Thanks for all the reviews for all my next gen one-shots so far :) And, I may as well say it now rather than at the end: the next story will be about Rose. And here's the one about Albus. By the way, Harry's quite OOC in this, but it is a parody, and characters tend to get OOC in parodies… I think…
It's A Curse
From when his sons were very small to the time when they started school, Harry Potter would tell them:
" All Potter boys fall for redheads. You may have crushes on non-redheads but believe me, you are cursed."
Whenever their father said this, James would boldly state they he would never fall for any girl, let alone a redhead. At school he seemed to have a new girlfriend every other month, before eventually falling in love with and marrying Cherry Jones. She had light blue eyes and dark red hair.
When Albus was at school, he had no girlfriends; he was too busy studying and passing exams. Needless to say, many girls had a crush on him, and he occasionally thought that one or two of the girls looked pretty, but it never came to anything. Then, one day long after Hogwarts, when Albus was twenty-six, a letter arrived at his parents house…
" Harry look, its Heliotrope!" gasped Ginny as the tawny owl came nearer and nearer. When the owl landed in the Potters' kitchen, Ginny grabbed the letter and tore it open.
" What does it say?" Harry asked her.
" Al's getting married!" she replied, and a grin spread across her face. " He says her name's Sophie, and that they got engaged yesterday. He wants to know if they can come round later today!"
" Of course," said Harry, and he went over to Ginny and hugged her. " I'll go tell Al he can come. And we'll have to invite James and Lily round as well!"
" This is wonderful," she sighed. " I wonder why we've never been introduced though?"
They soon got their answer. Later that day, Albus and Sophie came round. Harry and Ginny were waiting in the living room, along with James, Cherry and Lily. When they entered the room, Harry's mouth fell open. Sophie wasn't a redhead. She was blond.
" Mum, dad, this is Sophie Parker," he said.
" It's nice to meet you," added Sophie as she shook hands with Ginny and then with a slightly dazed Harry, who couldn't take his eyes off her hair.
They fell into an awkward silence, which was eventually broken by Lily.
" Um, congratulations Al!" she said brightly. " When's the wedding."
" I don't - "
" This is another case of your polite rebellion," James suddenly cut in. Albus had a feeling he'd been restraining from saying anything for a while.
" Sorry?" said Albus.
" Well," James began. " You've spent your whole life rebelling against the 'conventional' Potter ways."
" Which are?"
" Breaking rules, playing Quidditch, being adventurous," replied James. " When you forget that you're trying to be different, you are more than willing to break the rules, because its part of who you are. But, most of the time, you study and ignore Quidditch like some long lost son of Percy, because you're rebelling. This is a classic example: dad tells us all Potters fall for redheads," James gestured Cherry. " I didn't think about that when I met Cherry, the feeling of love developed naturally. But what do you do? You go out of your way to avoid all non related redheads at all costs."
A stunned silence greeted James's words. Cherry was looking mildly impressed.
" That's not true!" exclaimed Albus, though he had gone slightly red in the face.
" Remember when you were in your third year, and that Hufflepuff girl Lynne asked you out?" James continued. " You took one look at her, said " Sorry. Red," and walked off! If that's not proof then I'm a Crumple Horned Snorkack!"
" You're not, James," muttered Cherry.
" It was just a joke, Cherry!"
" Um, Al?"
It was Sophie. Since James had shared his theories on Albus's behaviour, the Potters had half forgotten that she was there, and she was now looking slightly uncomfortable.
" Yes, Sophie?"
" I have a confession to make," she said. " I dye my hair. My natural colour is light red."
" Ha!" said Harry. " You can't escape, Al!"
James and Lily looked like they were struggling not to laugh. Albus's face had gone blank.
" Al?" said Sophie uncertainly.
He swallowed hard, then said: " The wedding's off."
She glared at him, before disapparating.
" That's rough Al," sighed Ginny.
" See, I told you!" said James excitedly. " If dad had said that no Potter's ever looked twice at a redhead, Al would have been all over Lynne Walker - "
" James!"
" Sorry mum, but its true!"
" Whatever, I'm going back to my flat," said Albus dully, and he too disapparated.
He never made it up with Sophie, but that day Albus learnt that he just couldn't escape the fact that he was a Potter. Two years later, he married Lynne Walker.