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ALBUS DUMBLEDORE
CURRENTLY HEADMASTER OF HOGWARTS
Considered by many the greatest wizard of modern times, Dumbledore is
particularly famous for his defeat of the dark wizard Grindelwald in
1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood, and his
work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel. Professor Dumbledore
enjoys chamber music and tenpin bowling.
Harry turned the card back over and saw, to his astonishment, that
Dumbledore's face had disappeared.
"He's gone!"
"Well, you can't expect him to hang around all day," said Ron. "He'll be
back. No, I've got Morgana again and I've got about six of her... do you
want it? You can start collecting."
Ron's eyes strayed to the pile of Chocolate Frogs waiting to be
unwrapped.
"Help yourself," said Harry. "But in, you know, the Muggle world, people
just stay put in photos."
"Do they? What, they don't move at all?" Ron sounded amazed. "weird!"
Harry stared as Dumbledore sidled back into the picture on his card and
gave him a small smile. Ron was more interested in eating the frogs than
looking at the Famous Witches and Wizards cards, but Harry couldn't keep
his eyes off them. Soon he had not only Dumbledore and Morgana, but
Hengist of Woodcroft, Alberic Grunnion, Circe, Paracelsus, and Merlin.
He finally tore his eyes away from the druidess Cliodna, who was
scratching her nose, to open a bag of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans.
"You want to be careful with those," Ron warned Harry. "When they say
every flavor, they mean every flavor -- you know, you get all the
ordinary ones like chocolate and peppermint and mar- malade, but then
you can get spinach and liver and tripe. George reckons he had a booger-
flavored one once."
Ron picked up a green bean, looked at it carefully, and bit into a
corner.
"Bleaaargh -- see? Sprouts."
They had a good time eating the Every Flavor Beans. Harry got toast,
coconut, baked bean, strawberry, curry, grass, coffee, sardine, and was
even brave enough to nibble the end off a funny gray one Ron wouldn't
touch, which turned out to be pepper.
The countryside now flying past the window was becoming wilder. The neat
fields had gone. Now there were woods, twisting rivers, and dark green
hills.
There was a knock on the door of their compartment and the round-faced
boy Harry had passed on platform nine and threequarters came in. He
looked tearful.
"Sorry," he said, "but have you seen a toad at all?"
When they shook their heads, he wailed, "I've lost him! He keeps getting
away from me!"
"He'll turn up," said Harry.
"Yes," said the boy miserably. "Well, if you see him..."
He left.
"Don't know why he's so bothered," said Ron. "If I'd brought a toad I'd
lose it as quick as I could. Mind you, I brought Scabbers, so I can't
talk."
The rat was still snoozing on Ron's lap.
"He might have died and you wouldn't know the difference," said Ron in
disgust. "I tried to turn him yellow yesterday to make him more
interesting, but the spell didn't work. I'll show you, look..."
He rummaged around in his trunk and pulled out a very battered-looking
wand. It was chipped in places and something white was glinting at the
end.
"Unicorn hair's nearly poking out. Anyway
He had just raised his 'wand when the compartment door slid open again.
The toadless boy was back, but this time he had a girl with him. She was
already wearing her new Hogwarts robes.
"Has anyone seen a toad? Neville's lost one," she said. She had a bossy
sort of voice, lots of bushy brown hair, and rather large front teeth.
"We've already told him we haven't seen it," said Ron, but the girl
wasn't listening, she was looking at the wand in his hand.
"Oh, are you doing magic? Let's see it, then."
She sat down. Ron looked taken aback.
"Er -- all right."
He cleared his throat.
"Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow, Turn this stupid, fat rat yellow."
He waved his wand, but nothing happened. Scabbers stayed gray and fast
asleep.
"Are you sure that's a real spell?" said the girl. "Well, it's not very
good, is it? I've tried a few simple spells just for practice and it's
all worked for me. Nobody in my family's magic at all, it was ever such
a surprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased, of course, I
mean, it's the very best school of witchcraft there is, I've heard --
I've learned all our course books by heart, of course, I just hope it
will be enough -- I'm Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you.
She said all this very fast.
Harry looked at Ron, and was relieved to see by his stunned face that he
hadn't learned all the course books by heart either.
"I'm Ron Weasley," Ron muttered.
"Harry Potter," said Harry.
"Are you really?" said Hermione. "I know all about you, of course -- I
got a few extra books. for background reading, and you're in Modern
Magical History and The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts and Great
Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century.
"Am I?" said Harry, feeling dazed.
"Goodness, didn't you know, I'd have found out everything I could if it
was me," said Hermione. "Do either of you know what house you'll be in?
I've been asking around, and I hope I'm in Gryffindor, it sounds by far
the best; I hear Dumbledore himself was in it, but I suppose Ravenclaw
wouldn't be too bad.... Anyway, we'd better go and look for Neville's
toad. You two had better change, you know, I expect we'll be there
soon."
And she left, taking the toadless boy with her.
"Whatever house I'm in, I hope she's not in it," said Ron. He threw his