It is my belief that the truth is generally preferable to lies.
J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Albus Dumbledore has been loved and adored by millions since he first came to life in 1997 with Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone book. Over the next 14 years, from the first book to the final film, we got to visit Hogwarts under the safety of Albus Dumbledore. However, was he as trustworthy as we all thought? Or did Dumbledore endanger lives to stop Voldemort?
As I’ve grown older, I’ve noticed that the fanciful glow surrounding some characters faded away like a photograph left in the sun. Albus Dumbledore is one of those characters who many of us felt was doing what was best for the wizarding world. A true mentor to Harry, but he had many faults. He allowed Harry to get into danger (even though he knew what Harry was doing), he allowed Snape to go on abusing his power as a professor (even after another Professor made their concerns known), and finally, he never really cared about the Potters, not after he heard the prophecy.
While I’m sure there will be many things that Dumbledore will have done, I will discuss how one thing he did.
One of the major things that Dumbledore did was continually endanger the lives of various people. It was to help stop Voldemort, but at what cost? And a good amount of these people were Adults, so they knew how badly Voldemort needed to be stopped. However, there were some situations where his actions were unnecessary, or he should have helped.
I’m sure there will be plenty of examples of this, but these are the points I want to discuss since these moments are the ones I feel Dumbledore could have done so much more or was reckless when he didn’t need to be.
Moving the Philosopher’s Stone to Hogwarts
So, in the first instalment of the series, Dumbledore moved the Philosopher’s Stone from Gringotts to Hogwarts. Yes, Hogwarts is one of the safest places on earth, but so is Gringotts. Hagrid says so.
Speaking about Gringotts to Harry, he says;
“No safer place. Not one. Well, except, perhaps, Hogwarts.”
So, even though Hogwarts is “perhaps” one of the safest places, why put something that Voldemort is actively hunting in the depths of the School the prophesied Chosen One is about to attend and live in for the next seven years? Remember, despite the audience not knowing, Dumbledore was fully aware of the prophecy. Dumbledore knew it was Harry mentioned in it (I know it could have been Neville), and he still requested it to be moved. He could have just as easily informed Gringotts that he believed Voldemort or lingering Death Eaters were planning to steal the stone.
Did Dumbledore really have no other option than to bring the Stone and Voldemort to Hogwarts? Where Harry was and not at least inform some teachers or tell Harry to be careful.
Due to this action, Dumbledore puts Harry, Ron and Hermione in danger and generally every soul in Hogwarts. It was almost as if he wanted to expose Harry to Voldemort again and see what would happen. It did well at exposing Harry’s resilience, strength and mentality towards Voldemort. However, it could have ended with his Chosen One, who would save everyone from The Dark Lord dead at age 11, which would have sucked, honestly.
Keeping the school open during the Chamber of Secrets
This one is something I found strange as a teenager, but as I’ve gotten older, society’s politics has kind of clarified Dumbledore’s actions. However, I still believe that some rules can be bent if not broken, especially if they benefit the well-being of souls.
The Heir of Slytherin returns to Hogwarts and opens the Chamber of Secrets, releasing the monster inside, which seeks out all the Muggle-borns in Hogwarts with the intent to kill them. All injured are petrified rather than killed, which still devastates the school. Dumbledore decides to close at one point, but it takes a few days.
I’m not sure how things work elsewhere, but I’m Scottish, so I attended school in Scotland, where Hogwarts is said to be. Now, in my High School (which is what Hogwarts is my real-life equivalent to), we never had the threat of a massive serpent lurking in the bowels of the school, threatening to kill half the school student population. However, in my 2nd Year (around 13 years old, a year older than Harry), there was a gas leak. I had stepped over the invisible threshold of the school (there was nothing dividing school and non-school land), and a teacher walked up to me and others walking in and said, “There’s a gas leak. Go Home. Your parents will have received a text.”
And that was it.
There were a few “Really?” comments from students around me. After it was confirmed, we all spun on our heels and made our way home.
My high school wasn’t residential like Hogwarts, so I could walk home. But are you telling me it took longer than a day to inform staff and students that the school was closing, inform parents and get kids on the train? For me, a gas leak was bad, dangerous. A purest, murderous snake seems worse. Just ever so slightly worse. At least the gas doesn’t have a victim profile other than alive and killable. The snake was a bit more picky.
And if parents couldn’t accommodate their kids coming home so soon. Do you want to tell me that between the entire wizarding world (Hogsmeade, Leaky Cauldron, and other households) that there wasn’t somewhere for kids to go while parents made arrangements?
Let’s do maths, something I failed in school, but I also failed English anyway.
Each Year Group has roughly five boys and five girls per house. That is according to how the Gryffindor Dormitories are laid out.
5 (girls) x 5 (boys) = 10 (students per house, per year)
Number of Students, Per House, Per Year Group x Number of Houses
= 10 x 4
Students Per Year = 40 students per year
Year Groups in Total* x Students Per Year = 7 x 40
7 x 40 = 280 students in Hogwarts
*assuming Hogwarts doesn’t work like Scottish Schools where students can leave for Higher Education/Apprenticeships/Jobs at 16, so all students attend all seven years. I know the Weasley Twins left, so these are rough numbers.
So, Hogwarts hosts around 280 students each academic year. Assuming all students stay for all seven years and that each house has a 5:5 boys-to-girls ratio in each year group.
If we believe that only 10% of wizards are considered Purebloods and apply those same numbers to the Hogwarts student body, that means that 90% of Hogwarts was in potential danger. I know the snake was only after Muggle-borns, but half-bloods could have also been victims.
So, overall 28 students would be Purebloods, and 252 would be Muggle-borns. Those numbers feel off to me since the school has so many Weasley children. From who I’ve been able to count, I’m at 12 Purebloods.
- Ron (2nd year)
- Fred (3rd year)
- George (3rd year)
- Ginny (1st year)
- Percy (4th year)
- Harry (2nd year)
- Neville (2nd year)
- Luna (1st year)
- Draco (2nd year)
- Grabbe (2nd year)
- Goyle (2nd year)
- Pansy (2nd year)
Anyway, if we stick to these numbers and say that 27 of the Purebloods have families that can get them home instantly with the help of magic.
That leaves 252 non-pureblood students to deal with.
If we say that 80% of the remaining kids have families that agree that someone trusted can collect the child from Kings Cross if the Hogwarts Express can drop them off there (or if they get to London any way possible. That would be 201.6 children, which let’s round that to 202 children, who can be collected and brought home. That would leave 50 children stuck. H1 children, since Harry would be included because, let’s be honest, the Dursleys don’t care in the slightest. In most cases, a good chunk of the 50 children can stay with a friend’s family, and Harry would go to the Weasleys. More families will happily take in one or two of the child’s friends until their parents can get them.
So, if we say that 40% of the remaining 50 children can go stay with friends until their parents can get them, that leaves 30 children out of the 280 Hogwarts students stuck. I’m sure between the Leaky Cauldron, Hogsmeade and other establishments, accommodation could be found to house 30 children ages between 11 to 17/18 for a few days, maybe a week, until parents can pick them up.
Would it probably cost Hogwarts? Yes, unless some cost is forgiven for unforeseen circumstances and the urgency to save the students.
However, if I’ve been able to work this out and thought about it, I’ve decided, “Yeah, but my ego and reputation will look a shit ton worse if a student dies AGAIN by this bloody snake, so send them home.” Then Dumbledore could have done this. Plus, it’s Dumbledore. I’m pretty sure half the wizarding community would have broken their backs to bend over backwards for him.
Keeping the Dementors At Hogwarts
I’m putting this in as I’ve seen this mentioned before, as Dumbledore shouldn’t have allowed this. However, Dumbledore never allowed this. The Ministry for Magic told Dumbledore the Dementors would roam the grounds, end of discussion.
It shouldn’t have been allowed; they caused more problems than they were worth and had one job. A single job. Find and stop Sirius Black, and they failed. He got past them and found Harry. Like, seriously? The Ministry were like, “They are the best protection to the school against the mass murderer”, and the floating bin bags played the part of a shit mime better than their job. The Nazgul from Lord of the Rings are ashamed to look remotely like them. Dementors had one job and repeatedly failed completely on their own. The Nazgul had to chase a 4-foot Hobbit across Middle-Earth but had a wizard and god knows what else actively working against them. The Dementor didn’t. No one, not even Remus Lupin, was helping Sirius.
So, yeah, the Dementors weren’t really a Dumbledore thing, but they were also completely useless and failed their only intended task. Instead, repeatedly attack a single student because I guess why the fuck not. Shits and giggles, I guess.
Triwizard Tournament
Despite seeing the films and reading the books multiple times, I’m unsure if this was Dumbledore’s or Crouch’s choice.
First, I will clarify that the Tournament challenges were much worse in the books, especially the final one. So, the one “praise”(?) I can give Dumbledore and Crouch as they set an age limit so only the older students with more training in Defence Against The Dark Arts could participate. Since only the seventh years were allowed to participate, who would have been considered mature enough to weigh up the risks, they made an adequate choice.
Even though their decision was a step in the right direction, they still allowed for the dangerous challenges to go forth. I mean, one of them was stealing a dragon egg. That’s insane. I was a muppet at seventeen, even though I thought I wasn’t, and you are trying to say that letting them loose with a dragon is okay. Mental thought process.
Also, when Harry’s name is pulled (or spat out by pissed-off blue flames), Dumbledore and Crouch just went, “The mighty blue flames say so.” My guys, I know many magical things occur in your world, but even I have the guts to tell family members I’m not doing something. Surely you two big boys could tell the blue flames, “Cheers for the suggestion, but he’s 14, has no parents and a batshit, noseless snake-boy is actively trying to plot his death. Let’s not make it easier for Snake-Boy and his fan goons.” I mean, I’m sure the flames would get over it. If not, ever heard of fire extinguishers? Surely one kind of them would work. Maybe the foam one?
Oh, and I nearly forgot the kidnapping and submersion of four students, one of which wasn’t even a Hogwarts student.
I don’t know if that is better or worse.
Dumbledore may not have said no to the entire Tournament since it’s a tradition and something to be proud of to host, but he surely could have put his foot down about Harry. Honestly, what was Crouch going to do? Have a tantrum? Complain to Fudge? Death Eaters attacked the Quidditch game at the start of the year, so there was already a threat to Harry’s life. What foundation did Crouch have?
“His name came out of the cup, so he must part-take.”
Matey, your son is a freaky wee Snake-Boy fanboy who nearly ruined your reputation once. Plus, you’re a miserable sod to your house elf. Tell me again why I should listen to you.
Sirius, his freedom prison & his death
Sirius was tragic and honestly could have been unforeseeable for Dumbledore.
So, I’ve seen people explain how Dumbledore kept Sirius hidden and trapped in the Black House/Order of the Phoenix base for so long that he began feeling helpless and almost useless. So, after about a year and a half to two years of being trapped in the house, when the Order was called to help Harry and his friends escape the Death Eaters chasing them through the dark depths of the Ministry, Sirius flew out of the house. One was an opportunity to get out of the house, and two, his godson was in danger.
If Dumbledore had given Sirius more freedom, he might have been less inclined to b-line for Harry and the Death Eaters and more likely to listen to reason and stay put, letting the other Order members deal with the situation.
I am inclined to believe that Dumbledore could have some blame for Sirius’ death in this sense since Dumbledore could have loosened the leash a little more. However, on the flip side, Dumbledore had the Ministry breathing down his neck, he was kicked out of Hogwarts, had Harry chasing after him when he thought ignoring Harry would be better, plus a secret organisation brewing underground that only few could know about. One was on the Ministry’s most wanted if he was ever seen alive again. So, like, yeah, letting Sirius out and about would have been beneficial for him, but at the same time, Sirius should have tried to understand that no one was doing this to him because they thought he was guilty of anything or that he wasn’t trusted.
This was happening to keep him and others safe.
Honestly, a bit of Polyjuice potion and hairs from someone homeless would have worked. Sirius could be out of the house pretty much unseen. And it could have worked. Crouch Jr. managed to deceive Dumbledore and others for nine months as Mad-Eye Moody. So, Sirius going out with the face and body of the homeless (maybe just cleaning himself up a bit) wouldn’t have been too hard. Snape would have had access to everything.
Deprived Harry of help, causing him to act dangerously
I wrote this point days ago and now can’t remember what I meant…
I think I was meant during Harry’s time at Hogwarts. Harry would ask or do things, and instead of speaking to him clearly and honestly, Dumbledore would be cryptic and sly with his responses and reasons. Which could have left Harry a bit lost. This could have resulted in him feeling all alone and like he and his friends had to work things out.
Now that I think about it, so many things could have been solved if Dumbledore had just spoken to Harry. Out of the 280 students at the school, Harry was unique and should have been allowed to come to Dumbledore about anything.
Harry thinks the Stone is in danger.
Tell Dumbledore.
Harry knows he never put his name in the goblet.
Tell Dumbledore.
Dumbledore should believe him and disregard the cup.
Harry thinks there is something off about Snape.
Dumbledore should discuss this instead of pushing away his concerns. At the very least, explain why Snape dislikes Harry. (In case you don’t know, Harry looks like the spitting image of James Potter and James would bully/harass Snape while a student at Hogwarts.)
This list could continue, but I won’t bore you with more examples. There is the chance that Dumbledore didn’t want Harry to be treated differently from other students, but he would always be different.
The ultimate question is, was Dumbledore a good person?
In the end, there is more to factor in that Dumbledore has done, which I will write about. However, in the case of endangering people, I feel Dumbledore took the situation with Voldemort too personally. It was almost like he had tunnel vision in an epic chess game, ultimately forgetting his chess pieces were alive. Voldemort had no decent morality to worry about, but everyone trusted Dumbledore to have some.
I don’t think Dumbledore was bad, and he still did good for many. However, there were other options that someone of his age and experience could have chosen to keep everyone a bit safer. Assuming everything that happened wasn’t part of his chess game for “the greater good”.
