Chapter Eighteen: The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore
In chapter eighteen of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Hermione and Harry read a depressing tabloid book about Dumbledore being a baby dictator, and where can I get a copy of this trashy addictive foolery?!
(Please be advised that this is a reread and I will be discussing book and movie spoilers.)
Harry wakes up with a broken wand, no Ron, and memories of his parent’s horrible and traumatic deaths when Hermione solves the mystery of Grindelwald being Gregorovitich’s thief that Voldemort is obsessed with.
HSquared read some “fun” chapters from RitzSkeetz about Dumbledore’s childhood friendship with Grindelwald that contains what we learn later is a lot of truth sprinkled with some tried and true Rita fifth grade insults like “dogbreath” for Elphias Doge and some tabloid speculation.
I’ve got a lot of thoughts on this plot twist that the young Dumbledore had a superiority complex that lead to him believing that wizards should control Muggles more for their own “greater good” but really, after the initial surprise it *wasn’t* surprising to me at all.
Dumbledore, even in his wise older years, has always had a streak of arrogance that he lets little glimpses of shine through. It’s not hard for me to believe that someone who was a child prodigy, a genius beyond measure, would get ideas as a young person that he deserved power. But it’s also clear to me that young Dumbledore was no Grindelwald, that he had a naive idea about helping Muggles instead of a belief he should rule because he wanted to control everyone for evil gains. I kind of love that we had this figure that had achieved saintly status get so systemically torn down this book, to be revealed as a person with human flaws just like everyone else, even if those flaws make him more corrupt.
Understandably, Harry is distraught and disgusted by all this because he’s as young as Dumbledore was when he was writing “the greater good” and he’s risking his life fighting the dark arts and evil and cannot understand why Dumbledore would’ve ever believed this Death Eater adjacent junk. Even worse, Harry’s hurt that one of the very few adults that he admired and was close to had never revealed any of this to him. His very core is shaken that Dumbledore never loved Harry at all, and I think we’ve all felt that pain before. Where is Hagrid when we need him?!
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Were you surprised at the Dumbledore revelations?
Do you think like Hermione that Dumbledore was young and changed, or like Harry that Dumbledore was their age and should’ve known better?
Do you think if Ariana hadn’t died that Dumbledore would’ve joined Grindelwald’s plan?
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