Harry Potter Speculation

[Drolefille]

Originally Posted by christiangirl

I know!!! That's the first thing I looked at.

One of my B&N co-workers told me she also heard that Dumbledore was in love with Grindelwald.

Yeah, that close friendship they had was much more of a fall in love thing. It's why the last thing he wanted to do was have to fight him.

I really think it makes the fact that Dumbledore was the one to bring Grindelwald to justice a much more compelling story than just "Good wizard beats bad wizard"

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by Drolefille

Yeah, that close friendship they had was much more of a fall in love thing. It's why the last thing he wanted to do was have to fight him.

JKR talks about that in this article.

[christiangirl]

Originally Posted by Drolefille

Yeah, that close friendship they had was much more of a fall in love thing. It's why the last thing he wanted to do was have to fight him.

I really think it makes the fact that Dumbledore was the one to bring Grindelwald to justice a much more compelling story than just "Good wizard beats bad wizard"

Their childhood friendship did that by itself. IMO, this is a plot twist I would expect from Passions, not literature. This whole thing has taken me from to to in about a week.

[SydneyK]

Originally Posted by christiangirl

IMO, this is a plot twist I would expect from Passions, not literature.

Then you've not read much literature. Several well-renowned literary works include gay characters. This isn't a new concept and does not diminish my feelings towards Rowling or Dumbledore's character one bit.

[christiangirl]

Originally Posted by SydneyK

Then you've not read much literature. Several well-renowned literary works include gay characters. This isn't a new concept and does not diminish my feelings towards Rowling or Dumbledore's character one bit.

Actually, I minored in English Literature, so I've read quite more than you think, though that's hardly the point. In my opinion, now that the series is over, it seemed very much like unnecessary information, posed as a publicity stunt that gives the plot a very daytime television feel. That's not how I see it, but that's how it's being presented because media takes controversial things like this and run with it. I didn't see it as an on-the-spot answer to a specific question because all the articles I have read have failed to mention it--so thanks to MC for posting. It was being put out there as this after-the-fact revelation that had nothing to do with anything and that's what I didn't like about it.


ETA: MC--I don't look at 16 and 18 and think "adults." Sorry for the confusion, but you're right, I know they weren't exactly children at the time. Let's change that to "past friendship."

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by christiangirl

Their childhood friendship did that by itself. IMO, this is a plot twist I would expect from Passions, not literature.

Except that they weren't children. Grindelwald didn't come to Godric's Hollow until he was expelled from Durmstrang. He was 16 and Dumbledore, who had just finished at Hogwarts, was 18 -- an adult.

And technically it's not a plot twist, since it isn't really mentioned in the books. It's backstory.

For the record, here is the question and answer as asked and given in the Carnegie Hall event:

Did Dumbledore, who believed in the prevailing power of love, ever fall in love himself?

JKR: My truthful answer to you... I always thought of Dumbledore as gay. [ovation.] ... Dumbledore fell in love with Grindelwald, and that that added to his horror when Grindelwald showed himself to be what he was. To an extent, do we say it excused Dumbledore a little more because falling in love can blind us to an extent? But, he met someone as brilliant as he was, and rather like Bellatrix he was very drawn to this brilliant person, and horribly, terribly let down by him. Yeah, that's how i always saw Dumbledore. In fact, recently I was in a script read through for the sixth film, and they had Dumbledore saying a line to Harry early in the script saying I knew a girl once, whose hair... [laughter]. I had to write a little note in the margin and slide it along to the scriptwriter, "Dumbledore's gay!" [laughter] "If I'd known it would make you so happy, I would have announced it years ago!"

Also, the Dumbledore news seems to overshadowed other tidbits that she dropped at Carnegie Hall, such as that Neville married Hannah Abbot, who became landlady at the Leaky Cauldron.

As to what Aunt Petunia Dursley could not bring herself to say when the Dursleys left Harry in DH, she would have wished him luck, saying: "I do know what you're up against and I hope it's okay."

A rough and partial transcript can be found here.