burn book | character rants

Albus Dumbledore (i)

Yes, the great Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore!

The benevolent headmaster, protector of Hogwarts, and father figure -- oh, and did I mention, a completely horrid person?

At first glance, Dumbledore is one of the good guys of the Harry Potter series. He’s the benevolent headmaster of Hogwarts, he helps Harry fight Voldemort, and he comes across as nothing but friendly – for the first few books, at least.

But Dumbledore is actually one of the most complex characters in the series, because if you look more deeply, your opinion will probably change. Mine certainly did. As the books go on, little details are revealed about Dumbledore that suggest he might not be the kindly old grandfather he was portrayed to be at first.

If you’re not convinced, this chapter will do the trick – I’ve found the 15 top reasons why we should actually all hate Dumbledore. And believe me, the list isn’t exhaustive!

1. He took the House Cup from Slytherin.

I'm not saying this because I'm a slytherin myself; neither am I butthurt or complaining. But seriously dude?

For the kids of Gryffindor, this was a really nice move. The supposedly evil Slytherin House thought they’d won the house cup and then Dumbledore swoops in there with some house points for Gryffindor and they just overtake Slytherin.

The house points were deserved– Harry fought off Voldemort, he deserved more than house points– but this was an incredibly cruel way to do it. Not all of Slytherin are mean bullies, and there are kids as young as 11 in that house – so to casually pull out the rug from under them in front of the whole school was actually kind of petty and horrible.

Why couldn't he have done something else? Like maybe give the Gryffindors extra points for the next year so that they have a lead? Or maybe donate money to the poorer children so that they don't have to struggle to buy books or robes?

And are we ignoring the fact that he gave points to the Gryffindors after dressing the Great Hall in green and silver? What else could this mean, but mockery of the Slytherins? Like 'Oh you won the house cup! Wait, no you didn't, fuck off lol'

Make the children happy at first, make them believe their house has won, and then hallelujah! Take away their happiness. And people wonder why we're all so dead inside.

This is the only time in the books when I actually felt I was on Draco Malfoy’s side. Dumbledore was definitely biased here, and he could have handled this far more tactfully.

2. He lied to Harry

Dumbledore knew Harry was going to have to die eventually. Sure, he knew he might be able to bounce back from it because of the Horcrux but ultimately, it was a totally untested theory because it had never been done before. Even then, he was still absolutely willing to bring Harry up and let him go and die without even telling him why. What?!

I can understand this when he was a child. No 11-year-old is going to take that well. But as Harry matured quicker than any child (ever) because of what he’d been through and was forced to become a brave, selfless man, there was absolutely no good reason to keep lying to him. Sure, Dumbledore admitted he’d handled this badly, but there’s not really an excuse for that when it was Harry’s life being lied about.

Conclusion, he didn't care about Harry as long as he died for the greater good. What a bitch.

3. He was in with Grindewald.

Do people really change their spots that much? Dumbledore was literally hanging around, being best friends with the darkest wizard to ever grace the world, aside from Voldemort and maybe Salazar Slytherin himself. 

He says himself it was because he was blinded, but Dumbledore’s a clever guy – how blinded could he have been, really? He was willing to pal around with Grindelwald for as long as it suited him, until the duel that killed his sister. It took the actual death of his sister to realize that Grindelwald might not be a good guy after all.

It seems harsh not to give him a second chance, but he was friends with Grindelwald while being fully aware of what he wanted to do. Come on, man.

4. He believed some of those ideals.

More than that – J.K. R*wling showed us exchanges between Dumbledore and Grindelwald that make it hard to believe he only loved Grindelwald and didn’t agree with the ideals he espoused. 

He truly thought that magical people were better than non-magical people. That was something he actually thought, and it’s hard to believe that only Grindelwald persuaded him to think this, because that’s a pretty big deal.

Sure, he wasn’t quite on a level of wanting to massacre every Muggle and Muggle-born in sight like Voldemort was, but his morals definitely weren’t as high and mighty as he tries to portray them to be by the time he’s around Harry. 'Magic is might' is nothing short of prejudice and discrimination, and Dumbledore once took his part in that. Ew.

5. He handled Harry's psuedo - posession poorly.

Not only did he lie to Harry – he actively kept him in the dark when Harry might have been starting to catch on because he was literally being possessed by Lord Voldemort. 

Well, kind of. Voldemort was edging his way into Harry’s head and pretty much making him crazy. He was influencing Harry’s emotions to be more like his own, making him angry and spiteful, turning his entire world dark – and how did Dumbledore handle this?

By ignoring Harry and letting him spiral because he was worried Voldemort would try and get to him through Harry.

This was seriously selfish af. Dumbledore might try and say he had Harry’s best intentions at heart, but considering how broken and angsty Harry was in book five, I’m not convinced.