To Sleep, Perchance to Dream

by Healer Pomfrey

All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.

I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes!

Warnings: Completely AU, partly OOC, abuse!Dursleys, sick!Harry

1 – Visions

"Move it, freak!" Dudley shouted, before he pushed eight-year-old Harry full force from behind, causing the younger boy to fall down the stairs at school.

The world around Harry turned black and he knew nothing more for a long time. He was brought to the nearby hospital, where he remained in a coma for two months.

偶然の夢

Everything around Harry was quiet in the small hospital room; however, as Harry's unconscious mind slowly recovered from the bad concussion, it managed to develop an ability that had been dormant on his mother's side of the family as she descended from a long line of Squibs going back as far as Rowena Ravenclaw, who had been a Seer.

Over two months, Harry was forced by his own mind to watch scenes of wizards, who wanted to kill him, of his relatives, who abused and neglected him, and of friends and teachers, who loved and supported him. By the time he woke up from his coma, he had just watched himself killing Voldemort and felt happier than he had ever been before since his mother had died. 'The only sad thing was Professor Snape's death, but perhaps we'll be able to prevent it, if we know how it happened before,' he mused, somehow knowing immediately that he had seen his own future. 'I won't go back to the Dursleys,' he decided. 'I'll go and search out Professor Snape. He kept me safe during all my years at Hogwarts. He'll be able to help me get away from my relatives, especially if I show him my memories in the thing he used earlier, whatever it was called.'

For the rest of the day, he impatiently endured the nurses' and doctors' fussing; however, as soon as it became night, he silently crept out of the hospital, not willing to stay for at least another week like the doctors had told him. He hurried into the park in search for a stick that he could use as wand, knowing from the memories he had watched that he could call the triple-decker bus to travel to Hogwarts. 'No,' he mused. 'Maybe he isn't at Hogwarts at the moment. I don't know if the summer holidays are already over. In my fifth or sixth year I managed to change into a phoenix and could flash myself somewhere. I should try that instead.' Remembering exactly how his older self had practised the Animagus transformation, he slowly turned each of his body parts into a phoenix form.

Without further thinking, he concentrated on the image of Professor Snape that he remembered from his visions and flashed.

偶然の夢

Severus Snape was just finishing a complicated potion that Madam Pomfrey urgently needed when all of a sudden something white entered his field of vision. 'What the...' the Potions Master mused and quickly extinguished the flame under his cauldron, before he let his eyes wander along the ingredients shelf in search for the white thing that had intruded his private sphere.

The white object seemed to be a feathered ball that had remained on the floor. 'A phoenix,' Snape realised in surprise. However, as soon as he leaned down in order to offer the bird a ride on his hand, the phoenix stumbled backwards and transformed into a small boy, dressed in stripy pyjamas.

'Am I delirious?' Severus mused as he recognised the boy, terrified. "Potter?" he asked in disbelief, having no idea how his childhood enemy could have made his way into his private lab.

"Yes, I am Harry Potter. I'm very sorry to disturb you, sir," the boy said politely. "I urgently need to speak with Professor Snape. You are Professor Snape, aren't you, sir?"

"I am Professor Snape, and I'd like to know what gives you the right to intrude into my private quarters, let alone at this time of the night," Severus sneered, observing contentedly as the small boy backed up even more.

"I am very sorry, Professor, but I was in hospital, and I could only escape at this time of the night. I only woke up from a come or something this afternoon," Harry explained uncertainly.

"From a coma?" Severus asked incredulously.

"Yes sir. My cousin pushed me down the stairs a few days before the beginning of the summer holidays, and ever since then I have been in hospital in a coma, and I've had many strange visions. Many of them involved you, sir, and since you always helped me and kept me safe, I decided to come to you. I'm sorry for being such a burden, but I didn't know how to contact you. I was glad I managed to come here at all, because I learned in one of the visions how I could change into a phoenix and flash."

Severus sighed as he observed the boy in disbelief and surprise, taking in the dark rings around the boy's eyes. His cheeks were feverishly flushed, and beads of sweat were building on his forehead. "You do not seem well enough to run around, let alone flash yourself over such a distance. Do I understand correctly that you just ran away from the hospital?"

"Yes sir," Harry admitted, hesitantly averting his eyes to the floor.

"Very well. Let's get out of my lab and sit in the living room," Severus decided in a gentler voice and led the small boy into the next room, noticing that Harry looked around in obvious amazement.

Severus glanced at the clock on the mantelpiece. It was already midnight. "Mr. Potter, as eager I am to watch the memories that brought you to me in a Pensieve, I suggest that I ask Madam Pomfrey to come and check on you and we retire for the night. We'll have enough time to continue our conversation in the morning. Do you agree?"

'If he lied about these visions, he'll be in a lot of trouble,' he mused as he transfigured the sofa into a comfortable bed and motioned the child to lie down. 'Why would he willingly come to me if it wasn't true though?'

"Yes sir. Thank you sir," Harry said gratefully, before he added hesitantly, "Professor, the Headmaster must not know that I'm here. He would send me back to my relatives right away, but I hope that you'll understand if I show you the memories, sir."

"Professor Dumbledore is not at Hogwarts at the moment. We still have one week of holidays left, and he returned to his home for the week," Severus replied and headed to the fireplace to call the Mediwitch.

A few minutes later, the Mediwitch, whom Harry already knew from his visions, stepped out of the fireplace, and Severus explained quickly why Harry was in his quarters.

"A very good choice to seek out Professor Snape's help, sweetie," Poppy said gently as she waved her wand over Harry several times. "He'll be best able to help you, and he was your mother's best friend."

"I know," Harry replied tiredly, and a small smile appeared on his face.

"It was not a good idea to run away from the hospital and flash here though," Poppy continued in a sterner voice. "You probably aggravated your condition. You have a concussion that is not completely healed, and you're running a temperature. No transforming into your phoenix form, no flashing or flying or anything else strenuous for a week. No Apparating or Floo-ing either. Severus, you need to keep an eye on the child."

The Potions Master quickly fetched the potions the Mediwitch asked for, observing as she spelled them into the boy's system, before he let out a long sigh as Harry drifted off to sleep. "So that means I'm stuck with the offspring of my childhood enemy for a week?" He raised an eyebrow at his friend, who rolled her eyes in exasperation.

"He is also Lily's son. Don't forget that, Severus. She made you his unofficial godfather and asked you to keep the child safe, didn't she?"

"Very well," Severus sighed. "Poppy, I need to see the visions the boy was talking about. May I take the memories into a Pensieve? I assume Legilimency would aggravate his condition even more."

"That's true," Poppy replied thoughtfully. "You may only take one memory at a time and only as long as Harry is willing to cooperate. If his headache becomes too bad, you'll have to stop immediately."

"Poppy, I'm sure the boy will be missed at the hospital, and the doctors will certainly contact the Dursleys. Is there any chance that they might contact Albus?"

"Severus, I have no idea. Let's call Minerva and have tea together. I know that she was always very fond of little Harry. She'll do everything to help you hiding him if necessary."

The three colleagues and friends spent half of the night drinking tea and speaking about the small boy that was fast asleep next to them, safe from their talking and laughing by a Silencing charm.

In the morning, Harry jerked awake, realising that he couldn't breathe. Something was clouding his face, and he could only see something red in front of his eyes. Unable to recall where he was at first, Harry began to panic, when an unknown voice penetrated his ears.

tbc...