A Misconception
"Harry? Are you okay?" Ginny reached one hand out and touched Harry lightly on his shoulder, he continued looking out over the fields.
"He didn't hate me." Harry told her absently.
"Who?"
"Snape." Harry sighed and looked up into her eyes. "He didn't hate me. Well he did, but not for the reasons we thought."
"What do you mean Harry?"
"He didn't hate me because I was my father's son."
"But-"
"He hated me because I wasn't my mothers." He reached out and took her hand. "I think that every time he saw me he hoped to see her, but instead he saw my father."
"Don't you think it's a little creepy?" she asked him softly.
"How do you mean?" Harry asked as they walked back towards the Burrow.
"That his entire life revolved around your mother."
"I think it's romantic." Harry told her seriously.
"Romantic?"
"He loved her." Harry shrugged. "It was that simple. He loved her from the depth of his heart. His worst memory wasn't what I thought it was. I thought I had made things right, but I probably made them worse."
"But I thought you-"
"Spoke to Remus and Sirius?" Harry nodded "I did. But like so many other things I misunderstood. I thought it was the bullying that he detested. But it was what he called my mum. By calling her a mudblood, even in anger, he destroyed the last fibres of their friendship, the last hope he had that she would pick him."
"I don't think there was anything else you could have done Harry." Ginny comforted him. "He made his own decisions and it's a credit to him that he tried to rectify his mistakes, even if he didn't do it very well."
"I want to honour his memory." Harry stopped and looked seriously into her eyes.
"How?"
"My first child that has my mother's eyes." Harry held her hands tenderly. "I want to call him after Snape."
"You want to call your child Severus?" She asked in disbelief.
"Of course not." Harry laughed. "He'd be asking to be bullied. No, as a middle name maybe. I just feel I owe him something. He was magnificent. Scary, a hopeless teacher, but magnificent."
"Then let's do it." Ginny told him impulsively placing a kiss on his cheek. "The first one with your mother's eyes."
"Thanks Ginny." Harry told her. He placed his arm around her shoulders and led his visibly pregnant wife back to the Burrow