DISCLAIMERS: I don't own anthing other than the plot. J.K. owns the characters and I just borrowed them to play with.

A/n: Re-posted 08/17/2013

italics = Thoughts

Chapter 11 – Starting Again.

When Harry woke up the next morning, the first thing he noticed was the sheets entangled with his legs, making it extremely difficult for him to move and get out of the bed. When he finally managed to free himself and sit, he realized that the silence of the room was interrupted by the even sound of breathing. Just... it wasn't Harry's breathing.

With his heart thumping in his ears, Harry scrambled to found his glasses and looked around trying to found the source of the sound. When he found he saw... Snape. Snape sleeping uncomfortably in an armchair by the bed, a blanket falling from his lap.

The minutes passed and Harry could only stare at the sight of Snape in the armchair. What is he doing here? He tried to figure out did something happened during the night? But... and then Harry remembered: the nightmare! But... even if Harry remembered that he had had a nightmare, it still didn't help him understand what Snape was doing there. It was just a nightmare. One of many Harry had had during his life. It wasn't a good enough reason to explain Severus Snape presence in Harry's room.

The boy was so entranced by his thoughts that he didn't noticed when the same man he was staring at started to wake up.

Severus Snape woke up with a feeling of being watched and a sore neck. If it were the old times, the feeling of being watched would have been enough for Severus to be awake and alert in seconds with his wand in hand. But the time for paranoid vigilance was over, even if the war was only in standby. So, before acting on his instincts, he decided to try and identify where he was and who was watching him before he did anything.

A fast breathing, the sound of the wind on the curtains and… the memory of the night before came back to Severus. The boy who didn't showed up for dinner, the worrying, the maddening irritation, the decision to go and see if the boy was alright... the nightmare. And then, the decision to stay near the boy, which resulted in his sore neck.

Slowly, Severus opened his eyes. Harry had the sheets around his legs and his face was turned to Severus, and his green eyes were staring unseeingly at him. He didn't seem to have realized that Severus was awake.

"How are you feeling?" Asked Severus. And Harry almost fell out of the bed. He really hadn't seen that the man was awake.

"I'm... fine. What... what are you doing here? Professor..." he completed after a moment.

"You had a nightmare." was Snape's answer, his voice showing no emotions, like his answer was the most obvious thing in the world.

The silence that fall unto the room wasn't exactly nice. Neither of them knew what to say. Harry was more and more confused, trying to understand where the Snape he had known for the last three years had gone. Merlin! Where the Snape that talked to me yesterday has gone? Because the one who was seated there, worried because HE, Harry, had had a nightmare, wasn't the Snape he knew at all.

Severus didn't know what to say either. I should have left last night his mind screamed wasn't it obvious he was sleeping peacefully then? When several minutes passed and silence was still there, Severus decided it was time to go. So he got up and went to the door, mute.

"Professor?" called Harry when Snape was about to leave. The man stopped and turned to look at the boy, an eyebrow raised that said 'what now?'

"I... I don't understand..." Harry said in a whisper. The boy couldn't look Snape in the eye, his hands playing with the sheet in his lap "I don't understand. Why my nightmare made you sleep in here when yesterday you didn't even care if I was dead or alive?"

Harry's voice got stronger and stronger, his anger getting the better of him, furry alighted in his eyes when he looked at Snape, waiting for his answer, hoping that it would let him scream and fight with the man.

A shiver made his way down Snape's back at the look sent his way by the boy. So much anger... and all of that directed at me? How did we got to this point?

"Harry I..." Severus didn't know how to answer. His instincts didn't agree with the way he saw the situation. In one hand, the anger and cheek the boy used would normally mean an angry response from him, but the content of Harry's speech was full of confusion, feelings that Snape had to take in consideration while answering. He couldn't be rash, but he just wasn't a nice kind of person either. "If I really 'didn't even care if you were dead or alive', son, I wouldn't have gone to Privet Drive, now would I?"

"Like it wasn't Dumbledore who made you go there..." being called son by Snape made Harry's heart skip a beat. If it was disgust or hope he didn't want to find out at that point.

"Do you really think that if I didn't want you here, you would be here? Harry I ASKED you to came and live with me. Professor Dumbledore didn't make me do anything! You are my son!" Severus hadn't processed the fact the he had a son yet, even less that his son was there, in front of him, confronting him exactly on that fact.

"So what? Two days ago you hated me!" Harry's anger had only grown, just like his confusion. He had two family examples – the Dursleys and the Weasleys – and Harry just couldn't see Snape acting like Arthur Weasleys, preoccupied with his children, nor would he act indulgently like Vernon was with Dudley.

"Two days ago I didn't know you were my son!" Snape was getting frustrated with this conversation. It's almost like he want things to be even more difficult than they have to be!

"I... I just don't understand it." Harry's anger was suddenly out of steam, and only despair remained "What difference does it make? That I'm your son? You don't know me!"

For the first time Severus realized that Harry was just a thirteen year old boy that just had his world turned upside down. Again.

"You're right." said Snape "but I would like to rectify that. I... I'm sorry." he managed to say "I don't have the right to treat you the way I did all this years. My son or not, I shouldn't have judged you without getting to know you. If you let me, I would like a chance. Would you give me a chance to get to know you, son?"

Did Snape just apologize to me? Snape just told me he was sorry! Snape just told me he was sorry! Snape just told me he was sorry! Passed again and again through Harry's mind. He couldn't absorb the meaning of that, it was just surreal to him. And now he didn't know what to say. Snape wanted a chance to get to know him, Harry.

"I... I don't know what to say." Harry said sincerely, looking in the man's eyes "no adult ever cared for me. Not really..."

Severus had never seen a look more expressive. Not even Lily Evans' eyes were able to show so much in a simple look. There was everything there. The anger, the confusion, the sincerity, the hope, the innocence. Severus was able to see all of that in Harry's eyes, and in that moment more than in any other he promised to himself that he would protect that boy with his life. From everything, and, most of all, from everyone.

"I DO care, Harry." he was being more sincere than he ever was "I know it's difficult to understand how a simple potion can change someone's mind, but I do care about you. And I would like the opportunity to get to know you, to be a part of the select group of people who actually know you. If you let me, I would like to be a father to you."

Harry never saw so much in Snape's face than at that moment. He's being sincere. He really wants to know me. He wants to be... my father... he still didn't know for sure what that meant, he never had a father figure, and there was someone actually asking his permission to be that to him.

"Alright." was all Harry managed to say. But in that moment Harry saw something he never thought he would see. Severus Snape smiled to him.

"Breakfast will be served in fifteen minutes." Said Snape before turning and leaving Harry alone in his room. The sheet still tangled with his legs, but this time his face showed more than just confusion, it also showed: Hope.

A/n: So... Reviews?