Auradon, 2019
He would never admit it, but the mad pirate captain, James Hook, still had a human heart capable of… well, not love, but certainly fondness. And he had a slight—very slight—fondness for the boy that he had claimed as his son.
This fondness had felt strangely like pride when six-year-old Harry refused to be parted with his stolen hook, because it made him look like his dad. No, Captain Hook hadn't smiled when he noticed Harry menacing other children in an imitation of the way that he himself threatened his crew. And it was just an ugly rumor that someone had permanently scared Hannah Westergaard away boys because she had flippantly rejected fourteen-year-old Harry.
Hook never complimented Harry directly, though. He didn't want the boy to develop an oversized ego from too much praise. After Harry had pleaded with the Royals to let Hook off the Isle, promising that his dad was reformed, Hook had only thanked him because, as a gentleman, it would be rude not to.
And Hook had behaved himself on Auradon, right until the moment that he saw the wastrel fool that had fathered Harry.