Chapter 12! Sweet Bro! This one comes back to Dumbledore. The past few chapters have focused solely on Harry and Snape so I thought i would bring in everyone else too! Review and tell me what you think!

Snape had watched Harry intensely as the boy thought about Albus Dumbledore. He remembered the absolute fury in his eyes when Dumbledore had tried speaking to him the first time. He remembered the boy's cold dismissal and unwillingness to even look at the man. He trusted Dumbledore with his life and he saw how Harry's anger was tearing him up inside.

He had never seen his mentor and father figure so sad. The man no longer offered him a lemon drop when he visited and Fawkes could not rouse him. Albus had acted like this only a few other times. The first was a few days after Snape's visit to him. Snape had told the man his whole life story. Dumbledore had been so distraught at his admission of abuse. It warmed Snape to know that Dumbledore cared so much for him.

He had tried a few things to cheer the man up over the past few weeks but he had been more focused on Harry. He saw that Harry hadn't really been that angry when he had mentioned the headmaster so decided to push the matter. Now he was letting Harry think it over. He saw the torn expression in his eyes and then the decision.

"Where is the headmaster now?"

"He is most likely in his office." Snape said.

"I would like to go see him, I know where the office is but not the password."

"Ice Mice." Snape said cringing at the sweet name.

"Alright I'll be back."

Snape watched Harry leave and hoped that he was about to do something very Gryffindor instead of something very Slytherin. He thought back to the look on Minerva's face when she spoke to him. He replayed the delicious moment in his mind very the one and only Minerva McGonagall gave him an apology.

She had sent Harry away and Snape had not believed the boy would actually leave so he set up a silencing charm to keep him from spying. He had done this every time one of his colleagues had visited so Harry would not hear them discussing him and become hurt. Minerva was giving a strange look as if she had never really seen him before.

"I spoke with Harry today." She began.

"Oh and not just about quidditch?" Snape asked with a smirk.

"We talked about you." Minerva continued. "I just want to apologize Severus. You are doing a wonderful job with Harry. I must be going now."

With that sentence the woman beat a hasty retreat. Minerva wasn't the kind of woman to admit wrong doing. She was stubborn and would argue her point until the end of time. Snape had never received an admission of being wrong from her before in his life. Snape felt good, he felt wonderful in fact. He also felt hopeful that Harry would allow Albus back into his life.

Harry didn't return to their rooms until 7:32. He looked exhausted but still sat down for their evening talks. Snape watched as Harry settled himself into the couch with a cup of hot chocolate. Snape decided to see if Harry would speak at all. After five minutes it appeared he wasn't very interested in talking.

"Harry." Snape began. "Would you like to discuss anything?"

"Would you like to discuss anything?" Harry asked instead.

"How often do you have nightmares?"

"Not as often as I did after I started practicing occulmency." Harry said thoughtfully. "That's why I started meditating like that anyway."

"Yes but how often?"

"Maybe once a week. It depends if I'm really stressed or not."

"Why have you not come for help before?"

"I've never thought someone would ever help." Harry said.

"Are they normally as violent as the one I witnessed?"

"Usually. I learned when I was pretty young to set up wandless silencing charms so my uncle wouldn't hear."

"And you continued to do so here?"

"Of course. It's habit unless I'm exhausted or distracted I place a silencing charm on myself."

"I see." Snape said surprised at how honest Harry was being.

It made him want to stay in the same room as Harry to wake him from a nightmare. It scared Snape a little how much he cared for Harry. For most of his life Snape had held his heart close. Dumbledore had often said that he had dammed up his heart and where he allowed his love to flow it flooded. That sentence was proving true here, now that he decided he cared for Harry it was now almost suffocating. Snape resolved to set an alarm to awaken him if Harry began to have a nightmare.

"Are your dreams on the same topic?"

"No. I dream about all kinds of stuff." Harry answered vaguely.

"Like?"

"Voldemort, Quirrel, my relatives. Lots of things."

"Alright Harry. Prepare for bed you may sleep when you wish too but no night time wanderings. We need to be ready to leave for Gringotts bright and early."

"Good night sir."

"Good night."

He watched as Potter left to his room and then walked up to the door. He cast a spell to alert him to high levels of terror. Then he made his way over to the headmaster's office. He nearly ran he needed to know how it had gone. He hissed the ridiculous password and ran up the stairs and then opened the door to see Albus Dumbledore humming happily in his chair eating a large bag of candy.

"Severus!" Dumbledore said happily. "Lemon drop?"

Severus Snape resident angry bat of Hogwarts collapsed into a chair in complete relief. Albus was himself again. In fact Snape was so happy he even took the candy from the old man and popped it in his mouth. To say that Albus Dumbledore's eyes twinkled like a miniature explosion would've been an understatement.

"I take it your visit from Harry went well?"

"Why yes my boy we talked about candy! One of my favorite subjects you know." Dumbledore said humming.

"You spoke about sweets?"

"Why yes! Harry and I were able to work through quite a few of our differences over sweets. He was insistent that muggle sweets were superior to the wizarding kind but I disagreed. We discussed it at length for over an hour."

"You came to an agreement?"

"An agreement to disagree with each other."

Snape rolled his eyes. He knew he was missing something but couldn't think of what. How would an hour long argument about candy resolve the issues between them? It honestly made no sense. It seemed to have worked however. Snape merely nodded after a moment.

"I'm glad you worked that out then. I am taking Potter to Gringotts tomorrow. We will be getting his Potter heir ring, since he had yet to receive it from his father before his death."

"Splendid my boy. I have to admit it troubles me that no one thought about this before. I am however glad you were able to correct that mistake."

They continued to talk for another hour but Snape was unable to determine what exactly occurred between the two. Dumbledore was certainly back to his happy batty self. He left and made the leisurely stroll back to the dungeons. It was around 9 pm now and Snape felt calm until the spell he had set started blaring at him. He took off at a run. Harry had told him he only had nightmares around once a week unless he was stressed. What was causing him to have two in a row?