AN: I had a little trouble with parts of this so constructive crit would be much appreciated!
I don't own the characters
PS: I'm ba-ack!!
Her Eyes
Although he's prepared himself for this moment; although he's known for a very long time that it would come… it's still a shock. He had known that Lily's son would come to Hogwarts; this year, from the moment that he had started teaching… That first day had been the beginning of a dreadful countdown to this one. He had known for years, had had years to prepare himself, yet still he was shocked.
He had deliberately found his dinner uncommonly interesting during the sorting ceremony and subsequent feast… anything to keep his eyes from falling upon that child of the woman he had loved above everything and everyone else.
He had absurdly wanted to stuff his fingers into his ears when McGonagall neared the P's… a moment of weakness that was soon brushed impatiently aside. He tensed involuntarily when the inevitable happened and the name he was dreading was called… a small ugly part of him had hoped that 'Tuney' had been able to beat the magic out of him.
The sorting hat seemed to roar "Gryffindor!" tauntingly in his direction. He refused to look up at the eleven year old that walked to his assigned table surrounded by whispers.
But despite his best efforts, despite the fact that he had somehow managed to not look at a single student for an amazing length of time, some force bigger than himself ruined it all.
He had been forced to say a few words to Quirrell, the incompetent new defense against the dark arts teacher, when it happened. As if under a spell his eyes had been pulled past Quirrell's ridiculous turban to meet a pair of very innocent, very familiar, very, very green eyes.
The eye contact lasted mere seconds but the shock to his system was so great it was almost impossible to hide.
For one impossibly small fraction of a second, his vulnerable mind had registered Lily and not her son. And the next he had registered James Potter… James Potter, James Potter and more James Potter written all over this child with Lily's eyes.
And then had come the anger; white hot fury flooding him; followed by cold resentment and malice… and then quickly replaced with a low burning hatred.
He watched as Lily's eyes filled with pain and James's hands pressed urgently to his pale forehead that bore a scar that belonged not to James… but to Harry.
A lance of guilt and sorrow and pain shot through him at the sight of the pain in Lily's green eyes; pain he instinctively knew he had caused.
Mad, irrational resentment followed… resentment of this child with her eyes; this child that was alive only because she was dead. Resentment of the man who was this boy's father; the man who had failed to protect his wife… who had killed her with his blind trust in the wrong man. Resentment of the fact that her eyes were in his face.
There was self-loathing too… he hadn't been able to protect her either. He hadn't done enough. He hadn't started soon enough.
And chaos of thoughts and emotions reigned in Severus Snape long after Lily Evans' son had followed her footsteps through the old castle to Gryffindor Tower.
But regardless of this chaos he knew his task; knew the promise he had silently made to the one he'd treasured above all things…
He would not allow her sacrifice to be for nothing. He would protect her son no matter the cost.