Killing Curse green. Draco Malfoy has never seen a color more poisonous, more toxic than Avada Kedavra green. And nothing more full of deadly promise. Killing Curse green cannot fail. It does not miss, it does not wander, it does not hesitate.
Draco Malfoy wants to be Killing Curse green. He wants to be able to look someone in the eye and coolly decide their death with the twitch of a thought – a finger. A spark. Intention, and nothing else. Emotions, morals – what are they? Hindrances, red and yellow and orange and nothing like Avada Kedavra. Nothing like green.
He listens to the senseless cries of a Squib mother for her child and in his mind he paints it a vibrant, startling orange. Green flames burn through a ginger sunset and a tapestry is set afire.
He closes his eyes as a Mudblood man pleads and screams and goes insane, as deep in his eyes appears the roiling violence of yellow. A churning beast, twisting and turning in upon itself. Green makes the eyes roll back in his head, and the monster is beaten. Conquered. Tamed.
There is green, and then there is Killing Curse green. Nothing else.
Draco Malfoy stares into the eyes of a bound and tied Harry Potter and they're staring straight back at him with untamed ferocity. He's perturbed to see that they are the precise shade of green he's always wanted to be. For a moment, Draco flails wildly, because he cannot defeat Killing Curse green. It cannot be tamed. It cannot be conquered. It cannot be vanquished.
But Malfoy is wrong. Harry Potter is not Killing Curse green, nor is he simply green. He's something else, something different, something more –
Harry Potter is cut emerald. He is sparkling grass and Forbidden Forest and lethal intensity. He's –
Beautiful, Draco thinks.
But beauty can be tamed. Conquered. Vanquished.
Killing Curse green cannot.
Draco Malfoy hesitates, and in that moment, he realizes he can never be Avada Kedavra green.