Decorum, Harry sensed. Right. He should have remembered that Snape knew all about it. He slid into the bed and arranged the pillows how he liked, then with a glance at Snape, uncorked the vial again and drank the Truthful Sleep Potion. Ugh. As thick as honey it was, but the flavor was more what you might expect from swamp muck. Or worse. Two swallows and it was done, but downing that second swallow took almost as much willpower as Harry had.
Snape came to sit beside him, a glass of water in his hand. Harry took it gratefully, then wiped his mouth with his sleeve.
Feeling a bit unnerved, he lay down in the bed and closed his eyes. Moments after that, he was asleep and dreaming, but not of Samhain, or Darswaithe, or Lucius Malfoy. For all his nightmare before, those weren't really what was most on his mind now. Something else was. Something he thought he'd never have.
More to the point, something he'd thought he'd never had.
A real family.
He had been part of one... a long, long time ago. He knew that, but he'd never been able to remember it. Truthful Dreams changed all that for Harry, opening up to his sleeping mind images he'd absorbed during his first year of life.
He saw his mother's face peering down at him, her mouth making cooing noises as her arms rocked him back and forth. He heard his father clapping with delight when he toddled forward on uncertain feet. He saw them both, smiling, tucking covers around him in his crib as they put him to sleep.
Truthful Dreams... and the truth he learned was one he'd longed for ever since he'd realized that children weren't supposed to live in cupboards:
Once upon a time, Harry Potter had been dearly, tenderly loved.
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Coming Soon in A Year Like None Other:
Chapter Forty-Three: Family Matters
Comments very welcome,
Aspen in the Sunlight
Chapter 43: Family Matters
http://archive.skyehawke.com/story.php?no=5036&chapter=43
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A Year Like None Other
by Aspen in the Sunlight
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Chapter Forty-Three: Family Matters
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Harry stretched in the bed, a little disoriented when he opened his eyes and saw the unfamiliar room. Then he remembered. The nightmare about Darswaithe, the talk with Snape.
Truthful Dreams.
Sitting up, he noticed that he was alone, but before he could so much as reach for the clothes he saw neatly folded on a chair, Snape was walking through the open door to look down at him. "How was your night?"
"Oh, fine."
Snape sat down next to him and raised an eyebrow, his deep voice insistent when he asked, "Would you care to elucidate? I can't in good conscience give you more of the potion unless I know what effect it had on you, although I think it's safe to say you aren't allergic to Loosestrife." He smirked a bit. "If you were, you'd be covered in green boils by now."
"You might have warned me about that," Harry murmured, then yawning, detailed, "Your warnings about the potion... er, repressing emotion weren't quite accurate, you know. It only represses negative emotion. I had some nice dreams at first and didn't feel distanced at all." The look of surprise on Snape's face took Harry aback. "You didn't know it worked like that?"
Then he realized the truth.
And what an awful truth it was.
"You've never dreamed of pleasant memories?" And the corollary. "You don't have any?"
"Don't waste sympathy on me," Snape half-snarled, skirting the question even as his non-answer gave a lot away, all the same.
Snape's a private person, Harry remembered telling Darswaithe. Snape would want me to shut up. But he didn't. "That can't be right," he quietly asserted. "You must have had some good things happen in your life."
Snape's black eyes smoldered, but his voice was cool. "I remember feeling enormously happy and proud of myself when I took the Dark Mark," he admitted, snidely adding, "Would that be the sort of memory you had in mind?"
"What about when you were brave and strong enough to leave all that?"
"By then," Snape scathed, "I was a broken man."
Harry closed his eyes to avoid seeing the accusation written on Snape's face. He should have listened to his instincts and halted these questions at the outset. "I'm sorry, sir."
Snape was silent for a moment. "You said you had nice dreams at first," he finally went on, his voice calmer. "Am I right in thinking you also had some species of nightmare?"
"Yeah," Harry admitted, remembering. "Several. The potion does make those easier to bear. I mean, last night when Draco woke me I thought I might actually sick up. But now I feel all right, even though I can remember everything really well." His brow furrowed. "Talk about details. Truthful Dreams must have come in really handy for reporting to the Order."
"Samhain?" Snape tensely questioned.
"No, just the Dursleys," Harry answered, frowning. "Awful stuff. But don't worry. I'm all right. What time is Thistlethorne coming?"
"Ten," Snape gave him a twisted smile. "I had to cancel classes again. If your fellow students knew why, you'd be a hero all over again."
"Good they don't know, then," Harry sighed. "I get enough worshipful blather--" Realizing what he'd said, he quickly amended, "I didn't mean I wanted this to be a secret, sir."
Snape though, didn't appear bothered either way. "Who you tell, and when, and how, is entirely up to you. The staff will all be immediately informed, of course." When Harry nodded, Snape went on, "My understanding is that the casewitch will talk to me first and finish my interview. It was rather abruptly terminated, you realize. After lunch she'll speak with you."
"With us," Harry corrected.
"I do not think that's feasible."
"Well, it had better be--" Harry started to say, only to have Snape cut him off.
"I have, however, found what I believe to be an acceptable solution." Snape paused. "Would you be amenable to Lupin sitting in on your interview?"
"Remus?" Harry thought about that for a minute. Part of him would actually rather have Snape there, but he supposed Remus would be able to protect him well enough if the casewitch tried anything. Actually, that sounded pretty unlikely now; it was probably just his nightmare that had made the whole thing seem so hazardous. On the other hand, he could hardly refuse a chance to see Remus again. "Yeah, all right," he agreed.
"He'll Floo in sometime before lunch, then," Snape explained.
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Harry felt kind of awkward around Draco that morning as they did their lessons. It wasn't lost on him that he'd gone to "talk" to Snape and had stayed all night, while Draco had never so much as been allowed to set foot in the man's bedroom. If Draco had been jealous before of Harry getting adopted, he was bound to be sick with it now, wasn't he?
Apparently, he wasn't.
Draco demonstrated a few advanced transfigurations to Harry so he'd know what their class was doing by then, and then worked with him trying to get his first-year magic back in line. Harry frankly wondered how Draco managed to be so patient with him day after day, always trying to get Harry's magic working again... and always failing.