One thing I did like about Crimes of Grindelwald was Jude Law’s expression when Dumbledore was looking into the mirror of Erised. I had expected it to be sad, maybe disgusted, angry, confused. Instead there was this profound sadness and pain, but the hint of a smile & to me it just really seemed as if he was fully aware of this weakness of his (the former love for Grindelwald, even the remnants of it that he continued to feel to this day) and he was able to forgive himself for it. So, so nuanced and bittersweet.
In the cave, Dumbledore relives his worst memory. He pleads with Grindelwald to “stop hurting them, hurt me instead” which always seemed out of character for him. He is Albus Dumbledore. He could have fought Grindelwald to save his siblings.
We know from King’s Cross that at the end of Dumbledore and Grindelwald’s summer together, Aberforth confronts Albus about his neglect of the family. Albus is defensive. Grindelwald and the Dumbledores start to argue, and a fight breaks out. Eventually, Ariana Dumbledore lies dead, and Dumbledore does not know if he or Grindelwald was the one to cast the spell that killed her.
With the information from Crimes of Grindelwald, it all makes sense!!!
Dumbledore and Grindelwald make a blood pact that prevents them from fighting each other. When the fight breaks out between them, they cannot harm each other, but Grindelwald can hurt Aberforth (and Ariana) all he wants, and BINGO! Dumbledore is helpless, and can only plead with Grindelwald to stop (hence, his worst memory). In despiration to stop his siblings’ torture, Dumbledore ignores the blood pact, and shoots a spell at Grindelwald, who coutners with one of his own. But neither can attack the other. The blood pact deflects the spells into poor Ariana, who is killed by one of the curses. Dumbledore does not know who fired the spell that killed his sister.
Beyond that, here’s some speculation: Ariana was sweet and, I imagine, did not start conflict. So if Aberforth confronted Dumbledore, why was Grindelwald torturing both Aberforth AND Ariana (”don’t hurt them, hurt me instead”)? I think Dumbledore confided in him that she was an obscurial. Grindelwald tortured her by calling out the obscurus, and possibly even trying to rip it from her. If he succeeded, he could have preserved it like Newt did with the one from the girl he met before the first movie. Grindelwald unleashes it in a second-salem orphanage in New York, hoping that it finds another host because “it’s useless without a host,” as Grindel-Graves tells Newt. He then manipulates the obscurial he created into believing they are a Dumbledore. The Dumbledore magic coursing through them and their own tortured soul calls a phoenix, convincing them of the ruse. He tells them they were abandoned by Albus, and he creates the perfect assassin who can kill the one person he cannot.
In the books, Hermione’s boggart is failing her classes. Her greatest fear is failing her classes.
However, it goes a lot deeper than that. Subconsciously, I think she believes that if she does not do well and if she fails, they’ll kick her out of Hogwarts and the Wizarding World. So her real fear isn’t failing.
At Hogwarts, she has two wonderful friends who love her, and she is getting to live in an incredible world. She doesn’t want to lose that, and she thinks that if she does bad in her classes, they won’t let her come back.
Her real fear is rejection and loss.
so what if…
when in the philosophers stone her line “we could be killed, or worse.. expelled” wasn’t her being snooty or a teachers pet..
but her saying that she would rather die than stop going to hogwarts and never see her friends again?
Stop talking and start doing: My Fallout Shelter for my Tumblr blog 