So, we’ve already besmirched the good name of Richard Harris, wonderful man he was. Terrible wizard. How then, do we think his successor, Michael Gambon did? I don’t mean his portrayal – Both carried themselves as Albus fantastically, there is no doubt. We’re asking would Dumbledore survive against an Ethics committee, or even an OFSTED inspection.

The answer is DEFINITEY NOT, and we’re going to look into the 3rd and 4th years of Harry Potter for reasons why. We REALLY don’t have to look hard. We begin with Prisoner of Azkaban. Little backstory for all of you who have no idea of the plot; Wanted murdered Sirius Black has escaped from Wizard Prison. Supposedly Black was responsible for the death of Harrys parents and then just a fuck tonne of muggles. Apparently Black was a huge supporter of Voldemort (which makes no sense when you know anything of his past) and raged that Harry beat his master somehow. Of course if this is all you know about Sirius, and you’ve seen Voldemort’s track record of attacked Harry at school so far (2 attacks for 2 school years) then yes, it makes sense to assume “Hey I think that 𝘉̶𝘭̶𝘢̶𝘤̶𝘬̶ Sirius guy might be trouble.” However you know who is burdened with backstory and motivations and just extra knowledge? Dumbledore!


There’s no way anyone who had ever met Sirius actually believed he had done it or was a threat. Even if though there was some sort of doubt, Dumbledore (A) has access to a potions master who can whip up Veritaserum, the potion that “3 drops will make You-know-Who spill his darkest secrets (B) is a fairly decent Legilimencer, meaning he can read minds to an extent, as can Snape, the aforementioned potions master and(C) has a spell and relevant vessel for extracting and viewing people memories, as well as being able to share them with others. He has 3 pretty decent ways of at least checking how bad Sirius is. He takes option (D) none of the above and just let Sirius rot for 12 years.

Lets give Albus the benefit of the doubt here, because he will no doubt show how awful he is in – OH yeah there it is. You want to beef up security at the school that’s already been under attack twice by mystics forces that so far no one else has been shown to use or even have a clue about? Let’s bring in the terrifying prison guard that Sirius already bested on their home turf, the prison, and just give them free reign of the school. Why not right!?

Now, maybe his thinking was that Sirius wouldn’t be expecting the Dementors, so they’ll catch him unawares, but then it brings us back to WHY?! If he wants Sirius caught so bad, he’s meant to be the big head honcho. He already won’t go after Voldemort which is bonkers because right now definitely isn’t in a good enough place to withstand the full might of Dumbledore, but he also does nothing to keep the school safe? Oh they’ve attacked a student? HP of course because…well he is HP? Better give the ministry a stern talking to and advise they keep their uncontrollable, technically unkillable sentient lobotomy machines on a leash. Oh they’ve gate crashed a quidditch match and once again attacked Harry? For shame. “Do anything? What do you mean do anything Minerva, I told the ministry I wasn’t happy, what more can I, the supposedly greatest wizard currently living, do?”

In all his mental things he does during this year, I maintain his cruellest thing he does is the Hogsmeade permission slip fiasco. 3rd years and up at Hogwarts can visit the neighbouring village of Hogsmeade that has a pub and a sweet shop and a train station. However to do so, they need a permission slip. A parental permission slip. We can all see where this going to go right? Harry rightfully protests on the grounds that his uncle is a dick – look at how he bought a lighthouse in book 1 just to stop Harry getting a slight bit of happiness, or closure for his parents etc – and that perhaps they could look the other way or even have Mrs weasley, or Dumbledore or ANYONE sign for him? The faculty just says no. No parents, no fun. Sorry Orphan boy. They don’t even explain “well maybe next year but that killer we all are looking for? He might be after you”

The ending is even more batshit. So a few minor details to give you. Firstly he knows Sirius is innocent (When he found that out who knows?! Because he’s done fuck all throughout this book to try help him) and he also got the Wizard government to gift a 13 year old a time travel device and just hope she doesn’t fuck around with it. Yeah. You read that write. Not only does the government have time travel devices, they don’t use them to stop murders, they hand them out to school kids who want to do more than 3 classes! They just straight up let Voldemort murder loads of people apparently, and did nothing to stop him! I mean how many times have we seen a time travel show or film that at SOME POINT someone decides maybe we should go and kill Hitler in?

We’re here to talk about Dumbledores failings though, not the government. So Dumbledore knows Sirius is innocent, and he knows Hermione is all Marty McFly over here. Does he take the time device so he can fix the mess because, important note HE’S A GROWN ASS MAN?! Of course not. Why fight evil and root for justice when you can let a bunch of 13 year olds risk their lives to do it for you!

That’s just book 3. Enter book four – Titled “That time an evil wizard entered me into a death tournament and nobody tried to help me.”

Honestly. It’s just lazy at this point. So, Dumbledore allows Hogwarts to be the host for the Triwizard tournament. 3 schools enter, and by that I mean 3 students from about roughly 1,000 enter. The other 997 just go about their lives. Well the Hogwarts kids just return to lessons as usual. The other two schools just hang around for a whole year…not doing anything? No lessons are ever mentioned or anything.

It should come as no shock dear reader that of course Harry ends up in the tournament. Instead of just thinking okay, well he’s underage and is a magnet for magical and evil shenanigans, we should pull him out, Dumbledore instead assumes Harry must have a messed up death wish and somehow outsmarted him. At this point, seeing how awful and careless he’s been, I’d like reach the same conclusion – it doesn’t seem too hard to outsmart old Albus here.

It’s worth mentioning as well that everyone talking about this tournament is always saying “OMG people die all the time in this thing?!” but yet Harry needs no slip to enter. Yet last year he couldn’t go to the sweet shop with his friends without them rubbing the fact he has no parents to sign a form in his face. What a strange thing to decide to change the policy on.

“Sweet shop? With your friends? In broad daylight. Behave son, that’s ludicrously dangerous. Now buckle up for the wizard Thunderdome, I hear they’ve made this year even more mental!”

I think at this point, Dumbledore might just think Harry is immortal, and so is just letting whatever happens happen. He has come up 3-0 against Voldemort so far.

But wait, you ask. What nonsensical bullshit has he inflicted upon the faculty THIS YEAR? I’m glad you asked. This year he has hired Allister “mad eye” moody. Who is the equivalent of a Nazi hunter with PTSD. He spent the last wizarding war just rounding up death eaters, suffering injuries and being maimed and just taking it. CLEARLY not a good fit for a teacher, ignoring the fact that it isn’t in fact Moody and is instead a Death Eater in disguise.

At no point does he ever check in on these new teachers either. He’s lost 3 so far to a curse, potentially more because it is revealed at some point that since Voldemort applied for that role, they’ve never kept a Defence against dark arts teacher more than a year, and still he doesn’t think “Maybe I should just stick my nose in, have a gander?” Likely would have saved a world of trouble. At worst he’d catch Moody showing kids the unforgivable (read Illegal) curses and think “Maybe we evaluate him more.” At best he’d have caught Barty Crouch out for a death eater. Even if he is the only DADA teacher that actually teaches the class something useful.

Also can we take a second to look at the whole Barty crouch saga? SO Barty crouch Sr sentenced Jr to life imprisonment purely on one guys say so – they never ever used truth serum in the courts. But we’ve established Barty Sr just doesn’t allow that stain on his family. He just straight up says NOPE Straight to Jail. SO why does he help bust him out of wizard Alcatraz later in life? Surely even if he did suddenly love his son and want to get him out, as per his dying wife’s wish, wouldn’t he at least monitor him and make sure he wasn’t you know…murdering again?

Back to the many many failings of Albus thought. The competition just gets worse and worse, the stakes clearly getting higher, and still he does nothing. At the end, Harry and Cedric grab the cup and are teleported out; was there nothing in place to say Hey someone reached the end! When they were gone, did no one think Huh all is a bit quiet on that front, should we check it out? When Harry does make it back, he lets Moody/ Crouch just take him away and doesn’t really do anything for long enough for Moody to monologue a bit. If Barty was as good a villain as he was a teacher, he’d have blasted Harrys face off immediately. He had enough time to murder him 13 times over.

Honestly, at this point even I am thinking Harry might be invincible because Dumbledore just keeps letting him get into these messes with no plan, and he seems to survive on sheer dumb luck at best!

What’s your verdict then? Do you agree the Dumbledore and his negligence are the REAL Villains of the story?

Let me know in the comments, or an email, or even Discord!

BrightStarFOX

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