The Life and Lies of Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore

by Irvin Khaytman

  But luck and happenstance succeed where Dumbledore’s plans failed. Through a series of unforeseen events, Harry ends up a prisoner at Malfoy Manor during the week that Draco is home for the holidays, putting them in a perfect position for a face-off. And in a blink-and-you-miss-it moment, Dumbledore’s last plan gets back on track: “Harry took his chance: He leapt over an armchair and wrested the three wands from Draco’s grip” (DH474). This action is not even deigned its own sentence, yet it changes everything, because Harry defeats Draco and masters the Elder Wand by doing so.

  To be clear, I do not think that Dumbledore ever planned for what happened in the final duel between Harry and Voldemort: that Voldemort, in possession of the Elder Wand, would have a Killing Curse rebound because Harry was its true master. There is no mention in the books, amidst all the discussion about mastering the wand, that indicates Dumbledore planned for Voldemort to actually own the wand. He knew that Voldemort would be searching for the wand, but he did not expect Voldemort to succeed. I think Dumbledore expected Snape to be able to keep the wand from Voldemort, trusting to Snape’s own prodigious skill and cunning to outfox Voldemort—Snape probably had instructions to go into the tomb and snag the wand if Voldemort got close. However, Voldemort’s quest for the Elder Wand was done much more on the down-low than his quests usually are, so Snape was unaware of the need to intervene until it was too late.

  Putting Plans in Their Place

  “But, no, I really wanted, very consciously, for the history of the wizarding world to hinge on this moment where two teenage boys have a physical [fight]. They don’t even do it by magic.

  “That sort of puts all of Voldemort’s and Dumbledore’s grandiose plans in their place, doesn’t it? You just can’t plan that well, that something can go wrong and it went wrong . . . It went wrong because Harry managed to pull this wand out of Draco’s grip.”

  It must be said, this is one of my favorite quotes of Jo’s from any of her interviews. It really puts things in perspective, doesn’t it? Dumbledore had so many carefully laid plans before he died. He planned for eventualities and had backups, and then in the end, most of his plans ended up completely useless.

  Plan D (making Harry the master of Death) worked through a lot of coincidences, after being rendered obsolete by Draco Disarming Dumbledore. But it wasn’t needed, because Voldemort tethering Harry to life ended up being enough.

  Plan C (delaying the moment Harry finds out he has to die) very nearly failed for several reasons, chief among them that Voldemort succeeded in finding the Elder Wand and killed Snape just as it was unfolding.

  Plan B (Snape defeating Voldemort should Harry die) never had the chance to come to pass on account of Harry living and Snape dying. Snape could not have defeated Voldemort, because he predeceased Harry, but someone else probably would have after receiving protection from Harry’s sacrifice.

  And the only plan that did end up working as designed was Plan A—destroying Horcruxes, Harry sacrificing himself and coming back to life in order to defeat Voldemort. Sometimes, the most straightforward plan is the most effective. Harry also got the bonus of not having to actually kill Voldemort, but that wasn’t part of the plan.

  Since I can only imagine how much your head must be spinning by now (since I know mine is), at the end of the chapter is a handy diagram of all of Dumbledore’s plans for what will happen after he dies. As you can see, there are two key moments: Harry finding out he has to die, and the actual sacrifice.

  Worth noting is that all of Dumbledore’s plans for the entire wizarding world focused on only two individuals that we know of: Harry and Snape. Dumbledore treats all his other allies as pawns and only Harry and Snape as significant chess pieces. But the focus on Harry was at Snape’s expense. Dumbledore concentrated all his efforts on keeping Harry alive, whereas he trusted Snape to stay alive through his own formidable intelligence. And for all that went wrong, in the end Dumbledore achieved his two objectives: defeating Voldemort and saving Harry.

  Chapter 7:

  Albus Dumbledore and the

  Deathly Hallows

  “But there were any number of things that would seem incredible about Dumbledore; that he had once received bottom marks in a Transfiguration test, for instance, or had taken up goat-charming like Aberforth. . . .” (DH182)

  So wonders Harry in Deathly Hallows upon reading a truncated letter of his mother’s. But perhaps the most incredible thing about Dumbledore is that, although he’s dead in Deathly Hallows, the character looms larger than ever before, because of the surprising and fascinating focus on his legacy that pervades the book.

  This is very appropriate given that Dumbledore is Machiavelli’s Prince, and much of his strategy relied on maintaining a sterling reputation. Because as soon as Dumbledore is no longer around to defend himself, everyone has an awful lot to say about him.

  Before the word “Horcruxes” is even brought up in the seventh book—by page 28—we have read two wildly contradictory stories about Dumbledore: Elphias Doge’s and Rita Skeeter’s. Even as the wizarding world crumbles around him, Harry becomes consumed trying to parse out which version is closer to the truth.

  We begin with perhaps the most rose-tinted version of Dumbledore, as his childhood best friend eulogizes him in the Daily Prophet (DH16-20). But no one sets very much store by what Doge says, because he “skated over the sticky patches in that obituary of yours!” (DH153) Rita Skeeter’s aspersions on his intelligence are expected, but Auntie Muriel also says, “Oh, we all know you worshipped Dumbledore!” (DH154) Aberforth gets the final word, and he (very colorfully) concurs: Elphias “thought the sun shone out of my brother’s every orifice.” (DH563)

  Of course, the other sources provided aren’t reliable either. We already know not to trust Rita Skeeter, even before Elphias Doge says that “Skeeter’s book contains less fact than a Chocolate Frog card.” (DH24) As Hermione astutely points out, “Harry, do you really think you’ll get the truth from a malicious old woman like Muriel, or from Rita Skeeter?” (DH185) So we have to wade through a lot of misinformation before getting to the truth from the Dumbledore brothers.

  There are two key aspects of Dumbledore’s past that are brought into question: his family history and his brief youthful flirtation with the Dark Arts and wizard supremacy.

  The Dumbledore Family

  Most of what happened to the Dumbledores boils down to the question of who Ariana was and how she died. Theories and rumors run rampant through the last book, and the tragedy of what happened to her reverberates through everything else that happened: Percival’s incarceration, Kendra’s death, the falling out between Albus and Grindelwald, and the rift between Albus and Aberforth.

  Everyone Harry speaks to has their own guess or opinion. Elphias Doge feebly sticks to the party line: “Ariana was delicate!” (DH155) Muriel guesses that Albus “did away with his Squib sister!” (DH154) And Rita Skeeter puts a sinister spin on the whole thing:

  Was she the inadvertent victim of some Dark rite? Did she stumble across something she ought not to have done, as the two young men sat practicing for their attempt at glory and domination? Is it possible that Ariana Dumbledore was the first person to die “for the greater good”? (DH359)

  The truth can only come from a primary source: Aberforth Dumbledore, who reveals the full tragedy of the Dumbledore family to the Trio right before the Battle of Hogwarts. (The story is then corroborated by Albus Dumbledore at King’s Cross, so we know it to be factual.) The story is awful: Ariana was traumatized by Muggle boys; Percival incarcerated for seeking retribution; Kendra killed accidentally by her unstable daughter; “And Ariana . . . after all my mother’s care and caution . . . lay dead upon the floor” due to a stray spell in a duel among Albus, Aberforth, and Grindelwald (DH717). But the story is also reassuring in that nothing evil was being done by the Dumbledores—they were all handling a bad situation as best they could.

  “He Was Young”

  Far more interesting to consi
der is that Dumbledore was, indeed, culpable of making some very bad decisions in his youth: plotting with Grindelwald to subjugate Muggles. Harry and Hermione very clearly delineate the two opposing arguments here.

  Harry responds emotionally and will not excuse Dumbledore because of his youth.

  “I thought you’d say ‘They were young.’ They were the same age as we are now. And here we are, risking our lives to fight the Dark Arts, and there he was, in a huddle with his new best friend, plotting their rise to power over the Muggles.” (DH361)51

  Hermione, on the other hand, adopts a more lenient stance.

  “He changed, Harry, he changed! It’s as simple as that! Maybe he did believe these things when he was seventeen, but the whole of the rest of his life was devoted to fighting the Dark Arts! Dumbledore was the one who stopped Grindelwald, the one who always voted for Muggle protection and Muggle-born rights, who fought You-Know-Who from the start, and who died trying to bring him down!” (DH361)

  The fascinating thing is that both arguments, which are both valid, received some of their strongest backup from none other than Albus Dumbledore himself.

  The chief reason that Harry’s argument holds water is how he makes it from the moral high ground: he is doing things no teenager should have to do. Of course, it’s not Dumbledore’s fault that Voldemort regained corporeal form much sooner than preferred and was facing off against a teen Harry instead of a hardened middle-aged Auror Harry. But it’s still Dumbledore’s deployment of his young protégés that casts his own youthful mistakes in such an unflattering light.

  But to Hermione’s point, Dumbledore is renowned as someone who “believes in second chances.” (GF472) For example, he offers one to Severus Snape and to Draco Malfoy, both Death Eaters. Now we know why he’s so adamant about that: he himself needed a second chance at age eighteen. He knows what it’s like to have your actions lead to unthinkable deadly consequences, so he shows mercy to those who’ve gone through a similar ordeal.

  Dumbledore’s Army

  Perhaps the most powerful statement about Dumbledore’s legacy is one that flies under the radar: the DA. Even after all the slander Dumbledore was subject to during that year, it is “Dumbledore’s Army, Still Recruiting!” (DH575) Elphias Doge makes the bold claim that Dumbledore “was the most inspiring and the best loved of all Hogwarts headmasters.” (DH20) And though we know that to not be true for a quarter of the wizarding population—those who wear emerald and silver—it appears to be true for the three houses present in the Room of Requirement.

  What makes this so impactful is that there is an alternative readily available: Potter’s Army. Recall that Dumbledore invested a lot of energy in turning Harry into a symbol; the Order rallies around him and Hagrid throws “Support Harry Potter” parties (DH442). But the DA, who may have even more belief in Harry than a laywizard who wasn’t taught D.A.D.A. by him, chooses to remain affiliated with Dumbledore.

  On the one hand, there are practical reasons for this: the legacy of the original DA, and the association of Dumbledore to Hogwarts. Dumbledore and the school have been intricately entwined in the Wizarding public’s consciousness for a long time. The reason Hogwarts was always a bastion against Voldemort was because Dumbledore was there. Dumbledore was the Headmaster for two entire generations of wizards, for forty-one years. Dumbledore was even buried on school grounds, in an unprecedented move, never to be separated from the school.

  The first time the DA formed, it was to defend Hogwarts against an evil regime that had ousted Dumbledore. That mission statement is no different this time around, so there is no reason to change the name.

  But we must also consider who made the decision to keep the name. We are told that the leadership of the group fell to Neville, Luna, and Ginny. Assuming Luna can’t be bothered with such mundane things as group names (Snorkack Army, anyone?), it would have been Neville and Ginny making the call, whether or not they had input from the rest of the DA. It so happens that Neville and Ginny are uniquely suited to believe the best of Dumbledore.

  Neville has grown up with his formidable grandmother, who always stood by Dumbledore (“[Augusta] says it’s the Daily Prophet that’s going downhill, not Dumbledore. [. . .] She says if Dumbledore says he’s back, he’s back.” OP219). Judging by his reaction in the Department of Mysteries (“’Dubbledore!’ said Neville, his sweaty face suddenly transported” OP805), Dumbledore meant a lot to him. His Gran would no doubt dismiss all of Rita Skeeter’s lies out of hand. But Neville is also someone who has changed a lot from his youth. It would not seem so outlandish to him that Dumbledore could have changed as well.

  And then there’s Ginny, who would identify with a young Dumbledore more than most. Recall that she too, in her youth, was seduced by a charismatic Dark wizard. She, too, was party to atrocities committed by said Dark wizard; she was just lucky that no one died. And when the truth was revealed, when she was sure she would be expelled, Dumbledore showed mercy. He comforted her, forgave her, and gave her a second chance to turn into the formidable witch she became. If he gave her a second chance, why should she begrudge him one?

  In Doge’s obituary, he says Dumbledore was “to his last hour, as willing to stretch out a hand to a small boy with dragon pox as he was on the day that I met him.” (DH20) On the one hand, we know that was not necessarily always true. Dumbledore was remote from his students, and he rarely extended a hand to Slytherins. However, when he didn’t have to make choices affecting the entire wizarding world, and when Slytherins weren’t involved, he was kind and caring. He showed mercy to a young Ginny, he delicately protected Neville. And now he is rewarded by the faith of his former students; the name “Dumbledore’s Army” will prove to be a much more enduring legacy than Rita Skeeter’s book.

  And the students’ loyalty is rewarded by Hogwarts itself, which creates a passage from the Room of Requirement to Aberforth’s quarters above the Hog’s Head. On the surface, this is purely to satisfy the students’ need for food. But it could be that the Room of Requirement anticipated what Aberforth needed—to regain hope—and multitasked by creating the passage specifically to his bar.

  It’s very notable how exactly this passage works: it is hidden behind a portrait of Ariana Dumbledore, who goes to fetch Neville when the Trio shows up. It’s kind of perfect that Dumbledore’s Army will go through a Dumbledore (a DumbleDOOR, if you will) to a Dumbledore; and a Dumbledore will keep Dumbledore’s Army thriving.

  This is a masterclass in symbolism: Ariana Dumbledore serves as the go-between for Aberforth Dumbledore and [Albus] Dumbledore’s Army. Her death tore the brothers apart; her memory is what brings them together.

  Password?

  Harry ran without stopping, clutching the crystal flask of Snape’s last thoughts, and he did not slow down until he reached the stone gargoyle guarding the headmaster’s office.

  “Password?”

  “Dumbledore!” said Harry without thinking, because it was he whom he yearned to see, and to his surprise the gargoyle slid aside, revealing the spiral staircase behind. (DH662)

  There are two potential explanations for the password being “Dumbledore,” and both are a powerful statement about Dumbledore’s legacy.

  The first, recently espoused by Lorrie Kim, is that this password was chosen deliberately by Snape to honor Dumbledore. This is a nice sentiment, and is certainly possible. That said, it seems too high a risk for Snape to take as a purely symbolic gesture. The password to the headmaster’s office has to be something that can be revealed to people—students and faculty—who may need to meet with the headmaster. Obviously, having the password be “Dumbledore” won’t work if the Carrows have a question for Headmaster Snape.

  So the implication is that Snape created a second secret password, “Dumbledore,” pretty much solely for sentimental reasons. This seems most unlike Snape: the risk is too high that someone would shout “Dumbledore” outside his office, and the payoff of such a symbolic gesture is too small.

 
Far more likely, in my opinion, is that it is the stone gargoyle that accepted Dumbledore’s name as a password. We know that parts of Hogwarts have some sentience: the Room of Requirement (as mentioned earlier), and the front doors (whom Flitwick teaches to recognize Sirius Black, PA269). I think the gargoyle, who has been guarding Dumbledore’s office for forty years,52 grew quite fond of Dumbledore.

  As an aside, we don’t know whether it was the gargoyle or Dumbledore himself who was responsible for frustrating Umbridge in OotP: “Couldn't get past the gargoyle. The Head's office has sealed itself against her.” (OP625) On the one hand, it would be in character for the gargoyle to keep Umbridge out if it really is that appreciative of Dumbledore. On the other hand, it was also be in character for Dumbledore himself to seal the Head’s office against Umbridge to spite her. Either explanation makes me happy.

  But back to Deathly Hallows: the fact that the gargoyle accepts “Dumbledore!” as an override of its security protocols speaks to Dumbledore’s legacy in the eyes of Hogwarts itself. In the Battle of Hogwarts, Dumbledore’s Army is a crucial part of the “Hogwartians.” And like its defenders, Hogwarts has immense respect for Dumbledore when all is said and done.

  Epilogue:

  Judging Dumbledore

  “Well, of course, Dumbledore is a biographer’s dream,” Rita Skeeter says (DH23), and indeed he has been. We have now reached the end of the series, and there are several takeaways from viewing the Harry Potter books through this lens. Dumbledore is not omniscient—every instance where he seems to be, we can explain his reasoning in the moment. Dumbledore likes being in control and uses his knowledge of Lord Voldemort to manipulate his foe. Dumbledore is usually meticulous, thinking through the details and planning things years in advance. There is always some bigger picture going on just off the pages of the books, usually involving Dumbledore being impressive and Jo being even more impressive. The biggest takeaway of all: almost everything Dumbledore did was for Harry.