The Life and Lies of Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore

by Irvin Khaytman

  Photo by G.M. Courtemanche

  1. In her essay, “Philosopher's Stone - Dumbledore's Perspective,” Josie Kearns ventured the point that Dumbledore meant Harry and Quirrell to face off but didn’t expect Harry to get the Stone. I initially disagreed, but upon rereading Sorcerer’s Stone, I concluded that Josie’s hypothesis made the most sense and was therefore correct. The essay is well worth a read; it covers some of the same ground as this one and inspired much of this chapter. I concur with much of it, but Josie attributes more logical leaps to both Dumbledore and Voldemort than I do (a sort of “I did this so you’d know I know you know about that” affair).

  2. “As much money and life as you could want! The two things most human beings would choose above all—the trouble is, humans do have a knack of choosing precisely those things that are worst for them.” (SS297) This is Dumbledore’s much gentler way of calling the Stone a lure for fools—after all, he’s speaking to an eleven-year-old.

  3. While not canonical, there is further evidence in Journey Through a History of Magic (p. 30), where we become privy to Jo’s drafts of certain passages in the books. In one such draft, Quirrell states in no uncertain terms that he was trying to “see what was guarding the Stone” aside from Fluffy, meaning he (and the other professors) have not yet put their obstacles in place. Even though this was only in a draft, it shows that Jo’s original intention was to not have the obstacles present until after Halloween.

  4. The Red Hen has an intriguing alternative for why Dumbledore chose to show Harry the Mirror of Erised: it was a test of Harry’s character to ensure that he was not like Tom Riddle. I disagree for two reasons. First, Dumbledore has been observing Harry very closely for four months and should have the measure of his character by now. Second, Dumbledore does not have any alternatives who have “the power to vanquish the Dark Lord”—there’s no point testing if Harry is good enough because he has to be good enough.

  5. Bloomsbury Live Chat with J.K. Rowling; July 30th, 2007,

  Allie: What did dumbledore truly see in the mirror of erised

  J.K. Rowling: He saw his family alive, whole and happy – Ariana, Percival and Kendra all returned to him, and Aberforth reconciled to him.”

  6. In Sorcerer’s Stone, the other centaurs (namely Bane) are upset at the meddling in what happens to Harry in the Forest. Ironically enough, many years later Dumbledore would set things in motion to fulfill what the centaurs saw in the heavens. Harry supposes that “Bane thinks Firenze should have let Voldemort kill me.... I suppose that’s written in the stars as well.” (SS260) Indeed, that is probably what was written in the stars, as Harry lets Voldemort kill him in that very forest during the Battle of Hogwarts. Bane was just trying to rush things along instead of waiting another six years. (Credit to Eileen Jones at the Lexicon for this observation, in her piece “Bane Was Right All Along.”)

  7. For more about Dumbledore’s conversation with Harry, see Appendix B.

  8. Josie Kearns writes about this in “What Did Dobby Know?” at the HP Companion. Steve Connolly also wrote about this, pre-DH, over at MuggleNet.

  9. It’s telling that in Sorcerer’s Stone, Dumbledore making an appearance at a Quidditch match has all of Hogwarts in a tizzy. There are six Quidditch matches per year, so it doesn’t seem like an unreasonable burden for a headmaster to be present at all of them. But Dumbledore makes it clear that he cannot be bothered to watch his students play Quidditch, remaining aloof and distant from the student body.

  10. It is unfair to the other houses, who are not allowed to play any promising first years of their own. It is unfair to the older students in Gryffindor House, many of whom never got the chance to join the team—since the whole team aside from Oliver is third year and under, the entire Quidditch team must have graduated in 1990/1991, leaving students in the Class of 1992 through 1995 out of luck after Harry and Katie Bell joined the team.

  11. This is some of the first evidence that we should approach Hagrid’s broad declarative statements with skepticism. Hagrid’s worldview is simplistic, as one can tell both here and in the wholly incorrect statement: “there wasn’t a witch or wizard who went bad who wasn’t in Slytherin.” (SS80)

  12. The notability of this moment was first brought to my attention by Eileen Jones in a Harry Potter Lexicon Minute. “What a beacon of hope the Headmaster must be to illicit this kind of reaction,” she writes.

  13. The reader is treated to a rather delightful pun here: the knocker on the door to Dumbledore’s office is shaped like a griffin (CS204), making it a literal Gryffindo[o]r. I’m inclined to think this was Dumbledore’s creation; he certainly seems the type of headmaster to make his office door into a pun.

  14. Tom Riddle charms every member of the faculty except Dumbledore. This is an ironic role reversal of what happens in the books’ present day: where usually Snape is railing to Headmaster Dumbledore against his favorite; back then Dumbledore kept trying to convince Headmaster Dippet not to favor Tom Riddle so much.

  15. A pre-DH theory that I found engaging comes courtesy of Maline Freden at MuggleNet (North Tower #27: “Wands and Where to Find Them”). She suggests that Hagrid’s umbrella contains not his own broken wand, but Moaning Myrtle’s entirely intact wand—given that she would have had no more use of it at exactly the moment when Hagrid’s was snapped. It can’t be proven one way or the other unless Jo says so, but I’m fond of the theory.

  16. We don’t know Grubbly-Plank’s house, but a commitment to teaching regardless of politics suggests Ravenclaw.

  17. This also explains why Dumbledore was unable to come to Harry’s rescue in the graveyard in Goblet of Fire. Even if Dumbledore was once again using this spell during the Third Task, Voldemort is the only one to say his name during the proceedings (many times, in fact, during his monologue to the Death Eaters). As GumWrappersAreLove1 put it, “Harry doesn't say Dumbledore's name (or much of anything) in the Little Hangleton graveyard. I wouldn't be surprised if Dumbledore was anxiously fingering the Deluminator in his pocket while Harry was in the maze.”

  18. Some argue that the language in Sorcerer’s Stone indicates Quirrell had already been the D.A.D.A. professor before Harry’s first year, including the fine folks over at The Harry Potter Lexicon, but I’ll take the path of least resistance and assume Dumbledore accurately described the effects of the curse.

  19. It is possible that he does know, due to either performing Homenum Revelio, or even just seeing Harry outside Hagrid’s Hut (though I find the latter option unlikely). However, his behavior makes sense even if he doesn’t know, but merely supposes.

  20. Credit for this brilliant catch goes to Daniela Teo in The Two-Way Mirror #10: “The Triwizard Tasks and the Seven Books”

  21. To recap: He relived one of the worst nights of his life. He failed to get revenge on his childhood bully. He failed to avenge Lily’s death. And he was foiled by his three least favorite students. All in all, not a good night for him.

  22. Credit for this brilliant observation goes to D.W. Hill, who wrote a riveting series of editorials about the Dumbledore/ Snape relationship pre-DH.

  23. “The Dark Lord will rise again with his servant’s aid, greater and more terrible than ever he was.” (PA324)

  24. This is probably my favorite essay that I’ve ever read about the Harry Potter series; it completely opened my eyes to both the fact that Dumbledore is not always omniscient and the fact that his relationship with Snape is key.

  25. Lorrie Kim makes an intriguing point (SNAPE23) that Snape’s partisanship towards Slytherins is his way of boosting them because they’re ostracized for their connection to Voldemort and the Dark Arts. As is usual for her, it’s a very charitable view of Snape. However, I posit that Snape favors the Slytherins and undermines the Gryffindors to counterbalance what he has observed to be Dumbledore’s bias in the opposite direction. But as we witness in Sorcerer’s Stone, once Harry enters the picture and gets Dumbledore more involved in Hogwarts, Snape’s efforts prove futile.<
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  26. He is most guilty of this in Chamber of Secrets, when he was putting on a show without even having an audience there. But that can be attributed to the arrogance of youth—if the adult Voldemort is full of himself, it’s nothing compared to the self-satisfied teenage version. And the habit of wanting to win in style is a hard one to break.

  27. I base this on the assumption that Dumbledore has already viewed Morfin and Hokey’s memories by the beginning of Book 5. We cannot be certain of this, but Dumbledore says that he “attempted to use [the memory] to secure Morfin's release from Azkaban.” (HBP368) This would have been a fool’s errand after Dumbledore and Fudge’s parting of ways, so it probably happened before that.

  28. There were a lot of questions that assiduous fans sought answers to: Would Harry live or die? Would Tom Riddle die along with Voldemort? Would Neville’s status as an also-ran Chosen One factor in at all?

  As the debate raged on, the interpretations became more and more creative, like the one stating that Harry would have to rapidly conceive another child to be born at the end of July, and that kid would be the one to finish off Voldemort. (It was a compelling theory, based on the repetition of the line “the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies . . .” In one fanfiction I read, Hermione delivered a magical PowerPoint presentation to Harry and Dumbledore all about it.)

  29. When the DA was busted, per the Lexicon’s calendar.

  30. A popular theory online is that this was all an act for Harry’s benefit to show him how awful James and Sirius were. (For example, see the chapter discussion for “OP28—Snape’s Worst Memory” at the HP Companion) I don’t buy this, because Snape must have seven years’ worth of memories of being bullied by James and Sirius, so why would he choose the one involving Lily coming to his rescue? Besides, the memory does not cast Snape in a good light either.

  31. This was the editorial that set me on the path of figuring out Dumbledore’s convoluted plans in the last two books. While I disagree with almost all of the conclusions reached, the research is impeccable, and it’s exactly the kind of deep dive into the minutiae of Dumbledore’s plans that I so enjoy reading.

  32. Robbie Fischer had an alternate theory for this, pre-DH. In his essay “He Did It All for Harry,” Robbie posits that Dumbledore gave in and assigned Snape the D.A.D.A. position purely to advance Harry’s career prospects. Dumbledore knew Harry couldn’t become an Auror without taking a Potions N.E.W.T., and Snape wouldn’t accept Harry into his N.E.W.T. class. So instead of overriding Snape, Dumbledore shuffled around his entire pedagogical roster to make sure Harry could become an Auror. While I don’t buy this theory, I really like it, because it perfectly captures how Dumbledore cares disproportionately for Harry. As Robbie writes, “He left the entire wizarding world more insecure and leaderless than ever, more or less to advance the career prospects of a single, favored student.” That statement is right at home in this book.

  33. Dumbledore admits he doesn’t know which specific Horcrux he’s hunting (HBP547).

  34. It’s rather puzzling why Dumbledore did not get the Grey Lady to spill her secrets the way she did to Harry. Surely he would think it worthwhile talking to her, given that she is Helena Ravenclaw, and is best positioned to know something relevant about her mother’s artifacts? We’ll have to chalk this one up to being on Dumbledore to-do list for the last month of his life.

  35. There is irony in Draco being assigned to kill Dumbledore as Voldemort’s retribution against Lucius. Since Dumbledore orchestrated the entire prophecy decoy that led to the Battle of the Department of Mysteries and Lucius Malfoy’s disgrace, Dumbledore is responsible (in a very roundabout way) for Draco being in Voldemort’s crosshairs and being charged with killing him.

  36. Credit here goes to Lady Lupin, who saw this parallel even before Deathly Hallows was released. In Spinner’s End #10: “The Other Trio: Dark, Darker and Darkest,” Lady Lupin wrote the following very prescient passage: “Harry's task is to vanquish Voldemort; Malfoy's task is to kill Dumbledore. Each boy must face the far more experienced leader of the opposing force. In this case, Draco was unable to complete his task, and Snape did it for him. Will Harry complete his task? Will Snape aid Harry in that task?”

  37. An internet commenter, CaseyL, offered a different theory: Dumbledore “intended to keep the fact that Snape had killed him secret.” They claim that Snape would have told Voldemort that Dumbledore died because of his fatal hand injury. It’s an interesting theory, supported by Snape telling Narcissa and Bellatrix how Dumbledore “sustained a serious injury.” (HBP31) But this seems like too risky a move for Dumbledore—there would almost certainly be Death Eater witnesses to Snape’s murder of Dumbledore, and Snape needs to be in Voldemort’s good graces, so he has to take credit for the murder.

  38. The plan to use Seven Potters seems to me to be some of Jo’s weakest writing, because it appears to have arisen out of a desire for drama rather than logic. There are a million easier ways to transport Harry, including even just Polyjuicing Harry into a Weasley and having him anonymously and calmly stroll out of Privet Drive amid a gaggle of redheads.

  39. Shawn Adler, “J.K. Rowling Meets with L.A. Students, Plots Next Move,” October 15, 2007. Oddly enough, this is the only time Jo has ever mentioned The Prince; she has never officially acknowledged it as an influence on HP.

  40. For a much more in-depth analysis of this chess match paralleling the rest of the series, read my essay “The Three-Book-Long Chess Match.” It’s part of a series I did about the seven obstacles in Sorcerer’s Stone serving as an outline for the entire book series.

  41. Talking of the potion in the cave, there is a theory about it buried in LiveJournal by felicitys_mind, which makes a lot of sense. She posits that the potion would make the drinker relive Tom Riddle’s torture of Amy Benson and Dennis Bishop, consistent with Voldemort’s use of some Horcruxes as a highlight reel of his early triumphs. Harry believes that the potion actually made Dumbledore relive “watching Grindelwald hurting [Aberforth] and Ariana,” (DH568) but that is an assumption on Harry’s part made without any evidence.

  42. My reference for The Prince is Project Gutenberg, so there are no page numbers, only chapters.

  43. Long story short, Severus was an emperor in Ancient Rome. Once he became emperor, he was faced with the problem of two rival emperors, Albinus and Niger. Severus played the two against each other. He pretended to ally himself with Albinus to defeat Niger. Once Niger was defeated, Severus accused Albinus of treachery, “sought him out in France, and took from him his government and life.” So, a Severus who played two emperors against each other, then betrayed Albinus and killed him... it seemed pretty obvious that this was the inspiration for Snape.

  With the hindsight of Deathly Hallows, we received yet another compelling clue. Not only did Severus take Albinus’s life, but also his government... rather like Snape killing Albus and then becoming Headmaster of Hogwarts. So yes, this was the inspiration for Snape, who was indeed out for himself first and foremost and had no problem playing Albus and Voldemort against each other.

  44. Snape, on the other hand, does not seem to take any of Machiavelli’s advice to heart: he revels in being mean-spirited, embraces being despised, and never comes across as merciful or humane.

  45. I absolve myself of any blame here; I was fourteen when Andrew Cooper’s essay was published!

  46. Admittedly, there could have been yet another contingency plan in place should Snape die, and we just received no indication of it. However, one wonders who would be the backup to Snape’s role? It’s not in McGonagall’s character to deal with murky moral decisions like this; Remus and the Weasleys would lose their minds if told to sacrifice Harry; Aberforth is having none of it; and this isn’t the sort of assignment one wants to give a random Order member.

  My best guess is that the final contingency plan was Mad-Eye Moody. He seems to be as close to a friend and peer as Dumbledore has. Moody is o
ne of the few people on the Order’s side who would have the stomach to make Harry sacrifice himself. Perhaps Dumbledore confided some key knowledge in Moody as a failsafe for Snape. Either way, it’s a moot point because Moody is killed at the beginning of Deathly Hallows, eliminating the possible contingency plan.

  47. It’s unclear whether there’s a limit on splitting one’s soul, so it’s possible Dumbledore relied on that. When Ron ventures the possibility of Voldemort creating more Horcruxes, Harry says, “Didn’t Hermione say he had pushed his soul to the limit already?” However, Ron has a very valid rebuttal: “Yeah, but maybe he doesn’t know that.” (DH282)

  48. We are still a touch murky on the laws of wand allegiance, so it’s possible that a wand would recognize an intentional transfer, like Snape merely giving the wand to Harry. But given the Elder Wand’s violent tendencies, that seems implausible at least in this case.

  49. Dumbledore’s guilt here may explain why he seemed momentarily tempted, several months later, to reveal the truth about Snape to Harry. When Harry is raging about Snape selling out his parents to Voldemort, “Dumbledore did not speak for a moment; he looked as though he was trying to make up his mind about something.” (HBP549) After the emotionally charged year Dumbledore has had, he is momentarily tempted to reveal Snape’s true colors to Harry, perhaps to alleviate the loneliness and judgment to which he is sentencing Snape. But in the end, Dumbledore chooses to respect Snape’s wishes and keep his secret.

  On an unrelated note, the fact that the setting sun cast a “bloody tinge” on Dumbledore’s face in this scene is an awesome bit of foreshadowing (HBP548).

  50. Ironically enough, this is the second time Dumbledore’s carefully laid plans have been foiled by a Malfoy. These instances occur in Books 2 and 6, which intentionally mirror each other.

  51. As an aside, it’s hard to express how much this passage meant to me when I read it as a teenager. In a world that seemed wholly dismissive of anyone under eighteen, this was exactly what I needed. It was so empowering to read about teenagers not only doing awesome things, but also being held accountable for their actions. Because holding people accountable for their actions in their youth implies that teenagers are sentient beings capable of making decisions, which flew in the face of literally everything everyone did in the real world.