What is the name of J.K. Rowling’s fictional school headmaster before Severus Snape?

Albus Dumbledore is the Hogwarts headmaster before Severus Snape in J.K. Rowling’s story.

Dumbledore serves as headmaster for most of Harry Potter’s years at Hogwarts. He is a powerful wizard, a skilled strategist, and one of Lord Voldemort’s most important opponents. His full name is Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore.

Before becoming headmaster, Dumbledore taught Transfiguration at Hogwarts. He is also famous for defeating the dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald in 1945 and for discovering the twelve uses of dragon’s blood with Nicolas Flamel, according to the wizarding world’s history.

Dumbledore dies at the end of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, after arranging a plan with Snape. Snape then becomes headmaster during Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Minerva McGonagall is not the preceding headmaster in the main sequence, although she temporarily leads Hogwarts and later becomes headmistress after the war.