Why I Don't Like Albus Dumbledore

Since you all seemed to like last month's Harry Potter Hot Take, here's another! Again, there will potentially be Harry Potter spoilers, so continue at your own risk.

 

You’ve all read the title, so let’s get into this. My main issue with Dumbledore is that he’s manipulative and uncaring. Everything he does is for his plan, no matter how many people get hurt along the way. I know Dumbledore tends to be a fan favorite, so I’ll do my best to explain.

 

First of all, he leaves a one-year-old child on the doorstep of a family that he knows hates him, and just assumes that they’ll find and keep him. He then leaves Harry in this abusive household for ten years, and forces him to return every summer for several years afterwards. He even tells Harry’s neighbor, Arabella Figg, that she couldn’t be nice to him when he had to stay with her. His explanation was that Petunia would carry some of Lily’s maternal protection, as long as he stayed in her house each year. That doesn’t make much sense to me, as Petunia holds no maternal feelings toward Harry, nor does he view her as a maternal figure. Even so, we know that Voldemort was completely out of commission for most of that time, making the “mother’ protection” unnecessary. Furthermore, we see in The Order of the Phoenix that Dumbledore has the power to stop (or at least decrease) the Dursley’s abusive behavior. Please, let me know if you see why he didn’t do anything about it for Harry’s entire childhood, because I’m truly at a loss here.

 

Next, he sends Harry to Hogwarts and begins raising him to die. Throughout the books, Dumbledore does many questionable things that put Harry, his friends, and all the other Hogwarts students in danger, often just because he “knows Harry can handle it” or thinks it will better “prepare him for the future” (paraphrased from the books.) First, his choice in staff is very questionable. Take Argus Filch, the school caretaker, who is set on allowing violent means of punishing students. Or Quirrel, who literally had Voldemort’s face protruding out of the back of his head. And you all know my opinion on Snape already. Dumbledore knowingly allowed Snape to abuse his students for many years, so that he could “keep him close”. Dumbledore also uses his position of Headmaster to manipulate the house points. While that doesn't technically harm anyone, it is definitely a red flag indicator of his generally manipulative behavior.

 

Jumping off my last point, most of the books focus around horrible situations that Harry is put in and Dumbledore allows or causes. In The Sorcerer’s Stone, Dumbledore leaves the Mirror of Erised where he knows Harry will find it, and allows him to continue using it for quite some time, even convincing his friend to sneak out of the dorms in the middle of the night to see it. He also decides to keep a three headed dog and a series of deadly traps in the school, which doesn’t seem particularly safe for the students. Then, of course, we have a giant deadly serpent and one of Voldemort’s horcruxes injuring and almost killing multiple students. Then, there are the giant man-eating spiders in the Forbidden Forest; and the Whomping Willow, which we see destroy a car, break Ron Weasley’s wand, and injure several students later on. In The Goblet of Fire, he allows Harry to participate in the Triwizard Tournament, despite knowing that Harry is underage and did not volunteer his own name. Harry then proceeds to, once again, almost die on several occasions, ending when he’s transported to a creepy graveyard and used to resurrect Voldemort. And finally, he takes Harry to find a horcrux, almost getting both of them killed. While he did take most of the physical pain upon himself, the whole event was very traumatic to Harry. 

 

To be honest I don’t remember a lot from the last few books, but if I recall correctly, Dumbledore dies tragically in front of Harry, and they spend the rest of the time wandering around in the woods, so I think I’ve hit the major points already. Actually, let’s talk about that a bit more.

 

Another thing that Dumbledore does throughout the series is intentionally withhold crucial information, so that Harry has no choice but to do what he says. Harry is constantly chasing him, trying to ask questions and understand what’s happening and what he’s supposed to do, and Dumbledore completely ghosts him, giving evasive answers or completely disappearing. This does, of course, include Dumbledore not preparing Harry at all for his death. Dumbledore was a major father figure for Harry, and the amount of grief we see him to go through that could have been prevented is a little disturbing. Additionally, Dumbledore knew for a long time that Voldemort would have to kill Harry, and doesn’t tell him. Maybe he didn’t want to freak out a kid, but it would have been much less damaging to Harry to explain and prepare him beforehand.

 

Overall, I think it’s fair to say that Dumbledore made some pretty bad decisions, and had some twisted priorities. While he may have had good intentions and certainly viewed himself as the good guy, he harmed a lot of people along the way, in ways I just don’t think are justified.