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Quidditch Round 8 - Holyhead Harpies - Chaser 1

Write another player's Headcanon. (Chaser 2, Roselina4389, Pride of Portree's Head Canon): Albus Potter has run into Snape's portrait during his time at Hogwarts.

Prompts: 11. (first line) 'I/He/She live/s for disbelief…' 12. (dialogue) "You have his eyes." 13. (object) paintbrush

Golden Ticket Challenge: Yellow Room - Setting: Hufflepuff Common Room.

Days of the Month: Hobbit Day - Setting: Hufflepuff Common Room.

Showtime: (Era) Next-Gen

A/N - Sirius is alive, Albus is a Hufflepuff and I haven't read a Cursed Child.

This is an AU.

Thanks to Lizzy, Raybe and Lynn for helping with this. Thanks to my team for betaing.

Better With a Moustache

He lives for disbelief. The wilder the better, but finding Severus Snape's portrait in the Hufflepuff common room transcended even disbelief.

Of course the only thing Albus can think to do is send a letter to his Uncle Sirius. After all, he's one of the few that doesn't talk about what a hero the man was. He's the one who told Albus about the darker side of the man. True Albus had to almost force the story out of him, but once Sirius started, he couldn't stop.

Rumours quickly went around the school. The most popular and believable was that the Headmistress and Severus Snape had fallen out. Perhaps she had tired of him and his snarky comments (as James said - after all, Albus had never been called to see the Headmistress so he wouldn't know) and he had been placed in Hufflepuff as the ultimate punishment.

Though Albus personally thought that Gryffindor would have been the punishment considering Uncle Sirius' words over the summer.

Albus found himself in front of the portrait a couple of weeks into the term. The novelty of the former Headmaster being in the common room had died down and the Hufflepuffs had gone back to their lives, leaving the little reading nook alone.

Snape looked at him for only a second before his lip curled into a sneer. "Potter."

Albus nodded, studying the man he knew the truth about. He had never seen the portrait before and had been in two minds about even approaching, but curiosity won out. "How did you know?"

"You have his eyes," Snape replied, studying Albus carefully. "And the same hair. Though I have heard about your academics and you are just like your father in that regard. Not that I expected more from a Potter."

Albus frowned at the words. He had considered Uncle Sirius to be exaggerating. After all, he had claimed to live in caves and fly on a Hippogriff and even die, but it seemed that the man hadn't been exaggerating about Snape's dislike of the Potter family at all.

"Nothing to say? Perhaps you're smarter than them, after all. Or too stupid to speak for yourself."

"I'm not stupid," Albus stated. "I'm supposedly named after the two greatest wizards, or so my father told me, but I've yet to see why he thinks that."

Severus rolled his eyes. "Pray tell me your name is not Albus Merlin. Though I wouldn't put it past Potter. He had delusions of grandeur."

"No—"

Snape sighed. "Obviously it's going to be the mutt, Black."

"That's my brother," Albus replied. "He's James Sirius. I'm Albus Severus, but Merlin knows why he chose your name. You're not very impressive, are you? I'm not sure why he didn't pick someone like Remus to name me after." He knew he shouldn't really sass his elders but couldn't help himself.

Uncle Sirius would be proud of him.

The idea of Uncle Sirius being proud made Albus stand a little straighter. Usually he had to watch his prankster Uncles talk about James' pranks constantly. He had always been envious of this, wanting to have that sort of attention. Not that they neglected him. He just wanted to show that he could be just like them.

"Is it your plan to bother me? I came here because your house were less bothersome than the rest and I had dealt with enough of Minerva's questions. I'm not here to be ogled by insufferable children. Especially ones that look like James Potter. Thankfully I will be moving away from here tomorrow."

Albus took one last look at the painting and wondered how he could live up to his family name. After all, Severus Snape has made assumptions based on his name. Perhaps he should live up to those expectations and show everyone he could do what James could and more.

He had one night to prove himself and as he walked away from the portrait, a plan began to form in his mind. James had laughed when Albus had started taking an evening art class during term time and a Muggle one during the holidays.

Albus smirked as he headed to his room. He had a plan that would have everyone talking for weeks, if not months.

...oOo...

Albus found himself with too much choice in the matter and had spent the evening making his choice on what to do.

As two am came around, he left his bed and crept down the hall, paints in hand. He had already cast the spells on the paints from the safety of his room, making them suitable to add to an existing portrait.

He clutched his paintbrush in his other hand. This would only work if he could do everything quickly whilst Severus Snape slept. If the portrait woke up, Albus would never get another chance and he'd get into trouble without having anything to show for it.

He had practised his design over and over on parchment until he was satisfied that he'd be able to do it and he couldn't keep the grin from his lips.

He dipped his brush into the black paint and observed the sleeping man in the portrait. Even fast asleep, Snape looked sullen and disagreeable. Perhaps Albus' actions would make him more popular.

His brush touched the portrait and underneath the tool, the former headmaster sighed slightly. Albus held still, his eyes wide as he hoped that Snape would say asleep. After a long moment he was confident enough to move the brush.

Severus didn't move again and Albus was able to finish his masterpiece.

...oOo...

A month of detentions and a loss of house points, but Albus earned most of those in the first place anyway. It was worth it though. He wasn't going to do loads of pranks like James had done over his entire stay at Hogwarts, it was just this single one.

Albus' mistake had been sticking around too long afterwards, admiring his work on the portrait. He had been caught by a prefect who had felt it was their duty to tell on him.

As he headed to the Great Hall, he was met with a slow clap as his brother stood up from his seat, looking extremely proud. A large amount of students joined in, mostly James' friends of course and Albus grinned at them.

He was going to have breakfast and then head straight back to his room. He had a letter to write to his Uncle Sirius. Hopefully his uncle would be proud of him.

No other student could say that they added a villain moustache to a headmaster's portrait, complete with curly ends. Not even the Marauders had managed something like that.

1119 words

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