Severus snorted softly, the noise accompanied by a slight shake of his head. He wasn't refusing, of course; his reaction was merely a response to the absurdity of the request. Dreamless Sleep Potions were all well and good for nightmares, but what use were they against an invasion of the mind? For if that was what these 'dreams' were (as Dumbledore himself suspected), there were more problems than simply a few evenings with insomnia.

"I think we should explore a more permanent solution, and one more appropriately suited to your problem. Of course, the headmaster agrees." As if that mattered. Potter was a Slytherin, and the care of the Slytherins fell under Severus' purview. If he decided to teach Occlumency, or dueling, or mid-air acrobatics, he would teach it to the student who required it, whether he had Dumbledore's support or not. No one on the current staff, he thought, would look after these students quite as well or devotedly. The only ones who truly cared about Slytherins were Slytherins.

True or not, it was the life lesson he himself had learned at Hogwarts.

"A Dreamless Sleep potion will undoubtedly give you untroubled sleep tonight, and tomorrow," he continued soberly, "but in the coming months, will it be as effective, or will the addictive properties cause it to become more hindrance than help?"