Hanalei: I'm glad you're still enjoying this story! Rest assured, plenty more is to come.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters except Kyra and Ben.

Friday

November 1st

1:37 p.m. – History of Magic Class

"Stop it, Ben. That's cheating!"

"What? No it's not – look, there was no 'D' so I drew him a leg…"

"You drew him a ridiculously long leg – now he can't get hanged, he'll just stand right up."

"Oh, please… it's hardly longer than the leg you drew on him the game before."

"Are you kidding? It's at least twice that size!"

Albus, Kyra and Ben were all sitting at the same desk in History of Magic – after the first few minutes of class, the latter two had become bored, so they decided to play a game of wizard hangman. Al was meant to play Kyra after this game, but at the rate she and Ben were playing, it would be a while before he got his turn.

"Okay, fine. Here, I'll erase it, look…"

"Nice try, Staglovich – I see the invisible ink!"

"What? No you don't – it's invisible."

Albus sighed inaudibly – though Kyra and Ben nearly always made him laugh, their constant whispered arguing could get a bit tiresome after a while.

"…And in 1945, the dark sorcerer Gellert Grindelwald dueled with the wizard Albus Dumbledore…" Professor Binns droned from the front of the classroom. Al listened to him with no expectation of enjoyment. He was so bored at the moment, he hardly knew if he would even live to see the end of class…

"Got it! It's 'Philosopher's Stone', isn't it?"

"No – that's about ten letters too long, dingbat."

"Oh…"

Albus' eyes wandered around the classroom – most of his classmates looked about as dead as him. A few students towards the back were playing another game of wizard hangman, and one kid, Jeremy Frenkle, was getting bits of parchment tossed at his head by some snickering boys. Like always, Professor Binns was completely oblivious to all that went on in his classroom.

"…Grindelwald remained in the fortress Nuremgard until his death in 1998…"

A group of girls were whispering nearby, and Ben didn't seem to notice, except that he kept casually running a hand through his long hair, making it look windswept and cool. The girls giggled whenever he did this, and Al rolled his eyes. Kyra suddenly and inexplicably elbowed Ben in the ribs.

"Ouch! Stop it, Kyra."

"What? I didn't do anything."

"You hit me on purpose, I saw you!"

"You can't prove it…"

Knowing his two friends would be a few more minutes bickering, Albus decided to lay his head down on the desk, burying his face in his arms. He closed his eyes, hoping to take a quick nap before class ended.

"…Albus Dumbledore, two months after his duel with Gellert Grindelwald, became the headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry…"

Al smirked to himself. Albus Dumbledore, he knew, was the man he himself was named after; the man his dad had told him all about: one of the greatest headmasters in Hogwarts history. For the first time ever in this classroom, Al was listening to Professor Binns with mild interest.

"…Several years after his appointment to headmaster, another dark wizard by the name of Lord Voldemort came into control, the exact date unknown. Lord Voldemort's first dominion of power lasted approximately thirty-six years, until he was thwarted by Harry Potter at age one…"

It took a moment for Professor Binns' words to penetrate Albus' brain – he brought his head up out of his arms and stared at his teacher, frowning.

What did he just say?

"… The means of this defeat are still unknown," Professor Binns went on, unrelenting. "Some accounts have speculated that, after his defeat, Lord Voldemort took refuge in the Black Forest of Albania, and had stayed hidden there for approximately fourteen years…"

Nobody but Albus seemed to care what Binns had to say; he continued to listen with utmost attention, hardly daring to believe what he heard.

My father defeated a dark wizard when he was just one year old?

"… On June 24th, 1995, Lord Voldemort gained his power back through means of a self-made potion that required several human sacrifices. His second dominion of power lasted approximately three years. On May 2nd, 1998, at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Lord Voldemort was once again defeated, this time completely, by Harry Potter at the age of seventeen…"

Albus' heart was pounding, and his ears seemed to buzz with this information. Surely, this had to be a mistake. There was no way his father had killed anyone, even if that man had been an evil sorcerer. This all seemed too strange, too unreal… to think that his father had twice defeated the evil wizard named Lord Voldemort, just like his namesake had defeated that Grindelwald guy!

"'Phoenix'! Ha, I knew I'd get the answer in the end – and you said I couldn't do it!"

"Oh please – I practically gave you that answer."

"You did not! I just have excellent intuition."

"Whatever," Kyra rolled her eyes. "Okay Al, we're up…"

She turned to face Albus on her other side, but stopped at the sight of his expression.

"Al?"

The bell rang at that moment, and the sudden rush of students scrabbling to grab their book bags and to be the first to bolt out of the classroom soon distracted from any response Albus might have given.

To Be Continued

A/N: Reviews are much loved and appreciated :)