See these eyes so green

I can stare for 1,000 years

Colder than the moon

It's been so long…

- - - - -

It was when I was a child -still perhaps, during Hogwarts, though I can't remember now; Possibly, even during my first year under his command, though that, at times, can be more distant then my school days- but, as I remember I was still young when my eyes changed from green to grey.

I don't remember whether it was gradual: a slow sinking from the pale perfect leaf color into the somber colorless wash they now possess. Perhaps is was sudden: an overnight switch that everyone was too polite, or, depending when it happened, to scared to comment on.

Severus would be able to tell me, that withdrawn, omniscient collector of subtle changes and events. He could tell me, but then, he is farther from me then a great deal of my childhood memories, now.

But, back then, back when my limbs were still plump, my body small, my hair golden, and my ears not tainted by the name Voldemort, back then my eyes were green.

- - - - -

"If you desire power, seek the company of those with it. Become the sought after and you will only find death."

My father's voice, already crackling and ancient in my young ears, carried this message to me across the candlelit dinner table that night, his pale angry eyes squinting at me from beneath a furrowed brow.

"Do you understand me, boy?" He glared at me, my eleven year old body gazing at him, perfectly still, hoping that the anger within him would not be unleashed.

"No, sir. Sorry, sir." I whispered the words, terribly mousy and scared in his presence, the days before I learned run of the manor.

"I wouldn't have expected you to." He snarled back.

"Jareth, he's only a boy." My pale mother whispered the words to him, a surprising show of bravery for her, her body trembling with the effort even before his head swung around to face her. The old lion's paw swiped out, knocking my young mother into the arm of her chair, before his predatory gaze returned to me, my eyes staring blandly into the duck on my plate.

"As I said, I wouldn't have expected you to. It's something you must learn, if you're to attend Hogwarts. You think on it, boy, and you tell me what the importance of this little lesson is, when you figure it out." He stared at me a moment longer, before tossing his head at the door.

"Leave."

As I left the room behind, my father's rough voice growled to my mother in the room behind me. I heard a soft whisper in return, and the growl rose to a roar, the shatter of plates echoing into the hall.

My feet kept their pace, tracing slowly down the hallway, the moon reflected in my eyes.

The moon stayed in my eyes, dancing as I stared in the mirror, my blonde hair tucked behind my ears. My mother's screams from their bedroom down the hall just barely reached my ears as I traced my features, staring deeply into the mirror. My father's silent curses I couldn't hear, but I knew the desperate wails were shot through with them. Father always said he had to convince my mother of his love for her each. Each and every time.

The lesson echoed around my head as I stared into the mirror, searching for it's meaning in my own mind.

"I will be powerful." I whispered this, my fingers resting on my chin. I tilted my head back, staring down my nose at my reflection.

"But I will not be sought after." I stared into my own green voids, and a slow smile curled my lips, incongruous to the screams that were fading into almost silent moans down the hall.

"I will be powerful."

- - - - -

I crept through the dark that night, a young cub learning how to hunt. The door slid open to my touch, my feet silent on the deep pile of carpeting. My eyes saw into the darkness, lit only by the moon. I saw my mother's huddled, sleeping form in the darkness, her hair falling, tangled over her face. I approached the end of the bed, and saw my father, laying boldly on his back. My breath heaved into my lungs.

The sheets were soft beneath my feet as I crept up the bed, my body towering over my father's sleeping one. I slowly crouched down, and wrapped my hands around the old mans neck. My thumbs found his pulse, beating there behind the tired old skin, and pushed down.

His eyes popped open, surprised, the pale green seeing nothing in the dark but my eyes, an exact copy of his. He began to struggle, his arms jostling my legs where they pressed down. I felt them begin to slip out from under my weight- and they stopped. I looked back surprised, and saw my mother, face bruised, kneeling her own weight into his arms. I stared for a moment, gazing into her scared eyes before turning back to stare into his, watching, waiting, feeling the beat beneath my hands race, then slow, slower, and slower. My vision bored into his, waiting, waiting to see.

And then it happened.

Just as his pulse slowed, just as the color began to drain from his face, his gasps began to stop- it happened.

I can't begin to describe it to you, that look in my father's eyes as his moment of death came. The vision I saw reflected there, the sight that I beheld- it goes beyond saying.

I came back to myself, crouched over my father, as my mother's hands set down onto my shoulders. I turned my head to the right, staring at her from the shadows. Her face was lit by the moon pouring in from the window to our right, fear still etched there.

I spun around, swift and quiet, and touched her face.

"You will sleep here tonight. When you wake up in the morning, scream. You don't know what killed him. Forget I did. Tell no one. No one." I scrambled out of the bed, my hands fumbling at the door as I pulled I shut quietly behind me. I raced down the hall to fall, shaking, into my bed.

I closed my eyes against the monsters that began to creep out of my closet, and drew the covers over my head to protect from the bedtime stories the ones under my bed liked to whisper in my ears. I curled up, a small boy hiding from the night, and slept.

- - - - -

Okay. Well, I suppose that's it for now. I'm usually only good for about two pages. I suppose my [slight] talent comes in teeny tiny doses. Hope you enjoy! We'll see if I can get out more. Of course….reviews are ALWAYS encouraging… *grins*