Disclaimer: I don't own HP. That's JK's. Also- the song ain't mine neither. It belongs to the worship-deserving Rufus Wainwright. I guess not everyone likes him but IIIIIII Do he's a beautiful boy ^_^ and his music is superb

SLYTHERIN BOY

Chapter Eighteen: Beauty Mark

He played the first few bars, which were a surprisingly cheerful set. He took a breath, preparing to start singing the lyrics. He'd never been ashamed to sing, as some people were. He didn't imagine he had a particularly good voice, but it wasn't bad, he had good tone and usually he sounded quite nice. He didn't particularly think about singing, he just always did it. It was surprising to the Weasley children, though, who hadn't expected him to do anything but play the piano.

"I never had it, I never wanted it, I never had your beauty mark," he sang. "No, did I have you black hair and hazel eyes," Fred and George exchanged glances. "My early childhood was not as simple as yours set in the country, no I did not have a fear of nuns who dressed in black. But I do… have your taste, I had no radio show, nor did I have homemade clothes, homemade curtains of the same material. I never had it, I never wanted it, I never had your beauty mark, beauty mark. But I do have your taste, and I do have your red face, and long hands," Ron was really surprised at how good Severus sounded. His heart rattled in his chest. "…I may not be so manly, but still I know you love me, even if I don't have your beauty mark. Beauty mark…" the last few notes of the song dropped off quickly, and he released his hands to sit in his lap.

"That was really fantastic!" Ron said. Fred and George looked startled that Ron had said it, and so vehemently. "You should be a musician!" Ginny smirked at Ron behind a hand. He seemed a bit too excited.

Severus looked up, glancing from red head to red head. "Well," he said. "I used to be. Before I was a Professor. I had to give it up though. The school offered infinitely more protection from Voldemort than otherwise." The name of the dark lord echoed strangely in his ears. He hadn't been aware of himself saying it, but now that he had, he wasn't really fearful of it as he used to be. Perhaps part of the fear had been secured by the Dark Mark, which had now been melted away.

"Do you think you'll ever do it again?" George asked.

"Maybe," Severus shrugged. "But I don't know. I've kind of gotten comfortable in my dark little hole at Hogwarts. And I doubt if I'd ever get Albus to set me free," he grimaced.

"But he already did," Ginny pointed out. "You haven't taught a class since you shrank," she said.

"Since I shrank?" he asked her. "What a peculiar way to put it," he blinked, shaking his head slightly. He combed his hair with his fingers a little. "Well, whatever," he shrugged.

He felt a dull throb coming into his head. He rubbed it absently. Suddenly, a sharp piercing pain behind his eyes made him clutch his head. "Ow!" he cried. The blinding pain quickly overcame him, and he saw white, yet again.

The Weasley family was startled when he'd grabbed his head, and before they knew it, he was being lifted from the piano bench, his knees making a cracking sound as they struck the underside of the piano roughly. He was levitated to the middle of the room, his eyes wide open, his eyes blank and unseeing.

George was clutching his shirt again. Severus's left arm dangled limply, but his right arm was resting on his chest, having not been shaken free when he was flung into the air. His legs dangled.

Arthur pulled out his wand. The first time he'd been too stunned to try and combat the seemingly malicious episode, but this time he had his wits about him. "Finite incantatem!" He said, waving his wand. There was a flash, but Severus was still hanging.

"Wait, something changed," Ron said. "What did you do? He's still hanging there but something's different. What's different? He looks different, somehow,"

"His eyes!" Ginny yelped, pointing.

"Woah," Ron said. He saw the difference, now. The left eye had stayed the same, but the other had changed colors. It was now a pale, crystal-clear blue color.

"You changes his eye color," Fred said. "But why would the spell do that?"

"Maybe my wand is defective?" Arthur wondered aloud. The orb was black again, but it hadn't stripped him of his clothing this time. There was a moment of warm buzzing from the orb, before, in stark red lettering, a single line appeared. "Search for the green-eyed boy." It said. There was a flash, and Severus dropped to the floor.

"It was shorter this time," Ginny murmured. Severus had woken upon hitting the floor, and he pushed himself up. Apparently, the shorter one wasn't nearly as draining as the first. "Ow," he said, rubbing the back of his head where he had hit it upon falling. He blinked, a dazed look on his face. "What happened? Why am I on the floor?" he asked. He shook his head, trying to clear it. "Did I have a seizure?"

"No, you had another one of those floating orb things," Ron said. "You have seizures?" he seemed puzzled.

"I used to, when I was a kid," he said. "I haven't had one in years and years and years, though," he seemed half-asleep. He stood up, his knees creaking. "Ouch, my legs hurt," he murmured. He shook his head again. He blinked.

"Severus, I think something's wrong with my wand," Arthur said. "It changed your eye color, but only the one eye,"

Severus seemed to become alert instantly. "What?" He said. His hand flew to cover the right eye automatically.

"I did a finite incantatem, and it turned your eye blue,"

Severus seemed very distressed. "Why did you do that?!" He cried.

"…I don't understand, Severus, why are you so upset?" Arthur said.

"Because it's ugly and it scares people!" he said indignantly.

"What?"

"My eyes are different colors," he frowned, his ears burning red.

"But… they're not… they're black," Fred said, looking puzzled.

"It's just a spell," Severus snapped. "Because people looked at me funny when I don't have it on," he looked very unhappy, his hand clapped over his right eye. "When I was eleven, on the train to Hogwarts, I put it on and I haven't taken it off since," he said. "I couldn't do it with my parents there, of course, or they would have been angry. So I kept my head down and took an empty compartment," he scowled. "So know one has ever known out of the family. Damn it all! Damn it all to hell!" He seemed very upset.

"Can I see it again?" Ron asked. Severus glared at him with his free eye.

"Oh yes, please show us again," Ginny said eagerly. Severus looked unnerved. "Why?" he asked.

"It's cool," Ginny said. "I've never seen someone with eyes two different colors before,"

"It's ugly," Severus said stubbornly.

"Don't be ridiculous," Fred said.

"Don't be so self-conscious," George said at the same time.

Severus looked at them unsurely, before slowly lowering his hand. The blue eye blinked out at them brightly.

"Coooooool," Ginny and Ron said together, leaning forward. Severus jerked back, away from their looming faces.

"Stop towering like that!" He snapped.

"You should leave the spell off," Ron said, straightening. "I find that your eye adds just the right thing to make your image perfect,"

Severus lifted an eyebrow. "I'm sure," he said.

"No, really," Ginny said. "It's really nice looking. Leave the spell off. You'll surprise everybody at school!"

"I don't want to surprise everybody at Hogwarts," he snapped. "I want to look like an ordinary person,"

"But you're not ordinary. You never have been and you never will be," Arthur said, tucking his wand away. Severus frowned at Arthur.

"You're saying I'm abnormal?" he said.

"You're extra-ordinary." Molly said.

"Pff." Severus responded. "And by that I mean I hate you."

"Oh, no you don't, dear," Molly said, patting him on the shoulder. "You only think you do."

He sneered, but he didn't put the spell back on to cover his eye. "If I was in that floating thing again, then why didn't it say anything?" he asked blandly.

"Oh," Arthur said. "It did."

"Really?" Severus looked up. "What did it say?"

"It's said 'search for the green-eyed boy'," Ron said.

"I don't know any green-eyed boy," Severus frowned.

"Well, that's why you've got to search for him. I bet he's the vessel you were supposed to look for." Ron murmured.

"The vessel? But you'd have to unite in body and soul, the thing said. Doesn't that mean, like, sex or marriage or something?" Fred murmured. "So that would be a girl, not a green-eyed boy,"

Severus made a noise of disgust. "I wouldn't want to have sex with a girl that's disgusting," he said.

"What?" George said. "What are you saying?"

"Girls are gross, why anyone would ever want to… blech," Severus stuck his tongue out. "I really don't understand the mentality of straight boys," he shook his head.

"You're gay?" Ginny said.

"Well it's pretty obvious, isn't it?" He said, blinking. "I mean you never really honestly thought I was a hetero, did you?"

"Erm, well, I never really thought about it," Ginny said, blushing crimson. "I mean, you were my teacher. You're not supposed to be attracted to people. You're supposed to take points off and scold people for not doing their work,"

"Oh, I see," Severus rolled his eyes. "Well, I'll try to refrain from having a life outside of marking papers from now on,"

Ginny shrugged. "Well, what do you expect! I don't exactly think about teachers that way! I mean, when you were a student, did you think about who McGonagall was sleeping with?"

"Ginny!" Molly snapped.

"Ew, don't be vile," Severus said. He shook his head as though to rid himself of the mental image of McGonagall sleeping with anyone.

"See! You don't think about it either so why should I?"

"You've made your point," Molly said sternly. "Now, please, everyone. Why don't we all just let this conversation go."

They shrugged, and Severus collapsed into an armchair, as the Weasley children wandered off sheepishly. Arthur and Molly sat down on the sofa opposite Severus.

"What do you think of these messages you're getting?" Arthur asked thoughtfully.

"I think they make my heart hurt, and I think something is revealed about me every time, things that I'd rather not be found out, like my evil eye." He pointed to the blue eye. He waved his wand and the eye faded slowly to make the black color of his other eye.

"Oh, honestly," Molly said. She waved her wand and the black blinked into blue again.

"Why are you doing that?" Severus asked moodily.

"We'll have no image altering spells in this house. You're above that, and it's childish and silly to do it,"

"Says the person with matching eyes." He growled.

"Our roof, our rules," Arthur said.

"I am not a child to be lured into your stupid games of alpha-dog!" Severus snapped.

"We don't permit our children to use those spells, and neither will you be allowed." Arthur said. "As long as you are staying here, you will be a good example to our children."

"Oh, whatever," Severus growled.

"Back to the matter at hand," Molly said.

"Ah, yes," Severus said snidely.

"We are concerned about these occurrences and have been informing the Headmaster of all of it, the first one, your recovery, and now we'll report this one. Ron managed to catch the first on videotape, and we sent that to Albus as well. He has people studying it, but they are still baffled at it. However…" Molly trailed off, frowning.

"However what?" Severus was sure he wasn't going to like the answer.

"They were puzzled about part of the message that said your 'vessel', meaning your body, was altered to better complete your required task, which is to meet a certain other person, I suppose this green-eyed boy," Molly said. "They… they started to be suspicious of the potion occurrence. They began to wonder about it, so, the lead researcher rubbed it onto his skin. Nothing happened. They dumped a cauldron of it on him. Nothing happened. He even ingested it, thinking maybe it had gotten into your system somehow. All that happened was that he felt very euphoric for a while, and made a complete fool of himself as though he were high on some muggle drug. After that wore off, they deduced that the potion Neville Longbottom created, that had exploded on you when you transformed, was a completely harmless, simply botched potion."

Severus stared at her in horror. "N-No, that can't be," he said. "The only reason I transformed was because of the potion! It landed on me, and immediately after, I changed! They must have the formula wrong! That's why they haven't found a cure yet,"

"With that suspicion, a few students were interviewed, and they testified that the potion had sprinkled a few of them slightly, or sprinkled their friends, but they'd had no change in appearance or age."

"Jesus Christ," Severus said. "This can't be true. You mean… no, it's not possible." He stood up, looking distraught.

"That means it wasn't the potion at all. It was something else. Something else entirely! But now… I guess… I'll look for this green-eyed boy. That must be how to change myself back… if it wasn't the potion, then it's whatever is also causing these messages. I… I'll have to follow them, it's the only way!" Severus's eyebrows furrowed together. "It wasn't the potion at all!" He shouted, before staggering out of the room.

****

A/N: Muahahahahahahahahahaha!!!

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Finished editing the chapters! Now back to continuing the story :-) Sorry for the delay but I just couldn't take it anymore. So without further ado… Review!