AN: Hey, y'all! It's been a while! This chapter is so short :( But I really felt like I needed to hurry and get something out because I don't want anyone to think that I've abandoned the story. There hasn't even been a whole lot going on, though summer did go by really quickly.

I started a new job, which I love! I'm essentially the manager of the entire store so that's pretty cool and it gives me quite a bit of downtime to write. So far I've been using it to finish up my book, but that released on Kindle Vella last week, so I'm really happy about that. If anyone is interested, it's called A Heart's Desire. (Small town romance. Childhood best friends who lose touch as they get older, and then basically fall back into each other's lives.) Anyway, it's on Kindle Vella now, but will be released on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited on September 30th.

I'm also still working on a new book called The Reaper's Bargain but it's in the very very early stages.

If anyone is on TikTok, please, please, please follow me! I just got one thousand followers today and so now I can go live and I'd love to talk with you all! You can find me at cynthiafrederick_author, and if you do, please let me know if you're there from here! I'm planning on talking a lot about the fanfic there as well.

Anyway, enough babbling from me. But I've missed you guys! So please review and let me know what you've been up to. And also, what you'd like from this story cause I feel like I'm doing terrible with it.

Chapter 3

It was the crying that pulled Snape from his sleep, but it was the strangled screams that had him sprinting toward Harry's room.

He threw open the bedroom door and rushed inside, the lanterns lighting themselves and sending out only a dim glow. Enough that he could see by but not enough that the brightness would bother Harry further.

Harry was still asleep, thrashing about as he screamed. The blankets and sheets were a tangled mess around his arms and legs, only serving to hold him down and scare him even more.

"Harry," Snape said as he sat on the edge of the bed and began to work on pulling the blankets away from him.

"Harry!" he said, louder. "Harry, you've got to wake up!"

He tried to shake Harry awake, but it only caused him to scream more. Whatever this nightmare was about, it wasn't one of his usual terrors.

Snape managed to free Harry's arms and legs from the blanket just as Harry's eyes snapped open, though instead of this calming Harry, it seemed to terrify him more when he didn't immediately recognize where he was.

He sat bolt upright in the bed as his chest heaved. Harry clasped a hand over his mouth, and Snape summoned a bucket just in time for Harry to lose his dinner into it.

"Dad!"

"Harry," Snape said, reaching out to him. He rubbed circles on his back and shoulders as he said, "I'm right here."

But Harry was sobbing so hard that he couldn't hear him, and so Snape did the only other thing he could think of; he banished the bucket and moved to sit back against the headboard before he pulled Harry into his lap. He carefully wrapped his arms around the boy and held him close as he began to talk quietly to him as he rocked back and forth.

Snape pushed Harry's sweat-soaked hair back from his face as he said, "Shh, Harry, you're safe. I've got you."

Slowly— ever so slowly— Harry began to calm down. He was leaning heavily against Snape's chest, and he could hear his heart beating beneath the cotton t-shirt he wore. He focused first on that sound. The steady, 'ba-dum, ba-dum,' of Snape's heart and the slow, in and out, of his breathing. He worked on matching it with his own, but the nightmare was still so close to the surface of his mind that he only managed a couple of deep, ragged breaths before his breathing became erratic again.

Snape continued to rock him. "It's alright," he whispered. "You're here, in your room, and I've got you. Nothing can hurt you here, Harry."

Harry felt his dad's arms wrapping solidly around him, and he managed to lift one hand to rest on Snape's forearm. He tried focusing on that next. On the way that the skin felt beneath his palm and how the muscles there flexed when he shifted his arm to hold him tighter.

Real.

This was real. He was in his room with his dad. He wasn't back there. Everything from his nightmare was fake, and he was safe.

"That's it," Snape praised him. "Good job, Harry. Just keep breathing. In through your nose; out through your mouth."

Harry did as instructed, and this time, he was able to calm himself down even more. He began to relax just a bit as he continued to hold on to Snape's arm, concentrating on his breathing as some of the tension eased away from his body.

They sat that way for a while until Snape quietly asked, "I don't suppose you want to talk about it?"

Harry shook his head. He stared, transfixed, as the flame from a candle danced from its place across the room. His eyes felt gritty, and he lifted his arm to wipe at them until Snape summoned a wet cloth and held it out to him. Harry used it to clean his face as best he could before passing it back to Snape, who laid it on the bedside table, and it disappeared, to be replaced with a glass of water.

"Here," Snape said, reaching for the glass. "Why don't you try to drink a bit?"

"My throat hurts," Harry whispered, ignoring the glass.

Snape nodded. "I know. Try anyway, please."

Harry sighed and slowly took a small sip, wincing as he swallowed the cool water. He took a few more before passing the glass back as well.

"Do you want to try and get some sleep n—"

"No!" Harry shook his head. His hand fisted in the hem of Snape's shirt. "No, please! Don't leave!"

"Alright," Snape said as he placed his hand around Harry's. "Okay, Harry, I'm not going anywhere. We'll just sit here for a bit. Would that be alright?"

Harry nodded, relaxing back into Snape's embrace. He thought that tomorrow he might feel embarrassed about sitting in his dad's lap, but for tonight he would be content to remain there for a while longer.

"Can you just talk about something? Anything to keep me awake, so I don't fall asleep again."

Snape sighed heavily. It was only just after two in the morning, and Harry needed his sleep, but it wouldn't do him any good if he had another nightmare.

"What would you like me to talk about?" he asked.

Harry shrugged. "Anything." Then, after a moment's thought, he added, "You could tell me the story about your trip to America."

Snape scoffed. "You're not going to forget that anytime soon, are you?"

"Not a chance," Harry murmured. He moved so that his back was against Snape's chest, and Snape let his arms rest loosely around him.

"I suppose if I don't tell you, then Mum will, and she'll make it seem entirely worse than it was."

Harry nodded. "You wouldn't want that."

"Don't be cheeky, Harry." Snape took a deep breath and let it out slowly before saying, "Alright. So this was the summer before our seventh year. We were sixteen, and it was going to be our first real holiday altogether. Dad had some Ministry meetings lined up in New York right after term ended, and Mum thought it would be nice if we all went along. Dad could go to his meetings, and then after, we would take the rest of the week and visit the city."

"Had you ever been there before?" Harry asked.

"No. And neither had Remus, so you can imagine that we were excited about it. Especially since the Ramones were set to be playing at CBGB while we were there—"

"Hang on," Harry interrupted. "You know the Ramones?!"

"Yes," Snape said, rolling his eyes. "Now, stop interrupting. Anyway, we had found out that they would be there, and we knew that Mum and Dad would never let us step foot in that club, so Remus gets the idea to borrow your father's invisibility cloak. He tells him his plan, leaving me out of it, of course, and James was only too happy to lend it to him as long as Remus promised to bring him back an autograph."

"Did he?" Harry shifted as he fought back a yawn.

"I'm getting there. Remus gets the cloak and packs it in his suitcase. Then the second night that we're in New York, we sneak out of the hotel that we were staying in and go off into the city alone. We find the club and use the cloak to sneak in. Everything was going perfectly. We were having a great time. Until we weren't."

"What happened?" Harry asked.

"A police officer showed up just in time to see one of our new friends buying us drinks." Snape felt heat rising in his cheeks just thinking about it.

Harry laughed quietly. "And you tell me to stay out of the Firewhisky."

"And I'm going to keep telling you that until you're of age."

"Hypocrite," Harry murmured.

"Brat," Snape retorted. "Do you want to hear the rest of the story or not?"

Harry nodded as he reached behind him where the blanket lay and pulled it up toward him. Snape waved his hand, and the blanket rose into the air before laying smoothly over top of him.

"Well, it was pretty obvious that we weren't supposed to be there, and when the officer came over, he introduced himself and quickly let us know that we could either let him take us back to our hotel or he could take us to the station. And for what it was worth, I voted for the station, but Remus being the insufferable Gryffindor that he is, had to go and give him the name of our hotel."

"What happened when he took you back? I bet Grandad and Grandma weren't very happy."

Snape cleared his throat. "They were… not pleased. They didn't cut our holiday short, though. But we weren't allowed out of their sight for the rest of the trip, and we were grounded for a big part of the summer."

"Was it worse than when you blew up the kitchen?"

"Half the kitchen," Snape corrected, "but, yes, it was worse than that."

When Harry's only response was a quiet hum, Snape settled a little more against the headboard. He knew that Harry had to be exhausted, and sure enough, after a few moments, his breathing evened out as he fell asleep.

He waited for a while longer before attempting to move him, and even then, Harry whimpered at the loss of contact, so Snape sat down beside where Harry lay. Snape slowly carded his fingers through Harry's dark hair as he silently cursed Vernon Dursley for everything he had done to strike such fear into Harry's life. What he wouldn't give to be able to repay him even a fraction of the damage he had caused Harry.

After a while, Snape quietly stood up and moved away from the bed.

As he walked past the desk, a piece of parchment caught his eyes, and he looked down. Written in Harry's messy scrawl were the words, "Things to do on holiday. 1- Go swimming. 2- Build a sandcastle. 3- ?"

Snape looked back at Harry's sleeping form and began to think of all of the things they would do at the sea.