Of glory --- Head Boy, Prefect, Winner of the Barnabus Finkley Prize for

Exceptional Spell-Casting, British Youth Representative to the Wizengamot,

Gold Medal-Winner for Ground-Breaking Contribution to the International

Alchemical Conference in Cairo. Dumbledore intended, next, to take a Grand

Tour with Elphias “Dogbreath” Doge, the dim-witted but devoted sidekick he

Had picked up at school.

The two young men were staying at the Leaky Cauldron in London,

Preparing to depart for Greece the following morning, when an owl arrived

bearing news of Dumbledore’s mother’s death. “Dogbreath” Doge, who refused

To be interviewed for this book, has given the public his own sentimental

version of what happened next. He represents Kendra’s death as a tragic blow,

and Dumbledore’s decision to give up his expedition as an act of noble selfsacrifice.

Certainly Dumbledore returned to Godric’s Hollow at once, supposedly to

“care” for his younger brother and sister. But how much care did he actually

give them?

“He were a head case, that Aberforth,” said Enid Smeek, whose family lived

on the outskirts of Godric’s Hollow at that time. “Ran wild. ‘Course, with his

mum and dad gone you’d have felt sorry for him, only he kept chucking goat

dung at my head. I don’t think Albus was fussed about him. I never saw them

together, anyway.”

So what was Albus doing, if not comforting his wild young brother? The

Answer, it seems, is ensuring the continued imprisonment of his sister. For

Though her first jailer had died, there was no change in the pitiful condition of

Ariana Dumbledore. Her very existence continued to be known only to those

few outsiders who, like “Dogbreath” Doge, could be counted upon to believe in

the story of her “ill health.”

Another such easily satisfied friend of the family was Bathilda Bagshot, the

celebrated magical historian who has lived in Godric’s Hollow for many years.

Kendra, of course, had rebuffed Bathilda when she first attempted to welcome

The family to the village. Several years later, however, the author sent an owl to

Albus at Hogwarts, having been favorably impressed by his paper on transspecies

Transformation in Transfiguration Today. This initial contract led to

acquaintance with the entire Dumbledore family. At the time of Kendra’s death,

Bathilda was the only person in Godric’s Hollow who was on speaking terms

with Dumbledore’s mother.

Unfortunately, the brilliance that Bathilda exhibited earlier in her life has

now dimmed. “The fire’s lit, but the cauldron’s empty,” as Ivor Dillonsby put it

to me, or, in Enid Smeek’s slightly earthier phrase, “She’s nutty as squirrel

poo.” Nevertheless, a combination of tried-and-tested reporting techniques

Enabled me to extract enough nuggets of hard fact to string together the whole

Scandalous story.

Like the rest of the Wizarding world, Bathilda puts Kendra’s premature death

Down to a backfiring charm, a story repeated by Albus and Aberforth in later

years. Bathilda also parrots the family line on Ariana, calling her “frail” and

“delicate.” On one subject, however, Bathilda is well worth the effort I put into

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 698