A/N: This is my first story on , and since this is fanfiction, I do not own Harry Potter. Unless I'm J. K. Rowling. I'll have to check that. Wait a second... nope.

Anyway, this is the prologue for a story I'm partway through writing. It's the first in a planned series of seven, about Albus's time at Hogwarts. I won't put another chapter up for weeks, possibly months, because I want to have the whole story finished before I do. If you like it, plz let me know why. If you don't like it, also plz let me know why so I can make it better. The rest of the story is nothing like the prologue, but the prologue will make sense by the end, I promise. So plz read and plz review with constructive criticism so I can make the rest betterer. :)

Victor Anderson was on holiday. After yet another year of teaching at Hogwarts, he was relaxing from the stress of marking exams in the south of France. He rarely dared to venture beyond the walls of Hogwarts with the history he had and the number of Death Eaters still at large nineteen years after the war. However, Harry Potter himself had assured him safety, sending two highly trusted wizards to look after him. He'd met them, and they seemed quite nice. They weren't Aurors, but Harry had assured him that they would be up to the job of protecting him.

While walking back to his holiday home for the last time, Victor considered the irony of his situation: a teacher of Defense Against the Dark Arts needing support from others to defend himself from dark wizards. He briefly thought back to his prime, when he had been able to fight against ten Death Eaters at once, yet his time as an Auror ended early when he became a victim of a powerful curse from a Death Eater. After the Battle of Hogwarts, he had been asked to work as a teacher, and he gladly accepted the offer.

He approached the door of his house, looking around. Surely Goldstein should be walking with him. How could he have forgotten? Goldstein had been following his every move every time he left the house, yet he was nowhere to be seen.

"Perhaps I've lost him," he muttered to himself. "I have been walking very quickly. He'll catch up to me later."

He looked to the upstairs window and saw a shadowy figure in the door. He knew it was Finch-Fletchley, who had been standing guard in the house, not leaving it for weeks.

"Well, at least one of them is vigilant," he joked to himself as he fumbled to get his key out of his pocket. Once he got it out, he dropped it. He moved to lean over and pick it up, but accidentally kicked it into a drain. "Dammit!"

Instead of going to the drain, he pulled out his wand and said "Accio!" and immediately the key flung itself back out of the drain and into his hand. He unlocked the door, opened it, walked inside and then closed the door behind him, making sure it was locked again.

"Justin! I'm back!" he yelled out, though he knew that Justin had watched him come in. He walked down the main hall into the kitchen so that he could cook dinner, but he heard no reply.

"Justin! I'm about to cook dinner! If you want some, you'd better come now! And do you know where Anthony is? He didn't follow me home."

Still there was no reply, and he entered the kitchen, saying "Fine, more for me, then."

As he opened his pantry and looked inside, he heard a noise behind him. He turned around, but didn't see anything that could be considered the source of the noise.

"Justin? Was that you?"

Nothing.

"If you don't come in here right now, there'll be no dinner for you!"

Still nothing.

Victor gave up, and went back to the task at hand: his dinner. He looked until he saw a tin of spam. He did love eating muggle food every now and then. While spam may not taste good, he felt satisfied at having 'cooked' it without magic. He grabbed the tin, and closed the pantry. He turned around to go and get a bowl, but a shadowy figure in the doorway startled him. He squinted, his vision leaving him in his old age, and saw that it was the outline of a person in the corridor. The light was off, so he couldn't see who it was, but he knew that the only other person in the house was Finch-Fletchley.

"Oh, Justin! There you are! Why haven't you been replying to me?"

Justin didn't respond. He just lingered there, looking at Victor.

"I was thinking we'd have spam for dinner," Victor said, struggling to open the tin. "I know we've been having it a lot recently, but I just can't resist it. And it is our last night here, so just look forward to going home tomorrow and eat without complaining for once!"

Victor thought it odd that Justin hadn't laughed. He'd been a very light-hearted person, though strung up about security, and was always looking for a laugh.

"Are you alright Justin? You seem off."

Justin came into the kitchen. But as he came out of the dark corridor and into the light, Victor saw that it was not Justin. He vaguely recognized this man, as if he had seen him years ago, but could not put a name to the face.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"Professor Anderson," the man replied in a deep voice, "Don't you remember your star student? You may have only taught me for a year, but surely I left an impression on you."

Suddenly, it hit Victor. "Lot! Is that you?"

Lot nodded at him.

"It's so good to see you after all these years!" Victor exclaimed. "What has it been since you graduated, eighteen years? Yes, it must be. You were in your seventh year when I started teaching at Hogwarts."

"Yes, that is correct. But I did not come here to merely catch up. I want something from you," Lot said slowly and carefully, as if to make sure he said the right words.

"Spam?" Victor asked, smiling as he finally got the tin open.

"Please, no." Lot said with a disgusted look on his face. "I was raised by muggles, and I am aware of its monstrosity."

"You're missing out," Victor said. "I'll get an extra bowl out in case you change your mind." Sure enough, Victor bent over and opened a cupboard. He pulled out four bowls.

"That won't be necessary," Lot said approaching him. "In fact, you needn't worry about you two friends, either. I've already taken care of them."

"Taken care of them how?" Victor asked. "I do hope you didn't feed them any spam. I was going to take some back to Hogwarts. It is very difficult to get the House-Elves at Hogwarts to cook muggle food, and I haven't had any in such a long time. Speaking of those two, did Justin let you in?"

"I let myself in. Justin was a bit" Lot paused for a moment, thinking about his next word, "reluctant to let me in."

"Yes, he has been a bit uptight about security on this trip," Victor nodded. "Did you tell him you were an old student of mine?"

"No, I did not. He didn't listen to me once I had come in. And I think you've done more than enough of that," Lot said as he raised his wand. "It's time for your life to come to an end."

"Oh, don't be like that, Lot. You always were melodramatic, but I think that this joke has gone far enough. Can you please tell me where Justin is?"

"He is upstairs in his bedroom. You can go and see him if you're fast enough."

Lot aimed his wand at Victor and yelled "Stupefy!"

Victor ducked just as a flash of light went over his head. He ran, firing a spell at Lot. Lot was taken by surprise at the non-verbal spell and fell to the floor. This provided enough distraction for Victor to run out of the room and into the hallway. The sun had gone down during their conversation, and it was now hard for him to see anything at all. He located the stairs from memory, and ran up them. As he turned the corner on the stairway, a flash of light hit just below him, and he saw that Lot had recovered.

Because he couldn't see anything, he tripped at the top of the stairs. Lot slowly walked up to him on the stairs and stood above him victorious. "I'm sorry that you had to die for this, professor. Ava-"

Lot was cut off when Victor suddenly pulled at his leg from below, causing him to trip and fall down the stairs.

Victor quickly got up and ran to Justin's room, yelling "Justin! Justin!" as he entered.

He saw that Justin was lying on his bed, but fully clothed and above the covers. He turned Justin's body over to see his face completely void of colour.

"No!" he screamed. "No!"

He heard footsteps enter the room behind him.

"Why are you doing this?" Victor screamed at Lot, still staring at Justin's lifeless eyes.

"Because one less wizard defending Hogwarts puts me one step closer to Harry Potter," Lot said.

A tear rolled down Victor's cheek.

"I'm dreadfully sorry it had to be like this professor, but you know how it is."

Victor clutched his wand with both hands, his body starting to shake uncontrollably.

"This is the end of the line for you," Lot said.

Victor quickly turned around, trying to catch Lot by surprise, but his age had made him slow.

"Avada Kedavra!"