#systems failed riddle not Dumbledore

[remusawoooo]

Dumbledore did not create Voldemort.

"He was not treated nicely by anyone and ofc he would be vindictive of non-magicals" at this point Tom didn't know anything about magic/muggles. sure, he had some idea about him being special, but his view was that he was superior, better. (supported by text and his repeated actions). He bullied(or tortured) fellow students in the cave before Dumbledore came into the picture. ofc it can be argued that he was retaliating, but that's for your interpretation.

Dumbledore reprimanded him in the first meeting, for his thievery and bullying. sure he could've dealt with it better, but he didn't think he was rotten to the core. (Dumbledore states he never thought he met the dark lord in that moment) After coming to hogwarts, Dumbledore treats him like any other student but keeps an eye on him when teachers mention him a lot. Again, it's interesting to see why he would do that? did he think he was bad? the boy was actually getting his followers to call him dark lord by this point. I don't think there's canonical evidence that Dumbledore kept an eye on him before his supremacist tendencies (correct me if I'm wrong). I personally do think jkrs intent of making voldemort an "inherently evil" character kinda comes into play here because Dumbledore is a character that she uses to be the "objective truth" "no questions asked" relayer. it can be questioned, ofc, but I'm talking about the intent. so, yes, there are flaws in the way Dumbledore was written to be critical of Riddle but he wasn't responsible for his bigotry. that's quite offensive in fact. not every character is redeemable or was misguided troubled kid.

Voldemort turning out the way he did with the circumstances he was under is quite literally the antithesis of Harry Potter. They were both orphans in abusive circumstances... they couldn't be more morally different. Imo, Dumbledore and Tom's relationship or interactions were poorly handled and had more potential. Dumbledore wasn't even the biggest authority figure in Tom's life, he wasn't HM then, only one teacher.

Suddenly remembered Dumbledore defending leaving Harry with Dursleys by saying (not verbatim) that it'd keep him humble and not make him too egotistical cause of his fame (probably cause of his view of james). that's an insane thing to think about a child who just lost his parents actually. and while leaving him with people who despise anything magic ( I mean he should have some idea). what i mean to say is, this man is by no means a saint. so if Dumbledore is responsible for anyone turning bad, it's Harry. He played a larger and more active role in his life!! but the boy didn't turn evil!!

Also, a thing about Dumbledore and glory/fame/thinking you are special. he WAS that kid. he thought he was fucking special, and better than everyone. that he was soooo smart and no one gets him (until grindlewald). this pipeline led to his sister's tragic death, his estrangement with his brother and losing the love of his life. As an adult, he could've treated children better, sure. but he was flawed like many other adults in this universe. Dumbledore keeping an eye on riddle could be a result of this and him sending Harry away too! is it the best course of action? absolutely not. but it is a consequence of his character itself. and no one else actually stepped in to question his behavior. (McGonagall does with Harry, but in the end, simply chooses to trust albus) (again, not very responsible of her either)

ITS a convoluted mess atp, but Dumbledore in fact saw a child. he was just indifferent like he is with every other child. (his reaction when tom mentions parseltongue. Tom wants to be more special among what he considered special, but albus doesnt really give the reaction he wanted) Dumbledore isn't a nice guy but he isn't responsible for the evil dictator Tom turned out to be.

Friendly reminder that Tom Riddle didn’t create Voldemort. Dumbledore created Voldemort.

Tom was raised in a Religious Orphanage in the 30s and 40s. He was not treated nicely by anyone. Of course he would be vindictive and hate Non-Magicals.

Dumbledore on the other hand decided that an eleven-year-old was the anti-Christ and treated him like he was already a mass-murderer.

Tom was in the Orphanage in London when the bombs fell. Of course he would be terrified of dying. He was abandoned by his only living relatives. Of course he’d wish them dead.

Dumbledore looked at a child and saw a demon. If he had seen a child, Voldemort would never have existed.

Give me arguments if you disagree.

[saintsenara]

Do you think Tom Riddle could have done better in a different house? (As in being in a different house would have helped him heal and not led him into path of wannabe dictator)

no... not really.

not because i think he's innately evil and would have gone bad wherever he ended up, but because his radicalisation depends - as we see in canon - on the confluence of multiple failings, both at an individual and an institutional level, that would have been present whichever house he went to.

that is, he certainly stands out in slytherin because he's poor, an orphan, and not pureblood, and the obvious class distinction between him and his peers clearly bothers him... but the demographics of hogwarts are consistent, especially in terms of social class, across all four houses. he'd be marked out by his secondhand robes and lack of parents in all of them.

similarly, we know that slughorn doesn't only select favourites on the basis of them being in slytherin. unless two things which are so fundamental to the teenage voldemort's character that changing them would make him a completely different person - his looks and his academic ability - are removed from the equation, the "what do you know about horcruxes?" conversation is almost certainly still happening.

[not least because - unless another thing which is fundamental to his character, the fact that he's an orphan, is changed - he's still going to have a complex about death caused by his grief over his mother, still scour the hogwarts library for information about his parents, still discover his descent from slytherin, and still very probably open the chamber.]

we also know from canon that everyone who ever teaches him likes him - it's not just slughorn - and that this makes no difference to what happens to him [that he's closest to slughorn is because slughorn is so easy to manipulate, which would be the case whether he was in slytherin or not]. he'd undoubtedly still be thought of by everyone as quiet and studious, and he'd still be made head boy.

nonetheless, i think there's a reasonable case to be made that dumbledore might be slightly warmer towards him were he not in slytherin - but dumbledore's canonical relationship with voldemort is set by the way he behaves when they meet prior to him starting hogwarts, and this behaviour is directly attributable to his childhood experiences as an orphan raised in an institution.

[and it's also important to remember that dumbledore - by his own admission - doesn't mention anything about voldemort's behaviour during this meeting to the rest of the staff, even before he's sorted into slytherin. i can see no reason why this would change just because voldemort ended up elsewhere.]

and, finally, we also know from canon that voldemort didn't invent blood-supremacy. it's something directly tied to the entrenched class system which governs the wizarding world, and which would affect him regardless of the house he ended up in - slughorn offers to help him secure ministry positions after he leaves school, for example, not because voldemort is his favourite pupil, but because he's a half-blood orphan who doesn't have any influential connections of his own and this would, once again, be the same unless he's changed into a completely different character by virtue of his mother being alive, his father being involved in his life, or both.

while his politics might manifest themselves slightly differently if he was in another house [i think, for example, that you can write him as considerably less interested in indulging his supporters' fantasies of pureblood oligarchy if he's not primarily recruiting from slytherin], the circumstances of his childhood are what influences both his lack of interest in being dependent on people and his lack of interest in being obedient and grateful to his social "betters". shifting him into gryffindor and surrounding him with muggleborn peers might mean that you end up with comrade voldemort rather than lord voldemort... but people are dying either way.

i do think the knock-on effects of changing which house he's sorted into are interesting and fun and worth exploring - but, unfortunately, i think that simply changing his house doesn't change anything about his life.

what does that is someone giving a shit.

[obsidianpen]

How much of Dumbledore’s actions (or lack of) do you think attributed to Tom Riddle becoming Lord Voldemort?

(TW stream on consciousness typing here) hm. Interesting implication. I definitely don’t think Dumbledore did a young Tom riddle any favors by the time he came to the orphanage when he was being accepted into Hogwarts. In Dumbledore’s defense, he was a teacher, and it would have been inappropriate ish for him to take too much special interest in a future student… though one would think there would be programs in place to assist orphans/poor kids/muggleborns. Ah, but there was, no? Dumbledore told him he would give him money to get his school things and that someone (was it he who offered personally? I truly don’t recall) would take him to Diagon alley. But riddle wanted to go alone. Dumbledore probably should have said ‘btch no, you’re 11, an adult will come and take you, we should also maybe see if someone magical will adopt your unfortunate ass’ buuuut that really seems like it should be the job of someone in the ministry of magic, not a professor. But the minister obviously didn’t give a fck either. So clearly riddle was an example of a child who was failed severely by both the muggle and magical systems. I think to put the blame of the eventual birth of LV on Dumbledore is extreme. Did he contribute to it? Sure, yeah. But much larger factors included his birth story (whatever version of that you believe; in any case, a muggle father who didn’t want him and a mother who died giving birth), being the sole magical kid raised in orphanage in war torn London, not understanding he was definitely not mad but a wizard and that’s why he could make things happen, what was likely a very horrible first few years at Hogwarts in Slytherin as a poor kid with the last name Riddle… I don’t think Dumbledore’s actions (or lack thereof) were the tipping point. After all, supposedly all the rest of the Hogwarts staff doted on him, and he still became a murderous dark lord by sixteen so 🤷‍♀️.

[sofoulandfairaday]

Hi! I love your Rodolphus HC. Do you have any Lestrange Snr HC?

Thank you for the ask, anon, and sorry for the late reply! More than you'd think, actually, so much so I had to put them below the cut.

It's canon that Lestrange Snr was part of Tom Riddle's Slytherin gang, although we don't know if they were in the same year. I headcanon that they were, the two of them shared a dormitory. Rodolphus and Rabastan are clearly both devoted to Voldemort (the two of them spend 14 years in Azkaban for LV too, lest we forget, and even Bellatrix says it - we alone were faithful, we alone tried to find him), and I like to think that their father played a key role in this.

So. Roland Lestrange, heir to the English branch of the Lestrange family, whose grandfather was Minister for Magic, who lives in a huge Cornish castle and whose Vault in Gringotts is amongst the best guarded meets Tom Riddle, dirt-poor son of a nobody with a cockney accent, who comes from East London and is more than rough around the edges on his first night at Hogwarts. And he knows that he will be eaten alive in Slytherin. This is the 1930s-1940s and I admit that I'm not an expert on all-boys boarding schools for rich kids at the time but I somehow don't think it'd be the easiest ride for someone like young Tom.

But boy, is he wrong.

Because by the end of Tom Riddle's stay at Hogwarts that boy is just a pale memory. I am firmly convinced that Tom MyFairLady-ed himself and made himself into one of them, just better. And one, all of his classmates fall in line. If he cannot charm them, he manipulates them; if that fails, he threatens them and when he still doesn't get his way he resorts to outright violence. He rules them with both love/admiration and fear. Voldemort's a natural leader. I headcanon Roland to be something of a right-hand-man while in Hogwarts. (That title is then snatched away by Antonin Dolohov, who accompanies Tom in some of his continental travels, and later on by Bellatrix herself.)

What's this man like?

Not as pretty as Rodolphus (but then again, few men are <3), but easy on the eyes, and he has an elegant bearing, hard features, and lots of money. He's also Tom Riddle's friend and all the ladies want a chance to at least sit next to him.

Generally a cold man. Dutiful. Tom found him easy to rely upon, and obedient enough, but without a true spark (that both Rodolphus and Rabastan do have, in different ways).

He marries Margot something (that's a headcanon I still have to figure out), who was a first/second year when he was in seventh, as soon as she finishes Hogwarts. He's known this was the case for his whole life and when the time comes he does what's expected of him. They do end up with a surprisingly successful marriage, based on duty that becomes companionship that becomes a sort of comfortable love. She's truly, honestly heartbroken when he dies.

And he does die. Before (or shortly after) he turns fifty.

The culprit?

Lord Voldemort himself.

It is a huge headcanon of mine that Voldemort is directly responsible for the deaths of several of his former classmates, the only people who would remember Tom Marvolo Riddle before he was Lord Voldemort. He poisons them, curses them, inflicts a pandemic of Dragon Pox on the country to get rid of them. Roland Lestrange was ill for some time before he died, so was Druella Black. Orion Black dies suspiciously early after his son's disappearance - many would have taken it as suicide. Alphard Black dies around that time as well- he wasn't old at all. An accident, they said. (This is one of the most callous things he does, in my personal headcanons, because he knew these people as a young man and has no (0) mercy in disposing of them.) After they are gone, no one except for Dumbledore (and maybe Borgin and Slughorn) remember who Tom Riddle was before.

His children.

He does love his children, but you guys know me. You know how much I love dysfunctional families and family systems, and The Crown and Succession etc etc. I've spoken at length about the Blacks.

Rodolphus is very much the golden child. The eldest son, the heir, the perfect one, bright and more powerful, the strong one. Rodolphus only ever made one mistake - marrying Bellatrix. He chose her, pleaded with his father to have her, got his wish. And the thing is, Roland likes Bellatrix (especially after discovering that the Dark Lord likes Bellatrix), he can understand the appeal. But he dislikes that she cannot (or will not) give his son children, that he dies without there being Lestrange heirs.

Rabastan is younger, and born after a difficult birth, and I imagine him as a sickly child. In my headcanons, he's bisexual with a preference for men. Now, he never confesses this to his father but Roland can pretty much sense that there is something queer about him and dislikes it immensely. He loves his son very much, but he doesn't like him. He mislikes that he refuses to marry, the way he conducts himself, the complete lack of duty, especially since his brother has no children. (Rabastan feels this deeply, this lack of love, of physical affection, hurts him. He's a mama's boy. He's a bit of a Roman Roy.)

There's a portrait of him in what was once his study (the recurring gag here is that everyone in Rodolphus' life will always refer to it as Roland's study) and he is cranky. Portraits aren't precise reflections of who the wizard/witch was when they were alive and Roland's portrait's personality is cheerless at best.)

[theoriginalcarnivorousmuffin]

What's your take on house elves? Do you agree with some of the claims that they actually enjoy serving others?

No.

That excuse to me always sounds remarkably like claims humans have made in the past to justify the abuse of a disenfranchised subset of society (a minority, the impoverished, etc.)

I believe it’s something wizards say, well clearly because we see Ron insisting it in canon, but I certainly don’t believe it’s true.

I mean, we know it isn’t, we see relatively few house elves in the series but they all live miserable lives and half of those we see know it.

Dobby abhors being a house elf altogether and especially for the Malfoy family. His great dream is freedom and he makes it very clear to anyone who will give him half an ear (which is pretty much just Harry because Dobby’s a house elf and nobody pays them any mind).

While Kreacher reveres his family he’s an utterly miserable creature who hates first Sirius as his master and then Harry Potter. He would love not to be able to serve either of them and does all that he can to not serve them (well, until Harry fulfils Regulus’ final wish, then Harry’s a cool bro).

You then have Winky, who is used as a scape goat at the Quidditch World Cup, and Hezipibah’s house elf that Tom Riddle pinned the murder on. They’re not quite as... vocal about whether or not they’re enjoying their servitude as Dobby and Kreacher, but they’re not having a great time either.

The house elves do not enjoy their current status.

However, they’ve been conditioned into it over generations. Ask most house elves and they’ll say they love their family, enjoy being bound to them and serving their every whim, because this has been how their people have lived for generations.

And if someone like Dobby comes around and starts a revolt... I imagine it’s put down with extreme prejudice and spoken of only in haunted whispers to other house elves.

As for the wizards, some will admit some people should treat their house elves better, but they think it’s a fine system that benefits both the wizard and the house elf. Why should it ever have to change? 

The house elves are slaves.

They’re bound to and forced to serve a family, even when it’s against their will, and are severely and brutally punished if they fail in their tasks. They live in miserable conditions and are stripped of any and all dignity (the fact that being given an article of clothing wins them their freedom says so much to me). And even should they be released from service they have no prospects or place in society, Dobby can’t get an actual job, the best he can do is go to Hogwarts and work in the kitchen... with the other house elves who are bound to the castle... And then Dumbledore gives him “pay” to help him pretend he’s a truly free being. 

But of course, wizards appear to have either overwritten or forgotten how this came to pass. I imagine the wizards or perhaps druids waged a war against the elves and, in their victory, enslaved them so that they could never become enemies again. And now they simply have this story of how the elves came to them because they were subservient creatures by nature, they wanted to serve the wizards, it fulfilled a grand need on their own end.

And here we are now, a thousand years later.

Honestly, the house elves, I really don’t know what JKR was doing. She has Hermione have her “WAIT A MINUTE” moment in fourth year, which was very justified, but then it’s sort of dropped on the floor. SPEW is done, Hermione’s learned better, moving on. I get that JKR didn’t want the house elf plot to overtake her story, but... This can’t be ignored. This is really really really bad, and if you have ‘good’ characters like Ron justifying it, then it has to be addressed that there are some huge issues in the wizarding world even among our good characters.

Instead we just sort of go “Oh, Dobby’s an anomaly. NEXT SUBPLOT” I just think, if JKR was going to give us house elves, we should have spent substantially more time on them and made the abolition of house elves a major theme throughout the books.

Otherwise we have, well, half a book of SPEW and then nothing.

[wisteria-lodge]

Could you list me some good Slytherin traits (primary and secondary) and good Slytherin characters? There’s a Gryffindor being cocky around me and I am growing tired of him and his old ‘hurr durr Slytherins are villains’ speech

JKR doesn’t just tweak her world to make Slytherins looks bad. She tweaks her world to make Gryffindors look good. 

Every time her Gryffindors do something suspect or shady, we gloss over it, or get reasons why it was justified. Dumbledore being ice-cold, manipulative, controlling? It’s okay, he’s literally saving the world, it turns out all right in the end and everybody eventually agrees with him. Arthur and Molly Weasley being political radicals who kinda seem to value their cause more than their kids? Never given emotional weight, and Voldemort is so evil and the Ministry so comedically corrupt that their position seems like the only sensible one. Hermione finds ways to torture Rita Skeeter, Marietta, and Umbridge, and it’s played as a joke every time. 

Compare that to Horace Slughorn, the most broadly positive Slytherin character. He’s charming and a good teacher, but the book frames him as “collecting” famous or soon-to-be famous students so he can... name-drop them and ask them for future favors, I guess. He’s also a bit of a buffoon, which I think is very unfair. Like - okay, Ron is poisoned. What is more likely: Harry Potter comes up with a piece of potions trivia that he heard six years ago, or Slughorn, who has been a Potions teacher for decades, knows what to do in the case of a potion accident. But nah, Slughorn panics and Harry has to save the day. 

I look at this guy and see a talented teacher, who loves teaching, who basically starts an extracurricular honors discussion group. And then he’s proud that so many of his ex-students decide to keep in touch with him. His decision to alter the memory where he tells Tom Riddle about Horcruxes is framed as vanity, but I see guilt. Slughorn must think that he failed Tom Riddle so badly as a teacher. 

But at least he gets interiority of some kind. That’s more than I can say for Narcissa Malfoy, which is weird considering how insanely important she is to the plot. Fans have done a really good job filling in the holes in Draco’s redemption arc, because that is not work the books do for you. We spend so much time on Voldemort’s backstory, but I honestly couldn’t tell you why he does anything. (Does he want to belong? Does he like messing with people? Is he bored? Is this like... how he gets funding for his experiments?) And when Snape gets self-sacrificial it’s because “I sometimes think we sort too soon.” So he’s basically an honorary Gryffindor.

@sortinghatchats have started to sort the ethos of a work of fiction in their excellent podcast. If Harry Potter takes place in a Gryffindor universe, The Witcher, The Untamed, and The Good Place all take place in Slytherin universes, and have many, many heroic Slytherin characters. I would also add Buffy the Vampire Slayer to that list. 

Unfortunately, the Harry Potter universe is actually too Gryffindor for me. I want my morality a little more nuanced, I want my writers to give a little more care and understanding to the characters the protagonists don’t agree with. And unfortunately, it sure looks like JKR’s absolutist way of seeing the world, and her trouble even comprehending people she doesn’t agree with, is something that spills out into the real world. 

These books were important to me. And I like this system, I like laying it over the series and coloring it with a more complex moral system then I think it ever really had to begin with. It updates it for me. 

[lytefoot]

I love your Wizarding world headcanons! You’ve talked about how you envision Hogwarts as a school of the elite—does that mean it charges tuition? If so, what determines who gets a scholarship (I doubt the Weasleys could pay full tuition?) What happens to Muggle-Borns who don’t go to Hogwarts?

I go back and forth on whether or not Hogwarts charges fees to its students--either tuition per se, or boarding costs with the tuition paid for by the state. There is Word of God on the subject--JKR has said that Hogwarts doesn't charge its students fees, though I can't lay my hands on the citation at the moment. While I'm happy to ignore Word of God if it's patently absurd (*cough* 6000 wizards total in the UK *cough*), this seems like a reasonable assertion.

The other reason I'm currently of the opinion that Hogwarts doesn't charge tuition is the way educational costs are discussed in the books--in addition to just the Weasleys. Harry worries that he'll run out of money for books and potion supplies if he wastes all his money in Diagon Alley, but not about tuition. Most critically, in the one discussion of financial assistance (Dumbledore's conversation with young Tom Riddle), there is discussion of money for books and supplies, but not of tuition.

So Hogwarts doesn't charge tuition. Students and their families are responsible for the cost of uniforms, books, and supplies, but there is canonically needs-based funding available for those things for those who can't afford them. (Funding the Weasleys do not appear to receive, by the way. Which suggests to me that the Weasleys are a family that regularly has to make hard financial decisions and handle their money very carefully, but not one that is in danger of starvation or homelessness.) I also expect (read: this is a plot point in my Big Next-Gen Fic) that funding would also be extended to Muggle-born kids whose Muggle families are unwilling to pay their educational expenses.

I do think, however, that Hogwarts has *selective admission*. That's why 11-year-olds have to wait for an offer letter. These are not exclusive to Muggle-born (or Muggle-raised, like Harry or Dean) children--Neville mentions recieving one. Selective admission is further suggested by mention of students who fail the first year exams not being allowed to return.

So the next open question is, how is admission determined?

One possible explanation is that, just like the grammar schools it emulates, Hogwarts bases its admission decisions on some form of testing. These is easy to arrange for wizard-born kids, of course--there's nothing in the text that says wizard-born 10- or 11-year-olds (in the year before they would start secondary school) *don't* sit some sort of standardized test to determine academic as well as magical aptitude. As for the muggle-born kids? Well, I can certainly imagine the Ministry sneaking appropriate items into the Key Stage 2 assessment (taken in year 6, 10-11 year olds), now that the 11-plus, the aptitude test formerly used to sort all students into secondary schools, is deprecated in most of England and Wales.

This does make a fair amount of sense, both in the UK school system (esp. as it was several decades ago) and for admission to Hogwarts, which when you look at it has an incredibly academically rigorous curriculum. (I swear those kids have written more essays by the end of first year than I did in my entire academic career, and I have a PhD! I'm also a mathematician, mind--we write proofs, not essays.) However, I don't personally like this theory, for a variety of reasons. It feels a little too mundane, for one thing; and I prefer Hogwarts admission continuing as it was envisioned by the Founders, who definitely had never heard of a standardized test. (If they had, they wouldn't need the sorting hat!)

My theory is that Hogwarts has another artefact, paired to the Sorting Hat, that determines admissions. I read a fic at one point that referred to a Book of Admissions, which I quite like. When the time comes to send out the Hogwarts acceptance letters, the deputy Headmaster takes down the Book of Admissions and see who's gotten admitted this year.

It explains things like the "Cupboard Under the Stairs" address. It also explains why so many Slytherins come from families that have been in Slytherin for generations--those are exactly the people that Salazar would have chosen to admit! (We don't hear that much about families that have been in Gryffindor or Hufflepuff for generations. Ron mentions that all his family are Gryffindors, but I'm pretty sure he just means his brothers.) Salazar's contribution would explain why there are so many legacies; Helga's why Muggle-borns are so well represented; Rowena's why they generally get kids bright enough to keep up with the academic work; and Godric's why they get students who are willing to keep coming back to that bloody death trap (I mean, come on, moving stairs!?)

As for what happens to Muggle-borns that don't turn up in Hogwarts' Book of Admissions… well, that's a good question.

Muggle-borns are meant to be Rare, but there are at least two in Harry's year in Hogwarts (Hermione and Justin). Out of 40 kids, that's 5%! That's not a rare sub-population! (For comparison, 5.8% of the US population are of Asian descent. A minority, but definitely not rare.) Now, with the relative sizes of the Muggle and Wizard populations, muggle-borns could be an incredibly rare event *for muggles* while still being a significant portion of the Wizard population. On the other hand, at least one of the possible sets of numbers for wizard genetics makes 2-3 Muggle-borns per year in the entire UK a possible real possibility--it might be that *every* Muggle-born goes to Hogwarts. (This strays into the wizard genetics essay I don't have time to write right now.)

Every Muggle-born going to magical Britain's most elite school doesn't fit well with societal attitudes toward them, though. In fact, we're given to understand that Muggle-borns at Hogwarts are a relative rarity; the presence of two in Harry's year could easily be a fluke.

Alternately, given the incidence of accidental magic in young children, I can easily imagine the Ministry detecting the majority of Muggle-borns at some stage in early childhood, most likely because they had to send obviators for some little thing or other. (I imagine the Obviator's office having a special division for that--Juvenile Accidental Magic, maybe. Also the closest thing to any sort of child welfare agency the wizarding world has, and wow, is there room for worldbuilding there.)

So there's no reason they couldn't be brought to the attention of other, lesser schools, maybe schools more local to them. In order to enforce the Reasonable Restriction on Underage Sorcery, which in turn is required to protect the Statute of Secrecy, it seems likely that wizard secondary schools are primarily boarding schools, or possibly day schools in wizarding communities which offer boarding for children living farther away and unable to floo in on a daily basis. (The existence of the floo network gets rid of the main historical reason for boarding schools, difficulty of travel.) So you still have small muggle-borns at boarding schools, along with wizard-born kids, which allows them to practice magic without violating the SoS left and right, and also (conveniently) provides an opportunity to acculturate them into Wizarding society. (Shades of colonialism? Yeah, a bit.)

It's definitely clear that, for the sake of the SoS, young wizards *cannot* be allowed to say, "The heck with wizard school, I wanna be an astronaut," and go to the local comprehensive. There's definitely an entire fic to be had there, too.

[ramblings-of-a-mad-cat]

Sorry I may gave send it to the wrong blog 😅. But if you have fun with it go ahaid and draw him. And I would love to see you write about Barbaby and male MC!

@minniboe This is insultingly late but I’ve finally done it, and I had a lot of fun! Luka Fawley isn’t a male but they’re a.m.a.b. so it’s as close as I can get 😅😅

(I totally can and will do writing submissions but apologies if I take way too long. Productivity is a fickle state.) 

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Barnaby liked riddles.

They were like exercise, but for his brain. Dueling and Flying classes were ways in which he exercised his muscles, and it was always fun to see how many barrel rolls he could pull off before he started feeling queasy. But riddles? Those were how his brain did barrel rolls. Which was a tremendous relief, especially since he’d never been partial to any of the other ways people gave their brains exercise. That was what class was for, and yet with every passing day, he enjoyed it less and less. Though he struggled to pay attention, and his brain very much wanted the exercise, it never seemed to register the way that it was meant to. That was why he liked riddles better. You could make your own path with them.

Barnaby was sitting in Potions class, where he’d nearly poisoned himself more times than he cared to remember, which invariably caused Professor Snape to yell at him, when it happened. It was a day like any other, recent events notwithstanding. He would try to make heads or tails of the brew that Professor Snape had instructed them to create, fail to do so, and ultimately craft something far more intriguing. Occasionally toxic, yes, but in his efforts to reach the end goal Snape wanted, Barnaby had more often than not arrived at a completely independent recipe. The trouble was that, in anger, Snape usually vanished the incorrect brew before Barnaby could salvage any of it - which made him sad. But once or twice, Penny had snagged a vial and told him later that she was astounded at what he had come up with, purely by accident. Why once, she told him, he’d been instructed to brew the Draught of Living Death, and instead he had come quite close to creating the Elixir to Induce Euphoria. He and Penny had shared a great laugh, steam coming out of their ears, when they had tasted it.

Barnaby had no idea what he might come up with today. He simply hoped that Professor Snape would not be too angry. For when he was, it reminded Barnaby of his father. A good man, a wonderful man, truly...but frightening,  at least whenever he became upset. However, recent events withstanding, Snape had not been quite as angry these days. Barnaby was sitting in Potions class when it happened. When Luka Fawley sat down at their usual spot, at the table they had shared for years with two other people. Merula Snyde, who Barnaby was once friends with, and...someone else. Time and again, Barnaby had mistakenly brewed something dangerous, and been at Luka’s mercy to compose a makeshift antidote, which almost always worked. If it didn’t, he’d usually go to the Hospital Wing, and Luka would blame them-self for the rest of the day, no matter how much Barnaby would later try to reassure them that it was his fault. But Luka was sitting by them-self when it happened.  

Luka hated riddles.

Okay, perhaps hatred was a strong word. Luka couldn’t help but feel as though they’d appreciate riddles a lot more if they weren’t forced upon them as an occupational hazard of being Sorted into Ravenclaw. It wasn’t like they were complaining especially - most of their family were Eagles, and so was...another person. It was just that having to answer to that bloody Knocker every night would grow tedious for anyone after a while. But it was typically easy enough, or it had been in the past, because Luka’s best mate had been a natural at answering the Knocker’s riddles. They almost always went back to Ravenclaw Tower together, so Luka never had any trouble getting inside.

Until recently.

Luka sat down alone, glancing around the room. No sign of Merula - was she skiving off class? Seemed like she was. Not that they could blame her, given recent events. Both Merula and Ben were on their case about how much time they had been spending with Hogwarts’ newest student, Alanza Alves...but what were they supposed to do, really? As ridiculous as the whole thing was, Dumbledore had all but commanded Luka to take on this task, in his frustratingly whimsical fashion. Didn’t they understand that Luka would rather be devoting every free second of their time to the current task at hand? To the Circle? Besides, Alanza wasn’t terrible company. She was pleasant enough. Even Mrs. Norris liked her. As Luka sat down, they caught Barnaby’s eye. Barnaby gave them what he probably thought was a smile of reassurance, and a thumbs-up. Luka vaguely nodded in response, before laying their head down on the desk. Perhaps Snape would chastise them, perhaps not. But they didn’t much care anymore. It’s not like Snape was paying them any mind. He was currently having his ear talked off by Alanza, as she pelted him with eager questions.

Barnaby glanced around as more people poured into the classroom, among them Ismelda Murk, who avoided his eye, and Liz Tuttle. Barnaby liked Liz. She was always friendly and shared his enjoyment of spending time with magical creatures. She waved to him, but as his table was already full, she instead made her way to sit down beside Luka, in the spot normally occupied by Merula Snyde. At last, Snape seemed to grow weary of Alanza’s questions, and ordered her to have a seat.

There they were. Barnaby, trying to figure out a riddle in his head. Luka, too tired to think at all, about riddles or otherwise, when it happened. And oh boy, did both of them notice. Everyone noticed. Everyone turned to look. Snape even stopped mid-sentence in surprise. There was of course, no reason for Alanza to question what she had done, or think of it as inappropriate. Barnaby himself didn’t understand at first, until he saw the pain shoot through Luka’s eyes like an arrow spell in duel. They said nothing. But the silence was deafening. And naturally, all eyes were on Luka and Alanza. Recent recents having affected Luka Fawley more than anyone.

“What’s the matter, why is everyone staring?” Alanza obliviously shifted in the seat she had claimed, resting her elbows on the table. Many people seemed to think of Barnaby as oblivious as well, or so he had gleaned. Not that it bothered him - the more people assumed he needed help, the more help he got - and everyone could always do with more help. It couldn’t hurt, right? For his part, Barnaby never assumed that anyone else was oblivious, as a rule - even if he offered help. But in this moment, he could tell it was one of those times. Was this how his classmates and friends saw him? The way he looked at Alanza now? It was a riddle he’d likely never solve. Not without seeing himself from another’s eyes.

“That...that seat...”

“Oh, does it belong to someone else?”

How was it that silence could make so much noise? Another riddle for the ages.

“...No. Not anymore. Forget it.” The arrow had now pierced Luka’s voice, which came out in disconnected clips. They turned away from Alanza and focused on the ceiling instead. After another awkward pause, Snape cleared his throat to regain attention and continue the lesson. Barnaby did not listen, however. He rarely learned anything of value from the system of teachers and lessons at Hogwarts, and there was something more important that he knew he needed to prioritize. Luka was hurting. The pain was consuming them, and they seemed unable to push it down as Barnaby had always done. At least for the moment. They needed a distraction.

Barnaby shuffled his feet and pushed his stool back, as everyone got up to gather ingredients for the day’s lesson. Alanza Alves was already chatting loudly about taste-testing the varying ingredients. Which, on any other day, Barnaby would have found to be an intriguing idea. But today, he had different plans. Clutching a piece of parchment in one of his fists, he approached Luka’s desk and scribbled something down for them to read when they returned. To be specific, he scribbled down three of his favorite riddles, ones that he wasn’t sure Luka knew. They needed something else to think about, after all. Before he made his way over to his peers to gather ingredients. But he wasn’t going to work on today’s potion. No, he had a different idea.

He was going to try brewing the Draught of Living Death. Taking the same steps he had taken before.

Luka ignored Alanza apart from giving vague, non-committal sounds, and when they returned to their desk, they picked up the the piece of parchment, frowning. “A box without hinges, key, or a lid. Yet golden treasure inside is hid.”

“Liz, did you write this...?” They turned to her, holding up the parchment to show off the first riddle. Liz’ eyes widened behind her spectacles. She immediately glanced over at Barnaby, who did not see her as he was already at work. Looking back at Luka, she shook her head.

Luka glanced in Barnaby’s direction now as well. What was he playing at? Sinking back into their chair, they started to work on the day’s lesson. But they repeated step three about five times before noticing that they were on autopilot in a plane that was doomed to crash. They weren’t going to get any work done today. But they needed some kind of distraction. Something, anything. Just to stop their mind from wandering back to the Forbidden Forest. To Rakepick’s horrible grin. To the green light. To...to Rowan’s gaping look of horror.

No. They couldn’t cry. Not here, not now.

Unrolling the piece of parchment, they studied the riddles Barnaby had left for them.

Several hours later, Potions class was over, and Luka had said goodbye to Alanza for the remainder of the day. They could return to Ravenclaw Tower, of course. But what would be the point? They’d just wind up knocking until someone let them in, or else came along to help them enter their own Common Room. They didn’t have Rowan anymore. So it took a lot longer these days. But there was something more. They wanted to talk to Barnaby. To thank him for earlier, whatever it was that he was trying to do. Strangely enough, it had helped. To their surprise, Barnaby reached out first.

Like many times before, Luka found an Owl waiting for them at the nearest window-sill, with a brief message to meet Barnaby in the Artifact Room. It was after curfew, but they didn’t care. It wouldn’t be the first time, would it? Proceeding down past the Great Hall and the entrance to the Courtyard, they look the left turn up an old flight of stairs and opened the door that looked like a frail piece of all. Barnaby and Penny were sitting together around a steaming cauldron.

“Hey...so...what’s this?”

Penny proceeded to taste-test the potion in the brew, taking a sip and then exhaling with a giggle. “Okay, you did it Barnaby. It works,  and it’s lovely.”

Luka caught Barnaby’s eye. “Seriously, what’s going on?”

Barnaby simply shrugged. “I hated to see you in so much pain today, so I thought maybe we could all hang out and do some more riddles? Only if you want to.”

Penny chimed in, scooting away from the cauldron as if to stop herself from ingesting more. “And if you get frustrated, you should have a taste of Barnaby’s draught of living death. It will cheer you right up!”

Luka’s eyes narrowed. “Your...what?”

Barnaby hesitated. “Was this a bad idea? If it was, I’m sorry. We can forget about-”

But Luka was shaking their head. “No...I like riddles.” It was almost the truth, and on it’s way to being entirely true. They sat down next to Barnaby. “By the way, it’s an egg. No hinges, no key, no lid. But with treasure inside.”

“That one took me forever, but it’s one of my favorites.” Barnaby smiled, pouring a flash of the “living death” potion and offering it to Luka, who accepted it.

“Okay.” Luka smiled for the first time in weeks. “My turn.”

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Barnaby is smart he just doesn’t respond well to educational systems and y’all can pry that from my cold dead hands.) 

[hufflly-puffs]

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Chapter 26: The Cave

“And with the sudden agility of a much younger man, Dumbledore slid from the boulder, landed in the sea and began to swim, with a perfect breaststroke, towards the dark slit in the rock face, his lit wand held in his teeth.” – I don’t know why this image is so funny to me, but I need fan art of this moment asap.

“‘Here,’ he said. ‘We go on through here. The entrance is concealed.’ Harry did not ask how Dumbledore knew. He had never seen a wizard work things out like this, simply by looking and touching; but Harry had long since learned that bangs and smoke were more often the marks of ineptitude than expertise.” – Not only does magic leaves traces, wizards like Dumbledore can feel it. Harry of course has spent most of his life either at places without any magic (Privet Drive) or places full of magic (Hogwarts, the Burrow, Grimmauld Place etc), so perhaps it is much more difficult for him to detect the traces magic leaves behind, for he only knows the complete absence or is overwhelmed by it.

“Dumbledore stepped back from the cave wall and pointed his wand at the rock. For a moment, an arched outline appeared there, blazing white as though there was a powerful light behind the crack.” – Both the hidden door and later the lake full of bodies are references to the Lord of the Rings, respectively the Doors of Durin and the Dead Marshes. Of course you only have to solve a riddle and not give your blood to enter the Doors of Durin. And later in book 7 we have another pretty obvious reference to Tolkien’s work: while Ron, Hermione and Harry each wear Slytherin’s locket (still a Horcrux then) it changes their personality to something much more sinister, the same way the One Ring influences Frodo (and has influenced Gollum) to become someone else. There might be other references that I missed, because I’m not an expert when it comes to Lord of the Rings.

“‘I said it was crude,’ said Dumbledore, who sounded disdainful, even disappointed, as though Voldemort had fallen short of the standards Dumbledore expected. ‘The idea, as I am sure you will have gathered, is that your enemy must weaken him or herself to enter. Once again, Lord Voldemort fails to grasp that there are much more terrible things than physical injury.’” – The thing however is that if you are a wizard you can simply heal yourself afterwards, so you are not weakened at all. It is not just crude but rather pointless.

“‘You are very kind, Harry,’ said Dumbledore, now passing the tip of his wand over the deep cut he had made in his own arm, so that it healed instantly, just as Snape had healed Malfoy’s wounds. ‘But your blood is worth more than mine. Ah, that seems to have done the trick, doesn’t it?’” – Of course Harry’s blood had a particular value to Voldemort because he needed the protection in it (given through Lily’s sacrifice) in order to recreate himself and to be able to touch Harry. But I don’t think that in this case it would have actually mattered whose blood they used; I doubt the door could recognize the donor.

I have to admit that the image of the cave, the almost complete darkness and the bodies in the lake is deeply unsettling. Well done.

Also, after Harry suggest to use a Summoning Charm to get the Horcrux Dumbledore does not dismiss his idea but instead let him try it out, even though he knew it would not be as easy as that. But he encourages Harry and let him take action; I can only image he was the same as a teacher, never dismissing anyone’s ideas but supporting them instead, the way Lupin did.

“‘How did you know that was there?’ Harry asked in astonishment. ‘Magic always leaves traces,’ said Dumbledore, as the boat hit the bank with a gentle bump, ‘sometimes very distinctive traces. I taught Tom Riddle. I know his style.’” – So not only does Dumbledore recognizes traces of magic but also who performed the magic in this case. That it was Tom Riddle is kinda obvious, but I like the idea of wizards leaving behind magical fingerprints, something that you can clearly trace back to their owner. Then again perhaps only as highly gifted wizards as Dumbledore are able to do this. We know that while the Ministry can recognizes where magic has been used there are often unable to tell who did it; they had accused Harry to use magic in his holidays when it had been Dobby instead. And they need tools like Priori Incantatem to figure out who has performed a certain spell.

“‘Voldemort will not have cared about the weight, but about the amount of magical power that crossed his lake. I rather think an enchantment will have been placed upon this boat so that only one wizard at a time will be able to sail in it.’ ‘But then –?’ ‘I do not think you will count, Harry: you are under age and unqualified. Voldemort would never have expected a sixteen-year-old to reach this place: I think it unlikely that your powers will register compared to mine.’” – It will be of course Voldemort’s downfall that he underestimates practically everyone. Harry does not register because he is too young. According to Rowling’s drawing of the Black family tree Regulus was 18 when he died, so he did register as a wizard, but Kreacher of course did not. It simply did not cross Voldemort’s mind that two people/beings could travel to this place, or that his protection would not work on House Elves and the likes.

I wonder who the bodies in the lake are, if perhaps Dumbledore would recognize some of Voldemort’s victims who would have found their final resting place here, their bodies abused to protect a part of the soul of their killer.

“‘There is nothing to be feared from a body, Harry, any more than there is anything to be feared from the darkness. Lord Voldemort, who of course secretly fears both, disagrees. But once again he reveals his own lack of wisdom. It is the unknown we fear when we look upon death and darkness, nothing more.’” – Perhaps the best way to face a fear is to educate yourself about it; once it is demystified it can no longer scares us.

“‘Yes,’ said Dumbledore. ‘I am sure that once we take the Horcrux, we shall find them less peaceable. However, like many creatures that dwell in cold and darkness, they fear light and warmth, which we shall therefore call to our aid should the need arise. Fire, Harry,’ Dumbledore added with a smile, in response to Harry’s bewildered expression.” – It is the Devil’s Snare all over again, isn’t it?

“‘I’m sorry, Harry; I should have said, he would not want immediately to kill the person who reached this island,’ Dumbledore corrected himself. ‘He would want to keep them alive long enough to find out how they managed to penetrate so far through his defences and, most importantly of all, why they were so intent upon emptying the basin. Do not forget that Lord Voldemort believes that he alone knows about his Horcruxes.’” – This sounds like Voldemort has some sort of alarm system, that he would know if somebody would enter the cave or start drinking the poison, but we know this is not the case. Regulus and Kreacher had been where Harry and Dumbledore are now, they took the Horcrux and Voldemort never found out about it. Also the way the poison works the drinker would be incredibly thirsty sooner or later, reaching for the water in the lake, and then getting dragged down by the Inferi. The poison is meant to kill, though not directly.

“‘Why can’t I drink the potion instead?’ asked Harry desperately. ‘Because I am much older, much cleverer, and much less valuable,’ said Dumbledore.” – Of course Harry’s value is that he alone can defeat Voldemort, but still it is very problematic to decide that one life has more value than another, especially knowing Dumbledore refers to Harry’s strategic value. At the moment Harry’s life has more value, because it is not the right moment for him to die yet.

“Dumbledore began to cower as though invisible torturers surrounded him; his flailing hand almost knocked the refilled goblet from Harry’s trembling hands as he moaned, ‘Don’t hurt them, don’t hurt them, please, please, it’s my fault, hurt me instead …’” – I wonder what it was that Dumbledore saw here; either his worst memory (the death of his sister) or his biggest fear (people dying for him, the same fear Harry has). Dumbledore said earlier that Voldemort does not know that there are worse things than physical pain, but this proves that he does. This is psychological torture.

Also, more terrifying than everything else (the darkness, the bodies) is the horror Harry feels when he witnesses what the poison does to Dumbledore, when he sees the pain Dumbledore feels and is forced to keep him drinking.

“‘I am not worried, Harry,’ said Dumbledore, his voice a little stronger despite the freezing water. ‘I am with you.’” – There is something quite scaring in this role reversal; the protector becomes the one who needs protection. Dumbledore  places his trust in Harry, he knows his time is limited, he knows that Harry has to finish what they both have started, there is no more time to teach him. And it puts an almost unbearable weight on Harry’s shoulders.

[asthrapolaris]

Imagine a more political Dumbledore, one that realize that he can change things with the influence he have.

Imagine him using his power and intelligence to gather allies and manipulating the system in favor of muggleborns and creatures and squibs.

Imagine a more self aware Dumbledore, that know he needs to push more for changes to coming close to a better society.

Imagine a Dumbledore so concerned with education and fairness that any house is treated equaly and the curriculum is improved more and more.

Imagine a still manipulative bastard Dumbledore, who keep people in debt of him, but are transparent for his friends and allies. 

Imagine a Dumbledore who care more for individual people and would never let a baby wizard with people who hate magic and, after failing Tom Riddle, would get out of his way to hel any orphan or abused kid, to a point to creating magical fostering and adoption.

Imagine a manipulative and drive to improve society Dumbledore, that would assure Harry’s being happy and safe, but would train him and use the boy-who-live fame to further his agenda, with Harry agreeing, of course.

Imagine a Dumbledore who push so much change in society that less and less people would support the dark lord, that would trust some of his people and would take care of the horcruxes, instead of letting teenagers do that. A Dumbledore that would move earth and heavens to find a way to retire the horcrux in Harry’s scar without harming him.

[leogichidaa]

And I also think that in many ways Grindewald was more dangerous than Voldemort in the sense that the idea of ruling over muggles is something that would appeal immensely to people like the Blacks. They may have supported Voldemort becuae they felt Voldemort had a “heavy hand” and would succeed where Grindewald failed. It’s only when it became clear Voldemort only cares about himself that they were like UMM maybe not.

Yes, I think Grindelwald, politically, is more dangerous than Voldemort on a lot of levels. Yes, he would appeal to the Black family for sure. But he's also just got a better angle on it overall. The idea that the Statute of Secrecy is outdated is, imo...not wrong? The idea that the Wizarding community is suffering from it is definitely not wrong. They are stuck in the middle ages in a lot of ways (robes, quill and parchment, draconian legal system) and I think that ties into the Statute, but there's also the stuff you mentioned about chemical warfare and just basic knowledge about the wider world around them that the average magical person is in the dark about. That has the potential to be really dangerous.

And then, yes, I talked before about how I think Grindelwald is more of a man with a cause and Voldemort is a man with a self-interested power hungry agenda. That makes Grindelwald much more seductive to the average person. He's better able to convince people to join his cause because he's passionate about it, he himself is invested in it. And he's better able to keep his people because while he may use them, he isn't careless with them in the same way that Voldemort is.

As an aside, the other day I was rereading the bits of HBP where Dumbledore shows Harry memories of young Tom Riddle so I could rage about how they talk about Merope and I came across this quote from Dumbledore about young Tom:

Did I know that I had just met the most dangerous Dark wizard of all time?

The way he just undercut Grindelwald like that, oof, bro. He did not say "of his time" he said "of all time". Ouch.

[ao3feed-jily]

All These Things That I've Done

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/3y26jY6

by Azar_Matutine

Halloween, 1981: Voldemort vanquished by Rupinder Potter, the Boy Who Lived. November 3rd, 1981: Harry Potter sent to Hesperus' International Academy of the Arts. January 21st, 1984: Duke Marvolo Slytherin enters High Society and is official recognized by the Magical State of Britannica and the Magical Roman Empire. November 26th, 1986: Harry Potter, age 9 comes out as a trans girl, guardian Marvolo Slytherin authorizes her name change to Chandra-Jaya Sappho Potter, James Potter approves appropriate surgeries, hormone therapy and medication. May 1st, 1993: Rupinder Potter, Boy Who Lived, requests Chandra-Jaya Potter's return from Hesperus' International Academy of the Arts

Words: 1304, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Fandoms: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence

Categories: Multi

Characters: Harry Potter, James Potter, Lily Evans Potter, Orignal Male Character - Rupinder Potter, Original Female Character - Calanthe Potter, Original Characters, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Albus Dumbledore, Tom Riddle | Voldemort, Narcissa Black Malfoy, Lucius Malfoy, Draco Malfoy, Bellatrix Black Lestrange

Relationships: Harry Potter & Original Character(s), Harry Potter & Tom Riddle, James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Sirius Black & Harry Potter, Lucius Malfoy/Narcissa Black Malfoy, Harry Potter/Original Male Character(s), Astoria Greengrass/Original Female Character(s), Hermione Granger & Original Male Character(s), Ron Weasley & Original Male Character(s), Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley, Narcissa Black Malfoy & Original Female Character(s)

Additional Tags: Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Tags May Change, Tags Are Hard, Abusive Relationships, Unhealthy Relationships, Lily Evans Potter Bashing, James Potter Bashing, Albus Dumbledore Bashing, Manipulative Albus Dumbledore, Parent-Child Relationship, Possessive Tom Riddle, Tom Riddle | Voldemort Adopts Harry Potter, Tom Riddle is His Own Warning, Tom Riddle is Voldemort, Tom Riddle is a Sweetheart, Revolution, Wizarding Politics (Harry Potter), Wizarding Culture (Harry Potter), Wizarding Wars (Harry Potter), Wizarding Traditions (Harry Potter), Wizarding Royalty (Harry Potter), Royalty, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Wizarding History (Harry Potter), Trans Character, Trans Female Character, Trans Harry Potter, She is Whamen, Name Changes, Genderfluid Character, Harry Potter Changes His Name, Imperialism, Political Alliances, Selective Weasley Bashing, Culture, dumb author trying to research other cultures, World Travel, Travel, the author is hungry while describing food-beware, Not Beta Read, No beta we die like my dignity, tis only my failing 3/4 of a braincell, The British Peerage System, Roman Empire, Gay, it's pretty gay, Harry Potter was Raised by Other(s), Female Harry Potter, just being thorough with tags y'all, the wizarding world doesn't mind trans people, Gender Dysphoria, Body Dysphoria, body image issues, thiccc thighs save lives, chunky nose rights

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/3y26jY6

[always-and-forever-pan]

God, just this entire post is gold!!!! I agree mostly with OP, especially about the Harry part. Just a few additions id like to add:

Albus Dumbledore could have helped Riddle. The way the child version was written gave him aspects of being a psychopath. However there is cognitive therapy now that proves psychopaths can be taught to be functional members of society if they are not already. The research stems from as early as the 1920's and are simply reward based systems. Dumbledore knew about kid Riddles failings, were told that in canon. All he had to do was say "act in a way that benefits society and you get this thing you want" which at that age was staying away from Wools orphanage. Instead Dumbledore refused to help, Dumbledore knew the adults and kids at Wools disliked/emotionally and physically abused Riddle and instead of being a good person and responsible adult he sent Riddle back to that environment. Ensuring Riddle hated everyone and would turn to violence to achieve his goals. (Riddles actions as an adult are on him, but he was driven to them by the failings of the adults in his developmental years).

I don't know if I agree that Dumbledore deliberately kept Sirius in Azkaban so he could manipulate Harry or if he did it to further his manipulations with Snape. Either way I believe Dumbledore saw the opportunity as being beneficial for himself and so he capitalised on it. But think about it, Harry was just a baby at the time, the true manipulations couldn't start yet, large picture they had. But small picture? Snape was literally in the seat next to Dumbledore, and Snape HATED Sirius. What better way to make absolutely certain that Snape would never question Dumbledore than to have the person Snape hates above all else suffering by his command. Because the Lily creepy thing covers Harry but it doesn't cover anything or anyone else.

I have always said Hagrid and Remus where only ever brought into Hogwarts so Dumbledore could later send them to do his dirty work with those Dumbledore views as less than. Because both came back from missions for Dumbledore beat up, obviously Dumbledore couldn't do that himself, he's the leader of the army, he's too important to risk that way. It only makes sense to delegate right?

Albus Dumbledore is the worst.

Albus Dumbledore was written to be a hero, and that's what makes him such a good villain. Almost everyone in the Wizarding World trusted him and thought he was so incredible and amazing, but in reality, he was playing a brilliant game of chess, using them all as his pawns.

How? Let's start from the beginning with Tom Riddle.

Dumbledore first met Tom when he was eleven, and even then, you could see the warning signs. Dumbledore did too. He saw that Tom was dangerous and unstable, and Dumbledore, being Dumbledore, wanted to give him a chance at Hogwarts.

But, Dumbledore, also, being Dumbledore, was the only one who saw who Tom really was, and only "kept an annoyingly close watch on him." He saw Tom Riddle, at the age of eleven saying "I can make bad things happen to people who annoy me. I can make them hurt if I want," and did not think to do anything about it.

He said to Harry in Chamber of Secrets that, "help will be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it," yet, here we have Tom Riddle, who desperately needed help, and did not get it. Could Dumbledore have prevented Tom Riddle from becoming who he was? I'm not sure. Could he have helped him more while he was at Hogwarts? 100%

Next up, Sirius (and a bit of Remus)

One thing I never understood while reading the books was why Sirius had to spend twelve years in Azkaban when there were literally potions that forced you to tell the truth.

The truth is, unsurprisingly, Dumbledore wanted him there. By keeping Sirius in Azkaban, there was no way he could adopt Harry (who was legally his), and ruin Dumbledore's perfectly thought out plan of manipulating Harry. Dumbledore was a high-ranking member of the Wizengamot, if he managed to get Snape off, he surely could've gotten Sirius free too.

But unlike Snape, and Remus, and Hagrid, and Harry, Dumbledore couldn't use Sirius. Remus was a werewolf with no job prospects in the Wizarding World, and no Muggle qualifications either. He spent twelve years alone, as he watched his friends die or get sent to Azkaban. But then here comes Dumbledore, who gives him a job and a home when no one else would. And suddenly, Remus is loyal to Dumbledore.

Hagrid, a half-giant, was kicked out of Hogwarts in his third year for something he didn't do. But Dumbledore comes along and suddenly Hagrid has a home and job, and owes it to Dumbledore, ensuring his loyalty.

Even Snape, Dumbledore saved him from a lifetime in Azkaban prison, securing his loyalty too.

But Sirius, Sirius was different. He saw right through Dumbledore and his manipulation. He was a rebel and chose his path. A path that didn't involve Dumbledore, which is why he was stuck in Azkaban for twelve years, despite him being innocent. Because him being around would've messed up Dumbledore's plan to raise Harry to die, because there is no way in hell that Sirius would've allowed that to happen.

Finally, Harry Potter, himself.

Harry escaped death at the age of one and then was essentially kidnapped by Hagrid on Dumbledore's orders. While there's no proof, surely James and Lily would've written a will, especially considering they were living through a war with their son being the target for the greatest dark wizard of all time. I believe that Dumbledore pulled some strings (because remember, he was a member of the Wizengamot, and despite not holding the title of Minister for Magic, he was as good as, especially considering how incompetent they were), so he could be in charge of Harry's living arrangements and manipulate him further. Sirius Black was his legal guardian, being godfather and all, and yet Hagrid had "orders from Dumbledore," so he got stuck with the Dursleys.

Harry grew up in this abusive home where he was unwanted, neglected, and bullied, so when he eventually finds out about the Wizarding World, he sees it as a home, a safe haven, away from the Dursleys. He feels grateful to the Wizarding World for saving him from them. And when he has to go back at the beginning of summer, it's a reminder that it can all be taken away, so when Harry has to sacrifice himself to save the world he's come to love so much, of course, he does! Because why wouldn't he? It's his home.

Dumbledore could've left Harry with Remus, or the Weasley's, or the Longbottom's, or literally any other family, but the Dursley's made Harry easiest to manipulate.

And before anyone mentions Lily's blood wards, Dumbledore says in Order of the Phoenix: "You need return there only once a year, but as long as you can still call it home, there he cannot hurt you."

There was no reason for Harry to grow up in an abusive household, isolated from the Wizarding World, but it made Harry an easier pawn to manipulate in Dumbledore's game.

Similarly, when Harry is in school, he rewards Harry's saviour complex through house points. In Philosopher's Stone, the trio very clearly go against McGonagall's orders and put themselves in dangerous situations to 'save the day.' But instead of facing any punishment, they are rewarded via the House Cup, and Dumbledore is buying Harry's loyalty.

It's always Harry being the one to put himself into dangerous situations, never Dumbledore. Chamber of Secrets, Harry and Ginny both nearly die, but oh, thanks to Dumbledore's phoenix the day is saved! But wait, wasn't Dumbledore there the first time the Chamber was opened? Was there nobody else in the entire Wizarding World who could fix this mess, without having to rely on a twelve-year-old???

Prisoner of Azkaban. Why were Harry and Hermione the ones to rescue Sirius? Why couldn't Dumbledore do it himself? Goblet of Fire. You're telling me the 'most powerful wizard in the world' couldn't break the magical contract? In all honesty, he probably could, but he said it himself, he wanted to see what would happen. He was using Harry as bait. McGonagall seems to be the only person who cares about this poor boy's life. And then we have Order of the Phoenix. Where Dumbledore isolates himself from Harry, gets Snape to teach him Occlumency instead of doing it himself, which leads to Sirius's death, which I believe was planned (to an extent).

And at the end of Order of the Phoenix, Dumbledore comes 'clean,' saying that the reason he ghosted Harry for the entire year, was because 'he cared for him too much.' That he cared more about Harry's happiness than the safety of others, that he put Harry's life above the life of innocent people. He was telling Harry, who watched his godfather die in front of him, and blamed himself for it, that him being happy would lead to the deaths of others. Dumbledore's exact quote was, "What did I care if numbers of nameless and faceless people and creatures were slaughtered in the vague future, if in the here and now you were alive, and well, and happy." And of course, Dumbledore said this, because he knows Harry has a tendency to sacrifice himself for others, and as a result, he'll choose to die when the time comes.

Dumbledore kept Harry's inevitable death from him for sixteen years, five while he was at Hogwarts. And guess what? By this point, Harry was wrapped so tightly around Dumbledore's little finger, and wouldn't say no even if he could.

Harry Potter was raised like a pig for slaughter, by a man he trusted. And this makes me so angry. Harry Potter was seventeen when he walked into the forest alone, more than willing to die. He was seventeen when he and his friends fought in a war against people twice their age. He was seventeen when he saw some of those friends for the last time, watched them die fighting a war that none of them had seen the start of.

He was fifteen when he watched his godfather die before him, and blamed himself for it. He was fourteen when he watched Cedric Diggory die at the hand of Voldemort. He was twelve when he had to fight a basilisk and Tom Riddle single-handedly while trying to save himself and eleven-year-old Ginny Weasley. He was eleven and having to find and protect the Philosopher's Stone, the first 'test' of many. He was a child battling an adult's war, with no choice in the matter.

Dumbledore manipulated them all, so he could get children to fight his battles for him.

[elljayvee]

Severus, Harry, Albus, & Tom

(This post is based on some thoughts I spewed all over Twitter a bit ago.) 

I was thinking about the final duel in Deathly Hallows, which first of all has Albus Dumbledore’s fingerprints all over it -- Harry calling Tom “Tom”, lots of talking intended both to drive Tom right up a wall & to reach for his humanity.  There’s a lot of talk of love in it, which is something Harry understands and Tom doesn’t. (Has Tom ever loved anyone?) 

Tom understands sexual desire, and knows that sexual desire is not love -- but he doesn’t understand that Snape loved Lily. As far as he is concerned, there was only desire there, and he clearly perceives desire as fairly shallow. He says that Snape agreed that there were more worthy women: basically that Snape just wanted to fuck Lily. 

Harry understands love a lot better. (He’s been protected by love all his life. There were limits and flaws in that protection, but it was still there.) Harry knows that Snape could both desire his mother, & love her in other ways as well: for their shared past, for his childhood friendship. (I mean I'm not denying that Snape was kind of a creep, here, because there's all kinds of ways in which he was.) But I am saying that Tom only understood "Snape wants to fuck this lady" & not "Snape has a complicated emotional relationship with this woman that includes sexual desire." 

Also, re-reading that scene after reading Cursed Child puts a new complexion on Tom's knowledge of sexual desire. 

The whole duel works its way through two of the major triads in the series: Tom-Snape-Harry and Tom-Dumbledore-Harry. (Rowling uses triads & 3-vs-1 setups a lot, which I love. They’re very appealing. One of the notable things about the Horcruxes is that they aren’t triadic; they are unbalanced and scattered, symptoms of Tom’s broken and irredeemable soul.) 

The Tom-Dumbledore-Harry setup is about their relationships to love and power. They're all extremely powerful wizards who have very different approaches to both love and power. 

Harry cares much more about love than he does about power. There’s a deep satisfaction, for me, in seeing Dumbledore's infuriating dueling style used against Tom by Harry, a wizard whose strength lies in his ability to love. Harry understands love AS a force, as a power in its own right, but a power that lies in being given away. In open-heartedness. This makes Harry naming his second son after Snape more understandable: he understands love's complexity & has a generous heart himself. It also makes his complicated relationship with Albus Severus in Cursed Child more understandable: Albus Severus sees that same openness as nonspecific and uncaring. 

Dumbledore craves power & only resists it out of love, & only after tragedy. He is never again open-hearted as he was with Grindelwald, because for him love has been complicated by fear, pain, resentment, manipulation. He does love -- it seems to me that he loves both Snape and Harry -- but his love is always at a remove, never letting anyone too close. Dumbledore, at the liminal King's Cross, tells Harry that going to Hogwarts was resisting power; that’s either a bit self-deluding or he’s straight-up lying. There's a lot of power in controlling the education of generations of children, Albus. People make fun of the Slug Club, but at least Slughorn is open about what he's doing. Dumbledore cultivated people, too, and he used Hogwarts to do that cultivation -- which included recruiting children to war under his command. Dumbledore knows he has a lust for power, & maybe he honestly tried to avoid power, but he failed. I mean: "You will find that I will only truly have left this school when none here are loyal to me." Come on, Albus. I think he's VERY clear that he wants power too much & shouldn't have it, but NOT clear with himself on how much power he has via Hogwarts.

Tom loves only power and nothing else. It’s not clear to me that Tom has ever loved another person. 

Albus Dumbledore is very present in that duel, and so is another: Severus Snape. Harry, in talking to Tom, in centering a narrative of love, protection, and remorse, talks a fair bit about his mother, & about Snape, & he does it in front of EVERYONE. Snape spent his time living "no one must know"; Harry, by contrast, is about emotional accessibility. Everyone must know. It is all right to love people and not to hide it. 

The Tom-Snape-Harry triad is one of the most interesting in the series. It is formed by similar heritage, early lives, their relationships to Hogwarts, to Albus, to power, and to love. There are so many ways in which they are three men who could have been similar, but their choices define them. (Love. Choices. Respect. Names. These are some of the recurring themes of the series.) They’re all abused/neglected halfblood wizards who found their first real home at Hogwarts. Tom & Snape both loathe their Muggle fathers, & let that lead them to a very nasty belief system. In Tom’s case, he picked up his belief system at Hogwarts. We don’t know exactly how but there are implications that it was at least in part through a fascination with Salazar Slytherin -- his ancestor and fellow Parselmouth. In Snape’s case we know he probably didn’t start out with those beliefs, and also adopted them to a certain extent at Hogwarts. He tells Lily, before they go to Hogwarts, that birth doesn’t matter. He apparently doesn’t start using the word “Mudblood” until sometime after that. He leaves the Death Eaters and began to distance himself from their views for love, & renounced them entirely in at least two timelines (in Deathly Hallows, he tells Phineas Nigellus not to use the word "Mudblood", and in Cursed Child he says that he came to believe as Lily did). Harry...did not learn to hate Muggles or Muggleborns at Hogwarts. He had as much reason to hate his Muggle relatives as Snape or Tom, and he DID, but unlike them he didn’t generalize.

Tom, Snape, and Harry also all had relationships with Dumbledore beyond usual teacher-student relationships.

Of the three of them, the one whose relationship with Albus is the most obscured is Tom’s -- partly because so much of it was so far in the past, but partly because Tom doesn’t have normal human feelings. Albus knows a lot about him, and Tom hates that. (If you were trying to be a powerful Dark Lord, would you like it if your old teacher kept reminding you of when you were a young, vulnerable student? If you were trying to be more than human, would you like it if someone kept pointing out how human you still were?)

Severus Snape might have the most complicated relationship of all of them with Albus, and we see a lot of that in his memories in Deathly Hallows: there’s genuine dislike and disgust, there’s friendship, protection, sacrifice. How much Albus saw Severus as a tool to be used vs how much he cared is, I think, something of an open question. But I do think he did care, and that Severus cared for him -- Severus’s reaction to Albus putting on the Gaunt ring, for example, shows that. (Sidenote: given Albus’s issues with power, you’d think he’d be more understanding of Severus’s cravings for it. Shut up, Albus.)

Harry is very clear that he is “Dumbledore’s man”, despite a fraught relationship at times. He knows that Albus is manipulating things, and he isn’t exactly pleased about that, but he is also very clear that he knows which side is which and on whose side he stands. Even when he’s angry or frustrated with Dumbledore, he is still loyal to him. (As a sidenote, I think it’s clear in-universe that Dumbledore’s sexuality was either not secret or an open secret, at least among the adults. The Daily Prophet article by Rita Skeeter says Albus had an “unnatural interest” in Harry. “Unnatural interest” is a specific anti-gay term used to indicate sexual abuse of male children by gay men. Skeeter is using a homophobic slur towards Dumbledore. The Prophet article is written to imply to adult wizards that Albus had been AT LEAST magically & sexually grooming Harry, if not molesting him. It’s meant to cast aspersions on Dumbledore and on Harry’s emotional stability. Given how Rowling uses the Prophet and Skeeter throughout the series, I suppose one could say that readers were not intended to see any truth in that article -- but what always made Skeeter’s work effective was that there was just ENOUGH truth in it to build belief on.) 

All of Tom, Severus, & Harry have a lot of anger (& a lot of JUSTIFIED anger) but how they direct it is very different & it comes down to love.

Tom doesn’t love. He thinks of love as silly; he tells Harry that love didn’t save Dumbledore or his mother, after all. He mocks Lucius Malfoy for caring about Draco; he treats Bellatrix callously when she shows him affection (because I do think Bellatrix loved him, in her way). Tom only cares about power: the power of his weaponry, of his army. 

Severus comes to understand the power that love can have but he remains always twisted up about it, ashamed & secretive. That’s real tragedy of his life, I think. If he could have learned some openness he probably would have been happier. Moved on from Lily, at any rate. He did care for Albus, who up until very late rather thought that Severus HAD moved on from Lily -- I think, to an extent, Dumbledore also felt that Severus’s love was mostly desire-based, and so was surprised that almost two decades later it was still strong. 

And then there’s Harry. When thinking about choices, and about love, and about anger, Harry has at least as much reason as Ariana Dumbledore or Credence Barebone to become an Obscurial & doesn’t. He has at least as much reason as Tom Riddle or Severus Snape to hate Muggles, and doesn’t. Rowling implies that a lot of that has to do with Lily’s sacrifice, with her love protecting her child. It also has to do with Harry himself, though, and his choices: his choice of Ron over Draco, his choice to go after Ginny in the Chamber, his choice to be offended on Luna’s behalf when he sees she is being bullied, his choice to love Sirius, to share victory with Cedric, to trust Albus Dumbledore, to free Dobby, to bury Dobby. Not all of his choices work out for the best, and his anger at Snape (which is largely justified because Snape really is a jagoff to him) clouds his judgment at times. But largely, he is making choices that show him to be a caring and loving person -- when, like Tom and Severus, he has plenty of reasons not to be that kind of a person. 

[theoriginalcarnivorousmuffin]

> "one of my main fuels of why Dumbledore’s a raging misogynist" (c) What are others? I've never thought of his view of the whole Merope-Riddle's situation (though, yes, it _was_ rape) as misogynistic, just... er deeply wrong, but you are right. [love your thoughtful answers to asks btw <3]

Oh boy.

Basically it comes down to the way he talks about Merope Gaunt and Lily Evans. Keep in mind though, certainly with the latter, these are not self contained incidents. We’ll get into it with Lily, but he proudly espouses his views every single time he brings her up to Harry, which is a fair amount.

With that, Merope. I’ve already talked about how Dumbledore doesn’t even gloss over the rape, to him it didn’t happen, it was Tom Riddle Sr. taking advantage of poor willowy Merope by not loving her because she was unattractive. How dare he.

The other with Merope is that he says, note I do not say imply, he straight out says that Merope died in child birth because she didn’t love Tom Riddle enough. 

Let’s break that down.

First, he’s saying that maternal mortality is something that women can get over if they just try a little harder. Granted, perhaps he means that Merope could have gone to St. Mungo’s where she might have survived by receiving medical attention, but for all we know she still could have died. Death in childbirth happens, it is not a moral failing. Merope wandering destitute for months, living on the streets, also didn’t help things.

Second, he somehow relates her dying in childbirth to how much she loves her then unborn son. First, he’s making this the primary motivator of her existence, her giant great failing, that if she had loved her son enough she would have been a better woman. Second, I think her wandering around months starving and impoverished, severely ignorant of the world she lives in, might have had a little more of something to do with it than whether or not she loved her child.

Third, it just completely reinforces that “a woman is a flower” ideal that we see from the earlier rape of Tom Riddle Sr. A woman is a willowy, compassionate, maternal creature the men folk simply do not have the capacity to understand. A good woman, such as Lily Evans, are those overflowing with maternal love while the failed women are those like Merope who die in childbirth and squalor.

And if you think I’m lying about this last part, nope, Dumbledore directly compares the two. Lily Evans he said loved her son so much more than Merope ever loved Tom, in part because Lily Evans did not die in childbirth.

Oh, and also, this lack of ineffable yet profound maternal love is in part what makes Tom Riddle evil. Along with, of course, him being conceived by a love potion/being the rape baby of an action we won’t acknowledge as rape.

(And I just know, I just know, based on the whole Romilda Vane incident that love potion usage and children cannot be uncommon. Dumbledore this is unbelievably classist and just cannot be true.)

Jesus Dumbledore.

Harry, not being very bright, somehow takes Dumbledore very seriously through all of this and the many other ridiculous penseive lessons. The Halfblood Prince was a strange book, my friends.

Right, onto Lily Evans.

Let’s take several step backs from canon first to analyze Lily Evans and  what she managed to accomplish in so little time. Lily Evans dies at the age of 21, just out of Hogwarts, and presumably had no further education or even career (she gets pregnant very fast out of school). Despite this, living in hiding in a place with presumably no resources, acting without the knowledge of James or Dumbledore, Lily does the impossible. She creates a ward system that vastly surpasses anything Dumbledore or Voldemort can accomplish or counteract to protect her son.

The blood wards not only keep Harry’s residence safe for seventeen years but also protect him physically, wherever he goes, in a tremendously powerful manner. Quirrell touches Harry and he catches on fire and dies.

Voldemort only manages to get around it through a hack, taking Harry’s blood for himself, and even then never manages to break into Harry’s residence over the summer. Dumbledore confesses that he cannot replicate it nor expand on it, Harry has to stay at the Dursleys because blood wards. While Dumbledore could be lying to just keep Harry at the Dursleys, I’m willing to take him at his word in that we never see the blood wards used anywhere else. 

So, Lily Evans does this amazing, profound, thing and guess what she’s remembered for?

Being nice, marrying James, and having green eyes.

Specifically, since we’re looking at Dumbledore here, every time he talks about Lily it’s about “her love”. Her love saved Harry, the strength of her maternal love, this mystical feminine thing. James died in the house too, protecting his son, does he not count? More, can Dumbledore not admit, even for a second, that maybe Lily was brilliant? Nope, not even for a second. Lily’s ingenuity didn’t save Harry’s life or protect it years later, even though we know she set up these blood wards, that was all love.

Lily to Dumbledore is this Virgin Mary figure, a counterpoint to Merope but perhaps even worse in a way, she has no defining characteristics except that Harry is her son and she loved him.

So those are the big ones.

Otherwise we see things like Romilda Vane getting no punishment whatsoever for trying to date rape a fellow student. Granted, this could be the Wizarding World’s horrific acceptance of love potions (I can just see this being the ‘traditional’ way to win yourself an unwilling husband/wife). Knowing Dumbledore, it could also be just because girls and women aren’t enough of people to even be responsible for such actions.

[mbtizone]

Hermione Granger (Harry Potter): ESTJ

Dominant Extroverted Thinking [Te]: Hermione has a knack for organization. She comes across as bossy and overbearing because she believes that she always knows what’s best for everyone. Hermione doesn’t mind obeying rules and often goes out of her way to prevent others from breaking them (like when Harry and Ron left Gryffindor Tower after hours for Harry’s duel with Malfoy and she followed them to see what they were up to). Hermione absorbs as much knowledge as she can because she wants to apply it later. She needs to be ready when she’s asked a question because she wants to be a model student. Test scores are measurements of success, and measurements of success are essential to her. She’s actually disappointed when exams are canceled. Not only does Hermione not mind structure and hierarchy, but she enjoys it. It’s important for Hermione to have proof to believe something. She’s good at coming up with plans and organizing people to accomplish a task (Dumbledore’s Army, S.P.E.W.). When exams are approaching, Hermione attempts to whip the boys into shape by organizing study sessions and creating study sheets. She likes order, stability, and getting the job done as soon and as efficiently as possible. It irritates Hermione when Harry and Ron procrastinate their school assignments. She expects people be as responsible and hardworking as she is, and can become a nag if they fail to live up to her expectations. Instead of theorizing and speculating about something, Hermione’s brain will solve a problem in steps. This chocolate frog card says that Dumbledore did work in the area of alchemy with Nicolas Flamel. Hagrid accidentally let slip that what’s under that trapdoor is “strictly between Dumbledore and Nicolas Flamel.” Let me consult a book on Nicolas Flamel. Ah, he created the Philosopher’s Stone! That must be what Fluffy is guarding! She uses logical reasoning to figure out the potion riddle. Hermione is outraged when Umbridge doesn’t allow the students to perform magic in Defense Against the Dark Arts. Theory and discussion aren’t going to be helpful in battle! We need to practice this! When the Chamber of Secrets is open, Hermione practically moves to the library in order to gather as much information about it as she can, so they can use it to help. When she believes that Malfoy could be the heir of Slytherin, she decides to get him to confess by brewing Polyjuice Potion. She travels around with a bag that’s bigger on the inside, where she has packed all of the essentials in case they’re forced to make a run for it. While Harry and Ron are excited when Harry mysteriously receives a new broomstick, Hermione is instantly suspicious. There’s a murderer on the loose who is after Harry and he just so happens to receive a top of the line broom anonymously? This could be dangerous… and so, she reports it. She was correct in her assumption that the broom came from Sirius, but she didn’t know that Sirius wasn’t actually dangerous. Hermione is also good at putting aside her feelings. When she decides to track down horcruxes with Harry, she erases her mom and dad’s memories of her and sends them far away for their own safety. Sure, if she dies trying to stop Voldemort her parents will never even remember she existed, but if it keeps her parents alive, that’s all that matters. Even when Hermione is frightened, she still manages to speak with dominance and authority. An interesting contrast can be seen in conversations between Hermione and Luna. Hermione’s high Te is fundamentally incapable of understanding Luna’s high Ti.

Auxiliary Introverted Sensing [Si]: It isn’t important for Hermione to find new ways of doing things. If the book says to brew the potion this way, then that’s how it needs to be done! Hermione doesn’t like to improvise and much prefers to do things “by the book.” Her brain functions like a library. It’s as though she can mentally walk up to a book, pull it off the shelf, and recite all of the information in it that’s relevant to the problem at hand. She’s constantly absorbing information and cataloging it in her head, making it easy for her to reference it whenever she needs to. When they go through the trapdoor and Ron is stuck in the devil’s snare, Hermione remembers that devil’s snare hates sunlight, and quickly casts a spell to release Ron.

Tertiary Extroverted Intuition [Ne]: Although Hermione’s Ne is often used to think of worst-case scenarios and all that might go wrong, it also allows her to make connections and put pieces together that allow her come up with correct answers. Her Ne teams up with her Si and Te to come to correct conclusions. She will take information in, compare it to the evidence she has, and connect it to something she has previously seen or heard. After researching the creature, Hermione was able to work out that the basilisk was traveling through the school’s pipes. Lupin’s boggart takes the shape of the full moon, Snape has jumped ahead in their lessons to werewolves, and wait… Lupin seems to be absent from class every month around the time of the full moon. From these pieces of information, Hermione is able to accurately deduce that Lupin is, in fact, a werewolf. When Hermione utilizes her Ne, she typically does so with purpose. She doesn’t brainstorm for the sake of brainstorming, but to figure something out or solve a problem. Hermione can be quite creative when it’s in service of her Te goals. For instance, she creates enchanted coins to serve as a means of communication between the members of Dumbledore’s Army so they can carry out their lessons in secret and not be overheard by non-members. She also casts a spell on the group’s attendance sheet, so that anybody who snitched would receive a rash on their face that said “SNEAK.” When she needs to, Hermione can think relatively quickly on her feet, such as when she lures Umbridge into the forest under the pretense of finding “Dumbledore’s secret weapon” in order to stop her from casting the Cruciatus Curse on Harry.

Inferior Introverted Feeling [Fi]: Hermione prefers to emote in private. When she overhears Ron making fun of her, she holes up in a bathroom to cry. Hermione will stick her neck out for someone, even if she might get into trouble for doing so. When Harry and Ron save her from the troll, she takes the blame so they won’t be punished. While Hermione has a great deal of respect for authority, she has no problem standing up to people when she believes they’re wrong, or they do something she deems immoral. Her Fi values are expressed bluntly through her Te, but she doesn’t just talk or complain. When Hermione feels something isn’t functioning the way she believes it should, she acts. She sees a system that is corrupt, broken, or unjust, and she wants to fix it. Hermione witnesses Barty Crouch mistreating his house-elf and is appalled. She feels that house elves deserve wages and shouldn’t be treated like slaves, so she gets to work. She founds the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare (S.P.E.W.), she creates buttons, and rallies students to aid in her crusade. However, the house-elves don’t want to be free. They like working and serving others. Though her campaign makes them uncomfortable, Hermione continues trying to gain support for the cause. She questions Umbridge’s teaching methods, she sees that the Ministry of Magic is interfering at Hogwarts, and she leaps into action by convincing Harry that they can fight back by training their peers themselves. When Buckbeak is in danger of being executed for attacking Malfoy, Hermione devotes herself to defending the hippogriff. When Malfoy makes fun of Hagrid for being upset over the ruling, Hermione reacts violently and hits him. Hermione chides Harry when she thinks he’s slipped a dose of Felix Felicis in Ron’s drink during breakfast before a Quidditch match, believing his actions to be wrong, though Hermione uses the Confundus Charm to cause Cormac McLaggen to mess up his tryout with the Quidditch team.

Enneagram: 1w2 Sp/So

Quotes:

Hermione: I hope you’re pleased with yourselves. We could have been all killed — or worse, expelled.

Hermione: Harry, Kreacher doesn’t think like that, he’s a slave; house-elves are used to bad, even brutal treatment; what Voldemort did to Kreacher wasn’t that far out of the common way. What do wizard wars mean to an elf like Kreacher? He’s loyal to people who are kind to him, and Mrs. Black must have been, and Regulus certainly was, so he served them willingly and parroted their beliefs.

Hermione: But that’s – I’m sorry, but that’s completely ridiculous! How can I possibly prove it doesn’t exist? Do you expect me to get hold of – of all the pebbles in the world and test them? I mean, you could claim that anything’s real if the only basis for believing in it is that nobody’s proved it doesn’t exist!

Hermione: You know, house-elves get a very raw deal! It’s slavery, that’s what it is! That Mr. Crouch made her go up to the top of the stadium, and she was terrified, and he’s got her bewitched so she can’t even run when they start trampling tents! Why doesn’t anyone do something about it?

Hermione: Don’t you dare call Hagrid pathetic, you foul — you evil little cockroach!

Hermione: Are you sure that’s a real spell? Well, it’s not very good, is it? I’ve tried a few simple spells just for practice and its all worked for me. Nobody in my family’s magic at all. It was ever such a surprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased, of course, I mean, it’s the very best school of witchcraft there is, I’ve heard – I’ve learnt all our set books off by heart, of course, I just hope it will be enough – I’m Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you?

Hermione: Then I’ll go back again tomorrow! I’ll plan his lessons for him if I have to. I don’t care if she throws out Trelawney but she’s not taking Hagrid!

Hermione: That foul, lying, twisting old gargoyle! You see what she’s up to? It’s her thing about half-breeds all over again — she’s trying to make out Hagrid’s some kind of dim-witted troll, just because he had a giantess for a mother — and oh, it’s not fair, that really wasn’t a bad lesson at all — I mean, all right, if it had been Blast-Ended Skrewts again, but thestrals are fine — in fact, for Hagrid, they’re really good!

Hermione: One day, you’ll read Hogwarts, A History, and perhaps that will remind you that you can’t Apparate or Disapparate inside Hogwarts.

Hermione: I just think it’s very irresponsible to start performing spells when you don’t even know what they’re for, and stop talking about ‘the Prince’ as if it’s his title, I bet it’s just a stupid nickname, and it doesn’t seem as though he was a very nice person to me!

Hermione [in a letter]: I hope everything went all right and that Harry is okay and that you didn’t do anything illegal to get him out, Ron, because that would get Harry into trouble, too.

Hermione Granger (Harry Potter): ESTJ was originally published on MBTI Zone