pekeleke

Title: Despite It All.

Author: pekeleke

Characters: Harry Potter, Severus Snape.

Rating: PG

Warning(s): None.

Word count: 365

Disclaimer: Don't own these characters. No money is being made out of this work.

Written for: hogwarts365 Prompt #3 – Millicent Bulstrode.

Summary: Love doesn't follow rules. It doesn't listen to reason. It takes root wherever it wants to and it blooms despite it all...

Despite It All.

“Come on, Severus, don't be so shy about it. This is supposed to be fun.”

Severus snorted.
“How can you believe this ridiculous nonsense? Millicent Bulstrode is not an expert in relationships, Harry. She used her father's money to land her job in the Prophet, for Merlin's sake!”

“That doesn't make her advice any less sound. Finding out what kind of things you admire the most about me makes sense, Severus.”

“Millicent's questionnaires are intrusive, unhelpful and positively misleading. Love doesn't follow some ridiculous list of 'steps' and should never be measured by the random rules set forth by the Prophet's self-proclaimed agony-aunt.”

“Now I know you're stalling. What could you possibly like about me that is so embarrassing you'd feel the need to hide it?”

“'I'm not hiding anything, Potter!”

“Prove it, then. Tell me what you like best about me.”

Severus sighed warily before delivering a truly devastating answer with flat-toned brutality:
“I don't like anything about you.”

Harry gasped with shock:
“You must be joking.”

“I'm being perfectly serious.”

“But... we've been together for three years!“

“So? I haven't changed personality in that time and neither have you. I like serious, driven men who enjoy books, potions, the theater... I like calm, methodical people who actually understand the concept of privacy, Harry. You play Quidditch for a living because it's 'fun'. You read nothing but love-questionnaires, confide our private business to every bloody Weasley under the sun and wouldn't enjoy potions even if they tickled you...”

Harry lowered his gaze, looking utterly heartbroken.
“But... I thought you loved me.”

“I do.”

“That can't be true. How can you possibly love me when you don't like anything about me?”

“I don't know. I shouldn't love you, but I do. We've got nothing in common, Harry. Nothing. We're distressingly incompatible in every possible way and yet... I'm drawn to you. I miss you when you are not here. I'd have been bored to tears with a man like myself.”

“You'd have been compatible, though.”

“Compatibility isn't love. It's a number on a paper.”

“So... you love me despite my failings?”

“There are no 'failings' or 'reasons' involved, Harry. I love you because I do."