Afterlife

Dumbledore's Portrait

Y'all I lied about writing tons of suggestions in quarantine, but fuck it, I have school tomorrow, I'm going to try to write a few suggestions now in honour of this reaching 100k. Guys I mean this in the sincerest way possible - thank you. It's been a dream watching this grow over the last couple of years and I'm still not sure how it happened to be honest, because 100k is too large to comprehend. 

And to me in 2016 who first logged onto Wattpad - here, take this as your wow moment. 

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Dumbledore watching Harry talk to his portrait, Snape there

Albus watched on his portrait occasionally, when someone was talking to it. He liked being able to see the portrait give advice and see whether it was even somewhat accurate. He'd seen many people, Minerva, Hermione, other students since the Battle of Hogwarts but he was still waiting on one. Harry Potter hadn't been to see him, not after his death, not before facing Voldemort and not even now, once he was dead.

But today was the day. He'd felt it deep within his bones, and had gone to check up on the portrait which held its position in the headmaster's office, and waited with bated breath for the words of the Boy Who Lived.

Harry approached not looking at him. His shoes scuffed the floor and his eyes followed it. The man, because he was a man now, no longer a boy, wasn't wearing the Hogwarts robes. He'd deigned instead to wear muggle clothes, a shirt even. Harry Potter looked like he'd been through hell, because he had, but that he was on the other side of purgatory. He was no longer waiting for the judgement of Hades, he was free to finally live his life, without restraints from any authority figure, or prophecy. Finally an adult.

"I didn't want to see you," He leads with, and Albus tries not to feel hurt. "I didn't want to see you, not until I'd defeated him. It didn't feel right, as though I was letting you down somehow. As though you'd see me as a failure. I know, now, that you were prepping me for it. And that hurts, because I was just a kid, Professor, when you first met me, and it seems like you just saw me as a pawn to take down him. Voldemort."

"I'm sorry, Harry," the portrait murmurs. "It wasn't like that."

"No, I know. You let me live my life, too, but the end goal was that. You knew it would come down to it eventually, that's all I'm saying. I just," Harry looks to the floor again, scruffs his hair, takes a breath. "I don't want to just be known as the guy who defeated Voldemort. It might have been my destiny, but it wasn't my aim in life. I want to be remembered as a Quidditch player, a family man, someone who lived his life to the fullest."

"They don't remember me as the man who defeated Grindelwald, although that's what they put on my Chocolate frog card. I believe, and I'm being arrogant here, that they call me a great wizard and headmaster." His portrait proclaims. Harry stares at it, thinking for a second, and Dumbledore senses another presence in the room.

Snape was lurking, and Albus isn't going to address it until he makes it clear himself. It's not up to him to announce the presence. This is a private moment, but Albus isn't going to kick Severus out.

"He's talking to you, finally." Severus has been aware of it. Albus hasn't complained, per se, but has mentioned it, with a worried pallor.

"I thought it would have been sooner, based on the fact that I talked to him beyond the grave after he died." Snarky comment but true.

"It takes time. Harry's been through a lot. Seeing your face again probably brings him agony. He saved so many people but not you, one of the ones he probably most wanted to save. His mentor. The talking to him after he'd just died probably didn't help either. After all, it just drew the failure into Harry's brain."

"That's crazy. Harry knows that I don't blame him for his death."

"No, but he blamed me considering I killed you, and then I turned out to be on our side and it got him all confused with blaming and now he self blames because what else would Harry Potter do?"

"You spoke to me," Harry hesitates, but finally has encroached upon it. His fists are clenched. "When I died - When Voldemort killed me, during the battle. You were there, by the train station. And you told me I could see my parents, or I could go back."

The portrait's eyes raise. "I highly doubt that was a version of me, and rather suggest it was your subconscious." Albus in the afterlife lets out a string of insults at the portrait that make Severus's eyebrows shoot up in surprise.

"All that hard work! I put effort into that speech! Bloody hell. This portrait is slander. Absolute slander."

Severus stays with him, and Portrait Albus gives some advice regarding Ginny, and next steps with the Wizarding population as a whole. They're not entirely inaccurate, although Albus feels like he could definitely give better advice if he, himself was there, rather than just a portrait of him that unfortunately got his nose all wrong.