[FIC] Lily's Eyes -- Snape/Lily (PG-13)
Title: Lily's Eyes
Author: thescarletwoman
Type: Fiction
Word Count: 3200
Pairings: Snape/Lily
Warnings: None.
Rating: PG-13
Summary: No matter where Severus goes, he always is haunted by Lily's eyes.
Disclaimer: Lyrics taken from "Lily's Eyes" from the Broadway musical The Secret Garden. Some lines of dialogue taken from Harry Potter and the Philosopher's/Sorcerer's Stone published by Bloomsbury/Scholastic.
Author's Notes: I have been wanting to write a fic where I could use the lyrics from "Lily's Eyes" as a jumping off point and consequently eagerly gobbled up this request. As a note, this is NOT a songfic. Merely a fic inspired by lyrics. Of course, a thank you to my wonderful beta, rose_whispers who keeps me from using those pesky repetitive words every paragraph.
Strangely quiet, but now the storm
simply rests to strike again.
Standing, waiting, I think of her,
I think of her...
-- "Lily's Eyes" from The Secret Garden
The facade of the small house in Godric's Hollow was far too cheery for his tastes. The partially inflated blue balloons tied to every available column blithely announced the recent arrival of a bouncing baby boy to the household. Partially filled, Severus noted with a derisive snort -- no one had bothered to remove the eyesores in nearly four months. They were still floating, no doubt due to an inflation spell. Wearing off over time, the spell had degenerated to the limp rubber sight before him. A cold smile passed over his face as he stared at the balloons gently waving in the wind. Balloons indeed. The sheer presence of them seemed to scream "Muggle lives here! Come see and kill the Muggleborn!"
The fools.
He stood by the neatly manicured shrubbery, imagining the sickeningly sweet domestic scene inside. Lily cooing softly to the brat -- Harold, was it? -- some insipid name that had come from him no doubt. There was the bastard, passed out on the couch from another late night with the mongrels. Severus closed his eyes and could see the scene completely, almost feeling as if he had taken on the role of interloper. There was Lily, ragged and tending after both children in her household now.
Though it was nothing more than a vision in his mind's eye, he felt no desire to pull away from the scene, taking perverse pleasure in Lily's seemingly miserable existence. Though he may still love her deep within his heart of stone, there was no law that stated Severus had to be happy for the Mudblood.
Yes, there it was. She'd warm a bottle and James would leave to go carouse with those supposed friends of his. She'd bathe the sprog while James ran off to play Quidditch with the boys. All of the scenarios left Lily haggard and careworn, with James the ever-ignorant husband. He knew he wasn't far from the mark. Lily had chosen her lot in life and as far as Severus was concerned she had to reap what she had sewn.
"What are you doing here?"
Cursing under his breath, Severus whirled around to find himself face to face with the object of his obsessions. Severus Snape did not scare. No one ever snuck up on him, nor did he ever startle for any reason. He lowered his gaze, black eyes piercing emerald green ones.
Only she could stop his world from turning; make him forget the very need to breathe.
How he hated her for it.
Severus pulled his gaze from Lily's eyes, dropping to look at the bundle she carried cradled to her chest. This is it. The spawn of James Potter. At least he knows how to do something right. All Severus could see was a mop of black hair, the only thing that related the crying thing to Potter. Severus didn't want to look any closer. He didn't want to see what the child could have inherited from his mother.
"I suppose congratulations are in order," Severus said, the very words burning his lips to speak them.
"You could sound a little more enthusiastic."
Severus forced a smile that showed entirely too much teeth and was far too fake looking to be considered genuine. The insincerity of the smile only seemed to incense Lily further. Her cheeks coloured slightly, little patches of red peppering her cheekbones. The very epitome of 'fiery redhead' -- it was how he loved her best.
"You're still a bastard," Lily spoke, cuddling the brat closer to her chest as if shielding him from the profanity she spoke. "Glad to see that some things don't change. Now, if you'll remove yourself from my front walk, Harry needs his bottle."
Harry. Even worse than Harold. Lily, what were you thinking?
"You need to move," Lily said, lifting her chin to glare at him. Merlin how he loved her when she looked like this. It was the spirit that he loved, not the way she looked upon him with the utmost loathing. "You need to move," she said once more, "in order for me to get past you."
The childish retort of 'you'll have to work to get past me' died upon his lips and Severus dutifully moved out of the way. Lily pushed past him, her bare arm brushing his chest as she fought to squeeze by and protect Harry from Severus. His breath caught in his throat, his skin tingling where she had touched him. Something so innocent, yet it inflamed him to the very tips of his toes.
"Lily."
A single word and she stopped in her tracks, her back to him. Severus' fingers curled against the palm of his hand, wanting to reach out and pull her to him but was unable to move. Severus closed his eyes, breathing in the sweet scent of fall that hung in the air. The only sound came from the trees as they rustled in the autumn breezes.
"Please go," Lily whispered, finally turning to look at Severus. "James will be home soon... I can't... I don't..." She trailed off, unable to finish her statement. The sorrow that filled her eyes was unconscionable and made the stone inside his chest want to break. He had long ago lost his heart and the ability to feel. Strange how the woman who had stolen his heart was the one person who could make him feel again.
Severus closed the distance between them, slipping his arms around her waist. She felt so good in his arms, even if she held a child between them. It was only Harry that kept him from crushing her body against his; the only thing that kept him from feeling the heat of her body against his own.
"You still love me," Severus hissed, removing a hand from her waist to tilt her chin up. Lily closed her eyes, shaking her head vehemently.
"No, I don't. I did once, Severus... but not now."
A low growl emitted from Severus' throat, a sound he had never before made in his life. True, he had growled at classmates, students even -- but the noise had never been like this. It was a possessive growl as Severus lowered his head, his mouth descending upon Lily's. If he couldn't have her body flush against his, then he would crush her lips and steal the kisses that were rightfully his. Lily's mouth was unyielding at first, her body stiff in Severus' arms. With the insistence of Severus' tongue, he managed to coax Lily's lips to part, deepening the kiss.
For a moment, Severus could imagine that he was returning home after a long day at the Apothecary. Coming home to his wife who was waiting outside for him. Holding their child between them. They would go inside, put the baby in his crib and return to their bedroom where he would worship her body for the rest of the night. For the rest of my life.
The kiss seemed to last an eternity, Lily's tongue fighting its way into Severus' mouth and Severus allowing her momentary control over him. Severus memorized the way her mouth felt, the taste that she had, the small noises she made deep in the back of her throat. It was with great regret that Severus pulled back, his eyes opening to catch the brief glimpse of Lily with kiss-bruised and still-puckered lips. He took a snapshot of it with his minds' eye -- the one memory he would treasure for the rest of his life.
"You still love me," Severus spoke, his fingers digging into Lily's sides. "If you didn't, you wouldn't kiss me like that." Lily shook her head, trying to back away but Severus refused to let her go. "That should be my son you're holding. Not his. You always hated him, Lily. Wise up and don't let him fool you. Come with me now and we'll leave this all behind. You and I belong together, Lily." Severus knew a note of desperation had entered his voice and he hated it. However, he was desperate. She had to come with him. She had --
"My home is here," Lily whispered. "It doesn't matter, Severus. My home is here."
"With Potter," Severus spat. "The fucking Pureblood gets everything. Even the Mudblood girl."
Severus' cheek stung with the heat of her slap. He refused to cradle his cheek, instead his lip curling.
"You two deserve each other." Severus' hands fell away, stepping back several paces before he spoke once more. "There will come a day when you'll regret your choice today."
"Go to hell," Lily hissed. "I never want to see you again."
Bending at the waist, Severus gave her a low mock-bow. His words spoke of malice even as his heat broke a second time. "Your wish is my command. But mark my words, you'll regret your decision."
Turning his back on Lily, Severus Disapparated and to his dingy home in Spinner's End. He was not a man given to emotional fits and shed tears. Instead he destroyed the interior of what passed as a 'home'.
A year later, she was dead.
And the only one who regretted that day was Severus. Regretted that he didn't simply take her with him. There would come a day, perhaps, when they would be happy. What sort of happy ending had James Fucking Potter offered her? Death at the hands of the Dark Lord.
A knight in shining armor indeed.
~*~
"Ah yes. Harry Potter. Our new -- celebrity."
Just as he had taken pleasure in imagining Lily as the abused housewife all those years ago, Severus enjoyed watching Harry squirm on his stool. For years, he had dreaded the day the boy would sit in his dungeons and he would be forced to impart knowledge to him. Lily's aptitude in Potions had been due to their late night sessions together, each of them working together to further their mastery of the subject. The thought of seeing Harry have any proficiency whatsoever made his insides churn.
The students in his House began to chuckle and simper, figuring that if their professor could poke fun of the boy with the scar on his forehead, then they certainly could laugh. Severus returned to calling out the rest of the names on the roster, inwardly wincing at yet another Weasley in his presence. What was even worse was that the Potter brat and Weasley seemed to be... Merlin's balls... friends.
"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potions making," Severus began, slowly walking between the desks. It was the same speech he delivered every year to the first-years. Sadly, there were very few students who ever seemed to take the subject seriously. His Slytherins, of course, had it easier than any other House. What good was it to be a Head of House if one couldn't pass along the 'perks' to his students?
"As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses... I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even put a stopper in death -- if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."
While speaking, Severus' eyes continually returned to where Harry was sitting. With his head down, he could forget, if only for a moment, that he was Lily's son. Hunched over as he was, he looked too much like James sitting there -- that is, if James ever slouched. Severus couldn't remember a moment when he wasn't leaning back, showing off for some broad -- usually his Lily.
Yet, there it was. Harry looked up and Severus found himself staring into her eyes. The fire was there and for a moment, Severus could imagine that it was Lily's eyes he was staring into. The eyes that had, once upon a time, looked at him like something more than the dirt beneath her shoe. That could have possibly loved him in return.
Anger boiled hot in Severus' veins. how dare the boy waltz into his class, parading her eyes before him. Those were Lily's eyes and should not be given to anyone else. How dare they belong to the son of James Fucking Potter.
"Potter!" Severus spoke, his furor getting the better of him. From out of nowhere had come the desire to squash the boy like the bug he was. He had never been able to best James, but he could exact his revenge on a helpless Muggle-raised child. He didn't care that he had the advantage over the boy; the taste of revenge was far too sweet upon his palate. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"
A question no -- Granger? Severus' thin eyebrow arched, staring at the girl. Wonderful. A know-it-all and already showing off within the first five minutes of class.
"I don't know, sir," the boy croaked out.
The smile grew across Severus' face as he swooped towards Harry, moving like the bat so many of his students compared him to. A smile to Severus, a sneer to anyone else who looked upon him.
"Tut, tut," Severus said, his upper lip curling, "fame clearly isn't everything."
Being Lily's child doesn't make you a genius.
"Let's try again. Potter, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?"
If it was possible, Granger's hand flew higher into the air. Severus didn't care about her, all he cared about was the way Harry shifted in his seat as if wishing Severus would turn his ire upon someone else. It seemed to gall him that he was the focus of all the attention and that no one else was being given this embarrassing pop quiz. You have seven more years with me, Potter. Severus thought, his eyes boring holes into Harry's head.
"I don't know, sir."
"Thought you wouldn't open a book before coming, eh, Potter?" Severus admitted, he had to give the boy credit for not looking away. Anyone else would have buckled by now. Once more, Severus found him thinking of Lily -- seeing the woman's inner strength in the way Harry lifted his chin to glare back at the mean old Potions professor. Severus didn't care, though. He was on a roll, now, and couldn't be stopped. "What is the difference, Potter, between monkshood and wolfsbane?"
"I don't know," Harry replied. "I think Hermione does, though, why don't you try her?"
The cheek. The gall.
It was Lily to a tee.
"Sit down," Severus snapped, his fury unleashed upon the class as a whole. "For your information, Potter, asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion so powerful it is known as the Draught of Living Death. A bezoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat and it will save you from most poisons. As for monkshood and wolfsbane, they are the same plant, which also goes by the name of aconite. Well?" Severus' eyes flashed, settling on on one student in particular. "Why aren't you all copying that down?"
The sounds the students made as they scrambled to take out quill and parchment was satisfying. What was even more gratifying was the look on Harry's face when he took a point from Gryffindor. The others glared at him with utmost loathing. When in doubt, turn a student's classmates against him and let him flounder.
Every time he looked upon Harry -- from that first day until his death -- all he could see were those green eyes of Lily's staring back at him, seeming to accuse him. Of what, Severus was unsure -- he had done what he could. Still, he replayed their last moments together in his head. That kiss out front of the house, Harry caught between them. That was the last he had seen her, at least alone. Further meetings had been on either side of a battlefield; he became Lily's enemy because of the Mark upon his arm.
The boy perched upon the stool knew nothing of this, he was as stupid as his father had been. Already, Severus could see he was as arrogant as his father had been... and as cocky.
From that moment on, Severus hated Harry. Hated all that he had come from. In the back of his mind, he knew the truth. The boy should have been his son, not James'. Harry was the constant reminder of what should have been his -- the eyes a reminder of the woman he had once loved with every fibre of his being. The eyes that had turned cold while his feelings turned to ice.
Those eyes were the last thing he gazed upon as he drew his final breath on earth. Even then -- he still despised Harry for one single reason.
Because he had Lily's eyes.
My Lily's hazel eyes.
Those eyes that saw me happy long ago.
How can I now forget that once I dared to be
In love, alive and whole in Lily's eyes!
Author: thescarletwoman
Type: Fiction
Word Count: 3200
Pairings: Snape/Lily
Warnings: None.
Rating: PG-13
Summary: No matter where Severus goes, he always is haunted by Lily's eyes.
Disclaimer: Lyrics taken from "Lily's Eyes" from the Broadway musical The Secret Garden. Some lines of dialogue taken from Harry Potter and the Philosopher's/Sorcerer's Stone published by Bloomsbury/Scholastic.
Author's Notes: I have been wanting to write a fic where I could use the lyrics from "Lily's Eyes" as a jumping off point and consequently eagerly gobbled up this request. As a note, this is NOT a songfic. Merely a fic inspired by lyrics. Of course, a thank you to my wonderful beta, rose_whispers who keeps me from using those pesky repetitive words every paragraph.
Strangely quiet, but now the storm
simply rests to strike again.
Standing, waiting, I think of her,
I think of her...
-- "Lily's Eyes" from The Secret Garden
The facade of the small house in Godric's Hollow was far too cheery for his tastes. The partially inflated blue balloons tied to every available column blithely announced the recent arrival of a bouncing baby boy to the household. Partially filled, Severus noted with a derisive snort -- no one had bothered to remove the eyesores in nearly four months. They were still floating, no doubt due to an inflation spell. Wearing off over time, the spell had degenerated to the limp rubber sight before him. A cold smile passed over his face as he stared at the balloons gently waving in the wind. Balloons indeed. The sheer presence of them seemed to scream "Muggle lives here! Come see and kill the Muggleborn!"
The fools.
He stood by the neatly manicured shrubbery, imagining the sickeningly sweet domestic scene inside. Lily cooing softly to the brat -- Harold, was it? -- some insipid name that had come from him no doubt. There was the bastard, passed out on the couch from another late night with the mongrels. Severus closed his eyes and could see the scene completely, almost feeling as if he had taken on the role of interloper. There was Lily, ragged and tending after both children in her household now.
Though it was nothing more than a vision in his mind's eye, he felt no desire to pull away from the scene, taking perverse pleasure in Lily's seemingly miserable existence. Though he may still love her deep within his heart of stone, there was no law that stated Severus had to be happy for the Mudblood.
Yes, there it was. She'd warm a bottle and James would leave to go carouse with those supposed friends of his. She'd bathe the sprog while James ran off to play Quidditch with the boys. All of the scenarios left Lily haggard and careworn, with James the ever-ignorant husband. He knew he wasn't far from the mark. Lily had chosen her lot in life and as far as Severus was concerned she had to reap what she had sewn.
"What are you doing here?"
Cursing under his breath, Severus whirled around to find himself face to face with the object of his obsessions. Severus Snape did not scare. No one ever snuck up on him, nor did he ever startle for any reason. He lowered his gaze, black eyes piercing emerald green ones.
Only she could stop his world from turning; make him forget the very need to breathe.
How he hated her for it.
Severus pulled his gaze from Lily's eyes, dropping to look at the bundle she carried cradled to her chest. This is it. The spawn of James Potter. At least he knows how to do something right. All Severus could see was a mop of black hair, the only thing that related the crying thing to Potter. Severus didn't want to look any closer. He didn't want to see what the child could have inherited from his mother.
"I suppose congratulations are in order," Severus said, the very words burning his lips to speak them.
"You could sound a little more enthusiastic."
Severus forced a smile that showed entirely too much teeth and was far too fake looking to be considered genuine. The insincerity of the smile only seemed to incense Lily further. Her cheeks coloured slightly, little patches of red peppering her cheekbones. The very epitome of 'fiery redhead' -- it was how he loved her best.
"You're still a bastard," Lily spoke, cuddling the brat closer to her chest as if shielding him from the profanity she spoke. "Glad to see that some things don't change. Now, if you'll remove yourself from my front walk, Harry needs his bottle."
Harry. Even worse than Harold. Lily, what were you thinking?
"You need to move," Lily said, lifting her chin to glare at him. Merlin how he loved her when she looked like this. It was the spirit that he loved, not the way she looked upon him with the utmost loathing. "You need to move," she said once more, "in order for me to get past you."
The childish retort of 'you'll have to work to get past me' died upon his lips and Severus dutifully moved out of the way. Lily pushed past him, her bare arm brushing his chest as she fought to squeeze by and protect Harry from Severus. His breath caught in his throat, his skin tingling where she had touched him. Something so innocent, yet it inflamed him to the very tips of his toes.
"Lily."
A single word and she stopped in her tracks, her back to him. Severus' fingers curled against the palm of his hand, wanting to reach out and pull her to him but was unable to move. Severus closed his eyes, breathing in the sweet scent of fall that hung in the air. The only sound came from the trees as they rustled in the autumn breezes.
"Please go," Lily whispered, finally turning to look at Severus. "James will be home soon... I can't... I don't..." She trailed off, unable to finish her statement. The sorrow that filled her eyes was unconscionable and made the stone inside his chest want to break. He had long ago lost his heart and the ability to feel. Strange how the woman who had stolen his heart was the one person who could make him feel again.
Severus closed the distance between them, slipping his arms around her waist. She felt so good in his arms, even if she held a child between them. It was only Harry that kept him from crushing her body against his; the only thing that kept him from feeling the heat of her body against his own.
"You still love me," Severus hissed, removing a hand from her waist to tilt her chin up. Lily closed her eyes, shaking her head vehemently.
"No, I don't. I did once, Severus... but not now."
A low growl emitted from Severus' throat, a sound he had never before made in his life. True, he had growled at classmates, students even -- but the noise had never been like this. It was a possessive growl as Severus lowered his head, his mouth descending upon Lily's. If he couldn't have her body flush against his, then he would crush her lips and steal the kisses that were rightfully his. Lily's mouth was unyielding at first, her body stiff in Severus' arms. With the insistence of Severus' tongue, he managed to coax Lily's lips to part, deepening the kiss.
For a moment, Severus could imagine that he was returning home after a long day at the Apothecary. Coming home to his wife who was waiting outside for him. Holding their child between them. They would go inside, put the baby in his crib and return to their bedroom where he would worship her body for the rest of the night. For the rest of my life.
The kiss seemed to last an eternity, Lily's tongue fighting its way into Severus' mouth and Severus allowing her momentary control over him. Severus memorized the way her mouth felt, the taste that she had, the small noises she made deep in the back of her throat. It was with great regret that Severus pulled back, his eyes opening to catch the brief glimpse of Lily with kiss-bruised and still-puckered lips. He took a snapshot of it with his minds' eye -- the one memory he would treasure for the rest of his life.
"You still love me," Severus spoke, his fingers digging into Lily's sides. "If you didn't, you wouldn't kiss me like that." Lily shook her head, trying to back away but Severus refused to let her go. "That should be my son you're holding. Not his. You always hated him, Lily. Wise up and don't let him fool you. Come with me now and we'll leave this all behind. You and I belong together, Lily." Severus knew a note of desperation had entered his voice and he hated it. However, he was desperate. She had to come with him. She had --
"My home is here," Lily whispered. "It doesn't matter, Severus. My home is here."
"With Potter," Severus spat. "The fucking Pureblood gets everything. Even the Mudblood girl."
Severus' cheek stung with the heat of her slap. He refused to cradle his cheek, instead his lip curling.
"You two deserve each other." Severus' hands fell away, stepping back several paces before he spoke once more. "There will come a day when you'll regret your choice today."
"Go to hell," Lily hissed. "I never want to see you again."
Bending at the waist, Severus gave her a low mock-bow. His words spoke of malice even as his heat broke a second time. "Your wish is my command. But mark my words, you'll regret your decision."
Turning his back on Lily, Severus Disapparated and to his dingy home in Spinner's End. He was not a man given to emotional fits and shed tears. Instead he destroyed the interior of what passed as a 'home'.
A year later, she was dead.
And the only one who regretted that day was Severus. Regretted that he didn't simply take her with him. There would come a day, perhaps, when they would be happy. What sort of happy ending had James Fucking Potter offered her? Death at the hands of the Dark Lord.
A knight in shining armor indeed.
~*~
"Ah yes. Harry Potter. Our new -- celebrity."
Just as he had taken pleasure in imagining Lily as the abused housewife all those years ago, Severus enjoyed watching Harry squirm on his stool. For years, he had dreaded the day the boy would sit in his dungeons and he would be forced to impart knowledge to him. Lily's aptitude in Potions had been due to their late night sessions together, each of them working together to further their mastery of the subject. The thought of seeing Harry have any proficiency whatsoever made his insides churn.
The students in his House began to chuckle and simper, figuring that if their professor could poke fun of the boy with the scar on his forehead, then they certainly could laugh. Severus returned to calling out the rest of the names on the roster, inwardly wincing at yet another Weasley in his presence. What was even worse was that the Potter brat and Weasley seemed to be... Merlin's balls... friends.
"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potions making," Severus began, slowly walking between the desks. It was the same speech he delivered every year to the first-years. Sadly, there were very few students who ever seemed to take the subject seriously. His Slytherins, of course, had it easier than any other House. What good was it to be a Head of House if one couldn't pass along the 'perks' to his students?
"As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses... I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even put a stopper in death -- if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."
While speaking, Severus' eyes continually returned to where Harry was sitting. With his head down, he could forget, if only for a moment, that he was Lily's son. Hunched over as he was, he looked too much like James sitting there -- that is, if James ever slouched. Severus couldn't remember a moment when he wasn't leaning back, showing off for some broad -- usually his Lily.
Yet, there it was. Harry looked up and Severus found himself staring into her eyes. The fire was there and for a moment, Severus could imagine that it was Lily's eyes he was staring into. The eyes that had, once upon a time, looked at him like something more than the dirt beneath her shoe. That could have possibly loved him in return.
Anger boiled hot in Severus' veins. how dare the boy waltz into his class, parading her eyes before him. Those were Lily's eyes and should not be given to anyone else. How dare they belong to the son of James Fucking Potter.
"Potter!" Severus spoke, his furor getting the better of him. From out of nowhere had come the desire to squash the boy like the bug he was. He had never been able to best James, but he could exact his revenge on a helpless Muggle-raised child. He didn't care that he had the advantage over the boy; the taste of revenge was far too sweet upon his palate. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"
A question no -- Granger? Severus' thin eyebrow arched, staring at the girl. Wonderful. A know-it-all and already showing off within the first five minutes of class.
"I don't know, sir," the boy croaked out.
The smile grew across Severus' face as he swooped towards Harry, moving like the bat so many of his students compared him to. A smile to Severus, a sneer to anyone else who looked upon him.
"Tut, tut," Severus said, his upper lip curling, "fame clearly isn't everything."
Being Lily's child doesn't make you a genius.
"Let's try again. Potter, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?"
If it was possible, Granger's hand flew higher into the air. Severus didn't care about her, all he cared about was the way Harry shifted in his seat as if wishing Severus would turn his ire upon someone else. It seemed to gall him that he was the focus of all the attention and that no one else was being given this embarrassing pop quiz. You have seven more years with me, Potter. Severus thought, his eyes boring holes into Harry's head.
"I don't know, sir."
"Thought you wouldn't open a book before coming, eh, Potter?" Severus admitted, he had to give the boy credit for not looking away. Anyone else would have buckled by now. Once more, Severus found him thinking of Lily -- seeing the woman's inner strength in the way Harry lifted his chin to glare back at the mean old Potions professor. Severus didn't care, though. He was on a roll, now, and couldn't be stopped. "What is the difference, Potter, between monkshood and wolfsbane?"
"I don't know," Harry replied. "I think Hermione does, though, why don't you try her?"
The cheek. The gall.
It was Lily to a tee.
"Sit down," Severus snapped, his fury unleashed upon the class as a whole. "For your information, Potter, asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion so powerful it is known as the Draught of Living Death. A bezoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat and it will save you from most poisons. As for monkshood and wolfsbane, they are the same plant, which also goes by the name of aconite. Well?" Severus' eyes flashed, settling on on one student in particular. "Why aren't you all copying that down?"
The sounds the students made as they scrambled to take out quill and parchment was satisfying. What was even more gratifying was the look on Harry's face when he took a point from Gryffindor. The others glared at him with utmost loathing. When in doubt, turn a student's classmates against him and let him flounder.
Every time he looked upon Harry -- from that first day until his death -- all he could see were those green eyes of Lily's staring back at him, seeming to accuse him. Of what, Severus was unsure -- he had done what he could. Still, he replayed their last moments together in his head. That kiss out front of the house, Harry caught between them. That was the last he had seen her, at least alone. Further meetings had been on either side of a battlefield; he became Lily's enemy because of the Mark upon his arm.
The boy perched upon the stool knew nothing of this, he was as stupid as his father had been. Already, Severus could see he was as arrogant as his father had been... and as cocky.
From that moment on, Severus hated Harry. Hated all that he had come from. In the back of his mind, he knew the truth. The boy should have been his son, not James'. Harry was the constant reminder of what should have been his -- the eyes a reminder of the woman he had once loved with every fibre of his being. The eyes that had turned cold while his feelings turned to ice.
Those eyes were the last thing he gazed upon as he drew his final breath on earth. Even then -- he still despised Harry for one single reason.
Because he had Lily's eyes.
My Lily's hazel eyes.
Those eyes that saw me happy long ago.
How can I now forget that once I dared to be
In love, alive and whole in Lily's eyes!