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

  “Which means,” Dumbledore called over the storm of applause, for even Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff were celebrating the downfall of Slytherin, “we need a little change of decoration.”

  He clapped his hands. In an instant, the green hangings became scarlet and the silver became gold; the huge Slytherin serpent vanished and a towering Gryffindor lion took its place. (SS306)

  It’s small wonder that Draco leaves his first year thoroughly disenchanted with his headmaster. He spends all of second year parroting Lucius: “Father's always said old Dumbledore's the worst thing that's ever happened to this place.” (CS222)

  This is a big change of pace from Sorcerer’s Stone, where Hagrid refers to Dumbledore as “the greatest headmaster Hogwarts ever had.” (SS58)11 It’s made clear later in Chamber of Secrets that a lot of Hogwarts students share Hagrid’s assessment: when McGonagall tells the Great Hall that she has “good news” at the end of the year, the very first guess is “Dumbledore’s coming back!” several people yelled joyfully. (CS284)12 But there is an important difference between the reverence for Dumbledore being widespread and being unanimous; it’s telling that Draco seems perfectly at home disparaging Dumbledore in front of the Slytherins.

  In The Tales of Beedle the Bard, Dumbledore refers to his enmity with Lucius Malfoy and attributes it to a disagreement about the appropriateness of the fairytales available in the Hogwarts Library. “This exchange marked the beginning of Mr. Malfoy’s long campaign to have me removed from my post as Headmaster of Hogwarts, and of mine to have him removed from his position as Lord Voldemort’s Favorite Death Eater.” (TBB42)

  However, one can’t help noticing that this enmity really seemed to foment after Lucius’s son came home from his first year at Hogwarts very upset about Dumbledore’s disregard for the Slytherins. This may explain why Lucius chose that particular year to put in motion his plan to reopen the Chamber of Secrets, which he must have known would provide him an opportunity to remove Dumbledore from office.

  Dumbledore Lacking Information

  Dumbledore’s reasoning must surely have clued him in as to the identity of Slytherin’s monster. Unlike Harry and his friends, Dumbledore is definitely familiar with various fantastic beasts and where to find them. There must be a very small number of creatures that can kill, Petrify, live for a thousand years, and be controlled only by descendants of a Parselmouth. Dumbledore either shares his suspicions with Snape, or Snape (being very clever in his own right) comes to the same conclusion independently. Either way, Snape takes matters into his own hands at the fateful Dueling Club meeting.

  The spell Snape instructs Draco to use—Serpensortia—makes no sense in a dueling context. As online commenter Irene M. Cesca put it: “You throw a snake at your opponent and. . . What?! You cross your fingers that you’re dueling Indiana Jones and that he’s gonna run out screaming like a little kid?” There was something else going on. This is something I’ve puzzled over quite a bit, occasionally tempted to just go with the “Because Plot” explanation, but I think we can make sense of it.

  It’s definitely not Dumbledore’s doing—Dumbledore likes to run controlled experiments, and throwing a snake into the middle of the student body isn’t his style. Snape seems surprised by Harry’s Parselmouth abilities, so Snape was not confirming his own theory about Harry. It would appear to me that Snape, knowing the Heir of Slytherin was likely a Parselmouth, was hoping to unmask him or her at the Dueling Club. Humiliating Harry in the process would be a bonus. But Snape is shocked by Harry being the Parselmouth because, whatever else he may think of Harry, it doesn’t make sense to him that Harry is the Heir of Slytherin.

  Dumbledore is informed of this. The next day, Justin Finch-Fletchley and Nearly Headless Nick are Petrified, and Dumbledore meets with Harry in his office.13 He tells Hagrid right away, “I do not think that Harry attacked those people.” (CS208) But Dumbledore still wants to pick Harry’s brain. He performs Legilimency on Harry during that meeting and gets quite a bit of material: Draco Malfoy shouting about Mudbloods, a plot concerning Polyjuice, Harry hearing a disembodied voice, and Harry’s fears about his reputation (CS209). So Dumbledore remains as confused as ever.

  In the meantime, we see firsthand through some flashbacks where the pattern of Dumbledore’s favoritism of Gryffindors over Slytherins began: in the 1940s, with Tom Riddle and Rubeus Hagrid. Tom Riddle pointed the finger of blame at Hagrid for opening the Chamber of Secrets and killing Moaning Myrtle. Hagrid was expelled, but Dumbledore got him to stay on as assistant gamekeeper. Dumbledore was rightfully suspicious of Tom Riddle,14 and Hagrid was indeed innocent of opening the Chamber of Secrets.

  However, there is a larger pattern at work here: when a Gryffindor commits a crime, Dumbledore goes out of his way to ameliorate the sentence and protect the Gryffindor. Hagrid, though not responsible for Myrtle’s death, was raising an acromantula inside the school. Maybe this is my arachnophobia talking, but that does not sound like innocence to me. Hagrid was raising an illegal creature that actively eats humans inside a school. Sure, he trained Aragog well enough to tame his human-eating nature. . . but that doesn’t erase the danger nor the illegality of his actions. I’d expel anyone who raised giant spiders in my school. But Hagrid remains at Hogwarts as assistant gamekeeper and keeps an illicit wand in his umbrella.15 Dumbledore remains loyal to Hagrid, culminating in a very questionable decision to make Hagrid a professor after his name is cleared in 1993. Perhaps if Grubbly-Plank had been a Gryffindor, she would not have been passed over for the job.16

  Help Will Always Be Given

  Back to the present: to Dumbledore’s great chagrin, he remains helpless for the rest of the school year. Lucius Malfoy even manages a short-lived triumph in his campaign to remove Dumbledore and ousts Dumbledore from Hogwarts. It’s not hard to imagine this as Dumbledore’s darkest hour—removed from Harry and Hogwarts with a basilisk on the loose. It’s doubtful that Dumbledore ever wanted Harry mixed up in all this—Harry’s first year was enough of a trial run, and having him face off against a basilisk could end very badly indeed. But it’s out of Dumbledore’s hands, and Harry is involved, so Dumbledore helps him as best he can.

  “You will find that I will only truly have left this school when none here are loyal to me. You will also find that help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it.” (CS263-264)

  At first glance, Dumbledore’s promise of help to those who are loyal to him appears to be mysterious and abstract; how does one measure loyalty from afar? But there is a rational explanation, courtesy of online commenter GumWrappersAreLove1:

  I think [Dumbledore] might be referring to the Deluminator. [. . .] What if when Dumbledore said “none here are loyal to me” he was implying “none who love me speak my name”?! That would mean if Dumbledore had had the Deluminator with him when he was on his way to McGonagall's office to console the Weasleys, he would have heard Harry saying his name in the Chamber of Secrets. [. . .] I think Dumbledore heard Harry's voice, knew he was alive and fighting to save Ginny in the Chamber, and might have sent Fawkes.

  Later on in this book, we will discuss Dumbledore’s issues with loyalty from others, but suffice to say he prizes it highly. It is absolutely in character for him to codify that into a spell or magical artifact.

  What we know of the Deluminator from Ron’s use of it in Deathly Hallows is that the wielder is able to hear when certain people speak his name. This would be a perfect way for Dumbledore to be at the ready should Harry ever need his immediate help: Dumbledore would just wait for his name to be invoked. A close read of Chamber of Secrets backs this up: Harry does not say Dumbledore’s name between his sacking and the showdown in the Chamber of Secrets.17

  To clarify, we don’t know if Dumbledore was using the Deluminator for this purpose, or if it’s an independent spell that he later put on the Deluminator specifically for Ron. But we can surmise that enchanting names in this fashion is very advanced magic: the only characters we know of who do so are
Dumbledore and Voldemort (with the Taboo in Deathly Hallows).

  If we reread the climax of Chamber of Secrets with this in mind, a whole lot of things begin to make sense. Harry first uses Dumbledore’s name when he says to Riddle, “I bet Dumbledore saw right through you.” (CS312) This was the moment that Dumbledore was alerted to what was going on, and began paying attention to the proceedings.

  We don’t know how much one can listen to once this magic is activated by the name, but in DH Ron hears Hermione talking about wands after she says his name. So one can listen to at least some conversation after the name. This may explain why Dumbledore is so seemingly omniscient in the post-battle meeting.

  “What interests me most,” said Dumbledore gently, “is how Lord Voldemort managed to enchant Ginny, when my sources tell me he is currently in hiding in the forests of Albania.” (CS328)

  Dumbledore knows that it was Voldemort and that Ginny was enchanted because shortly after Harry first shouted about Dumbledore, Riddle explains how he manipulated Ginny. After the full and boastful confession, “Voldemort,” said Riddle softly, “is my past, present, and future.” (CS313)

  Dumbledore is now paying very close attention, while Riddle speaks calmly. The second time Harry uses Dumbledore’s name, Dumbledore hears Riddle getting agitated, so he sends Fawkes as backup.

  “Sorry to disappoint you and all that, but the greatest wizard in the world is Albus Dumbledore. Everyone says so. Even when you were strong, you didn't dare try and take over at Hogwarts. Dumbledore saw through you when you were at school and he still frightens you now, wherever you're hiding these days—”

  The smile had gone from Riddle's face, to be replaced by a very ugly look.

  “Dumbledore's been driven out of this castle by the mere memory of me!” he hissed.

  “He's not as gone as you might think!” Harry retorted. He was speaking at random, wanting to scare Riddle, wishing rather than believing it to be true.

  Riddle opened his mouth, but froze.

  Music was coming from somewhere. (CS314-315)

  Why didn’t Dumbledore come himself? This would be around the time Dumbledore had to deal with the distraught Weasleys, so he delegated the task to Fawkes. He fervently hopes that Harry and Fawkes together will be up to the task of defeating Riddle.

  In Dumbledore’s own words, Harry “acquitted [himself] beyond my wildest dreams.” (OP838) Dumbledore is reinstated and gets to stick it to Lucius Malfoy, who’s sacked from the Hogwarts Board of Governors. This moment is also the biggest success in Dumbledore’s campaign to remove Lucius from being Lord Voldemort’s Favorite Death Eater, since Voldemort’s “anger was terrible to behold” (HBP508) when he found out Lucius had gotten the diary destroyed. Dumbledore also finds out how loyal Harry is to him. This is the beginning of Dumbledore caring more for Harry than for an ordinary student, because he’s touched by Harry’s faith.

  Dumbledore has a very significant conversation with Harry after the incident. He withholds a crucial piece of information about the prophecy: “You were still so young, you see, and I could not find it in myself to spoil that night of triumph. . .” (OP838) He also receives a vital piece of information, one that leads us to ask a crucial question that we will revisit throughout this book.

  What Did Dumbledore Know of Horcruxes?

  By the time Harry is let in on the Horcrux hunt in Half-Blood Prince (and the reader with him), Dumbledore seems to have everything together. He knows what the Horcruxes are and how many there are. He’s also collected all the necessary memories, and it’s just a matter of telling Harry about it and then destroying them. At first, we do not question this; we’re used to Dumbledore’s seeming omniscience, so why wouldn’t he have all the necessary information already? Even Lord Voldemort reinforces the idea: “You are omniscient as ever, Dumbledore.” (HBP445)

  But then, someone has to ask the very pertinent question: if Dumbledore has known all along about the Horcruxes, why did he only start hunting them in 1996? (The exact timing will be discussed in the Year 5 section.) He had years and years before that during which he could have hunted Horcruxes unmolested!

  I believe the correct answer is the most straightforward one: Dumbledore did not know everything about everything until just before we did. So let us explore what Dumbledore knew and when—a recurring question to keep in mind in order to maintain a sense of perspective.

  1992 and Earlier

  Up until that very significant conversation in Chamber of Secrets, Dumbledore did not even know whether Voldemort had created Horcruxes or not. It may seem obvious in retrospect that he had. But consider this very telling line from Voldemort’s monologue in Goblet of Fire: “. . . it appeared that one or more of my experiments had worked . . . for I had not been killed.” (GF653) That means that Voldemort had made several “experiments” in his quest for immortality. How was Dumbledore to know what Dark magic Voldemort had performed? All Dumbledore knows is that Voldemort spent about twenty years exploring ways to become immortal, and Merlin knows which one he actually chose.

  But suppose Dumbledore realized that Voldemort might have made a Horcrux. Dumbledore would not know that Voldemort made more than one because doing so is completely unprecedented. He tells Harry, “[Voldemort] was referring to his Horcruxes, Horcruxes in the plural, Harry, which I do not believe any other wizard has ever had.” (HBP501-502) Just think of how horrified Slughorn is at Tom Riddle’s suggestion of multiple Horcruxes in that crucial recovered memory (HBP498). If Dumbledore was contemplating different methods of immortality, I don’t think he would consider multiple Horcruxes.

  Let’s say for argument’s sake he suspects that Voldemort made one Horcrux. The only one he reasonably could have found, with the information available to him, is the locket or the ring. If Dumbledore suspected that the cup or the diary was the Horcrux, he would be at a complete dead end, since he can’t exactly go snooping through the possessions of all the former Death Eaters.

  So Dumbledore might suspect that there’s one Horcrux out there. Having been collecting memories about Voldemort already, there are several possible candidates, but Dumbledore has no way of knowing which one is the Horcrux or where it will be found. Dumbledore is not even sure whether Voldemort has a Horcrux or if he used some other Dark magic. But with Voldemort temporarily out of the picture, Dumbledore can focus on other endeavors: rebuilding the world after the first Voldemort War, enacting his scheme surrounding the Sorcerer’s Stone, and dealing with the Chamber of Secrets.

  End of Chamber of Secrets

  The first breakthrough comes at the end of Chamber of Secrets, when Harry comes into Dumbledore’s office, triumphantly wielding a sword and a destroyed diary, telling strange tales of meeting a teenaged Voldemort. Dumbledore explains his thought process to Harry during their Horcruxes 101 lesson.

  “I was almost sure of it. The diary had been a Horcrux. But this raised as many questions as it answered.

  “What intrigued and alarmed me most was that that diary had been intended as a weapon as much as a safeguard.”

  [. . .]

  “The careless way in which Voldemort regarded this Horcrux seemed most ominous to me. It suggested that he must have made—or been planning to make—more Horcruxes, so that the loss of his first would not be so detrimental.” (HBP500-501)

  Dumbledore gets confirmation that Voldemort did indeed make a Horcrux, but alarm bells go off in his head. If Voldemort treated his Horcrux as expendable, that means that Voldemort must have made more than one. This is a mind-blowing idea, but it appears to make sense. So now Dumbledore starts thinking, Just how bad is the situation? Did Voldemort make two Horcruxes (unprecedented!), or did he go even further than that and make three? The answer to “not who, but how?” is even more important than anyone initially thought.

  While this is all quite frightening to contemplate, Dumbledore is not particularly frantic just yet. Voldemort is still somewhere in Albania, alone and almost powerless. The Sorcerer’s Stone is destr
oyed, one Horcrux—Tom Riddle’s Diary—is down, and things are looking rosy for the moment. I’m sure Dumbledore starts poring over his memories of Tom Riddle, doing his research, trying to identify what could possibly be a Horcrux.

  However, this is all soon driven from his mind, and Horcruxes are put on the backburner for two years. Because if Dumbledore was hoping for some down time after the whole Chamber of Secrets debacle, he’s about to get some really unwelcome news about a prisoner in Azkaban.

  Chapter 3:

  Albus Dumbledore and the

  Prisoner of Azkaban

  Prisoner of Azkaban is a unique book among the seven for many reasons, chief among them the absence of Voldemort. It is also unique because it’s the only book where the reader is pretty much on the same page as Dumbledore for most of it—believing in Sirius Black’s guilt and at a loss as to how Sirius is achieving things.

  Prisoner is also where Dumbledore’s choice of D.A.D.A. professors begins to inform the story. Some context: Voldemort cursed the position when he applied for it and was rejected, which can be placed with reasonable certainty in the winter of the 1956-1957 schoolyear. (See Appendix A.) Let us take Dumbledore’s statement at face value, that they “have never been able to keep a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher for longer than a year since [Dumbledore] refused the post to Lord Voldemort.” (HBP446)18 That would mean Lockhart had been the thirty-fifth D.A.D.A. teacher in as many years.

  As Lockhart’s appointment indicates, Dumbledore has utterly exhausted the pool of potential job applicants who would actually be appointed purely for their pedagogical prowess. His appointments henceforth will be informed by ulterior motives. With Lupin, it’s two-fold. On the one hand, Dumbledore wants to help Lupin after Umbridge’s anti-werewolf legislation makes it impossible for him to find work (OP302). On the other hand, it’ll be mighty handy having one of Sirius’s old best friends on hand, so Dumbledore can consult him about his former friend.