An author could justify it either way, but I lean towards no because Dumbledore used Homenum Revelio frequently yet he never discovered any of the many Animagi (the Marauders and Rita Skeeter) in the series. I also recall at least one scene in which Pettigrew was in his rat form in Dumbledore's presence.

Or maybe they just all got lucky and he never cast the spell when they were near him in animal form.

 

I don't recall Dumbledore ever using Homenum Revelio, but it's been years since I read the books. Can you let me know which of the books it says, or implies, that he used the spell frequently.

 

Rowling has said that Dumbledore's ability to see through Harry's invisibility cloak is based on "homenum revelio". For that to work with any kind of reliability he's got to be doing it all the time.

 

The couple of instances where Dumbledore could 'see' Harry wearing the cloak of invisibility, he didn't show his wand (or Harry didn't notice). So I don't think that he cast the spell. I always thought that he could 'see' Harry in the same way he could 'feel' the magic in the cave where the Horcrux was hidden. It's a technique he had.

 

Based on doesn't mean using. It's quite possibly he developed a spell simply to sense invisibility cloaks during the war with Grindelwald, or at some other point. If he was as prominent of a figure during that war, even near the end, as he was against Voldemort, he would have been targeted by assassins, some using invisibility to try and catch him off guard.

 

arkkitehti wasn't quoting directly. There was no 'based on' in the original quote.

 

Ok thanks for clearing that up. Was just using the information given to me to form a plausible alternative.

 

Well, it /is/ definitive.

Good point but to be fair, Dumbledore was pretty unlikely to cast that particular spell if Harry was in the room with him or if he knew exactly where Harry happened to be at that moment, given that Harry's Cloak was usually the only one of those rare items in the school and Harry was not in the habit of loaning it out.

And now I'm imagining a one-shot in which person after person trips over something out of the blue, only to find a glassy-eyed dead body under an invisibility cloak. The Aurors are running from place to unrelated place all over the UK, their frustrating and the body count mounting with no discernible connection save the ever-present invisibility cloak. Some of the dead are unknown foreign wizards, elevating concerns of Grindelwald moving in from the Continent, but many are British witches and wizards, and more than a few are actually (gasp) Muggles.

The DMLE catches a break when a curious Arithmancer from the Dept. of Magical Finance figures out a correlation between the locations of the bodies and the 'social' schedule of Hogwarts' Transfiguration Professor Albus Dumbledore. Questioned about the coincidence, Dumbledore would rather talk about adventure and flying temptresses, according to reports. Several additional bodies and the same location coincidences later, the DMLE takes the bold step of setting up a 'sting' for the strange Professor...

And that's where I can't decide if I'd like the story to have (a) Dumbledore realizing this newest "assassin" is a DMLE fake and thus avoiding having to flog him or her or them, or (b) Dumbledore laying the smack-down on an entire cadre of DMLE elites and, afterwards, either chastising them for nearly getting themselves killed by fucking with him, or merely Obliviating the lot of them and proceeding to erase all records of the entire investigation pertaining to himself.

Yeah, there's not much better than badass, gloves off, in-his-prime Dumbledore, particularly when the author gets the voice right and has old Albus dismantling his opponents verbally as well as magically.

 

Not sure if this has been discussed here earlier, but can a living/conscious being summoned with an Accio charm? In canon, I recall only non living objects being summoned.

I was reading the latest update in 'Wizard for hire' where Harry uses the charm to summon unconscious animal. That got me wondering if conscious magical creatures can inherently break it.

 

As a half-giant, doesn't Hagrid also have some form of inherent resistance to magic? That may also account to why the spell failed, though I can't recall if that's fanon or not. So if a creature can resist magic to an extent (such as dragons), I imagine they could fend it off without conscious effort, whereas any other creature would have no automatic defence and need to use a spell of some sort.

 

Harry used the Summoning Charm on a toad, which was trying to escape during a Charms lesson for the Silencing Charm - 5th year.

 

Are there any works about dumbledore vs grindelwald that any of you could recommend?

 

There a few good ones. Unfortunately, they carry the disease called 'slash'. Most authors cannot put the efforts behind creating the atmosphere in which Grindelwald wars were fought.

If you can ignore the slash parts, check out A Twist of Fate by firephoenix8. I read it a while ago without realizing that it was slash.

 

But is the toad magical? I don't think so. As far as I know, Accio charm does not create a flash of light when cast. The possibilities for its use are phenomenal. I'm surprised that it's not used more often in the books.

 

Dumbledore/Grindelwald slash is canon though. Of course, good romance in fanfiction is a rarity. Good slash must be one in a million.

 

Is it canon? Nothing was ever mentioned about it either way in the books. JK Rowling came out and said Dumbledore was gay after the release of the last book. Not sure if that counts as 'canon.

 

Typically, an author's word is accepted as canon unless it directly contradicts something stated within the material itself, or they're able to adequately justify the discrepancy.

That said, I don't believe that a romantic Grindelwald/Dumbledore relationship existed, nor do I believe that Rowling has implied as such. As far as I'm aware, nothing has been said to discourage the possibility of Dumbledore harbouring unreciprocated feelings.

 

I usually don't like slash because it involves characters acting very much unlike what we know about them. A story about Grindelwald and Dumbledore though? I don't care how much of their relationship is canon - what we do know about them is enough that it would be very believable for them to have had a relationship at some point.

What I got from the books--and interviews--is that Dumbledore liked Grindelwald, while Grindelwald took advantage of that to use him. How he took advantage of that, I don't really know. But there's enough evidence to suggest that he eventually came to see Dumbledore as a friend(not telling about his grave/ the wand before dying, though that could be just him being a dick).

What I mean is, the two have more of a reason to be in a relationship than a lot of stuff people write fanfiction about and the two being in a relationship would be perfectly in character - so what's the issue?

 

:facepalm

I think the issue is that nobody wants to imagine Dumbledore sucking Grindelwald's cock, or taking it up the ass... apparently except for you.