Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognize.

~~~

Monday, January 3, 1994

"Good morning, Dad," Harry said when he saw his father sitting at the dining room table, eating breakfast and reading the Daily Prophet. Harry sat in the chair across from Severus's, holding Lily in his arms.

"You're up early," Severus commented. "Class doesn't start for another two hours." Harry shrugged his shoulders, not answering. "What happened between you and young Mr. Weasley last night?"

"He got mad because I didn't tell him," Harry muttered. "And he said some things about you that I wish he hadn't, and that I'm not going to repeat. So I got mad and told him that that was the reason why I didn't tell him: because I knew exactly how he would react. And I told him that he shouldn't assume that he knows you and who you are, because he doesn't."

"Harry, I know what the students say about me. I know what they think of me. And I've learned to ignore it. You need to learn that as well. If somebody says something about me, you don't have to defend me, because you know for yourself who I am. That's all that matters. It doesn't matter what anyone else thinks."

"I know," Harry sighed.

"I trust you didn't have any other problems with other friends after the announcement?"

"I didn't talk to many people. You know Hermione's happy about it; so's Ginny Weasley. Dean thinks you're going to play favorites in Potions. Parvati likes the cat. Seamus wondered if I was still going to live in the dorms. Fred and George didn't seem to care one way or the other. Oh, by the way, the twins told me last night that we're having Quidditch practice tonight."

"It's been snowing more, Harry."

"I'll dress warmly, and I won't stay out too long." It was more of a question than a statement.

"McGonagall's going to supervise?" Severus asked.

"Of course."

"All right, then. But if you get sick out there, then you're not playing any more Quidditch until it's warmer."

"Sounds fair to me." He changed the subject. "Have you talked to Draco since the announcement?"

"All he said to me last night was 'goodnight' and 'I'll see you tomorrow.' Apparently, the majority of the Slytherins shunned him. Miss Parkinson's expulsion was a factor in that as well."

After breakfast in the Great Hall, Harry went to the Potions classroom, where Draco was sitting at his desk, reading from his textbook. Severus wasn't in the room yet. Harry pulled a chair over to his brother and sat down with him.

"You all right?" Harry asked. Draco glanced up at Harry and smiled a little.

"Just fine. You? I saw you storm out of the Great Hall last night."

"Ron pissed me off," Harry replied, shrugging his shoulders. "I talked to Dad this morning when I was taking Lily downstairs. He said you had a bit of trouble with the Slytherins." Draco laughed, bitterly.

"Let's just say that I'm probably going to be spending more nights in the dungeons than in my tower," he said. "I have absolutely zero friends left in my house, not that I really liked any of those prats anyway." He took notice of the dark circles under his younger brother's eyes. "You look like shite. What's up? Did you have another nightmare?" Harry nodded his head.

"Lily woke me up before it got too bad, and I'd put the Silencing Spell around my bed, just in case. But I didn't sleep too well after that." Draco narrowed his eyes.

"You shouldn't put the Silencing Spell on," he said. "What if Lily wasn't there to wake you up, and it got really bad? Nobody would have been able to hear you and wake you up."

"I don't want to wake people up," Harry mumbled. "When they find out about my nightmares, they treat me differently, and I hate it when they do that."

"Harry," Draco said, seriously, as he rested a hand on the younger boy's shoulder. "If it came down to choosing between people treating you differently and the chance of you dying in the middle of the night¼ I'd rather have people treat you differently."

"I won't die in the middle of the night, Draco," Harry sighed, rolling his eyes as he stood up. He went across to the table on the other side of the room and sat down with his own book.

"How do you know that?" Draco asked. "If you stop breathing in the middle of the night, like you have done several times in the past few months, you will die unless your nightmare wakes someone up!" He sighed, shaking his head as he stared at Harry. "Dad and I don't want that to happen, Harry." When Harry didn't answer, Draco changed the subject. "You told Dad, didn't you?" At that instant, Severus entered the room.

"Told Dad what?" he asked, sitting at his desk.

"Harry had-" Draco suddenly found himself unable to open his mouth to speak. He glared at Harry, who was smirking.

"If you must know, I wrote it down, like he asked me to, and I'm going to show him tonight. Is that all right with you?" Severus pointed his wand at Draco and un-did the spell.

"Dad-and don't even say I can't call you that because class doesn't start for another five minutes-Harry's been putting Silencing Spells around his bed so he doesn't wake people up when he has nightmares." Severus looked at Harry, who was fidgeting with his wand.

"Is that true, Harry?" The boy nodded his head, not looking at his father. "That's not a very smart thing to do, you know that." Severus sighed as students began to enter the room. "We'll talk about this later." As an afterthought, he added, "Before Quidditch practice."

"Thanks a lot," Harry muttered, glaring at Draco.

"What's up?" Hermione asked Harry as she sat next to him. Harry's angry expression saddened when he noticed that Ron was sitting with Neville.

"Nothing," Harry sighed, watching as Ron made sure that Harry knew he was ignoring him. Hermione rested a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't worry about it, Harry," she said, softly. "He'll come around. And if not, well¼ It's his loss."

"Thanks, 'Mione," Harry said, quietly.

"Today you will be brewing the Truth Potion. It is similar to Veritaserum, though the side effects of the Truth Potion are less severe than those of Veritaserum. The Truth Potion also doesn't last as long as Veritaserum. You will be making this potion with partners."

He assigned the partners, pairing up all the Slytherins, except for Draco. He then went through the Gryffindors and paired them up, leaving Ron, Harry, and Hermione.

"Miss Granger, you will be with Mr. Malfoy. That leaves Mr. Weasley and Mr. Potter."

Hearing that, Harry stared at his father. Severus ignored the glare and began to call out the ingredients and the recipe for Truth Potion. Harry heard Ron cursing under his breath. Harry quickly copied down what Severus was saying, as he knew that Ron wasn't paying attention.

Ron and Harry silently prepared their ingredients. Harry sliced up some weed or another, while Ron peeled the newt's eyes. As they mixed the ingredients in their cauldron, Harry heard Ron muttering several negative comments under his breath. He recognized some curse words, as well as the terms 'miserable git,' 'freak,' and the phrase 'turn out as worthless as his father.'

At that moment, Harry stood up from his seat and silently left the room. Everyone stared after him, and Severus made his way out the door. He found Harry pacing in the hallway, his arms folded across his chest and an enraged expression on his face.

"Harry, what was that about?" Severus asked, sternly. Harry stopped pacing and stared up at Severus, his face red with anger.

"Why in the bloody hell did you have to put me with him?!" Harry hissed. His chest rose and fell with every deep breath he took. "I couldn't stay in there; if I did, I would have done something to him¼" He sank to the floor, leaning back against the wall, and closed his eyes.

"Harry, you know you can't just walk out of class like that," Severus said, firmly, kneeling down on the floor. "And I told you that you need to ignore what people say."

"You might be able to do that, but I can't!" Harry snapped. "When somebody insults someone I love, I can't just stand by and let it happen!" Severus took Harry by his shoulders and stared at his eyes.

"Sometimes you just have to."

Harry took deep breaths until he'd calmed down, and his face turned pale again; too pale, in Severus's opinion. He took notice of the dark circles under the boy's bloodshot eyes.

"For Merlin's sake, Harry, have you been sleeping at all?!"

"Very little," Harry sighed.

"How much? In the past week, since Christmas, how much sleep have you gotten, Harry?"

"Maybe¼eight, nine hours?" Harry guessed. He shook his head. "I don't need to sleep¼ I can manage without it, I don't need it."

"That's why you're about to drop from exhaustion. Stay right here." Severus went back to the classroom, where everyone was staring expectantly. "Get back to your potions right now." He then made his way back to Draco and Hermione.

"Is Harry all right, Professor?" Hermione asked.

"He'll be just fine, Miss Granger," Severus said in a quiet voice. "Draco, I need you to take Harry downstairs. Put him to bed and give him the Dreamless Sleep Potion that is in my lab. It's labeled, so you'll be able to find it easily, and the vial is small enough that he can drink it all at once. I don't care how much he protests; he needs to drink it all. You and Harry will both have to make up this potion some other time."

"All right," Draco agreed.

"And stay with him until you're absolutely sure that he's asleep," Severus added as an afterthought. Draco nodded and headed out to the hall.

"What do you want?" Harry asked, miserably.

"Dad told me to take you downstairs," Draco replied, pulling his brother up from the floor. "Come on." Holding onto Harry's arm, Draco led the boy through the halls, while Harry struggled to get his arm free from his brother's grip.

"Let go," Harry pleaded, trying to wrench his arm away. That went on for a couple minutes before tears welled up in Harry's eyes and he spoke in a shaky whisper. "Draco, please let go of me."

Draco sighed and let go of Harry's arm. He turned around to look at the smaller boy, who was now holding onto his arm with his hand, and Draco's eyes widened when he saw the look of pure terror on Harry's face.

"Oh, Merlin, Harry, I'm sorry," Draco said, softly. "I'm so sorry, Harry, did I really hurt you?"

"It-- It doesn't really hurt that bad," Harry mumbled, quickly swiping at some tears that managed to escape from his eyes. "You just kind of...scared me."

"I'm so sorry," Draco repeated, gently pulling Harry into a hug. "I didn't mean to scare you. Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," Harry whispered. "Just don't do that again..."

"I won't," Draco promised, rubbing Harry's back. "Come on, let's get downstairs."

"I don't want to sleep," Harry sighed once the two were in their bedroom.

Draco made Harry lay down in his bed, then covered the boy with his blankets. Then Draco went into Severus's lab and found the tiny bottle labeled "Dreamless Sleep."

"I know you don't want to," Draco said, sitting next to his brother on the bed. "But Dad said you have to. You need to sleep, Harry." He held up the bottle. "If you drink this, you won't have a nightmare while you sleep, so you don't have to worry about anything."

"When I was in the hospital wing, they gave me that, and I still had nightmares."

"This is stronger," Draco explained. "Dad's been trying to fix that problem, and he made it stronger. But you can't use it too often, so he's been saving it." Sighing, Harry took the bottle and drank it all at once, making a face as he did so.

"Tell him he needs to work on the taste," Harry choked out. Draco smiled.

"I will," he said as Lily jumped up onto the bed with them. She pressed her head against Harry's cheek, and he reached his hand up to scratch behind her ears. Draco headed for the doorway.

"Where are you going?"

Draco turned around to face Harry, who was watching him.

"I'm going to get something to eat."

"You heard me?" Harry asked, confused.

"Of course I heard you," Draco sighed, rolling eyes. "You were talking, weren't you?" Harry slowly shook his head.

"I was talking in my mind, and I was about to talk out loud, but you spoke first. You read my mind. That was bloody amazing, Draco."

"I didn't even know I could do it." Draco smirked. "Looks like you and Dad aren't the only ones with special power. You can do the finger-snapping thing, and I can get inside your mind." Harry smiled, tiredly.

"Are you staying?"

"Just until you go to sleep," Draco replied. "I'm going to grab something from the kitchen, then I'll come back in here." By the time he returned to the bedroom, his younger brother was fast asleep.