Seeing Elwyn nod, Hermione's clear voice rang out in the room.
Remembering Albus Dumbledore, Elphias Dorjee.
I met Albus Dumbledore on the day I entered the Hogwarts, on the Hogwarts train. I was eleven years old.
We were both new students that year, and our friendship was forged the moment we entered the same box.
Our attraction to each other, no doubt, was because we both felt that we were outsiders.
I had contracted dragon pox not long before I entered the school, and although it was no longer contagious, my face was covered with pimples and my skin was blue, and not many people were willing to approach me.
Albus, on the other hand, had come to the Hogwarts under the weight of his notoriety.
Less than a year earlier, his father, Percy Val, had brutally attacked three young Muggle students, and the incident had caused quite a stir. Albus had never tried to deny that his father (who was imprisoned for life in Azkaban) had been guilty of the crime. On the contrary, when I had the courage to ask him, he had made it clear to me that he knew his father was guilty.
Apart from that, Dumbledore refused to discuss the sad event, although many tried to get information out of him.
Some even went so far as to praise his father's actions, and to conclude that Albus was also a Muggle hater. But they were very wrong. Anyone who knew Albus could attest that he had never shown the slightest sign of anti- Muggle tendencies. In fact, his insistence on defending Muggle rights earned him many enemies.
Within a few months of entering the school, Albus's reputation began to surpass that of his father.
By the end of his first year, people no longer saw him as the son of a Muggle -hater, but as the brightest student the school had ever seen.
Those of us who were lucky enough to be his friends learned from his example, not to mention that he was always generous with his help and encouragement.
He confessed to me many years later that he knew that his greatest joy was teaching.
Not only did he win all kinds of important awards from the school, but he also kept in frequent correspondence with the most famous magicians of the time, including the famous alchemist Nick Lemay, the famous historian Bashida Bashat, and the magic theorist Adalbert Wolfflin.
Several of his papers were published in academic journals such as "Transfiguration Today", "Spell Innovation", and "Practical Potions Master".
Dumbledore was a great success at Hogwarts. Before he graduated, he was already more famous than all the professors. His future seemed to be brilliant. The only question was when he would become the head of the Ministry of Magic. In later days, though it was often predicted that he would take up the post, he never had any ambition to become a minister.
Three years after we entered the academy, Albus's younger brother, Aberforth, also came to Hogwarts. Unlike the two brothers, Aberforth had never been fond of reading, and unlike Albus, he preferred duels and did not like to solve problems by rational negotiation.
However, some people said that the relationship between the two brothers was not good.
This was not true. Though they had very different personalities, they got along quite well.
To be fair to Aberforth, it must be admitted that living in his shadow was not a particularly comfortable experience. As his friend, it was demoralizing to always be outshone by him, and as his younger brother, it was certainly not pleasant.
When Albus and I left Hogwarts, we planned to travel the world together, as was the tradition of the time, visiting and observing foreign wizards before pursuing our own careers.
However, tragedy fell from the sky.
The day before we left, Albus's mother, Kandra, died, and Albus became the head of the family, the breadwinner.
I delayed my departure to attend Kandra's funeral, then set out on my lonely journey.
Albus had two young siblings to look after, and the family was struggling to make ends meet. It was impossible for him to travel with me.
Of all our lives, that was the time when we had the least contact.
I wrote to Albus, describing the oddities of my travels, from escaping Chimera to visiting the experiments of the Egyptian alchemists.
Perhaps it was inconsiderate of me to do so, for his letters did not mention much about his daily life.
I suspect that for a wizard as brilliant as he was, it must have been frustratingly dull.
I immersed myself in my travels, and towards the end of the year tragedy struck Dumbledore's family; his sister, Ariana, had died.
I was shocked to hear this. Ariana had been sickly for a long time, but the death of her mother had been a blow to her brothers for some time.
All those who were close to Albus, and I am fortunate enough to count myself among them, agreed that the death of Ariana, and the responsibility for it which Albus felt himself to have been responsible for (though of course he was not), had haunted him for the rest of his life.
When I returned home, I found a young man suffering the pain of an old man unworthy of his years.
Albus was more taciturn than ever, and his heart was much heavier.
To add to his pain, Ariana's death did not bring Albus and Aberforth closer together, but actually estranged them. (The estrangement gradually improved, and they re-established their relationship, which was undoubtedly friendly, if not intimate.)
From then on, Albus rarely spoke of his parents and Ariana, and his friends avoided talking about them.
In the years that followed, his brilliant achievements would be recounted.
Dumbledore's great contributions to the Treasury of Wizardry, including the discovery of the twelve uses for dragon's blood, and the wisdom he displayed in many of his judgments as Chief Sorcerer of Weisenjammer, would all benefit future generations.
It was also said that no wizarding duel could compare to the one between Dumbledore and Grindelwald in 1945.
Those who witnessed the duel between the two extraordinary sorcerers described the fear and awe they felt at the time. Dumbledore's victory, and its impact on the wizarding world, was seen as a turning point in the history of modern magic, comparable to the International Statute of Secrecy and the fall of the Unseen Man.
Albus Dumbledore had never been conceited or arrogant, nor had he pursued vanity.
He always found something in people that was worth cherishing, no matter how poor or inconspicuous the person appeared.
I believe that it was his early experience of bereavement that gave him great kindness and compassion.
I shall miss his friendship dearly, but my personal loss was nothing compared to that of the wizarding world as a whole.
He was, without a doubt, the most charismatic and beloved of all the headmasters of Hogwarts.
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