As wonderful as this Christmas had been, the holiday had fleeted in astonishing speed. Before he knew it, Harry was due back into the office again. As expected, work had piled up so bad in the few days he was gone that he found himself working daily for at least twelve hours on average the week he was back.

On the night before New Year's eve, Harry found himself arriving at his floo to a dark and empty living room at almost two in the morning. The house was so quiet that he would be able to hear a pin drop. He was feeling irritated as after a four-hour-long raid and chase, a criminal had escaped right before his eyes. Despite this, he tried to creep back to his room as quietly as possible for fear of waking up his family. It was going well enough until he reached the first-floor landing. He was unconsciously counting his own footfalls when he heard a moan. It was muffled that he could not tell its source until the voice moaned louder again ten seconds later. With a sinking heart, he realised the pained sound had come from Albus' room.

He tried to knock on Albus' room to catch his son attention but not loudly enough to wake his other children up but there was no response from inside the room. Meanwhile, instead of moaning noises, he was alarmed to hear that his son was sobbing now. Aware that Albus could possibly be mad at him when he wake, Harry nonetheless chose to unlock the room with magic, to enter the room without his son's consent.

"Lumos." Harry lighted his wand but controlled his magic to make sure the light would not be too bright that it would startle his son. He cautiously walked in then whispered, "Albus?"

Again Albus did not respond, Harry was now standing over his boy, where he could see him curled up in fetal position, his shoulders were shaking while he continued to sob. His eyes were closed but there was a deep frown and beads of sweat on his forehead. Harry gently shook his shoulder but was unable to wake him up and stop him from moaning "No", "Please don't…" and "I'm sorry…" intermittently in between sobs.

Harry was worried about how Albus would react if he forcibly woke him up but to see him suffering from his nightmare, which was no doubt related to his ordeal with Delphi, was too painful to watch. He took a deep breath then determinedly shook him harder while calling his name, his son finally woke with a start after he had shaken for almost half a minute. "What?"

Albus was so disoriented that he seemed to be looking at Harry without seeing him. It took him a while to register his dad's presence, "Dad? Merlin's Beard! What are you doing here? And with lighted wand!" Albus' voice was hoarse from crying.

Harry took his time to answer while Albus was sitting up on his bed. "I… I heard you moaning and crying… I came in because I'm worried about you and you couldn't hear me. You have been talking in your sleep as well… "

"I see… " Albus cast down his bloodshot eyes then said unconvincingly. "I'm okay, I'll just go back to sleep…"

Harry now put a hand on top of Albus' and said quietly, "Look at yourself, Al. You're not okay..." Harry had worked hard to make sure not to call him Al for more than two years but it still slipped out sometimes, especially when he was speaking impulsively, but he ignored his worry to continue anyway, "You were having a nightmare about Delphi, weren't you?"

Albus looked defeated and sighed, he could tell there was no use lying, "Yes."

"Has this happened before?" Harry asked even though he had known the answer already.

The boy hesitated for a long time before finally saying, "Yes."

"How many times?" He had to ask even though he dreaded the answer.

Albus shrugged his shoulders and said, "Once or twice." Harry suspected it could have been more often but his son's expression looked earnest enough to him.

He asked carefully, "Do you want to talk about it? Perhaps it will help…"

"No, I don't want to talk about it." The boy answered decidedly.

"I had had nightmares for as long as I could remember, Albus. You have seen some terrible stuff but I have experienced all of these before. I know how it's like… if you could just let me help you..." He was alarmed to see his boy now cupped his face in his hands, he remained in the position when he finally said wearily, "I can't, dad... I can't talk about it."

Having believed that their relationship had mended significantly and that Albus had begun to trust him, Harry was disappointed that he would not confide in him. Going through the list of things the boy had experienced because of Delphi, torture of his best friend, murder of a schoolmate, fighting for his life and murder of his grandparents, of course they were all terrible but both of them were aware that Harry knew about them all, at least he did know about the gist. How bad must his nightmare had been that he could not even bring himself to talk about it? As strange as it had been, Harry had stopped having any nightmare soon after Godric's Hollow but he thought, he would happily be plagued with them himself if it meant he would not have to see his precious boy fall victim to this and suffer. He was only fourteen that he should only need to worry about school work and talking to girls.

He reminded himself to be patient as he tried again, "Albus… it's okay if you don't want to talk about it but you were shaking, weeping and there is sweat all over… you shouldn't just go back to sleep like this." Albus had looked up and he looked absolutely exhausted, Harry was starting to panic when he noticed a hint of annoyance that he tried to continue in his most soothing voice. "You are still young that a regular sleeping draught may be too powerful for you but perhaps you should take half a dose. If not, you should at least have some chocolate and wipe off the sw…"

"I'm fine! Just leave me alone, dad!" Albus snapped.

Harry thought Albus looked very much like the way he had looked that night when he gave him the blanket. Had the past two months, all the progresses and especially the lovely Christmas all been a wishful dream, an illusion or mere pretense? He was, in truth, shocked and felt hurt that Albus would snap at him like this again after all these times but seeing him suffer had hurt him even more. He tried to look impassive to conceal his injured feelings the best he could but apparently, he had done a terrible job as his boy entire demeanour had softened as he looked at him with shiny green eyes and said, "I didn't mean it, dad… I'm sorry."

Wanting to make things easier for Albus, Harry said as calmly as he could, "Don't worry about it, Albus… I'll just go pick up a towel and a mug of water for you…"

For the first time since he had waken, Albus took in his appearance that he interrupted, "Did you just come back in from work, dad?"

"Yes, I did."

"Hmm… what time is it?" he asked awkwardly.

"Two in the morning."

"... I really didn't mean to snap at you, dad… I'm so sorry." Albus pitifully said in his hoarse voice. He had looked down guiltily and looked seconds away from bursting into tears again. It broke Harry's heart but it felt to him that Albus was apologising for something more than his snapping.

"It's seriously okay, Al. Snapping at their dads is quite normal for teenage boys…" Harry tried to lighten the mood but felt like he was doing a terrible job. "I mean, I understand that you must be dealing with a lot right now so it's okay."

"You didn't have a dad that you could snap at…" His boy whispered.

Feeling not entirely sure what his boy was getting at, he countered, "True but your poor aunt Hermione and uncle Ron had to deal with all my snapping and tempers in my fifth year. Looking back, I feel absolutely terrible for taking out all my anger at them. Anyway, I'll just go pick up the water and towel for you..."

"I think I would like to have some chocolate too, dad… if that's okay." Albus said timidly.

Being grateful that Albus would let him help, he gave his son a smile. "Of course, I'll be right back." His son tiredly returned the smile, despite a very weak one.

Harry quickly got what he needed then returned. Albus eagerly took the chocolate from him even though he was planning to hand him the towel first, then immediately started munching it, that Harry awkwardly sat down with the towel still in his hand after placing the mug on the bedside table.

As Albus had cupped his face in his hands earlier, the beads of sweat were mostly gone by now but he could see his son's forehead was still shiny from sweat with some of the front hair wet as well. He was so tempted to wipe his son's face dry with the towel but resisted for fear that the physical contact would agitate him after he had finally calmed. Albus only took the towel from him after downing the whole mug of water in one gulp to slowly wipe his face. The boy was aimlessly twisting and untwisting the towel when he shyly mumbled, "Thanks dad."

"You're welcome, Albus. Are you feeling better?" He asked even though he knew for sure that he must be, the boy was breathing easily and the redness in his eyes had been mostly gone by now.

"Yes, I… do feel much better now. I think I should be able to go back to sleep alright." Harry thought he could hear just a hint of uncertainty in his voice. "You must be so tired, dad. I'm sorry… for keeping you awake."

"That's alright, son." He said while giving him a fatherly pat on his back.

He could leave right away and he would have done that if this was before Delphi. Remembering his conversation with Ginny inside the church He needs to feel specific love, Harry took a deep breath and said. "Albus, I understand why you would not like to share your nightmares and you absolutely do not have to share them with me if you don't want to…" His boy was looking at him with an intense but not irritated look, like he was thinking over Harry's words but pondering his own demons at the same time. "I just hope for you to understand… to know that if you ever want to talk to someone about them, or about anything else… You can talk to me anytime. But only when you're ready, I will never make you talk if you…"

"I understand, dad." His son interrupted him again, but very calmly this time. Albus looked him right in the eye when he said, "I do appreciate it… but I'm not ready."

"That's alright… Also, please do not think any less of yourself just because you are having nightmares. You have witnessed more terrible things than what a lot of people have to witness in a lifetime. Don't ever think that you are weak because of them, Albus."

His son nodded silently with a preoccupied look. He said after an awkward minute of dead air, "Hmm, I guess I should get going. Good night, Al." He kicked himself for breaking the rule twice in one night and hoped that his son would not notice. He really was feeling too tired. Harry was getting up to leave when Albus called out.

"Dad?" He did not seem to register his slip-up at all but he looked like he wanted to say something really badly but could not get himself to continue.

"Yes?" Harry had sat back down to look at his son patiently.

"I know this is very selfish of me since you must be feeling exhausted… but could you stay with me until I fall asleep?" His boy looked so hesitant and vulnerable right now. Harry thought that he would do absolutely anything for him but it was the sort of thing he always struggled to tell Albus.

"Of course." He said softly because it was late but very firmly. Albus quietly laid back down on his bed, Harry reached for Albus' hand uncertainly but to his relief, his son did not object to it at all.

Albus had closed his eyes to try going back to sleep when he said, "Thank you for being here for me, dad."

"Anytime, son." Thank you for letting me stay by your side, Al. As worrying as it was to find out that Albus had been suffering from nightmares, at least there was something that he could feel grateful for, the chance to make up for his mistakes, to be a better father for Albus. Within five minutes, his son was fast asleep looking quite peaceful as if he had not been suffering from nightmares at all.

A/N: I feel kinda bad for doing this but honestly, the boys' experiences in CC were comparable to Harry's ordeals in his fourth year that realistically, it would take a miracle for both of them to not feel affected at all.

By the way, I genuinely haven't written at all lately (all I did recently was some editing) but I haven't been studying much either. I still post a new chapter since I would hate for you to wait for too long :P but surely I won't be able to go back to my normal schedule until early next month at least. Right now I'm 90% sure that I'll fail my exam, I'm literally the world's biggest procrastinator.

Thanks for all your support, comments make me very happy =)