16

The wizarding world has a lot of things that react to a wizard's mind and act as a psychology test to reveal something about a person:

A Boggart shows what you are afraid of.

The Mirror of Erised shows what your deepest desire is.

A Dementor forces you to relive your worst moment.

Do the books show what any of these tests reveal about Albus Dumbledore?

LarissaGodzilla
  • 711
  • 3
  • 17
APWD
  • 753
  • 5
  • 12
  • Wasn't the resurrection stone a better psychology test than boggarts? – b_jonas Oct 03 '13 at 11:34
  • @b_jonas - wouldn't the resurrection stone ONLY work for the person who mastered the Hallows? – DVK-on-Ahch-To Oct 03 '13 at 12:19
  • @DVK The resurrection stone is usable on its own, assuming there's at least some truth in the Tale of the Three Brothers. I always read it as the only way to truly master the Hallows is to realise that you can't bring the dead back using the stone, and that you shouldn't try to do so. – Anthony Grist Oct 03 '13 at 15:36
  • 2
    With so many questions like this, we should start to collect them to a big table with columns for person, Boggart, Mirror of Erised, Dementor, animagus form, Patronus form, wand wood, wand core, resurrection stone, etc. – b_jonas Apr 15 '14 at 21:16

1 Answers1

26

The books do not, but J.K. Rowling revealed some of the details:

  • Boggart:

    Lucy: What is Dumbledore's boggart?
    J.K. Rowling: The corpse of his sister
    (source: Bloomsbury.com web chat, July 30, 2007, 01:09 PM)

  • Mirror of Erised:

    Allie: What did Dumbledore truly see in the mirror of Erised
    J.K. Rowling: He saw his family alive, whole and happy - Ariana, Percival and Kendra all returned to him, and Aberforth reconciled to him.
    (source: J.K. Rowling and the Live Chat, Bloomsbury.com, July 30, 2007 (2.00-3.00pm BST). )

  • Dementors:

    I'm not aware of any mention of Dementors in this context, but from everything revealed in the books (especially the chat with Harry at King's Cross as well as the first JKR quote about the boggart), it's fairly easy to deduce - he would see the death of his sister and possibly, depending on whether Dementors show actual truth or the worst possible version your brain imagines, show that it was Dumbledore himself who killed her:

    "The argument became a fight. Grindelwald lost control. That which I had always sensed in him, though I pretended not to, now sprang into terrible being. And Ariana... after all my mother's care and caution... lay dead upon the floor."

    Dumbledore gave a little gasp and began to cry in earnest. Harry reached out and was glad to find that he could touch him: He gripped his arm tightly and Dumbledore gradually regained control.

    ...

    But while I busied myself with the training of young wizards, Grindelwald was raising an army. They say he feared me, and perhaps he did, but less, I think, than I feared him.

    "Oh, not death," said Dumbledore, in answer to Harry's questioning look. "Not what he could do to me magically. I knew that we were evenly matched, perhaps that I was a shade more skillful. It was the truth I feared. You see, I never knew which of us, in that last, horrific fight, had actually cast the curse that killed my sister. You may call me cowardly: You would be right, Harry. I dreaded beyond all things the knowledge that it had been I who brought about her death, not merely through my arrogance and stupidity, but that I actually struck the blow that snuffed out her life.

Community
  • 1
DVK-on-Ahch-To
  • 342,451
  • 162
  • 1,520
  • 2,066
  • I think the first two are the same chat, but google got me 2 different addresses. Go figure. – DVK-on-Ahch-To Oct 02 '13 at 09:47
  • I always felt dementors didn't have a strong affect on Dumbledore. Hence his statement in Order of the Phoenix about easily breaking out of Azkaban. – Treborcram Oct 02 '13 at 14:49
  • 1
    Perhaps because he knows he's innocent? I mean, it was an accident; Sirius got little effect because he knew he was innocent (and was a dog too, but also because of his innocence); perhaps Dumbledore had enough willpower to get little effect from them while knowing that although it could have been him that killed Ariana, he commited no crime? Personally I don't recall any reference of him breaking out easily (been a while since I've read it) but if that's the case, what I've said is a possibility. – Mac Cooper Oct 02 '13 at 19:34
  • @MacCooper "Well — it’s just that you seem to be laboring under the delusion that I am going to — what is the phrase? ‘Come quietly’ I am afraid I am not going to come quietly at all, Cornelius. I have absolutely no intention of being sent to Azkaban. I could break out, of course — but what a waste of time, and frankly, I can think of a whole host of things I would rather be doing." He doesn't explicitly say that he could do it easily, but he does rather say it in a manner that suggests he doesn't think it would be difficult. – Anthony Grist Oct 03 '13 at 15:45
  • Ah, excellent, thanks very much. I could argue of course that he was just saying that to make a point but that would be being awkward for the sake of it :) I am curious now however if Rowling has ever answered why he wasn't so badly affected; I mean, he has conversations with them, and from comments made by other characters, it's he that dominates the conversations, not the dementors. Anyway, thanks for finding the quote for me Anthony Grist, definitely makes me want to know how he'd have done it now. – Mac Cooper Oct 03 '13 at 21:54
  • 1
    @Mac Cooper: I asked about this one later in http://scifi.stackexchange.com/q/82055/4918 "How could Professor Dumbledore break out of Azkaban" – b_jonas Jan 04 '17 at 10:43