Dumbledore and Socks, Magical Contracts, and Bertie Botts Beans

[dcgmck]

No: HPFGUIDX 109864

Last night I fired off what was intended as a light-hearted response 
to the question of candy in J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series.  I 
awoke with my brain twirling, for good or ill the day will tell...  
Enough preamble.

When Harry asks Dumbledore in PS/SS what the latter sees when he 
looks into the Mirror of Erised, Dumbledore replies, "Socks."  We 
learn in CoS that one sock is the minimum requirement for terminating 
the lifelong magical contract that binds a house elf to his wizarding 
family.  Note that one sock is but half the requisite pair required 
for "proper" attire for the feet on which a body stands, yet its 
giving is sufficient to terminate a magical contract.

Magical contracts, we learn in GoF, are unbreakably binding.  When 
Harry's name comes out of the Goblet, it is Dumbledore who asserts 
that there is no way out for Harry, that he must now go through the 
contest to fulfill the contract someone of greater power and 
authority has enacted for him.  Harry's lack of say in the matter is 
reminiscent of the position of a child apprenticed by impoverished 
parents to a stern master, of a child of indentured servants who have 
entered into a generations-long contract, of a slave sold into 
captivity.  One can view the situation as a necessity of life, as an 
unfortunate consequence of circumstances, or as a vile practice in 
need of abolition.  

Dumbledore's failure or unwillingness to act on Harry's behalf, in 
turn, raises all sorts of questions.  A best case interpretation sees 
Dumbledore as a man of honor either giving Harry a chance to prove 
himself or teaching Harry that contracts must be honored, a lesson 
that many wish would be better taught in these avarice-driven times, 
possibly both.  A more cynical interpretation might see Dumbledore as 
seizing an opportunity to forward his own ends or worse, being 
unnecessarily constrained at an inopportune time.  After all, civil 
disobedience is the conscience-driven denial of the authority of an 
inherently bad contract.  Mahatma Ghandi and Martin Luther King, Jr., 
among others, used this idea to change their societies for the 
better.  Soldiers have been court-martialed for failure to use such 
judgment in defiance of illegal orders.  Despite these real-world 
examples of justifiable social contract breaking, the author allows 
Dumbledore to assert the conservative position that such a thing as 
an unbreakable contract exists, even though the contract is based on 
the equivalent of a forged signature and fulfilling the contract is 
potentially lethal.

What, then, is Dumbledore's motivation?  What is his position?  He 
seems to take contracts, magical and otherwise, very seriously.  He 
takes his contract to serve as Hogwarts' headmaster very seriously.  
One might posit that he feels as bound to his duty as headmaster as 
any house elf is to serve his/her family; hence the wish for socks.  
I do not mean this in a negative light.  In Christian literature 
Jesus asked on the eve of his greatest trial that his 'cup', his 
burden be lifted from him, though he ultimately submitted to 
crucifixion as the only way through the task at hand.  In Frank 
Herbert's 'Dune Messiah' Leo Atreides contemplates the many alternate 
paths he might take on the eve of his plunge into the metamorphosis 
that makes him a deified sandworm.  One can wish to serve, understand 
the need for sacrifice, and still wish there might be another way 
without actually turning from the requirements of necessity in 
fulfilling the most binding contract of all, that of one's life 
calling, one's truest vocation, regardless of what one may profess.

Dumbledore's recognition of the price of fulfilling one's duty, of 
adhering to the demands of the unwritten yet binding contract that 
might be perceived as accepting the consequences of one's choices and 
acceptance of privileges, is shown in many ways, but the one that 
produces both humor and pathos is his relationship with magical 
sweets.  

He says in PS/SS, "Ah! Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans! I was 
unfortunate enough in my youth to come across a vomit-flavored one, 
and since then I'm afraid I've rather lost my liking for them -- but 
I think I'll be safe with a nice toffee, don't you? . . . Alas, ear 
wax!" (U.S. pb 300-1).

Dumbledore recognizes and accepts the consequences of magical 
temptations, though he continues to try them between long breaks.  
More often he is seen indulging in safer if more mundane muggle 
treats, especially lemon sherbets/drops.  Even this choice reflects 
Dumbledore's reality that life is a mixture of sweet and sour, of 
service and sacrifice, of privilege and consequence.