Title: No One Sees Eyes

Rating: PG-13

Summary: Those were not the eyes he knew. This was not his enemy. These eyes were old. They were hard, and they were closed, and they were cynical and street wise and grief filled and weary. They were not the eyes of the boy Draco had known.

Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

Author(ess): bluefuzzyelf

No One Sees Eyes

No one really saw eyes like an enemy did.

No one really saw Harry Potter's eyes, so intensely green, like his enemy.

No one saw his eyes like Draco Malfoy did.

Draco really noticed it his first encounter with Potter in a corridor outside of Transfiguration. He was not unobservant, and had seen the changes in his stance, the way he held himself, even the way he talked in class. Draco didn't really watch Potter, no, but he noticed.

But he really saw it when Potter whipped his wand out and held it at Draco's throat. He couldn't remember exactly what he had said, but it hadn't warranted that particular reaction, whatever it was.

And as Potter leveled his wand, Draco's own ebony piece of wood out and held at Potter's throat, they locked eyes. Draco was stunned. Those were not the eyes he knew. This was not his enemy. These eyes were old. They were hard, and they were closed, and they were cynical and street wise and grief filled and weary. They were not the eyes of the boy Draco had known.

Harry Potter was no longer the boy he had known. He had changed beyond recognition for the blond youth. To his friends, for all he knew, he was still Harry.

But he wasn't. This man was someone else, and Draco had no quarrel with him, because this man could hurt him, kill him. This man could hate.

So Draco lowered his wand. And those eyes, those astoundingly green eyes widened just a fraction. Draco gave the barest of nods, and he could've sworn he saw something else in those eyes then. Gratitude.

He often wondered, later, if it was because he understood. Draco alone really saw the man that no one would recognize for years. He saw, when no one else could.

It was because no one saw eyes like an enemy did.