silence is golden

a broomstick gathering dust in the corner, a trunk with a false bottom, a long dead woman’s eyes come back to life, a handful of sparklers all lit at once, a bonfire raging on a rocky beach, a stack of well read books holding up a sagging mattress, gold coins rattling in a pocket, boots beating off cobblestone streets, messy writing scrawled over pages, cobwebs in a doorway that hasn’t seen sunlight in a century, overgrown foilage, worn down hardwood floor, a wood-stove burning in the corner, antique lightbulbs with long twisted filaments

HEADCANON 1: Despite his love of quidditch in school and his role on the Gryffindor quidditch team as a beater alongside his brother, professional sports had never been in Al’s sight. From a young age, Al had been captivated by his Uncle Bill’s stories of his time as a curse-breaker, travelling to faraway lands and returning with ancient treasure. The older he got, the more reality set in, but even the honest truth of the job couldn’t take the shine off of his dream. Upon graduating from Hogwarts, Al took a position with Gringotts in Italy, travelling the country exploring magical historical sites. He popped back to London as often as possible, eventually taking up residence in Phoenix Circle with James, even though he wasn’t physically there most of the time. His promotion to working full time at Gringott’s HQ wasn’t unexpected, but Al wasn’t sure what to expect of his full time relocation to London. After a month in Phoenix Circus, Al had a feeling he would be there for the long haul.

HEADCANON 2: Al has always been hard to pin down exactly, full of contradictions as long as anyone could remember. A chronic class skipper for every subject but one, Al still managed to excel in many subjects and faithfully attended every single one of Professor Binns’ lectures, achieving NEWTs in History of Magic, Transfiguration, Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts, and Potions. His position as a prefect never stopped him from carrying on his uncles’ legacy as resident Gryffindor prankster, pranks masterfully executed with no provable trace of the prankster. His pranks continued, ever subtler, as he left Hogwarts and to this day, Al is still proud of the occasional subtle pranks he’s managed to pull off around the apartment complex, from covering doors in post it notes and filling rooms with balloons to enchanting doorknobs with magical ink to dye the hands of anyone who touched it.

HEADCANON 3: In his free time, Al likes to cook. It was a habit he picked up in Italy, learning to make pasta from scratch from his neighbours and generally developing his cooking skills. Although fresh pasta is his usual go-to dish, he likes to switch it up, trying strange and wonderful new recipes. A muggle ice cream machine that Al is determined to charm into something truly wonderful is his newest kitchen addition, feeding into a decade old obsession with ice cream.

BONUS TOM HEADCANON: Albus owns a pet ferret. Back when he first started school, it was debatable whether or not he was going to be allowed to bring Tom to Hogwarts but no one said anything so Al just hopped on the train with Tom and was like too late to get rid of us now suckers. So Tom got to come to Hogwarts and they all lived happily ever after. They were a package deal; there was no other option. A few quick notes about Tom. First, Tom is an asshole. He and Al have this thing going on where the pet vaguely resembles the owner, if you squint hard. But you can definitely see it in the personalities. Tom is a kind of dick, he likes to cause trouble, and he used to occasionally bite people. Al, in his school days, was also a dick, who liked to cause trouble. Unlike Tom, he doesn’t bite people, though there was this one time goofing off with his James that ended in Al biting him. They don’t talk about that time. Ever. Al has a  penchant for awful names, including a potted fern named Thirsty Thurston III, Fern Extraordinaire (after the first two Thirstys were ironically drowned), it often comes as a surprise when people hear the ferret’s name and it’s something as simple as Tom. Joke’s on them, because Tom is in fact the simple nickname, much like Al is the simple nickname for Albus Severus. In actual fact, Albus’s ferret’s name is Sir Grand Supreme Mugwump Sorcerer Thomas de Mimsy Porkrinds Potter. Affectionately known as Tom. When later questioned by his mother on what had possessed him to give the poor tiny creature such an awful name, Al refused to reply, only muttering “still better than my name”. Currently, Tom wanders free range through the apartment building, no matter how many escape routes out of Apartment 3C that Al has barricaded. Since he always comes back, Al mostly just lets it be. Using his debonair looks, Tom cons many meals per day out of PCA’s unsuspecting inhabitants, unbeknownst to his owner, and is surely on track to becoming a chonker ferret.