The Life and Lies of Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore Read online

  Plan D: Mastering the Hallows

  We know Dumbledore planned for Harry to master the Hallows, because otherwise there’s no reason to leave Hermione The Tales of Beedle the Bard and little reason to leave Harry the Resurrection Stone. Of course, there seems to be an error here: how could Dumbledore have planned for Harry to master the Hallows when he only mastered the third one by defeating Draco, which wasn’t part of the plan at all? Because while the end result was the one intended, everything else in this plan went spectacularly wrong. But before we analyze what went wrong, let’s outline Dumbledore’s final plan.

  Leave Hermione The Tales of Beedle the Bard, sending the Trio on the hunt for the Hallows rather than the Horcruxes.

  Leave the Elder Wand in Dumbledore’s tomb. Hope that Voldemort won’t seek it out for a while, and that it will take Voldemort considerable time to trace the Elder Wand back to Dumbledore.

  Bequeath the Resurrection Stone to Harry, but encased within the Snitch, ensuring he cannot get to it until the time is right.

  During their heart-to-heart about Harry having to die, Snape also allows Harry to Disarm him, thereby making Harry the master of the Elder Wand. While the wand itself is still hopefully safe in Dumbledore’s tomb, Harry will open the Snitch, and therefore be master of all three Hallows.

  These are the four steps Dumbledore had in mind to make Harry Master of Death before he is about to die. I will admit the last one is pure conjecture, but it makes sense when put along with everything else. After all, how else was Harry supposed to master the wand, if the working theory was that Snape would be its master upon killing Dumbledore?48

  Note that Dumbledore did not plan for Harry to actually use the Resurrection Stone, or the Elder Wand, only to own them. In this new plan, the wand is better off in Dumbledore’s tomb, where it will hopefully stay forevermore and cease causing havoc.

  HufflepuffSam wrote otherwise in their essay “The Master of Death,” that to be Master of Death one had to possess all the Hallows, not just be their rightful owner. They claim that for all we know, being Master of Death would render one immortal just as Xenophilius says—but since no one actually possesses all three Hallows at any point, no one ended up being Master of Death.

  The only issue with this theory is the question of why the Elder Wand ended up in Dumbledore’s tomb. If the plan was for Harry to be given it by Snape, why wouldn’t Snape remove it from the tomb? Since there seem to have been no plans in place for Harry to actually have the wand, it appears that Dumbledore thought being the wand’s master would suffice.

  Step 4—making Harry the Master of Death—may be the least provable part of this section, but it seems to me to be the only thing that makes sense. Dumbledore talks in the “King’s Cross” chapter as if his plan all along has been for Harry to be Master of Death, but he certainly did not plan for Draco to ever be the master of the Elder Wand, and he definitely didn’t count on Harry wrestling Draco for wands. Also, considering all the trouble Dumbledore went to in order to have the Trio pursue the Hallows, it seems a waste if Harry wasn’t meant to master the wand in the end—then the only added benefit would be Harry’s moment of comfort on the way to death. While I think Dumbledore intentionally delayed the Trio to put off the moment Harry has to sacrifice himself, he would not send them on a wild goose chase at so pivotal a time.

  Of course, the implications of Step 4 are enormous. The biggest one is that Dumbledore essentially scrapped the last part of Plan B—where Snape is exonerated by defeating Voldemort with the Elder Wand. The rest of Plan B was still in place—where Snape hopefully defeats Voldemort, or at any rate someone does. But Dumbledore took away Snape’s most important tool for the job so Harry would stand a slightly better chance of surviving.

  The Tragedy of Snape

  The timing of when Plan D was formed is a touch unclear. We know Plans A and B (defeating Voldemort) were formed pretty much immediately after Dumbledore got the Ringcrux; we know that Plan C (procrastinating the Scarcrux) was formed in early 1997 because Dumbledore probably gave Snape his instructions soon after he thought of them. Plan D—mastering the Hallows—could have been formed at any point between the two.

  We know it was some time after Plan B was formed, because Dumbledore definitely intended Snape to end up with the Elder Wand at some point as we’ve discussed, and now no longer did. The wand would only be useful to Snape if he was still its master when the dust settled. Since he was no longer intended to be, there was no reason for him to keep custody of it, since then Voldemort might find it more easily. Thus, the wand was to stay in Dumbledore’s tomb.

  This means Snape has the worst of both worlds. By killing Dumbledore and mastering the wand, the bulls-eye is still on Snape’s back. However, he now no longer even gets the benefit that accompanies mastering the wand, since he is to relinquish that to Harry. Dumbledore is once again displaying the enormous faith he has in Snape, since my guess is that Snape is still meant to defeat Voldemort should Harry die, but he is now expected to do so armed with an ordinary wand.

  Let’s assume that Dumbledore had come up with this by February and informed Snape about allowing Harry to Disarm him along with his other instructions to tell Harry about the Scarcrux—we have no guarantee of this, but it makes things more poetic. Because if one keeps all of this baggage in mind, the scene becomes even more heart-breaking than it already is:

  Dumbledore took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

  “Tell him that [. . .] while that fragment of soul, unmissed by Voldemort, remains attached to and protected by Harry, Lord Voldemort cannot die.”

  [. . .]

  “So the boy . . . the boy must die?” asked Snape quite calmly. [. . .] “I thought . . . all those years . . . that we were protecting him for her. For Lily.”

  “We have protected him because it has been essential to teach him, to raise him, to let him try his strength,” said Dumbledore, his eyes still tight shut. “[. . .] If I know him, he will have arranged matters so that when he does set out to meet his death, it will truly mean the end of Voldemort.”

  Dumbledore opened his eyes. Snape looked horrified.

  “You have kept him alive so that he can die at the right moment? [. . .] You have used me. [. . .] I have spied for you and lied for you, put myself in mortal danger for you. Everything was supposed to be to keep Lily Potter’s son safe. Now you tell me you have been raising him like a pig for slaughter—”

  [. . .]

  Dumbledore watched [the doe] fly away, and as her silvery glow faded he turned back to Snape, and his eyes were full of tears.

  “After all this time?”

  “Always,” said Snape. (DH686-687)

  Note Dumbledore’s mannerisms: he can barely look Snape in the eye as he says all this. At this point, Dumbledore is speaking of Harry’s sacrifice—a supremely painful topic for both parties. But he also knows that he is condemning the man in front of him—the man whom he has worked alongside for sixteen years, who has just displayed the best part of himself—to a wretched existence and to being a target for Lord Voldemort. . . all while invalidating Snape’s motivation for half of his life. As ruthless as Dumbledore is, one has to imagine he feels some guilt here.49

  In fact, there is a sinister symmetry to Dumbledore’s actions here. Twenty years prior, he placed a lower value on Snape’s life than on Sirius Black’s. Now, even after all that has passed between the two men, Snape’s life is still worth less than a promising Gryffindor’s—Harry’s.

  It’s even more tragic from the perspective of Snape, both for Dumbledore’s betrayal and the fact that all his work in protecting Harry was for naught. This seems incredibly cruel of Dumbledore with regard to Snape, but it is not out of character. The only person Dumbledore truly cares about is Harry. Snape is a useful tool and a valued ally, but no more. We have seen Dumbledore choose Harry over Snape before, in Prisoner of Azkaban. Now he does so again, when the stakes are so much higher. Dumbledore pours all of his resources into helpi
ng Harry. Meanwhile, he makes Snape an outcast by having Snape kill him, puts Snape into deadly situations on a regular basis, mercilessly exploits Snape’s love for Lily in order to help Harry, and makes Snape Voldemort’s eventual #1 target by making him the master of the Elder Wand. While I hold very little love for Snape, even I pity him for this.

  This sheds new light on the scene where he kills Dumbledore. Bellatrix told Harry, “You need to mean [the Unforgivables]!” (OP810) When Snape kills Dumbledore, “there was revulsion and hatred etched in the harsh lines of his face.” (HBP595) Snape has every reason to hate Dumbledore. Dumbledore made Snape a pariah among wizards and a target for Voldemort in one fell swoop. Dumbledore intended for Lily’s son to die, making a mockery of the last fifteen years of Snape’s life. For good measure, Snape probably called forward all the lingering feelings of resentment after the Sirius-and-Moody debacle three years ago. Snape was more than capable of mustering up enough anger to kill Dumbledore, after all that their relationship had gone through over the years.

  Having a Choice

  A key factor in all of Dumbledore’s plans is that everyone—but specifically Harry and Snape—act of their own free will. The things he asks of them are not things that can be forced; Dumbledore has no use for things like Unbreakable Vows. Rather, Dumbledore makes sure that there is a clear right choice to make, and relies on Harry and Snape to make said right choice.

  We first see Dumbledore’s framing in his second lesson with Harry about Tom Riddle’s past. Dumbledore delineates the importance of choice in creating the dichotomy between Harry and Voldemort: they are foils not through only their own choices, but through the opposite choices their mothers made.

  “[Merope] wouldn't even stay alive for her son?”

  Dumbledore raised his eyebrows. “Could you possibly be feeling sorry for Lord Voldemort?”

  “No,” said Harry quickly, “but she had a choice, didn't she, not like my mother—”

  “Your mother had a choice too,” said Dumbledore gently. “Yes, Merope Riddle chose death in spite of a son who needed her, but do not judge her too harshly, Harry. She was greatly weakened by long suffering and she never had your mother's courage.” (HBP262)

  This is the template for how Dumbledore presents choices to Harry and Snape. It is genuinely a choice, and is not made by fear of Dumbledore’s judgment: he will not be harsh either way, for he understands the chooser’s limitations. However, there is a right choice, and the consequences of making the wrong choice are dire: in this example, the existence of Voldemort and all the damage he has wrought.

  We see the fruit of Dumbledore’s conditioning in the end of Deathly Hallows, in events split by two years but only two chapters. But Harry and Snape make the right choice, and in both instances Dumbledore stresses that they do have a choice.

  First up is Snape, who is not impressed with the idea of killing Dumbledore, particularly when reminded that killing tears the soul apart.

  “And my soul, Dumbledore? Mine?”

  “You alone know whether it will harm your soul to help an old man avoid pain and humiliation,” said Dumbledore. “I ask this one great favor of you, Severus, because death is coming for me [. . .] I confess I should prefer a quick, painless exit to the protracted and messy affair it will be if, for instance, Greyback is involved [. . .] Or dear Bellatrix, who likes to play with her food before she eats it.” (DH683)

  Dumbledore lays out compelling evidence in favor of the right answer. But this is all about Snape’s views. Only if Snape believes he is performing an act of mercy will his soul be unharmed by the act, and no amount of absolution from Dumbledore can compensate for that.

  And when Dumbledore goes through the same exercise with Harry, that one is for all the marbles.

  “I’ve got to go back, haven’t I?”

  “That is up to you.”

  “I’ve got a choice?”

  “Oh yes.” Dumbledore smiled at him. “We are in King’s Cross, you say? I think that if you decided not to go back, you would be able to . . . let’s say . . . board a train.”

  “And where would it take me?”

  “On,” said Dumbledore simply.

  Silence again.

  “Voldemort’s got the Elder Wand.”

  “True. Voldemort has the Elder Wand.”

  “But you want me to go back?”

  “I think,” said Dumbledore, “that if you choose to return, there is a chance that he may be finished for good. I cannot promise it. But I know this, Harry, that you have less to fear from returning here than he does.”

  Harry glanced again at the raw-looking thing that trembled and choked in the shadow beneath the distant chair.

  “Do not pity the dead, Harry. Pity the living, and above all, those who live without love. By returning, you may ensure that fewer souls are maimed, fewer families are torn apart. If that seems to you a worthy goal, then we say good-bye for the present.” (DH722)

  Dumbledore is leading the witness here, but he keeps stressing that it is Harry’s choice. Dumbledore presents Harry with objective facts that present a very compelling case for Harry to go back. He talks of “fewer souls maimed” and “fewer families torn apart”—in different words, he is saying exactly what he said three years earlier: “When you have to make a choice between what is right and what is easy, remember what happened to a boy who was good, and kind, and brave, because he strayed across the path of Lord Voldemort.” (GF724)

  Just as Dumbledore refused to actually tell Snape that it would not tear his soul to perform a mercy killing, he refuses to tell Harry to go back. He just lays the facts before them, and leaves the ultimate choice up to them.

  This is a perfect bookend to the Potter series: a choice presented to Lily/Harry, a choice made to protect their loved ones, and the resulting magic leading to Voldemort’s undoing. Dumbledore placed his faith in the power of Lily’s choice before, and now he does the same for Harry’s choice, after spending five years stressing the importance of choices to the boy. Dumbledore’s faith—and his earlier teachings—prove well-founded, as Harry does indeed make the right choice.

  So at least that part went as Dumbledore intended . . . unlike most of his plans.

  When Plans Go Wrong

  Most of the plans I have listed here did go horribly wrong at some point or other, but none more so than the last one. Dumbledore’s Plan D hinged on Harry becoming master of the Hallows. Cloak? Check. Stone? Check. Elder Wand? About that. . .

  Harry explains it all to Voldemort, and to us, at the climax of the series.

  “The Elder Wand recognized a new master before Dumbledore died, someone who never even laid a hand on it. The new master removed the wand from Dumbledore against his will, never realizing exactly what he had done, or that the world’s most dangerous wand had given him its allegiance. . . .”

  [. . .]

  “The true master of the Elder Wand was Draco Malfoy.”

  [. . .]

  “I [Harry] overpowered Draco weeks ago. I took this wand from him.”

  [. . .]

  “I am the true master of the Elder Wand.” (DH742-743)

  Dumbledore’s elaborate plan for Harry to master the Hallows falls apart moments before Dumbledore actually dies, when Draco Disarms Dumbledore and becomes the master of the Elder Wand. This is the flaw in the plan that lends itself to the chapter’s title. It means that Snape is not the Elder Wand’s master, which means that Harry will not become the wand’s master by defeating Snape. Plan D should be scrapped at this point.50

  It’s also worth noting the reason Plan D goes so awry: Dumbledore takes the few valuable seconds he has, and instead defending himself against Draco’s Disarming Spell, uses that time to immobilize Harry for Harry’s own protection. This is a microcosm of everything Dumbledore has done: completely disregard his previously established plans, all to take care of Harry. In the middle of Deathly Hallows, there is a heartbreaking line: “[Harry] closed his eyes at [Hermione’s] touch, and hated
himself for wishing that what she said was true: that Dumbledore had really cared.” (DH362) If only Harry knew just how much Dumbledore cared!

  So, in fact, the line that foreshadowed Dumbledore’s Machiavellian tendencies at the beginning of Deathly Hallows is misdirection on multiple levels. Elphias Doge wrote in his obituary of Dumbledore that “He died as he lived: working always for the greater good.” (DH20) That is actually untrue in both interpretations of “for the greater good,” the sweet interpretation as the common good, and the sinister interpretation of Machiavellianism. Because when Dumbledore died, he was not working for the greater good: his last act was to protect Harry.

  As soon as Dumbledore is killed, someone needs to put the kibosh on Plan D because Draco is the master of the Elder Wand. However, it’s far too late to do anything about it! The book and Snitch were already bequeathed to Hermione and Harry, respectively—Dumbledore’s portrait can’t exactly snatch them back from the Ministry. Since Harry never comes to talk with the portrait or Snape, there is no opportunity to tell him that the Hallows quest is folly. Harry somehow mastering the wand by defeating Draco is almost completely out of the realm of possibility, since they certainly won’t be dueling anytime soon, and it would be silly to attempt facilitating such an event.

  So Harry continues pursuing the Hallows (which at least accomplishes one of Dumbledore’s goals—delaying Harry’s death). Even worse, Snape is now a target for Voldemort, and neither he nor Harry receive any actual benefit from that. “Poor Severus” (DH721) indeed!