It is quite easy to portray Dumbledore as a master manipulator.1 Indeed, for a fan fiction author, the problem with this route is not that Dumbledore ends up feeling Out of Character, but rather that there seems to be a dissociative element to the story if you allow anything to go better than it did in the cannon story line. How could Harry overcome Dumbledore with his decades of experience at subtle manipulations? Ian Hycrest, writing as Kingsley, describes this sort of Dumbledore thus:
It’s difficult to try to put into words just how much we all trusted and relied on Albus Dumbledore. He was our leader, our counselor, our guide. For decades, he had shaped magical society, to the point that to many people, the idea of defying him was unimaginable. And yet, he was careful to never be too overt, at least not until the end. All it required was a word here, a suggestion there… and like the master manipulator that he was, Dumbledore ensured that no one truly knew how much he did behind the scenes.
His was a soft power, subtly swaying those who held actual authority to follow his chosen path. Still, with such a wide base of people who were convinced that he could do no wrong, he was able to wield an astounding amount of influence, ensuring that things went as he desired. His suggestions were treated like divine guidance. Looking back, we should have been more suspicious. We should have questioned why someone who had such power didn’t use it to solve the corruption he claimed to oppose. We should have asked why he felt the need to meddle in matters that were, quite frankly, none of his business. But at the time, that was just the way that things were.
Perhaps the most disturbing thing is how people responded when his manipulations were detected. On those rare occasions when the subtle methods failed and he had to take direct action, or when his ‘innocent’ ideas produced an outcome that no sane person could possibly accept, Dumbledore would play the part of the weary old man, weighed down by cares, struggling to do his best against forces beyond his control. And like fools, we all believed him. How could we have been so blind?2
One might use the fact that he was evicted as Headmaster in Book 2, or from his various positions in Book 5 as counter examples to this portrayal. I disagree. I am not wholly convinced of this view of Dumbledore but I believe it is plausible, and I think the proof of its plausibility is really the conversation at “Kings Cross” at the end of Book 7. If Dumbledore really did chart out Harry’s course, plan the entire war out to include events after his own death, as is implied, then he is fully capable of including in his plan temporary defeats on his own part. The man who uses his own death that way would certainly also use his own removal from the ICW, and/or the Wizengamot.
Allowing himself to appear more fallible, more the victim, would endear him to Harry. Being recalled to the position after being vindicated would make the next removal harder (thus I think he was in fact able to resist Fudge and Umbridge in Book 5 for most of the year).
Many works do this, but it can all be summarised with this one: KafkaExMachina. Divination is a Wooly Subject Published: 2009-07-26. Last Viewed: 2021-12-03.↩︎
Ian Hycrest. Harry Potter and the Hands of Justice Chapter 2 Published: 2019-08-27. Updated: 2020-01-14. Last Viewed: 2021-06-29.↩︎