Disclaimer: See first chapter.
A/N: Can really be set anywhere in the series, but I've placed it during HPB.
Chapter 2: Green eyes
Green eyes. They have been the boon and bane of my life.
For years they were my happiness, my promise of peace and laughter, my proof that somewhere hidden deep within me there was something worthwhile.
For years after that they became the exact opposite. They became the sign of my failure, my shattered conscience, my black soul. My constant torment and anguish. I never saw them, yet they were always with me. They haunted me at night. The disappointment, the hurt in them; the knowledge that it was me who had put those emotions into eyes that should know nothing but joy. That same constant question lurking within them,
"Why, Severus?"
And for six years now, those green eyes have truly been before me. A different face; a hated face, the same green eyes. A reminder. This is what you could have had. This is what you have lost.
It's like what they say about the Mirror of Erised. Men can go mad staring into it, drawn to it for its ability to show them what they want beyond anything in the world, yet hating it for mocking them with their inability to acquire it.
A/N: Thanks for reading. Please review!