"That old goat!" The portrait slammed shut behind Thomas Greenly as he stalked across the Gryffindor common room, flinging himself down in front of the fire. "I can't believe it. Twenty points, twenty points! I wasn't actually doing anything, and I lose twenty points for 'not making productive use of my time'. I'm telling you, Dumbledore has finally lost it."
"And you just lost another ten for speaking ill of the Headmaster," said seventh year prefect Jonathan Duncan as he walked past. "First years, it never changes! They open their mouths before they think, and talk about things they don't understand," he grumbled to his friends.
Thomas was still staring after him with his mouth hanging open, rage written plainly on his face. "Then perhaps you would care to explain it to me," he ground out. By this time the entire common room was silent. Thomas had unintentionally managed to ask the one question that every student in the room had asked themselves but never voiced aloud.
"Don't be thick Greenly. I know you've heard the stories. You don't think Dumbledore's always been like this, do you? The eccentric, fun loving headmaster that ate more sweets than most his students. Didn't you ever bother to look around and wonder why?" He moved farther into the room, taking the chair directly across from Thomas, never noticing the circle of students that followed him. He leaned forward, the fire light illuminating his features, shadows obscuring everything but his eyes, which held an intensity that sent shivers though the young first year.
"It all began during my first year. Professor Travers wasn't always the Transfiguration professor, if you can actually call him a professor. It used to be held by our head of house, Professor McGonagall. She was strict, but fair, with a serious pension for Quidditch. No one really knows what happened, but my best guess is that she's at the heart of everything. It was the middle of March; one day she was in the castle teaching, the next morning she was gone. That, Greenly, is the day everything changed. That is the day that the man who was Albus Dumbledore died."