Sorry for long time no updates hopefully next chapter will be a bit easier as always I don't own any of the Harry potter series characters, places or names or anything i shouldn't own, I would like to own the name Unity Ufferton if nothing else though.

Albus Dumbledore: A Biography

Chapter Three

Upon starting Hogwarts Albus was sorted almost instantaneously into Gryffindor under the watchful gaze of the then head of Gryffindor and potions-mistress Petra Parsiette. It is important to note that at the time Hogwarts had very different goals then today's school; muggle studies didn't exist and subjects such as Healing and Magilinguistics were still taught. Altogether, the subjects were much more practically based then today's curriculum, with little emphasis on magical theory so as to prepare the young wizards for life in a deeply suspicious and dangerous muggle world. This is evident in the memory of Albus' first Defence against the Dark Arts lesson with Madam Andraste Knapp:

A tall pale witch entered the classroom, she was quite young and wore long flowing robes of maroon which contrasted with her straight black hair.

"Good Afternoon," she said. "I am Madam Knapp and it will be my duty to teach you Defence Against the Dark-Arts. While I try and avoid teaching the Dark Arts themselves," she looked darkly around the room, "a rudimentary, at least, understanding of them is necessary to progress and to some in the class," she glared at the Slytherins in the corner, "their lure will be too great. Bear in mind I am not here to teach you morality or when a curse becomes a counter-curse or when offence becomes defence, you have to decide that for yourselves. I am here to warn you of the consequences of your actions, to help you mature your own judgements and to instruct you in the proper and effective use of defensive magic. Due to the nature of the subject anyone found talking while I am, inappropriately using magic or generally misbehaving will be expelled."

While most if not all of the children didn't understand the intricacies of the speech it is my belief that the general message was conveyed effectively. This strict approach to teaching was scrapped by the next headmaster Armando Dippet who was much more forgiving, perhaps influenced by the increasingly ignorant muggles.

Compared to the earlier changes in Albus' life his transition to life at Hogwarts must have seemed rather enjoyable; Albus was relatively unaffected and coped well in his first term at Hogwarts. He writes in his diary of the 'gigantic library' to which he was always visiting getting to know the librarian Corpestuant Wells well. His incredible intelligence generally attributed to his Father's side of the family made Albus quite reclusive though this didn't prevent him from having a circle of close friends with whom he studied and spent most of his free time with. However, it is somewhat interesting to learn that unlike the majority of students at Hogwarts, Dumbledore's closest friends weren't actually in his house. Seeing the house system as being too insular Dumbledore made great friends with the Ravenclaw sisters Elaine and Avis Crest, the fifth year Slytherin keeper Parias Weatherton and the Hufflepuff prefect Robert Fenwick. This is not to say that he didn't have friends in Gryffindor indeed he was on very good terms with Comus Zonko and the second year Ramiel Goldsmith, Albus also had many admirers during his later years at Hogwarts, despite the fact he never admitted it.

At the end of his first year at Hogwarts he was ahead in all his subjects, achieving remarkable results in the end of term tests much to annoyance of his peers, and, especially the Ravenclaws who held the belief he had been wrongly sorted. Overall this lead to him being granted the title of Apprentice, signifying that he had progressed as far as what was expected from an average third year student.

When he arrived home his parents had prepared to take him on holiday as a present for his outstanding achievements. Taking a Portkey to the North Americas they stayed in the small wizarding colony of Spoonerville. Here again, Albus explored his love of cultures, having been brought up as a muggle with a French mother he loved the varying eccentricities that defined and differed them and more characteristically sought ways of uniting them. He also saw his first professional game of Quodpot and also took part in an amateur game. Having broken his nose once already by flying on a broomstick it is probable that Albus preferred Quodpot to Quidditch. Yet it was inevitable that later in life his, as yet unknown, friends Nicholas Flamel would introduce him into the joys of Quidditch and Puddlemere United.

As Albus would be at Hogwarts for his birthday for the second year running his parents decided to have a thirteenth birthday party once they returned to Camelot. Deciding to keep it as low-key as possible only close family and friends were invited, the previous parties being just family. The guest-of-honour was Professor Mithra Clarell the Headmistress of Hogwarts who had taught Ambrosius Charms while he was there and was now in deep conversation with him and Albus' cousin Cemmunos who would be starting there in a few days time.

"So Cemmunos," she said, he voice was quite high, almost floating above the humdrum of the other conversations, "are you looking forward to coming to Hogwarts?"

"P'raps, dunno really." A smirk caricaturing face.

"Of course you are," his Uncle reprimanded him, "though as to what house you'll be in, there's the problem."

After the sorting (Cemmunos was sorted into Slytherin) Professor Clarell announced to the school that the Triwizard tournament would be taking place. As it occurs every five years only the upper five years in the school could apply as the lower years would have a second attempt and were not deemed magically proficient enough. Due to the fact that Durmstrang was hosting, to avoid confusion all eligible students were instructed to sign up on the notice-boards in their respective common rooms. Next they would have to pass a series of tests on their ability, so as only a select few would make the journey. On the day of departure the whole school had lined up outside to send wish their candidates good-luck. The Hogwarts Express, bewitched to run off-rails, stood gleaming as the contenders entered their carriages. When the last had entered the headmistress joined them at the front and the train set off into the sky and onwards to the north.

Back at Hogwarts life progressed relatively quietly though not without shocks, one History of Magic class Albus entered the classroom to discover that his teacher Professor Berold Binns had died and was floating in front him as a pearly ghost. The most shocking aspect is that Binns himself didn't even notice it until one of his students pointed out to him, at which point he merely looked down at himself, shrugged his shoulders and carried on droning out dates to the class. While Professor Binns didn't seem to worry that he was dead it threw up the rather interesting question as to whether a ghost could be a Head of House. It was decided that they couldn't, mainly swayed by the fact that with an infinite, for wont of a better world, life expectancy a ghost could conceivably be the Head of House forever. Therefore Binns stepped down as head of Ravenclaw and Madam Knapp replaced him.

During this time Dumbledore kept in contact with Parias Wetherton, who, had become the Hogwarts champion. The first task was held deep in the Black Forest where the contestants had to either reach the northern boundary of it or simply survive for a week unaided by anything apart from their wands. Wetherton writes that:

'The nights were terrifying, I couldn't sleep, I lay there thinking of the rumours, vampires in the Black Forest, I just managed to stay warm enough by using that charm your Father created. Some Erklings almost killed me in there, I don't know whether a thousand galleons is worth it really, but the second task is coming up soon and I'm trying to find out what it is, I tried a confundus charm on one of the judges but he just started babbling.'

This perhaps epitomises the schools' uncompromising ethos towards its pupils. It also shows that Ambrosius' charm-work was famous and more importantly useful. Finally it shows and confirms the amount of cheating present in the Triwizard tournament, though, to confound a judge is perhaps the most blatant example. Overall that year Beauxbatons won due to Wetherton being petrified until the end and the Durmstrang student being killed by a lost lethifold.

Near the end of the year the second years had to make their choices as to what to study in their remaining five years at Hogwarts. Dumbledore, using guidance from his parents and his own judgement chose: Potions, Transfiguration, Charms, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Magilinguistics, History of Magic, Healing and Ancient Runes. He also signed up for Care of Magical Creatures which, at the time was being taught as a trial by the African Shamaness Madam Busara Ngwane who, like most African witches, was also noted for her skills in alchemy and astronomy.

Due to his Mother touring the Caribbean, Dumbledore returned to King's Cross Station to find only his Father waiting for him with the news that they would be living in Hogsmeade for a few weeks. As his Father and Uncle had been commissioned to create a new charm for the practical joke 'Food-Fearing Forks'. The idea being that as the fork approached food it would try and escape. During the early prototypes the cutlery would literally fear the food and would resort to violence, Kelepticus getting speared in the eye by an over-zealous spoon. Keen to assist them Dumbledore watched as the two wizards mutated the charm to create the wanted effect, showing Dumbledore a basic idea of how to create spells.

Albus' Mother returned abruptly due to a lethal bout of Shynkies that almost completely paralysed her, fearing for his wife's life Ambrosius used a Side-Along Apparition to take her directly to St. Mungos Hospital where she was attended to by Chief Healer Delaney Talbothay of the 'Le Fay' ward. Luckily, she made a full recovery, however, almost equally important from the perspective of Albus' life is that he had found a possible career. It comes as no surprise that Albus always valued the idea of helping people and promoting harmony, and, in his mind there was no greater pinnacle of public assistance then a hospital.

The greatest difference for Dumbledore in his third year at Hogwarts was the introduction of the more specialised subjects that he had chosen the previous year. Magilinguistics granted him the ability to talk with magical animals, beings and wizards from other nationalities. From the outset he impressed his teacher with his magical skills:

Dumbledore sat alone in the room, his arms folded and his books ready. Suddenly the door burst open and a short, fat man bustled in carrying about twelve books at once.

"Good gracious!" He exclaimed as the books almost toppled off, "Right, er, well, yes, I am Professor Bibble, Languidius Bibble." He peered over his full moon spectacles and brushed the wet mop of a fringe out his eyes, "oh dear oh dear, only one student this year, ah well, generally I have three at the least but never mind." He paused and looked again, as if to make sure there was definitely only one student. He took the topmost book off the tottering pile and opened it, venturing 'Albus Dumbledore?'"

"Yes sir." Dumbledore answered. At this point the teacher burst into a wide beam.

"Excellent, well, yes, let's make a start, er, can you speak any languages already? I don't know German, Basque, Gobbledegook?" he reeled off as he flicked absently through yet another book.

"I can speak French sir."

Bibble looked up and again his eyes glittered. "French? Ah yes, Romance language that is to say Latin based, I remember now your Mother's French isn't she, excellent, excellent, well that ought to put you in good stead, learning another language, or being bilingual as one may put it is always a plus." He waggled a podgy finger in Dumbledore's direction.

"Right," he said to himself, "I think, yes, let's start with Pixen, er, pixie language now, unfortunately, one cannot simply learn the long lists of words." He paused and looked slightly distressed, "no, it's a shame but no, one also has to create the right voice, it's a simple incantation," he added quickly, "with practise I'm sure you'll get it, now hold you wand and point it at you throat, yes that's right good, good." He said as he directed Dumbledore's wand. "Now, keep you voice nice and clear and say 'Appixuate'."

Dumbledore did this and waited, they both started for at each other for moment when suddenly Bibble said: "Well come on, come on then, you know, keeping your mouth shut isn't really going to help us see if you've cast the spell."

Dumbledore opened his mouth to speak and instead of his usual voice a high pitched twittering issued forth.

"Merlin's beard!" Cried Bibble, "Oh Lord, that's never happened before, first attempt as well." He turned to Dumbledore, "well that is quite remarkable, yes first attempt, indeed, er, now, learning the vocabulary. Here are some wordlists for you," he said as he crammed three books into Dumbledore's arms, "now the grammar, luckily Pixen is so primitive they don't differentiate between the different categories of words or have any form of syntax so just string together the words and they'll understand you." He spoke so quickly and randomly that Dumbledore had to concentrate to keep up, he was about to reply when Bibble interrupted, "Oh, almost forgot, understanding Pixen, now er, speaking is all well and good, but what's the point if you don't know what's being said to you?" He chortled as he reminisced on a previous memory until Dumbledore coughed politely. "What? Oh yes, understanding now erm, the incantation will allow you to speak it and with a lot of good hard practise it will allow you to understand but what you have to realise is that its not what the pixies say that allows you to understand it. The, er spell, well, it kind of picks up the meaning through the tone of their voice and how they say it, it's quite complicated but with practise," he added, " you have to disregard the words and focus on the tone. So er, learn all the words, I think maybe till half-term will give you enough time and then I'll test you and depending on how you score depends on what we do next. Obviously after Pixen we can move onto Doxian and Fairish, they're primarily the same just, er, different spells perhaps a week on that, then we'll go onto Welsh, excellent language, wonderful conjugations. That will take us up to Christmas and then for the end of year exams we'll prime you on Mermish, which before you ask is based on Welsh, which I believe, ties in nicely with your Ancient Runes coursework.

With that he picked up the remaining nine books and waddled out of the classroom, leaving Albus looking slightly dumfounded. It wasn't until Albus met back with his friends that he realised he hadn't reversed the voice altering incantation.

Despite the fact that Magilinguistics was not the only new subject it was the one that had the most profound effect on the young Albus. Professor Bibble was himself an incredible linguistic being able to converse with many different creatures and peoples eventually earning him the Order of Merlin Third Class.

As always he excelled in all his subjects achieving well above what was expected for his age, though conceivably more incredible was the modesty that he conducted himself with. It was most definitely his modesty that enraged his peers, as they couldn't see the point in being so incredibly intelligent if you were too modest to admit to it. I also believe a certain amount of jealousy was present as well. Indeed, during his third year Albus became the target of a school-wide grudge. Seemingly unabated by this Dumbledore ploughed on with his work learning to speak Pixen in just three weeks much to Bibble's surprise and delight.

During Care of Magical Creatures that year Madam Ngwane, seeing Dumbledore's skills as a wizard, invited him to come to her Amateur Alchemy Class. Seeing this as an opportunity to improve his Healing skills Dumbledore accepted much to the annoyance of his Healing teacher and school nurse Professor Gallows, who, like most Healers, had a suspicion of other Healing Magic. It is important to note that Alchemy in the wizarding world has several differences to the muggle ideals of what has been come to known as 'Romantic Alchemy'. The primary being that instead of trying to find a 'Philosopher's Stone' the main aim of wizarding alchemy is to discover new potion ingredients and incantations. It was in the late second century that a small brand of somewhat greedy alchemists decided to try and create gold and immortality and thus create the muggle belief of alchemy.

For his fifteenth birthday Albus' parents bought him a beautiful elf owl named 'Icarus' so he could converse with his parents while at school. During the summer the Dumbledore's again visited the South of France and Nimué's birthplace, though while they were there they also toured Beauxbatons Academy. As when they had previously visited France they had to be hidden as muggles this time the Ministry didn't provide accommodation and therefore they stayed with Nimué's only brother Phillipe, though they were visited by all five of Nimué's sisters at least once. During this time Albus could be found wondering alone across the French Alps sometimes talking to himself as he tried to sort his views into some form of order. Albus, like most teenagers had developed a very opinionated view on life, though, it is more interesting that unlike the majority he could provide detailed arguments to back up his points of view and enjoyed debating them with his parents, relations and friends. While he was staying in France it was decided at Hogwarts that due to his monumental skills he would have to take his OWLs a year earlier. To that end a letter was dispatched to him telling him of the rare events and also asking for his and his parents' confirmation, something that Hogwarts got instantaneously.

When he arrived back at Hogwarts he was placed in fifth year classes, this was a difficult time for Albus as while he knew Goldsmith outside of class, during classes Goldsmith ignored Dumbledore and socialised with his peers. Outside of the classroom though Dumbledore maintained his previous friendships, moving around in a tightly knit, highly intelligent group that some of the more jealous cruelly nicknamed the 'Dumb Club' a name which the group itself found rather amusing due to the irony. It is testament to Dumbledore's mentality that instead of getting hurt by Goldsmith's behaviour he fully understood Goldsmith's opinion and didn't hold it against him.

Dumbledore persevered with his studies, this coupled with his awesome natural ability led to another remarkable year. This was of course predominated by the impending OWL exams. Having had to cover two years in only one Dumbledore coped extraordinarily, managing to maintain his superior intelligence and social life, the only component of Dumbledore's life that he lacked was sleep. He pours into his diary of the long nights he spent in the Gryffindor common room engrossed in a small pillar of books, writing long essays in the twilight hours.

Thought, at the end of the year he was more then ready to take his OWLs and had the full backing of all his teachers and more importantly of his parents and friends.