Dumbledore Is Gay And More Harry Potter News

First the news:

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore is gay. No less than J.K. Rowling herself announced this in a question-answer session to a rapturous young audience of 1000 students at the Carnegie Hall, who had won a seat there after winning an essay writing competition sponsored by Scholastic. When asked whether Dumbledore had ever loved anyone in his life, JKR responded by saying that she had always thought of Dumbledore as gay. She elaborated by saying that Dumbledore had fallen in love with Gellert Grindelwald when young (The Deathly Hallows contains a very expanded description of their collaboration) and when Grindelwald showed his true colors, Dumbledore just could not bear it. That was the ultimate letdown for Dumbledore. She also said that being gay and in love was an excuse for all Dumbledore's actions in his youth.

This juicy bit of news was a rumor for sometime now. In fact, JKR's interview also clarified how this rumor started. While filming for The Half Blood Prince movie, a script had Dumbledore reminiscing about a girl to Harry. JKR wrote a line to the scriptwriter saying 'Dumbledore's gay!', and that was that. The rumor is now confirmed by the very creator of Dumbledore.

In response to the ovation and cheers JKR got from the young crowd for confirming the news, JKR expressed great amusement and said, 'If I had known it would make you so happy, I would have announced it years ago!'

Dumbledore is not the only one to be the subject of JKR's question-answer revelations. She spoke about how Hagrid did see a giantess for a while after the Battle of Hogwarts (she did not mention Madame Maxime), but how things never worked because she found Hagrid a bit too unsophisticated for her tastes. As a result, Hagrid remains wifeless. In response to the groans from the audience, JKR said, 'Come on, I at least kept him alive!', which was met by immediate applause.

She had good news to give about Neville Longbottom, one of the stars of the Battle of Hogwarts and Harry Potter's best friend. She said Neville finally married Hannah Abbot from Hufflepuff, who now owns The Leaky Cauldron. She felt it good to make Neville cool by making him live above the pub.

She also explained at length how making Molly Weasley be the one to kill Bellatrix Lestrange was a very carefully thought-about plot. She spoke about how she wanted to bring maternal passion (Molly's) in direct opposition to the sickly romantic passion Bellatrix had for Voldemort. She described at length about why she did not kill Arthur Weasley in The Order of the Phoenix.

JKR was herself impressed by the way Harry Potter fans are still interested in the books, even after the culmination of the series. She did remark, 'Oh my God, the fan fiction!' and that there's something now to go on for the next ten years. She also mockingly added that she will be writing a book about Rubeus Hagrid, though that was just that – a joke.

Now, my observations:

Dumbledore is gay. What do those words mean to the loyalists of Pottersworld? There have been reactions from 'I always told you so' to 'Oh, no!' from Potter fans across the world. JKR herself remains unfazed about her revelations. From her Carnegie Hall tryst itself, it is clear that she had always planned for Dumbledore as gay – the Grindelwald mention is there right in the first book, The Sorcerer's Stone. And she kept Dumbledore as the greatest wizard of all time, the only wizard whom the evilest of evil wizards, Lord Voldemort, ever feared. Anyways, I am not homophobic, and the news does not make any difference to me. I have always enjoyed reading how Dumbledore analyzes things with Harry Potter and fights Voldemort, and will always keep enjoying it.

But, what is of note here, is how a work of fiction can become so real. How we, knowing that it is a world created in the head of one person, can fall so headlong into it! It's wonderful, and a great pat on the backs of writers from all over the world, even if they have written nothing more than small copy for a medicine bottle. JKR has shown the world how the pen is really mightier than the sword.

So much so, that people still live in her world. Long after JKR has left the world behind her, or at least, put her pen down on that world. A classic example of how the writer creates the world, and then the world makes the rules for the writer to work with. At Carnegie, JKR did speak about how she set several rules for Hogwarts (she was specifically referring to people moving within portraits), and then had to work her way out through those rules.

JKR did predict right. Her little revelations will bring some more people to the already overcrowded ranks of Pottersworld. It has at least set the Internet search engines running once again for Harry Potter and all the assorted characters, after they had gone slow for a while. Fan fiction is astounding, as JKR has amply proved, and even mentioned. Let's now see what comes up next from Rowling. Will keep you posted.