Harry Potter Dumbledore’s 10 Worst Lies Ranked

Dumbledore may be a beloved Harry Potter character, but he certainly had a complicated relationship with telling the truth.

During the beginning of the Harry Potter trilogy, Dumbledore was a favorite character for many as he seemed like a good mentor who could be trusted. However, as the books went on, it was revealed that Dumbledore was more complex than that and that he had many flaws. Dumbledore wasn’t just a purely good and helpful mentor, but he was actually rather manipulative with a dark past. Instead of just guiding Harry, he also lied to him, and other people, many times.

Here are Dumbledore’s worst lies ranked leading up to the worst.

10 Lying About What He Saw In The Mirror Of Erised

Some of Dumbledore’s lies were rather small and not as harmful, but his overall pattern of omitting the truth and not revealing things shows that he is overall manipulative. He starts telling untruths or half-truths to Harry early on such as when he tells Harry that the Mirror of Erised just revealed that Dumbledore wanted a pair of socks. While Dumbledore didn't owe Harry the story of his heartache related to his family, he could have at least just said he didn’t want to share that information.

9 All Of The Times He Withheld Small Bits Of Information

While Dumbledore said some outright big and even kind of cruel lies at times, he also told many little ones over the years. He was a master at omitting small bits of information or not telling the entire truth. Whether it was about Voldemort’s plans, Horcruxes, Snape, or whatever else, Dumbledore was always good at manipulating the people around him.

8 Lying About Why He Left Harry At The Dursley House

While Harry is the person that we see Dumbledore lie to the most in the series, he’s definitely not the only one. Even to Dumbledore’s own peers and friends, he was a liar.

One example of this is when he didn’t really tell McGonagall why he was leaving Harry with the Dursleys. His habit of not trusting people was taken too far, and he expected a lot of loyalty from others that he never gave back in return. He always seemed like he was trying to use people and never felt very sincere.

7 Not Telling Harry About Godric's Hollow

While some of Dumbledore’s lies to Harry were harmful because they kept Harry from making informed choices about his life, some of them were cruel because of the distance they created between the two. Harry trusted Dumbledore and told him so much about his life, and yet Dumbledore kept information that connected the two of them a secret. He never even told Harry that Dumbledore’s own family was also from Godric’s Hollow. While maybe it wasn’t necessary for Harry to know, it felt like a betrayal.

6 Not Telling Harry About Snape’s Past

This is one of Dumbledore’s lies that’s a bit complicated because it relates to someone else’s personal life. However, given how much Snape was caught up in Harry’s life and how much grief he gave Harry over the years, some explanation of the backstory should have been given to Harry. The information about Snape’s connection to Harry’s parents and his connection to Voldemort should have been revealed much earlier on. And this doesn't even touch on why Dumbledore let Snape act the way he did at Hogwarts in the first place.

5 Keeping His Past Connection With Grindelwald A Secret

This is another one of Dumbledore’s biggest and most blatant lies that Harry doesn’t learn about until after Dumbledore is dead. While all along it seemed that Dumbledore had always been fighting against dark wizards, he actually was on board with Grindelwald and planned a world of magic supremacy with him. He should have been more open about the mistakes of his past, and the fact he didn't make him seem very suspicious.

4 Keeping The Truth About His Family A Secret From Harry

What happened to Dumbledore’s family, and his own part in it, is clearly something that eats away at him. The fact that he contributed to the death of his sister, as well as the many other sordid details of the family history, clearly causes Dumbledore a lot of grief. However, instead of telling some of this to people around him, he played all of this quite close to the chest. While it’s not that he had to be open about everything, his pattern of keeping almost everything about him a secret makes him seem unlikable and sneaky.

3 Waiting So Long To Tell Harry About The Prophecy

Of all of Dumbeldore’s lies, some of the absolute worst relate to how he manipulated Harry from the start. Dumbledore was aware of the prophecy that Trewlaney gave since he was the one that she gave it to, but he kept this information a secret from Harry for years.

While he said he kept this from Harry because of his age, given what Harry had already gone through, he deserved to know.

2 Keeping Harry Alive To Die At The Proper Time

While Dumbledore seems at first like a benevolent mentor who cares for Harry And is trying to guide and protect him from the evil forces after him, the truth is a little bit more complex. Dumbledore doesn’t ever really tell Harry the entire truth about Voldemort and what he wants from him. He keeps the fact that he knows Harry will likely have to die to defeat Voldemort a secret, and this is extremely cruel.

1 He Didn’t Tell Harry That He Was Likely A Horcrux

This point connects to the general fact that Dumbledore continually put Harry in danger without telling him the entire truth. This is the most specific and worst lie that Dumbledore ever told Harry. He didn’t tell Harry that he was likely a Horcrux himself and would, therefore, need to die in order to defeat Voldemort for good. The fact that he kept this information from Harry was gross and cruel, and Harry deserved to know exactly what he was getting into.