#albus dumbledore

[grindelwalds-legacy]

Aberforth, to Albus: Please, picking locks is my specialty. Aberforth: *throws a brick through the window* Aberforth: Okay, let’s go.

[dumbledorefanboy]

I hate how Kreacher is treated by the story.

What is implied by the narrative and it's intent for the lesson is contradicted by what's written in the books. Sirius: Sirius not being cruel to Kreacher and treating him with neglect as said by Dumbledore is what we're supposed to see as the problem. “Sirius did not hate Kreacher,” said Dumbledore. “He regarded him as a servant unworthy of much interest or notice. Indifference and neglect often do much more damage than outright dislike. . . ."

But we have a scene of Sirius grabbing Kreacher by his loincloth and throwing him out of a room so the quote would be wrong as there would be much more than just neglect, you'd have to throw in physical abuse too, because how fucking painful and humiliating is it to be picked up and literally thrown put by your underwear/loincloth? “Master must do as Master wishes,” before turning away and muttering very loudly, “but Master will not turn Kreacher away, no, because Kreacher knows what they are up to, oh yes, he is plotting against the Dark Lord, yes, with these Mudbloods and traitors and scum. . . .” At which Sirius, ignoring Hermione’s protests, seized Kreacher by the back of his loincloth and threw him bodily from the room. However, if you take the clearly comedic tone of the scene into account (which is what I do), then the problem swings slightly to the other direction, maybe I'm forgetting some things, but IIRC 99% of Sirius' interactions with Kreacher is telling him to shut up when he starts insulting people, and also not listening to Kreacher's wishes of not wanting to get rid of stuff from the house. Part of why Sirius doesn't let Kreacher go, aside from Kreacher knowing Order secrets of course, is the fact that he recognizes how Kreacher does not want to be let go. Sirius is forced to have Kreacher with him just as Kreacher is, Sirius is stuck in his abusive childhood home, with Kreacher being there for said childhood, and with Kreacher constantly muttering about how Sirius was a bad child and also constantly using 'mudblood' against his godson's friends, with said slur also being the one that was also very probably used during his childhood, and also was the one mainly used by the DEs, the group he's fighting against and the reason for why his best friend is dead and why he was framed for 12 years in the torture prison. And Sirius is the one expected to be polite or kind to Kreacher. Still don't get me wrong, Kreacher still absolutely deserves kindness as does everyone, his situation was miserable too! And it would have been much better for Sirius to treat him with kindness or at least politeness .... but I don't know, it shouldn't fall onto Sirius's head here. I guess what I'm saying is that the books treated Sirius and Kreacher's situation as way too one sided, they briefly mention at first how Sirius was kind to other house elves and he hated Kreacher because of what he represented with his childhood, but after that it goes to "Sirius is wrong for treating Kreacher so" using it as a wider example for all house elves, and comparing it to even how Voldemort(!!) tortured Kreacher, all without mentioning what I said above, such as again how both are forced into being together. (What I'm arguing for feels wrong and tbh Icky too, but I can't find a proper counterargument in my head.) Walburga: Hermione tells us that she must have treated Kreacher kindly, and we're supposed to take that as truth by the narrative as a part of the lesson for why Harry should treat Kreacher kindly too.

“Harry, Kreacher doesn’t think like that,” said Hermione, wiping her eyes on the back of her hand. “He’s a slave; house-elves are used to bad, even brutal treatment; what Voldemort did to Kreacher wasn’t that far out of the common way. What do wizard wars mean to an elf like Kreacher? He’s loyal to people who are kind to him, and Mrs. Black must have been, and Regulus certainly was, so he served them willingly and parroted their beliefs But the only thing we know of her treatment is that Kreacher was living in the boiler cupboard, and that house elf heads were being mounted on the wall so…. Sidenote: Narcissa and Bellatrix, Narcissa very very likely abused Dobby too alongside Lucius, and Bellatrix is well...Bellatrix, and both of them 100% believe in blood purity and wizard supremacy. So then why would they treat Kreacher kindly as Hermione said when he came to them? I think it fits tbh, Kreacher isn't al elf they own, he belongs to their enemy, and they need him for their plans, so I can see them putting their usual habits aside and treating Kreacher nicely to get what they want, plus Kreacher voluntarily coming up to them to offer himself for their plans, and also him probably showing clear bootlicking for Walburga and using the words 'mudblood' and such could have softened them up to him. Regardless, we do have evidence of them treating Kreacher nicely via him calling them via their nicknames of 'Miss Cissy' and 'Miss Bella' rather than something more formal. Dumbledore: Oh Dumbledore... I hate having to write this about him. This post was mainly made because of his scene in HBP, it's one of the moments which I absolutely loath. In OOTP, Dumbledore felt it important to lecture about the value of treating house elves kindly and how Sirius should have done so... to a grieving angry Harry the same day after Sirius's death which Kreacher was a big part of and maliciously and happily caused.

“Kreacher is what he has been made by wizards, Harry,” said Dumbledore. “Yes, he is to be pitied. His existence has been as miserable as your friend Dobby’s. He was forced to do Sirius’s bidding, because Sirius was the last of the family to which he was enslaved, but he felt no true loyalty to him. And whatever Kreacher’s faults, it must be admitted that Sirius did nothing to make Kreacher’s lot easier —” What we're supposed to get from this is how deeply Dumbledore cares about others' rights, it's consistent with how he treated Dobby, Winky, the Hogwarts house elves, the giants, and the centaurs and merfolk and such. To the point that he's even going to try and impart that lesson onto Harry in such a time. But then hop on over to Half Blood Prince and you'll see:

“Kreacher belongs to Miss Bellatrix, oh yes, Kreacher belongs to the Blacks, Kreacher wants his new mistress, Kreacher won’t go to the Potter brat, Kreacher won’t, won’t, won’t —” “As you can see, Harry,” said Dumbledore loudly, over Kreacher’s continued croaks of “won’t, won’t, won’t,” “Kreacher is showing a certain reluctance to pass into your ownership.” Dumbledore talking over Kreacher's 'tantrum' (as lovingly described by the narrative) of not wanting to be a slave to Harry, “Well, that simplifies matters,” said Dumbledore cheerfully. “It seems that Sirius knew what he was doing. You are the rightful owner of number twelve, Grimmauld Place and of Kreacher.” Said cheerfully by Dumbledore as Kreacher is busy being forced into silence He's quite literally treating Kreacher as "A servant, unworthy of much interest or notice." And The worst part: “Do I — do I have to keep him with me?” Harry asked, aghast, as Kreacher thrashed around at his feet. “Not if you don’t want to,” said Dumbledore. “If I might make a suggestion, you could send him to Hogwarts to work in the kitchen there. In that way, the other house-elves could keep an eye on him.” He suggests forcing Kreacher to work at Hogwarts, instead of say, taking 5 minutes to craft a set of orders to keep Kreacher from eavesdropping on Order matters and leaking them and such and then having Kreacher stay in Grimmauld Place, where he'll at least have a little more dignity by being at the place he wants, but instead Dumbledore just forces him into slavery. Maybe he thought that Kreacher would be better off in the company of other elves rather than in a now infrequently used house that would only be entered by people who would hate him? But this isn't what Dumbledore's wording and the tone implied at all, the elves would 'Keep an eye on' Kreacher which means that Dumbledore would ask them to watch out for him, wouldn't be very conductive to friendliness. This is still the Watsonian explanation that I'd use in my personal fanon, but it very very clearly not the intent for this quote here. Also it's during the same time period where Dumbledore knew Draco had a mission to kill him, a mission that could have greatly benefited from a house elf that had already aided a Malfoy/Black in killing an order member, yes Dumbledore said the elves could keep an eye on him, but at least like Kreacher could still slip by...have Harry order him to not interact with the Malfoys or something at least. An important part of Dumbledore's character was damaged here, it's extremely OOC. And for what? Comedy? I absolutely believe that we were just supposed to view this as a comedic scene, since not a single bit of criticism was given to Dumbledore, and especially since we later get this in DH:

I’ve said all along that wizards would pay for how they treat houseelves. Well, Voldemort did . . . and so did Sirius.” Harry had no retort. As he watched Kreacher sobbing on the floor, he remembered what Dumbledore had said to him, mere hours after Sirius’s death: I do not think Sirius ever saw Kreacher as a being with feelings as acute as a human’s. . . .

Where Dumbledore's words are mentioned and are used as the final final heavy point in the lesson of treating house elves kindly. But still, unlike Sirius's scene of throwing Kreacher, which was just a single short paragraph which isn't linked to any important plot points, this one of Dumbledore is a whole long scene with very serious bits thrown in there, and it advanced the plot slightly by getting Kreacher to Hogwarts so that Harry could order him to do

[m-ixim]

Gellert after Albus died felt the most painful feeling in the world. He had 50 years of regret but he never stopped hoping that Albus would visit or write. That even after years he could finally say ‘I’m sorry Albus.’ Or if he died before he had, he at least would die knowing Albus could have a happy life.

But Albus dying before him, without him is so painful because Gellert can’t ever tell him how awful he feels because he hurt him. He can’t tell him how he regrets losing him.

But what’s worse is that during that summer Gellert promised Albus lots of things and he realised he had broken nearly every single on of them.

‘I promise I’ll never leave,’ leaves Albus after Ariana died.

‘I promise to never hurt you.’ Hurts him so much during the war that it permanently scarred him.

‘I promise to keep you safe.’ Is miles away when he died.

The only promise Gellert ever kept is

‘I promise to love you forever.’

[regretismyconstantcompanion]

Did Albus and Gellert write to each other after 1945?

//Yes, they did but not until after almost a decade had passed after the duel. Albus knew Gellert would certainly not have welcomed his company or contact and even if Gellert had wanted it, Albus knew he could be persuaded to release him so he couldn't risk it himself. After that decade though, they wrote to one another and Albus did visit him.

I replied to a similar question here as well. ❤️

[brighttt]

one of the biggest fumbles of hp and fantastic beasts history

[m-ixim]

I think during 1920s-1940s the worst thing Gellert does to Albus was show him gentle affection, making Albus slightly believe that he could rescue Gellert from his darkness. Gellert would gentle touch his cheeks, or hold him tight after they’ll slept together, he’d compliment him or buy him something.

It hurt Albus so much to have Gellert do something sweet then the next day hear about violence he committed. The other part of this is Gellert isn’t doing this to be manipulative, he does those sweet things because despite his rage for Albus and his violence he lingers strong deep affection for him and he lets that slip a lot.

[witchy-detective]

Grindeldore Secretary (2002) Inspired AU

Albus us a quiet, former hogwarts professor who was recently released from the psychiatric facility at St. Mungo's hospital following the death of his sister (Albus gets a teaching job right after Hogwarts to support his siblings, Aberforth and Ariana stay in Godric's Hollow until Ariana eventually dies from her obscurus). After struggling to readjust to normal life after leaving the hospital he takes a job as Gellert Grindelwald, the very particular and very powerful, Germany Minister of magic. Albus' need for structure and Gellert's fascination with Albus and need control mix a little too well.