Green Eyes

Green Eyes

By: Elf

They were the exact copies of the greenest eyes that he had ever seen. They were a bright, brilliant, true green: a color that surpassed even the finest emeralds. They were just like the first pair of eyes that he had seen like that, but the face was wrong.

It was unnerving to see the eyes of the woman that you loved in the face of a man that you hated.

Snape sometimes looked into those eyes just to see his mother there, reflected back through her son. He believed that if he looked hard enough that the boy would change back into his mother. He didn't know why he believed it, but he did.

Harry Potter was a reminder to everything that he had loved and hated so long ago.

Snape didn't know his feelings on the boy. He hated his father and loved his mother. He hated having Harry in his class, but would die to protect him. It was so very confusing, especially to a man who thrived solely on logic.

All because of a pair of green eyes.

Snape swept away as he glared at Longbottom. The inept boy gave a frightened squeak and dropped his dove's liver onto the floor, leaving a tiny, bloody splotch on the stone. Snape glared down at the dark red streak on the stone, again reminded of a pair of green eyes because it was the same color of the hair that often fell into those lovely green eyes.

Snape sneered, "Longbottom, I know this must be very difficult for you, but try keeping your ingredients on the table."

"Yes sir," Longbottom squeaked as he reached down and picked up the liver.

Draco Malfoy laughed from the other side of the class as well as his cronies Crabbe and Goyle.

Snape spun around to face the grey-eyed boy of a man once had been his friend. Malfoy grinned respectfully and appraisingly at Snape. If the chit only knew that I'm spying on his father through him, he thought darkly as he turned back to the class.

He looked right into those brilliant green eyes again. He inquired Harry , "Potter, what is dove's liver used for?"

Hermione Granger's hand shot strait up into the air and began to wave frantically. Ron Weasley rolled his eyes before glaring. Harry looked at him dead on, not flinching yet not glaring.

Harry answered, quite haughtily, "Dove's liver is a balancing agent among other things. It is also used in potions that create peaceful states, like the Serenity Potion, which causes calmness and clarity of thought for the user."

Snape's lips curled up despite himself. Sirius Black must be coaching him when not summoning forces to fight Voldemort. Or maybe Harry had been learning more about potions and other magical skills after Cedric Digory's death. He was puzzled at the new turn of events because Granger didn't whisper the answer in his ear like she often did with Weasley and Longbottom.

"I'm surprised Potter. A point for Gryffindor," he said in a voice so quiet that it was almost a whisper.

The Gryffindors in the class gasped and looked at each other. The Slytherins looked angry enough to cause a riot. Snape watched as Malfoy's grey eyes met Harry's green ones. Harry gave his nemesis a superior grin as Malfoy cast him a murderous glance.

"Potter, let us see if you can be two for two," Snape drawled as he studied the boy who was the spitting image of his father but had his mother's eyes.

His mother's beautiful, wonderful, green eyes.

Potter nodded and Snape gave him a chilling smile. He asked, "Foxglove?"

"Deadly poison unless used in proper does," Harry replied, glaring.

Snape nodded and stated, "Interesting Potter, see me after class."

******

"Sit down, boy," Snape said as he gestured to the uncomfortable chair in front of his desk. He was looking at the papers below him and scowled. Malfoy, who was one of his top students, was slipping. He was worried for a moment that the boy knew of his true intent and was going to tell his father about everything.

Harry sat down, looking defensive and angry. He asked, "What do you want, Professor?"

"I've noticed that you're doing better in this class. Why?" Snape prodded, looking up as his enchanted quill wrote across the parchment.

Harry's eyes had an angry, intense look to them. Something that he had seen in Lily's eyes only once in school as he watched her from afar. He pushed his glasses higher on his nose and exposed the lighting shaped scar on his forehead, a scar that he was partially responsible for.

Harry answered, "It's about Voldemort."

"You're protected here in the school, Potter," Snape sighed, hoping that it was something more.

Harry fiercely shook his head and looked at Snape with those intense eyes. He replied, "No. I'm the one who is going to go after Voldemort. It's my fault he's back and I'm the only one who can stop him."

"Aren't you being pretentious, Potter?" Snape retorted as he continued to grade papers.

Harry bantered back, "No. I've been taking martial arts classes, learning how to use a sword. It's my fault that Voldemort's back."

"You're becoming repetitive, Potter," Snape sighed with a glare. He brushed his hair from his eyes and wondered what Harry was going to say next.

Harry gripped his desk and snarled, "He's hurt me more than anyone else, Snape. I can't let him hurt anyone else like he did me. I won't let anyone go through the Hell that I've been through. I'm reading up on magic, practicing things, but I need help if I'm going to beat him."

"What about your Trio?" Snape snorted, even though inwardly he had to agree with Harry's words. He, himself, was afraid of the Dark Lord. Snape was not an easy man to scare. Few things on this planet frightened him, but the things he had witnessed as a Death Eater gave him nightmares to this very day.

Like Lily screaming at Voldemort to kill her and leave her son.

He briefly wondered what Harry would think if he knew Snape's thoughts about his dead mother. He wondered if those green eyes would widen in surprise and horror or narrow in distaste and anger. He pondered confessing everything: the reasons why he betrayed the Death Eaters and the Dark Lord, the real reason he hated James Potter and Sirius Black, and what he really thought of Harry.

Harry shook his head and answered, "They won't do it. They'll just talk me out of it. Hermione thinks I'm just learning my lesson and trying to do good on my O.W.L.S and Ron . . . Well, Ron's too busy dreaming about Hermione to notice." He gave a bitter smile and snorted, "Looks like I'll be left as a Solo instead of a Trio very soon."

Snape asked, "What are you getting at, Potter?"

"I want you to help me. You were a Death Eater. You know things about Voldemort that Sirius couldn't even fathom. You're a Potions Master and a powerful wizard. I want you to help me," Harry blurted in a rush.

Snape realized what it cost the boy to admit it. He gave a sly grin as he stood up from his desk. He looked down at Potter and saw the beginnings of a truly great wizard sitting before him. Perhaps even greater than Voldemort himself.

He asked, "Shall we begin?"

Harry's green eyes narrowed in determination.

******

"Ron told me that you held Harry after class. Why the hell do you do hate my godson so much?" Sirius Black growled as he paced around Snape's office's fireplace. Night had fallen and there was a full moon, so Lupin wouldn't be joining their torrid group tonight.

Black made it a point to meet every week whether they had information or not. Black said that they should at least communicate with each other and Lupin said that they should build trust. Snape found that he began looking forward to these meetings to verbally spar with Sirius Black.

Snape was grading papers again as he answered, "I don't hate Harry."

"Then why the bloody hell are you so mean to him?" Black asked wearily.

Snape glared up at Black and answered, "I don't hate Harry as a person. I hate what he's a symbol of."

Black's dark brown eyes scrunched up in question as Snape stood up. He began to storm around the room, far more intense than Black's restless pacing. All of his thoughts were coming to the surface that had to do with a pair of green eyes.

Black asked, "What do you mean, Severus?"

Snape gave a lethal smile and answered, "You wouldn't know, you and your damned Marauders, going around the school acting as if you owned it. Breaking the bloody rules, playing pranks, almost killing someone who was tired of your antics with a fucking werewolf!"

Black took a step back, blinking.

Snape continued his rage, "I didn't hate Potter because he could play Quidditch or that he saved me from your stupidity, but because he had Lily Evans."

"Severus, what?" Black managed, his eyes wide.

Snape growled, "I loved Lily, damn you! I loved her and I had to watch her in James Potter's arms. The Noble Gryffindor with his Perfect Lady! I didn't have a bloody chance with her, not with the head Marauder to dote on her. I'm just a bloody Slytherin for heaven's sake, Black! A damned, bloody Slytherin!" He spun around and knocked over a caldron with his hand.

It clattered to the floor with a loud bang. Black jumped as if he had been shot. He backed up as Snape swirled around to face Black.

"Of course, Lily was always kind to me and I always helped her with her potions, but she never knew. Never saw because she had Potter there by her side, charming, admirable, noble Potter," Snape sighed, his rage fading into sadness. He turned away from Black and caught his breath. His heart was still pounding in his chest.

Black walked over and placed his hand on Snape's shoulder. Snape didn't push him away, but stood there numbly. Black said, "I'm sorry. I never knew. Never had the idea."

"Of course not, Black," Snape snorted.

He shrugged out of the other man's grip and didn't turn to face him. "It really hurt when Lily married Potter. That's why I became a Death Eater," Snape confessed, feeling that this was something he had to confess.

He just never thought it would be to Sirius Black of all people. He turned back to face Black as he continued his confession. "Then I found out that Voldemort wanted Potter and Lily dead and was going to kill him. That's when I became a spy."

"To save Lily," Black reasoned with a bit of awe in his voice. Snape didn't have to turn around to know that Black had a knowing smile on his face.

Snape bitterly growled, "Yes, to 'save' Lily. But I was late, wasn't I?"

Black reasoned, "But, Severus, you didn't know what you were doing. You were hurting and upset. You couldn't stop Voldemort. Bloody no one can except maybe Dumbledore."

"Harry plans to," Snape whispered, clinching his fist.

The boy who had his mother's eyes. The eyes that haunted him every day of his existence. He banged his hand on the table. He felt the pain radiate all the way up his wrist and through his arm. He rubbed the throbbing appendage and started pacing again.

Black's eyes widened as he stated, "You can't be serious."

"But Harry is, and the ironic thing is that I think he could actually accomplish this task," Snape sighed as he shook the last of the ache from his hand. He looked down to see the bright purple bruise forming. He flexed his fingers and winched. He briefly wondered if he had broken any of the bones in his hand.

He looked into the fire and saw Lily sitting there. Her long, dark red hair fell around her soft face as she smiled up at him. She waved as her green eyes sparkled in her pale face.

Snape sighed and said, "Every time I look at Harry I see his mother's eyes in his father's face."

"The woman you loved and the man who had her," Black sympathized. A symbol of everything I never had.

Snape snorted, "To think that I'm telling you of all people this."

"I'm very good at listening," Black replied with a grin, the old "Padfoot" peeking out.

Snape glared and quirked an eyebrow. Black chuckled, "Come on, mate, let me buy you a drink at the Three Broomsticks."

Snape nodded and allowed Black to lead him out of his haven. Still, he couldn't get Lily out of his mind. Nor Harry.

All because of a pair of green eyes.

The End!