured each of their noses into pig snouts, and then added a charm that would keep them like that for the rest of the week.

"Now," he said, turning to his still giggling boy, "wasn't that much better?"

. . .

A few nights later . . .

"Daddy?" His son asked from where he was nestled up next to Severus in their bed.

"Harry?" Severus responded, pulling the boy up closer and flicking his wand to create a dim light around them.

"Why don't my mummy angel ever visit us no more?" Wide green eyes peered up at him, patiently waiting for an answer that he didn't have.

"I don't know," he said honestly.

"D'you think she don't like me no more?"

"Oh Harry, she loved you more than anything in the world. You were—and are—her most precious thing." It wasn't hard to talk about the love that Lily had had for her son. Lily had loved being pregnant and had loved being a mother.

"I was?" His tiny boy sounded amazed that such a thing could be possible.

"Yes," he answered emphatically, gently running his fingers through the lad's soft hair.

"Oh."

"Oh what?" Severus asked, quickly responding to the forlorn sound in his son's voice.

"Auntie said that no one could ever love me. And dat's why she and Uncle got stuck wit' me."

"Well, she lied," he answered vehemently, raging internally against the vile creatures that were the child's relatives. "I know for a fact that she loved you very much. Both your mummy and your daddy did," Severus added.

"My other daddy," his son corrected him with a pointed look.

"And this daddy does too," he felt obligated to clarify, lest the boy question that as well.

"This one?" His son poked him lightly in the side with a tiny finger.

"This one," he agreed, pulling his son up on his stomach to look at him closer.

"This one, daddy?" His son asked with a giggle, just before he attacked his ribs with his little fingers.

"No, this one!" Severus shouted, tickling the boy back, causing him to shriek with laughter.

It was only after the impromptu tickling attack had finished and they were laying in the dark once more, that his son added another thought to their conversation.

"I love you too daddy," the child said with a yawn, curling up tighter against him.

Severus felt a grin take over his face at his son's words, and was grateful for the security of the darkness around them.