Severus was up late grading papers when there was a quiet knocking at the door, almost as if it wasn't supposed to be heard, he frowned before making his way toward the door equipped with his wand. He opened the door and found a crying Harry stood there in his pyjamas, he was about to shout at the boy for being out of bed at such an hour but he managed not to.

"Come in Mr. Potter." The boy walked in briskly and sat down on the sofa which was never used. "Perhaps you could tell me why you came to see me in the middle of the night?" Harry looked as though he had just woken from a dream and realized his surroundings, he shot up from where he sat and spoke.

"I'm so sorry Sir, I must have sleep-walked here, I tend to do that if I'm having a particularly bad dream though usually it isn't very far. I must have woken you, please forgive me Professor!" Honestly, Snape thought, did the boy know when to stop talking?

"Sorry to disappoint you Harry but I was up late anyway. Would you please sit down and I will get us some tea, one of the house elves will still be up. Maybe you can tell me what all this is about, hmm?" Severus raised his eyebrow in the way only he could and then called Mimi, the elf who was stuck with the night shift. He ordered them both tea as well as a couple of biscuits for Harry.

When they were both sat down and Harry began to sip delightedly at the warm mug in his hands, Snape broke the ice. "So, are you going to tell me, why you ended up outside my door at after midnight?" At this Harry lowered his head so that it was almost in his lap, and sighed outwardly.

"Whenever I have a 'nightmare' I like to go walking, it calms me down afterwards and usually it's fine because I wake myself up and I can just walk around the tower a few times but if the dream is particularly bad then I don't wake up and I find myself on the other side of the castle. I try my best to avoid it happening because last time it did I got caught by Professor Umbridge, she said she'd kill me if she saw he again and I don't think she was speaking metaphorically." The most worrying thing was that such an allegation could be believed, even by someone like Snape, Umbridge was too harsh on the children, by anybody's standards.

"I hope you know that that could never happen here, I wouldn't put it past Umbridge to try but every teacher at Hogwarts would stand against her if she ever tried to hurt a student." Harry nodded, nothing that he wanted to say. "More to the point, this 'dream' what was it about?"

"I really don't want to talk about Professor, sorry but it's kind of uncomfortable to speak about. I must apologize again to interrupting your night, please forgive me-" He was interrupted by a glare from his elder, a knowing glare that silently said - SHUT UP! - and he complied. "Sorry Sir." Severus raised his eyebrow and Harry realized what he had said and had to purse his lips in order to stop laughing.

"We'll speak about this more tomorrow Mr. Potter. Are you okay to go back to your tower or would you like to stay in my spare room for the night? As you said, I don't think Professor Umbridge would like the thought of you wandering around the castle at this time of night."

"I would appreciate staying here Sir, it would raise a lot of questions to turn up in the middle of the night. As long as it wouldn't be too much trouble. I'm sorry to be a burden to you Professor." As soon as he realized what he said he couldn't help but giggle, he rose to turn away from his potions master, and retain some of his dignity.

"Goodnight then Mr. Potter. You'd best get to bed, ask the house elves for anything you need." As he reached the door, Harry turned to be greeted with a smile from a man he had never, in all his life, seen smile properly, only fake one if forced to.