A/N: I enjoy the fan-favourite Next Gen characterizations as much as the next person, but I wanted to see it mixed up a bit. See, for some reason there's a lot of variety if you look for it with Albus, with him in anything from Hufflepuff to Ravenclaw (although Slytherin is predominant), but other characters' characterizations seem to have a lot less variation.

So here's a different James, to start off with!

Moved from my old account for privacy reasons.


Disappearing Act


Chapter 1: Taste of Fame


When Albus Severus Potter was seven, he got his first taste of fame.

He hadn't liked it- or well, he hadn't liked it much.

His father had taken him and James to visit Diagon Alley for the first time. His mother had been against it, but Harry had insisted that they both needed to see more than the houses of relatives and family friends.

James, who had never been to Diagon Alley before either, was beside himself with excitement the moment that he heard the news. Lily wanted to go as well, but Ginny put her foot down at that. She refused to let Lily go just yet.

"She isn't ready for it," she insisted.

Harry didn't argue, respecting Ginny's wishes. He likely agreed as well. Lily, on the hand, threw quite the temper tantrum. However, she was easily subdued with the promise of being taken once she turned seven, although she remained quite dissatisfied.

James was somewhat irritated at the fact that he hadn't been taken to Diagon Alley when he was seven. Of course, he kept his complaints from his parents, not wanting to be prevented from visiting the Alley. He instead rattled off all his complaints in private to Albus, who patiently listened.

When the day of the visit finally arrived, Harry cast a spell over both of them, fading their dark hair to a sandy blonde and altering their jawlines in a way that made them unrecognizable. He then proceeded to cast the same spell over himself. James and Albus laughed themselves silly over their appearances for a minute or two, but quickly shushed up once Harry gave them a pointed look.

"Don't tell people who you really are if they ask, alright? Just say your first names." Harry instructed, crouching down to look at each of them in turn. "There'll be problems if people find out who we are."

"How come?" Albus asked, rather confused at all the secrecy.

Harry hesitated, before giving them a faint smile and shrugging. "Don't worry about it. I'll tell you when you're a bit older, alright?"

James looked a bit disgruntled at his father's careful side-stepping of the question. He opened his mouth to object.

"But I-"

"- Now, we'll be going through the Floo, alright?" Harry cut in, pointedly ignoring James' grumblings. To be fair, James seemed to complain about everything nowadays. "I'm afraid I can't side-along the both of you. You've used the Floo before, so you know what to do, right?"

James and Albus both nodded confidently.

"Remember to pronounce it clearly," Harry said. He then handed James a Muggle pen, larger than most but still small enough to fit into a pocket. "This is a Portkey. If you get into trouble and need to get back home, say 'Poppysticks' while you're both holding onto it, alright?"

"We're just going to Diagon Alley! Rose said she went before and didn't have any trouble." James grumbled again, taking the pen nevertheless.

"Just in case, alright?" Harry smiled reassuringly. "It'll make your mother and I feel better."

Harry insisted on getting the both of them to repeat 'Diagon Alley' three times in a row before he was finally satisfied enough to allow them to enter the floo. One after another, they arrived at Diagon Alley.

Things went absolutely marvelously, at first. They visited various shops in the Alley, and while the only thing Harry would buy for them was candy, it was still a wonderful experience.

That is, until Harry had spotted a pickpocket.

"Go inside and bother your uncle," Harry told the two of them, leaving them in front of Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes and racing towards the pickpocket. Harry was quickly swallowed up by the crowd.

"As if," James muttered after a short moment. He shot Albus a wicked smile. "Wanna go see what Dad's doing?"

"We should listen to Dad," Albus objected nervously. The crowd was very thick, and he didn't want to risk getting lost.

"C'mon, Al," James wheedled. "We never see what sort of things Dad's doing as an Auror. I mean, sure, I guess this isn't as awesome as him dueling a dark wizard or something, but it's something."

"I don't think-" Albus started.

"Oops, too late, I'm going," James said cheerfully, setting out into the crowd. For a brief moment, Albus considered staying where he was, but he was only eight. He didn't want to enter an unfamiliar shop all on his own. Quickly, he darted after James.

"You don't even know where you're going!" Albus said, visibly frustrated.

Rolling his eyes, James snapped something back at Albus, but his words were drowned out by a loud voice suddenly sounding from the right.

"You're the pickpocket! You're just pinning the crime on me!"

The two of them struggled through the crowd towards the sound of the voice. Finally, they reached a small open space where two men were facing each other off; one of them Harry. Unfortunately, they didn't quite realize in time that the crowd had formed an open space. They stumbled right into their father with a yelp.

"Sir, why would I pickpocket someone just to return their money bag late - Albus? James?"

"Hi, Dad," James said bravely. Albus just gulped at the freezing glare shot in their direction.

"Albus and James? And you're apparently a Harry…" the man in front of Harry murmured. His eyes brightened dangerously.

"Finite Incantem!" the man shouted, whipping out his wand and shooting the spell point-blank towards James and Albus. Harry, his body moving automatically, took the spell instead, his glamour fading. In the confusion, the man ran into the crowd, shouting as he went.

"Harry Potter! Harry Potter's in Diagon Alley with his sons!"

Harry said a few choice words that Ginny had told them not to say.

"James! Portkey. Now. I'll follow later." Harry hissed, moments before the crowd closed in.

Somehow, the two of them managed to grab ahold of the portkey and activate it. The world appeared to twist into a maelstrom of different colours. Albus felt terribly squished. Just when he was starting to worry about suffocating, the ordeal ended and the two of them landed in the living room of their house. He let go of the pen.

It loudly clattered to the ground.

James placed his hand over his mouth, attempting to prevent himself from throwing up. Albus bit his lip, also trying to hold back his queasiness.

Harry apparated into the living room a few moments later. Albus and James stared up at Harry silently for a few awkward moments.

"I think that if we go to Diagon Alley again," Harry said finally, pinching the bridge of his nose. "It'd be best if we brought along your mother as well. She'll be responsible enough for the three of us. I'm sorry you had to see that."

But, Albus admitted something to himself, later that day when he reflected on the experience. It was true that all those people crowding around had been scary- downright terrifying, even. But the idea that all those people had gotten all worked up because of just one person…

… that was interesting.


When Albus Severus Potter was nine, he got his first major doubts about fame.

It had been summertime, when James had just returned from his first year at Hogwarts. Albus and James remained close enough, although James was still prone to occasionally teasing him. Lily, on the other hand, had decided a few months ago that 'boys were icky' and now spent most of her time with her cousins Rose and Roxanne.

"C'mon, tell me more about Hogwarts!" Albus whined, tugging at James' sleeve. "You barely said anything in your letters- I mean, when you sent them at all."

"I knew Dad and Mum would read all the letters I sent you," James muttered, walking towards his room, Albus following right behind. Once the two of them entered James' room, James closed his door softly and flopped onto the bed, gesturing for Albus to sit on his chair.

Albus obliged, blinking in confusion.

"It's just…" James sighed. "Look, everyone, they look at me, and they don't see me. You and Lily are the only ones that really do, and even Lily is starting to see something else; from the letters Fred sent to Roxanne, I'd bet."

"What do you mean?" Albus asked, ever patiently. "Who would they see?"

"Dad," James said, before pausing and shaking his head, sighing again. "No, not Dad. They see Dad's dad. Our grandpa."

"No one even knows what he was like, really- not even Dad, not really, right?" Albus pointed out. "Just because you share a name with him doesn't mean people expect you to be him. Are you sure you're not being para-"

"I'm not!" James snapped irritably, eyes flashing. "Besides, some of the professors remember, and they're the worst. They're all like 'Be careful not to get into too much trouble, James,' and 'Chip off the old block, aren't you?', even though I haven't done a thing. And Fred wants me to be a 'prankster' with him, bothered me about it the entire year- honestly, what's so fascinating about making a few people's heads blue, I can't understand."

Albus nodded slowly. "Yeah, I guess I can see that."

"Dad and Mum are bad too; y'know that Dad gave me the Marauder's Map at the start of the year, right?" James waited for Albus to nod before continuing, "Well, even though he told me not to use it for anything bad when he gave it to me, when I came back today, he asked me why I didn't use it to get up to any hijinks with Fred! And Mum, you heard her today, right? Talking about how Fred and I were a wonderful new generation of pranksters, but to not get into too much trouble from now on."

"Well…" Albus said hesitantly. "Maybe if you told Mum and Dad that… and I mean, it's not like the whole school-"

"-It is," James cut in. "Everyone in that school looks at me and sees James Potter, prankster extraordinaire. I tried talking with a couple people in Gryffindor I thought I was friends with, but when I even started to suggest that I wasn't like my image, they stared at me like I was an alien from outer space."

"But didn't you get into a lot of trouble this year?" Albus asked curiously. "I remember Mum complaining about it."

"I got into a few detentions because I was late for morning classes too much- you know how I am with waking up in the morning- and a couple because Fred did something and the teachers assumed I was involved." James gritted his teeth. "Just because he wants to make his father proud by being an infamous prankster- and his pranks are pretty lame, anyways, since he's just in first year and we barely know anything- doesn't mean he has to drag me into it."

James sighed yet again. "Sorry for ranting at you, I just was looking forwards to letting it all out."

His eyes widening suddenly, he grabbed Albus by the shoulders. "You don't… you aren't disappointed I'm not like that, are you?"

"Of course not," Albus said simply, smiling. James drew back, letting out a soft breath of relief. "But I still think that Mum and Dad would understand-"

James shook his head firmly. "No. They want me to be their image of a perfect unruly Gryffindor, and I don't want them to look at me in disappointment. Just- I wanted to warn you. That that's the way things are probably going to be for you too… if you get into Gryffindor."

"Are you saying that I shouldn't be in Gryffindor?" Albus asked.

"I'd love to have my snot-nosed little brother be in Gryffindor to tease," James said with a mocking grin. "But you've never seemed very Gryffindor to me, and if you're in, say, Ravenclaw, people's automatic image of you will change. And that's good."

"Maybe I'll go for Slytherin then," Albus suggested teasingly.

"That's going too far the other direction," James insisted, taking Albus' joking suggestion seriously. "You don't know what it's like for Slytherins in Hogwarts. When I'm a prefect, I'll fix things. Sure, there're a couple older kids that seem pretty Dark in Slytherin, I guess, but they don't enter there like that, I'm sure! There's even some Muggleborn Slytherins now, so they can't be as hung up about Pureblood Supremacy as everyone says they are."

"Dad always said stuff like that too, but Mum and Uncle Ron always-"

"Mum and Uncle Ron are wrong," James declared firmly. "Once you get to Hogwarts, you'll see too."

Albus nodded solemnly. After sitting in silence for a moment, James switched the topic to something lighter.

James' talk made him realize something. Fame was alluring, but he didn't want fame from things he didn't do. And if he was famous because of something his Dad did- which he still didn't know what, annoyingly- that was just no fun.


When Albus Severus Potter was ten, he decided that he didn't want to go to Hogwarts.

Or rather, he didn't want to go to Hogwarts as himself. Yet another year had passed, and James had been full with more stories of unfairness and mistaken assumptions. Albus didn't want to be judged before people even knew him- so the logical answer was to be someone that people wouldn't make automatic judgements about.

Albus told James his idea. James supported it, as Albus had hoped he would, and insisted that Albus had to try to get Dad to help him out with it.

Harry was hesitant at first, but he had promised to talk to the Headmistress about it. After a few weeks of chewing his fingernails in anticipation, Harry got back to him on the topic. He said that the Headmistress had understood how Albus wanted to get away from the fame, and had agreed to allow him to enter Hogwarts under a pseudonym. Harry told him that he supported the idea too, as he had wanted to get away from his fame as a child. But he also warned Albus that he would have to deal with it eventually, as he would have to take his OWLs and NEWTs as himself, at the very least.

Ginny wasn't as accepting of the idea, thinking that it was silly to go to such lengths. Harry managed to talk her over eventually, however.

Harry even paid for an anklet- less conspicuous than a bracelet, he had said- inscribed with runes that would do the same thing as a glamour, without the danger of unexpectedly disappearing.

And so, when Albus Severus Potter was eleven, he went to Hogwarts for the first time.

His hair was faded to a dirty blond and his nose was lengthened and flattened. While his eyes were still green, they were no longer as striking- they were closer to hazel if anything.

And his name was Alfred Stevens.


A/N: Hope this made for a decent prologue! Leave a comment if you enjoyed. :)