Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

History can be seen as a story, a grand sweeping epic of heroes, villains, monsters and grand battles. People can try to turn history into a series of cold hard facts with dates attached, but to do so one would have to ignore the circumstances behind the events. Each piece of history, while a part of the whole, is a story in itself.

For a story to make sense, it has to have a beginning. All stories begin at the beginning of time, but few beings are able to fully comprehend this, and for the sake of convenience and the shortness of the human lifespan, people tend to find a beginning point much later than the beginning of time. When relating a piece of the grand epic called history to others, people generally pick a beginning for their story at the point where all the things they think are relevant to the story have come together.

Our story could be said to have begun with Salazar Slytherin's legendary departure from Hogwarts, but telling the story from this point would take far too long, and the main part of the story takes place a thousand years later.

The beginning could be considered to be December 31st 1926, when at an orphanage in London a woman named Merope Gaunt Riddle gave birth to a boy she named Tom Marvolo. After all, Tom was one of the main characters in this story. But, the story that is to be related isn't entirely about him and is centered around someone else.

Our story could've also begun at two different times in 1939. Once in January with the birth of a little girl named Anne who was considered by both of her parents to be a miracle and promptly sheltered away from anything that might bring her harm, and once in June with the birth of a girl to a Dark Lord named Grindlewald and a beautiful, young French woman whose life was tragically cut short. After all both girls were involved in the events that were to come. The tale of shy delicate Anne sheltered at her family's estate however, would've been a boring beginning, and after an exciting beginning of being switched for a transfigured blanket and smuggled out of Grindlewald's stronghold shortly after birth because Grindlewald hadn't wanted a girl and had decided to kill it, Gabrielle's tale soon peters out to a relatively normal childhood in the French countryside.

Our story could have also begun in the Summer of 1962, when a man named Harold Evans found a toddler wandering the streets of Paris when he was on a business trip. After all she became one of the most important players in this tale.

While all of these events and more have a great influence on what comes later, and are in themselves part of the story, none of these are the beginning of our tale. Our story begins in an interrogation room in the British Ministry of Magic building. Seated at a table in the middle of the room are an Auror named Alastor Moody and a seven year-old boy with black hair and gray eyes. Both are waiting for a second Auror to bring the bottle of Veritaserum so the boy could begin his tale...