Written for The Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition, Finals Round 1, Portrait; Dumbledore
Team: Holyhead Harpies Position: Captain
Length: 1046 words, excluding A/Ns
DISCLAIMER:
No matter how much I wish, I shall never be J.K. Rowling
No matter how much I beg, I shall never own Harry Potter.
The portraits of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry loved gossip, they would talk about just about anything that happened at the school.
This included things such as the Chamber of Secrets in 1943 and 1992 or The Boy Who Lived and He Who Must Not Be Named in the 1990's, or even small things such as the students with the record of most number of detentions, straight from Emeric Switch whose portrait was placed inside the "Records Office" (a room connected to the caretakers office).
But there was one topic that never really caught on, the fact that Headmaster Severus Snape's portrait was not placed in the Headmaster's Office.
At first nobody seemed to notice, the portraits in the Headmaster's Office knew that Snape was innocent and on the light side from the start. When Professor McGonagall came into the office and announced that she was Headmistress again, they just assumed that Snape had resumed his job as Potions Master.
It wasn't until Harry Potter came to the office to discuss Snape with Professor McGonagall and tell her that Snape had killed Dumbledore on the Headmster's orders (which earned Dumbledore a glare from the new Headmistress) and that he had been a spy for Dumbledore did they find out that Snape had been killed during the battle.
Still, they didn't seem to actually care that Severus Snape's portrait was not put up in the Headmaster's Office.
"I wonder if they even made a portrait for him," Dumbledore said.
"Probably did and then hung it up somewhere else as he wasn't a proper Headmaster, and he did die after he was sacked, after all aren't the portraits only made for Headmaster's who die while still being in charge of the school?" Professor Phineus Nigellus Black said and the topic was dismissed.
Phineus Nigellus was actually right, but what he didn't guess was that Snape did have a portrait and it had been put up in Hogwarts, on the usually empty Third Floor Corridor on the right.
One can only imagine how surprised Snape was to wake up, not in the Headmaster's Office, but on an empty corridor.
Unfair, some could say, unfair that he had been a headmaster and yet only had one portrait. One portrait which wasn't even in the Headmaster's Office, but Snape didn't care, he didn't mind being on a desolate corridor where nobody talked to him and nobody other than Filch, who cleaned his portrait every month, a ghost or a prefect, on prefect duty, would pass him. In fact, Snape actually liked it. Afterall he had never been a very sociable person and had always enjoyed the peace and quiet of his office which he now found in his portrait.
He enjoyed spending most of his time sleeping or brewing potions with the small number of ingredients that he had painted in his portrait.
Or sometimes even wondering what was happening outside and questions such as weather or not Potter had cleared up his name, what some of his students were up to, what had happened to the Malfoy's and what else had changed or happened after the war.
But of course, this did get boring after a while as he was used to doing a lot more.
Sometimes, he longed for a bit of company and someone to talk to. Someone like Lily who he could spend hours talking to and never get bored.
One morning, when Snape was taking his usual nap, someone came up his corridor.
"James, Rose, come up here, there are loads of pieces of armour and…" the student called.
"No Al, you come here I want to show you guys something and please stop leaving us, it's me who is giving the tour, not you," a second students interrupted from the bottom of the steps.
"Give me a minute," the first students called back, looking at one of the suits of armour.
Snape looked around the corridor lazily, his eyes falling on a student with messy black hair which reminded him of Potter's hair. Potter's son, he thought. It just had to be Potter's son, who else would be wandering around the castle and shouting in the corridors and making so much noise?
"So you're Potter's spawn eh?" he asked lazily.
The boy turned around and looked at him, a confused expression on his face. Snape immediately realised that he too had Lily's eyes, they'd been passed on, again. The eyes- Lily's eyes- confirmed that the boy was indeed Harry Potter's son.
"I'm sorry if I troubled you, sir," Potter's son said slowly. "and- and I'm sorry if my brother James has annoyed you in the past… We haven't met before, sir so I…. and um… we do look kimd of similar, James and I, I mean."
The boy didn't seem arrogant like his father, in fact he even sounded polite. However, Snape thought, he did seem to be trying to escape trouble by making his brother James (how like Potter to name his son after his father) seem like that bad one. Not that it would've been something new if "James" was a troublemaker.
Potter's son was now staring at him as if waiting for a reply.
"I'm- I'm Albus, by the way. Albus Severus Potter," Potter's son continued, slowly almost as if he was worried he'd get into trouble.
Snape blinked in surprise, Potter had named his son after him? Maybe Potter hadn't been all that bad… His son definitely wasn't. Snape looked at the Albus Severus' green eyes again, he didn't wear glasses, Snape thought, the more he looked at Albus the more he was reminded of Lily. Albus also seemed kind and caring, almost like Lily and…
He looked at Albus Severus again and saw that he was still waiting for a reply.
"And I am Severus Snape," he finally replied with his first genuine smile in a very long time.
Albus smiled back and for a moment it was, to Severus Snape, as if Lily was back.
Bit rushed but I think it's okay... Opinions?