It's like I've stepped back into high school.

His face, his gestures, that detestable swagger, even his ridiculous hair is the mirror image of his father's. Every time I see him, I see James. And that familiar hatred rises once more from the depths of my soul.

In all my years as a professor, I had never really hated a student. And I guess you can say I don't really hate him, per se, just his father. But I can see it. I can see him becoming James before my very eyes. And each time I see that rooster hair, that air of confidence and his utter hatred of me, I'm transported back. Back to the days when James and his cronies humiliated, tortured, and scarred me so badly that I turned my back to the light.

It was James Potter that turned me to the dark. James made me into the thing that I now despise almost as much as I do the memory of him.

I have no way to get revenge on James. Voldemort took that chance away from me on that night so many years ago. So I find retribution in the only way I have left. I take revenge on James' son. It's nothing that horrible, really…a few house points taken away, unfair disciplinary actions, that sort of thing. Certainly nothing compared to what James and Sirius put me through.

But Potter hates me for it, and therefore so would James, and therefore I am happy. I sometimes wish I could do more. Sometimes I imagine what I would do to the little brat, given the chance. But I know, even if I could, I wouldn't. I couldn't…for the most ridiculous reason…

Harry's eyes.

They are not brown and dull, like sludge, as his father's were. They are a bright, shocking green.

Lily's eyes.

For all the detestable characteristics Potter inherited from his father, sometimes he is strikingly similar to Lily, and for that reason, I cannot harm him. Despite all of his rude comments towards me, his self-righteous anger, he looks at me, and I can see her staring right through those eyes.

It hurts…more than I let anyone know.

I hate Voldemort for taking my chance to get even with James. I hate him even more for taking the only thing that I wanted more than retribution – Lily Evans…Lily Potter.

So yes, I hate Harry Potter. But, God help me, I love him as well.