So he can relax through the ’80s. But when 1991 rolls around, both Harry and Voldemort reenter the picture. And that is the last moment of peace Dumbledore will ever have. He loses no time in setting a plan in motion before Harry is even retrieved from the Dursleys and is kept busy trying to stay a few steps ahead of Voldemort for the rest of his life.
Chapter 1:
Albus Dumbledore and the
Sorcerer’s Stone
At the end of Sorcerer’s Stone, there is a brief exchange among the Trio that first introduces us to the idea of Dumbledore’s omniscience:
“D’you think [Dumbledore] meant you to do it?” said Ron. “Sending you your father’s cloak and everything?”
“Well,” Hermione exploded, “if he did—I mean to say—that’s terrible—you could have been killed.”
“No it isn’t,” said Harry thoughtfully. “He’s a funny man, Dumbledore. I think he sort of wanted to give me a chance. I think he knows more or less everything that goes on here, you know. I reckon he had a pretty good idea we were going to try, and instead of stopping us, he just taught us enough to help. I don’t think it was an accident he let me find out how the mirror worked. It’s almost like he thought I had the right to face Voldemort if I could. . . .” (SS302)
The initial instinct is to just take this at face value—Dumbledore knew everything and planned everything—and just leave it at that. . . but where would be the fun? Even back in Sorcerer’s Stone, Rowling was meticulous enough that it’s possible to see Dumbledore’s hand moving the chess pieces.
It took me fourteen rereads to figure it all out, and it’s very reassuring, because the plot of Sorcerer’s Stone is among the most nitpicked of the series. More than the other books, a lot of things seem to happen “because. . . Plot” or “because it’s a children’s fantasy novel.” And while those are valid explanations on occasion, we should generally give Jo more credit than that. There are very few convenient coincidences that can’t be explained by Dumbledore at work.
We will tackle the first book from two separate angles. First, we will look at the protections surrounding the Sorcerer’s Stone and see what we can glean of Dumbledore’s intentions from these protections. Once we know what he hoped to accomplish, we will look at all the events of Sorcerer’s Stone to see where it’s possible to detect Dumbledore’s hand pulling the strings.
Protecting the Stone
Let’s recap what the protections are:
Hagrid provided Fluffy, a gigantic three-headed dog, who could only be gotten past by playing music; a fact that “[n]ot a soul knows except [Hagrid] and Dumbledore” (SS232).
Sprout provided Devil’s Snare, which Professor Sprout explained in class “likes the dark and the damp” (SS278) and can therefore be fought off by fire. “Conjuring up portable, waterproof fires was a specialty of Hermione’s.” (CS183)
Flitwick charmed a bunch of flying keys, only one of which would open the door; Harry “had a knack for spotting things other people didn’t” as “the youngest Seeker in a century.” (SS280)
McGonagall transfigured a giant chess set to life, on which one had to win a potentially lethal match; wizard chess is Ron’s specialty.
Quirrell provided a very large troll; Quirrell knocked it out so Harry and Hermione didn’t have to, but the Trio had already defeated a troll seven months prior.
Snape provided a logic puzzle; the brainy Hermione starts “smiling” when she comes across a logic puzzle she doesn’t hesitate to solve (SS285).
Dumbledore himself hid the Stone within the Mirror of Erised so “only one who wanted to find the Stone—find it, but not use it—would be able to get it” (SS300).
It’s clear to any careful reader that protections two through six are meant to be gotten through specifically by the Trio. Four of the tasks play directly to the Trio’s areas of expertise—Seeking, chess, fire, and logic. The other one, the troll, is simply a repeat of what the Trio has already faced. Clearly, Dumbledore meant for Harry and Quirrell to get to the Mirror of Erised. The protections are even designed to be surpassed more than once—hence the potions refill themselves and the chessmen reset themselves. They are also designed for a group of people—hence there are several brooms by the flying keys instead of just one.
Was the wooden flute that Hagrid gifts Harry for Christmas also part of Dumbledore’s design? Doubtful, because it’s not necessary for getting past Fluffy – it’s just a convenience because Harry “didn’t feel much like singing.” (SS271) The flute we can chalk up to coincidence.
A common point I’ve seen made is that, far from saving the Stone, Harry actually endangered it. Quirrell could have stared into the Mirror of Erised until he turned blue, and he still would not have the Stone. But then Harry shows up, and the Stone ends up in his pocket, ripe for the taking by Quirrellmort. So if Dumbledore intended for Harry to go after Quirrellmort, why did he also endanger the Stone?
The answer is so simple, it was mostly overlooked until Josie Kearns made the connection. Dumbledore intended Harry and Quirrellmort to face off but for the Stone to remain safely inside the Mirror the entire time.1
Dumbledore himself says, “Harry, have you any idea how few wizards could have seen what you saw in that mirror?” (HBP511) Dumbledore could not have known how pure of heart Harry was, how ridiculously selfless he was at the age of eleven. Moreover, Dumbledore had proof to the contrary! A scant five months earlier, Dumbledore watched Harry look into the Mirror of Erised at least twice and knows that Harry sees himself standing with his family. Surely, anyone reasonable would think that this poor boy’s deepest desire for the next five months will continue to be to see his family and will not suddenly change to being Voldemort’s undoing.
As an aside, it’s worth wondering how Dumbledore came up with the idea to hide the Stone from any who would covet it for selfish means. He claims, “It was one of my more brilliant ideas.” (SS300) To be sure, Dumbledore has plenty of brilliant ideas, but his design for the Stone is awfully close to what he himself did for the Elder Wand.
Dumbledore explains, “I was fit to own the Elder Wand, and not to boast of it, and not to kill with it. I was permitted to tame and to use it, because I took it, not for gain, but to save others from it.” (DH720)
Dumbledore had tamed the wand half a century prior because he knew that it was “dangerous, and a lure for fools” (DH713). So Dumbledore knew what to do when presented with another dangerous magical object that was a lure for fools2: like the Elder Wand, only one who “took it, not for gain but to save others” (DH720) would be able to get it. Even the language Dumbledore uses is similar: “only one who wanted to find the Stone—find it, but not use it—would be able to get it.” (SS300)
Inspired by what he’d learned of the Elder Wand, Dumbledore hides the Stone in the Mirror of Erised, convinced that neither Quirrell nor Harry will get it out. Dumbledore intends for Harry to face off against Quirrellmort without endangering the Stone. But like most of Dumbledore’s best-laid plans, this goes terribly awry when Harry looks into the Mirror and gets the Stone, and suddenly Quirrellmort’s attention is focused on Harry instead of the Mirror.
Why does Dumbledore orchestrate all of this? Because Harry needs the experience facing off against Voldemort. Dumbledore explains, “I knew not whether it would be ten, twenty or fifty years before he returned, but I was sure he would do so, and I was sure, too, knowing him as I have done, that he would not rest until he killed [Harry].” (OP835)
Dumbledore knows that the time will come—hopefully much later, but eventually it will come—for Harry to face off against Voldemort. Dumbledore’s goal from the minute Harry steps into Hogwarts is to give Harry his best fighting chance—because according to the prophecy, Harry is the wizarding world’s best chance to vanquish Voldemort. Dumbledore wants Harry’s first attempt at facing off against Voldemort to happen in as controlled an environment as possible. And such an opportunity falls into Dumbledore’s lap just as Harry is coming to Hogwarts!<
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Dumbledore knows that “Quirrell, full of hatred, greed, and ambition, sharing his soul with Voldemort, could not touch [Harry]” because of Lily’s sacrifice (SS299). So this would have been as good a trial run as was possible: Harry would face off against Quirrell, he would emerge victorious because Quirrell cannot touch him, and that will be that. The Stone’s not in danger; Harry isn’t in too much danger. Not only will this give Harry experience, it will also be an important confidence booster to a kid who’s been downtrodden most of his life.
In fact, that’s the more crucial aspect: going forward, Harry needs the confidence of having faced off against Voldemort. He needs to not lose his head when he comes face to face with Voldemort. Indeed, by the time Voldemort returns to his body, Harry is an old pro at facing him—he’s faced Voldemort more often than he’s taken exams!
Admittedly, Dumbledore probably wished this whole Voldemort-fighting dress rehearsal would happen later than Harry’s first year, but he is quite adept at pivoting and changing plans as necessary. An important bit of perspective to always maintain is that the characters don’t know they’re in a seven-book series. Dumbledore explains to Harry (again in that invaluable Order of the Phoenix confession), “You rose magnificently to the challenge that faced you, and sooner—much sooner—than I had expected, you found yourself face-to-face with Voldemort.” (OP837)
This refers to Dumbledore’s expectations before all this Quirrell stuff went down. When Dumbledore got wind of what was going on, he moved up his timeline and set up the showdown for Harry’s first year.
This same reasoning explains the presence of protections two through six. At first glance, why bother with all the “protections” surrounding the Stone? Only two of them were even remotely effective: Fluffy and the Mirror of Erised. The rest of them—Sprout’s Devil’s Snare, Flitwick’s flying keys, McGonagall’s chess board, and Snape’s riddle—are gotten through by a trio of first years and don’t serve to hinder Quirrell at all.
Dumbledore tells Harry, “I have watched you more closely than you can have imagined.” (OP839) But along with watching Harry, he watched Ron and Hermione, once it became evident that they would be Harry’s closest friends and staunchest allies.
It’s made clear in the latter books that Dumbledore has been watching Harry’s friends. He tells Harry in Half-Blood Prince, “I think you ought to relax [the decision to tell no one about the prophecy] in favor of your friends, Mr. Ronald Weasley and Miss Hermione Granger.” (HBP78) He also gives Harry permission to tell Ron and Hermione about his forays into Voldemort’s past via Pensieve, saying, “I think Mr. Weasley and Miss Granger have proved themselves trustworthy.” (HBP215)
It’s easy to dismiss this, but Dumbledore is perhaps the least trusting character in the series. He gives his closest allies the absolute bare minimum of information necessary and does not wholly confide in anyone. Yet he instructs Harry to reveal to Ron and Hermione things that are known only to Harry and Dumbledore himself. This is a big deal. Dumbledore would not place such trust lightly, so this is evidence that he knows a great deal about Harry’s friends.
We also see this come into play when he leaves both of them items in his will, despite making “exceptionally few personal bequests.” (DH124) He gave Ron the Deluminator, knowing that Ron’s commitment to the Horcrux hunt might waver (DH391). He gave Hermione The Tales of Beedle the Bard to decipher and trusted her to combat Harry’s rash nature (DH720).
But back in Sorcerer’s Stone, Dumbledore did not yet know if Ron and Hermione would be the staunch allies that Harry would later need. He needed a way to cement their collaboration for the future. And what better way than to have them help Harry get to Quirrell? So he decided to put in some barriers specifically for the trio to work their way through. This gives them valuable experience working together through magical obstacles as well as confidence in having triumphed. And this is the reason for protections two through six, tailored specifically to their strengths—to establish the Trio as we know it.
An interesting theory I’ve come across, lately in Lorrie Kim’s SNAPE: A Definitive Reading (p. 18), is that Dumbledore’s original intention was for Neville to also be part of the crew that went through the trapdoor. Ergo, the Devil’s Snare was an obstacle meant for him, given his strength in Herbology. It’s a good theory but does not really gel with how meticulous Dumbledore is about these things.
Neville’s proficiency at Herbology is not as overt in Sorcerer’s Stone; the first time it’s mentioned is Neville getting a “good Herbology mark making up for his abysmal Potions one,” (SS307) in the closing pages of the book. Hermione’s aptitude for fires seems to be more indicative of facing off against Devil’s Snare.
More importantly, if Dumbledore watched Harry’s friendships as closely as we believe, he would have known Neville would not be included. The only times Neville is together with the Trio is watching Quidditch matches, during the late-night Norbert fiasco, and in the ensuing detention. Not exactly bosom friends, and Neville’s being misinformed about Norbert further indicates lack of confidence. The Devil’s Snare is the first obstacle after Fluffy; Dumbledore could have gone at any point and removed it once he figured out Neville wouldn’t be part of the quest.
Dumbledore is meticulous about the setup here. All the tasks are designed to be passed through by the whole trio. . . until the last one before the Mirror, Snape’s potion puzzle. Here, there is a potion to move backwards as well as forwards—what is the need of this, if not to send Ron and Hermione back to safety? And as for the potion to move on to the next room: “There’s only enough for one of us” (SS286). Yet there’s no mention of there being not enough potion for more than one person to go back. The intention is clear: only Harry is to move on and face Quirrell, while Hermione and Ron are to go back.
Why is this? Because Ron and Hermione, unlike Harry, have no magical protection from Quirrellmort. And Dumbledore does care about students’ safety, to some extent. So he doesn’t want to send Ron and Hermione into the fray, knowing they’ll likely be hurt—especially given Voldemort’s propensity for taking hostages. Oh yes, Dumbledore planned every detail very carefully indeed.
So, the next question to answer is why Dumbledore had Quirrell provide one of the protections if he so clearly suspected Quirrell by that point? Not only does this make Quirrell’s job that much easier—by allowing him to know what the other protections are—but this could also hinder the trio. Sure, they took out a troll before, but as McGonagall says in the first movie, it was “sheer dumb luck.”
I believe that Dumbledore did this with the intention of protecting Ron and Hermione—he needed Quirrell to get to the Mirror without issue so only Harry would face him. If Quirrell hadn’t been privy to the protections surrounding the Stone, he might have actually been stumped by them—maybe he’s terrible at chess! (Side note: I now have a great mental image of Quirrell playing countless chess matches against Voldemort as practice for this one.)
If Quirrell couldn’t get past the chess board or any other obstacle, he would have run into the entire Trio there. And he likely would not have hesitated to kill them. To reiterate, Ron and Hermione have no protection from him, and Dumbledore would have wanted to prevent them facing off against Quirrell. Hence, Dumbledore includes Quirrell in “protecting” the Stone in order to make Quirrell’s job easier and make sure he’s well ahead of the Trio.
It’s also worth noting that Dumbledore probably supervised these protections extremely closely. He likely did not tell the professors his reasons, but I could believe he suggested the individual protections to each professor and made a sufficiently convincing case that they listened. He probably ensured that Professor Sprout would mention Devil’s Snare in class, since that plant seems to be rather different from the usual curriculum in Herbology (the younger students don’t generally deal with deadly plants).
The exception to this might be Snape’s puzzle—that one seems to fit Dumbledore’s plans so exactly that it’s hard t
o believe it wasn’t micromanaged. Perhaps Dumbledore trusted Snape enough to reveal the plan. But I think it’s more likely Dumbledore just told Snape exactly what had to be done without explaining himself, and Snape obeyed because he knew to trust Dumbledore despite his secretive ways.
Dumbledore’s Invisible Hand
Now that we know Dumbledore’s end goal—to have Harry face off against Quirrell to gain some valuable experience—let’s examine how he imperceptibly influenced events for an entire year to get there.
Dumbledore has sources that keep him informed of Voldemort’s doings; in Book 2 they let Dumbledore know that Voldemort “is currently in hiding in the forests of Albania.” (CS328) So when these sources inform him that Voldemort is gone from Albania in 1991, Dumbledore knows to fear for the Sorcerer’s Stone.
He also knows that Quirrell was recently there, so Dumbledore probably suspects him to some degree. But Dumbledore is not sure and wants to find out what’s up. He decides he wants the race for the Stone to happen at Hogwarts, where he can keep an eye on things. It’s probably at this time that he concocts his plan to have Harry face off against Voldemort, so he has Hagrid pick up the Stone from Gringotts, in full view of Harry, giving Harry the first clue.
There is really no other reason why Hagrid was picking up the Stone as part of his and Harry’s trip to Diagon Alley, considering wizards can just Apparate to Diagon Alley whenever they need to. Admittedly, the one bit that cannot be easily explained away is Quirrell attempting his Gringotts robbery hours after Hagrid retrieves the Stone. I suppose one could come up with a convoluted explanation of how Dumbledore dictated the timing of this event, but I am comfortable calling this one a coincidence and moving on. I set very little store in coincidences in Rowling’s world, but they do happen, and on those rare occasions I’ll accept them as such.
The Life and Lies of Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore Page 2