albus dumbledor

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore is a fictional character and a major protagonist within the Harry Potter series written by British author J. K. Rowling. For the majority of the series, he is the headmaster of the wizarding school Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Rowling's elderly headmaster at St Michael's Primary School, Alfred Dunn, is claimed as the inspiration for Dumbledore.

The name "Dumbledore" is an old Devon word for "bumblebee" and was picked by Rowling because she imagines him wandering around the castle humming to himself.[Character background
Early life and family
Through various interviews and discussions about the character, Rowling has established that Albus Dumbledore was born in 1881[4] to Percival and Kendra Dumbledore.[5]The trauma of the attack made Ariana too afraid to perform magic again. During his education at Hogwarts, Dumbledore was known as the most brilliant student to have ever stepped into the school, winning "every prize of note that the school offered". Hermione Granger gave this information to Harry Potter in Philosopher's Stone on the Hogwarts Express.
[HP5] When Dumbledore and Doge left Hogwarts, they planned to take their "then-traditional" tour of the world. On the eve of their trip, the 18-year-old Dumbledore suffered the death of his mother Kendra, accidentally killed by Ariana, during one of her outbursts of magic.
Dumbledore and Grindelwald

Further information: Politics of Harry Potter
Dumbledore later admitted to Harry that he felt trapped at home, and that his potential to be one of the greatest wizards of all time was wasted by being forced to care for his ill sister. The two young men took to each other immediately, the author went so far as to say Dumbledore fell in love with Grindelwald.[6]A discussion between Albus, Aberforth, and Grindelwald led to a duel that resulted in Ariana's death. Dumbledore returned to Hogwarts as professor of Transfiguration, and he served in recruiting students for the school.
Dumbledore finally defeated the now-Dark wizard Grindelwald, who had come to possess the Elder Wand. Grindelwald's defeat made Dumbledore the master of the Elder Wand, which remains his wand until his death. While speaking at Carnegie Hall, New York City on October 19, 2007, Rowling was asked by a young fan whether Dumbledore finds "true love". Rowling said that she always thought of Dumbledore as being gay and that he had fallen in love with Grindelwald; whether Grindelwald returned his affections, Rowling did not explicitly state. That love, she said, was Dumbledore's "great tragedy."[6]
Dumbledore and the rise of Voldemort
Further information: Lord Voldemort
Further information: Order of the Phoenix (organisation)
One of Dumbledore's tasks as a teacher at Hogwarts was to find the young wizard Tom Marvolo Riddle and offer him a place at Hogwarts. While Dumbledore was impressed by Riddle's abilities, he was troubled by the boy's admitted fondness for inflicting pain and never trusted him fully. Years later, Riddle attempted to gain a teaching post at Hogwarts, but Dumbledore first persuaded the then headmaster, Armando Dippet, to refuse Riddle's request, and he himself refused a second request several years after that. Taking matters into his own hands, Dumbledore formed the Order of the Phoenix. Throughout Voldemort's ever growing power, the Order fought against Voldemort's forces of Death Eaters and other followers. Before the murders of the Potters, Dumbledore asked to see the Invisibility Cloak, suspecting it to be part of the legendary Deathly Hallows. When James died, Dumbledore kept the cloak and decided to pass it on to Harry, James' son.
Appearances
First three books

Dumbledore as portrayed by the late Richard Harris in Philosopher's Stone and Chamber of Secrets.
In the opening chapter of the first novel of the series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Dumbledore arrives at number four, Privet Drive in Little Whinging, Surrey. When Harry's parents were killed and Voldemort was rendered to a feeble form, it was Dumbledore's decision to place the now-orphaned Harry in the home of Vernon and Petunia Dursley. He knew that Harry would be protected by the special magic caused by his mother's sacrifice, after he evoked the magic of the bond of blood and Petunia Dursley sealed it by accepting Harry into her home. This old magic of binding love made touching Harry unbearable for Voldemort. Dumbledore left Harry upon the doorstep of the Dursley residence with a letter explaining the situation. He departs with the final phrase, "Good luck, Harry."
When Harry arrives at Hogwarts, Dumbledore tells Harry about the secrets of the Mirror of Erised, claiming that when he looks into it, he sees himself "holding a pair of thick, woollen socks." However, he, like Harry, sees his family alive and united.[10]In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Dumbledore suspects that Tom Riddle is somehow involved in the attacks on the students, as he says, when asked who is the culprit, "not who, but how?". A younger Dumbledore appears in Riddle's diary, when Harry sees his memory, and asks Riddle if there is anything he knows about the attacks on the students. At the beginning of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Dumbledore is forced to accept dementors onto his school's grounds for the protection of his students from Sirius Black, the supposed killer that had escaped from Azkaban. After Black's breach into Hogwarts, Dumbledore issues orders to close every entrance to the school and grounds. After Harry falls off of his broomstick during a Quidditch match because of the dementors, Dumbledore becomes uncharacteristically angry at them and uses his wand to cause Harry to levitate safely to the ground. Later in that book, Dumbledore suggests Hermione Granger use her Ministry-approved Time-Turner to go back three hours to save Buckbeak the hippogriff and Sirius from their unjust executions.
In the fourth instalment, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Dumbledore introduces the Triwizard Tournament. When Harry's name comes out of the Goblet of Fire, Dumbledore is not enraged but remains calm, simply asking Harry whether he had himself, or had asked an older student to submit his name. When Harry answers no, he believes him. Unlike in the book, in the film version Dumbledore becomes rather angry and manhandles him when asking him the question.
By the end of the book, Dumbledore's fears are realized when Harry returns from his encounter with Voldemort clutching the dead body of Cedric Diggory and when Alastor Moody (actually being impersonated by Barty Crouch Junior through Polyjuice Potion) takes Harry away from Dumbledore and to his office inside the castle. Dumbledore immediately becomes suspicious and heads straight towards Moody's office with Minerva McGonagall and Severus Snape to save Harry and to interrogate Crouch. Afterwards, Dumbledore listens to Harry's eyewitness account about Voldemort's return. Harry though only wakes up later to find Cornelius Fudge in the wing arguing with McGonagall and Dumbledore, the latter of whom enters into an argument with the Minister Cornelius Fudge. In the end, Fudge and Dumbledore "part ways" after an argument about the situation of Voldemort's return and the consequences that would follow should Fudge remain ignorant.
In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Dumbledore is demoted from Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, voted out of the Chairmanship of the International Confederation of Wizards, and is almost stripped of his Order of Merlin First Class, due to his speeches regarding the return of Voldemort. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Magic does everything they can to discredit him and Harry, mainly through the Daily Prophet. At the beginning of the book, Dumbledore enrages Fudge when he stops by at Harry's hearing with a witness (Arabella Figg) to ensure that he is not expelled. While Harry feels better when Dumbledore assists him, he becomes annoyed to the point of being angry that the headmaster refuses to speak or even look at him.
During the following year at Hogwarts, the Ministry passes Educational Decree Twenty-two, allowing Fudge to place Dolores Umbridge (after Dumbledore failed to find a suitable candidate) to the post of Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. Through her, Fudge gradually gains power over Hogwarts and Dumbledore, who he fears is building an underage wizard army to overthrow the Ministry. Umbridge forbids practical defence practice in her classes forcing Harry, Ron, and Hermione to form Dumbledore's Army (D.A.) with fellow friends. It is when the Ministry discovers the D.A. that Dumbledore, choosing to accept responsibility, falsely claims that the organisation was his own subversive creation, and allows himself to be removed as headmaster (for the second time) rather than allow Harry to be expelled.
After Voldemort disapparates, Dumbledore tells Fudge what happened and is reinstated as headmaster and retrieves all his distinctions. Towards the end of the book, Dumbledore explains to Harry that Voldemort chose him as his equal and that one must kill the other in the end.
Sixth book
In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Dumbledore fetches Harry from Privet Drive and takes him to persuade Horace Slughorn to join the Hogwarts staff - his right hand, Harry notices, is shrivelled and black. During the school year, Dumbledore meets with Harry in his office to teach him of Voldemort's past because he tells Harry that it is of immense importance. It is learned that Voldemort created six Horcruxes to gain immortality and that they must all be destroyed before Harry goes after the final piece of Voldemort's soul that resides in the Dark Lord's body. Harry also repeatedly warns Dumbledore in most of their lessons that another student, Draco Malfoy, is working for Voldemort. Dumbledore refuses to take any action against Draco, and instead tells Harry that he already knows more about what is happening than Harry does.
By the end of book six, Dumbledore and Harry set out to the cave where Dumbledore believed a Horcrux resides. In the cave, Dumbledore drinks a potion inside the Horcrux's container; while drinking it, he begins to scream, seemingly enduring mental torture and being weakened. After the Inferi try to seize and drag Harry into the icy depths of the lake in the cave, Dumbledore suddenly recovers and conjures a fire lasso around them. In the tower, Dumbledore merely converses about Draco Malfoy's plot to kill him. Several other Death Eaters enter the tower and try to persuade Draco to kill Dumbledore. When Malfoy is unable to murder him, Snape appears and immediately performs the Killing Curse on Dumbledore.
It is revealed in the final book that Dumbledore made a terrible error by placing a cursed ring on his right hand, sometime between the fifth and sixth book, forgetting the curses that must be on the ring. The ring held the Resurrection Stone, which Dumbledore hoped to use to allow him to apologise to his sister and parents. Dumbledore called Severus Snape to help him; however, when Snape arrived and assessed the curse, all he could do was contain it. Snape told Dumbledore that he had little more than a year to live. After hearing this news, Dumbledore revealed to Snape that he knew about Voldemort's plan to have Draco Malfoy kill him. Shortly after his death (June 30th, 1997), Dumbledore's portrait magically appears in the Headmaster's office.
Final book
Rowling used several chapters in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows to reveal two main matters concerning Dumbledore: his early life and his death. After coming across conflicting stories about Dumbledore's childhood and rise to the position of Hogwarts headmaster, Harry begins to doubt the Dumbledore he thought he once knew. Dumbledore appears one last time to Harry towards the end of the book, after Harry is struck with the killing curse. The boy comforts Dumbledore as he confesses all of his many regrets. Dumbledore then informs Harry of the choice he still has; of moving on to the next life or returning to his body to face Voldemort one last time. After returning from limbo and defeating Voldemort, Harry has a short conversation with Dumbledore's portrait in the Headmaster's office about the fate of each of the three Deathly Hallows. In the epilogue, it is revealed that Harry names his second son Albus Severus Potter after Dumbledore and Snape.
In the film adaptations of Philosopher's Stone (2001) and Chamber of Secrets (2002), Dumbledore was played by Richard Harris, who was expected to play Dumbledore throughout the series.
Outward appearance
The books describe Dumbledore as a classic wizard; tall and thin, with long silver hair that looks long enough to tuck into his belt and a long beard. Some reviewers have noted a similarity between Dumbledore and the classic wizard Merlin,[12][13] as well as Gandalf from Tolkien's Lord of the Rings.[14]
Voldemort angrily refers to Dumbledore as "that champion of commoners, of Mudbloods and Muggles". Unlike most wizards, Dumbledore is not afraid to refer to Voldemort by name (and attempted to persuade others to call him by his 'proper' name, Voldemort, during the First War) and instead addresses him as "Tom" when confronting him. Characters in the books often remark that his greatest weakness is Dumbledore's willingness to trust those who may otherwise be considered untrustworthy. According to Rowling, "Although Dumbledore seems to be so benign for six books, he's quite a Machiavellian figure, really. In the seventh novel, Harry realises that he and Dumbledore see the same things in the Mirror: their families.
Magical accomplishments and skills
At a young age, Dumbledore always showed great magical abilities and in his N.E.W.T.s, "...did things with a wand [the examiner had] never seen before". Rowling has said that Dumbledore is primarily self-taught, although he "had access to superb teachers at Hogwarts," and, as far as his education is concerned, "Dumbledore's family would be a profitable line of inquiry."[17]Dumbledore has devised a method of sending messages to other people using a Patronus Charm, a skill he has taught only to members of the Order of the Phoenix.
Dumbledore is also skilled in Occlumency and Legilimency. Dumbledore is an expert at Transfiguration too, having taught the subject before becoming headmaster. Dumbledore is famous for defeating the Dark wizard Grindelwald, who is second on a list of Most Dangerous Dark Wizards of All Time only to Voldemort himself, in a "spectacular duel of legend", succeeding in doing so despite the fact that Grindelwald possessed the Elder Wand. Dumbledore speaks Mermish, Gobbledegook and understands Parseltongue.[19]
In the course of his life, Dumbledore refused several times the position of Minister for Magic.