Professor Snape was stalking through the halls of Hogwarts. His fourth year potions class was a hopeless mass of dunderheads who couldn't tell the difference between a beozar and common granite.
His mood dropped even more as a student rushed right past him, clipping his arm and knocking the stack of essays from his hand and scattering them across the hall.
He turned angrily to berate the student and deduct points when his heart skipped a beat.
The student had already turned the corner at the end of the hall, all Snape saw was a blur of bright, red hair.
The professor snapped out of his stupor and briskly walked to the end of the hall. As he turned the corner he saw the second youngest Weasley on his hands and knees, shoving pieces of parchment and schoolbooks that he must have dropped back into his bag.
Without alerting him, Snape walked back the way he came.
Bright red hair
Severus Snape was walking across the grounds, he needed to pick a certain plant that only grew on the edge of the forbidden forest.
"You stupid, filthy, little mudblood!"
Snape saw his godson in the middle of an altercation with the know-it-all Granger. Potter and Weasley were watching with amusement.
He watched as she tilted her head to the side and calmly told him that she was ahead of him in every class and that she had the highest marks in the school. She told him that she had checked and the term 'mudblood' was not in any dictionary, wizard or muggle, and that the correct term was muggleborn.
She left his godson a stuttering mess as he tried to come up with an insult.
Snape returned to his task with a heavy heart. He remembered when it was him watching in amusement as the pureblooded bigots were reduced to a blubbering mess.
An intelligent, muggleborn witch.
Severus Snape was hidden in the shadows of the horrendously pink office. Deloris Umbridge was interrogating the various members of Dumbledore's Army that had snuck into her office. When the toad finally called for him and asked him for the Vertiserum he told her the truth, that he didn't have anymore, especially since he had 'misplaced' his latest batch.
As he exited the blinding office Potter started yelling at him. He started to tell him that the Dark Lord had Sirius Black at the Department of Mysterys, but all Snape could see was his eyes. He remembered the witch who used to have those eyes.
As he was walking towards his quarters to make a call to the Order he leaned against the wall to get his breathing under control. He walked away and pretended nothing had happened.
Green eyes.
An old, white-haired professor was standing in the trophy room looking at all of the pictures that took up the wall. His hard, black eyes were flickering to the numerous number of former students.
He began to walk towards the doorway and to his next potions class when he saw a picture from the Battle of Hogwarts out of the corner of his eye.
His fingers traced the puckered scar on his neck as he took a closer look at the photograph.
It was of Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, and Harry Potter in the great hall right after the battle. They looked relieved, like a great burden was lifted from their shoulders.
Bright, red hair.
A smart muggleborn witch.
Green eyes.
A tear dripped down the old potions master's cheek.
"Lily?"