[HPforGrownups] Dumbledore's Love

[Miles]

No: HPFGUIDX 147668

johnbowman19 wrote:
> What did Voldemort mean by (paraphrasing)".
> Your famous pronouncement that love is greater than my flavor of
> magic."?
> When I read this I took it literally meaning that somehow Dumbledore
> announced to the whole wizarding world that love was indeed a magic
> that could conquer all other forms of magic. I imagined him getting
> on the wizarding wireless network after his grand defeat of the Dark
> wizard Grindelwald to discuss his battle and making such a
> statement. So then my question becomes what did you all think of
> this statement?
> Is there a great academy that the wizard scholars who study the very
> fabric of magic go to and discuss the nature of magic? How else
> could Dumbledore make such a famous pronouncement?

Miles:
I don't think that Voldemort spoke about a famous speech or something like
that. We know that Dumbledore is a very famous wizard, and we know as well
that there is wizards' press, books, public (-shed) opinion. So it's not
surprising, that Dumbledore's opinions about many things are part of public
knowledge. He may have written books, essays, we can be sure that he was
interviewed more than once.
And additionally we know, that the Ministry is up to research Love and sees
it as the most powerful source of magical power - Dumbledore seems not to be
alone with his opinion.

johnbowman19 wrote:
> And wondering about the life of Dumbledore has led me to another
> question of his character: How does Dumbledore know what love is? JK
<snip> From
> this, I would argue that Dumbledore never knew true love because to
> have true love he would have had to find his equal.

> Tonks:
> As far as DD having had to have loved a woman and been married in
> order to understand love, I don't think that is true. After all look
> at the number of marriages that end in divorce. So I don't think
> that you can point to marital love as the highest form of love.
<snip>The very highest form of Love is
> sacrificial love, and not just for those that we love by nature, but
> for those that by nature we might hate.

Miles:
I don't think we should ask what form of love is "highest", so somehow I
disagree with both of you. There are several forms of love, parental love
(love between relatives in general), the love of lovers, friends' love, just
to name the three most important. In all kinds of love there are various
degrees of intensity. Sacrificial love can be the extreme form of all these
forms of love.
Talking about Dumbledore, he obviously loves Harry in a mixture of
(grand)parental love, and the kind of love that can develop between teacher
and student. This love is deep. So obviously Dumbledore can love.
By the way, we really don't know anything of Dumbledore's emotions at the
age of 20 or before, so there may be some stories to be told (or not told).

Miles