"Tough day Severus?"

Professor Severus Snape, Potions master and Head of Syltherin House looked around to see Albus Dumbledore stood in the door way to the dark dungeon classroom.

"Not particularly, Headmaster. The first day of the school year is always the most trying."

Albus Dumbledore nodded, moving further into the room, peering through the gloom to where Snape stood by the window behind his desk, stiff backed and sorrowful.

He felt for Severus. Today would have been one of the toughest days of his life. He would have come face to face with the son of his most hated enemy and the only woman he had loved. That was not an easy thing to live with.

"He could have been my son Dumbledore!" Severus stood facing the window, watching the students in the grounds. He could see Harry down there, laughing and smiling with his companions.

He could see Lily in the boy. There was no mistaking her eyes. He sat like her in class, was so like her it was painful. The boy could have been his son.

"He's just like her Headmaster, his eyes. I can see her in those eyes. He could have been my son! My son Albus! My own boy!"

Dumbledore jumped slightly as Severus slammed his fists down on the desk. He's never seen the man so agitated. The man was normally so straight and unemotional.

"You can still treat him as your son, look after him, keep a watchful eye on him, and his friends."

"But he'll still be his son. He's a Potter, not a Snape. No matter how much I look after him, he will be James' son."

Dumbledore watched him, as he collapsed into a chair, head in his hands, broken to an extent that Dumbledore had never seen. He knew Snape's love for Lily ran deep, but this was the hardest test of all.

"It will get easier. Not all children are like their parents, no matter how much they might look like them." He paused in the doorway, turning back to the young man. "Harry is not James, Severus, he has too much of Lily's blood in him for that."

Snape nodded, looking up as the Headmaster left, leaving him with only memories of Lily to comfort him in the darkness.