Harry hadn't any nightmares since they'd left Hogwarts so he was caught off guard when his pleasant dreams dropped down into the shrieking atmosphere of the Dursley household.

When Harry was very young he learned that Aunt Petunia didn't like him. Uncle Vernon had tried, several times, to be rather decent to the child, but Petunia would start screaming and it was just easier for him to ignore Harry. If Petunia's behavior towards her nephew became too difficult for Vernon to handle, he'd run off to work, or the nearest bar for a beer until it was safe to come home.

Vernon did yell, though, if Harry did something wrong. His voice was thunderous and often caused the plaster to rain down from the ceiling like dust. Dudley was able to run away when Vernon yelled, but Harry couldn't, and without fail, after Vernon was finished yelling, Petunia would screech at her nephew and flail her arms about, but she hadn't hit him. Not yet.

At age five, Petunia hit Harry in the head with a frying pan because he broke a favorite gravy bowl of hers when he was making dinner. He couldn't remember feeling any pain from the frying pan striking his skull, but he had felt awfully sick to his stomach. For the entire night and the next day, his head hurt a lot and his stomach threatened to empty itself. He spent a very miserable, two days curled up in his cupboard.

In his dream, the gravy boat fell from his slippery fingers and crashed to the kitchen floor. Harry knew the frying pan was going to hit him in the back of the head before he could even begin to apologise. When he tried to run and avoid the pan, long, pale, thin fingers gripped his upper arm. The pan glittered like silver...

"No! Not my Harry!" screamed a red haired woman with green eyes just like his. She tried to reach out towards him, but she was being held back by silver faced creatures in black. Petunia was in the background, screeching horribly with laughter.

"So this is the brat foretold by prophecy that would kill me." Harry was turned abruptly so that he faced the man with burning eyes. His skin was a sickly pallid, and his black hair was thinning. "Harry Potter." With a wave of his wand, he cast a strange curse. Green light burst forth from the wand and his mother screamed.

Harry tried to scream, too, but his throat was frozen. The evil man with the burning eyes breathed down into Harry's face. "No father. No mother. And now, no Harry Potter."

As the green light wrapped itself around him like a demonic shroud, Harry finally found his voice outside of the nightmare and screamed. He shot awake, throwing himself from the tangle of his covers and onto the floor. The creatures in black with silver faces stood by his window, and the red eyed man stood over him. Harry scrambled away from the ghostly images from his nightmare on his hands and knees. Once he reached the short hallway, he headed straight for his father's bedroom.

As he burst through the door, he wailed, "Daddy! Save me!"

Severus was already awake as he'd heard his little child's terrified scream. Over and over Harry exhorted his father to save him as he threw himself into his father's arms. He couldn't get close enough to his father and wrapped his short legs around his father's waist and buried his head in his father's shoulder hoping the awful images would leave.

Severus did his best to comfort the trembling little boy by drawing up his covers over him. He kept Harry close since it was unlikely he'd be able to peel the child from his frightened grip for several minutes. He also didn't try talking to him, yet. He tightened his arms around his son and whispered soothing nonsense in his ear.

A tentative knock came on his door and he looked up expecting to see Albus, but it was Echo. He was about to snap at her interference when she asked softly, "Would some tea help, Severus?"

"Hot chocolate, but would you look in upon Albus first, please? I'm sure he heard Harry screaming," replied Severus.

"Daddy, don't go!" wailed Harry.

"I'm right here, child," he spoke very softly. "I'm not going anywhere."

Echo looked in Albus room just as he was attempting to rise from his bed. He saw Echo in the light from the hallway. "I heard Harry. Has he had a nightmare?"

"Yes. It seems to have been a very frightening one. He's in Severus' room right now. I'm going to make hot chocolate. Would you care for some?"

"Yes, please, Echo. I'll make my way out to the living room."

She saw the older wizard's thin arms shake as he tried to pull himself out of his bed. Without asking, Echo went to help Dumbledore. Putting her arm around his waist, she helped him to stand up and supported him until she summoned his cane. While Albus leaned heavily on his cane, she helped the older man into his deep red velvet dressing gown and then helped to slip a pair of slippers on his feet.

"Thank you, child," said Albus thankfully.

Echo disappeared into the kitchen and Albus slowly made his way to Snape's bedroom. He looked in.

"Severus?" asked Albus softly.

"Nightmare," replied Snape. "A bad one it seems." Harry's sobs were turning into hiccups.

"We'll be out in the living room with the hot chocolate, my boy." Albus turned away, leaving Snape to take care of his son.

"Harry," Snape said softly, "will you tell Daddy what happened now?"

"It's so... (hic) s'cary, Daddy," he rubbed his cheek against his father's cheek and clutched his father's pyjama shirt tightly.

"I know it is, child. I heard you waken from it. Tell me, was the red eyed-man in your dream?"

Harry nodded. "And Aunt Petunia! She was gonna hit me and then there were demons with silver faces all in black. They held...! I saw...! Green light killed her and she screamed!"

Severus suppressed the shudder that wanted to run through him. Harry had dreamt of his mother's death at the hands of Voldemort. Suddenly Harry's fingers tangled in Snape's hair, pulling painfully. Holding back a rebuke, he carefully untangled the child's fingers from his hair and removed his wand from beneath his pillow. He summoned the stuffed Opaleye Dragon that Draco had given Harry for Christmas. He then nudged the toy into Harry's arms. Harry finally relaxed his death grip on his father and curled himself around the stuffed toy.

Laying on his side and propped up by his elbow, Severus carded the fingers of his other hand soothingly through his son's dark hair. After several minutes, he asked gently, "Would you like to have some hot chocolate to scare away the rest of your nightmare, child?"

"Don't go far?" asked Harry plaintively.

"I'm not going anywhere, child. Let me get my robe and slippers on, and then we'll go join Albus and Echo for hot chocolate." He slid carefully out of bed and saw Harry grab his pillow close to himself and the dragon. Not taking his eyes off his son, Severus summoned his dressing gown, threw it on, belted it, and slipped his bare feet into his slippers. Grasping the extra quilt he kept folded at the end of his bed, he unfolded it and then wrapped it around Harry. He coaxed the pillow out of the little boy's hands and then lifted the swaddled child up into his arms and out into the comforting light from the large fireplace in the living room.

Snape seated himself on the sofa with Harry occupying his lap. He cradled Harry's head and shoulders in one arm. Echo brought a cup of hot chocolate over to Harry and helped him to wrap his fingers around the cup. His hands were still trembling so his father wrapped his own large hands around his son's in order to steady the cup.

Harry looked at Echo who had crouched down in front of himself and his father. "I'm not a baby," he whispered.

"Certainly not. Nightmares frighten everyone and that includes grown-ups," she replied softly and then moved to sit beside Snape. "Drink the chocolate, sweetheart. It helps take away nightmares."

Harry sipped obediently and leaned back against his father's shoulder. "Dad," Harry said quietly after several minutes of concentrating on the sweet drink. "I never knew who she was, but that was my mum."

Snape nodded. "Your mother, Lily, was a very brave woman, Harry. She sacrificed herself to save you. Her love protected you when Tom Riddle tried to kill you with the same spell."

"He didn't, though. He was screaming and he was soooo angry and my scar hurt."

"Did it hurt only in your dream, Harry?" Snape asked worriedly.

"Uh huh. In the dream," Harry confirmed. He then pushed some strands of hair out of his face and Echo stared at him.

"It's gone!" she exclaimed.

"What is?" asked Harry.

Severus tipped Harry's head up slightly and he moved aside the long hair. To his disbelief the child's forehead was unblemished. "Your scar is gone, Harry."

"Oh. When I was running away from the silver faced men in my bedroom, my mum touched it. She took it away and told me to go to you, so I did."

"Remarkable," murmured Albus. "I daresay, my child, I don't think you'll have anymore nightmares of Voldemort."

Severus narrowed his gaze in warning at the older wizard. "Don't say something like that to my son, Albus. You can't promise him those nightmares will disappear."

"Oh, but I can," asserted Dumbledore firmly. "That scar was a curse scar. As you well know, there is almost nothing that can remove a curse scar."

"Love," interjected Echo. "Blandin's Essays on Protean Charms and Curse Scars posed the theory that it was only pure love that could remove such scars."

Harry smiled at that. "My mum really loved me."

Severus nodded. "That she did, Harry, but it doesn't necessarily mean the nightmares are gone for good." Inwardly, Severus wondered if the ghost of Lily had appeared to Harry. It was possible...

Harry took a long sip of his cocoa. "I think the evil wizard is gone, Daddy... uhm, dad. It sort of feels like he blew up."

Severus snorted, recalling that that was exactly what had finally finished off the Dark Lord. Harry had literally blown him up.