By the time you read this I will be dead, my only hope is that you expose the greatest dark wizard of our time and destroy his horcrux, in the hope that he will one day meet his end.
Harry Potter thought he had learned all of Albus Dumbledore’s secrets the night before the Dark Lord fell, but the believed to be deceased wizard had shared his biggest secret with nobody, except his friend and noted dark wizard Gellert Grindlewald. The desire of the two young men to ascend to positions of ultimate power and overturn the statute of secrecy did not wane as they grew older, but rather intensified and grew in malevolence. Both men desired the Deathly Hallows in the belief that they would grant them immortality. However, they both knew that there could only be one master of death, and so Dumbledore educated Grindlewald on the subject of horcruxes. After much argument and deliberation it was decided that Gellert would have the Hallows and Albus would have horcruxes. Now all that was needed was a sacrificial victim and a vessel to contain the soul fragment. I do not know what the vessel is. I can only speculate that it may be the phoenix Fawkes, or perhaps Dumbledore made the vessel a completely random object, so that it may never be round. The identity of the horcrux aside, the choice of victim must have been an easy one.
After the funeral of Arianna Dumbledore, Grindlewald and Dumbledore went their separate ways. This was of course part of the plan but the two men were in nearly constant correspondence. The Hallows remained to be found, and it is likely that during the years they spent apart, resentment began to grow between the pair. Grindlewald’s frustration at not yet achieving immortality caused him to act rashly and eager to prove his power, he began his string of murders. Meanwhile Dumbledore was living up to his status as head boy and had secured employment at Hogwarts within a few years. It wasn’t long before he set about concealing the horcrux books under the false pretence of protecting students from their contents. His real plan was to prevent any other student from following in his footsteps and posing a threat to his ascent to power.
The resentment between Dumbledore and Grindlewald must have reached its peak when Gellert announced himself as a dark lord and began to gather a significant following independent of Albus. This was not part of the plan and Dumbledore must have assumed that Grindlewald did not want to share power. Urged by the international magical community and no doubt by his own fury at Gellert for betraying him and had obtaining the Elder Wand without informing him, Dumbledore challenged and beat Grindlewald in wizard combat. Now he had a horcrux and one of the hallows, and was soon offered the post of Headmaster at Hogwarts which he gracefully accepted.
Dumbledore was offered the position of the minister of magic on many occasions and would have accepted, if it wasn’t for the one man who posed a threat to his sole dominion. Dumbledore had often suspected Tom Riddle of attempting to access the horcrux books during his time at Hogwarts but had grossly underestimated Tom’s ambition and magical prowess. Eager to maintain his favorable opinion in the eyes of his fellow wizards Dumbledore fought against Lord Voldemort as best he could, and was among those praised the highest when Voldemort was ‘defeated’ in 1981. Voldemorts downfall was not good news for Dumbledore who strongly suspected that Riddle had made horcruxes and this meant his plan to seize control was again delayed.
You will of course be familiar with the story of Harry Potter. He was and still is a good man and righteous to the core. What made it easy for Dumbledore is that good men are predictable and easy to manipulate. It had been nearly eighty years since Dumbledore created his horcrux and his greed in obtaining the resurrection stone meant that his horcrux would be put to the test. When Harry Potter met with Dumbledore 'inside his head’ on the day Potter was 'killed’ little did he know Dumbledore had been inside him since the previous summer. When Dumbledore’s soul had been ripped from his body by Severus Snape it latched onto Harry Potter much like Voldemort’s had when he had failed to kill Harry back in 1981. When Voldemort destroyed his seventh, unintentional horcrux he did not destroy Dumbledore who was using Harry as a host body not as a horcrux, much like Voldemort used Quirrel.
The rest of the story remains uncertain. But what I do know is that the recent strain of attacks on muggles and muggle-borns is because of the direct or indirect actions of Albus Dumbledore in whatever form he is taking. I have scoured the Forbidden Forrest for the resurrection stone but it is gone. The portrait of Albus Dumbledore at Hogwarts has been vacant for ten years. It is the only portrait of Albus Dumbledore in existence which suggests to me that Dumbledore has returned to a physical body once more.
It occurred to me that these facts were not absolute proof of his return. That is why I searched Dumbledores tomb this evening. A body was there, but it’s nose was not broken and it’s hand was not withered. It was not the body of Albus Dumbledore. I can only imagine that in the time Dumbledore spent separated from his body he forgot the minor details that a historian like myself would not. There is no recorded event of the tomb being penetrated other than when Voldemort took the Elder Wand. Everyone on the wizarding world regarded Dumbledore as a hero and would have no reason to disturb his tomb. The only explanation, is that Dumbledore returned to his original body and left a doppelganger in it’s place.
As you may not be aware the cloak of invisibility was stolen from Albus Potter during his first year at Hogwarts, and the perpetrator was never caught. Having seen his father disappearing under the cloak on many occasions I am familiar with the shimmer of the cloak as it is thrown over the body. Upton my return to Hogsmeade I witnessed this same shivering just outside of the Hogshead pub. I heard screams from the pub, I thought I heard 'he’s dead, Dumbledore’s dead’. This of course was in reference to Aberforth Dumbledore. Then I saw it, a withered black hand, as though floating in mid air, it was pointed at me. Then a face appeared, it was horrible but distinct, the eyes glowed red in the darkness, the eyes of a soul torn in two. It was Albus Dumbledore. At that moment I knew, I knew the truth of things. Before he could strike me down I disaparated to my home and began writing this letter.
I suspect I shall be murdered before the night is over. But if you are reading this then I implore you to stop Albus Dumbledore. I am sorry for the crudeness of this letter and that I could not be more helpful. Knowing Dumbledore’s ability, his ascent to power would be even more great and terrible than that of Lord Voldemort or Gellert Grindlewald. He must be stopped.
Remus had left the wizarding world a long time ago. It didn’t stop Dumbledore from finding him.
Knuckles white on the frame of his open front door, Remus stared down at Dumbledore standing in the hallway. The old man hadn’t even bothered to change out of his purple robes in the decrepit Muggle building. Against Remus’ cold, hard glare, he only gazed stoically back, making Remus feel ridiculous and childish.
“I’m sure you know why I’m here.” Dumbledore said lightly.
Remus let out a long sigh. “Come in, Albus.” He looked away, seeing out of the corner of his eye Dumbledore brushing past him to enter the room. Reaching to lock the door, he took a moment to steel himself, then turned to face Dumbledore— who already made himself comfortable on the only chair at Remus’ kitchen table.
“Tea?”
“Yes please, one sugar.” and he went on without preamble, “Remus, I’m sure you’ve heard—”
“Yes.”
“Then I suppose you know what I’m trying to ask.”
“Albus, I know what you want, but you can’t convince me that I’ll be able to help—”
“—My reasons are many, Remus, much of which to do with your expertise is unrelated to the present situation—”
“—I haven’t wielded a wand in years.”
“It appears you don’t need to.” Dumbledore looked pointedly at Remus’ hand, poised mid-air in summoning the kettle.
Remus cursed internally. He was too used to the motion. He roughly set the mug on the table, dumping in teabag and hot water as aggressively as he dared. “I’ve hardly been keeping up with academia or scholarly habits.”
“So you’ve told me in the past two years, I am not worried about your qualification. There is a lot Hogwarts can offer you—” Remus snorted, “— a stable income, comfortable living conditions, worthwhile companionship—”
If Remus wanted to feel more resentful, he’d have sworn Dumbledore almost took pleasure in listing off all the things he didn’t have, the things he’d been offered but pushed away out of pure stubbornness. Though this year was different, he felt too distracted long as neither of them addressed the elephant in the room. “Albus, I’m sure you have more competent candidates on the table.”
“You’ll be surprised to find how underdeveloped is the wizarding world’s instinct for education”
“And this isn’t what you’re here for.”
“No,” Dumbledore admitted, voice even as ever. “I’m asking you to protect Hogwarts.”
“Again, Albus, there are many who are more competent—”
“I’m asking you to protect Harry.”
They stared silently at each other. Remus’ heart was pounding resentfully, as it did whenever reminded of the sheer hypocrisy of this man, who so roughly pushed Remus away twelve years ago, from where he could have been at Harry side. Dumbledore lifted his mug to sip at the tea. Remus’ own mug was untouched and going cold.
“What do you think Sirius is after.” Remus asked, the name scorching on his lips. Dumbledore looked at him sharply.
“We believe it’s Harry.”
Remus tried to speak but found he couldn’t draw a breath.
“My reasons are truly various, Remus.” Dumbledore continued, as Remus remained silent, “I know you will not hurt Lily Evans’ son.”
Then he was looking at Remus with just the slightest purse of lips, crease of brows, that it let Remus know exactly why Dumbledore wanted to keep Remus under close watch. And he had to give it to Dumbledore, because he’d be lying if he said he didn’t know how Sirius might have escaped, if he said he hasn’t been watching the streets for a shaggy black dog.
It wasn’t that he loved a murderer. Neither was it that he “never stopped loving” the seventeen year-old boy. Either would be grotesque in his mouth now. But there was a string, tethered to Sirius, buried deep, deep in his chest that had never snapped.
“I know you are one I could be frank with, Remus,” Dumbledore said then, “you have never truly blamed it all on Sirius, have you?”
Remus’ jaws tightened. He made no reply.
“I know, Remus, you’ve always blamed me for the making of your generation. And I do admit. If not for trying to make soldiers out of children, we wouldn’t have seen the cowards and murderers they’d become.”
And Remus dared not look at Dumbledore, fearing he’d lose his control and do something he’ll regret to this venerated wizard.
“But Sirius is a real threat now. To us, to Harry. What you believe matters, and I implore you to think, carefully, Remus.”
Remus walked to the window.
“I think Harry is going to need you.”
With his back to Dumbledore and trying to reign in his heavy breathing, he found himself nodding jerkily. Shortly, he heard the chair scraping and Dumbledore’s steps towards the door.
“Again, think carefully, Remus. I will see you in September.”
As the front door clicked soft close, Remus sunk to the floor, face in his hands. He tried to gauge the image of Sirius’ manic face from rising to his mind, the one that has populated news channels and papers as much as his nightmares. Most terrifyingly, the madness, those eyes, were hardly something beyond recognition. No, beneath it all, this was yet the Sirius he knew. Remus had been running, running away from it all for all of a decade. But now the string in his chest tugged and stretched painfully, pulling him to a stop. He was just on the verge, of catapulting back into the abyss.
I’m back to Starkid, so, I’ve watched “A Very Potter Senior Year and my very first reaction was: “That’s real Luna!” – meaning that it’s an actress who played Luna in the movies. That was cool. The plot is basically (mostly) based on the second book – “The Chamber of Secrets”, just Tom is showing Ginny through the diary… oh, sorry, journal flashbacks, which Dumbledore was showing Harry in the sixth book. We get to know why Tom’s always dancing – Dumbledore taught him. By the way, his dancing philosophy reminded me of something: “When the world sucks, just dance!” = “If your hands are shaking, make them jazz hands!” (From “The Prom”) Harry hearing the Basilisk – “Snake” was very funny! It was probably one of the best jokes, actually. I also liked, how Draco tries to remind Harry that they are friends and started retelling their school years – so, we get to know, that in the third year they actually got to Pigfarts and there were “singing, dancing and clean jokes”. Lockhart was also interesting – in this interpretation, he didn’t steal somebody’s deeds, but he steals muggle books and sells them in the magic world. (Spoilers!) He also made Hermione (who was in love with him and was writing explicit smut fanfiction based on his books) write him about Harry’s adventures, “fixed” it and wrote the original “Harry Potter” books that way. He was going to sell them in the muggle world. Harry, by the way, also had problems with Lockhart, because he was stealing his fame, so Harry tried to become popular again, but the only thing he did for it – broke up with Ginny. When the Chamber was open, he was accused of opening it – Lockhart said, that Potter decided to create a mystery for himself to solve it and restore popularity. By the way, there was an unexpected Death Note reference (that to see Tom, you have to touch the journal) – this stuff is pursuing me. Well, getting back to the plot – when all this Chamber stuff got intense Harry decided to leave, because he was under too much stress and pressure. He went to the Godric’s Hollow, opened the lucky snitch, found the resurrection stone inside it and talked to his parents, to Sirius and Remus. And to Cedric. Oh my god, Cedric Diggory and Lily – officially the weirdest stuff I’ve ever seen in my life. Cedric and Lily are married in heaven. Harry also talked to Severus. Well, of course, then Ron brought him back to school, they fought the Basilisk and won. Everybody’s happy, the only victim in Scarfy (rest in peace), Ron proposes to Hermione and she says yes. The last scene, platform 9¾, Harry sends his son – Albus Scarfy to Hogwarts and that’s okay, but you know whom do we see next. Quirrell and Voldemort together (as at the end of the very first musical) sending their daughter to school. Oh good Lord in Hell, I cried and they did everything to make me – they made the girl call them “daddies”, they made Voldemort give a speech about found family and love and they made Quirrell say “Okay is wonderful!”. I’m super dead.
I’ve watched “A Very Potter Sequel” and God, I wasn’t disappointed! The only thing that bothers me a little – it seems that there are more jokes… lower than the belt than it was in the first one, or is it just me? Well, I don’t have something against those jokes – just noticing. (Spoilers!) Well, they just couldn’t not show us the first year – how everybody met, got sorted, start their classes and play quidditch. We also got some Marauders’ stories. Because yes, it’s the first year, but still has so much stuff mixed – Lupin and Sirius (oh, a little Wolfstar fan in me was so happy) Umbridge and Dumbledore missing, and time travelling Malfoys… Yes! Lucious Malfoy. O. My. Devil. He’s so handsome! (I know, that it’s the same actor as Cedric Diggory) And he dances all the time! He can’t make a single simple step – all is choreographed. He also has too much eyeliner, but since Brian and Pat taught us (“Gill and Gilbert”, episode 14), that eyeliner equals magic, I think it’s reasonable. Enjoyed seeing Joe Walker (yes, I’ve learned his name) as Umbridge – he was remarkable. Fabulous. If he had spoken normally, I think, I might have even fallen for this character. Do you think I didn’t cry? Of course, you didn’t think so, you know me too well. I cried on “Guys Like Potter” because it makes me feel feelings and I shed a happy tear during the bows when the whole cast was singing “Going back to Hogwarts”. Totally watching the next part. P.S. One thing which was unclear for me was Narcissa and Dobby and how could she “choreograph an affair” with him, but then I remembered that Hagrid’s parents existed in canon and rejoiced that Dobby was at least an adult elf for sure.
Also, my favorite type of anti-Dumbledore author is the one that criticizes him for being “manipulative” while at the same time subtly changing canon events and canon characters’ opinions in undisclosed ways to manipulate their readers into feeling the same way
i.e. a character that is canonically loyal and adoring of Dumbledore suddenly making random, offhand, blink-and-you-miss-it negative comments as if they’ve felt that way all along, rather than that character witnessing a bad act and learning and growing to change their opinions about the man organically in the course of the story
Although I do like the Newtina ship, but as a black female fan of the Harry Potter franchise, I was rooting for Leta and Newt more. Taking away the race dynamics, Leta and Newt simply have more chemistry than Newt and Tina. The way that Newt starred at the photo of her in the first film was beautiful. Leta Lestrange’s storyline is incredibly hurtful and offensive. If you’re going to write more diversie characters, specifically black female characters, don’t write her as the product of the rape of a black woman, a “tragic mulatto,” and then only to have her sacrifice herself for her white suitors. Regardless of which Scamander she ended up with, I wanted Leta to be more than a mere footnote in the love story of Newt Scamander and Tina Goldstein’s relationship. I wanted to see more black women be sought after and loved as full human beings and love interest in sci-fi/fantasy. I know that Tina and Newt’s marriage and Bellatrix Lestrange exist in the HP books. So, does that mean JK Rowling planned this awful storyline from the beginning? However, At the very least, a fun friendship between Leta, Newt, Tina, Queenie, and Jacob. I honestly wish JK Rowling hadn’t even created Leta Lestrange to disrespect her in this way.
In SoD Gellert approaches Albus and he makes clear that he WANTS his presense. But until the very end of the movie he does not show his vulnerability. He flirts, he shows irritation when things don’t go his way, he retaliates with bigoted comments, but until the ‘who will ove you now Dumbledore?’ he does not open up about his feelings; not even when Albus says that he was in love with him, which Gellert simply acknowledges as a fact. On the other hand Albus is very open about his emotions. He does not hide his vulnerability. But he witholds physical intimacy.
When we reach the peak of the duel, with the sound of their heartbeats and their hands over each other’s hear, Gellert’s eyes fall on the hands because he is given the touch that he’s been deprived of. On the contrary, Albus is fixed on Gellert’s face because he finally sees the other man’s honest yearning unfiltered and without any pose and pretenses.
After their hands drop, Gellert steps forward trying to close the space between them, still focused on touch and proximity. Albus steps back, but he still can’t take his eyes off Gellert’s vulnerable expression. This is not what REALLY happens as the actors perform, in the sense that the shots we see of the characters’ faces are not the result of a linear take, but in the final product Albus blinks ONCE in the span of one minute because he can’t stop taking in Gellert’s face. I’m telling you that’s NOT normal. I can’t stay unblinking for that long. These two have compromised me emotionally.
By naming his son Albus, Harry bestowed upon him Dumbledore’s legacy: befriending a blond, brilliant young man, who understands him like no one else can, and falling head over heels in love with him.
“I have experimented; I have pushed the boundaries of magic further, perhaps, than they have ever been pushed — ”
“Of some kinds of magic,” Dumbledore corrected him quietly. “Of some. Of others, you remain … forgive me … woefully ignorant.”
For the first time, Voldemort smiled. It was a taut leer, an evil thing, more threatening than a look of rage. “The old argument,” he said softly. “But nothing I have seen in the world has supported your famous pronouncements that love is more powerful than my kind of magic, Dumbledore.”
“Perhaps you have been looking in the wrong places,” suggested Dumbledore.
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Gellert: “Kill me, then, Voldemort, I welcome death! But my death will not bring you what you seek… there is so much you do not understand…“
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Albus: “That which Voldemort does not value, he takes no trouble to comprehend. Of house-elves and children’s tales, of love, loyalty, and innocence, Voldemort knows and understands nothing.”
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At last he said, ‘Grindelwald tried to stop Voldemort going after the wand. He lied, you know, pretended he had never had it.’
Dumbledore nodded, looking down at his lap, tears still glittering on the crooked nose. ‘They say he showed remorse in later years, alone in his cell at Nurmengard. I hope that it is true. I would like to think he did feel the horror and shame of what he had done. Perhaps that lie to Voldemort was his attempt to make amends … to prevent Voldemort from taking the Hallow …’
‘…or maybe from breaking into your tomb?’ suggested Harry, and Dumbledore dabbed his eyes.
