Momentarily speechless, Severus automatically gathered Harry up in his arms, idly noticing that the boy had put on weight since that last time he had picked him up.

"Is he in danger from the Big Blue?" He asked, once Harry's arms and legs had situated themselves around his body.

"No Severus," Elena said, stepping forward. "It's not like you think. Not everyone dreams of the Big Blue, only a certain special few."

"Don't wanna be special," Harry mumbled into Severus' neck, making it tickle. "Just wanna be normal."

Elena reached out a hand to touch Harry, but hesitated at the last moment. "May I, Severus?"

"Elena wishes to touch you, Harry. Is that acceptable?" Severus murmured softly to Harry.

Another lengthy exhale against his neck and then Harry nodded. Elena stepped forward once more and then rested a few fingertips lightly atop his shoulder. At once, Severus could feel the air around them change as Elena's natural magic began gently probing them both.

Unexpectedly, Harry's body relaxed against his and he had to fight the urge to see if the boy had somehow fallen asleep. The magic around them continued to grow, and then without warning, his eyes also abruptly slid closed and the outside world faded completely away.

Darkness. Inky dark blue-blackness filling every corner of the world around him. Silence so powerful, it blocked out his every thought, his every breath—leaving only the thump thump thump of his heart beating in his ears.

He turned slowly in the space around him. Shapes were beginning to appear before him as his eyes gradually adjusted. A dark shape by his knees and he kneeled to find Harry curled up in a foetal position, eyes clamped shut as he shivered with what could only be fear. A tickle at the base of Severus' spine, and he looked upward into the massive face of a patiently observing creature.

Inwardly flinching, he steeled himself with the resolve of a man who had faced both a legion of Dark creatures and multiple years of unruly children.

"Who are you?" He asked, but nothing came from his mouth save a few bubbles.

Underwater, then, was his distant thought. The creature swam closer with a lazy flick of one large finned forearm, but he forced himself to remain still under its scrutiny. Their situation had all the makings of a dream, minus their means of arrival, and somewhere in his mind, he knew they were not really there.

The creature in front of him raised that same forearm, but this time it was pointed in a direction off Severus' line of sight. He followed the line of the arm with his eyes and then sucked in a sharp breath as he finally understood what the message was.

Eggs, a dozen perhaps, but they were certainly eggs and they were quite definitely dragon eggs. This creature, this watery expanse of seemingly nothingness . . . This was the home of Big Blue. Somewhere in his distant reaches of his mind, he felt that sentiment echoed by the benign presence of Elena.

Abruptly, reality shifted around them once more and suddenly Severus found himself blinking hard against the sudden brightness of day. He was standing on the edge of the lake near their cabin, but he wasn't alone. There, sitting on the bank a few feet from where he stood were the last two people he had ever expected to see: James and Lily Potter. Sprawled in-between them was none other than his ward, the boy who had so recently called him, "Papa."

Blinking hard against the wave of bitterness that threatened to rise in his gullet, he turned to give the dead and their son a moment of privacy, only to come face to face with Lily Evans, the small fiery eyed girl from his childhood.

"Hi Sevvy!" She gushed, running toward him until her arms were extended around his neck, her feet on tiptoes as the small girl that she had been reached out to the man that he had become.

"Merlin," he breathed, reaching around to gently pat her back. "What sort of rabbit's trail is this, Lily?" Never did it cross his mind that there was anyone but Lily Evans standing in front of him. He knew it was her.

"Madeline needs your help, Sevvy." Lily answered in an earnest voice after finally releasing the near strangling hold she had around his neck.

"Madeline?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.

"The dragon of the lake," Lily answered patiently.

"That's her name?"

Lily smiled at him and then said with a shrug, "For now. She changes it when she gets bored. If you were thousands of years old too, you'd probably change your name once in a while too!"

Severus couldn't help but smile back at her. "I've missed you," He said simply.

"And I you," She replied, reaching out a small delicate hand to touch his arm. Her touch sent chills through him. Abruptly he glanced back toward the shore of the lake to check on his Harry.

"He loves you, you know," Lily's voice was soft in his ear.

A small smile curled at the corner of his lips. "I love him." It was strange that such difficult words could fall so easily from his mouth.

"Madeline didn't mean to frighten him."

"Are you in direct contact with her?" Severus asked, turning slightly away from where Harry was still conversing with his adult sized parents.

"More of a representative of her interests," Lily said with a gentle smile. "I suspect Charlie Weasley could explain more, were he here. He works with us—the dragons—too."

"And are you a dragon now, Lily?" His eyes narrowed carefully in thought as he spoke the question.

"What's to say I wasn't always?" She answered with a bright laugh. "What's to say we all aren't?"

He shook his head in honest bewilderment. "I suspect you know a great more than you're letting on."

"Another day, when we meet again, perhaps I'll go into more detail. For now, it is enough to know that Madeline is in trouble and she has found it easiest to contact our Harry for help."

Severus felt a tingle in his heart at her words, especially when she said, "our Harry."

"Why is it so easy for her to contact him? Is it because of that Boy-Who-Lived farce?" He very nearly snarled, but managed to contain himself.

"It is because he is old when he is young, and young though he is old," Lily said, but Severus had a feeling it was the dragon speaking through her this time instead.

"Because of what he went through?"

"In part, yes. He has been through a great deal, but he has not been tainted by the darkness."

"Unlike me," was his bitter reply.

Lily smiled sadly at him. "Your taint has dissipated significantly in the past twelve years."

Blinking hard, he reached out and cupped her cheek gently. "Because of you. I am forever sorry, Lily."

"You have been forgiven, Severus. In taking in Harry, in loving him and in protecting him, you have done enough to be absolved of your guilt."

The figure in front of him was dissipating and he fought the urge inside himself to beg her to stay.

"Papa?" A voice said from behind him.

He turned and found Harry waiting for him by the lake near their cabin. The shadows had shifted around them and The Trail Guide and Elena were nowhere to be found.

"Is it okay that I called you Papa?" Harry stared up at him, green eyes harkening back to his mother.

Severus knelt down and reached his arms out for the boy. Harry immediately rushed forward and wrapped his own around Severus' neck tightly.

"Always, little one," He murmured. "Always."

Hedwig was waiting with a letter when they returned. After quickly scanning it anything malicious, Severus took a look at the return address and briefly scowled. Granger.

"Who's it from?" Harry quipped from beside him, leaning forward on his tiptoes to see the letter in Severus' hand.

"Granger," Severus answered disdainfully, handing the piece of mail over.

A series of emotions flickered across Harry's face at the news; including sadness, fear and longing.

"If she hurts you . . ." Severus trailed off. There wasn't a good way to say what he meant without scaring him.

"Maybe she wants to apologize," Harry whispered, lower lip quivering just slightly.

"We can hope," Severus said softly.

. . .

He went into his room to read the letter. He wanted to be alone in case—well, in case it was bad. He didn't want to cry again in front of Severus.

Not today, was Harry's firm thought. Maybe tomorrow, but not today, he added with a hysterical sort of giggle.

He went through his secret door and climbed into bed. A squeak at his elbow made him aware of Snitch's presence and he reached out and picked his friend up. He cradled him to his chest and stroked his soft back at the juncture of his wings, just the way he liked it. Snitch cooed for a moment and then with another squeak, he turned and looked up at Harry questioningly.

"Yeah," Harry sighed. "I am stallin'."

With one hand still on his friend, he reached into his pocket and pulled out the now slightly crumpled letter.

"Papa said," Here he giggled again, half nervously and half gleefully. "Papa said that he'd be mad if she says somethin' to hurt me."

He frowned at the idea of Hermione doing something to hurt him. They had been friends for nearly three years, and she was only his second ever friend. She was important—or at least she had been. And that's what made all of this so very painful.

His mind drifted over everything that happened that day. He supposed it was just another way of stalling, but this time Snitch didn't stop him. It had been scary to hear that the dragon in the lake was getting into his dreams. Did that mean that the dragon wanted to hurt him? That it wanted him to be even more afraid of going to sleep at night?

Did he just have some kind of target painted on his head that screamed out loudly to all the monsters in the area to come and mess with him?

But then, Elena had touched him and he—they'd gone back through all of his dreams again, and he'd gotten to see them in the presence of his Papa.

Not alone.

And seeing them again hadn't been so bad; in fact, he'd gotten another chance to see his parents and had even been able to broach the topic of having Severus as his Papa with them.

"We just want you to be happy, son," his dad had said.

And that, well, it had meant a lot to him.

He still didn't know how he and Severus had wound up back by the lake, but he figured Elena had something to do with it.

Or Big Blue, was the slightly terrifying thought. He liked the idea of the dragon being able to think and talk to them, but he wasn't as certain that he liked it having so much control over his life.

He groaned aloud and looked back down at the letter in his hand.

"I'm just making it worse, huh Snitch?"

Snitch squeaked an affirming sound and he groaned again.

"What if she tells me she hates me?" He whispered, closing his eyes tightly against the wave of rising fear.

Snitch squeaked and grasped the letter with his forepaws in an obvious attempt to pull it closer.

Slowly he slid a nail under the wax holding the letter closed, cracking it open with a barely audible snap.

"What if she only wrote to say that she can't be my friend anymore?"

Snitch scrabbled at the letter inside the envelope in an attempt to pull it out.

Harry sighed and slowly slid the letter out for them both.

"Dear Harry," he read aloud, taking some comfort in the familiar heading.

"I'm so . . ." he broke off with a sob of relief. "So desperately sorry, Harry. I should have seen that you needed me, but I didn't and now I can only think that this whole thing might have been avoided if only I'd been acting like a good friend instead of a prat."

Hastily, he wiped at his eyes and pulled his knees up to his chest. Snitch scrambled up onto his shoulder and he leaned into his furry little friend's soft body.

"Please forgive me. If you're happy, that's all that really matters, right? Please tell me you're happy and that the Professor is taking good care of you. Please write back and give me another chance. Hermione."

Snitch's wings covered his face as he cried.

. . .

"Hey dumbarse."

"Yeah you, Sirius. I'm talking to you. Wake up."

Sirius turned over.

"Get your lazy arse up now!"

Sirius scratched the side of his head and yawned.

"Oy! Dildo head! Get a move on!"

Sirius opened his eyes slightly. There was someone sitting beside his bed and it didn't look like Hadwyn. That was enough to rouse him and he abruptly sat up.

"'Bout time, you lazy piece of shite."

Sirius could only goggle wide eyed back at the person sitting next to him. It was James.

"What—?" He whispered, going pale.

"Do you have any idea how annoying it is to not be able to touch anything properly?" James asked, leaning back in the chair next to his bed.

"You're—you're dead," Sirius whispered.

"Very astute! Ten points to Gryffindor!" James snarked, rolling his eyes.

"I didn't know you had chosen to be a ghost," Sirius managed after sucking in a few needed breaths.

"Oh believe me," James sneered disdainfully. "This is only short-term. I'm here for one reason and one reason only."

At Sirius silence, James huffed and rolled his eyes again. "Really Sirius, this is why you ended up in Azkaban the first time around. I'm here for Harry's sake."

"I've been trying to get to him!" Sirius nearly shouted, more than a little frustrated from his time stuck in the Slytherin dungeons.

"No one can say that your heart isn't at least in the right place," James said with a snort.

"But?" Sirius whispered.

"Snivellous—as loathe as I am to say it," James glowered. "Sniv—SNAPE is not the problem."

"Of course he is! He stole Harry!"

"Merlin's balls, Sirius, if I could hex you right now, I bloody well would!" James shouted, standing up and glowering down at him.

Even as a ghost, James' anger was impressive and Sirius quickly found himself scooting backward in an attempt to avoid being hit by the violent pulses of magic swirling around the room.

"One," James spoke through gritted teeth. "Peter sells out to the Dark Lord. Two!" James growled, his face turning luminescent in his anger. "Harry grows up with the fucking Dursleys. Three! Remus rapes my son repeatedly. The boy is only thirteen, damn it!" James' voice broke and the magic surrounding them began to drop in intensity.

"Four," James coughed in an attempt to keep from crying. He hadn't liked emotional weakness when he had been alive and he sure as hell didn't care for it now. "Four, Harry finds out the truth. Five, Sni—Snape finds him. Snape holds him. Snape cares for him. Snape does for Harry what none of us ever did for him."

James took a deep breath, despite his utter lack of need for it.

"Six. I get Harry from Snivellous and we live happily ever after!" Sirius interjected, getting to his feet.

James only stared back at him. "Were you this fucking stupid when we were in school? Or is this Azkaban speaking?" He asked after a minute.

Sirius bristled. He was tired of people thinking he was an idiot! First Hadwyn, now James? What the hell had happened while he'd been incarcerated?

Almost as though reading his thoughts, James suddenly nodded and his lips curled up in a bitter parody of a smile.

"You want to know?"

Sirius nodded his head.

"Fine. It just so happens that Hadwyn is teaching a class right now. You remember where Lily's sister lived, don't you?"

Hesitantly, Sirius gave a nod.

"You're in luck. They happen to be home right now. Why don't you take a bloody stroll over there and ask them about Harry. Go find out what a fucking great time my son had growing up. Go on."

"What's the catch?" Sirius asked, his own voice sounding loud after the quietly spoken words of James' challenge.

"The catch?" James' lips twisted into a cold sneer. "The catch is that you either figure out the truth or I'm going to find a way to bludgeon you to death. Get me?"

Sirius flinched backward from his old friend's frightening expression. He wasn't sure if ghosts could kill and he didn't really want to find out.

"Well?"

"I'll go," Sirius nodded, feeling sweat beginning to gather in his armpits and at the small of his back.

"Then GO!" James suddenly howled, pushing him backward through space with a rough shove that left Sirius breathless and bruised.

Thunder clapped around him and then Sirius landed face down in someone's immaculately cared for rose bushes. A moment later, his shoes dropped atop his head with a dull thunk.

"Fuck," Sirius growled.