Severus watched Potter as he ate his dinner, sitting next to some Weasley. The boy was his father all over again. Severus could tell the minute he entered the hall, stumbling along with the other students. From his rumpled black-hair, to the shape of his face, to his scrawny build, to even the very way he acted: already he could tell the boy would be just as arrogant and imposing as his father before him.

Quirrel was stammering along in Severus' ear, but he wasn't paying him much attention aside from the occasion 'ah' of comprehension. Already Severus had started his list of reasons not to like the Potter boy, and it was rather long considering he had only laid eyes on the boy roughly a half hour ago.

As though sensing his gaze on him, Potter suddenly stole a glance up at the Head table in his direction, and Severus locked eyes with Lily Evans . . . but then the next second the boy looked away, and Severus was back sitting in the Great Hall.

As he resumed his mindless state of pretending to listen to Quirrel, he mused that that was reason number one for hating the boy.

He should have been his.