Professor Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore is a fictional character in the Harry Potter series of novels by J. K. Rowling.

[9] In a 2000 interview, Rowling said that Dumbledore "is a hundred and fifty" during the events of the novels,[10] as said also by the character Ron Weasley in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.

[12][13][14] Rowling explains this further by elaborating on the motivations behind Dumbledore's flirtation with the idea of wizard domination of Muggles: "He lost his moral compass completely when he fell in love and I think subsequently became very mistrustful of his own judgement in those matters so became quite asexual.

When Harry arrives at Hogwarts ten years later, Dumbledore tells him about the Mirror of Erised, a magical object that protects the Philosopher's Stone.

Dumbledore is summoned to the Ministry of Magic by a false message on the night when Harry, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, and Professor Quirinus Quirrell enter the dungeons to retrieve the Stone.

He is removed from his position as Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, voted out of the Chairmanship of the International Confederation of Wizards, and is almost stripped of his Order of Merlin First Class due to his speeches regarding the return of Voldemort.

Dumbledore enrages Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge when he intercedes at a hearing to prevent Harry from being expelled from Hogwarts.

The Ministry passes Educational Decree Twenty-two, which allows Fudge to appoint Dolores Umbridge as the professor of Defence Against the Dark Arts.

Through her, Fudge gradually gains power over Hogwarts and Dumbledore, whom he fears is amassing an underage wizard army to overthrow the Ministry.

They dreamed of uniting the three Deathly Hallows – the Elder Wand, the Resurrection Stone and the Cloak of Invisibility – and creating a world in which wizards rule over Muggles.

He felt he could not be trusted with power and turned down the position of Minister for Magic multiple times, eventually returning to Hogwarts as a professor of Transfiguration.

Harry learns that Dumbledore put on a cursed ring that held the Resurrection Stone, which he hoped would allow him to apologise to his sister and parents.

In the film adaptations of Philosopher's Stone (2001) and Chamber of Secrets (2002), Dumbledore is portrayed by Richard Harris, who was expected to play the character throughout the series.

[19] Harris was determined to portray Dumbledore again in Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), despite having been diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma, and asked David Heyman not to recast the role.

He feels enormous remorse for his selfishness in getting involved in the circumstances that led to her death, and is tortured for the rest of his life by the possibility that he might have been the one who cast the spell that killed her.

As writer Evelyn Perry notes, "Dumbledore resembles Merlin both personally and physically; he is an avid lover of books and wisdom who wears flowing robes and a long, white beard.

[40] Actor Michael Gambon received some criticism for his louder, more aggressive, portrayal of the character, who is depicted as exhibiting a more subdued, unflappable calm in the books.

[41] As a main character of the series, major facts relating to Dumbledore have generated a vast number of essays and discussions.

A website named DumbledoreIsNotDead.com sought to understand the events of the sixth book in a different way and provided arguments to claim that the character did not really die.

[45] In the Chamber of Secrets DVD interview, screenwriter Steve Kloves stated that he considers Dumbledore a fascinating character because of the wisdom he provides, but he feels that "Dumbledore bears such a tremendous dark burden, and he knows secrets and I think in many ways he bears the weight of the future of the wizard world" and the "only way that he can keep that at bay, the darkness, is to be whimsical and humorous".

She said she had informed David Yates, the director of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, of Dumbledore's sexuality by writing a note in the screenplay.

"[49] The gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell welcomed the news about Dumbledore, but was disappointed that Rowling did not mention his sexuality in the novels.

[49] In an editorial for The Guardian, the journalist James Ball wrote that depicting "the respected, heroic and beloved Albus Dumbledore as [a] fully realised gay character—whose sexuality was merely incidental to his achievements—would have provided a fictional role model like no other.

"[51] Melissa Anelli, the webmaster of the fan site The Leaky Cauldron, praised the revelation, saying it promoted tolerance towards homosexuality.

She added, "By dubbing someone so respected, so talented and so kind, as someone who just happens to be also homosexual, [Rowling is] reinforcing the idea that a person's gayness is not something of which they should be ashamed.

[54] In a 2016 article, Aja Romano of Vox observed a critical stance among many Harry Potter fans towards Rowling's revelation.

Romano asserted that because Dumbledore's homosexuality was revealed after his death, certain fans felt that Rowling contributed to a "longstanding, problematic 'dead gays' trope" instead of showing the headmaster "living out his queer identity".

[56] In a 2019 opinion piece in The Washington Post, Richard Morgan also expressed frustration that the headmaster is not portrayed as gay in the film.

[59] The student newspaper of East Tennessee State University accused Rowling of lying, claiming her revelation was a publicity stunt.

[60] Other critics quoted the Death of the Author principle; they claimed that Rowling's commentary about characters after the novels were published is irrelevant to an understanding of the books.