Dumbledorean

— Harry’s idol, headmaster Albus Dumbledore, stakes out the anti-Dursley position most clearly when he explains to Harry his reasons for destroying the Sorcerer’s Stone of the first novel’s title: “As much money and life as you could want! The two things most human beings would choose above all—the trouble is, humans do have a knack of choosing precisely those things that are worst for them” (Sorcerer’s Stone, 297). Readers who see Rowling’s fantasy world as more pure than our reality can turn to such Dumbledorean paradoxes, worthy of Tolkien’s Gandalf or Susan Cooper’s Merriman, for evidence.