A/N: Just a little OneShot borne out of reading way too many Manipulative!Dumbles fics, some of which portray him as a misguided man who started believing his own legends, and some of them see him as outright evil. I think that he is a good man with good intentions who, as he stated during the Philosopher's Stone, makes mistakes that are far more encompassing than most men. I think he sacrificed more than anyone can imagine, first with Grindelwald, and then with Voldemort, and he forgot that Harry was a person, too.

Disclaimer: I own nothing except my laptop, despite the fact that I would really like to own Harry Potter.

Summary: Albus Dumbledore's portrait reflects on his life and the mistakes that he made.

Characters: Albus Dumbledore (portrait), Severus Snape (portrait), James Sirius Potter, Harry James Potter, Ginevra Molly Weasley Potter, Minerva McGonagall

Warnings: None

Genre: Angst, tragedy, family, humor

Rating: K+

Timeline: Post DH, DH compliant, epilogue compliant

Portrait of a Dead Man

The portrait of the late Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore crossed one ankle over his knee and smiled indulgently as he listened to the seven year old eldest son of Harry and Ginny Potter prattle on. Harry himself was out of the Headmistress' office with the current Head, Minerva McGonagall, and had left James Sirius Potter to the capable supervision of the many portraits of the Headmasters of Hogwarts' past.

"And Daddy said that you were a great man, but that you sometimes didn't make the best choices, especially where he was concerned."

"Well, he's certainly right about that, young man," Albus agreed, trying to prevent himself from having memory flashbacks of some of his less advisable choices over the years, especially where the Boy-Who-Lived was concerned.

"And," James declared, lowering his voice like he was divulging some huge secret, "when they thought I was in bed, he told Mum that he had wanted to punch you since he was sixteen, and that it was your fault that his godfather died."

Albus closed his eyes. He had always known that The-Man-Who-Conquered blamed him for a lot, and he had always known that he deserved it. But a child had a very special form of bluntness, a way of saying everything that they meant and lining things with a clarity that no adult could ever find.

"Is it true, Professor?" James asked, eagerly bouncing up and down. "Is it true that it's your fault Uncle Sirius died?"

Albus opened his eyes to look at James gravely. A part of him wanted to keep this from him, partially because he didn't want to share the extent of his sins with a child, and partially because he wanted this child, born to a war-free world, to keep his innocence for as long as possible and lose it in the most gentle possible way.

He mentally scolded himself. This was exactly the kind of behaviour that had led to everything that had happened with Harry. The last thing he needed was to repeat his own mistakes and do exactly the same thing that he had done to Harry to his son for exactly the same reasons.

"Your Uncle Sirius was a wonderful man, James, but he was a Gryffindor through and through," Albus began. "I made a lot of mistakes where Sirius Black was concerned, and those mistakes were at least partially responsible for his death."

"Oh," James said sagely, nodding like he understood the situation. "Well, what kind of mistakes did you make? And how was him being Gryffindor something that helped them happen?"

There was no clear prejudice in James' eyes when he spoke of his parents' and grandparents' House. Albus had a momentary feeling of pride towards Harry and Ginny for raising their children so clearly without the House prejudice that was so prevalent in Wizarding society. They had finally understood what he had been trying to tell them all of his life, and he knew that they were leading the revolutionary way of thinking simply by being who they were.

A derisive snort punctuated Albus' attempt to answer the question, and then they were rudely interrupted by the portrait of Severus Snape. "Black was hot-headed, impetuous and idiotic, and he didn't know which end of his wand to cast out of. Despite the fact that he deserved what he got, I tried to tell him to stay put, that we would rescue that equally idiotic godson of his without him. But no. Sirius Black could never let anyone else play hero, could he? And even then, he had managed to spend half his time convinced that his precious godson was really his best friend returned to life!"

"Severus!" Albus snapped, getting up from his seat and stalking across the frames of several portraits to grab his black-clad former spy by the ear. James had watched this display with almost disturbing silence.

"You're Professor Snape, right?" James asked curiously, eyes following the both of them.

Severus simply growled wordlessly at the child. Albus snorted. "I would think that your death would cause you to gain something in the way of social skills, Severus Snape," Albus snapped. "Yes, child, he is Severus Snape. He tends to have a rather prejudiced view of your family in general, since your grandfather and your father's godfather had a habit of tormenting him rather relentlessly while they were at school. He spent the entirety of your father's school years treating him with disdain because of his resemblance to your grandfather."

James wrinkled his nose. "Well that's silly," he declared. "You shouldn't blame Daddy for something that his father did! Especially since Grandpa James was long dead by the time that you met Daddy!" James now burned with sudden righteous indignation for his father's sake.

"There you go, Severus," Albus said, amused. "Everything that Minerva, Pomona, Filius and I told you for years, concisely and carefully laid out for you by a toddler."

"You're kind of vampire-ish," James continued, to Albus' obvious amusement. "And you've got really greasy hair. I don't know why Daddy likes you so much, specially since Mum says that you were horrible to him when he was in school. But he said that you saved his life over and over and over again, and that you never stopped loving Grandma Lily as long as you lived." Aside from the appalling grammar and the built-in run-on sentence, it was actually rather sweet. "When I asked about why they named Al like that, Daddy said that Al was named after two Headmasters of Hogwarts who were two of the bravest men that he had ever known."

Severus grimaced and Albus snorted. If there was ever a way to drag Severus Snape off of his rail, that was it.

"So what happened with Uncle Sirius, Professor?"

"I transferred him from one prison to another, and that led to his death," Albus admitted. He absolutely despised giving voice to his flaws, and his tendency to treat people like pieces on his chessboard was one specific prevalent one. "Sirius was a passionate man—"

"Idiotic," Severus interrupted. Albus yanked on his ear again.

"Sirius was a passionate man, one who cared deeply for his principles. I'm afraid that by forcing him to remain in Grimmauld Place with no one but Kreacher for company made him surpass the state of 'stir crazy' and sent him straight to manic. When he heard that your father was in danger... Well, his loyalty to James was something that no one could deny, and his love for Harry was equally prevalent."

"So he rushed off to Daddy's rescue and got himself killed?" James asked, batting large brown eyes innocently.

"YES!" Severus agreed vehemently. "It was entirely Black's idiotic fault, and—"

"SEVERUS!" Albus Dumbledore didn't often lose his temper, but Severus Snape seemed to enjoy pushing the envelope. "Sirius made mistakes, yes, but no more than any of us did. Harry would be the first to admit that the entire incident was partially his fault, but we all agree the majority of the blame lies with Bellatrix Lestrange and Voldemort." Albus was amused to note that the name drew absolutely no reaction from the child in front of him, but caused several shudders in the 'sleeping' portraits on the walls.

Harry and Ginny came back up the stairs, accompanied by Minerva McGonagall, and swept young James Sirius into the fireplace and away. Minerva turned her far-too perceptive gaze upon first him, then Severus. Ablus quickly pretended to be snoozing in his frame to avoid her questions.

Somehow, despite the fact that the child was male and looked nothing like her, James Sirius Potter reminded him of his sister Ariana. Perhaps it was just how inquisitively childish he was. In his prime, Albus' interactions with children had been with children over the age of eleven. They were almost teenagers. They were ready to be away from home and constant supervision and to have some measure of independence. And those children had been raised in the shadow of fear stemming from a war that no one could have been totally sure was actually over. But then, he was just a lump of paint and canvas. What did he know?

A/N: I actually wrote this OneShot ages ago and then forgot about it—it just needed a little bit of polishing. These are my views of Albus Dumbledore in a nutshell, basically. And there's a bit of Severus Snape tossed in there for good measure, and a whole lot of great childhood innocence. A little angst, I hope a little humour... Hope you enjoy.

~I Took The One Less Travelled