Author's Note: I have to state right now, that I will be sticking roughly to the guide that is mentioned in the Deathly Hallows, but not exactly. For example, in the interview, Rita Skeeter mentions the contents of certain chapters. Due to my schedule, I will not be able to expand on these topics exactly when and as they are mentioned in the book, and I will be following my own plan regarding the chapters of the book.

Chapter 1: The Dumbledores

As any good reporter or storyteller will tell you, the way to tell a story, even one as anticipated and quickly put together as this one, is to give the setting of the story, and to establish the characters that the story revolves around. It is with this thought that the story begins, over a hundred and fifty years ago, in the little village called Mold-on-the-Wold.

Mold-on-the-Wold, for its almost painfully mundane sounding name, actually paid host to one of the biggest wizarding colonies in the world in those days. The Prewetts, the Bones, and even for a while the Selwyns, those Dark wizard forerunners, all considered Mold-on-the-Wold to be the place that they would call home. This rich history of magical prodigy coupled with its fair share of colourful characters would lead one to believe that the birth of Albus Dumbledore was no accident, but rather inevitable. Others would argue that the problems that Albus's father Percival had faced had begun long before the fateful attacks on the Muggles (see chapter 2), and that this had led him first to Mold-on-the-Wold, before ultimately landing him in Godric's Hollow.

"Percival had been on the run for quite a while, I think," claims Luxor Putrifadus, distinguished potioneer and Former Supreme Mugwump on the Wizengamot. "He'd been in a considerable bit of trouble even before the birth of Albus, and I fear that the emergence of another possible weapon that his enemies could blackmail him with simply made him strive for a world where few would bother his family, where he would not be so mistrusted." When pressed on what the so-called trouble was, Luxor remained frustratingly tight-lipped, save for a rather ominous sounding comment. "If it hadn't been for the Unspeakables, I somehow doubt he would even have lived to see his second son being born, let alone his daughter.

This deliberately vague yet oh-so-inviting comment alone had me on tenterhooks, craving for more. Yet it was not given to me, but rather I was left to my imagination to think up unspeakable acts regarding Unspeakables. What was it that Percival Dumbledore had done, that had stirred up the emotions of those at the Department of Mysteries? Did he, even then, know something about his wife's unborn child? Had he tried to turn on his own son, perhaps prevent his coming into this world? It was no secret that Percival had been granted access to levels of the Ministry of Magic that most people would not have ever dreamed of even hearing of, let alone seeing. "He'd curried great favour with the Minister of the Day, Faris Spavin," says Ereble Selwyn, whose memory has not failed yet, despite him being the ripe old age of 182. Spavin had been the Dumbledore's regular house guest. Could this acquaintance have led to a sort of 'free pass' at the ministry, whereupon Percival strove to undo his mistake with a Time Turner and bring the disowning of a child to new heights? Or was his crime even more heinous? Could Percival Dumbledore have been held responsible for the great Time Turner Thievery of 1874?

And then, of course, there was Kendra Dumbledore. Quills today spare no love for the mother of the man behind the fabled Order of the Phoenix, and yet, there have been no shortage of criticisms either. Many an article has been published mentioning her implacable love for her family, to the point that, even though capable, she passed up on the offer of a job with the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office, and chose instead to stay at home and attend to her family. Her fabled determination and resolve garnered respect from all corners of the land, it is said, and even experienced Aurors dared not cross her.

Yet how much of this was actually true? It is on record that she refused the job offer, as the Ministry of Magic keeps records of both applicants as well as offers made, and the chief of the History of the Ministry, Ciencia Estona, was more than willing to share information on the unsuccessful attempts by the Ministry to add Kendra Dumbledore to their payroll. "Well, naturally, Spavin was unhappy, when Kendra declined our offer. He seemed especially upset though, a little more than I would have exoected, which surprised me, because I can usually always predict these things. My Seer blood, naturally. Of course, the excessiveness of the unhappiness may have been due to the fact that Kendra effectively told him to shove his offer up somewhere, but then what do i know?"

This abrupt refusal, apparently immediate, would seem appropriate, considering the trouble than Percival was in, since only Kendra was available to bring up her children. Yet, it is known that Percival had not been earning much at the time, so why would Kendra rebuff a valuable opportunity to get Galleons so out of hand? The suspicion struck me there. Was there something she had not wanted the Minister to see? It would make sense, as the Dumbledores seem to have possessed a particular penchant for secrecy. "Oh, yes, the Dumbledores, they had always been rather walled off from the rest of the world, it's no wonder that I didn't notice I was their next door neighbour for almost 4 months!" quips Lorane Galothian, resident of Mold-on-the-Wold.

What, then, was the real reason that Kendra Dumbledore chose to remain at home? At that point in time she had only borne Percival one son, Albus. So she could not have claimed that the reason that she had stayed was to raise her sons with the utmost care, as many wizarding families were quite successful in balancing both work and family life. This leads us to conclude that there was something else she strove to hide from others. So what could this have been? Was it a Dark object that her husband might have told her to keep, in line with his struggles with the Ministry? This is unlikely, as Mrs. Galothian is quick to point out. "If Percival Dumbledore had a Dark object of any kind with him, trust me, the Ministry would have known." However, when asked to elaborate on how the Ministry might know such a thing, she became stone deaf for a period of time till the subject was changed. If anything, this only increased my suspicion. What were these methods of identification? And why was it that, if these methods did exist, that Arnold Weasley, another Ministry employee, had recently raided the Malfoy Manor with no discoveries whatsoever? It would seem that the identification should have been in place. This topic alone raises a lot more questions, which could, on its own, be the setting for another tome of mine. However, I digress.

The Dumbledores, in general, had been around for a long time, even before Kendra and Percival decided to show up in Mold-on-the-Wold. The earliest traceable Dumbledore, according to the research put in by yours truly, is the slightly effeminate Reloxis Dumbledore, who played a rather insignificant part in the implementation of the International Statue of Secrecy in 1689. This relatively recent date, of course, seems to tie in with the earlier claim about their affinity for high levels of privacy. It also serves to emphasise the strange similarity between al the Dumbledore, apart from the name, that all of them seemed to be related in some way, no matter how insignificant, to important events. The intelligence also reigned in their bloodline, with Albus Dumbledore, of course, being the brightest Dumbledore by far, not to mention considered by many to be one of the brightest wizards as well.

Reloxis Dumbledore had been part of the entourage that had presented itself in public for the last time before public displays of magical tendencies to Muggles became punishable by law. He was, it seems, trying to convince Muggles not to set fire to his broomstick as they became aware that their memories would be Modified, and hence struck out at what they saw to be an infringement of their rights. His broomstick, along with his left buttock, was never the same again. To top it all off, he himself had been forced to live with the Muggles for the very reason that Percival was ultimately carried away to Azkaban, as he strove for revenge for the state of his left buttock. He thus moved to Central London and lived above a greengrocer's. Despite this sudden change of lifestyle, Reloxis' magical blood remained as strong as ever. Therefore, it came as no surprise to him when his son, Ramases, was invited to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, much to the shock of his Muggle wife. Thus, the magical strength of the Dumbledores endured and, it seems, concentrated itself in July or August of 1881.