Complexity
By ChocolateEclar
Disclaimer: I do not own these characters or places, although I do own this story and some elements of the characterizations of Al Potter, his siblings and their cousins, Ben, Abigail, and Dittany.
A/N: Thank you to the reviewers! (I believe scrofungulus was mentioned briefly in Order of the Phoenix when they go to St. Mungo's, by the way. I certainly didn't make it up.) This chapter takes places approximately two weeks before the last chapter.
Chapter Seven: Anonymity
It is the middle of November, and Snape is jolted awake when Albus Potter finally makes enough noise to thrust him from a dream (a nightmare of snakes and green eyes wide and hidden behind black-rimmed glasses and blood everywhere). The third-year Gryffindor sits in the middle of the floor of the office, accidentally clinking glass vials and mashing ingredients together in a wooden basin.
It takes Snape's tired eyes several moments to move away from the concoction Al is creating to realize that the boy's hair is bright blond. With a lit candle beside him on a small candlestick, Al's hair flickers from golden to a pale yellow in the light. Only then does Snape realize what the boy is crushing in the dimness.
"A Sticking Potion, Potter?" Snape comments.
Al does not even look up, nor does he seem surprised by the words as he replies, "This spell won't last long. I want this hair for at least a couple of weeks."
"What statement are you trying to instill, boy?" says Snape, sneering. "Are you attempting to disown your family for the Malfoys?" It feels good to let sarcasm slip from his mouth as his mind ignores the images from his sleep, but as always, even as obviously upset as the boy is, Al is not overly bothered by the words.
"I just felt like a change," Al says dully. With a grimace, he scoops up a bit of the green, squishy mess in the bowl and scrubs his hair with it like shampoo or conditioner. His hair slowly absorbs the goop, until it is just a little brighter and more obnoxiously fair.
"You still look like a Potter, Potter," Snape says. "A Potter crossed with a Malfoy on a bad hair day, but still a Potter."
"Ha!" Al grunts. "Like you should talk," he adds, muttering.
"Believe me, Potter, I am glad I do not have your hair problems," says Snape.
Al looks up from his cleaning and tries to glare, but he ends up grinning a little. "This color isn't that bad," he insists.
"It's fine, dear," says the fierce witch in purple.
"It should shock people at least," Dippet points out, while trying to hide a grimace.
"Sounds good to me," Al says. He stuffs his materials back in his bag and runs a hand through his yellow hair. A little yellow comes off on his hand, but he does not notice. Before any of the portraits can yell out a warning, Al plops the hand back down on the carpet. A yellow smear in the shape of a thumb and index finger is visible when he moves his hand in alarm.
"Merlin's beard," he gasps, scrambling to grab his wand. "Tergeo!" he yelps, as he points his wand at the yellow print. The yellow glints for a second and then appears just as it had beforehand.
"A Sticking Potion I could only expect from the likes of a Potter or a Longbottom," Snape remarks. "Useful only in the wrong situations."
"Oi," Al says, frowning thoughtfully at the mess, "Dittany Longbottom is fairly good at Potions."
"Another spell may do the trick, Albus," Dumbledore says patiently.
"Hopefully," mutters Al, and then says, "Scourgify!" This time, the yellow mark vanishes, as well as all of the dirt on the carpet. It is suddenly brighter and more colorful.
"Effective," a bespectacled, ginger-haired former headmistress comments.
"Do you think Professor McGonagall will notice?" Al asks.
"House elves could have easily done it," Dilys Derwent states.
"Good point," the boy mumbles. He stands up and wanders over to a table. He gazes at his reflection in the glass surface with a critical eye and then smiles.
"Why are you trying not to look like your father, Albus?" Dumbledore asks softly.
Snape's head jerks as he considers the other former headmaster's question. He watches closely as Al's face pinches and contorts with a jumble of emotions. He is suddenly painfully, glaringly thirteen years old, while the portraits had been treating him with a sort of young adult air for sometime.
"Dad's been in the paper lately, even more so than when he became head of the Auror Department," Al admits. He stares at the floor beneath his red trainers mournfully. "Rita Skeeter's trying to fight my aunt Hermione's lawsuit against her for invasion of privacy or some such thing when Skeeter wrote that stupid biography on my dad."
"Behind the Scar or something, wasn't it?" asks an elderly witch with wispy white hair and feathered earrings.
"Behind the Scar: the Boy-Who-Lived or the Boy-Who-Lied? is the full title," Al states. "Skeeter had the misfortune of saying in the book that my aunt and dad had a torrid love affair in their fourth year even after my aunt threatened her back then. It doesn't help Skeeter much that Aunt Hermione's in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.
"Anyway," he continues with a grimace, "people have been gawking and looking at me for signs of being my aunt and dad's love child or something this year. It's not bad enough I'm the Boy-Who-Lived's son, but now they have to be more obvious about the gawping." He finishes with a yell and then quickly bites his lip apologetically. "I mean," he says more quietly, "I'm not about to disown my dad or anything to get some privacy. I can take it. He had it worse after all."
"But instead you've made yourself look like a canary," Dilys Derwent points out.
"I suppose so," Al says sadly.
"And you really think you can guard against all words with a change of hair color?" Snape asks suddenly.
"Maybe it'll give me a different sort of attention for a while and then blow over."
He looks hopeful, and Snape sighs and mutters, "You will learn how life is."
Al stares up at him in puzzlement, as if Snape had said something stranger than normal. "Life isn't all bad," he says softly. "I thought you would know that despite everything." He pauses and smiles a little. "I'll tell you a secret."
"Joy of joys," Snape grumbles, gathering up a bit of sarcasm as he prepares for what the boy is about to impart to him. It is self-preservation that he has kept with him for most of his life and afterwards.
"Since I met you," Al says with all of the naivety of being young and hopeful, "I've sort of hoped that maybe I could bring a little bit of happiness here to this office, since it doesn't seem that you had much of that when at Hogwarts ever. Maybe… I didn't succeed."
Every portrait is awake now. Snape can feel their eyes even as he stares down at the boy who shares his name. He finds, for the first time, he really has nothing he can say.
Then, Al smiles and nods (with those green eyes so impossibly bright and painful). "I thought so," he mutters, and then, laughing, adds more normally, "Well, I hope this hair doesn't last more than a few weeks. It really was a terrible idea."
Several portraits seem relieved that he has realized that (as they don't have to pretend they like it anymore), but Snape has stopped listening to anything. Al leaves, but turns around one last time to beam at him knowingly.
The next time Al shows up in the office, he is pale and sick but still holds the same sort of knowledge that is far beyond his years as if it were a banner. (Snape tries to hate him again – for being a stupid, little Gryffindor grandson of James Potter who thinks he knows everything – but just can't.)
A/N: And so we find out why Snape didn't think Al wanted any attention in the last chapter. :) Anyway, next chapter we have all eight main students (Al, James, Lily, Hugo, Rose, Scorpius, Dittany, and Abigail) in the office at night during Al's sixth year… It should be interesting. (And yes, once again, we skip a few years to see them as older teenagers.) Please review!