Albus Dumbledore
Template:HP character Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore (born c. 1845) is a character in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. He has been the headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for many years and considered to be one of the most powerful wizards in the world. Being benevolent, slightly eccentric, and powerful, he resembles an archetypal good wizard in the style of Merlin or Gandalf. He is sympathetic to Harry Potter's difficulties, and, as such, occasionally allows the young wizard more leeway than he would with others. He is described as the only wizard Lord Voldemort ever feared.
Dumbledore is described as being tall and thin, with long hair and beard. He has blue eyes, a very long and crooked nose, and long fingers. He wears half-moon spectacles. He is also described as being very well-dressed in magnificent robes. He claims to have a scar above his left knee, its provenance unknown, which happens to be a perfect map of the London Underground. Dumbledore's Chocolate Frog card mentions that he enjoys chamber music and ten-pin bowling. He has a great affinity for sweets, magical and non-magical, and has frequently set the password for the gargoyle guarding his office door to be the name of various sweets. He is also a self-stated fan of knitting patterns, and once told Harry that one could never have enough socks.
The name Albus is from the Latin word albus ("white"), a frequently used symbol for good; "Dumbledore," which means "bumblebee," was picked by the author because she can see him humming while strolling along the halls of Hogwarts. Additionally, a Dumbledoor is an insect which visits the Shire each year in The Lord of the Rings, as mentioned in the poem Errantry by J.R.R. Tolkien.
In the movie versions, Dumbledore is played by actors of Irish origin. In the film adaptations of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001) and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), Dumbledore was played by Richard Harris, who died in 2002 of Hodgkin's disease. In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005), Dumbledore is played by Michael Gambon. Patrick McGoohan, another Irish actor, was originally offered the role before Harris but turned it down due to health reasons.
Early life and career
Comparatively little is revealed about Dumbledore's early history or family. At the time of the series, he is (according to an interview by Rowling) about 150 years old, meaning he entered Hogwarts as a student in the 1850s. He was sorted into Gryffindor House, according to Hermione Granger, and he confessed in the movie version of The Goblet of Fire to having set fire to the curtains in Harry's dormitory. His brother, Aberforth, is the bartender at the Hog's Head Inn in Hogsmeade, and was once prosecuted in the Wizengamot for "practicing inappropriate charms on a goat". Dumbledore's extraordinary magical talents were apparent from an early age, as later described by the elderly Griselda Marchbanks, Head of the Wizarding Examinations Authority, who had personally examined the school-age Dumbledore for his N.E.W.T. exams in Charms and Transfiguration. Marchbanks recalled that the young Dumbledore had "done things with a wand I'd never seen before."Template:HP5
Some time after his graduation from Hogwarts, Dumbledore returned to the faculty as Professor of Transfiguration, plus as deputy headmaster of Hogwarts and in this capacity also served in recruiting students for the school. He identified Tom Marvolo Riddle and offered him a place at Hogwarts, glimpsing the true nature of the boy who was to become Lord Voldemort. His keen observations of Riddle's student years led Dumbledore to influence Hogwarts' headmaster, Armando Dippet, not to offer Riddle a faculty position.
In 1945 Dumbledore defeated the dark wizard Grindelwald. As J.K. Rowling confirmed, Grindelwald and his followers are meant to be the magical-world analogues of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.
Dumbledore has held the posts of Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, and Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards. He holds the Order of Merlin, First Class, for Grand Sorcery. He was removed from the aforementioned posts during his conflict with the British Ministry of Magic under the Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge about the return of Voldemort and subsequent requisite actions; he was reinstated as a member of the International Confederation of Wizards and Chief of the Wizengamot when the ministry was forced to see their own error.
Magical accomplishments and skills
Dumbledore is widely famous as a legendary alchemist who has worked together with Nicholas Flamel, the only known maker of the Philosopher's Stone, and is credited with discovering the twelve uses of dragon blood (In an interview with J.K. Rowling, she confirmed that one of the uses of Dragon blood is as an oven cleanser). In addition to these credits, he is known to be able to conjure Gubraithian Fire (magical everlasting fire). His Patronus takes the form of a phoenix, a recurring symbol in the books.
Dumbledore also invented the method of communicating messages using a Patronus Charm, a skill he taught only to members of the Order of the Phoenix. He has claimed to be able to become invisible without using an invisibility cloak (although it may have been a metaphor), and there are suggestions that he is capable of seeing through invisibility cloaks. Dumbledore is also skilled in Occlumency and Legilimency.
Dumbledore can speak Mermish, the language of the Merpeople.
In an interview Rowling agreed with her interviewers that Dumbledore, albeit a genius, is sometimes very reckless, and that, "immense brainpower does not protect you from emotional mistakes and I think Dumbledore really exemplifies that. In fact, I would tend to think that being very, very intelligent might create some problems and it has done for Dumbledore, because his wisdom has isolated him, and I think you can see that in the books, because where is his equal, where is his confidante, where is his partner? He has none of those things. He’s always the one who gives, he’s always the one who has the insight and has the knowledge."
There has been much speculation about where Dumbledore learned it all - he is far more accomplished and far more knowledgeable than any other wizard. Rowling said that Dumbledore was primarily self-taught, although he "had access to superb teachers at Hogwarts". Rowling also said that as far as his education is concerned, "Dumbledore's family would be a profitable line of inquiry, more profitable than sweet wrappers."
Dumbledore and the rise of Lord Voldemort
One of Dumbledore's tasks as a teacher at Hogwarts was to find the young wizard Tom Riddle and offer him a place at Hogwarts. Riddle was living in a Muggle orphanage, and while he had discovered some magical abilities, did not know that his mother had been a witch. Even at this early age, Dumbledore was concerned about Riddle's character, and was especially careful to watch his progress throughout his school years. Riddle attempted to get a teaching job at Hogwarts, but Dumbledore first persuaded the current headmaster, Armando Dippet, to refuse Riddle's request, and himself refused a second request some years later.
It was to Dumbledore that Sybill Trelawney, subsequently appointed as professor of Divination, revealed the prophecy regarding Voldemort's fall. The prophecy was partly overheard by Severus Snape, who reported what he had heard to Voldemort. Snape was discovered eavesdropping by Dumbledore's brother Aberforth, who removed him from the building (The Hog's Head). Voldemort interpreted the prophecy as referring to Harry, and as a result killed his parents, James and Lily Potter, while trying to kill Harry.
Dumbledore has been instrumental in the struggle against his former student, working tirelessly against him with the Order of the Phoenix. When Harry's parents were killed, it was Dumbledore's decision to place the now-orphaned Harry in the safekeeping of Vernon and Petunia Dursley, knowing that Harry would be protected by the special magic caused by his mother's sacrifice.
Throughout the series Dumbledore is portrayed as a wizard with modern/reformist ideas about blood purity, and the rights of Muggles, part-humans, and non-humans. Dumbledore does not give importance to the so-called "purity of blood" and believes that an individual's choices reflect his character, rather than his birth, blood, or family, saying "it matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be." Voldemort angrily refers to Dumbledore as "champion of commoners, muggles and mudbloods.". Unlike most wizards, save Harry Potter himself, Dumbledore is not afraid to speak Lord Voldemort's name.
Dumbledore makes the important discovery that Voldemort is trying to achieve immortality through the use of Horcruxes, one of which was Tom Riddle's diary, destroyed by Harry in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Dumbledore himself destroys a second Horcrux, an old ring, and is (by popular view) killed after being weakened while attempting to find a third.
Dismissal from Hogwarts
Dumbledore was twice dismissed from his position as Headmaster, the first time during Harry's second year at Hogwarts, when Lucius Malfoy "persuaded" the school's twelve governors to remove him in the wake of attacks by a basilisk on people in the school. He was subsequently reinstated after Harry killed the basilisk and Lucius was found to have threatened the other governors into removing him as headmaster.
In Harry's fifth year, Dolores Umbridge was appointed by the Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge, to oversee activities at Hogwarts, after Dumbledore and Harry tried to convince the Wizarding world that Voldemort had returned. Harry and other students organised a club called "Dumbledore's Army" to learn defensive magic. Dumbledore was compelled to flee Hogwarts after lying to Fudge and Umbridge about the nature of Dumbledore's Army to protect Harry. Dumbledore was reinstated after Voldemort launched an attack on the Ministry of Magic.
Death
Dumbledore's death is foreshadowed at the start of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, where he first appears with a burnt and blackened hand, a result of his recovery and destruction of a ring that was an heirloom of Voldemort's grandfather Marvolo Gaunt and was serving as one of Voldemort's Horcruxes. On that occasion, Dumbledore was saved from death by the intervention of Severus Snape, though the injury shows no sign of improvement throughout the year that passes in the sixth book.
Dumbledore was repeatedly warned by Harry Potter that another student, Draco Malfoy, was working for Voldemort. Dumbledore refused to take any action against Draco, and instead reassured Harry that he already knew more about what was happening than did Harry. Draco made two (arguably halfhearted) attempts to kill Dumbledore during the year, but on each occasion a student was injured instead. The first attempt involved a cursed necklace, the second a bottle of poisoned mead. Both these attempts were secondary to Malfoy's main plan, which was to repair a broken magical cabinet already inside Hogwarts, and use it to transport Death Eaters into the castle. There was a similar cabinet in Borgin & Burke's shop, and there was a magical passage between them. The attackers were able to enter the castle through the other cabinet while Dumbledore and Harry were away, attempting to find and destroy another Horcrux. Dumbledore was injured, possibly fatally, in this attempt as he was forced to drink a potion left by Voldemort and on their return he was captured by Malfoy. Malfoy found that he could not bring himself to kill Dumbledore, so instead Snape used the fatal Avada Kedavra curse against him.
Dumbledore's funeral is attended by students, teachers, members of the Ministry of Magic, giants, ghosts, and other non-humans. Shrouded in purple velvet, he is entombed in a white marble tomb beside the lake at Hogwarts, and is said to be the only Hogwarts headmaster who is laid to rest in the school grounds. His portrait appears in the current headmistress's office alongside the former headmasters and headmistresses of Hogwarts, where he will presumably, like the others, give his aid to the current head of school.
Speculation...
Some fans have refused to believe that Dumbledore is really dead, and have theories as to how they think he may have survived, and there are websites devoted to that cause. It is believed that Snape could have conceivably performed a nonverbal Expelliarmus charm, blasting Dumbledore up and over the edge, while only saying the words "Avada Kedavra"; but this is unlikely, as the Expelliarmus charm generally produces a red jet - not green. We know from the words of Bellatrix Lestrange and Barty Crouch Jr., both of whom are people very experienced in Unforgivable Curses, that wizards can "say" the words of an Unforgivable Curse, but if they do not "mean" it and enjoy the pain it causes, it won't work.
In some cases, many fans raise the point that nearly all the potions mentioned in J.K. Rowling's books are detailed as to their function, however one potion escapes this pattern: The Draught of Living Death. It has been theorized that the special properties yet revealed by this potion was the effect witnessed at the end of the sixth book, as Dumbledore was required to drink the potion which was concealing the apparent Horcrux. In combination with this, Severus Snape could have utilized the Levicorpus charm, which may have been a spell he even inveted, silently when he "killed" Dumbledore.
Additional speculation is raised at the moment in Dumbledore's funeral when a pheonix shape rises from Dumbledore's tomb. Dumbledore was exceptionally fond of his Phoenix, Fawkes, and it is also theorized Dumbledore might have been an Animagus, with his form being a Pheonix. This might give him the property to raise from the dead from his ashes. Dumbledore is accounted to have been fond of the property of fire, mastering and even discovering many fire based spells. This association might be insight into his potential Phenoix nature.
It is also viewed by some that Dumbledore already knew his death was coming, and thus was able to properly prepare for it. At the beginning of the sixth book, Dumbledore makes a visit to the Dursley's house, and makes a point that Harry must return after this year. Dumbledore gives explaination as to the importance of this, being the nature of the powerful spell placed upon Harry when his mother died. However, the Dursleys did not seem near as disturbed with Harry as they previously have in former books. This message Dumbledore gave perhaps was as much for Harry as the Dursleys, re-enforcing the thought in Harry's mind of the importance of returning to his protection, albeit for a while. It is possible Dumbledore had already deduced what would be happening, since Snape already had the chance to create the Unbreakable Vow.
The significance of the Unbreakable Vow at the beginning of the sixth book might be overlooked. Based on what we know from Ron Weasley's own testimony as to what happens if the vow is broken (death), there are only a few potential outcomes:
1. Draco Malfoy completes his task, killing Dumbledore. 2. Draco Malfoy fails at his task, Snape does not help him. Draco is killed by Voldemort for failing, and Snape is killed by the vow he made for failing to help Draco. 3. Snape completes the task, killing Dumbledore.
As we saw in the end of the sixth book, Draco did not have it in him to commit murder. He "lowered his wand" at the moment he could have killed Dumbledore. Dumbledore also plainly stated Draco didn't have it within him to kill, and as Dumbledore was a very powerful legimens, we might be able to assume he is right. The best possible option, certainly in Dumbledore's eyes, was to save Snape and Draco, and to do this, Dumbledore had to die. Dumbledore always approached death with a calm heart, telling Harry at one point that "Death, to the organized and intelligent mind, is the next great adventure". Knowing that Draco could not kill him himself, this left the only option of Snape killing Dumbledore, lest both Draco and Snape die.
Symbolism
Albus Dumbledore does have seemingly strong similarities with other characters from books or movies. Two notable examples would be Master Yoda from Star Wars and the wizard Gandalf from The Lord of the Rings. Though J.K. Rowling has never admitted to which characters or persons from history have influenced Dumbledore inside of the books, it is apparent that he has much in common with all well-written mentors of literature - an excellent example of the Jungian, 'Wise Old Man' archetype.