Hey everyone,
Welcome to another instalment of Harry Potter Theory.
Today, we’ll be discussing whether or not the late, great—and highly revered—Albus
Dumbledore ever created his own HORCRUX—before his untimely death.
For those of you who may be unfamiliar with the term or haven’t read up on your Harry
Potter lore recently, here’s a quick review of Horcruxes, what exactly it takes to create
one, and where they pop up in the Harry Potter series.
To start with…
What is a Horcrux?
And how is it made?
Horcruxes are objects of Dark Magic that are created by a witch or wizard who wishes to
live forever by immortalising a piece of their soul inside a vessel of their choosing.
The witch or wizard must first intentionally rip away a part of their soul from their body
by committing murder in COLD BLOOD.
Now, that last part—the bit about the murder being committed in cold blood—is particularly
important for our topic today—but I’ll explain that in just a moment.
Once the soul has been split, the witch or wizard then magically places the piece of
their torn soul into a vessel of their choosing in order to immortalise themselves.
The vessel of a Horcrux can be just about anything but it typically takes the form of
an inanimate object.
That said, it CAN be made by using a living being, such as an animal, creature, human,
or otherwise.
Making a living being into a Horcrux, however, comes with substantially more risk than using
an inanimate object, as the vessel can obviously think for itself and may not obey the creator
of the Horcrux whose bit of soul lives inside them—for example, think of Harry Potter
as Voldemort’s Horcrux—but again, I’m getting ahead of myself...Finally, in order
to complete the process of making a Horcrux, the witch or wizard must perform a ritual
of Dark Magic that accompanies placing one’s torn soul into the chosen vessel.
What this ritual is exactly, is not widely known, as the magic surrounding this type
of Dark Magic is kept quite guarded by those who believe it to be among the most evil forms
of magic in existence.
For this reason, it is not taught in the curriculum at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
and many students believe that not even the Restricted Section of the school’s library
contains any material on this particular dark topic.
Which brings us to the series itself.
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When do Horcruxes appear in Harry Potter?
Throughout Harry Potter, we primarily see Horcruxes used by Lord Voldemort in his attempt
to immortalise himself and live forever.
In fact, the Dark Lord is so desperate to live forever and remain the most powerful
wizard in existence that he goes so far as to create SEVEN Horcruxes—a feat previously
unheard of.
The fact that that many Horcruxes had never been created by a single witch or wizard was
due to the idea that ripping one’s soul that many times would theoretically cause
incredible instability, not only for the soul itself, but for the witch or wizard’s remaining
form—which we see with Voldemort’s very non-human-like appearance.
Not to mention the fact that the Dark Lord would’ve had to commit seven murders in
cold blood AND perform the heinous ritual each and every time—a ritual too dark to
be written about or taught at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
In any case, the first Horcrux of Voldemort’s that we learn about is his former diary from
when he was a student at Hogwarts.
The next three Horcruxes are valuable possessions that belonged to three of the four Hogwarts’
founders, including Helga Hufflepuff’s golden cup, Rowena Ravenclaw’s diadem, and Salazar
Slytherin’s locket.
Voldemort also managed to steal his uncle, Marvolo Gaunt’s, heirloom ring—later to
be discovered as the Resurrection Stone, one of the three Deathly Hallows.
The final Horcrux that the Dark Lord made INTENTIONALLY was his snake companion the
Maledictus Nagini, with the seventh, truly final—and inadvertent—Horcrux being Harry
Potter himself.
This, of course, brings us to today’s theory in question: Did Albus Dumbledore ever create
his own Horcrux?
Let’s take a look.
Dumbledore’s Horcrux: The Theory So, knowing that creating a Horcrux is a bit
of EXTREMELY Dark Magic that we’ve previously only ever heard about Lord Voldemort practising
(and I suppose Herpo the Foul), how did a theory surrounding the incredibly well-respected
Albus Dumbledore and Horcruxes even come to be?
Well, apparently, the theory—which has been around for years—is the result of multiple
fan theories.
The two most prominent both claim that it’s possible that Dumbledore COULD HAVE created
his own Horcrux in his youth, however, they differ in terms of which vessel they believe
he used to deposit his soul into.
One of the very first theories claimed that Dumbledore could have created a Horcrux out
of the Elder Wand—another one of the three Deathly Hallows.
While the other, more prominent theory said that his Horcrux may actually have been Fawkes,
Dumbledore’s pet phoenix.
These theories were further supported by fans’ unified belief that Dumbledore has a—for
want of a better word—darker side.
This clearly stems from the fact that he had an intense friendship with Gellert Grindelwald
and held incredibly misguided ideological beliefs in his youth.
Not to mention the whole he raised up Harry like a “pig for slaughter” thing.
And while I’ll admit that Dumbledore is not all butterflies and sherbert lemons, I
really can’t believe that Albus Dumbledore was capable of such a thing…
Dumbledore’s Horcrux: DEBUNKED In my opinion, the theory that Dumbledore
secretly made a Horcrux just doesn’t make any sense.
For one thing, he’s never murdered anyone in cold blood.
While I guess it’s possible that he secretly killed another witch or wizard this way, it
seems rather unlikely considering all the things that he eventually stood for and opposed—such
as Grindelwald and Voldemort.
Meaning the only instance that we know of in which Albus was involved in someone’s
death was his sister, Ariana Dumbledore’s.
Ariana’s accidental death occurred around the year 1900, soon after Albus had graduated
from his final year at Hogwarts.
The issue here is that no one—not even Dumbledore himself—knew who dealt the magical blow
that killed Ariana.
In fact, she may have actually killed herself, as she was an obscurial whose magic was incredibly
unpredictable and dangerous.
Even so, if Dumbledore was responsible for casting the magic that killed Ariana, it certainly
wasn’t done in cold blood.
In fact, Ariana’s death was an accident that he lamented until he himself died, feeling
incredible guilt and remorse for not better protecting his ailing younger sister.
Not to mention the fact that he never performed the Dark Magic ritual associated with creating
a Horcrux.
Personally, I don’t care how devastated he was about the death of his sister, there’s
no way his feelings of remorse and guilt could have clouded his judgement to the point that
he would’ve mutilated or disrespected her body to create a Horcrux.
Then there’s the question of the actual objects suspected of being Albus Dumbledore’s
Horcruxes…the Elder Wand and Fawkes the phoenix.
At this point in his life, during the height of his relationship with Grindelwald and his
belief that the two of them needed to reunite the three Deathly Hallows and overtake the
Muggle race, there’s no way he even HAD the Elder Wand.
At this time, Dumbledore also had yet to meet Fawkes, as it’s widely believed that the
first time he encountered the bird was in the late 1920s when a phoenix—presumed to
be Fawkes—came to the aid of Credence—who was actually Albus’ nephew, Aurelius Dumbledore.
It’s speculated that Fawkes then became Dumbledore’s companion after these events.
There’s also the fact that Fawkes’ behaviour towards Dumbledore, while certainly similar
to the loyalty of, say, Nagini to Voldemort—or Horcrux to wizard, if you will—is completely
different in a many number of ways.
To start with, the Dumbledore family and phoenixes have a longstanding history and relationship
in which the rare and powerful birds are known to come to the aid of any Dumbledore in need.
Albus mentions that his grandfather benefitted from such a bond, and we also see this occur
when the phoenix comes to Credence’s side in Fantastic Beasts 2 and then again in 3.
There’s also the fact that after Albus Dumbledore’s death, Fawkes sings his Lament and then leaves—never
to be seen again.
If he had part of Dumbledore inside him, you’d think he would’ve stuck around to help Harry
defeat Voldemort—right?
My final note on why this theory is not valid is the sheer fact that it’s been rejected
by JK Rowling, who came right out and called it “strangely unsettling”.
And, with that, we’ve come to the end of another video!
What did you think?
Do you agree with me?
Or do you think it’s entirely possible that Albus Dumbledore did in fact have it in him
to create his own Horcrux?
Please share your thoughts in the comments below!
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the channel!
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Until next time…remember
"It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live."