Albus Dumbledore Character Analysis in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

Albus Dumbledore is the former Hogwarts Headmaster and a father figure to Harry. He appears in the play via his portrait, though McGonagall reminds Harry that portraits don’t represent a person in their entirety—they just have a person’s memories. Dumbledore counsels Harry to try to recognize Albus for who he is, rather than only seeing who Harry wants him to be. Later, Harry confronts Dumbledore, criticizing him for abandoning Harry when Harry needed him most. Dumbledore tearfully admits how much he loved Harry, causing Harry to realize how much he needed to hear this growing up. This also leads Harry to realize how much his son needs to feel love from Harry as well. Harry’s son Albus is named for Dumbledore.

Albus Dumbledore Quotes in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

The Harry Potter and the Cursed Child quotes below are all either spoken by Albus Dumbledore or refer to Albus Dumbledore. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

ALBUS: Dad…

ALBUS pulls on HARRY’s robes. HARRY looks down.

Do you think—what if I am—what if I’m put in Slytherin…

HARRY: And what would be wrong with that?

ALBUS: Slytherin is the House of the snake, of Dark Magic… It’s not a House of brave wizards.

HARRY: Albus Severus, you were named after two headmasters of Hogwarts. One of them was a Slytherin and he was probably the bravest man I ever knew.

ALBUS: But just say…

HARRY: If it matters to you, you, the Sorting Hat will take your feelings into account.

Related Characters: Albus Severus Potter (speaker), Harry Potter (speaker), Scorpius Malfoy, Ginny Weasley, Severus Snape, Albus Dumbledore

Page Number and Citation: 9

Explanation and Analysis:

HARRY: I’ve never asked how you felt about me naming him after you, have I?

DUMBLEDORE: Candidly, Harry, it seemed a great weight to place upon the poor boy.

HARRY: I need your help. I need your advice. Bane says Albus is in danger. How do I protect my son, Dumbledore?

DUMBLEDORE: You ask me, of all people, how to protect a boy in terrible danger? We cannot protect the young from harm. Pain must and will come.

HARRY: So I’m supposed to stand and watch?

DUMBLEDORE: No. You’re supposed to teach him how to meet life.

HARRY: How? He won’t listen.

DUMBLEDORE: Perhaps he’s waiting for you to see him clearly.

Related Characters: Harry Potter (speaker), Albus Dumbledore (speaker), Albus Severus Potter, Scorpius Malfoy, Severus Snape, Bane

Page Number and Citation: 110

Explanation and Analysis:

HARRY: “Love blinds us”? Do you even know what that means? Do you even know how bad that advice was? My son is—my son is fighting battles for us just as I had to for you. And I have proved as bad a father to him as you were to me. Leaving him in places he felt unloved—growing in him resentments he’ll take years to understand—

[…]

DUMBLEDORE: No. I was protecting you. I did not want to hurt you…

DUMBLEDORE attempts to reach out of the portrait—but he can’t. He begins to cry but tries to hide it.

But I had to meet you in the end… eleven years old, and you were so brave. So good. You walked uncomplainingly along the path that had been laid at your feet. Of course I loved you… and I knew that it would happen all over again… that where I loved, I would cause irreparable damage. I am no fit person to love… I have never loved without causing harm.

A beat.

HARRY: You would have hurt me less if you had told me this then.

DUMBLEDORE (openly weeping now): I was blind. That is what love does. I couldn’t see that you needed to hear that this closed-up, tricky, dangerous old man… loved you.

Related Characters: Harry Potter (speaker), Albus Dumbledore (speaker), Albus Severus Potter, Scorpius Malfoy

Page Number and Citation: 231-232

Explanation and Analysis:

DRACO: Astoria always knew that she was not destined for old age. She wanted me to have somebody when she left, because… it is exceptionally lonely, being Draco Malfoy. I will always be suspected. There is no escaping the past. I never realized, though, that by hiding him away from this gossiping, judgmental world, I ensured that my son would emerge shrouded in worse suspicion than I ever endured.

HARRY: Love blinds. We have both tried to give our sons not what they needed, but what we needed. We’ve been so busy trying to rewrite our own pasts, we’ve blighted their present.

Related Characters: Draco Malfoy (speaker), Albus Severus Potter, Harry Potter, Scorpius Malfoy, Albus Dumbledore, Astoria Malfoy

Page Number and Citation: 257

Explanation and Analysis:

Albus Dumbledore Character Timeline in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

The timeline below shows where the character Albus Dumbledore appears in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

...wizards. Harry reassures his son by telling him that he was named after two men—Albus Dumbledore and Severus Snape. Snape was a Slytherin, and Harry tells Albus that Snape was the... (full context)

Harry says Dumbledore once told him that “The truth is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore... (full context)

...in a hospital bed while Harry sits beside him. Above them is a portrait of Dumbledore. Dumbledore asks if Albus will be all right, and Harry explains that Madame Pomfrey had... (full context)

Harry realizes then that he never asked Dumbledore about naming Albus after him. Dumbledore’s portrait observes that it’s a great weight to place... (full context)

Dumbledore says that he’s heard concerns about Harry and Albus—that they are struggling. He thinks that... (full context)

...him that Albus should stay away from Scorpius for everyone’s sake. He also says that Dumbledore spoke to him, saying that love was blinding Harry. McGonagall reminds Harry that the portrait... (full context)

...asks for help: he knows that Snape was watching the Death Eaters and spying for Dumbledore. Snape snarls at the accusation, knowing it’s very dangerous. (full context)

McGonagall continues her tirade, saying that after all that Dumbledore did, she couldn’t live with herself if it had all come undone. While Albus and... (full context)

At Harry’s office in the Ministry of Magic, Dumbledore appears in his portrait. He asks what Harry is doing, and Harry says he’s going... (full context)

...us” was terrible advice and that Albus is fighting Harry’s battles just as Harry fought Dumbledore’s. And Harry has now left Albus in places where he felt unloved, just as Dumbledore... (full context)

Dumbledore starts to cry, saying that he loved Harry, even though he knew he was going... (full context)

...he’s going to be a good wizard. Albus’s names come with huge weight, but both Dumbledore and Snape were great men with huge flaws whose flaws made them greater. (full context)