Harry awoke after a night free from nightmares, well, half a night, really. He had the strangest feeling of warmth surrounding him, the feeling of being protected from any harm, if not a little disoriented about his surroundings.

  Hadn't he fallen asleep on his left side, cold and a little scared what with the thunderstorm? So why was he lying on his right, with such a strong sense of security, and dare he think it...love? It was an unusual, fresh, new concept for him. Yes, he must have been loved long ago, when he was a baby and his parents still alive, but his memories of his parents before they died came from dreams, and Harry could not be sure if those dreams were true or if they were the product of his desperate hope for a family. He would like to think that they were real, though. This, however, was new for him because he could actually feel, literally, being protected and loved by someone he trusted.

  As the nine-year-old turned to lie on his back contentedly, he felt something hard underneath his neck. Propping up on his elbows, Harry was a little startled to find himself right beside his guardian. He had initially assumed that it was the comfort of knowing that the Potions Master was beside him that gave them the sense of security. Harry did not expect Severus to be so close to him, as if he had hugged Harry to sleep the other night.

  Smiling sub-consciously to himself, Harry leaned in, close to touching the Potions Master's sleeping face and examined his guardian's features closely. He was taught not to come in close contact with his relatives the hard way, and so, was a little apprehensive about holding the Potions Master's hand when they went shopping initially. Hence, Harry took great joy in his guardian's small display of affection, hugging him when he had a nightmare and sitting on his lap when Severus read him a bedtime story. Of course, the Potions Master would never admit that he was gentle and caring towards little Harry.

  Instead of waking him up and demanding that he return to his room in the middle of his sleep, Severus had taken him in his arms and made sure he was well-covered before going back to sleep.

  "So this is what it means to be held and loved," Harry thought.

  He finally had someone to care for him, someone, unlike his relatives, who acted like a proper guardian, maybe even a father. It's like that fairytale his primary school teacher had once read to the class: An orphaned girl by the name of Cinderella, who had a fairy godmother looking out for her, coming to her aid when she most needed it.

  Harry giggled at the mental image of a sullen-looking Snape wearing a sparkling blue outfit, holding a wand that had a golden star at its tip, sprinkling bits of magic everywhere. Covering his mouth with both his hands, Harry rolled onto his stomach and reached out his hand slowly. He had always wondered what his guardian's distinct features were like up close.

  Tracing a finger over the Potions Master's forehead, Harry tried to smooth out the wrinkles where a frown had made itself permanent between Severus' eyebrows. After realising that his efforts were futile, Harry opened his hand and gently run them down the Potions Master's face, his fingertips touching his guardian's eyes, then down the bridge of the man's large nose and then very slowly to its pointed tip.

  Fascinated, Harry smiled even wider and continued his little game, taking absolute delight in figuring his guardian out, well, face-wise that was, and all the while oblivious to the fact that Severus was very much awake.

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  Severus had never been a heavy sleeper, unless, like the previous night, he was trapped in his own nightmare, or if he took one of his sleeping-inducing potions after a Death Eater meeting, which, thankfully, had not occurred for nine years, thanks to the little twerp exploring his face right now.

  It was amusing, to say the least, to find Harry examining his rather...unattractive looks...when he first became aware of his surroundings. So the crafty Potions Master silently waited until his ward had left his focus from his eyes before deciding to strike.

  "BOO!"

  Severus suddenly shot up from his sleeping position and pounced on Harry.

  "AAAARGH..." Harry screamed and fell on his back, jumping away from Severus to the other end of the bed, nearly falling off from the scare.

  He quickly covered his face with his hands, embarrassed, as his heart continued to pound wildly against his chest.

  Seeing his plan succeed, Severus could not help but laugh at Harry's reaction freely and heartily. He reached over and tried to pry Harry's hands away from his face, but the little tyke had it firmly plastered there. As Harry's heart calmed down, he could see the funny side of the situation and managed a small smile. He was elated to have made the usually emotionless and unmoved Potions Master laugh.

  "Daddeeee..." Harry groaned.

  It took him a few seconds to realise that he had just said the D-word without thinking.

  A shocked expression fell over the Potions Master's face. Had Harry just called him 'Daddy'? While he had come to care for the child, Severus never thought of claiming James and Lily's son as his own.

  Then again, hadn't he thought of providing little Harry with a family, a proper one, where he will be cared for and grow up being able to fend for himself? Perhaps he would have cursed the person who told him that in the future, he was going to have guardianship rights to the Potters' son last month, a lot had changed since then. He could now picture himself in the role Harry had called him - a father. He could see himself teaching Harry how to use magic, give him a bit of a head start before going to Hogwarts and more.

  There would be challenges, of course, many disastrous, dangerous escapades that Harry would no doubt be involved in and there would be times Severus would need to discipline Harry to keep him in line. However, Severus was willing to walk Lily Evans' son through his journey to adulthood and even beyond it. He had started to see Harry as his own - even if he may not have realised it - ever since the night he had cuddled...comforted, he most certainly did not cuddle...Harry and rocked him to sleep after a nightmare, promising that no harm would come to him.

  He fully intended to hold on to that promise.

  Jolted back to reality when Severus noticed Harry sniffing and mumbling something incoherent under his breath, he realised that he had not said anything for the past minute and Harry probably thought he was angry at him.

  Resting a hand on Harry's shoulder, he could not help but feel a wave of intense hatred for the Dursleys when his ward...no, his son...flinched back, as if expecting a slap or something worse. Conditioned reflex - result of many years of abuse, as Severus is oh-so familiar with. He wondered if anyone in the wizardry world would notice if Harry Potter's relatives died.

  No, even death was too much a gift for them. Severus would make them suffer, torture them to the fine line between sanity and insanity, back and forth between normality and madness.

  Shaking out of his fantasies for a while - he could revisit them again in the near future - Severus lifted the boy's chin firmly, staring into those shiny emerald eyes brimming with tears, and said gently, "It's alright, son."

  Those words had an opposite effect of what Severus had expected. Instead of joyfully smiling away the tears threatening to fall, Harry rushed into Severus' arms, crying his eyes out. Although a little stunned, Severus' hands automatically came around the boys' head and back, rocking him a little just like how he always did after Harry's nightmares and smiled inwardly, even as a few drops of tears started to fall on Harry's head, but the Potions Master could not bring himself to care.

  Harry was his now, and no one was going to take him away, not even if they killed the ex-Death Eater.

  Not even then.