Disclaimer – I own nothing of Harry Potter…which isn't a bad thing.
A/N - The one shots I'm writing at the mo are work in progress ideas that arejust whizzing around my head at the moment so bear with me x
Like Father Like Son
It had taken seven years for Severus Snape to realise it, but despite what everyone said, Harry Potter was nothing like his father. Maybe it was the battles with Voldemort that did it, or maybe it was the loss of his godfather to whom he was so close, maybe the loss of Dumbledore, it could have been any number of things, but Harry was so much more fragile than his father.
For seven years Snape had felt the hatred between him and the young Potter, it was identical to the feelings between him and Potter's father. And just like with Potter's father Snape's hatred gradually dissolved and was replaced with something else.
It was only when their relationship evolved past the stage of any teacher pupil interaction that Snape began to see how different Harry was from James.
James had never taken the relationship seriously, to Harry it was everything. If they arranged to meet, James would take his time and be late, if he turned up at all. Harry would be exactly on time if he wasn't early that was. When Snape told James he loved him, James would laugh it off. Harry on the other hand, never tired of those words and certainly never tired of saying them. If Snape suggested they needed to spend more time together James would shrug it off and accuse Snape of being too possessive, whereas with Harry Snape would never have to say they weren't spending enough time with each other, it almost seemed as if Harry couldn't bare to let the potions master out of his sight.
Ironically enough Snape's relationship with Harry lasted exactly as long as Snape's relationship with his father. It even ended the same way, with a slight difference. All those years ago Snape had decided to break it off when they had to go their separate ways from Hogwarts. James had merely shrugged as he always did and took it as if Snape had simply told him that the next day's quidditch game had been cancelled…actually thinking of it James would probably have been far more upset had a quidditch game been rescheduled.
Harry on the other hand was devastated. Snape was surprised to say the least, he had expected Potter's reaction to be like his father's. He often made that mistake, thinking Harry was his father. He waited for Harry to shrug it off as if the last few years had meant nothing, as if all the whispered declarations of love had been as casual as discussing the weather, as if Snape had always just been something to amuse himself with on a lazy afternoon when he couldn't be bothered to do his homework. Harry's reaction, however was not what Snape had expected. Harry's eyes had filled with tears he had screamed and begged and pleaded for it not to be so and when he had finished and he realised that his words were useless, that Snape had made his decision, the look in his eyes was so unlike his father's.
For seven years Snape had looked at Harry and seen James, but the night he saw Harry Potter made him realise that Harry was nothing like his father.
End