Snape instructed him to stay there in the guest room, and then disappeared, presumably to retrieve the necessary potions. Perhaps this was just a strange dream, Harry thought. Maybe he was still asleep in the classroom and had been given a strange reprieve from the nightmares that seemed insistent on plaguing him.

His pondering time was cut short as Snape returned through the open door with a bottle of deep purple potion and a small measuring device, as well as a tin of white cream that Harry was well familiar with.

Snape looked him up and down and then poured a small amount of the potion into the phial and handed it to Harry who drank it down.

"It will not make you sleepy, but will keep the dreams away for eight hours once you do go to sleep. This is the correct dose for your bodyweight, but if you continue to dream with it I will need to adjust it.

Harry nodded once. "Thank you." Then a thought struck him and he asked, "You're... you're not going to watch me sleep are you?"

Snape frowned at him and cut the sharp remark he was about to give about having nothing better to do than to sit there and watch him sleep.

"My room is the one next door Potter. Judging by what I saw in the classroom, you will shout out loud enough for me to hear if the potion is not working."

"Oh, good." He seemed relieved and Snape shook his head. He picked up the bruise balm and motioned for Harry to take his shirt off. When he did so he was surprised to find the boy's chest even worse than his back, and his arms were covered in fingerprints as well where the boy had been gripped hard.

"You are to apply this twice a day until the bruises are gone. I will cover your back since you cannot reach it."

Harry turned sideways and felt uncomfortable at somebody being able to see his bruises like this. It was like somebody seeing your private journal where you had written down all your private secrets, he thought.

He startled at first when the cold cream touched his back, and Snape pulled his hand back for a moment to give Harry time to deal with it. When Harry didn't complain, he continued. Surprised by the gentle touch of the man that hated him with a fierceness Voldemort probably couldn't muster, Harry bit his lip until he was done. He really didn't like having his back to the man in case the man decided to change his mind and try to toss Harry out, but soon it was over and Snape was handing him the tin and instructing him not to mess with his private belongings in the rest of the house, and to stay out of the other rooms in the quarters that had closed doors.

Harry agreed and then Snape was gone. How strange, Harry thought. Perhaps I'm tired enough that I've finally gone crazy. He finished applying the cream to his chest and arms, and then moved down his legs to the bruises he had not shown his Professor, and lay back on the soft bed, not bothering to turn the light off.

He'll toss me out, Harry finally decided after long moments in thought. He'll get mad at me and chuck me out by morning so I'd better hide the bruise balm. He reached over and stuck the tin into his bag so that he'd have it when he left in the morning and after that was finally comfortable enough to go to sleep. Somehow knowing what was going to happen next was a comfort, and he wondered how he could be so comfortable here in this place, when he had been so uncomfortable up in Gryffindor tower.

Unfortunately, Harry was unable to sleep through the night, and woke a few hours later.

* * *

If it weren't for the fact that he hadn't been able to sleep in the first place, he might have been annoyed to hear the muffled shouting coming from the next room. He stood up from where he had been laying fully clothed on top of the covers and strode out of the room and into the guest room where Harry rolled on top of the covers in the throws of terror.

"Potter. Potter wake up." He cautiously reached down touch the boy's shoulder, now covered in the T-shirt he was wearing, and Harry startled awake, laying there breathing hard as if he'd been running from someone.

"The dose was obviously too low," he continued, not waiting for the boy to start talking. "I will give you a small amount more." He measured out a tiny measure more and handed the phial to Harry again who downed it.

Harry lay there looking wide-awake and Severus crossed his arms. "Do not fight it Potter. You need to sleep in order to know if it will work or not."

Harry rolled over so that his back was to the man and Severus gave the boy a glare before taking his cue to exit the room and shut the door. A cold shoulder was the thanks he got for trying to help the whelp.

He pulled out a book back in his room to try and take his mind off of the night's events since he hadn't been able to sleep anyway. He couldn't stop seeing the fear in the boy's eyes, or the sick look of his pale face. The book failed to capture his attention, and instead of continuing with it, he retrieved the essay the boy had written as punishment for falling asleep in class.

Eyes scanning down the page it was obvious to him what torture it must have been for the boy to write such an essay, especially considering by the quality of it that he obviously knew the benefits of getting a proper amount of rest but could not manage it on his own.

It was only half an hour before he was back in the guest room administering another small amount of the potion, and he was back twice more for the same reason.

By morning Severus was thankful that it was Saturday and that he didn't have to go to class. Potter had been sleeping peacefully since the sun started to rise, and Severus wondered if they had finally figured out the right dosage.

Unwilling to wake the boy for breakfast now that he knew he needed the sleep so badly, Severus collapsed onto his own bed and fell asleep promptly, grateful that he wasn't woken again for hours.