He was willing to leave a kid in a known abusive environment for seventeen years, just so he would grow up as an outcast and latch on to the first adult who showed him kindness. Dumbledore then used that admiration to train him up to become a willing sacrifice. He manipulated everyone around him to achieve his own ends.
He was always in complete control of everyone around him, and capable of turning unexpected bad events to work in his favor. He had incredible ambition, that he had trouble reigning in.
As a Slytherin, I’m offended people keep making Slytherins out to be horrible people and always want to place anyone remotely “bad” in that house.
Dumbledore was objectively a good guy. I’m not calling him bad. I’m just saying he definitely felt the ends justified the means, and a true Gryfindor would have been stupid and noble and risked Voldemort winning the war if it meant sparing a little kid from a terrible life.
It comes across as “Dumbledore did bad things to achieve good ends, therefore Dumbledore belongs in Slytherin with the other people who do bad things.” Perhaps that’s me being oversensitive, but. in fact, a lot of people argue Dumbledore shouldn’t be considered a good guy at all because of what he did to Harry, like putting him in a knowingly abusive environment. A lot of people also just blanket refer to all Slytherins as evil and that nobody should be proud to have sorted into Slytherin.
My husband is a Slythterin. I quite like them. But I’m very familiar with the way their morality is more utilitarian than other houses. The greatest benefit for the greatest number of people is the right thing to a Slytherin, and maybe a Ravenclaw. Hufflepuffs and Gryfindors place more value on every individual person’s health and happiness.
I think making Slytherin the house of Ambition set it up to be seen as the “evil” house of the four, since highly ambitious people often do come off as calloused. A lot of our traits (like “cunning”) end up having dual meanings for evil as well. It’s almost like J.K.R. set it up to be perceived that way on purpose. Made it easy for every house to hate Slytherins.
I think it’s odd that he’s in Gryffindor, definitely - I think that he is either a Slytherin or a Ravenclaw.
Leaving Harry with the Dursleys, with only Arabella Figg to watch over him but to make sure he didn’t enjoy himself, then training him to sacrifice himself, definitely falls under “will use any means to achieve their ends.”
And being determined to unite the Hallows is incredibly ambitious. So is putting himself forward as a teenager to all the most notable witches and wizards of the day, and planning a whole new world order that allows wizards to live openly amongst and in charge of Muggles.
I think ambition and love of learning were probably his most driving character traits when he was a kid, so it’s strange that the Hat would settle on “bravery”.
But truthfully, I object to the entire concept of Sorting. It’s dumb to essentialize any kid at age 11, then stick them into an echo chamber that magnifies some of their worst impulses and teaches them to view people with other strengths as foreign and suspect. We have so many stupid reasons to hate and distrust each other, why add one more artificial one into the mix?
And more specifically, I think it’s possible to have a beneficial house that trains kids to be high achievers, to network, to identify and take advantage of strengths in order to accomplish great things. But Slytherin House, as portrayed in the books, ought to be razed to the ground and the earth salted where it once stood. I didn’t see that House do one positive thing for its students in all the books, and it hadn’t for at least 60 years prior.
Mr. Star argues that Slughorn was an example of a positive Slytherin influence. He took the best and brightest from all houses and got them to network and put aside their differences for a civil dinner once a month. He also points out that the books were told from Harry’s point of view, and Harry had a negative view of Slytherin. But I personally agree with you, that slytherin house as we saw it was basically an echo chamber for elitism. It could have been a good way for students to realize their potential and learn how to become most successful, rather than how to preserve the pure blood status quo.
Technically Dumbledore might have been forced into a grey morality. Because think of it he basically knows that wizard Hitler has one person in this world that can really end him. That person being Harry.
So even if Dumbledore didn’t want to put harry through that it could of objectively been seen as a needed sacrifice for the greater good. One person suffering so everyone else could have peace.
That being said I think the Gryffindor house may actually fit him in the sense of possibly having the bravery to make a decision of that magnitude. And being willing to continue the fight against voldemort.
Also in his youth he went looking for the Hallows and who knows what kind of trials he went through to track them down.
So that being said though hufflepuff is still the best house
Let me transcribe my co-person: "But consider that Dumbledore put off confronting Grindelwald until the very last minute - that wasn’t brave. He was always afraid to know which one of them had killed his sister. His lifelong tendency towards secret keeping wasn’t particularly brave.
"Thinking of things he did that were personally brave - he drank the potion… I’m not coming up with a lot of examples. He dueled when he had to duel, but everyone duels when they have to duel. Drinking that potion might have been the first truly brave thing he did, and he already knew he was going to die.
“I’m not saying he was a bad guy, just that JKR didn’t build a very compelling case for him being a Gryffindor. It almost seems like he’s a Gryffindor because he’s a good guy, and all the good guys had to be Gryffindor.”
And now you guys have a disturbingly accurate sense of how evening conversation passes in the House of Black Cats.
Oh, she’s on a roll: "I’m also no Snape apologist, but Snape was a ■■■■■■■double agent. He had to take an Unbreakable Vow. He was much braver than Dumbledore.
“Come to think of it, he’s not particularly ambitious. Or cunning.”
I interject that he’s very smart.
“Yes, he’s smart, but - he would have been happier in Ravenclaw. I mean, Snape’s great personal ambition is to be Defense against the Dark Arts teacher. He’s basically just in Slytherin because he’s a jackass.”
