Young Dumbledore (wasRe: Why Leave Harry at HW at the End of HBP?)

[houyhnhnm102]

No: HPFGUIDX 148356

Jen: 
> I mean, Voldemort is not the only obsessed person 
> in the series <g>. When we finally hear about 
> Grindelwald, perhaps the root of Dumbledore's 
> obsession with bringing down dark lords will have 
> more meaning. Mostly I think he's doing it for the 
> good of the WW, but he wasn't *always* the greatest 
> sorcerer in the world with only the good of humanity 
> on his mind, was he? At one time maybe he was a boy 
> and young man a bit like Harry.

houyhnhnm:

Or a bit like Snape?

The earliest information we have about Dumbledore, apart from the fact
that, as a teenager, he "did things with a wand I'd never seen before
..." is from the time he went to see Tom Riddle at the orphanage.  He
would already have been close to 100 years old at that time.

We know that his knowledge of *all* forms of magic is formidable.

********************

"You flatter me," said Dumbleddore calmly. "Voldemort had powers I
will never have."
"Only because you're too--well--*noble* to use them."
(SS, Scholastic pbk, p. 11)

"Just because a wizard *doesn't* use Dark Magic doesn't mean he
*can't*, Miss Pennyfeather," snapped Professor Binns.  "I repeat, if
the likes of Dumbledore--" (CoS, Scholastic pbk, p. 152)

"[Snape] is now no more a Death Eater than I am."
(GoF, Scholastic, p. 591)

"And Kreacher told you all this ... and laughed?" [Harry] croaked.
"He did not wish to tell me," said Dumbledore. "But I am a
sufficiently accomplished Legilimens myself to know when I am being
lied to and I -- persuaded -- him to tell me the full story, before I
left for the Department of Mysteries."
(OotP, Scholastic pbk, p. 832)

********************

That dash *persuaded* dash has an ominous ring to it.  And the "he is
now no more a Death Eater than I am" fairly screams to be interpreted
with a double meaning.  Could Dumbledore, as a young man, have had his
own infatuation with Dark Magic, long before the appearance of either
Grindelwald or Voldemort?  Did he have an epiphany in which he
realized that Love was the greater magic, turned his back on the Dark
Arts, and dedicated the rest of his life to fighting them?  If so,
then his ravings under the influence of the cave potion could be a
memory from that time.  It would also be another reason for his faith
in Snape's reformation.