This head cannon credit goes all to writingroseandcoffee on tumbr.
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One
James grew up learning that green meant death. How many times has he heard his mother tell old folk tales of wizards dying by the green curse? How many sleepless nights did he lay awake in his own bed thinking that the green monster his father described moments ago would eat him in his sleep? How many screams did he let out when he even thought he saw a killing curse? As a child, green meant death.
The night before the first time on the Hogwarts Express, his father was enthusiastic to tell him about the Slytherin green and the Avada Kedavra curse. His mother decided to ignore the pair of them.
Two
"You're gonna be the death of me." James whispered to lily as she stared up at him with her green eyes.
He had always believed. The first he laid his eyes on her on that train so many years ago, he saw the green and thought death. But there was more than one way of dying. And as he grew older, the emerald green no longer reminded him of the horror stories his parents would tell. They simply reminded him of her, and this moment as they shared their first kiss in the Great Hall, a sunset looming over their shoulders.
There was a small smile curling around her lips, and her hair was placed in a ponytail. Her eyes fluttered shut though as the distance between them became non-existent. He still saw flashes of green.
Three
"Avada Kedavra."
And suddenly, there was a burst of green that would have made a younger James cry out in fear. But this older James, who knew there were things worse than death, welcomed the green with a beating, fierce heart.
After all, green to him was no longer death, but Lily.
