I felt a need to write Harry Potter oneshots, and not all about the main characters either. These are based on famous series quotes. Thanks to Tumblr for some prompts and thanks to JKR for the beauty that is this series. These quotes may be taken in a different direction than the gravity of their language in and of themselves.
"Indifference and neglect often do much more damage than outright dislike"
"Albus? Who gets named Albus?" the Muggle boy sneered. Albus Severus Potter merely stayed on his swing, rocking back and forth aimlessly. He didn't mind the Muggle boy's blatant dislike. No, not at all. He'd rather be sneered at than ignored.
"Gonna say anythin', Albie?" another joined in. This one was big and hulking but dumb as 'Uncle' Neville's toad, Trevor.
"Knock off," he mumbled, tracing a pattern in the dirt with his shoe. His heart wasn't really in it.
"No fun, are you, Albie?" the first boy asked, mockingly thoughtful. Albus just shook his head. He was the middle child- he got plenty of teasing from James.
"Come on, Andrew," the second boy whined. "Let's go find that shrimp from Seercly Road," he coaxed. The leader shot Albus one last hard look and strode off, his little pack following. As soon as they were out of sight, Albus stood and hurried home, not wanting it to be dark as he had nothing but his wand and he couldn't exactly use magic. When he entered, he was bombarded on all sides.
"Hey Albus!" Lily yelled.
His dad, Harry, came in from his office and ruffled his hair. "Hey, AJ," he told him. 'AJ' was just a little-used nickname, since he couldn't exactly be called 'AS'.
"Yo! It's little bro!" James shouted, sliding down the stair railing.
"James," Harry said. "Please don't do that." James just stuck his tongue out at the lot of them and hurried into the kitchen. Lily followed him, but Albus and Harry stayed behind.
"What's up?" Harry asked him bluntly. Albus sighed. His dad could always tell when he was in a bad mood.
"Nothing," he mumbled, trying to escape. But his dad gave him that look. "Just Andrew," he lied. It wasn't just Andrew and his goons or anyone else. In fact, it wasn't anyone at all.
They thought that he didn't notice when they stepped right past him to speak to his dad or mum or James, the Quidditch star. They thought he didn't see when they hurried past him on the road or in the neighborhood when he had a little spot of potions or soot on his sleeve. The time the mother's group led away their children because he didn't have Lily with him. No, it was simply the absence of people. Of course his family cared about him, especially his dad, but there was always something else or someone or something going on, some Quidditch event for James or Lily's horseback riding habit. At Hogwarts, everyone was all over James the Perfect Gryffindor. No, his problem was certainly not the abusive tendencies of Andrew and his gang.
It was merely the indifference of being pushed aside.