…hey Harry Potter fans, we’re all in agreement that Dumbledore brought the Philosopher’s Stone to Hogwarts in Harry’s first year as a test to see whether Voldemort was paying attention and what sort of state he was in, now that Dumbledore’s chosen champion was old enough to hold a wand, right?
Like, Harry learns what magic is and it’s time to start moving towards the full and final destruction of Tom Riddle Junior, so Dumbledore has a chat with his long-time alchemy friend who’s been keeping this thing safe for literally six centuries straight, and ‘borrows’ the easiest source of immortality he can find as bait for a trap to lure Voldemort out into the open so Dumbledore can get the lay of the land to prep for the next seven years. This is canon, right?
This post just passed 50,000 notes, which is way more than I expected when I first made it, and can I just say, the tags and notes are full of so much vitriol against Dumbledore. People loathe him so much. I don’t think I ever realized how much before this!
I find that so interesting, because god knows Tumblr and fandom and fans at large tend to love tricksy bastards who play chess games in their heads. Dumbledore’s far from the first old man who sent other people to die for his war. He’s not the first character who’s manipulated kids, or raised children to be warriors because he believed they had to be. He’s a long, long way from the first desperately flawed mastermind we’ve seen. But god, do fans hate Albus Dumbledore.
And I wonder: how much of that is because we feel like Dumbledore betrayed Harry, and how much of it is because we feel like Dumbledore betrayed us?
Most of us were so young when we started reading the Harry Potter books. The world was magic and Harry’s home was terrible, and a kindly old man with twinkling eyes and a white beard winked, and seemed to know everything in the world, and we thought he’d promised to take care of each and every child given unto his care. We thought that meant us too.
There’s a thing that happens as kids grow up, when they begin to realize that their parents and the adults around them are flawed and broken and making things up as they go, and sometimes make very real mistakes. Sometimes as grown-ups we find ways to forgive the adults that raised us for all the good and bad they did, and sometimes we cut them out of our lives forever. But there’s always that feeling of betrayal, with the realization that a trusted adult did actually cause us harm–and not just because they used their best judgment and tried their best to protect us and it wasn’t enough, but because they decided something else was more important than our well-being and meant it.
As a human and a character, Albus Dumbledore is fascinating, flawed, fallible, with complicated priorities and a chess board for a brain, and he’s motivated by guilt and big-picture thinking and ego and a very real desire to do good for the world in the broadest possible sense all at once. As an adult that Harry trusted he failed rather badly, but it’s up to Harry to decide how he feels about that, and Harry has plenty of complicated feelings of grief and forgiveness and self-sacrifice of his own.
We trusted Dumbledore to be the Good Adult. The kindly man who had his students’ best interests at heart. And he wasn’t. He wasn’t what he promised us he’d be, and I think that’s what so many readers can’t forgive him for.
Finally some good fuckin’ Harry Potter discourse.
two dementors having their government mandated smoke break or whatever, asking the real questions.
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Because I sincerely believe that even if Dumbledore could leave baby Harry at the doorstep for a night- the Mcgonagall I know would’ve stayed behind, crying silent tears over the loss of her two students, and holding the infant in her arms.
In the morning when milkman arrived, he was rather amused by seeing a tabby cat sitting by a small bundle..
why am i like this guys
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how did jk manage to write ootp and not come to the conclusion that the only career w any true meaning for harry james potter was as a goddamn professor at hogwarts like how do u write the da scenes and say “nah he’d want to be a wizard cop”
gvorgeblagden
#but it would be so perfect??? #bc it would help normalize his life so much #like there would just be this generation of kids who are like #‘ugh who cares that he killed the dark lord he gAVE US HOMEWORK OVER BREAK’ #like the beginning of every year there would be the new first years who would freak out a little #but then it would calm down #and most of the students would literally forget #until like clockwork the fifth years would have their history of magic class on the second war #and they’d all show up to DADA looking a little awestruck and everyone would be extra quiet #and harry would give this kind of annoyed sigh—except it’s fake bc he TOTALLY knew this was coming #bc binns is a bro and he totally gives him a heads up every year #and harry wouldn’t have any lesson plans for the day and instead he would just sit at the front of the room and answer everyone’s questions #but otherwise everyone would just be like ‘professor potter!! i can’t get my patronus to work! help me!’ #and like they’d go home at the end of the year or for break and their parents—who ARE still starstruck by harry james potter #would pester their kids with questions#and the kids would just be like ‘merlin i don’t know?? potter’s such a huge dork you should hear him talk about proper wand movements’ #but they would all love him #and he would feel safe and normal and utterly accepted #AND I NEED THIS IN MY LIFE (via @cinematicnomad)
Not to mention it would be an ultimate Fuck You to Voldemort, who put a curse on the teaching position in the first place.
Like, Jo, I don’t want to tell you how to do your job, but COME ON
I already queued this but also, you do this, but still have Ginny become a famous Quidditch player. Imagine the first time Harry gets called “Ginny’s husband” before “the boy who lived” or “the chosen one.” Imagine how fucking pleased he’d be.
Imagine the first time a student comes up to him looking starry-eyed and Harry’s thinking “Oh no” because he doesn’t want to talk about Voldemort or the war but instead this little eleven year old is like “ARE YOU REALLY MARRIED TO WEASLEY FROM THE HOLLYHEAD HARPIES???!?? WHAT’S SHE LIKE?” and he’s like “oh thank god” because he could talk about Ginny all day.
Yes. Good.
September 1st thoughts
These lines so perfectly encompass these characters and their thoughts and fears about themselves
Ron’s line still makes me cry to this day.
“If I had to choose a companion to be at the return of eternal darkness with, I’d choose you.” Scorpius and Albus.
books, books, books… ↬ harry potter by j.k. rowling
“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on Earth should that mean it’s not real?”
i’ve been in a headspace lately where i’m just always thinking about being barefoot in a forest in scotland, which was a very good excuse to paint something luna centric.
hermione granger, first year hogwarts student, savage queen and men slayer™