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Welcome to another installment of Harry Potter Theory. In this video we’re going to be
discussing beloved Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore-and diving deep in to the question:
Did he ever kill anyone?
Now, the Dumbledore that we come to know and love in the books and films is a calm, cool,
gentle and most of all calculated man. He has more wisdom than he knows what to do with,
and he is widely considered to be the most powerful wizard of all time. It seems like
he’s got it all figured out, and he gives us the impression that he has ALWAYS had it
figured out. But, if we claw back just a little in to Albus Dumbledore’s past, we can quickly
find out that things were not always so peachy keen for Albus Dumbledore. Like everyone else,
Albus too had to find his way in the world, and to ultimately achieve what he did, he
made a few mistakes along the way. At the end of the day, he is only human, just like
the rest of us.
Albus Dumbledore was born in late August 1881 in a town called Mould-on-the-Would, a mainly
wizarding town in the UK. In the autumn of 1892, at the age of 11, Albus began attending
Hogwarts. When he first started attending Hogwarts he had a bit of a hard time, this
stemmed from stigma surrounding his father, Percival, who was sent to Azkaban for attacking
3 muggle children. Percival’s actions were in response to muggle children in his home
town attacking his daughter, and Albus’s sister, Ariana. People were under the impression
that the Dumbledore family hated muggles, Albus included, and this made his formative
year at Hogwarts difficult. Despite hardships in his family during his time at school, he
excelled as a student, which is no surprise given that he is perhaps the most innately
talented wizard of all time. Albus went on to win the Barnabus Finkley Prize for Exceptional
Spell Casting, an award presented for showcasing excellent spell-casting techniques. He also
went on to win other wizarding accolades such as the Gold Medal for Ground-Breaking Contributions
to the International Alchemical Conference. Albus was as exemplary a student as one could
be, and was clearly a shining pupil with remarkable capabilities and an uncanny ability to learn.
After finishing school in the year 1899, Albus returned to his home town of Godric’s Hollow
to be with his family after the death of his mother, Kendra Dumbledore. Albus, being the
eldest sibling, knew that he would have to take care of his younger siblings, particularly
Ariana who had problems controlling her magical abilities. It was during this time that Albus
became friends with Gellert Grindelwald, a young man who had moved to his small village
to live with his aunt Bathilda Bagshot, who was a family friend of the Dumbledore’s
and Grindelwald’s great-aunt. Immediately recognizing each other’s magical prowess
and amazing magical capabilities, the two boys hit it off immediately. Despite being
very close, the pair eventually hit a crossroads. They hit a point where their paths would diverge
in a very big way. It was Grindelwald’s intention to find the deathly Hallows, then
lead a wizarding revolution that would effectively put an end to the international statute of
secrecy, breaking down the ‘secretive’ divide between the two worlds- muggle and
magical. This revolution would create a global power hierarchy that would place powerful
witches and wizards at the top of the food chain, effectively giving them full control
of muggles and muggle affairs. What may surprise you most about this plan, is that Dumbledore
was fully on-board with it. What we see Grindelwald trying to accomplish in Fantastic Beasts as
the antagonist, is something that our very own beloved Hogwarts headmaster almost contributed
towards. It’s hard to believe that the gentle, kind old man that looks after the Hogwarts
student body once wanted control over muggles. It seems so out of character, and it’s really
a huge blemish on Dumbledore’s record. Yes, he was young,stupid,impressionable, and muggles
had indirectly torn his family apart- but still, having wizardkind rule over mugglekind
seems a bit extreme. The only reason that Grindelwald and Dumbledore eventually parted
ways, was because Grindelwald used the cruciatus curse on Dumbledore’s brother, Abeforth.
Abeforth openly expressed his disgust at their plan, and Grindelwald did not handle the situation
very well. Though Dumbledore was very close with Grindelwald, he was always going to protect
his brother. When the Cruciatus curse was placed on Abeforth by Grindelwald, a duel
broke out between the three wizards. Albus’s sister Ariana got caught in the crossfire,
and was killed. Thsi effectively put an end to the relationship between Dumbledore and
Grindelwald, and meant that Dumbledore would have no role in Grindelwald’s plan to establish
a global wizarding hierarchy.
So, even if Dumbledore never went through with the plan, there was clearly a time in
his life where he made some morally dubious decisions. He wasn’t the man that we know
today, and I can’t help but wonder what sorts of things he did while he was in this
morally transient state. But I also wonder, if he was willing to make these more questionable
decisions in his youth, if any of it followed him in to adulthood. Was Dumbledore more of
a morally dubious person than we might care to believe?
Dumbledore is known to be the only person that Voldemort ever feared- even the death
eaters feared him, and their whole thing is that they are pure evil, and don’t fear
anything. Interesting that they would fear a wise old wizard, regardless of how powerful
he is, if he is just pure in the greatest sense of the word. Surely, Dumbledore must
have an edge. Though this ‘edge’ isn’t exposed to us directly, there is a clue in
the Deathly Hallows which suggests that Dumbledore may even be capable of murder.
"Of course you were," said Harry. "Of course - how can you ask that? You never killed if
you could avoid it!"
"True, true," said Dumbledore, and he was like a child seeking reassurance.
In this passage, with the utterance of just two words, Dumbledore effectively exposes
an entirely new side of himself to the reader. ‘And he was like a child seeking reassurance’
is just a slightly less direct way of saying yes, Dumbledore had killed before.
I would imagine that Dumbledore had killed, but only when the circumstances demanded it.
If he had truly never killed, then he would have given Harry a much more direct response.
Something like ‘Yes, I would never kill someone’ or ‘I have never killed at all’.
There are also a few other, less direct segments from the books/films that suggest Dumbledore
is capable of killing. When Harry looked into the Pensieve in the last movie to see Snape's
vision, we see Snape saying "Don't kill me" to Dumbledore.
Why would Snape ever say "don't kill me" to someone like Dumbledore, if he truly didn’t
believe that Dumbledore was capable of killing? Snape attended Hogwarts while Dumbledore was
there, so surely he would have known the type of person that Dumbledore was. Snape is a
highly intelligent man, and what this tells me is that he was privvy to Dumbledore’s
dark-er side. He knew that he had wronged Dumbledore, the Potters, and the Order of
the Phoenix by working as a death Eater, and he pleaded with Dumbledore to spare his life
because he genuinely feared for it. He genuinely thought that Dumbledore was capable of killing
him
At this point in time, Snape was of course a Death Eater, and as we know, the Death eaters
fear Dumbledore. I can think of one reason that they’d fear him beyond the possibility
of being captured. That reason is that they feared that they would be killed by him. War
is a dirty business, and Dumbledore was the leader of the order of the phoenix, the main
opposition of the death eaters. In war there are always casualties, and Dumbledore is no
fool, he must have understood that sometimes killing was necessary. The only way that I
would be able to read this differently, is if Snape just forgot human decency altogether.
Perhaps after hanging around with the Death Eaters for such a long time, he forgot how
decent people can behave-not expecting someone like Dumbledore to spare his life. Had a member
of the order of the phoenix come face to face with Voldemort, they surely would have been
met with the killing curse.
So, that’s my argument for why Dumbledore likely killed. But, there are some counter
arguments for why he possibly never stooped quite so low. The following passage from the
Order of the Phoenix shows an exchange between Dumbledore and Voldemort which indicates that
Dumbledore doesn’t need to kill-as he believes that there are fates much worse than death:
You do not seek to kill me, Dumbledore?" called Voldemort, his scarlet eyes narrowed over
the top of the shield. "Above such brutality, are you?"
"We both know that there are other ways of destroying a man, Tom," Dumbledore said calmly,
continuing to walk towards Voldemort as though he had not a fear in the world, as though
nothing had happened to interrupt his stroll up the hall. "Merely taking your life would
not satisfy me, I admit-"
"There is nothing worse than death, Dumbledore!" snarled Voldemort.
"You are quite wrong," said Dumbledore…
Despite Dumbledore admitting here that he doesn’t want to kill Voldemort, it still
comes across as quite sinister- he walks towards Voldemort with such confidence, and calmly
explains that simply killing Voldemort would not completely satisfy him. This makes this
counter argument somewhat less effective, because even though he is expressing that
he doesn’t want to kill Voldemort, it almost sounds as if he is suggesting something even
more sinister, which would make him capable of killing in my eyes.
The main argument for Dumbledore not being a killer is the fact that Grindelwald’s
life was spared after Dumbledore defeated him. Grindelwald was immensely powerful, so
the train of thought here is that if Dumbledore could defeat someone as powerful as Grindelwald
without killing him, then he wouldn’t ever really need to KILL anyone.My issues with
this, is that Dumbledore had a very complex relationship with Grindelwald, and probably
still had feelings for him at the time of his defeat. I don’t think that Dumbledore
really wanted him dead, he was fine with him just benign imprisoned in Nurmengard. Dumbledore
has no personal attachment to death eaters, so in my eyes I think that he would be far
more inclined to kill them, particularly if they put the lives of those that he loved
or cared for in danger. I don’t think that he ever killed if he could avoid it, and the
following passage from the Order of the Phoenix, shows us one way that Dumbledore dealt with
Death Eaters:
"If you proceed downstairs to the Department of Mysteries, Cornelius," said Dumbledore..."you
will find several escaped Death Eaters contained in the Death Chamber, bound by an Anti-Disapparition
Jinx and awaiting your decision as to what to do with them.”
However, that doesn’t mean that he didn’t kill them in the past, or that he wouldn’t
be capable of killing them ever again. Death eaters don’t seem to fear imprisonment,
but they definitely fear Dumbledore.
What do you guys think? Do you think that Dumbledore ever killed? Was he capable of
it? Let me know down in the comment section below.
Until next time,
YER A WIZARD ARRY