The Life and Lies of Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore Irvin Khaytman (reading books for 4 year olds .TXT) 📖

the three wands from Draco’s grip” (DH474). This action is not even deigned its own sentence, yet it changes everything, because Harry defeats Draco and masters the Elder Wand by doing so.

To be clear, I do not think that Dumbledore ever planned for what happened in the final duel between Harry and Voldemort: that Voldemort, in possession of the Elder Wand, would have a Killing Curse rebound because Harry was its true master. There is no mention in the books, amidst all the discussion about mastering the wand, that indicates Dumbledore planned for Voldemort to actually own the wand. He knew that Voldemort would be searching for the wand, but he did not expect Voldemort to succeed. I think Dumbledore expected Snape to be able to keep the wand from Voldemort, trusting to Snape’s own prodigious skill and cunning to outfox Voldemort—Snape probably had instructions to go into the tomb and snag the wand if Voldemort got close. However, Voldemort’s quest for the Elder Wand was done much more on the down-low than his quests usually are, so Snape was unaware of the need to intervene until it was too late.

Putting Plans in Their Place

“But, no, I really wanted, very consciously, for the history of the wizarding world to hinge on this moment where two teenage boys have a physical [fight]. They don’t even do it by magic.

“That sort of puts all of Voldemort’s and Dumbledore’s grandiose plans in their place, doesn’t it? You just can’t plan that well, that something can go wrong and it went wrong . . . It went wrong because Harry managed to pull this wand out of Draco’s grip.”

It must be said, this is one of my favorite quotes of Jo’s from any of her interviews. It really puts things in perspective, doesn’t it? Dumbledore had so many carefully laid plans before he died. He planned for eventualities and had backups, and then in the end, most of his plans ended up completely useless.

Plan D (making Harry the master of Death) worked through a lot of coincidences, after being rendered obsolete by Draco Disarming Dumbledore. But it wasn’t needed, because Voldemort tethering Harry to life ended up being enough.

Plan C (delaying the moment Harry finds out he has to die) very nearly failed for several reasons, chief among them that Voldemort succeeded in finding the Elder Wand and killed Snape just as it was unfolding.

Plan B (Snape defeating Voldemort should Harry die) never had the chance to come to pass on account of Harry living and Snape dying. Snape could not have defeated Voldemort, because he predeceased Harry, but someone else probably would have after receiving protection from Harry’s sacrifice.

And the only plan that did end up working as designed was Plan A—destroying Horcruxes, Harry sacrificing himself and coming back to life in order to defeat Voldemort. Sometimes, the most straightforward plan is the most effective. Harry also got the bonus of not having to actually kill Voldemort, but that wasn’t part of the plan.

Since I can only imagine how much your head must be spinning by now (since I know mine is), at the end of the chapter is a handy diagram of all of Dumbledore’s plans for what will happen after he dies. As you can see, there are two key moments: Harry finding out he has to die, and the actual sacrifice.

Worth noting is that all of Dumbledore’s plans for the entire wizarding world focused on only two individuals that we know of: Harry and Snape. Dumbledore treats all his other allies as pawns and only Harry and Snape as significant chess pieces. But the focus on Harry was at Snape’s expense. Dumbledore concentrated all his efforts on keeping Harry alive, whereas he trusted Snape to stay alive through his own formidable intelligence. And for all that went wrong, in the end Dumbledore achieved his two objectives: defeating Voldemort and saving Harry.

Chapter 7:

Albus Dumbledore and the

Deathly Hallows

“But there were any number of things that would seem incredible about Dumbledore; that he had once received bottom marks in a Transfiguration test, for instance, or had taken up goat-charming like Aberforth. . . .” (DH182)

So wonders Harry in Deathly Hallows upon reading a truncated letter of his mother’s. But perhaps the most incredible thing about Dumbledore is that, although he’s dead in Deathly Hallows, the character looms larger than ever before, because of the surprising and fascinating focus on his legacy that pervades the book.

This is very appropriate given that Dumbledore is Machiavelli’s Prince, and much of his strategy relied on maintaining a sterling reputation. Because as soon as Dumbledore is no longer around to defend himself, everyone has an awful lot to say about him.

Before the word “Horcruxes” is even brought up in the seventh book—by page 28—we have read two wildly contradictory stories about Dumbledore: Elphias Doge’s and Rita Skeeter’s. Even as the wizarding world crumbles around him, Harry becomes consumed trying to parse out which version is closer to the truth.

We begin with perhaps the most rose-tinted version of Dumbledore, as his childhood best friend eulogizes him in the Daily Prophet (DH16-20). But no one sets very much store by what Doge says, because he “skated over the sticky patches in that obituary of yours!” (DH153) Rita Skeeter’s aspersions on his intelligence are expected, but Auntie Muriel also says, “Oh, we all know you worshipped Dumbledore!” (DH154) Aberforth gets the final word, and he (very colorfully) concurs: Elphias “thought the sun shone out of my brother’s every orifice.” (DH563)

Of course, the other sources provided aren’t reliable either. We already know not to trust Rita Skeeter, even before Elphias Doge says that “Skeeter’s book contains less fact than a Chocolate Frog card.” (DH24) As Hermione astutely points out, “Harry, do you really think you’ll get the truth from a malicious old woman like Muriel, or from Rita Skeeter?” (DH185) So we have to wade through a lot of misinformation before getting to the truth from the Dumbledore brothers.

There are two key aspects