Whelp II The Wrath of Snape

'I would be pleased if you did,' Severus admitted. 'But I will be proud of you no matter what House you're sorted into.' Even as he said it, he knew it was true, though he had not really considered the possibility that Harry would not be in Slytherin. Of course he would be.

'But I can be Seeker, right, Father?'

'If you are in Slytherin, and you make the team, and if you're the best one for the job, I don't see why not.'

Harry frowned, then scratched his nose with his thumb, his fork still tucked between his fingers. 'That's a lotta 'ifs'.'

'Yes,' Severus said with a smirk. 'It is.'

'Don't you want me to be Seeker on your team?'

Severus set down his fork and peered at his son, lifting one eyebrow. 'I would enjoy it very much. But Harry, that's years from now, and I don't think you should be worrying about something that might not happen, or that you might change your mind about, when it's so far off in the future.'

'Oh.' Harry's gaze dropped to his plate. 'Sorry, Father.'

With a frown of his own now, Severus wondered what he had said wrong to get that reaction. 'But if you were to be a Seeker on the Slytherin team, like I said, I would be very happy. And if that is a goal you want badly enough, and you work hard for it, I have no doubt you could manage to accomplish it.'

'Yeah?' Harry gazed at him hopefully.

'Yes.' He shook his head fondly. 'Now eat your dinner, Seeker.'

Harry grinned and did as he was told.

---

After Harry was in bed, Severus met with Molly again, and this time there was only good progress to report. No running off, as she had told him earlier, no flashbacks, and no violent reactions to being touched. Molly admitted she had told her children -- especially the twins -- that they were not to grab Harry or even touch him unless he initiated the contact. No hugs or pats on the back unless Harry made the first move. It had made for a much smoother running day, and a far more emotionally stable Harry.

Once she was gone back to the Burrow, Severus readied himself for bed. He still had essays to correct for several of his classes, but he was too tired to deal with them right now. As he had been doing recently, he left his bedroom door open, so he could hear if Harry had a nightmare but didn't quite wake from it. He knew that he would be up and helping Harry with a nightmare at some point during the night; Harry had yet to have a night without one, except those nights he had been on a dreamless sleep potion. Every night, for an hour or two, depending on how long it took him wake Harry from the night terrors to begin with, he would soothe Harry and lull him back to sleep.

It was frankly, exhausting, and Severus knew he was suffering from sleep deprivation. But then, so was Harry, to a certain extent. And Severus could do nothing else. He cared about Harry far more than he did about sleep. Still, he was already behind in grading school work and meeting with all his new Slytherins. He was also grouchy while teaching his lessons.

Of course, this last consequence of sleeplessness seemed to work to his advantage. A grouchy, mean-looking professor was heeded far more quickly than an easy going, friendly professor, like Flitwick, for instance. And making sure the students heeded him immediately was, frankly, the most important part of teaching potions to a school full of dunderheads.

Severus eased himself into bed and Nox'd the lights. What felt like only a few minutes, but was -- when he noted the time -- actually almost three hours later, he was up with his son, soothing him out of another nightmare. He rocked the boy in his arms and whispered nonsense words in a low tone till Harry quietened enough to be guided back to sleep. Many nights, like this one, Harry had more than one nightmare from which he needed to be