The Real Reason
Summary: The truth was no one knew the real reason I hated Potter. Two generations of jealousy and hatred. Two-shot JL HG
Disclaimer: Anything that sounds familiar does not belong to me.
The First Generation:
The truth was no one knew the real reason I had hated James Potter.
Oh, many said it was because of the constant teasing, the cruel name-calling, the curses, hexes, and the mocking laughs. That was only a tiny part of it. I loathed him for it, but that was the not the true reason.
It was because he loved Lily Evans.
I, Severus Snape, hated James Potter because he loved Lily Evans, and he would get her to love him back eventually.
No one knew how much I loved her; they never even noticed I had feelings for her. Why would they? I treated her like dirt, simply to be able to be accepted by my fellow Slytherins, and to hide my feelings for her. It killed me to see that light falter in her eyes, and to watch Potter stick up for her. I did it for another reason as well. Although no one but myself knew, she loved Potter a little more every time he stuck up for her.
No one noticed the signs, it seemed, no one but I. As if it wasn't obvious enough. Seventh year had come, and those harsh reprimands were accompanied by a barely concealed smile.
She rarely glared at him, yelled at him, or threw hexes in his way anymore. The glares became wistful smiles, the yells into friendly conversation, those hexes into helping Potter with Charms, her favorite subject. No, she was becoming infatuated with that annoying prat.
He noticed her faltering whenever Potter appeared, no longer able to hold up the hatred act that she had done so well for the past six years. She fell for his tricks, his manipulations into allowing her to think that he really had changed. That he was no longer an egotistical, selfish prat.
What was it about him that made every woman in his sight, swoon and fall to their knees? What was so great about that messy, jet black hair, or those "charming" brown eyes of his? He paled in comparison to what my beloved deserved. She was beautiful, simply pure inside and out.
But he didn't deserve her either. He knew that very well. He had done too many evil deeds, seen to much evil around him to deserve someone that innocent, to deserve someone that good. However, hope never failed him whenever she defended him. But turned her down, convinced that it was for her own good. As much as he loved her, he could never be there for her.
Potter was so blind, so ignorant of her growing feelings. He was so absorbed in his own self-pity, in his rejection, and his pain only. He didn't know anything. He didn't see the look in her eyes whenever he did something stupid to jeopardize her feelings for him. And he had done so many stupid things that hurt her despite everything.
How on earth he had fallen in love with Evans was a surprise in every way as well. It seemed that his once annoyance at the red haired beauty quickly dissolved as she showed him her kindness, compassion, and sympathy of being an outcast. He was a disgrace to wizards. He had soiled his hands with innocent blood, and nothing could save him, not even her, his angel.
Oh how he had scoffed at her friendly nature, and had injured her with mocking comments about her heritage. But he had done all that to protect her, and himself. If anyone had known about his secret love for her, and some did suspect, they would have been killed. Killed because she was a mudblood, she was unpure, and that was a lie, for she was the purest person he had ever met.
He was the only one who watched in horror, as she made the biggest mistake of her life. He was there the whole time and had silently watched her fall in love with him, marry him, have a child with him, and eventually die with him. He still had that article which contained the picture of their wedding. She had looked so happy, so pure, so innocent, and so unsuspecting.
She could have been saved. She would have lived if she had stayed away from Potter. No, she had to throw her life away to save the only part of him she had left, Harry Potter.
Although he tried his best, he just couldn't hate Harry Potter. He looked almost identical to his father, his nemesis, but it was his eyes, that stopped him. They were her eyes; the indescribable, piercing emerald eyes that had once stole, and broke his heart.
However that had been over 16 years ago, and why should it bother him. However, standing here now, knowing that he could be making the most horrible mistake of his life, he whipped out his wand, and pointed it at the one and only, Albus Dumbledore.
Whispering, "I'm sorry.", he let out the curse that had once stole the lives of the one he loved, and the one he hated, and he watched the only man who had trusted him, crumble and fall against the ground.
However, even as he ran away, ran away from the horrific sight of what he had just done, he turned back for just a moment, and watched as Harry Potter silently slide of his invisibility cloak, and then gaze at him.
Shaking his head in horror, he quickly ran. He could bear the name-calling, teasing, the cruel mocking laughter, but he could not bear to see hatred and disappointment in those eyes that looked just like hers. Anything but to see the same hatred and disappointment he had saw in her eyes all those years ago.
Yes, the real reason he hated James Potter, was because he loved Lily Evans.
James Potter loved Lily Evans, and in the end, Lily Evans loved him too.