"Truthful Dreams."
Harry dropped the vial into his palm. "Something tells me it won't stop my nightmares."
"It's not designed to."
"Then what good is it?"
"It has a number of uses," Snape murmured, passing a hand over his eyes as though he really didn't know where to begin. "As the name suggests, it focuses your dreams on factual rather than imaginative matters. It takes whatever experience is uppermost in your mind, and shows you absolute truth."
"You lost me," Harry admitted.
Snape paused to think. "You'd be surprised how much information your mind takes in about an event, Harry. Truthful Dreams will unlock your subconscious memories, bringing them out into the light of full awareness. I developed the potion to help me recall Death Eater meetings with greater accuracy, so that I could give the Order reports that were more highly detailed."
"Wouldn't a pensieve do just as well?"
"A pensieve shows me what I know I remember. The Potion shows me what I remember, but didn't know."
"I get it," Harry ventured, looking down the viscous dark fluid. "But Professor, why would I even want this? It sounds like it was useful for you, what with spying and all, but it makes nightmares worse, doesn't it? By making them more real?"
Snape flushed slightly. "I had to put in an emotional dampening agent for just that reason. It lets you see quite dispassionately all the truth there is to know. Even when you are awake again, and remembering your dreams, you'll be able to distance yourself from them. After you take Truthful Dreams, your nightmares won't trouble you nearly so much as before, awake or asleep." He shrugged, high color still dotting his cheekbones.
Harry was flushing too, but not with the slight embarrassment that seemed to be affecting Snape. The boy's reaction was anger. "It numbs nightmares? It helps you accept them and move on! Why didn't you think to offer this to me before?"
"Because you'd been having seer dreams," Snape snapped, sitting up straighter in his chair. "The potion hadn't been tested in such a case, and I do not experiment on students, not even on bloody irritating Gryffindors!"
That certainly took the wind out of Harry's sails. "Oh. Right. I guess that would be a problem. Sorry."
Snape stared at him, then gave a tiny shake of his head. "Don't be. I suppose it was a reasonable thing for you to wonder. At any rate, you haven't had a seer dream since before Samhain, so I see no problem if you wish to try Truthful Dreams, now."
"Will it stop my wild magic from lashing out?"
"Probably. You'll see the past with less emotion; therefore, you'll have less cause to panic."
Harry nodded. He didn't exactly want to remember his nightmares even better, but if the Potion helped him accept them and move on, it might be worth it. "All right," he agreed, standing up. "Is this a single dose vial?"
"Sit down," Snape directed. "You can't take it unsupervised the first time; you might be allergic to Purple Loosestrife. You'll have to sleep here tonight so I can observe you."
Harry hesitated. "Um... well, not to put you out or anything, but you could drag a chair into my room, couldn't you?"
"If we wake up Draco, he'll talk to me all night and keep you up."
"So? Cast Morpheus on him. Or me."
"I don't ply magic unless it's the best solution, Harry. You'll sleep here. End of discussion."
"What happened to negotiation?"
"I told you, sometimes you'd have to accept my decisions, did I not? It really is becoming more and more apparent to me that you have no idea how to be somebody's child."
"Yeah? Well I'm not your child yet, am I?" Harry challenged. "And besides, what makes you think you know so much about being somebody's parent? You're as new to this as I am!"
"True," Snape acknowledged. "I suppose we will have to learn by experience, you and I."
"You're big on that," Harry scoffed. "Learn by experience... You know, I bet I'd know more about potion-making by now if you'd ever tried demonstrating a new potion before you make us brew it and possibly blow ourselves to Mars!"
"And this is relevant to the current topic of sleeping arrangements, how?" Snape snidely inquired.
It wasn't really. It was just a distraction, and Harry knew it. He said, though, "You might lay off, that's all. You said it yourself: I've never been anybody's child before, not really, so how about you let me actually have some experience to learn by before you expect me to just have this all down pat? I mean, come on! I'm not even adopted yet!"
"Point taken," Snape calmly conceded, though his lip was still twisted. "Now, about the Truthful Dreams. I need you to decide if you wish to take it."
Taking it meant sleeping in Snape's bed, and possibly remembering more than he'd care to about Samhain. Or Darswaithe. Or Lucius Malfoy. Or Voldemort, Cedric, Sirius... the list was pretty much endless. But not taking it might mean wild magic. What if Draco wasn't as quick to wake him, next time? What if he did light the castle on fire, or something?
That raised another issue in his mind.
"If I say no," Harry ruefully realized, "you're going to insist I sleep here anyway, aren't you? Because you're worried another nightmare tonight might make me lose control, again."
Snape merely inclined his head.
"Oh, all right, fine," Harry decided. "So I do drink the entire vial, right?" He broke the wax seal and pulled out the stopper.
"Yes. Ah, Harry. Do you really wish to sleep in your clothes?"
"I already was," Harry pointed out, and then felt bad. He hadn't meant to complain, and rushed to cover it with, "Anyway, I thought we didn't want to wake up Draco."
"At times, magic is the best solution," Snape murmured, leveling his wand at the open doorway. "Accio Harry's pajamas!" He tossed them to the boy, then incanted something at the wall. A door appeared. "Go change in my bathroom."
"Is it as fabulous as Slytherin legend says?" Harry joked, pulling open the door. "Oh, I guess it is. Nice tub. Not as many taps as in the Gryffindor Prefects' bathroom, but still, nothing to sneeze at. Well, not unless Sneezing Syrup comes pouring out of one of them--"
"You have an important interview tomorrow," Snape observed, "and your sleep has already been disrupted once. I suggest you stop chattering inanities and get to bed."
Harry glanced back at him. "If you sit up all night watching me, you won't be at your best, either."
"I, however, am well-used to going days without sleep."
"I guess you would be, what with Voldemort and all," Harry realized. "All right." Once he was in the bathroom with the door closed, it didn't take him two minutes to wash his face and change into the pajamas. The prospect of going out there in them and climbing into Snape's rumpled bed really bothered him. The whole situation was too... well, parental, maybe. Or maybe the problem was that he was really the wrong age to be doing something like that. If he was four years old, it'd be all right, but sixteen? On the other hand, there was that wild magic to consider. It was only prudent for somebody to watch him and make sure the potion really did repress it. For all that though, he felt really bad about turning Snape out of his bed, even if his teacher was being perfectly agreeable.
When Harry emerged from the bathroom, he began to feel a little bit better. The bed was made up for him, which made sliding in somehow feel less... personal, and what was more, Snape wasn't even watching him fold the covers down and get in. He was at a desk, writing something on a long scroll.