burn book | character rants

Albus Dumbledore (iii)

11. He Employed Snape And Refused To Hear Anything Bad About Him

Okay, okay, okay. I know. Snape turned out to be a ‘good’ guy in the end. He actually killed Dumbledore on Dumbledore’s orders, and he was in love with Harry’s mother Lily the whole time. I know.

But he was still a terrible, abusive teacher. He crushed Neville’s confidence repeatedly. He made fun of Hermione for being smart. He unfairly picked on Harry for reasons we didn’t find out until book seven. And yet, he was fine to his own students in Slytherin, even favoring them often.

You can argue that Snape was a good guy, even a hero (bleh), but you can’t argue that he was a good teacher. He was absolutely terrible, and to let him teach in Hogwarts for all those years knowing just how spiteful he could be was nothing short of unforgivable.

12. Kids Figure Out Stuff Before He Does

For someone so clever, why does he seem to be so ignorant to things?

It goes back to Dumbledore seeming to be more curious about how things will play out than actually willing to protect his students. People figure out things before him all the time – most notably and embarrassingly, when Harry, Ron, and Hermione discovered the Sorcerer’s Stone was in danger before he did. They were wrong about who it was in danger from, but they still knew something was up and got to it moments before Dumbledore himself did.

Ron was 12 at this point and Harry and Hermione were 11. Two of them had been part of the magical world for less than a year. And yet, they were all more tuned into things in Hogwarts than its headmaster? Seems suspicious…

13. He kept the Sorcerer's Stone in a school

Speaking of which, why did he decide to keep the stone in the school in the first place? This just seems like a bad place for it. Hogwarts may be the safest place in the Wizarding World, but it’s also one where the entirety of Britain’s magical youth resides for most of the year.

At no point did Dumbledore stop and think, “Hey, maybe I’m endangering them by keeping the thing Voldemort wants most below the lake”?

At this point, it really is as if he wants to see how things will unfold if he mixes them up a bit and throws in some drama — which is a dangerous attitude to have for anyone, let alone someone with so much power. What was he thinking half the time?

14. He Didn’t Recognize That Alastor Moody Wasn’t Alastor Moody

We’re told Alastor “Mad-Eye” Moody and Dumbledore were old friends. Mad-Eye Moody was a well-respected Auror (dark wizard catcher) before he retired, and Dumbledore was also a champion against dark wizards – snort. For the later part of his life, anyway. So it did make sense that he’d hire him to teach Defense Against The Dark Arts at his school.

But how did he not realize that he wasn’t actually Moody?

Barty Crouch Jr. couldn't have been that good of an actor. He seemed insane, so to fool one of Moody’s old friends – let alone the most clever wizard in the world, supposedly – seemed downright unbelievable. And yet, he managed. He even managed to get Harry away from him when it became apparent someone in the school was working for Voldemort.

Really, Dumbledore? You need to pay more attention. WTF are you even doing?

15. He kept the Elder Wand

When Harry gets the Elder Wand, he does the right thing. To prevent more bloodshed and more people who are desperate to get their hands on it, he snaps it. Good on you, Harry! Someone had to do it.

But why didn’t Dumbledore?

Because of Dumbledore, Voldemort ended up with his hands on it. It all worked out in the end, but Dumbledore couldn’t have known it would come to that for all the decades that he held onto that wand. He would have done so many people a favor in the past if he’d had the guts to snap it; but he didn’t because on some level, he wanted the power.

This goes back to him once having the ideology that magic trumps all else. You were shady, Dumbledore. You were shady at best.