Chapter Thirty-Five: King’s Cross
In chapter thirty-five of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Harry and Dumbledore have their annual Dumbledore explains everything chapter even though Dumbledore is dead. Wait what?!
(Please be advised that this is a reread and I will be discussing book and movie spoilers.)
Harry’s lying naked in some empty room and when he comes to, there’s Dumbledore being like “good job, dutiful sheep boy!” so here it is, our traditional Dumbledore exposition chapter, and while this is glorious writing and all, it’s dull as fuck to read in recap form, so I’ll skip to the relevant part.
See, Harry’s not dead because LV stupidly took some of Harry’s magical blood containing Lily’s charm and therefore, Harry cannot die. In fact, LV only managed to kill his lil’ maimed soul piece, like a dumbass. We get some discussion of wands and wandlore, and then we get to the good stuff like Dumbledore’s shitty childhood as BFF’s to a wizard supremacist.
Dumbledore wins me back with this chapter, I won’t lie. All the times I got mad at him and then he redeemed himself to me as a multi-layered character, a flawed brilliant man who used people as chess pieces a little too often. He’s way more interesting like this, instead of just the wise nodding man with candy.
So he admits he resented his sister, he credits Aberforth as the better brother (#truth) and Albus reveals the most noble thing in his existence in my POV: he turned down repeatedly the post of Minister of Magic because he knew he could not be trusted with power. This is wise and honorable and RIGHT and I applaud Adumbs for knowing this and adhering to it. He also drops one of my favorite quotes of his with this gem:
“It is a curious thing, Harry, but perhaps those who are best suited to power are those who have never sought it. Those who, like you, have leadership thrust upon them, and take up the mantle because they must, and find to their own surprise that they wear it well.”
Dumbledore avoided fighting Grindelwald because of his terrible fear of finding out the truth about who killed Ariana, and Harry doesn’t ask, nor does Dumbledore tell us, if he ever found out who struck the fatal blow.
Harry and Adumbs discuss whether Grindelwald actually had remorse, since he tried to stop LV from getting the elder wand, and I wonder this as well.
Dumbledore admits he purposefully wanted Harry to be tripped up by Hermione’s annoying insistence on not believing him about the Horcruxes, because Dumbledore as usual misjudged how fucking amazing HPotz is, and then he convinced Harry to go back to fight Voldemort and the elder wand. We end our very last Dumbledore-explains- it-all chapter with another bomb ass quote, because if Dumbledore is good for anything, it’s quotable perfection:
“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?”
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Do you find Dumbledore a better character in books 1-4, books 5-7, or books 1-7?
Does Dumbledore turning down the post of Minister of Magic prove that he *can* be trusted with power, or was he right to turn it down?
What is a bigger mistake on Dumbledore’s part: not destroying the elder wand, or keeping information from Harry about the Hallows?
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