Lily's Eyes

Severus awoke early the next morning to the sound of a child crying. He bolted up immediately, his spy instincts kicking in before noticing the black haired child in the crib in front of his bed.

Severus blinked a few times in confusion before the events of last night came rushing back. Lily was dead. The Dark Lord was gone. And Harry Potter, defeater of the Dark Lord, was holding on to the bars of the crib and howling loudly enough to have woken the whole of Hogwarts.

He groaned. He hated children, especially the whiny tiny ones. And Harry Potter was both of those. He closed his eyes, trying to control all the emotions he was starting to feel. Taking a few deep breaths, he lifted up the child from the crib and when the boy still didn't stop crying, he tried to glare him into submission. Unfortunately, the boy's eyes were screwed up so he didn't notice the look that had caused a Hufflepuff first year to run in the opposite direction.

"Potter!" he growled, "Stop your incessant howling immediately!"

The boy, if anything, began to cry harder.

"Potter! Potter!" he barked out, shaking the boy a little.

"Maaamaaa!" the boy choked between sobs, "Mama!"

"Your mother's not here, you foolish child! No amount of crying will bring her back!"

The boy stopped crying for a moment, perhaps out of shock at the strange man yelling at him.

Severus was not prepared for what happened next; Lily's eyes, wide and watery with tears were staring at him with such a heartbreaking expression that he felt his own heart clench.

He remembered a time, back before he and Lily had begun Hogwarts when they had raced to the top of a hill. Lily laughed as she ran, her dark red hair flowing behind her. She turned around to see how far behind he was (he had always been small for his age). Not noticing where she was going, Lily had tripped on a rock and scraped her knee. She did not cry, but tears entered her green eyes as she assured Severus that she okay. When they went back to her house and her mother had exclaimed over the blood, she had burst into tears as she hugged her mother.

He remembered her eyes blazing with anger at the Marauders when they had tripped him in Potions class, causing him to knock over his cauldron. The shrinking solution, which had been perfect up till then, had spilt all over the floor. When Lily, Slughorn's favourite student, had told the professor what happened, the Marauders had gotten detention and Severus and Lily had smiled at each other in delight.

He remembered the hurt and disappointment in her eyes when he had called her a Mudblood, before her eyes had grown cold and unforgiving when he tried to beg her for forgiveness.

He remembered the soft, loving look she had gotten in her eyes when talking about her son, her Harry, the one whom she had sacrificed her life for.

"Mama?" the boy whispered, his lips trembling with suppressed sobs.

Severus suddenly felt his own eyes begin to water. The boy's mother would never come back to him, just as his Lily, his best friend, his only love, would never come to Severus. She was gone, and all she had left behind was her son, and in her son, her eyes.

He swallowed painfully a few times.

"Harry," he said quietly, "Harry, it's okay. I'm here. Your mother made me promise to take care of you. And I will do that. I promise I will until my dying day."

He rocked the child slowly a few times as he had seen Narcissa Malfoy do to her own son until the sobs began to subside and the child buried his face in Severus' shirt. Severus continued rocking him until the boy fell asleep once again, allowing a few tears to drip down his own hooked nose.

A/N: hmm I wanted to make this longer but the end seemed to fit here. Updating is harder than it looks! Just when I thought I was free, I got a load of tests and exams to study for. Thank you to those who have put this story on alerts and hopefully I'll have a longer chapter up next time now that the premise for their relationship is set. No promises though! I'm just making this up as I go along. Review Review Review!