Disclaimer: Harry Potter and its affiliates are the soul property of JK Rowling, Bloomsbury (UK Publisher), Scholastic (US Publisher), and Warner Brothers (Movie distributor). I do not now, nor will I ever profess to own or make money from the HP universe, the only character I own, is Cynthia Queen.

Albus Dumbledore As I Knew Him

By: Cynthia Queen

I was saddened to hear about the passing of Albus Dumbledore, a man of many talents and skills. Most don't know the truth about Albus, and as I was his dearest friend for more than a century, I think it's time you all knew the truth about the man before you go and read Rita Skeeter's book The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore.

I met Albus Dumbledore in Geneva Switzerland, in August of 1900 while I was a potions expert for the International Confederation of Wizards. The Supreme Mugwamp called upon me to name and dispose of a series of deadly potions that were reportedly brought to ICW headquarters by a supporter of Grindlewald. I was 27 when we first met. While I was disposing of the potions in the ICW's potions lab, I saw a young man about 19 years old walking past to head to the Supreme Mugwamp's office presumably to speak to him about something. I followed behind the young man, and accidentally bumped into him. He apologized and introduced himself. That young man, was Albus Dumbledore. I said no apology was needed and we had a nice conversation on our way to the Supreme Mugwamp's office.

Fast forward ten years, in 1910. I was offered the Potions professorship at Hogwarts by Headmaster Phineas Nigellus Black, a job I took with honor. To this day, however, I still don't know why Professor Black gave me the position. I was walking through the castle when I spot Albus again, I say hello and we catch up after ten years of not seeing each other. He told me that he was teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts and that he'd love to have me as a guest lecturer for the class as I am also a Defense Against the Dark Arts expert, and I'd just been awarded an Order of Merlin 1st class for my development of a charm that could dull the affects of the cruciatus curse.

After meeting with Professor Black, I assumed the position of potions mistress and did the job with distinction from 1910 to my retirement in 1930. Albus was saddened to hear that I would no longer be teaching, but by that time the war with Gellert Grindlewald had gotten to the point where I could no longer teach and continue as the ICW's potions expert, so I resigned at the end of the 1930-1931 school year, and moved back to Geneva to dedicate my full attention to the ICW.

In 1935, when it was obvious that Grindlewald was getting stronger, I founded the organization The Knights of Walpurgis, to combat Grindlewald and his forces, much like Albus did with Lord Voldemort by founding the Order of the Phoenix. I asked Albus to be the first member of this organization and be my second in command. He was hesitant to join at first worried that joining would interfere with the blood pact he made with Grindlewald. When I assured him that nothing would interfere with the blood pact since he wasn't doing anything to actively go against Grindlewald, he joined without further hesitation.

Life during the Grindlewald War was hectic for both myself and Albus as we both worked together to take down as many of Grindlewald's supporters and followers as we could. Neither myself nor Albus had much sway in the Ministry of Magic or on the Wizengamot at the time. My father was Lord O'Hara at the time and the O'Hara family was neutral during the conflict and Albus didn't have much of a voice since the Dumbledore family had fallen from grace when Percival Dumbledore, his father attacked the three muggles who attacked his sister Ariana, so trying to get legislation passed making it illegal to openly support Grindlewald was quashed by the families who either were followers or supporters of Grindlewald. It wasn't until 1944 that the Wizengamot did something and passed an emergency law that forbade any Ministry of Magic employee or their families from openly supporting Grindlewald. It wasn't much, but we did manage to flush out several of Grindlewald's fanatic supporters and a few of his followers. The Minister for Magic at the time Hector Fawley was very helpful in getting that law passed.

After Albus defeated Grindlewald in 1945, The Knights of Walpurgis disbanded and I went back to Geneva to continue working for the ICW. Life pretty much went back to normal, Albus became Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot and received an Order of Merlin 1st Class for defeating Grindlewald and continued teaching at Hogwarts this time, as Transfiguration professor and Deputy Headmaster under Headmaster Armando Dippet. I retired as the ICW potions Expert in the summer of 1948, and moved to America where I eventually met and married my husband Robert and had two beautiful children Amelia and Oliver. Then in 1950, I went to the muggle police academy and became a police officer.

Albus and I lost touch around 1949 and didn't speak to each other until 1969 when a new dark lord would rear his ugly head in the United Kingdom, forcing me to reinstate the Knights of Walpurgis and help Albus form his own organization to combat the new threat of Lord Voldemort.

From 1969-1981, both the Knights of Walpurgis and the Order of the Phoenix worked day and night to fight Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters. We saved many lives, including the lives of James and Lily Potter. In 1979, Albus asked me to accompany him to a job interview he had scheduled that night, and we both heard a prophecy that shook us both to the core. The young seer who gave the prophecy, Sybil Trelawney was the great granddaughter of my best friend from my childhood Cassandra Trelawney. So, I knew what I must do. I went through every book in both the Queen and O'Hara libraries and found a spell that used an ancient form of portkeys to whisk the person or persons to a safe location while leaving animated dummies in place to make it look like the dark lord or lady succeeded.

The plan went perfectly, however, when Voldemort went to kill Harry, the killing curse rebounded and hit Voldemort causing his soul to split and latch onto the scar that was on Harry's forehead. I took care of that with a little curse breaking that I learned while I was interning at Gringotts Bank in Geneva after I graduated from Hogwarts. I was taught personally by Ragnok himself. Both Albus and I had a working relationship with the goblins, and Ragnok often called upon me to break very ancient curses that the more modern curse breakers couldn't.

After the war ended, I retreated into a reclusive life, not leaving America where I had lived since 1948 unless I was call upon for an emergency.