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“ | There is a room in the Department of Mysteries that is kept locked at all times. It contains a force that is at once more wonderful and more terrible than death, than human intelligence, than the forces of nature. It is also, perhaps, the most mysterious of the many subjects for study that reside there. It is the power held within that room that you possess in such quantities and which Voldemort has not at all. | „ |
~ Albus Dumbledore, about Harry Potter's true powers that make him different from Lord Voldemort. |
“ | It is important to fight and fight again, and keep fighting, for only then can evil be kept at bay though never quite eradicated. | „ |
~ Albus Dumbledore, about the fight against evil. |
“ | After all, to the well organized mind, death is but the next great adventure. | „ |
~ Dumbledore to Harry Potter about death (Most famous quote). |
“ | It is our choices, Harry, that show who we truly are, far more than our abilities. | „ |
~ Dumbledore to Harry Potter about choices. |
Professor Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore (August 1881 – 30 June 1997) is the main protagonist of the Wizarding World franchise.
In the Harry Potter films, Dumbledore was played by the late Richard Harris in the adaptations of Philosopher's Stone and Chamber of Secrets. After Harris' death, he was played by the late Michael Gambon in the remaining films: Prisoner of Azkaban, Goblet of Fire, Order of the Phoenix, Half-Blood Prince, Deathly Hallows Part 1, and Deathly Hallows Part 2. Gambon also voiced the character in Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery.
He was played by Jude Law in Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald and Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, the prequel series of Harry Potter. Toby Regbo played the character young in Deathly Hallows Part 1 and The Crimes of Grindelwald.
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Overview[]
He was the Transfiguration Professor, and later the Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Professor Dumbledore also served as the Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards (?–1995) and the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot (?–1995; 1996-1997). He was a half-blood wizard, the son of Percival and Kendra Dumbledore, and the elder brother of Aberforth and Ariana. His father died in Azkaban when Dumbledore was young, while his mother and sister were later accidentally killed. During his youth, he and Gellert Grindelwald were searching for the Deathly Hallows (The Elder Wand, The Resurrection Stone and the Cloak of Invisibility) to become "immortal" and invincible. This led to his sister's death when he and Gellert was dueling, and a curse accidentally killed Ariana. His early losses greatly affected him early on, even at his death, but in turn made him a better person.
Albus Dumbledore was considered to be the most powerful wizard of his time and quite possibly the greatest sorcerer of all time and most likely the most powerful magician ever seen in the series. He was most famous for his defeat of Gellert Grindelwald, the discovery of the twelve uses of a dragon's blood, and his work on alchemy with Nicolas Flamel.
It was through Dumbledore that resistance to the rise of Lord Voldemort was formed, as it was, he who founded and led both the first and second Order of the Phoenix. Due to the fact that he had a keen mind and legendary power, Dumbledore became the only wizard Voldemort ever feared. He was the wielder and the master of the Elder Wand from 1945 to 1997 and considered by many as the greatest Headmaster to ever grace Hogwarts. When Harry Potter was born, Dumbledore took a personal interest in him and aided him many times during his years at Hogwarts.
Unfortunately, after coming into possession of one of Voldemort's Horcruxes, the cursed ring of Marvolo Gaunt, he became fatally cursed. As he was about to die, he planned his own death by Severus Snape. He even appeared in Limbo (a plane of existence that exists between the real world and the afterlife) where he told Harry how he masterminded Voldemort's defeat by taking advantage of Voldemort's mistake by taking Harry's blood for his resurrection.
This means that Harry's mother Lily's Sacrificial protection was still intact and that shielded Harry from a direct death and in the process that Harry was willing to sacrifice himself to save everybody, this gave everybody a Sacrificial protection so Voldemort couldn't torture or kill them. Though Dumbledore was no longer alive at the time, it was through Dumbledore's machinations that Voldemort was ultimately defeated, and peace was restored in the Wizarding World. He is the only Headmaster who was laid to rest at Hogwarts. Albus Dumbledore's portrait still remains at Hogwarts.
He was last seen in Limbo by Harry, just after Harry asked him about if what he sees in Limbo is real or if it's just happening inside his head. In response, Dumbledore answers with "Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?" and then vanished into the afterlife.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore was born on August 3, 1881, in the mainly wizarding village of Mould-on-the-Wold in western England, to Percival Dumbledore. The early years of Dumbledore's life were marked by tragedy when his younger sister, Ariana Dumbledore, was attacked by a group of Muggle boys, who saw her performing magic and were frightened by what they saw.
Ariana was left mentally and emotionally scarred by the event and her magical powers were left severely altered and would manifest themselves on rare occasions usually in random or destructive ways. Albus' father, Percival Dumbledore, was heartbroken and set out in search of his own brand of justice. He located the Muggle boys and attacked them, as they had his daughter. For this, Percival was sentenced to Azkaban where he later died, choosing the sentence over explaining why he had attacked the boys as it would have meant Ariana being taken away.
To escape the accusing eyes of the wizarding world, Kendra Dumbledore moved her young family to the village of Godric's Hollow which, like Mould-on-the-Wold, was a mainly wizarding village. Kendra rebuffed all her neighbors, with the eventual exception of Bathilda Bagshot, preferring to be left alone: and Albus learned not to mention his sister or father in public.
Hogwarts years (1892-1899)[]
Dumbledore began attending Hogwarts in the autumn of 1892 and was Sorted into Gryffindor house. Dumbledore's first year was met with much whispering about his father's crime. Many of Albus' fellow students mistakenly believed that, like father like son, Albus too hated Muggles. Some praised his father's actions, hoping to gain his trust, but they would not find favour with the young Dumbledore this way. Though later in his young life, under the influence of his love for Gellert Grindelwald, some anti-Muggle prejudice did develop, but he soon saw the error of his intent.
He befriended a young Elphias Doge on his first day at Hogwarts; Doge was suffering from the aftermath of Dragon Pox at the time (greenish skin and pockmarks), which discouraged most from approaching him. Dumbledore, however, demonstrated his uncommon kindness and willingness to look past the surface and find inner beauty in people. Dumbledore also became very well-connected during his Hogwarts years, making notable friends such as Nicolas Flamel, Bathilda Bagshot, and Griselda Marchbanks, who marked him in his N.E.W.T.s for Charms and Transfiguration and later recalled that he did things with a wand that she had never seen before. He also had several of his papers published during his studies.
During his school years, Dumbledore won the Barnabus Finkley Prize for Exceptional Spellcasting, became the British Youth Representative to the Wizengamot, and received the gold medal for Ground-Breaking Contribution to the International Alchemical Conference in Cairo.
In his third year, Dumbledore presumably took Study of Ancient Runes and at least one other subject, which is known not to be Divination.
During his fourth year, Dumbledore "accidentally" set the bed-curtains in his dormitory on fire (although he admitted that he had never liked them anyway).
Albus was made a prefect during his fifth year and was made Head Boy in his seventh year. He was considered the most brilliant student to have attended the school.
Tragedy and Romance[]
After graduating from Hogwarts in June 1899, Dumbledore planned to take the traditional "Grand Tour" of the world with his friend Doge. However, tragedy ensued on the eve of the departure when Kendra Dumbledore was killed by an outburst of Ariana's uncontrollable magic, leaving Albus the head of his own broken family and now in charge of his younger siblings.
Albus returned to Godric's Hollow full of bitter resentment at his situation, feeling trapped and wasted, although he refused to let Aberforth quit school and insisted he complete his education first before taking care of Ariana. Fortune finally appeared to shine on Dumbledore in the form of Gellert Grindelwald, who was in Godric's Hollow to research the Deathly Hallows. As Grindelwald rivaled Albus in terms of magical brilliance and intellect, as Albus was, although Dumbledore would later note that from their interactions as friends that he had realized that he may have been a "shade more skillful", and openly corresponded with him, they quickly became best friends. Dumbledore even fell in love with the other boy, feelings that were returned, resulting in them becoming lovers.
Blinded by his love for Grindelwald, Dumbledore quickly became fascinated by Grindelwald's ideas of wizarding domination. Although he admitted he had subconscious misgivings towards the darker sides of it and that he had sensed something dangerous in Grindelwald, Albus ignored such feelings and instead saw his lover's plans for the long term benefits it would give, insisting to Grindelwald that their cause must be "For The Greater Good" and that the force they use should only be what's necessary, as he truly believed that though it would certainly be a road full of difficulties and cause a considerable amount of harm, it would be repaired and returned with far more benefits for the wizarding world. His family's dark handlings of Muggles also started to corrupt Albus at long last.
Dumbledore also approved of Grindelwald's desire to find the Deathly Hallows, but for different reasons. Rather than seeking their power, Dumbledore at the time sought them in a misguided attempt to restore his family, seeking the Invisibility Cloak to hide Ariana and the Resurrection Stone to return his parents to live and not only relieve himself of the burdens his family was posing on him but also reunite them all. Despite the differences in reasoning, Dumbledore and Grindelwald had at the time resolved to work side-by-side to fulfill the dream of wizarding supremacy and to ensure there would be no rift or betrayal between them, they made a blood pact to never fight each other.
However, after two months, Albus's brother Aberforth, having been disgusted with Albus for his plans and concerned of the fact that he and Ariana will have to be dragged over, angrily confronted him over his neglect of Ariana over the past few weeks, bluntly telling him he couldn't carry out his plans with Grindelwald, as he would have to take her with him, which brought Albus back to reality despite not wanting to hear the truth of the words his younger brother shouted at him. Grindelwald then used the Cruciatus Curse on him. A violent duel erupted between the three teenage boys. Ariana herself tried to intervene in the fight, but couldn't be due to her erratic abilities, and in the ensuing chaos was hit by a stray curse and died.
No one knew whose curse it was that killed her, but Grindelwald fled immediately, as he already had a bad record back home, leaving the devastated Albus and Aberforth behind. Aberforth resented Albus and they had a strained relationship, with Aberforth punching Albus and breaking his nose at Ariana's funeral. Aberforth never knew of the great guilt and regret Albus would feel for the rest of his life about his part in Ariana's death and thus never forgave Albus until Albus had died and Harry Potter had explained Albus's true purposes, which allowed Aberforth to finally forgive his brother, although since Albus had died, they never got to reconcile.
Path of self-discovery[]
After Grindelwald's flight, with his lover gone, his brother estranged, and his sister dead effectively leaving him alone, Albus changed deeply, regretting how his misguided attempts to repair his broken family instead ended up completely destroying it and realizing the folly of his initial desire for power and glory.
Making the decision to forevermore be a staunch supporter of equality and peace between the muggles and wizard kind, Dumbledore decided to leave Godric's Hollow just as Aberforth eventually did, realizing that Aberforth had the right to resent him and choosing to let his brother have the space he needed. He apparently went on the journey he had intended to take with Doge before he eventually settled for some time in France in order to complete his education on Alchemy under Nicolas Flamel.
It was during this time that Dumbledore accomplished his first world-knowledge contribution feat by discovering the twelve uses of Dragon Blood, beginning his path as a magical scholar. His time with Nicolas Flamel eventually allowed him to become Flamel's equal partner in researching Alchemy, and the two made great contributions to the advancement of the magical science.
Beginning his career in Hogwarts[]
As Albus continued to advance the knowledge of the wizarding world, he eventually caught the attention of his old school and was asked to return to Hogwarts as a teacher, which Albus happily agreed to do. He decided to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts, knowing that he will inevitably have to engage Grindelwald and burdened by the secret knowledge of Grindelwald's imminent rise to power and the guilt of failing to pursue him, seeking to at least prepare the world for Grindelwald's inevitable rebellion. Dumbledore was acknowledged to be the best professor Hogwarts had at this point. He eventually shifted to teaching Transfiguration.
In 1926, Dumbledore became a regular columnist for Transfiguration Today, with the Daily Prophet quoting him as saying he was "enraptured!" to be writing for the magazine.
Dumbledore also served in recruiting students for Hogwarts. Most prominent among the students he recruited was Tom Riddle, who he found in Wool's Orphanage in 1938. Alone of all the professors at Hogwarts, Dumbledore was not charmed by the natural charisma and cunning of Tom Riddle. In their first encounter, Dumbledore became immediately suspicious of his "obvious instincts for cruelty, secrecy and domination" and resolved to keep a close eye on him during his studies at the school. As Dumbledore was not so easily taken in by his charming façade, Riddle came to despise and fear him.
In 1943, several Muggle-born students were mysteriously petrified by a beast rumored to have been released by the Heir of Slytherin from the mythical Chamber of Secrets. Indeed, the final victim of the beast, Myrtle, was actually killed; this act seemed likely to ensure the permanent closure of the school, forcing Riddle to go back to the orphanage. While Dumbledore rightly suspected Riddle was behind the attacks, the aspiring Dark Wizard expertly framed Gryffindor student Rubeus Hagrid as the perpetrator.
Riddle was able to pass off Hagrid's tamed Acromantula, Aragog, as the beast attacking students, resulting in Hagrid's expulsion and ensuring that Hogwarts remained open. Dumbledore was never able to uncover hard evidence implicating Riddle, however, he nonetheless kept a very close watch over Riddle, preventing him from opening the Chamber of Secrets again during his remaining years at Hogwarts. He was also able to convince the headmaster to allow Hagrid to remain at the school as the groundskeeper-in-training.
Fantastic Beasts (Series)[]
Dumbledore appears in the series, portrayed by Jude Law, still teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts, as one of the main protagonists, the series revolving around his contribution in the defeat of Gellert Grindelwald and relationship with the famous magizoologist Newton Scamander.
Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them[]
Although Dumbledore doesn't appear, he is mentioned at one point by Grindelwald disguised as Graves. Interested and vexed to see that his former lover was so fond of the awkward and creature-loving Newt, Grindelwald demanded to know why Albus would be so caring of Newt, but Newt, realizing Graves was Grindelwald, refused to indulge him.
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald[]
Albus returns as a background but very important character in the second installment of the series. He is first seen to approach Newt after he leaves the Ministry of Magic, summoning a hand to approach and teleport Newt to him. There, it's revealed it was Dumbledore who sent Newt to America and that the Thunderbird Frank was found by Newt because Dumbledore informed him, though Newt was still loyal to Dumbledore and refused to reveal his part in it. Regardless, Newt realized Dumbledore's intention was so he could thwart Grindelwald and Dumbledore confirmed it. He then asked Newt to go to Paris and once again confront Grindelwald and save Credence. Although Newt was reluctant, Dumbledore appealed to his former student's morality and wish to do the right thing and succeeded ultimately in making him consider doing so and accepting the address to Nicolas's safe house.
Dumbledore returned to Hogwarts victoriously and continued to teach his students until Torquil Travers, having had enough of Dumbledore's anonymity, demanded he face Grindelwald directly, as Grindelwald had already proven himself to be far too powerful for anyone but him. However, Dumbledore refused still and enraged Travers to where he cuffed him with Admonitors and forbade him from teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts anymore. He then advised Theseus and Leta, telling the former to be reasonable and try to not kill discriminately and the latter to make peace with her guilt.
Now only able to hope that his ex-lover would be defeated without his help, Dumbledore went to the Mirror of Erised, where he saw forlornly as his happiest memory was when he and Grindelwald made their blood pact, clearly lamenting his inability to move on.
At the very end of the movie, where Grindelwald ultimately proved to be too powerful for the heroes to defeat, requiring Leta to sacrifice herself, Newt and the others went to Dumbledore, having finally realized he is truly their only hope against Grindelwald. Hope finally appeared as Newt had stolen the blood pact vial between him and Grindelwald that prevented them from fighting. With the pact finally in his possession, Dumbledore believed it could be destroyed and walked alongside Newt to Hogwarts to discuss what must be done.
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore[]
In the third installment of the series, Dumbledore plays a much more active and open role.
He first goes to a restaurant where he finally reunites with Gellert after all these years. They discuss their past and argue about how they are on opposing sides now. Then he goes to Hog's Head to discuss with Newt and Theseus the next course of action: Dumbledore still cannot destroy the blood pact, meaning he will not be fighting Grindelwald, but he can lead them and give them the strategies they can use against Grindelwald, especially now that Grindelwald can see the future.
With Newt trusting him and Theseus following suit, Albus has them recruit Jacob Kowalski, Eulalie Hicks, Yusuf Kama, and Newt's assistant Bunty for their assigned roles, diversifying them into multiple tasks at once to circumvent Grindelwald's foresight. He gives them special objects designed to be used in their tasks.
After Theseus was captured and Grindelwald was declared innocent, Dumbledore personally goes to Berlin and gives Newt the location of Theseus and Eulalie and Jacob the task to stop Grindelwald from assassinating his competitors for the title of Supreme Mugwump. Meanwhile, Albus finally confronts Aurelius, reveals that he is his nephew, and fights with him to pacify his anger. Quickly proving himself to be more than a match for Credence, using his skill and experience to effectively counter all of Credence's attacks, Dumbledore eventually decisively overpowers him with a powerful wave of energy after taking them to a special dimension.
When his allies return to Hogwarts, Dumbledore has them stay in his brother's inn. He later confronts Aberforth about Credence and reveals to Newt his past. He laments that he could have cured Credence had he figured it out sooner, but Credence is too far gone and is dying and seeing Credence has had a change of heart, crafts a plan to have him save everyone.
The next day, Dumbledore reveals that his army must go to Bhutan in order to stop Grindelwald, as the election will be held there and Grindelwald would have zombified his qilin to cheat. He creates a magical transportation device to take them there and travels first with Jacob.
Eluding Grindelwald's followers by apparating constantly, he praises Jacob for his great ability to love before leaving to meet with his brother. He later is chosen by the Qilin as the next Supreme Mugwump but refuses and it chose Vicencia Santos instead. Defending his nephew from Grindelwald's rage, in process the blood pact has been broken and he immediately attacks Grindelwald, sending them to another dimension to duel safely. Their fight eventually reaches a stalemate as their wands are at each other's face and their hands at each other's heart, with Grindelwald abruptly fleeing afterwards.
Dumbledore last appears when Jacob and Queenie are getting married. He doesn't attend, but he thanks Newt for all he has done for him. As Newt and Tina enter the bakery, Dumbledore leaves alone, knowing his allies have earned their moment of happiness.
Harry Potter Series[]
Dumbledore is effectively the tritagonist of the series, being the main leader of the conflict against Voldemort and Headmaster of Hogwarts.
Appearance[]
Albus Dumbledore was tall and thin, with silver hair and beard (auburn in his youth) so long that they could be tucked into his belt. He had a very long and crooked nose that looked as if it had been broken at least twice. (It is speculated that his brother's punch during their sister's funeral may have played a role in shaping his nose.) He was also said to have long and skillful fingers. His eyes were described to be a brilliant, soul-piercing shade of blue, and usually twinkled with kindness and mischief.
Dumbledore wore half-moon spectacles and a colorful array of robes, ranging from purple to crimson red. He once claimed to have a scar above his left knee in the precise shape of a map of the London Underground, but whether or not he actually did is unknown. His demeanor was often — if not always — serene and ethereal, and he usually spoke in a calm, pleasant voice even when Harry thought that he was actually furious.
During the last year of his life, Dumbledore's right hand was scarred when he donned Marvolo Gaunt's Ring, which was cursed. Had Severus Snape not intervened with a counter-curse, Dumbledore would have died within minutes. Regardless, the curse left his hand blackened and dead-looking, and no amount of healing could repair the appearance. According to Snape, the curse would eventually spread itself from the contained hand, and Dumbledore was doomed to die in no more than one year's time. Whether this means the blackening dead-look appearance would spread throughout the entire body is unknown.
Death, however, served to restore him to full health and strength: his spirit was described as walking sprightly and upright, with hands that were both whole and white and undamaged, and looking exactly how Harry remembered him to be.
Personality[]
As a young man, Dumbledore was always a very kind and empathetic man, befriending even outcasts such as the Dragon Pox suffering Elphias Doge. However, he was actually selfish too due to his massive abilities and was bitter by the fact he had to be dragged down by the responsibility of Dumbledore's Family Head. He also hungered for power, although it is not entirely for selfishness as Dumbledore wanted power to protect the ones he loved from cruelty.
The death of Ariana, however, permanently altered Albus into a highly selfless and benevolent wizard that was loved and admired by all wizards and witches in the side of the light. He lost any desire to gain power and also lost any interest to find romance due to his involvements with Grindelwald.
Dumbledore had absolutely no fear of death as he viewed it as a next great adventure. He was overall almost fearless and completely calm, as he did not fear dueling Voldemort or the dark lord's might and rage. He remained completely composed even though he was internally uneasy of many events that happened throughout Harry Potter's years at Hogwarts. The only thing Dumbledore feared was the fact that he may have killed Ariana, which was the only reason why he took years before deciding to confront and defeat Grindelwald.
His strong will was displayed in this, as he was able to overcome not only his fears, but also strong desires and feelings, such as the fact that he stood up to Grindelwald despite having a crush on him and strongly desiring power and fame that would come with their revolution when he attacked Aberforth. He also could endure and recover from the probing of traumas and severe emotional depression quickly to a better degree than most, as he quickly recovered from being exposed to emotionally torturing visions of Ariana's death.
Dumbledore's kindness and ability to see reason made him able to tolerate rule-breaking students and he was even willing to at times support such acts, evidenced repeatedly with Harry and his friends, who he let off easy and even rewarded for their bravery. He believed in the good of everyone always and was adamant on giving others second chances. He allowed Remus Lupin to be a pupil at his school and later a teacher, despite the fact that Remus was a werewolf. He had a great friendship with Hagrid, despite many not trusting him being half Giant. The greatest example of this is Dumbledore's relationship with Severus Snape, in whom Dumbledore was willing to hold a considerable amount of faith after having shown remorse.
Dumbledore even saw a possibility for good in Voldemort as a child, and was open to giving him a second chance, despite the fact that Voldemort had already revealed himself to be a cruel sociopath even at a young age, though he kept a careful eye on Tom Riddle during his Hogwarts career rather than simply hoping for the best. He also held on to the belief that Grindelwald is capable of feeling remorse despite all Grindelwald had done. Dumbledore's compassion and peace-loving nature was evidenced many times, as he was never known to kill and would always spare his enemies, evidenced when he spared the Death Eaters he captured, Grindelwald upon defeating him, and even Voldemort himself, who Dumbledore had held back enough that even Voldemort could tell that Dumbledore did not want to kill him.
Even more, he is capable of pitying those who had committed crimes and he appeared to have held no grudges or personal animosity towards his enemies even if they had done so much evil and even if they had hurt him personally. His ability to pity others and mercy was shown by the fact that he pitied Voldemort himself as he had never experienced love and by the fact that he chose to leave Lockhart's crimes unexposed to the public upon seeing Lockhart had got what he deserved.
He speaks cordially, kindly, and peacefully even with those who had committed crimes, as evidenced most notably with his interaction with Voldemort, who he treated as a guest when he came to apply as a teacher and later even in their duel Dumbledore displayed no animosity in his tone. Another of a notable example of Dumbledore's ability to converse cordially and peacefully with even those who were disliked by many was shown with his cordial interactions with Gilderoy Lockhart, having apparently bore no animosity for Lockhart personally and even treated him as well as he did with other professors, which is in sharp contrast of how the other teachers treated Lockhart.
His realistic side made him more than willing to go against the authorities, as he started the Order of Phoenix despite Fudge's objection of Voldemort's return as he knew Voldemort had truly returned. He also has no qualms with allowing students who broke the rules to go on unpunished if their reasons are just and would even award them House Points if said rule breaking accident was contributed to others.
More than anything else, Dumbledore was motivated by his belief in the power of the human spirit and he particularly held love at a very high regard, deeming it the most powerful magic of all and inspiring Harry always to use the power of his magic of love and showing some anger and disappointment whenever Harry said that Love is useless against someone as powerful as Voldemort, always insisting that only with Love can Harry defeat Voldemort.
While Dumbledore had proven to be capable of being a machiavellian figure, as he proved he could be stoically pragmatic and was extremely prone to secrecy. He spent a short portion of his youth concocting plans with Gellert Grindelwald for global domination over Muggles, in the process treating his ill sister with neglect and at times, he was too far-sighted, making choices that he believed to be for the benefit of humanity even if it deeply hurt some of the people around him, such as when he placed Harry Potter with the Dursley family despite knowing that they would be unlikely to treat him well, as pointed out by Professor McGonagall, all for the sake of keeping him alive, overall all of Dumbledore's intentions were benevolent and he would try his best to make those who indirectly suffered from his machiavellian acts comfortable and showed sincere remorse and regret for them. He had lost all desire to achieve power, as he had grown wise enough that he was able to realize that those who openly sought power are less worthy than those who did not and only accepted it and the responsibilities that came with it when necessary.
While never openly arrogant, Dumbledore had no use for modesty and openly professed his superior magical abilities compared to others and his self-confidence was shown most prominently when he proclaimed to Harry that he was assured of his ability to win against Grindelwald despite his mastery of the Elder Wand and openly noted that he was confident he could have outmatched Voldemort in battle. Unlike the arrogance of Voldemort, Dumbledore's claims were well-supported.
Dumbledore, while often kind and calm, did have a very serious side of himself and was capable of a terrifying wrath that eclipsed even the wrath of Voldemort and Grindelwald. This was rarely seen but appears to be well known and combined with his exceptional magical abilities, made very few of his allies willing to cross him and almost all of his enemies feared him to the point that even Lord Voldemort and Gellert Grindelwald was known for fearing him despite their own incredible magical power and wrath and status as the most dangerous dark wizards in history. Just a slight exertion of his serious side and anger could intimidate the likes of Harry Potter and even the Ministry of Magic Cornelius Fudge, evidenced when they both were shocked when Dumbledore made it clear quite firmly that Hagrid did not open the Chamber of Secrets despite Dumbledore not openly showing anger.
At the apex of Dumbledore's wrath, which happened very rarely, such as when he apprehended Crouch Jr, who impersonated Moody and almost killed Harry, he was described as with a face that was a classic portrait of cold fury and an aura of power that made him seem as if he was giving off burning heat, being so terrifying that Harry noted he finally understood why Dumbledore was the only wizard to ever strike fear into Voldemort.
Power and Abilities[]
Powers[]
Legendary Wizard/Wizardkind Physiology: Albus Dumbledore was a wizard of extraordinarily formidable magical powers and abilities. Considered to be the most powerful wizard of his time and even perhaps in all of history, Dumbledore's power at its strongest rivaled and defeated that of the Elder Wand wielding Gellert Grindelwald, and even in his older days, despite having grown weaker, Dumbledore's strength remained unmatched and surpassed that of Lord Voldemort. His mastery of the Elder Wand would have allowed him to retain as much of his strength as possible, though he confirmed he had still grown weaker.
- Supreme Magical Mastery: After his first year at Hogwarts, Dumbledore was already known to be exceedingly talented and prodigiously accomplished in the magical arts, and seen by some as nothing less than the most gifted student the school would ever see, winning many awards and prizes that required magical capability beyond his age and having acquired such a high level of knowledge and understanding of magic already that he could contribute to academic journals and even correspond with far older and highly famous experts of magic effectively. As an adult, his mastery and knowledge of magic having reached unparalleled levels, Albus Dumbledore had effectively become the greatest wizard in modern times, some even believing him to be the greatest in all of history. Combined with his passion as a teacher and scholar, Albus successfully perfected many aspects of magic, greatly contributed to the advancement of modern magical knowledge, and became the greatest teacher and later headmaster in Hogwarts history, first effectively teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts and later Transfiguration, having become the Head of the Transfiguration Department, before being entrusted with the responsibilities of Headmaster of the highly prestigious wizarding school and proving to be easily capable of managing both the protection and curiculum of his school to utmost perfection. His already believed meteoric rise to power was such at this point that Tom Riddle questioned why Dumbledore had become the Minister for Magic and admitted Dumbledore was a worthy choice to the position. During Gellert Grindelwald's rise to power, despite the immensity of the Elder Wand enhanced Dark Wizard's stupendous magical mastery and powers being terrifyingly evident, the whole wizarding world still held Dumbledore's own abilities at such a high regard that they deemed him to be the only one who could defeat Grindelwald alone while even squads of seasoned wizards and witches had proven to be easily defeated and slayed by the arguably most powerful Dark Wizard of all time and even Torquil Travers, who disliked Dumbledore, begrudgingly admitted that Dumbledore was the only wizard at the time who was Grindelwald's equal. Even with the Blood Pact preventing them from fighting each other, Grindelwald still acknowledged the immensity of Albus's extraordinary magical capabilities enough that he admitted Dumbledore had the magical strength and ability to be the greatest threat in his revolution without directly going up against him as all of his followers were no match for Dumbledore and he could still easily thwart Grindelwald's acts of power if he wanted to, and unable to attack Dumbledore directly himself, believed that only the extremely powerful Obscurial Aurelius Dumbledore would be capable of killing Dumbledore apart from himself, which was proven false when Albus casually dispatched his nephew. In the end, upon somehow abolishing the blood pact, it was Dumbledore's participation that ultimately ended the Global Wizarding War when Dumbledore engaged Grindelwald and ultimately, even if not without extreme effort in his own part, prevailed despite Grindelwald's mastery of the Elder Wand, with their legendary duel being such an amazing display of tremendous magical power and skill that it remains unmatched to this day according to the eyewitnesses as the greatest wizarding battle ever, with Albus admitting that while he was as powerful as Grindelwald with the Elder Wand, he had ultimately been a "shade more skillful" than Grindelwald. Even at his older days, where on his own admission, his capabilities had reduced and even his mastery of the Elder Wand not bringing him back to his full power, Dumbledore was still such a tremendously powerful and accomplished wizard that even the incredibly powerful Lord Voldemort himself feared him, with the former being the only wizard that Voldemort truly feared. During their duel, Albus proved to be decisively superior, capable of maintaining the upper hand with surprisingly lesser effort, easily deflecting Voldemort's magical assaults while repeatedly nearly overwhelming Voldemort's defenses, even quickly besting and forcing him to retreat. Dumbledore even noted that he had considered personally killing Voldemort for Harry, showing he was assured he could defeat the so-called most powerful dark wizard of all time, under only Gellert himself, in terms of magical power and skill. He has also been shown to exceed Voldemort's magical knowledge, despite having admitted that Voldemort knew more about magic than perhaps any other wizard alive and that he was not fully sure that his most potent protective spells could keep Voldemort at bay forever: Dumbledore proved to be one of the only two wizards, the other being Alastor Moody, who could cast protective spells of such strength as to keep Voldemort at bay single-handedly, a feat that not even the combined magical abilities of all the Professors of Hogwarts without Severus Snape's help, were able to achieve, notably having achieved this twice, as he not only effectively prevented Hogwarts from being breached by the Dark Lord for all the time in his reign of terror, with Voldemort never even attempting to try to come close to the school out of fear of Dumbledore and acknowledgment of his superiority and impenetrable defenses, but also ensured Voldemort would never be capable of touching Harry in the home of the Dursleys, making use of the ancient magical applications of true love that no one, even Voldemort, knew of. He also easily overcame Voldemort's protections and was even able to detect and determine the nature of the defensive measures with which Lord Voldemort safeguarded his locket Horcrux in The Cave by "simply touching and looking", a very rare ability.
- Occlumency and Legilimency: Dumbledore was also impeccably experienced and accomplished in both Occlumency and Legilimency. With his experience in using Legilimency and talent and skill being great enough to read others mind without needing to use his wand or speak the incantation, many people, particularly Harry Potter, often noted that Dumbledore sometimes seemed to see right into their mind and correctly decipher what they were thinking. Hence, Dumbledore could easily sense when someone was lying. His skills in Legilimency was great enough that he was able to coax out from others the true version of their memories even if they had been powerfully modified, something which he said needed a "great deal of skilled Legilimency" to accomplish, doing so to Gaunt and Hokey to get their true memories despite Voldemort using powerful magic to modify them, although he did admit that he was not able to do so without difficulty. Dumbledore's skill in Occlumency was so great that he was one of the few (together with Gellert Grindelwald and Severus Snape) who was skilled enough in the art to conceal thoughts from Voldemort himself, who was one of the most accomplished Legilimens of all time. He was also a skilled instructor in those magical arts, as he had trained the natural Legilimens Jacob and noted he was confident he could train Harry into becoming skilled enough in Occlumency to resist Voldemort.
- Wandless and non-verbal magic: Albus was highly proficient at both non-verbal and Wandless magic, both of which were highly advanced and difficult to perform. Fully capable of performing both simultaneously, Dumbledore put out and ignited candles, dimmed light and fire, sent Harry flying, summoned the names of the Champions from the Goblet of Fire, kept the blood pact vial levitated while having his hand removed of Admonitors, burned Riddle's wardrobe without even looking while not burning anything, overpowered Credence's Obscurus, activated a Portkey, and even overcome Voldemort's defenses in the cave with ease with wandless magic. He could effortlessly conjure hundreds of beds nonverbally.
- Charms: Albus was known to be extremely accomplished in Charms, even while still young, as he published good papers in the scholarly journal Challenges in Charming while still young and his N.E.W.T examiners Professor Marchbanks was so impressed by his display during his Charms N.E.W.T Exam that he said that Dumbledore "did things with a wand that [he] had never seen before.", as well as also having earned the Barnabus Finkley Prize for Exceptional Spell-Casting while still young and could already cast such as strong Disillusionment Charm as to effectively render himself invisible without needing an Invisibility Cloak, which was a tremendous feat. As an adult, Dumbledore's mastery of Charms was sufficient to earn him the illustrious title of Grand Sorcerer. He was easily the most powerful master of charms, surpassing even Filius Flitwick, having mastered basic to intermediate charms to where he can perform them flawlessly nonverbally and wandlessly with ease and at short notice. His proficiency in the incredibly complex Patronus Charm was so advanced that he was among the very few who could decide whether to conjure a corporeal or an incorporeal Patronus, with his corporeal Patronus taking the form of a Phoenix and indeed being so accomplished as to repel all of the Dementors that Fudge had placed in Hogwarts without it even being a corporeal one and he was even able to devise new uses for this charm, allowing it to be used as a form of communication (with the caster speaking with their own voice through the Patronus). Dumbledore was also capable of effectively performing the extremely complex Fidelius Charm, acting as the Secret Keeper to both the place where James and Lily Potter kept their infant son in and also 12 Grimmauld Place after it was made the Headquarters of the Order of Phoenix. He was even capable of performing the extremely powerful and ancient bond of blood charm to further ensure Harry's protection from Voldemort for 17 years while he lived with his aunt, Petunia Dursley. He could easily perform the Portus Charm successfully to create Portkeys, using it to turn a black kettle in his office to a Portkey that sent Harry and the Weasley children to Grimmauld Place and later the head of the golden wizard statue into a Portkey that took Harry back to Hogwarts, as well as also perform the Amplifying Charm powerfully, enough so to raise his voice above the combined sounds of many students. Dumbledore also activated a Portkey just by placing his hand on it. Even without the Deluminator, Dumbledore could easily put out light sources with an unknown charm, which he could do twice while in his office and also while announcing the Triwizard Champions with a mere gesture, and seemed to have been the one who enchanted the device with such ability. He also was responsible for the additional charm cast on the Deluminator that allowed it to guide Ron back to Harry and Hermione after he left. He could cast a variety of powerful and unique enchantments, shown when he enchanted the Mirror of Erised to only give the Philosopher's Stone to a person who wished to find it but not to use it, which held firm even against Quirell when he had both the knowledge of Voldemort and his own experience, which had allowed him to easily bypass the other enchantments put in place to protect the artifact, manifested a hand to Newt's location capable of taking Newt to Dumbledore's location and conjured a thick mist capable of hiding him and Newt from magical detection in order to prevent the Ministry from locating them. Dumbledore's mastery and knowledge of all forms of defensive charms was unparalleled, as while he was Headmaster of Hogwarts, Dumbledore was in charge of controlling the protective measures of the castle and the standard of his magic was so strong that not even Voldemort could breach them, with Hogwarts thus being considered the safest it had ever been with Dumbledore in charge. He could easily lift and recast them, evidenced when he temporarily lifted the Anti-Apparition Charm to allow the students to learn how to Apparate. He was also capable of locking doors to prevent them from being opened by seemingly any means apart from Dumbledore himself undoing the enchantment, as he did to further made it look like Harry and Hermione had not done anything to help Sirius escape and Hermione feared the idea of Dumbledore locking the doors of the Hospital Wing before they could get there after succeeding, with Snape and Fudge only able to access the door, despite Snape's rage and Fudge's exasperation, when Dumbledore calmly let them in, and later enchanting the entrance door to Hogwarts to be impenetrable to the Unlocking Charm and making the walls reject any attempt of anyone to climb up. He also was able to cast a powerful Age Line around the Goblet of Fire to ensure no one under the age of 17 could cross, with it being such a flawless enchantment that in addition to being humorously enchanted to both repel Ageing Potions and cause those who had used them to cross the line to grow beards, McGonagall adamantly defended that the Age Line Dumbledore had put had no flaws in it when the under-aged Harry Potter became Hogwarts's second champion, with Barty Crouch Jr., while disguised as Moody, therefore being forced to risk exposure by putting Harry's name into the Goblet of Fire personally. He also understood the nature of the Goblet of Fire perfectly, acknowledging that there was no way for them to prevent Harry from competing after he had been chosen, and was able to easily unlock the chest containing the magical object by tapping it three times. Even while not yet Headmaster, Dumbledore was still apparently in charge of the school's protective spells, which proved sufficient to keep out Gellert Grindelwald, and could undo the protection around the school multiple times at whim - allowing Torquil Travers and Theseus Scamander to arrive to question him, allowing Newton Scamander, Tina Goldstein, and their allies to arrive for advice after Grindelwald's Paris rally, and years later allowing Harry Potter to breach the perimeter on a broomstick. Indeed, Dumbledore was even able to make the usually Unplottable Hogwarts Castle temporarily Plottable, so as to allow the No-Maj Jacob Kowalski to join Newt in visiting the castle for advice. Dumbledore in his prime displayed immense prowess and strength with the Shield Charm, capable of effortlessly deflecting attacks from Credence Barebone's Obscurus, which shattered Newt's spell with ease. In the film, Dumbledore single-handedly repaired the large torn house Slughorn was in swiftly, although in the book he instead had help from Slughorn to do so. In the film adaptation, Dumbledore could use the Partis Temporus Charm to part the firestorm he created to fend off the Inferi, allowing him and Harry to reach their boat safely. Dumbledore often extracted his memories and put them inside his Pensive and was able to project the image of his memory regarding the Prophecy of the Chosen One from it for Harry to see. In order to entrance the sharp Mrs. Cole, Dumbledore non-verbally cast the very complex Confundus Charm with ease to successfully confound her into believing the blank paper was sufficient to allow a talk between them, a noteworthy feat as even the very skilled and powerful Severus Snape had trouble using the advanced charm. He also was capable of inserting the Resurrection Stone into the Snitch he gave Harry and enchanting it to only reveal itself when Harry was about to make the ultimate sacrifice, preventing any attempt from Harry to open it. His mastery of the Human-presence-revealing Spell was very potent, having been the only wizard seen thus far capable of penetrating the powerful magic of the Cloak of Invisibility, henceforth successfully sensing the presence of Harry Potter and Ron Weasley while they had the Cloak on. He was proficient enough in the Slowing Charm to perform it quickly and without his wand to slow down Harry Potter's swift descent after he was knocked off his broom by the Dementors effectively enough to make him land without any injuries, not even breaking his glass, which Harry's friends commented on, and was able to levitate and carry the stretcher holding Harry's unconscious body all the way back to school without strain for further treatment from Madam Pomfrey. He also effortlessly summoned the names of the Champions of the Triwizard Tournament with a simple gesture, showing he could easily cast simple charms without needing his wand but preferred to do so with it. This was also shown years before, where Dumbledore levitated the vial containing the blood pact between him and Gellert without even needing to gesture, simply through sheer will. In addition, Dumbledore swiftly summoned the sofa in the house of the Dursleys in order to force them to sit on it, enchanted the glasses he filled with Rosmerta's mead to stay suspended in mid-air and repeatedly knock over the Dursleys, and transported the belongings of Harry Potter to the Burrow with ease. In the film, Dumbledore unleashed such a powerful Disarming Charm to blast down the door to Crouch's office while he was disguised as Moody and send the fake Moody flying a considerable distance away, the impact of him hitting the nearby chair being enough to make the chair stumble backwards and stun him long enough for Dumbledore to breach the distance between them. He simultaneously disarmed and grounded Severus Snape when meeting with him with a single Disarming Charm. He was also able to cast an unknown charm that effortlessly pulled back a fleeing Death Eater during the Battle of the Department of Mysteries. While dueling Grindelwald, Dumbledore fired such a powerful beam of red energy that Grindelwald struggled to push it and later came close to overcoming his own spell with the same spell. Dumbledore could cast a seemingly modified version of the Silencing Charm that instead of silencing a target, made the surrounding environment's natural events happen without causing any sound and seemingly rendered any sound coming from the area unable to be heard by all but the ones standing in said place, as he did to ensure he and Severus Snape were not disturbed when they conversed about Snape relying the Prophecy to Voldemort. In addition to making normal use of the Wand-Lighting Charm for light in the dark areas of the Horcrux Cave and Forbidden Forest, Dumbledore was also able to throw the light created by the charm at the centre of the ocean to light the whole cave up. Dumbledore was also very accomplished with the Piertotum Locomotor Charm, as he was able to do so seamlessly and in an instant with ease to animate and manipulate the statues of the Fountain of Magical Brehtren during his duel with Voldemort. Dumbledore was also able to skillfully perform the Reviving Spell, as he instantly un-stunned Viktor Krum after Barty Crouch Jr knocked him out and even managed to partially revive the latter from an extremely powerful Stunning Spell he had unleashed while taking care to not revive him enough to allow Crouch any chance to resist. He warmed up Harry and dried his clothes upon noticing the latter was shivering with a single spell. When playing the Hoggy Warty Hogwarts song, Dumbledore was capable of simultaneously making the entire school rumble.
- Spell and Magical Device Creation: Dumbledore was also capable of creating his own spells and magical devices as well as modifying already existing spells and devices, an ability that he was famous for. He invented the Deluminator, which was considered unique due to being able to suck out the light from light sources and return them. He also tinkered with it to provide it the ability to tell Ronald Weasley where Harry and Hermione were and allow him to apparate their location. He also was able to invent a method of communication with the Patronus Charm.
- Elemental Magic: Dumbledore was extremely capable in using magic to manipulate the elements, especially fire, water and wind, although he seemed to prefer the former, for both combative and supplementary purposes, as it seems that when straying away from more conventional combative spellwork, Dumbledore would skillfully use the power of the elements to attack his adversary. In order to converse secretly with Newt Scamander, Dumbledore combined both water and wind to form a thick mist and easily dispersed it after he had finished. He displayed particularly incredible skill in controlling fire, as shown when he easily set ablaze Riddle's wardrobe without actually burning anything in order to display his wizarding powers to him and was able to generate a ring of fire to hold off a throng of Inferi in the Horcrux Cave, which was potent enough to remain unquenchable by the vast ocean that surrounded them. In the film, he displayed the power to launch fireballs into the water to free Harry from the Inferi holding him. At one point, he generated wind to extinguish a candle and easily lit it up again with a mere gesture. He was also capable of conjuring the everlasting Gubraithian Fire, an incredibly advanced piece of magic that extreme few could accomplish, greatly impressing Hermione Granger. In his duel against Voldemort, he used a fiery rope that managed to overshadow the silver shield Voldemort had conjured, forcing him to transfigure it in order to repel the attack, and easily manipulated the considerable amount of water contained inside the Fountain of Magical Brethren to rise up and cover Voldemort "like a cocoon of molten glass", leaving Voldemort unable to do anything but disparate and in the film, only breaking out when Dumbledore briefly lost concentration. In the film, Dumbledore was able to non-verbally and wandlessly dissipate the huge Basilisk-shaped Fiendfyre construct send at him by Voldemort, and then gather up the flames and blast them at Voldemort in the form of a gigantic wave of fire.
- Magical multilingualism: Dumbledore had an uncanny expertise in mastering many foreign magical languages, as not only could he speak Mermish and Gobbledegook, but he was even among the very few able to recognize and understand Parseltongue, the language of snakes, as while he and Harry were inside Bob Ogden's stored memory, he instantly recognized that Marvolo was speaking Parseltongue whereas Harry didn't even realize until Dumbledore pointed it out; he was able to quote verbatim a Parseltongue phrase uttered by Morfin Gaunt in a later stored memory, implying at least a level of ability to speak it.
- Potion brewing: Dumbledore was also considerably knowledgeable and accomplished in Potions, even while still young, as while still a student, he published good papers in The Practical Potioneer, an academic journal regarding Potions, according to Elphias Doge. He showed thorough knowledge and understanding of the properties of Love Potion, as he understood that Love Potion merely brought upon the sensation of obsessive love rather than true love, and also the Mandrake Restorative Draught's potent healing properties, which allowed him to have Sprout and Snape begin producing it as the only way to reverse the Petrification caused by the Basilisk inside the Chamber of Secrets. He instantly recognized the drink inside Moody's hipflask that Crouch used to drink unsuspected as the Polyjuice Potion and knew about Veritaserum's inability to overcome the defenses of expert Occlumens, thus first stunning Barty Crouch Jr before having him exposed to the Truth Potion in order to ensure he could not resist it, with Dumbledore notably requesting the strongest batch of Veritaserum in order to further maximize Crouch's inability to overcome it. He also was able to easily recognize the Ageing Potion as being the primary method under-aged students would use to submit their names to the Goblet of Fire by physically ageing themselves to overcome his Age Line and therefore seamlessly created counters to it to seemingly increase the potion's effects to the point of ageing youngsters enough to make their hair white and give them magnificent beards. In addition, it was quite likely that Dumbledore was the one who instructed Minerva McGonagall on how to brew the complex Animagus potion that was needed to become an Animagi and may have even been the one who brewed it for her. Dumbledore expressed confidence that he could brew a Veritaserum strong enough to overcome Horace's Occlumency had it not been for his ability to brew an antidote. He also quickly measured the quality of the Wit-Sharpening Potion Merula presented before him and Snape as being the best one he had ever seen and should Jacob's sibling disguise himself as Potion Master Snape to expose Merula's lies as it was actually Penny Haywood who made the potion, Dumbledore would calmly level with them regarding the Potions curriculum and could detect that by the time they had exposed Merula's lies, the Potion had begun to wear off and thus allow them to leave before they could be caught for it.
- Master Alchemist: Apparently having always been highly gifted in the ancient magical science art of Alchemy since his youth, as a student, Dumbledore was already capable enough to earn the interest of Nicolas Flamel, who was considered to be the greatest Alchemist in history and having also won the Gold Medal for Ground-Breaking Contribution to the International Alchemical Conference during his participation of the event in Cairo. By the time he was an adult, Alchemy was one of Dumbledore's most famous areas of expertise and he contributed considerably to the advancement of the subject alongside his old friend Flamel.
- Defense Against the Dark Arts: With the subject apparently being his most prominent expertise out of his many magical abilities, Albus Dumbledore held the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for more than 20 years and excelled to the point of being deemed the best teacher in the whole school during his time teaching the subject, most likely being the greatest professor of the subject Hogwarts would ever see, showcasing his unparalleled expertise in fending off Dark Forces in all of their iterations, be it malicious spellwork or dangerous creatures, up until Torquil Travers banned Dumbledore from teaching the subject. This was shown by how Leta, Theseus and Newt, who were both among Dumbledore's best students, proved themselves to be highly skillful in the field to the point that they proved capable of holding against the tremendous dark spells cast by Grindelwald. Hence, when Harry Potter, himself a very gifted individual in the subject, was invited to personal lessons with Dumbledore, his friends Ron and Hermione Granger fully believed that Dumbledore would be capable of molding Harry into being skillful enough to slay Lord Voldemort and fulfill the Chosen One Prophecy. Indeed, this appears to have been Dumbledore's most prominent area of expertise. The full extent of Dumbledore's abilities in this field were perhaps best shown during the uprisings of Gellert Grindelwald and Lord Voldemort, who were both regarded at the time of their respective rebellions as the most dangerous Dark Wizard of all time, during which not only did popular opinion quickly grow during both conflicts that Albus Dumbledore would be the only one with the level of mastery in fighting the Dark Arts needed to put an end to their respective and seemingly unstoppable rises to power, but those who opposed said dangerous criminals were often quick to rally at his side. Moreover, both aforementioned Dark Wizards themselves most notably feared Dumbledore, and Voldemort especially was usually unwilling to challenge him directly, while Grindelwald recognized Dumbledore as being the greatest threat to the For the Greater Good revolution and noted none of his dark magic practitioner followers posed any challenge to Dumbledore and he could still intervene in his dark-magic revolving escapades even though at the time he could not yet move against Grindelwald. Dumbledore's exceptional abilities in this field were very prominently shown in his combative spell work, where Dumbledore lived up to the thoughts of the public that he would be the only one capable of stopping the two great Dark Wizards, when he managed to overpower them both - defeating Grindelwald in a duel so legendary as to be considered unmatched by all other historical duels despite Grindelwald's mastery of the Elder Wand enhancing his already tremendous dark magic even further and bringing him to the authorities of the Wizarding World and later quickly forcing Voldemort to flee during their only know duel during the Battle of the Department of Mysteries in 1995. Dumbledore's mere presence was also more than enough to strike such fear into the Death Eaters, that they immediately tried escaping from him, only to be subdued within moments by Dumbledore, which intimidated even Bellatrix Lestrange, the most powerful of the Death Eaters, into fleeing. In addition, Dumbledore could cast Stunning Spells strong enough to not only instantly knock out targets, leaving them heavily stunned, and exert great physical force easily above regular stunners but also leave them considerably weakened even after being magically resuscitated, as shown by how he not only blasted down the door to the DADA Professor's office but he also immediately knocked out and launched Crouch away from Harry, stunning him to the point that he remained unconscious even as he was physically kicked and reverting back to his true form and leaving him groggy and mentally weakened enough after Dumbledore magically woke him to be affected by Veritaserum despite his superb Occlumency having previously repelled Dumbledore's Legilimency. During his duel with Voldemort, Dumbledore cast an unknown spell that Harry described as having made his hair stand on end that Voldemort had to deflect by manifesting a silver shield, which while not damaging the shield, still caused a deep gong-like sound. His knowledge and ability on the subject of protective enchantments was such, that during his time as Headmaster of Hogwarts, he was personally responsible for upholding the magical protections around the school, and many felt that there were no safer place in the world than Hogwarts, which was even said to be more secure than Gringotts Wizarding Bank, as the castle's defenses were of a standard the likes of which, most likely, no other previous Headmaster had achieved. Indeed, Dumbledore's defensive spell work was so powerful and sophisticated, that not even Voldemort himself could find a way through them. A remarkable feat, as Voldemort was able to overcome the defenses of Hogwarts when they were conjured up by the combined skills of all the other professors, apart from Severus Snape. In addition, Dumbledore was apparently the primary leader of the teacher's efforts in containing the damage unleashed by the opening of the Cursed Vaults when it was opened in the first place and did so until Jacob had closed the Vault to seal the curses, as McGonagall stated Dumbledore could have aided the Cursed Ice frozen Ben Cooper after it proved impervious to the methods previously used to undo the damage. When dueling Voldemort, Dumbledore countered Voldemort's green jet of energy with a red jet of energy and was capable of slowly overpowering him and created an exceedingly powerful torrent of bluish white light able to hold against the tremendous dark spell fired by Voldemort, ultimately succeeding in leaving him and Harry unharmed. Dumbledore was also exceptionally knowledgeable and skillful in fending off Dark creatures, as shown by him successfully mentoring Newt Scamander and Leta Lestrange on how to overcome a Boggart despite their unique fears, and later by his ability to produce an extremely powerful Patronus Charm capable of single-handedly chasing away all of the Dementors that Cornelius Fudge had ordered stationed around Hogwarts without it even being a corporeal one. Dumbledore also was highly familiar with the concept of Inferi and how to defend against them using fire and in addition to thoroughly explaining to Harry Potter how they were created by Voldemort, he was able to swiftly force off the large army of Inferi in the Horcrux Cave with a single Firestorm. Dumbledore was also aware that an Obscurus can be potentially healed by replacing the feelings that made that person an Obscurial with a sense of love and belonging, hence he gave such advice to Newt Scamander concerning Credence. Dumbledore's knowledge and ability to counter the after-effects of various spells of dark origin was exceptional, as he was quick to recognize the attack of Mrs Norris as a case of petrification rather than murder after a quick examination of the cat, and knew the only way to undo the attack were to use a Mandrake Restorative Draught after trying to undo it with a spell that should have normally reversed petrification, as well as quickly identified the real Moody was under the Imperius Curse and lifted it from him after discovering Crouch had been disguising himself as the seasoned Auror. He also knew that the Killing Curse cannot kill those covered by objects nor truly destroy a Phoenix, henceforth using the Fountain of Magical Brethren's statues and Fawkes to effectively neutralize Voldemort's Killing Curses. He was also capable of identifying the exceptionally powerful curse on Marvolo Gaunt's ring quickly enough that he was able to suppress its effects long enough to return from the village of Little Hangleton in Yorkshire to Hogwarts, in spite of his injuries for further treatment from Severus Snape, with him having previously managed to easily bypass the many powerful dark defenses set up by Voldemort around the Gaunt Cottage without being harmed and doing the same to all but the enchantment on the Potion of Despair when he invaded the Cave. Uniquely, Dumbledore was even capable of ripping out the piece of Voldemort's soul from the ring in order to destroy it without destroying the Resurrection Stone. His understanding of human nature also allowed him to understand and effectively take advantage of the functions of ancient magic that wards from any treat that few witches and wizards even knew about: taking advantage of the magical protection that lingered over Harry due to his mother's sacrifice, Dumbledore was even able to effectively ensure that for the next sixteen years he would be safe from both Voldemort and his followers as long as he lived where a blood relative of his mother resided, highlighting his knowledge and proficiency in the subject. Overall, having proven himself to be the only one capable of defeating the possibly most powerful dark wizards ever, who even seasoned dark wizard handlers proved to be no match for, Dumbledore's abilities and knowledge in defending from the Dark Arts quite possibly marks him as the most masterful practitioner of the subject in the history of the Wizarding World.
- Transfiguration: Albus was known to be exceptionally knowledgeable, talented and accomplished in transfiguration, achieving among the most impressive feats of Transfiguration in the series and superior to even Minerva McGonagall. Even before his graduation, his knowledge and ability on the subject was such that he was submitted extremely high-quality papers on some fields of Transfiguration, including Trans-Species Transformation to the journal Transfiguration Today, that impressed Bathilda Bagshot enough to contact him. As an adult, Transfiguration had became one of Dumbledore's most prominent areas of expertise, as ever since he was banned from teaching Defense Against The Dark Arts by Torquil Travers, Dumbledore chose Transfiguration as his next subject to teach and did so magnificently enough to quickly be promoted to the Head of Transfiguration department of the school, holding the position up for many years to come until his ascending to the position of Headmaster of the School. He was seemingly deemed the greatest teacher of the field in Hogwarts's history, as Harry Potter stated Dumbledore had been the best while only aware of Dumbledore's career as Professor of Transfiguration, and having also trained the especially talented Minerva McGonagall into becoming an excellent master of the field and his successor later on. In addition, Dumbledore had been a famously regular and successful columnist to the Transfiguration Today to the point his contribution was deemed good enough to be published among the news of Daily Prophet. He was quite knowledgeable in the field of Animagus Transformation, having successfully guided Minerva McGonagall into becoming one at the age of seventeen, despite the notorious difficulty and known dangers of that ability. Dumbledore was particularly proficient in Conjuration and also accomplished in Vanishment, as he could effortlessly and non-verbally conjure a stretcher to transport the unconscious Harry, hundreds of squishy purple bags to accommodate the Gryffindor students in the Great Hall when Sirius Black broke into the Castle, two armchairs for Mrs Figg and himself to sit on during Harry's disciplinary hearing, at one instance quickly vanishing the container of the Goblet of Fire, a tea tray when the trio came to visit Hagrid, several glasses and a bottle containing Rosmerta's mead, which he later on easily vanished, and a goblet to drink the Emerald Potion. His mastery of Transfiguration allowed him to make very good use of it in combat, as shown when he engaged Voldemort, where Dumbledore seamlessly cast the Piertotum Locomotor spell to animate the statues of the Fountain of Magical Brehtren to subdue Belatrix, protect Harry and repel Voldemort's curses and conjured a large rope of fire that Voldemort had to transfigure into a snake to repel the attack, which Dumbledore easily vanished their duel. In the film, Dumbledore was able to immediately transfigure all the glass shards sent at him by Voldemort into sand with a single shielding spell. He also effortlessly transformed the banners of the Great Hall from representing Slytherin to Gryffindor.
- Dark Arts: While not an open practitioner of the Dark Arts and in fact, rarely performing dark spells, Cuthbert Binns said that Dumbledore was still fully capable of utilizing the Dark Arts. As he was considered to be equally brilliant to and later proved to be superior to Grindelwald, it is reasonable to say that had Dumbledore chosen the path of a dark wizard, he would have become the most powerful dark wizard in history, with abilities and knowledge from apparently and certainly would have been centuries of research that may surpass even Voldemort. Even while limited by his benevolence, Dumbledore has displayed sufficient proficiency to be capable of easily casting offensive hexes, jinxes and curses of immense destructive power, as seen when he swiftly incapacitated Fudge, Umbridge, Dawlish, and Kingsley with a powerful hex that emitted a streak of silver light and was described as having the force of a gunshot and caused the floor to tremble when they tried to arrest him and later when he dueled Voldemort in the Atrium of the Ministry of Magic, Dumbledore cast an extremely powerful forceful curse that possessed so much force that even though Harry was protected by the headless golden wizard statue, he still felt his hair stand on end when the curse passed and was potent enough that even Voldemort was unable to deflect it without conjuring a silver magical shield to block it. He was also capable of casting the Anti-Disapparition Jinx, which he used to prevent the Death Eaters from escaping after he captured them. McGonagall even said that Dumbledore could easily be capable of wielding the same level of Dark Powers wielded by Voldemort and he simply chose not to. His overall extensive knowledge of the Dark Arts was also considerable, as he even fully understood the scarcely known and extremely advanced piece of old magic used to create Horcruxes. All his theoretical and practical know-how in regard to the Dark Arts also augmented his skill in fending it off.
- Healing magic: Dumbledore was very proficient and knowledgeable in healing magic as he managed to control the curse from Marvolo Gaunt's ring, which was cast by Voldemort and had immense power, for a while before receiving further treatment from Severus Snape and easily healed his wound by just silently pressing the tip of his wand on it after using his blood to open the passageway when searching for Salazar Slytherin's Locket.
- Apparition: Dumbledore was highly adept in apparition, as he is able to apparate silently, which only a master of Apparition could do. He could transport himself from one place to another with pinpoint precision, even when locked in combat, as he effortlessly apparated away from some of Voldemort's spells during their duel before counter-attacking. Even in a weakened state due to having been cursed by the Horcrux Ring and having to concentrate to suppress it, Dumbledore still was capable of safely entering Hogwarts to be treated by Snape without suffering further injuries.
- Light Smoke Apparition: In film adaptations, Harry displayed a variant of apparition which, instead of teleporting from one place to another, transmogrify himself into a jet of smoke of light as opposed of Voldemort and Death Eaters' jet smoke of darkness.
- Flying: Dumbledore was a highly skillful flyer, as despite being considerably weakened from having drunk the Emerald Potion aka. Drink of Despair, he was shown to be perfectly capable of flying from Hogsmeade to the Hogwarts Astronomy Tower without having any problem maneuvering the broom around while flying at full speed and was even able to accurately hit Hogwarts with a spell while remaining on his broom to undo the protections around the Castle, with even the notoriously adept flyer Harry Potter having trouble keeping up and being outpaced by Dumbledore and openly expressing amazement at the speed with which Dumbledore flew to Hogwarts for how much he was weakened.
- Love Empowerment: Dumbledore was exceptionally learned and knowledgeable in the nature of love along with the magic associated with it, and showed a remarkably powerful capability to feel true love. This was shown as he was able to understand the true magical power behind a loving sacrifice, telling Harry about the magical protection he had inherited when his mother sacrificed herself to protect him from Voldemort, and was also able to inform Harry that his own ability to love allowed him to close the connection between him and Voldemort and repel Voldemort's attempted possession of Harry by focusing on grief when he was unable to perform Occlumency. In addition of guiding Harry in learning how to bolster his magic with his sheer ability to love so as to match Voldemort's "vein of instability and violence", he was also able to distinguish between pure, unconditional love which most people felt for each other, and the obsession which was caused by Love Potions. While Dumbledore became "quite asexual" in his older years, after the disaster following his romantic interest in teenage friend Gellert Grindelwald, he evidently cared greatly about his family, close friends, students, allies and the wizarding community. His ability to love gave him the strength to overcome his selfishness and obsession for power, and stand up to Grindelwald in order to protect his brother Aberforth when Grindelwald attacked him. His ability to love also allowed him to eventually overcome his fear of learning who really killed Ariana and duel Grindelwald again at the heights of his power and defeat him when he was threatening to take over both wizarding and Muggle worlds, and become a better person by protecting many people he cared about, especially when Voldemort rose to power. His ability to love also made him concerned about Harry Potter's safety, to the point that he kept the Prophecy a secret from him earlier on, and distanced himself from Harry during his fifth year, hoping it would reduce the connection between Harry and Voldemort, along with protecting him several times.
- Indomitable Willpower: Dumbledore's willpower was tremendously strong, at least on par with, if not, slightly superior to Harry Potter, so much so that his willpower allowed him to overcome strong personal feelings and desires when properly motivated, as evidenced by the fact that he was able to force himself to stand up to Grindelwald when he threatened Aberfoth despite his crush for Grindelwald and selfish desires. His willpower was strong enough that he eventually managed to make the decision to duel Grindelwald again at the height of his power despite his fear of knowing that he had killed Ariana and defeat him after his old friend had killed so many in his reign of terror and seemed unstoppable to the wizarding world. His confidence that he could easily escape Azkaban also implies he was confident that his sense of self would be strong enough to allow him to avoid going insane in the presence of so many Dementors long enough to escape, a remarkable implication, as many of Azkaban's prisoners became insane or at least dramatically changed from their time in there. A lesser testament to Dumbledore's extreme willpower was that he could flawlessly perform Occlumency (to the point of blocking out even Lord Voldemort) and Nonverbal Magic without fail, both of which required an exceptional amount of willpower. His spirit also was incredibly strong, as he was able to remain determined even in situations that would scare others of outstanding bravery. He could recover even from the harshest of emotional depressions and losses, as he was able to continue living despite all the tragedy and deaths of his friends he suffered in both his war with Grindelwald and Voldemort with full determination and eventually snapped out of the mesmerizingly powerful illusions of Ariana he experienced upon drinking the Emerald Potion.
- Physical aptitude: Despite his advanced age and rather skinny build, Dumbledore was in superbly good physical condition, as he has been seen to be capable of physically performing feats that should be far beyond someone of his age and body, rivaling that of a much younger, fit man: his strength was great enough to raise Harry Potter forcibly off the ground away from Cedric Diggory's body with one hand, which shocked Harry. Dumbledore was also astonishingly fast and agile for someone his age, as shown during the Battle of the Department of Mysteries, describing as having sped past Harry and Neville when they blinked away from his arrival and being capable of effortlessly reacting to and countering Voldemort's relentless barrage of attacks, with Snape describing his reaction as being extremely precise until he had maimed his hand, and he displayed sufficient swimming ability to quickly swim with a "perfect breaststroke" and speed surpassing Harry, in the churning sea to reach The Cave, with a considerably large tolerance to climate weathers to be entirely unfazed from the coldness of the waters, whereas Harry was left shivering upon emerging to the grounds of the cave. He also effortlessly jumped to the seventh trunk of Moody, which was used by Crouch to hold the real Moody while disguised as him, and landed gracefully on his feet, with his landing being only of light impact, before climbing back up with Moody on hand without issue. He also was capable of overpowering the weakened and injured Quirinus Quirrell to forcibly and quickly remove him from his struggle with Harry. Dumbledore also displayed considerable endurance and stamina, as after only a brief moment of rest from being incapacitated by the Emerald Potion, he was able to cast a firestorm to fend off the Inferi in The Cave, and quickly afterwards fly from Hogsmeade to Hogwarts. In addition, he had a strong tolerance for pain, as shown when slicing his hand with a knife to use his blood to unlock the Cave, he did not even flinch and went as far as to soberly say the reason why to the shocked Harry.
- Longevity: Dumbledore had lived for 115 years old and would've been longer had he died a natural death instead of having Severus Snape putting him out of his misery during Battle at Astronomy Tower.
Abilities[]
- Intellectual Genius: Albus Dumbledore was not only a great wizard, but also possessed an exceptional level of genius intellect, considered to be the most brilliant student Hogwarts will ever see, and as an adult, Dumbledore was easily the smartest person in the whole series, considerably superior to even Lord Voldemort and even if only a little, slightly more intelligent than Gellert Grindelwald, with even those who could deceive him being unable to do so for long.
- Master Hypothesist/Analyzer/Deep Intellectual Foresight: One of Albus Dumbledore's most prominent intellectual attributes was his phenomenal brilliance at analyzing from just a few interactions the true nature of others as well as guessing, hypothesizing, and predicting future events and the actions of others from his analysis. From his past with Grindelwald, Dumbledore correctly deduced that Grindelwald would try to find a loophole to the blood pact they made and with only little information, he was successful in figuring out Grindelwald's disguise as Percival Graves and that he was seeking a phenomenally powerful Obscurial in order to face him. He also easily anticipated Grindelwald's train of thought to how he recruited his followers and correctly guessed that his old friend would set up the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy to be the tool of opression and offer people freedom from it. Though it failed to truly work, Dumbledore was able to correctly predict that as such Travers extreme ways would only reinforce Grindelwald's point and advised Theseus to not use force against Grindelwald's followers, which helped a decent amount of Theseus's allies survive. Even despite Voldemort's brilliance in keeping himself secretive and acting, Dumbledore from just their first meeting accurately deduced he was not to be trusted and that Riddle was a sociopath and would keep a distant attitude towards the model student for it, preventing himself from falling to Riddle's charms whereas all the other teachers did. Dumbledore also easily deduced from knowing Riddle was a Parselmouth and his framing of Hagrid that it was Riddle himself who was responsible, and he would continue to be able to locate traces of Riddle's illegal activities and with little evidence correctly deduce his part in it, whereas the ministry was completely fooled. Dumbledore also deduced that Voldemort had created several Horcruxes and was able to figure out all the remaining Horcruxes with his superb understanding of Riddle. His will also revealed Dumbledore was fully aware and understood Harry, Ron, and Hermione's character perfectly and able to make use of it to ensure they remain together and also allow Harry to discover and resist the temptation of the Deathly Hallows: Dumbledore gave Ron the Deluminator because he knew Ron's good heart meant he would inevitably seek to come back at the end even if he did leave the group. He understood that Hermione's logical attitude meant she would immediately realize that the symbol he had inscribed upon his personal copy of the Tales of Beedle the Bard was special, yet she would not believe the Hallows were real, which would make Harry doubt until he finally realized that what Dumbledore intended was for him to not seek them. Dumbledore was also the only one who completely saw through Lockhart's charade, having been able to quickly deduce that something was odd in Lockhart's books and subsequently discover that Lockhart simply used Memory Charms to take the accomplishment of others for himself, and having understood Lockhart's true nature, Dumbledore was able to easily figure out the right way to make him teach at Hogwarts to expose him would be to leverage Harry's popularity. He instantly figured out when "Moody" took Harry away that he was Bartemius Crouch Jr, knowing Moody would never do that.
- Master Strategist and Tactician: Dumbledore was an extraordinarily skilled strategist and tactician, with years of experience in warfare. During Grindelwald's rise to power, Dumbledore's intellect was highly crucial in the wizarding world's ability to last against him and eventually triumph: After knowing Grindelwald would go to New York disguised as someone important in MACUSA to search for the Obscurus, he informed his former student Newt Scamander about where he could find an illegally trafficked Thunderbird, knowing that Newt would make haste to save it and take it to America to set it free once it was nursed back to health and using his arrival to ensure he would be involved in Grindelwald's schemes, a ploy that magnificently ended in Dumbledore's victory, as Grindelwald was captured. Dumbledore then continued to play an important, even if indirect, role throughout the Global Wizarding War, with his tactical expertise granting the wizarding world the ability to hold against Grindelwald for 16 years, long enough for Dumbledore to finally intervene and defeat Grindelwald. When Lord Voldemort rose to power in one generation later, Dumbledore's strategic brilliance successfully lead the Order of the Phoenix against Lord Voldemort's forces for the eleven years that the First Wizarding War lasted while also being able to avoid the Ministry's suspicions, being successful enough that he did not need to personally fight the Dark Lord, once again allowing Britain to last for years even if discreetly until Voldemort's unexpected defeat. Dumbledore also easily outsmarted Gilderoy Lockhart, despite his cunning in strategically thinking to gain fame, by luring him into Hogwarts to teach, knowing fully well that he would fail, swiftly came up with a plan to save Sirius that Harry and Hermione would successfully carry out, and also quickly devised a plan to root out Bartemius Chrouch Jr's disguise as Alastor Moody by letting him take Harry and then catching him completely off-guard and subduing him. Dumbledore also swiftly came up with a plan to expose Voldemort's return completely by allowing the Battle of the Department of Mysteries to occur and simply holding off Voldemort so Fudge would have to see the truth for himself. In a relatively short period of time before his death, Dumbledore was capable of coming up with various strategically well-woven plans and combining them with his almost Machiavellian manipulation of the key persons of Severus Snape and Harry Potter to set the path for the demise of Voldemort. Dumbledore was also able to easily outwit the notoriously famous hack journalist Rita Skeeter, having easily caught up with all her escapades at Hogwarts and quickly luring her into a position where he could have easily had her arrested by revealing his knowledge of her Animagus power, therefore leaving Rita effectively at his mercy and preventing her from writing anything directly antagonizing towards him, doing so much faster than the also highly intelligent Hermione Granger.
- Master of Politics and Law: Dumbledore also possessed an encyclopedic knowledge and understanding of magical law and politics, skills that he applied very effectively as Supreme Mugwump, being known for his wise and effective implementations and contributions to the laws of the wizarding world. Even Cornelius Fudge admired and acknowledged Dumbledore's genius in politics and law, and thus bombarded Dumbledore with letters asking for advice early into his Minister for Magic career, with Dumbledore's support alone being sufficient to allow Fudge to gain the trust of the populace. Dumbledore was also able to easily legally acquit Harry from his charges despite the best efforts of Fudge and Umbridge.
- Charisma: While not famous for his abilities as a manipulator, due to Dumbledore's exceptional amount of emotional intelligence, he was nevertheless exceptionally skillful at manipulating others, which he was perfectly willing to do for the greater good, apparently even better than Voldemort due to his much calmer and more persuasive with no secret offense as well as greater knowledge of the psyche, able to effectively use a person's characteristics to his advantage to get them to do what must be done with ease. Unlike Voldemort, Dumbledore always sought and used the best within people to get them to do his good-intended bidding and used his charisma to get many to the side of good instead of evil. The most notable display of his masterful manipulating abilities was that he was able to effectively manipulate Severus Snape into agreeing to protect Harry Potter and act as a spy in Voldemort's ranks for Dumbledore despite Snape's bitterness and hatred towards Harry's father and full knowledge of the risks his job had by using Snape's love for Lily Evans. Another display of his consummate manipulation skills was that he effortlessly manipulated Gilderoy Lockhart into becoming a teacher at Hogwarts by just slyly hinting that Harry Potter was a second-year student at the school, and being a teacher to the "famous Harry" would propel Lockhart's fame into the stratosphere, notably taking advantage of Lockhart's hunger for more fame and ego to get him to agree to take the job so he can expose him despite Lockhart not being eager to take the job due to being more interested in his career as an author. Dumbledore's overall charisma was immense, as he was able to get many to be incredibly loyal to him and he garnered so much respect and loyalty from his allies that most of them still proved loyal to Dumbledore even after Dumbledore had died and valiantly fought in the Battle of Hogwarts for him. He particularly successfully quickly befriended Harry Potter and inspired so much loyalty from his protégé that he was able to successfully get him to continue the hunt for Horcruxes despite Harry's resentment of Dumbledore's secrecy and even eventually sacrifice himself as Dumbledore had planned.
- Supreme Master Leader: Dumbledore was an exceptionally experienced and accomplished leader. Even during his youth, he was apparently already a highly capable leader, as he and Grindelwald were confident, they would be fully capable of quickly starting the For the Greater Good revolution to conquer the wizarding world and put down the Muggles. However, he quickly learned his lesson from this mistake and while he had acquired the understanding of what being a leader truly was, he still acknowledged the potential of Newton Scamander and Harry Potter as being greater than his, as they quickly proved themselves to be more qualified from the beginning due to their lack of lust for power and their willingness to accept any responsibility given to them no matter how large. Nevertheless, Dumbledore's leadership expertise was well-respected and feared by many and with his uncanny ability to quickly get his followers to trust him, his skills as a leader was held in such a high regard that he was even offered the position of Minister for Magic many times and would have most definitely greatly excelled, with Harry adamantly acknowledging that Dumbledore would have been a far better Minister than Cornelius Fudge and Rufus Scrimgeour without hesitation, despite his great anger at Dumbledore at the time, therefore acknowledging his inferiority to Dumbledore as a leader despite Dumbledore's own acknowledgment of Harry being more gifted than he was. During the Global Wizarding War, Dumbledore was able to give useful leadership advice to both Head Auror Theseus Scamander, and Head of Magical Law Enforcement Torquil Travers concerning how to best combat Gellert Grindelwald, though Travers would disregard it but his advice allowed Theseus and most of his allies to survive unscathed Grindelwald's rally in Paris and it was his leadership expertise giving advice to the wizarding authorities that allowed the wizarding world to be not conquered by Grindelwald for so long, although in the end Grindelwald's own leadership prowess proved too much for Dumbledore's indirect attempts. After Dumbledore's promotion to Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, he led the school so effectively, that many considered him the greatest headmaster Hogwarts will ever see. Dumbledore's leadership expertise also allowed him to act as the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, and Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards. Later on, a more experienced Dumbledore was able to find and effectively lead the Order of the Phoenix against Lord Voldemort and the latter's Death Eaters in both the First and Second Wizarding Wars, in secret. His leadership allowed Dumbledore to stand against the overwhelming forces of darkness at both the First and Second Wizarding War, despite also having to avoid the Ministry of Magic's eyes, inspiring enough loyalty into his allies to make them be fearless and determined that the cause they were fighting for was right even with the massive losses of their loved ones and not having to face Voldemort like he had to do with Grindelwald. Due to Dumbledore's leadership expertise, many high-ranking Ministry officials, such as Torquil Travers, Dolores Umbridge, and Cornelius Fudge was shown to fear what would happen if Dumbledore was plotting to overthrow the Ministry and it was clear that if Dumbledore wanted to he could easily have overthrown the British Ministry of Magic but he never had any intention to and had instead supported Fudge for years as Minister, which was good enough to be accepted by the populace.
- Supreme Master Teacher: Having apparently always been highly interested in teaching, from a young age, Dumbledore already displayed the ability to be a good mentor-like figure and model to his fellow student friends, as noted by Elphias Doge, and as an adult, Dumbledore's teaching talents coupled with his extraordinary magical capabilities made him fully capable of managing the position of the Professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts and of Transfiguration at Hogwarts so well as to be considered the greatest teacher at Hogwarts history, as Harry Potter noted in his conversation with Dumbledore in the afterlife and years before a Gryffindor student was adamantly willing to defend Dumbledore from Torquil Travers when he barged into a Defense Against the Dark Arts class to question Dumbledore by saying he was the best professor at Hogwarts. Indeed, even the two rather mistrusting and strict Headmasters Dumbledore served under respected seemingly only him for his competence as a teacher, to the point that Dumbledore was thus able to convince them to change their opinions or at least reconsider and lessen the punishment of a student who had done a seemingly bad deed, as shown by how Dumbledore managed to at least persuade Phineas Nigellus Black to not destroy Newt's wand when he was sentenced to be expelled and also convince Armando Dippet into allowing Rubeus Hagrid to at least stay in Hogwarts as Gamekeeper, henceforth earning the undying respect and loyalty of both his former students. Dumbledore's efficiency as a magical instructor was displayed by his ability to guide Minerva McGonagall into successfully becoming an Animagus, which was known to be immensely difficult to do, by the age of 17 and also by the level of ability displayed by three of his former students Newton Scamander, Leta Lestrange, and Theseus Scamander, all of whom became seasoned wizards and witches capable of fighting Gellert Grindelwald from his teachings. He also noted that he was fully confident that had he been the one who taught Harry Potter Occlumency, he would have been able to mould Harry into a successful enough of an Occlumens to resist Voldemort. Hermoine and Ron was also sure that when Dumbledore gave Harry private lessons, he wanted to teach Harry the most advanced martial magic and was confident that Harry would have learned enough from Dumbledore to be capable of fulfilling the Prophecy. Due to his emotional wisdom and ability to show compassion to all, Dumbledore was also highly adept at offering emotional guidance and also teaching others how to perceive the emotional state of others to the point of making even some of the most reclusive students opening up to him, as displayed by his ability to get Leta Lestrange to open up about her brother's death by revealing his own mistakes of not loving Ariana enough, which ultimately allowed Leta to save Credence Barebone from Yusuf Kama's revenge, and gave her the mental fortitude to resist Gellert Grindelwald's persuasive speech, and also effectively teach Harry into understanding Voldemort from their private lessons together, which was undoubtedly helpful in Harry's victory over the Dark Lord, as well as grant him the fortitude needed to remain steadfast against Voldemort no matter what happened. As Headmaster, Dumbledore even agreed to admit werewolf Remus Lupin to Hogwarts, taking the necessary precautions to avoid Remus' monthly transformations from endangering the other students, and forbidding Severus Snape to reveal Remus' secret, which made Remus fully loyal and highly respectful to him.
- Social Networking: Due to his vast reputation, Dumbledore had a vast network of followers and international contacts around the whole Wizarding World, to the point that he is known for knowing all that happens. Indeed, even the abrasive Department of Magical Law Enforcement Head Torquil Travers showed begrudging admiration of Dumbledore's international contacts network while questioning the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor. Later, during his job application meeting with Dumbledore, even Lord Voldemort himself was impressed by how well-informed the new Hogwarts Headmaster was. This is what allowed Dumbledore to be aware of his old friend Gellert Grindelwald being disguised as Percival Graves and his search of the Obscurial that terrorised New York, of Credence Barebone being considered by many to be the long-lost Corvus Lestrange, of the feud between the Kama family and Lestrange family, of Nicolas Flamel being urgently needed at Grindelwald's rally in Paris (communicating with Nicolas via the latter's phoenix-embossed book), of Leta Lestrange's death at Grindelwald's rally, of several Death Eaters being at Hogsmade waiting for Voldemort's return, of Lord Voldemort hiding in Albania, of Frank Bryce's disappearance (from Muggle newspapers), of Harry Potter's arrival at the Burrow, and, thanks to Severus Snape, of the majority of Voldemort's plans in the Second Wizarding War. Additionally, Dumbledore's contacts allowed him to provide safe-houses for his allies, such as Nicolas Flamel's house for Newt Scamander, and Sirius Black's 12 Grimmauld Place house for the Order of the Phoenix's headquarters. He was somehow aware of Rita Skeeter's Animagus ability too.
- Supreme Master Duelist: Albus Dumbledore was arguably the greatest duelist of all time. Even at a young age, Dumbledore was already a highly proficient duelist, as he was described as being capable of beating Aberforth, his younger brother, anytime despite Aberforth's strong grasp of dueling at the time and fought both Grindelwald and Aberforth in their three-way duel in Godric's Hollow. As an adult, at the early years of Grindelwald's reign of terror, during which despite the latter's terrifying dueling might augmented by the Elder Wand made even the most seasoned of Aurors little to no threat to him, the British Ministry of Magic considered Albus to be the only one with the sufficient level of dueling capability to be capable of bringing the arguably most powerful dark wizard of all time in, something even Torquil Travers begrudgingly admitted. Grindelwald himself acknowledged Dumbledore would be easily capable of overpowering any of his followers, which made him a threat to his revolution even though at the time they could not fight each other directly due to their Blood pact, and noted that apart from himself, only Credence Barebone's Obscurus form would be capable of slaying Dumbledore in magical combat. Even at the height of Grindelwald's power, where the Dark Wizard had killed so many, the whole wizarding world still acknowledged Dumbledore had a shot at defeating him and indeed, despite Grindelwald's mastery of the Elder Wand, Albus ultimately proved capable of defeating him even if not without extreme effort, with the extraordinary dueling prowess and power the two wizards showed being such that it was considered by all who witnessed it to be unrivaled as the greatest wizarding duel that will ever be fought, with him describing himself as being on the same level of power as Grindelwald with the Elder Wand but admitting he was a "shade more skillful" of a duelist. Even in his older days, where he admitted that his dueling abilities had blunted due to his aging body decreasing his reaction speed and ability to perform extremely powerful magic, Dumbledore remained doubtlessly the most powerful duelist in the world at the time and it has been stated that it remains a fact that all other wizards and witches would be no match for Dumbledore in a straight duel. His dueling prowess were indeed still at such legendary levels that even the extraordinarily skillful Lord Voldemort strongly did not wish to fight Dumbledore. When confronting Severus Snape over the Prophecy, who was a very accomplished wizard even then, Dumbledore, upon arrival, instantly disarmed and grounded him before his adversary could react. Following the Return of Lord Voldemort, upon discovering that one of the teaching staff were in fact a Death Eater impersonating ex-Auror Alastor Moody, Dumbledore quickly blindsided and subdued Bartemius Crouch Junior with a single Stunning Spell of such power that it blasted apart the magically sealed door to the Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor's office and immediately floored said Azkaban escapee, knocking him unconscious. During his attempted arrest by the Ministry of Magic during the 1995–1996 school year, Dumbledore instantly defeated Cornelius Fudge, Dolores Umbridge, Kingsley Shacklebolt, and John Dawlish when they attempted to arrest him with a single spell (though Kingsley was secretly on Dumbledore's side) before he made his escape. During the Battle of the Department of Mysteries, Dumbledore soundly rounded up a number of Death Eaters just before the following Duel in the Ministry Atrium took place, during which he swiftly incapacitated the extremely powerful Bellatrix Lestrange, one of Lord Voldemort's most dangerous followers and proceeded to easily duel Lord Voldemort himself as a superior, calmly countering the Dark Lord's attacks while simultaneously managing to repeatedly pressure Voldemort, quite quickly coming out on top by trapping him, forcing the Dark Lord to flee out of acknowledgment he was severely outclassed by Dumbledore who wasn't even fighting to kill, and that continuing the duel would result in his defeat. Even with his wand hand irreparably injured, Dumbledore remained an extremely skilled duelist as he easily outclassed Dawlish again the year after when he tailed him and felt confident that he could repel any attack attempted by Voldemort and his Death Eaters. Even while heavily weakened by having drunk the Potion of Despair, Dumbledore was still able to easily paralyze Harry and blast him far away before getting disarmed by Draco Malfoy, which only happened due to Draco catching Dumbledore by surprise. Dumbledore's dueling style was extremely versatile and dexterous, effortlessly capable of flawlessly adapting to the situation shown during the Battle of the Department of Mysteries, where while fighting the lesser threats posed by the Death Eaters, Dumbledore would simply immediately use powerful magic to incapacitate them, but when fighting the tremendously powerful Dark Lord himself, Dumbledore not only used some of his most powerful spells but also manipulated the environment into securing Belatrix was out of the fight and Harry was safe, used Fawkes by taking advantage of the latter's immortality to block Voldemort's Killing Curse, and apparating at times to dodge Voldemort's spells before swiftly counter-attacking, a method of dueling that proved considerably efficient when used against the Dark Lord. He is also an extremely adept teacher in the arts of martial magic, as he achieved great success in his time teaching students how to duel as DATDA professor and the best of his students Newt, Leta and Theseus proved capable of fighting Grindelwald better than most and when Hermoine and Ron learned Dumbledore wanted to give Harry private lessons, they fully believed he could have molded the Chosen One into becoming skilled enough to slay Voldemort.
- Master Aurologist: Dumbledore was accomplished and knowledgeable in the study of the traces left behind by magic, to the point where he had the currently unmatched ability to recognize and identify the nature of the residual auras that invariably always lingered in areas in which magic had been used with merely looking and touching, as seen by how he was able to detect the determine the nature of the defensive measures with which Lord Voldemort safeguarded his locket Horcrux by studying the traces left behind from the magic he had used to set them up, allowing him to successfully discover that blood was needed for them to progress into the main chamber of the cave. Later, he uncovered the hidden boat chain much the same way.
- Study of Ancient Runes: Dumbledore was also accomplished in Ancient Runes, as he was able to perfectly understand the contents of the copy of the first edition of the Tales of Beedle the Bard, which were written completely in Runes. His ability to read and understand the runic language the book was shown by the fact that he had written a series of extensive notes on the book's various stories, providing his own interpretations of the stories' events, as well as recording significant historical background to how the stories had been changed or adapted over the years from the first edition.
- Care of Magical Creatures: Dumbledore's knowledge and understanding of many magical creatures were exceptional, even being sufficient to be comparable to outstanding masters of the subject of the level of Newton Scamander and Rubeus Hagrid. This was shown when he was aware of the old Dumbledore family legend of a Phoenix coming to any one of them in desperate need being true, and quickly understood how Newt's pet Niffler had stolen the Blood pact vial from Grindelwald as well as being the only one alongside Hagrid aware of how to get past Fluffy something that not even Severus Snape or Lord Voldemort, both highly intelligent and knowledgeable wizards, knew about, with Quirinus Quirrell, who had knowledge and experience in handling dangerous magical creatures, having to get it from the drunk Hagrid under Voldemort's orders, with Dumbledore seemingly easily subduing the dog with either music or other means to get to Harry on time. Dumbledore was also extremely adept at handling all sorts of magical creatures, such as Phoenixs, Thestrals, Merpeople, Centaurs, and Goblins, as shown by how his pet Phoenix Fawkes was completely loyal to the point it only remained in the school due to him and after singing a lament upon Dumbledore's death, flew away and never returned and using it in combat at one point to thwart Voldemort's killing curse by having him take the attack and Dumbledore employed Thestrals at times effectively as a mode of transport when not Apparating, successfully communicated with the Merpeople of the Black Lake to learn the progress of the Second Task of the Triwizard Tournament and was one of the few wizards that Hogwarts's Centaurs respected and trusted, enough that Dumbledore was able to convince them to return Umbridge safely without any harm done to him; the Centaurs and the Merpeople later payed their respects during Dumbledore's funeral. He also inspired apparently great amount of respect from the Goblins of the Gringotts bank, as he was capable of securing the Philosopher Stone's security as being the maximum and ensuring the only way to remove it being an authorized note that had to be highly checked before allowing entrance. Dumbledore also was a famous contributor to the defense of Giants from wizarding violence, with his reputation being enough to make Karkus consider aiding the Order of the Phoenix and his ability to give Hagrid the gifts and instruction necessary to steadily convince the giant colony, up until Golgomath killed Karkus, with his advice still managing to convince the surviving giants who didn't join Golgomath to not join the Death Eaters, show he was also highly competent in handling Giants. He was very skillful in dealing with Werewolves as well, as he effortlessly dispatched 5 werewolves in Hagrid's Hut, something that not even the renowned adept Gamekeeper, who became Professor of Care of Magical Creatures, appeared to be able to do or at least was unwilling to deal with them without him, indicating he even surpassed Hagrid in certain aspects of the field, and simply arriving to Jacob's Sibling's aid sent the notoriously powerful Fenrir Greyback running from Hogwarts. He also was one of the few wizards and witches who interacted with house-elves with kindness and compassion, giving Dobby and Winky jobs at Hogwarts and encouraging Harry to treat Kreacher better. When Hagrid and Kettleburn unleashed a large number of creatures upon Hogwarts, Dumbledore easily dealt with the many Bowtruckles in the faculty seats of the Great Hall. Nevertheless of his resentment of dark creatures such as Dementors due to their untrustworthy nature, Dumbledore was still extremely knowledgeable and skillful in their nature and how to deal with them, as he thoroughly explained to Jacob's sibling on Boggarts and why they cannot be destroyed and can only be banished by Boggart-Banishing Spell, which during his time as DATDA, he effectively instructed students how to deal with, swiftly repelled a large amount of Dementors with a single non-corporeal Patronus Charm, and thoroughly explained the nature of Inferis to Harry Potter, later swiftly repelling an entire army of them with a conjured firestorm.
Relationships[]
Family[]
Parents[]
Albus' relationship with his parents was not very clear. However, it is evident that he did not respect his father, as he was imprisoned in Azkaban for magically attacking three Muggle boys who had inflicted permanent psychological damage on Ariana, an act that Dumbledore found to be unceremonious. According to Aberforth, their mother taught Albus secrecy. Given that she read stories to him, it can be assumed that Albus had a good relationship with her, or at least a better one than the one she had with Aberfoth. Her death made Albus feel angry and bitter, as it left him with the responsibility of a damaged sister and a wayward brother, and he thought himself trapped and wasted. However, despite his presumed resentment for his mother for leaving him with the responsibilities of head of the family, which completely vanished after Ariana's death and was replaced with tremendous guilt for failing his mother in looking after Ariana and lack of respect for his father, Dumbledore truly loved his parents, as he desired strongly to apologize to them for failing to take care of Ariana and would always see them in the Mirror of Erised with his siblings alive and well.
Ariana Dumbledore[]
Although he loved his younger sister, Albus was resentful when he had to take responsibility for her after their mother's death, which forced him to stay at home, and thus abandon his ambitious plans. When he and Gellert Grindelwald made plans to subjugate Muggles and take power in the wizarding world, Albus planned to bring Ariana with them, but Aberforth pointed out that she was in no state to go. This launched a three-way duel between the brothers and Grindelwald, and Ariana was accidentally killed in the fray. Albus was devastated by his sister's death and for the rest of his life, Albus never forgave himself for the part he played in her death and always felt tremendous guilt and remorse over it. He also was haunted with the fear that it had been him to kill her, to the point that he delayed facing Grindelwald for years. His Boggart would be Ariana's corpse and he would always see Ariana alive and well in the Mirror of Erised.
Aberforth Dumbledore[]
Although Albus loved him, the two brothers were not close to each other, as they were very different persons in both personality, with Aberforth resenting being in Albus's shadow. Despite not being close, it cannot be doubted that Albus loved and cared for him dearly, evidenced by the fact that even though he resented having to stay at home, Albus still refused to allow Aberforth to stop his education out of concern of his brother's future. While Albus likely alienated him, along with Ariana, during his obsession with Gellert Grindelwald, when Grindelwald attacked Aberforth, Albus immediately came to his brothers aid and fought against his crush, clearly displaying that even at the height of his worst years, Albus cared for his brothers' well-being more than Grindelwald's and his own pride. After Ariana's death, Albus and Aberforth relationship becomes very estranged, as Aberforth blamed Albus for the death of the sister he and his mother spent so much time caring for. Although they eventually established a cordial relationship with each other, with Aberforth joining the Order of Phoenix when Albus founded it and attending Albus's funeral, Aberforth and Albus still remained distant as Aberforth was never able to forgive Albus. Albus himself made no attempts to change his brother's opinion about him, apparently acknowledging that he deserved it and accepting it as his punishment for their tragic family past, which Albus had a hand in. However, Albus was nevertheless saddened that he and Aberforth never could reconcile and he did had a strong desire to make peace with him, as whenever he saw the Mirror of Erised, Albus always saw he and Aberforth reconciled and all of his family returned to him. Albus also came to believe that Aberforth was a better person than he was due to his much greater devotion to Ariana, which Harry Potter disagreed with. Aberforth himself however, eventually changed his opinions of his brother when Harry Potter helped him realize what Albus' intention really was and had forgiven him, as he chose to participate in the Battle of Hogwarts, helping the students and faculty of Hogwarts and the Hogsmeade residents to protect the school where Albus served as Headmaster for almost half of his lifetime, from Lord Voldemort, as well as to allow Harry time to find what he thought to be the last Horcrux.
Archenemies[]
Gellert Grindelwald[]
Dumbledore met Gellert Grindelwald when he was 17, introduced by Gellert's great aunt Bathilda Bagshot, who was one of his correspondents. Elated to finally meet for the first time finally met someone just as brilliant as he is, Albus almost instantly got along with him. They became the best of friends and Albus even developed romantic feelings for the other boy, the two of them also having been lovers. They were united together by a combination of both search for the Deathly Hallows and also a desire to change the world and Albus's feelings towards Grindelwald was so strong that he ignored Grindelwald's darker tendencies, even though he admitted he had sensed them, and was on board with Grindelwald's plans despite the many difficulties and undoubted destruction it would cause. In order to ensure equality between them, they made a blood pact to never fight each other.
Alas, Grindelwald's presence and personality, which Dumbledore believed to be fortune shining on him, ultimately ended up being the cause for the final ultimate tragedy that would break his family. Dumbledore was fully willing to go with him on the quest, but Aberforth intervened, reminded Albus of the reality of the situation, and when Aberforth attempted to attack Grindelwald and was easily subdued by the Cruciatus Curse, horrified to see just how much darkness Grindelwald was capable of, Albus defended his brother and the resulting duel killed his sister.
Completely disillusioned with Grindelwald, Albus abandoned his plans and beliefs that he shared with Grindelwald entirely. Unfortunately for Albus, the blood pact that they had made meant he could not engage Grindelwald, but Albus was determined to still do whatever he could to thwart Grindelwald, having Newt face Grindelwald for him and stop him from getting Credence. When the blood pact had been retrieved, Albus quickly worked to destroy it so he can face Grindelwald in battle and bring a definitive end to his endeavors. Eventually, Dumbledore would defeat Grindelwald in a legendary duel in 1945, during which the two of them made full use of their phenomenal magical skills and powers, Dumbledore's slight superiority allowing him to triumph. He then imprisoned Grindelwald in Nurmengard.
Ultimately, however, Albus never fully got over Grindelwald. Despite his opposition of Grindelwald's plans, it was apparent Albus still had romantic feelings for Grindelwald, as displayed by how early on he saw Grindelwald in the Mirror of Erised and even later believed the rumors that he had regretted his crimes, admitting he had hoped by imprisoning Grindelwald rather than killing him, he could have the heart to contemplate and regret his actions. When Harry pointed out how Grindelwald did end up dying while still caring for him, Dumbledore was shown to be genuinely moved.
Lord Voldemort[]
Dumbledore met Tom Riddle for the first time in the orphanage he was living in. Though Dumbledore could not have known that Riddle would become the most evil and the second most dangerous and powerful dark wizard of all time, surpassed in power and intelligence only by Grindelwald while far exceeding him in evil, he was however intrigued by Tom Riddle as his powers were surprisingly well-developed by such a young wizard who had begun to use them consciously. Dumbledore was also disturbed by the fact that Tom was a Parselmouth, a rare ability supposedly connected with the Dark Arts, although not as much as the fact that Tom had obvious instincts for cruelty, secrecy and domination which was proved by the fact that Tom had used his magic to hurt the other children in the orphanage. Dumbledore then returned to Hogwarts intending to keep an eye upon Tom Riddle, as he was alone and friendless, a dangerous situation.
As Riddle's teacher, Dumbledore was never charmed by him and saw his true nature. Their teacher-student relationship was cordial but evidently strained, with Riddle and Dumbledore being cautious around each other. Dumbledore felt uneasy about Riddle's request to become a teacher of Defense Against the Dark Arts and did not want Riddle back at Hogwarts in a position of power. However, it was evident that Dumbledore felt remorseful for having failed to change Riddle, as he admitted that he really wished he could have still forced Riddle, now Voldemort, to repent. He also appears to be willing to retain contact with the latter, even allowing him to visit the school for a supposed job interview and displaying a courteous attitude. His refusal to give Riddle a job permanently sealed the enmity Voldemort felt for him and he cursed the Defense Against the Dark Arts Post out of spite.
Throughout the years, Voldemort continued his reign of terror and was feared by many but Dumbledore was never afraid of him and often advised others to call him Voldemort instead of He Who Must Not Be Named. Voldemort feared Dumbledore obviously as the Wizarding World was aware of and Dumbledore acknowledged Voldemort as being the most dangerous Dark Wizard of all time, showing that both still considered the other to be exceptionally powerful and skilled. However, it was apparent that Dumbledore omitted Grindelwald completely as Grindelwald was undoubtedly superior to Voldemort. It could be that Dumbledore considered Voldemort to be simply far more evil as Grindelwald's actions, while heavily flawed and destructive, did have some nobleness in it and Grindelwald also could feel remorse.
Eventually, Dumbledore and Voldemort meet again and Dumbledore still acted cordial around him and referred to him as "Tom". Dumbledore and Voldemort then engage in a fantastic duel that Voldemort used all of his magical prowess to combat the legendary wizard, apparently showing he did recognize Dumbledore as his most formidable opponent and the only one who can threaten him. Despite all of Voldemort's crimes, Dumbledore did not desire Voldemort to die, as he held back just enough that Voldemort was able to see through it. However, Dumbledore took Voldemort seriously nevertheless and did not hesitate to use among the most powerful of his spells to fight him. The duel ended in Dumbledore's technical victory, as he had overpowered and forced Voldemort to retreat and exposed him to the Ministry, thus the fight for the Prophecy's ended with Dumbledore spectacularly winning, as not only did Dumbledore exposed and overpowered the Dark Lord, but he also deprived him of some of his forces.
While Dumbledore died at Snape's hands, as he asked Snape to do it so Draco won't, having known the boy had been ordered to kill him by Voldemort, his legacy allowed Harry Potter to triumph over Voldemort, thus marking the whole rivalry between Dumbledore and Voldemort as Dumbledore's true and decisive victory. Ultimately, Dumbledore never hated or truly considered Voldemort a serious threat and instead pitied him, which he encouraged Harry to.
Proteges[]
Newt Scamander[]
Not much of Dumbledore's relationship with Newt is known as of now. However, it is evident that they were close, as Dumbledore was so fond of him that he strongly defended him when he was about to be expelled. Newt, in return, appears to respect Dumbledore greatly, to the point that he had no qualms going to Paris when Dumbledore ordered him too and obeyed Dumbledore without much questioning when Dumbledore gave him a currently unknown task.
Harry Potter[]
Dumbledore's closest relationship was perhaps to Harry Potter, who is his informal Protege.
Dumbledore was the one who ordered Hagrid to save Harry after Voldemort murdered James and Lily. He protected Harry magically.
Upon Harry's school years, Dumbledore and Harry quickly established a strong bond. Dumbledore saw Harry as a boy of reasonable talent while Harry saw Dumbledore as the greatest user of magic in the history of the Wizarding World. Dumbledore always let Harry off unpunished whenever he breaks the rules. He also trusted Harry to the point he quickly believed that Sirius was innocent.
Incompetent and corrupted Hogwarts Professors[]
Gilderoy Lockhart[]
Dumbledore knew Gilderoy Lockhart, the Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor (1992-1993), when he was still a student. Unlike the other professors, he apparently found Lockhart's antics to be amusing instead of irritating and seemingly believed he could have overcome his love for vanity and became a great wizard, as he kindly denied Lockhart's proposal of starting a school newspaper. However, upon Lockhart modifying the memories of two wizards that Dumbledore knew, Dumbledore, having never been fooled by Lockhart's tall tales, easily found out the truth and immediately decided to appoint him as a Hogwarts professor to expose Lockhart's fraudulence, and because Lockhart at the time was the only person willing to apply for the cursed Defence Against the Dark Arts post, apparently deeming Lockhart's love for vanity as having gone too far to be allowed to continue and disapproving of Lockhart's callous stripping of the right of true heroes to be acknowledged. However, he did not seem to truly hate Lockhart, as after the Memory Charm completely wiped out Lockhart's memories, Dumbledore was compassionate enough that he decided to leave Lockhart in peace and did not expose his crimes, likely as he pitied Lockhart and saw that having completely lost all of his popularity and with the remnants of his magical brilliance now lost to him and his cunning now harmless, to condemn him to being eternally despised by the wizarding community would be unnecessarily cruel. He also acted cordially around Lockhart and treated him as well as he did with other professors and tolerated his messes, showing further that Dumbledore did not hate Lockhart and only wanted to prevent more heroes from being unjustly stripped of their right to be acknowledged.
Quirinus Quirrell[]
Dumbledore was one of Quirrell's mentors when he was still a student and his employer. Despite Quirrell's timidness and interest in the Dark Arts, Dumbledore apparently believed he could become a great wizard and free himself from his hunger for power. However, Dumbledore immediately realized that Quirrell had met Voldemort when he traveled around the world, and shared his body with him when Quirrell started to look suspicious. Dumbledore did not hesitate to have Snape keep an eye on Quirrell and later he showed no care or remorse for Quirrell's death when talking to Harry.
Quotes[]
Albus Dumbledore is known for his inspirational and educational quotations.
“ | Do not pity the dead, Harry. Pity the living, and above all, those who live without love. | „ |
“ | 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. | „ |
“ | And now, Harry, let us step out into the night and pursue that flighty temptress, adventure. | „ |
“ | You think the dead we love ever truly leave us? You think that we don't recall them more clearly than ever in times of great trouble? | „ |
“ | Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light. | „ |
“ | Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic. Capable of both inflicting injury, and remedying it. | „ |
“ | Numbing the pain for a while will make it worse when you finally feel it. | „ |
“ | We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided. | „ |
“ | I am not worried, Harry. I am with you. | „ |
“ | What happened down in the dungeons between you and Professor Quirrell is a complete secret, so, naturally the whole school knows. | „ |
“ | It is the unknown we fear when we look upon death and darkness, nothing more. | „ |
“ | “You care so much you feel as though you will bleed to death with the pain of it | „ |
“ | Curiosity is not a sin…. But we should exercise caution with our curiosity. | „ |
“ | Age is foolish and forgetful when it underestimates youth | „ |
“ | It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live, remember that. | „ |
“ | The truth. It is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with great caution. | „ |
“ | You fail to recognize that it matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be! | „ |
“ | Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real? | „ |
“ | Remember, if the time should come when you have to make a choice between what is right, and what is easy, remember what happened to a boy who was good and kind and brave because he strayed across the path of Lord Voldemort. | „ |
“ | Those that we love never truly leave us. There are things that death cannot touch. Paint and memory and love. | „ |
“ | Love blind us. | „ |
“ | Harry, there is never a perfect answer in this messy emotional world. Perfection is beyond the reach of humankind, beyond the reach of magic. In every shining moment of happiness is that drop of poison: the knowledge that pain will come again. Be honest to those you love, show your suffering. To suffer is as human to breathe. | „ |
“ | Dumbledore: Severus... please. Snape: Avada Kedavra! |
„ |
~ Dumbledore's last words just before Snape killing him under his orders. |
Trivia[]
- His boggart is his sister's corpse.
- Ian McKellen was initially offered the role after Richard Harris' passing, but he declined.
- Dumbledore's final words when alive, "Severus... please," were initially interpreted as him pleading for his life. However, Snape's memories revealed that Dumbledore was cursed by one of Voldemort's Horcruxes, thus only had a year left to live; Dumbledore knew of the plan to use Draco Malfoy to kill him, but should the boy fail, Dumbledore entrusted Snape to kill him, since he was dying anyway and it would cement Snape's position in Voldemort's ranks, prime to sabotage the Dark Lord. Therefore, his final words were actually an encouragement for Snape to kill him, sparing him a worse death and allowing the path to Voldemort's ultimate defeat.
External Links[]
- Albus Dumbledore on the Harry Potter Wiki
- Albus Dumbledore on the Near Pure Good Wiki
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