You are, Herpo was a certifiable Bad Mother Fucker. I'd think Voldemort, Grindelwald, and only one or two more wizards in history could ever be on his level of Evil Awesome.

 

Where is it said that Dumbledore could understand Parseltongue?

 

Book 6, pensieve vision of Bob Ogden.

 

I keep reading that part over and over, but I can't find where Dumbledore actually understood what Morfin was saying, just that Harry could understand.

I keep coming away with the impression that Dumbledore just guessed what was said and filled in the blanks, like he did with Merope's story, and then when he showed Harry the memory, he hoped that if he had missed something important said in Parseltongue, Harry would most likely point it out.

 

Many fics name Sirius as Sirius Orion Black. That middle name is fannon, right?

Or was it stated somewhere in the that wizards tend to take the middle name from their parents?


On that note, whose middle names we do have in cannon?

Edit:
there's Harry James Potter, Ronald Bilius Weasley, Hermione Jean Granger, Ginevra Molly Weasley, James Sirius Potter, Lily Luna Potter, Albus Severus Potter, Tom Marvolo Riddle...
Who did I miss?

 

http://www.accio-quote.org/articles/list2007.html

Scroll down to Bloomsbury Live Chat, July 30th 2007

One of the more annoying interview additions.

 

It... seems to contradict what happens in the book, based on the context. How could Dumbledore possibly understand a language for which there are basically no active speakers?

 

Finding that interview was what sparked my question, actually. The interviewer asked the question as if the fact that Dumbledore could understand Parseltongue was obvious to all, which baffled me.

http://web.archive.org/web/20080221.../hpb/books/transcript-of-jk-rowling-web-chat/

Delailah: How does dumbledore understand parseltongue?
J.K. Rowling: Dumbledore understood Mermish, Gobbledegook and Parseltongue. The man was brilliant.

It also opens up ugly possibilities for the second book, of the dangerously neglectful kind -- which appears to be a common theme with the man, anyway.

If Hermione could figure out that the attacker was a Basilisk, then Dumbledore had to know as well, surely?

 

considering it ran around whisper-screaming I want to rip, tear, kill I'm suddenly thinking JKR was just fumbling... like when she told the Slytherins that Merlin came from their house to make them feel better.

 

Well, you could possibly explain that away by having the Basilisk attack only in places near Harry. Riddle said he was trying to get Harry's attention, if I remember right.

...Although, upon re-reading the part with Mrs. Norris attack, Dumbledore mustn't have been that far away if he managed to get to the scene of the crime with everyone else after the feast. It's very possible he didn't manage to hear anything, but we don't know for sure.

And this is just conjecture, but if Dumbledore read Harry's mind during their talk in his office, then he had to know about the voice Harry heard and put two and two together.

About Merlin: I thought that was just a lie on the part of the Slytherins to make themselves feel better.

"Hey, so what if the Dark Lord was in our House? And so what if our House belonged to the most hated Founder? Merlin was in our House. For real. We swear. We're cool. Really."

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but only a Parselmouth is able to hear meaning in the hiss of a snake. Dumbledore is not a parselmouth, thus he does not have the magical ability to understand snakes.

However, there IS a distinction between the hissing of a snake and Parseltongue. Parseltongue is a discernible human language used by parselmouths to converse with snakes. We know from Ron being able to open the Chamber, that Parseltongue has distinct, imitable sounds. Because of this, it can be learned like any other language. A non-parselmouth learning the language obviously would not intrinsically understand the meaning of the sounds like Harry does, but with enough study, it is entirely possible that they would be able to translate it.

Thus, the only real question here is how Dumbledore learned Parseltongue in the first place.

 

Parselmagic exists, obviously, and Dumbledore studied it for a time.

The not-douchey answer I'd give is probably because it's Dumbledore. The man is over 100 years old, probably closing on 200, so he's had some time to himself for quite a while. Governing a school, being Supreme Mugwump, and Head of the International Confederation of Wizards is great and all, but what does he do when he's not there? Research whatever takes his fancy.

Tom consumed a great portion of his life, as well as his regrets. He probably attempted to learn it out of some attempt to step into Tom's shoes, at least somewhat.

 

Okay, now I feel like I came out knowing less than I did when I went in.

So just to clarify, whether it makes sense or not, since apparently it's interview-level canon, the idea that Dumbledore understands Parseltongue originated from the scene with Bob Ogden's memory, correct?

As in, the fanbase in general finished HBP, and in-between the shock of "Snape killed Dumbledore!" and "Who is RAB?" ("It's Regulus Black, weren't you paying attention?!"), they all more or less agreed that understanding Parseltongue was indeed a thing that Dumbledore could do?

I wasn't in the fandom back then, so I totally missed the pertinent conversations; is this correct?

It does appear to be fanon, yes.

Don't forget Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore.

 

Also:
Percy Ignatius Weasley
Phineas Nigellus Black
Regulus Arcturus Black
Amelia Susan Bones
Nymphadora "Don't call me that" Tonks

 

Also: Cornelius Oswald Fudge, Dolores Jane Umbridge, Remus John Lupin, Bill Arthur Weasley, Fleur Isabelle Delacour, and of course, like Cadence said, Albus Pervical Wulfric Brian Dumbledore (felt it bore repeating). Can't think of any more off the top of my head.

Sirius Orion Black isn't as bad as far as fanon middle names go, though. I've seen so many people legit think that Evans was Lily's middle name instead of her maiden name (And no, they weren't just writing down Lily Evans-Potter without the hyphen in trying to be progressive or something. In the same sentence some fics have James with some middle name, they add in Evans as Lily's). Crazies.

 

But... until muggleborn women marry a wizard, they don't have last names according to the Department of Mysteries... see how backwards the wizarding world is?

 

Wait, what? Where is that mentioned?

 

It wasn't. He was making this thing, I think it's called a joke. It doesn't look like you've heard of it before.

 

At first he was suppose to be much older, but then Rowling changed it and he was 115 years old when he died. Considering that it's the canon that wizards can live much longer (I talking about Bathilda Bagshot that was an adult when Albus was a young child and more so she was a great aunt of Gellert), it probably makes him a middle aged man. And people say that he was past his prime when dealing with Voldemort.

 

Also Marchbanks was there when he did his Owls.