"Please, please just make it stop." Harry held tight to his Defense Professor's arm as he was startled awake by his own screams, tears streaming unbidden down his eyes.

"Make what stop Harry? The dreams?" It was four am and the boy had only been sleeping for an hour before he'd started to fidget and then scream out in his sleep. Severus had not needed to wake him because he'd startled himself awake. Already in his arms, Severus gripped the child tight to give him a sense of security, and the boy latched on to him as if he would disappear.

"I can't take it anymore," Harry said with a shaky breath. "I'm so tired. I just want it to stop." His hands shook like his voice and Severus could sense the exhaustion in him.

"What was your nightmare about?" A question he'd asked him countless times before on other nights and never gotten an answer to. But Harry was here now, wasn't he? He'd made the trek all the way down through the castle, and Severus hoped that meant he was ready to speak about it. As if sensing his line of thought however, Harry let go of Severus' arm and scooted away a couple of feet to the other end of the couch, wrapping his arms around himself for safety.

Severus wanted to sigh, but withheld as he realized that the child had never put his whole trust in anyone before, possibly because he'd never had the chance. He also realized the possibility that the child may never place his trust in someone.

Harry was staring into nothingness towards the coffee table and Severus cleared his throat. "You cannot be helped if you are not willing to be helped."

This seemed to gain the boy's attention as he looked up, seeming dazed and confused. "What?"

"If the dreams were caused by the dark lord, this can be remedied with Occlumency lessons. If however they were caused by something else, the only way to be rid of them is coming to terms with them, which you obviously have not been able to accomplish on your own. It would seem then that you need help, which I suspect you already know seeing as you are sitting on my couch in the dead of night." There, that wasn't terribly harsh, was it? For him it was positively docile.

Harry turned his attention back to the coffee table, a troubled look accompanied by his brows knit together slightly in consternation. He was silent as he continued to hug himself protectively.

It had been a full ten minutes before Severus prepared himself to fight his dizziness and rise to use the loo, and he was beginning to believe the boy would not speak when an uncertain voice drew him from his thoughts.

"Sometimes the dreams are from Voldemort. I can see what he's doing... usually a dark house or alley... I think he's been in America for a few weeks."

Severus finally did sigh. The evil man had indeed been in North America for nearly a month trying to gain new followers, but there was more to Harry's story, and he was determined to hear it.

"And the rest of the dreams?"

Harry looked up with confusion and hurt in his eyes that Severus wasn't prepared for. "I don't understand it," Harry said, shaking his head. "I shouldn't be dreaming about them. I haven't been back for so long." He closed his eyes and shivered, obviously recalling his most recent nightmare, and Severus waited quietly to see if anything else would be forthcoming. Years of being a Head of House, especially with his Slytherins, had taught him that creating an uncomfortable silence usually prompted those around him to speak anything and everything on their mind.

After another moment of staring off at nothing in particular, Harry said again, "I shouldn't be dreaming about them."

His head of house instinct kicked into full gear then and Severus, although he wasn't sure exactly what they were talking about yet, asked, "Are they why you did not wish to return?"

Harry hugged himself tighter and nodded. "I couldn't go back after Sirius. The summer after Cedric dying was... I just couldn't do it. Things only got worse when I couldn't finish the chores and... and with the dreams of him dying again. If I woke anyone there was trouble."

Sure now that Harry was talking about the Dursleys because there was no one else he stayed with who would cause him any trouble, Severus asked carefully, "What happened if you woke someone?"

Harry sat up straighter and put on a face Severus could only classify as stoic. It was a face that said that Harry didn't care, although judging by the way he tried to protect himself and had spent the last half hour fighting to keep control over his emotions, Severus knew he did care.

"The belt with the buckle... on my back. Sometimes a black eye or bloody lip. No food for a few days after."

"And did you wake someone often?"

Harry looked up at him again and Severus saw the boy's lip tremble for the briefest moment before he masked his face again. It was a skill worthy of Severus' own efforts to hide his emotions on a day to day basis. "Every night."

The ever growing knot in Severus' stomach tightened then with the implications. The child in front of him, whom he'd spent the summer protecting and healing had possibly spent an entire summer being abused and neglected. From personal experience Severus knew that if one summer had been that way, they all had been, and he wanted to shudder then knowing that Harry had spent nearly ten years with these people before coming to Hogwarts.

"And you've been dreaming about them recently?"

"I used to dream about them all the time... usually it only lasts for a couple of months after I get back to school and then only every once in a while. But I didn't go back this summer. I couldn't after Sirius! So I don't know why I'm remembering everything in my dreams now."

"Do you fear being sent back?" Even after he said it he knew it was a stupid thing to ask. Of course the boy was.

Harry gave him a frown for his trouble and then said, "Well I've got no place else to go have I? I'm never given the choice, even when I ask. I'd rather live out on my own than be in the midst of a family I can never be a part of."

Perhaps in realization of what he'd just revealed, Harry's eyes widened slightly for a moment and then he looked away quickly, which meant this must have been a piece of truth he'd thought about often and kept private for a long time. Severus' stomach tightened again when he realized that Harry had run away to avoid going back to a family he didn't feel a part of, and had then run away a second time, from his own home with Luna, perhaps for the same reason. Did Harry really want to be part of their family? He had seemed very touched at Luna's offer.

Realizing that he himself had been silent for a few minutes now, Severus said quietly, "I believe both types of nightmare can be controlled via Occlumency."

"I have no one to teach me," Harry said sounding defeated. He was no longer hugging himself, but was playing with his hands now.

"I believe I made a promise to you," Severus said with sincerity. "That you would no longer have to do things alone, did I not?"

Eyes making contact with the darker ones of the older man, Harry bit his shaking lip. What? The man was going to keep his promise to him? It was rare that anybody would make a promise to him, and rarer yet that someone would keep one.

"Can we hide all the jars of cockroaches?"

Severus frowned before he realized that the boy was giving a rare smile, and remembered that he had once flung a jar at the boy's head for snooping in his own private memories stored in a pensive. Feeling bad that he had once tried to do damage to him, Severus cleared his throat again and said, "That will not be necessary." Battling his fatigue and dizziness Severus rose and disappeared, coming back a few minutes later with a glass of something.

"Due to the nature of your disturbing dreams and in the intensity of the ones you have endured tonight, I believe it prudent to begin lessons now. Drink this."

Harry took it, and trusting that the man who had healed him for a month over the summer would not poison him, he drank the clear, tasteless liquid down.

"It is a watered down version of dreamless sleep potion. This is how most Occlumency students begin to learn to clear their minds. With this potion you will be awake but will begin to feel in your mind what it means to occlude it. It will not be completely occluded, but you will learn to get a feel for this and with my help will be able to suppress the rest of your thoughts and emotions."

Harry frowned and said, "It feels like a zombie..." He shut his eyes tight as he felt certain things slipping from his mind and tried to hold on to them, but couldn't. It was strange because he thought he should be feeling in a fog just now, but was feeling sharp and clear, despite his fatigue. The only difference was, there weren't a million distressing things running around his mind and fighting for space and attention.

"Look into my eyes," Severus said, sitting on the couch facing Harry now. "Do not attempt to block me from your mind. I will enter it and help you to occlude the rest of your stray thoughts so that you may go to sleep. Do you understand?"

"Yes." Harry stared into the man's eyes, and while he tried to keep them open, he was so tired and could not. He wasn't yelled at though, and he could feel a calming, strong presence in his mind. Suddenly Harry had the strangest sensation that he was standing in a vast plain of nothingness where he could see each thought that still roamed his mind. Snape didn't say anything, but Harry could feel the man gently ushering stray thoughts aside, as if he were tucking them away, each into a separate closet door, or perhaps tucking them into bed. Harry laughed internally at the thought of Snape tucking anything into bed and could feel the consternation of the other man as he heard Harry's thoughts.

The more thoughts that were tucked and hidden away, the more sleepy Harry felt, and before he knew what had happened, or if he was still awake or asleep, Harry had fallen away from the world of the conscious, and for the first time in ages, into a dreamless world where he could become fully rested.

He would never know that Severus Snape had fallen asleep on the other end of the couch as he finished his exhausting work, a strange feeling inside as he knew he was finally keeping an old promise.

* * *

Ron was worried when Harry didn't show up for classes in the morning. He double checked the dorm and whole of Gryffindor tower before checking in the Hospital Wing. While he and Harry had fought a week ago and not spoken since then, he still felt protective and worried for his friend, and was distressed at the thought then that the last time they couldn't find him, he'd run away.

"He's not gone you know," Ginny told Ron quietly at lunch when Hermione still hadn't shown up because she was searching for Harry in other parts of the castle she thought he might be.

"How do you know?"

She gave him a serene smile, one worthy of Luna, and said, "He'd take me with him if he went. I'd be gone too."

Ron narrowed his eyes, suddenly feeling snarky and still irritated with his friend. "He left you last time, didn't he?"

"That was before he knew I'd go with him. He promised Ron. Harry's never broken a promise, and you know that."

"Yeah, I know that," he sighed. Harry Potter, loyal to the end. It was the redeeming quality in his friend that most saw when they chose to ignore the rest of him, other positive qualities and negative ones.

"Where is he then?"

Ginny looked up to the staff table then and said, "Did you see who else is missing?"

Ron followed her gaze and shrugged. "So? Professor August subbed for him today. He's probably sick."

With a raised brow Ginny said, "Sometimes I wish you'd see what's right in front of you. You're Harry's best friend and you don't see what's really going on with him most of the time."

Ron hit his forehead and face with an open hand and let it slide down his face in frustration with his sister. It wasn't as though he didn't try to understand Harry. He and Hermione spent hours trying to figure him out. They were pretty positive at this point that Harry had run away because he was having trouble dealing with Sirius' death and didn't want to go back to his awful relatives. He had to be given credit for something.

"Come on Ron," she said gently. "Think about it. Professor Snape found Harry over the summer and took him home and took care of him. When Harry ran away a second time Professor Snape brought him back and healed all his injuries. Don't you think they might have grown close over the summer?"

"Harry and Snape? No way!"

Ginny raised her brows again in that way she had of saying she knew something he didn't and his shoulders fell with uncertainty. "You think so?"

"Harry's never had parents like we've had... never had a family. I know we think of him as part of ours and I know he thinks of us as family too, but it's not the same as having someone to trust and confide in and seek advice from. Don't give me that look Ronald. I know we all give each other advice, but it's not the same. Just like you go to dad for advice you wouldn't ask for from mum or me, and you ask Fred and George about stuff you'd never ask Hermione or Harry about. You fall back on different people for different things, and Harry's never had a parent to fall back on."

Ron frowned in thought. He'd known since Cedric had died that Harry had been off. He'd had nightmares all year after Cedric, and just when he seemed to be pulling through, Sirius had died and Harry had sunk right back down to the bottom. His nightmares had only seemed to grow worse as well. He'd seen Harry sick up three or four times now after a particularly bad nightmare, and knew that no matter what he himself had tried, he'd never been able to properly console his friend.

"You really think Snape is helping him?"

"Harry told me some things. He was very upset when Professor Dumbledore just came and took him to bring him to the Burrow. He was finally feeling settled and then he got moved around again without a choice. I know he thinks of Luna like a sister now. It only makes sense that he might be looking to Professor Snape for some sort of guidance."

Ron gave Ginny a sideways glance then and said, "He can always have our parents."

She hit him playfully on the arm then and he relaxed with a small grin. "How'd you get to be so smart for a little sister anyway?"

"Don't know, just consider yourself lucky you've got me." She grinned, and Ron bent his head as his cheeks reddened. Someday she'd thank him for being the smarter older brother, he'd make sure of it. And someday he hoped to regain Harry's trust and make him realize that no matter what, he'd always be there for him.

* * *

Harry was a little surprised to find that he'd been allowed to sleep until noon and miss all of his morning classes, as well as lunch. Professor Snape it turned out had also skipped classes for the day, which meant that he must have told the other staff why.

"Does everyone know?" Harry asked as he ate a sandwich handed to him by his Professor. He paused then as he internally had to refrain from thinking of him as anything more... father was the word unbidden that had jumped into his mind, and he struggled to let the word go.

"I told Minerva that you were sick and recovering in my guest quarters."

"She didn't think it was... suspicious?"

Severus rolled his eyes. "I practically announced to the staff that you were under my care and protection when I saved you from Mr. Filch. While Horace seems to believe I am only as fond of you as everyone else, Minerva has insisted on ribbing me about it since then. She did not question me however when I told her you had stayed the night with me. Only order members know that you stayed the summer with me, and as such Order members do not question actions taken to protect other members.

Harry swallowed the bite he'd been chewing and stared at his Professor. "I'm... I'm a member of the Order?" He'd practically begged to be let into the Order last year, all the way up to when Sirius had died.

With another eye roll Severus said, "You've been a member of the order since the day the prophecy was given about you Potter. You know as well as any other Order member how integral your role is to be in the downfall of the dark lord. Whilst some may wish to protect your innocence, it is not theirs to say when or how you join the Order. Your life depends on information and it is no ones right to keep information from you involving you."

"I- I thought you didn't want me to be a part of it. You were always so-" he was going to finish with mean but decided against it.

"Yes well," Severus cleared his throat. "I have always been one of the proponents of you being told what you need to survive. Loath as I am to say it, along with Black, Lupin, and a handful of others including Mr. Weasley." Harry wondered how much fighting he must have caused without even knowing it between Mr. and Mrs. Weasley then, because he knew for a fact that Molly Weasley had spoken out against him knowing anything on several occasions.

"Now, about your Occlumency lessons."

Harry's attention was drawn back to the man on the other side of the small kitchen table again.

"Until you can occlude your mind on your own, it would be wise to have lessons once a day, perhaps even twice, but especially before bed."

"How can we do that? Filch tripped me coming down here last night and I'm sure to get detention or get caught by some Slytherins if I keep coming down here."

"I have thought on this already. If you should need to come to the Dungeons to see me, and are caught, you will say that you are serving detention with me, even, in the middle of the night," he added. As for lessons before bed, I will meet you in a classroom or guest room near Gryffindor tower each night. The Headmaster has already agreed that with your visions of the dark lord that it is necessary to continue with these lessons.

Harry looked away then with a frown on his face, and Severus noticed that the top of the boy's ears had turned slightly red.

"Is there something you wish to add?"

Harry looked back up and fought with himself to tell the truth. He'd told the truth the night before, hadn't he? And look how it had ended up... pretty decently he had to admit. He'd been treated with respect and had finally gotten a full night's rest. And a promise had been kept.

"I hate that he has something to do with everything involving me. Whenever he steps in I don't get a choice. Everything's ‘for my benefit' but I know it's not. There's no way that the Dursley's were ever to my ‘benefit.'"

Severus nodded. "Even so, he is the Headmaster at this school and the head of the Order of the Phoenix. Things involving students on school grounds such as extra lessons are generally first approved by him, and things involving the dark lord are also run by him. It is your misfortune that you are in the middle of both the man's school and the man's battle with evil."

It made sense but feeling sulky Harry said, "It still doesn't mean I'm his property. I don't want him to know anything about me."

Figuring as much, Severus had kept as much about Harry quiet as he could. It was not a secret that he had protested the Headmaster taking Harry back to the Burrow however, and thus Albus knew that Severus had taken it upon himself to protect and look after Harry, promise to Lily or no promise.

"I have not told him anything you have told me, and will not reveal anything you do not wish me to."

Harry looked up, amazed again for what must have been the tenth time in the last 24 hours. "Promise?" he asked tentatively.

Severus nodded, and Harry went back to his sandwich with a small, satisfied smile. How he had gotten two promises (three really if you counted the one he'd made to Lily) from the man, and had gotten him to keep two of them already he'd never know. He hoped things would stay this way though. He wasn't going to give it up easily if it came down to it, that was for sure. Harry would continue to hold on to all he thought was safe.