From now on the italics is someone reading Mrs. Dumbledore's handwriting.

Disclaimer: nothing is mine. But the OCs.



Chapter 2: Lion and Snake Come Together

My dearest children; it occurs to me writing this that in years gone by when you are grown you'll want to know how your parents came to be. You may question why we are married and why we had all of you (because I hope to have a lot of you) if we can't seem to stop bickering.

So I've decided to answer your question through this book which will span until my funeral…at least that is my plan.

Minerva first read and pulled a picture gently out of the book which she handed to Harry. The two friends looked at the very old photo and smiled.

In it were a boy and girl smiling brilliantly for the camera sitting on a piece of wall somewhere on the grounds.

"This is them?" Hermione asked.

"Yes…Professor Dumbledore and his wife in their sixth year. She was seventeen and he was sixteen," Minerva stated with a ghost of a smile.

"I see prefect badges and…hang on they were from different houses?" Harry frowned.

Minerva laughed lightly nodding. She pulled a few other pictures off the first page and handed them to the younger people.

One picture had the boy and girl in a heated argument both looking ready to kill.

The other had them both in the library at different tables scribbling frantically.

"Professor what's her name?" Hermione asked.

Minerva took the photos back making sure to put them in exactly the right spots before turning the page.

"Her name is…..well for now we'll call her Katy. It was the headmaster's pet name for her," Minerva stated.

Hermione and Harry looked at each other intrigued by the pause Minerva had given and the reluctance to say her real name. Perhaps the lady was someone they knew!

I know you children will wonder how we ever got together considering your parents seem to be rather opposite. The truth is we share some very subtle and then again very unsubtle ideas and acts.

To start with you know that I am from a very old and very pure pureblood family. A family that married into it's self for centuries to keep the lines pure. My own mother and father was brother and sister and their parents had been second cousins.

I was their only child that ever made it to my teenage years and the only one that was apparently completely right. This meaning I was not mentally retarded.

All my siblings were still born, miscarried, or live maybe only five months. So I was very doted on by the whole family. Even more so when they discovered how powerful I was.

"Was she very powerful professor?" Harry asked.

"She the most powerful witch ever Harry. She could transfigure a tea cup into a tortoise and then into a tea pot when she was three. She was conjuring her pictures into real animals when she was ten. By her sixth year of Hogwarts she'd invented a potion to tame wild hair, and she'd also invented the bubble headed charm," Minerva answered.

"I used that potion fourth year it was great," Hermione replied, "I still use it sometimes."

Minerva nodded and continued to read.

Your father was and is a brilliant wizard but never was he ever meant to be my husband. Your father is a half-blood from a very decent and nice family but a half-blood none the less. What was worse was his mother was a mudblood.

How ever old you are reading this you may think that word is mean of mummy to use…it is but I cannot help myself you understand. I never use the word as a tease though and to be truthful hardly ever do I even use the word.

So in any instance there we were. We meet on that very first train ride. I was a real snob and refused to let him sit with my friends and me in our compartment because we all knew his father; Percival Dumbledore had sold out to a muggle born.

From then on we never spoke a kind word to each other and we always competed to be the best. We were enemies from class to the Quidditch pitch and everywhere in between.

"Wait they played Quidditch?" Harry asked interestedly.

"Yes she was a seeker and he was a beater…made for very interesting matches. It got so bad he would spend the whole game just trying to knock her off her broom," Minerva laughed as she took out another picture and handed it to them.

This one was of the little girl maybe 13 or 14 years old as she was reaching for the snitch and in the background you could see the young Albus hitting a bludger at her arm. She pulled back with the snitch before it hit her hand though.

"How good were they?" Hermione asked.

"Most brilliant minds to ever grace the school and while he was an average player…she could have gone pro if the Thing hadn't happened," Minerva stated taking the picture back and replacing it.

"What Thing?" Harry asked.

"I'll continue so you can find out," Minerva stated turning the page.

Our fifth year it all changed. We were given the honor of prefects and we were then forced to have patrols at nights together. Through the patrols we realized we ad a lot in common intellectually and interest wise. We became friends and have been since.

"So they get along now. The classical tale of friends turning to lovers?" Hermione asked.

"This tale is more the Romeo and Juliet style," Minerva stated. She took two more pictures out and handed them to the professors.

The first Harry and Hermione looked at showed Albus reciting from a book of poetry to several pretty girls. The girl from all the other pictures was in the back of the girls.

The second photo was of the girl and Albus with a Ravenclaw boy that was stocky and a Slytherin girl that looked like a toad. The four were studying together in the library. It was clear the Ravenclaw and Slytherin were flirting and Albus and the girl were whispering quietly together.

"Who are these people? The girl looks like Umbridge…But I thought she was your age," Harry stated.

"She is. That girl is Francine Bolo and the boy is Franklin Umbridge. Those are Dolores' parents. Dumbledore and Katy had a study group with them…although it only last three months. Both were academically inclined and the future Umbridges were more interested in each other," Minerva stated taking the photos back and putting them in the book turning the page again.

I went home after that year to discover that I had been snitched on. I was warned not to have anymore association with your father and I was supposed to start thinking about which of the twins to marry. The twins being my cousins from my parents' brother. I think they were also by third cousins twice removed or…hell I don't know. And for the record yes I do curse contrary to what your father says.

It made me mad to think that I couldn't have a friend that was half-blood and intellectually my equal. When I returned for my sixth year Albus and I were able to snag a compartment to ourselves and we talked about what I was going to have to do.

Albus told me it didn't matter what they wanted it was what I wanted. Then he confessed he liked me more than a friend and asked me out. I said yes and we were inseparable for the next two years!

"Just like that they were a couple?" Hermione frowned.

"He could have had any girl in the castle and she could have had any boy," Minerva replied dreamily as she pulled out a big photo and handed it to them.

"This was them their seventh year. Head girl and head boy," she added.

Harry and Hermione blinked in shock.

"Wow…she's gorgeous!" Harry exclaimed.

"I knew he must have looked good but…I didn't know that good," Hermione stated. Minerva chuckled lightly.

The picture had Albus and Katy with their arms around each other somewhere in Hogsmeade. Albus was tall and lean but you could see the muscle underneath his tight shirt. His hair was tied back and he had what looked like three week old scruff. The girl was just as tall as him and slender with curvy hips and a robust chest. Her hair was long and dark and she wore a tight dress that showed off her figure excellently.

The couple was smiling and then he turned and kissed her ear and cheek working down to her neck as she giggled and batted at him.

"They look happy. What happened when her family found out?" Hermione asked.

"Ah now that is something," Minerva nodded putting that picture back and turning the page.

Two marvelous years with interludes of going home and getting my ears yelled off. I'm still amazed I have such good hearing. But even with the hateful family I relished and thoroughly enjoyed my time with your father. Then it hit. I got in trouble and it was all thanks to Albus.

Just a few days before Christmas Holidays I discovered I was pregnant!

"Bloody hell!" Harry exclaimed.

"P-professor Dumbledore had a child out of wedlock?" Hermione blinked.

"No," Minerva shook her head and quickly continued.

I agonized what to do over Christmas. When I came back I didn't speak to Albus for weeks. Then one day he cornered me during a patrol and demanded I tell him what was wrong. I broke down. That's right children your Ice Queen mother broke down in front of your father and cried like a baby as she told him she was having a baby.

"Ice Queen?" Hermione questioned.

She remembered a secret conversation…well really fight in which Dolores had called Minerva that.

"Katy was known for never showing anything but calm collectiveness. Rumor had it that death could be all around her and she just cocked her head to the side like a curious little animal and stared," Minerva stated.

"Does their hold truth to that rumor?" Hermione asked.

"Well she was an unspeakable at the Ministry. She worked with researching death. She even used to dabble with how to kill and how to beat death," Minerva stated and continued to read.

When I had finished sobbing and he had wiped away my tears he told me not to worry. He said he'd figure it out but in no way was he going to desert me. He said he loved me to much for that.