Harry Potter and the Vulnerability Charm Part II

Chapter 12 - Nightmare

With Bellatrix Lestrange gone, the Quidditch club no longer has a coach. Snape agrees to the role with the stipulation that it is temporary, until they can replace him. Two children are more than enough for him. Especially when one of them is Tom Riddle, and has begun showing signs of trauma.

He discusses this with the now senior Hogwarts students - Ron and Hermione - around the fire one night, long after the boys have gone to bed.

"Should've let Lestrange keep the thing," Ron mutters to himself.

"Then we'd just have another Voldemort on her hands!" Hermione objects, glaring at him.

"Not if you took him out before he could,"

"What if it's too late? What if he's already traumatised?" Snape asks the hanging air of the room.

"It wasn't trauma that made Voldemort, it was hatred," Lupin interjects from his desk. "He hated Muggles for their suppression of his magic, and everyone connected with them/ That's why he was a Pureblood supremacist/ That hasn't happened, so long as he doesn't remember his previous life,"

"We'll determine if he has," Snape decides.

"And if he hasn't, you could instill the opposite values!" Hermione suggests. "Show him that Muggles and Muggle-borns are nothing to fear of hate,"

"Neither of us are equipped to do so. Lupin here has very limited contact with Muggles and I have my own prejudices against them,"

"But you're a Half-Blood, right?" Ron questions.

"That's why I have my prejudices," Snape spits as memories of Tobias invade his mind. He thought he'd escaped those. "I wouldn't be of much help,"

"Maybe I would be," Hermione offers. "I'll take the boys to a normal- uh, a Muggle street,"

"Does tomorrow work for you?"

"I was going to study-" she sees Snape's look of insistence. "- Yes Professor, it does,"

At this moment, Tommy runs in. The child clings to Snape, his favourite parent, for comfort. Snape feels like more of a protector than Lupin, Tommy thinks. He crashes into Snape's arms and clings to his robe, shuddering in fear. "Father!"

"Whatever is the matter?" Snape picks Tommy up and sits him on his knee. The father shoots a glare at Ron, who watches Tommy with hatred in his eyes.

"I had a bad dream!"

Snape rubs his back gently. "Do you know what we do to bad dreams who haunt us in the night?"

He looks up at shakes his head. Snape pulls his wand out "Lumos," the wand bursts alight. "That spell will rid any nightmare from your dreams,"

"You promise?"

"I promise. This spell is foolproof,"

"Even against fire?"

Snape tenses. Dumbledore showed him his memories of Tom Riddle. "Was a wardrobe on fire? Was a woman rather mean to you?"

Tommy wipes some of his tears on his sleeve. "H-How did you know?"

Snape ignores his question. "Do you dream about anything else?"

"Snakes," Tommy agrees. "I like snakes... sometimes the snake is being scary... it talks to me. They talk to me in the dream too,"

"Well, I'll show you that snakes are nothing to fear," His father picks him up and carries him back to his bedroom. "You and Harry are going to the zoo tomorrow, you can see one for yourself,"