Describing, perhaps insensitively, the wonders of my journey, from narrow

Escapes from chimaeras in Greece to the experiments of the Egyptian alchemists.

His letters told me little of his day-to-day life, which I guessed to be frustratingly

Dull for such a brilliant wizard. Immersed in my own experiences, it was with

horror that I heard, toward the end of my year's travels, that another tragedy had

struck the Dumbledores: the death of his sister, Ariana.

Though Ariana had been in poor health for a long time, the blow, coming so

Soon after the loss of their mother, had a profound effect on both of her brothers.

All those closest to Albus – and I count myself one of that lucky number – agree

that Ariana's death, and Albus's feeling of personal responsibility for it (though, of

Course, he was guiltless), left their mark upon him forevermore.

I returned home to find a young man who had experienced a much older

person's suffering. Albus was more reserved than before, and much less lighthearted.

To add to his misery, the loss of Ariana had led, not to a renewed

Closeness between Albus and Aberforth, but to an estrangement. (In time this

would lift – in later years they reestablished, if not a close relationship, then

Certainly a cordial one.) However, he rarely spoke of his parents or of Ariana from

Then on, and his friends learned not to mention them.

Other quills will describe the triumphs of the following years. Dumbledore's

Innumerable contributions to the store of Wizarding knowledge, including his

discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood, will benefit generations to come,

As will the wisdom he displayed in the many judgments while Chief Warlock of

The Wizengamot. They say, still, that no Wizarding duel ever matched that

Between Dumbledore and Grindelwald in 1945. Those who witnessed it have

Written of the terror and the awe they felt as they watched these two extraordinary

wizards to battle. Dumbledore's triumph, and its consequences for the Wizarding

World, are considered a turning point in magical history to match the introduction

Of the International Statute of Secrecy or the downfall of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-

Named.

Albus Dumbledore was never proud or vain; he could find something to value

In anyone, however apparently insignificant or wretched, and I believe that his

Early losses endowed him with great humanity and sympathy. I shall miss his

Friendship more than I can say, but my loss is nothing compared to the Wizarding

world's. That he was the most inspiring and best loved of all Hogwarts

headmasters cannot be in question. He died as he lived: working always for the

Greater good and, to his last hour, as willing to stretch out a hand to a small boy

With dragon pox as he was on the day I met him.

Harry finished reading, but continued to gaze at the picture accompanying the

Obituary. Dumbledore was wearing his familiar, kindly smile, but as he peered over the

Top of his half-moon spectacles, he gave the impression, even in newsprint, of X-raying

Harry, whose sadness mingled with a sense of humiliation.

He had thought he knew Dumbledore quite well, but ever since reading this

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 735