What Did Albus Dumbledore Teach in Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts?

One of the most popular headmasters in the entire fantasy genre is most likely Albus Dumbledore from Harry Potter. It is a well-known fact that Dumbledore is one of the most powerful wizards of his time, if not ever. Despite everyone referring to him as professor Dumbledore, very few people know what did Albus Dumbledore teach, so let’s find out.

Albus Dumbledore actually held two different teaching positions before being appointed as the headmaster of Hogwarts. When he first arrived at Hogwarts in the 1910s at the request of Phineas Nigellus Black, Dumbledore taught Defence Against the Dark Arts. In the early years of the 1940s, Dumbledore started teaching Transfiguration.

Why and how exactly did Dumbledore take over these positions and what enabled him to teach different subjects? If you would like to know more about Dumbledore’s work as a teacher or you are simply looking for a way to clear this topic up for you keep reading this article.

When did Dumbledore start teaching at Hogwarts? 

Albus Dumbledore started teaching at Hogwarts in 1913. Right after his sister’s death, Dumbledore moved to Paris to give his brother time to heal and put some distance between the two.

For the first time in his life, Dumbledor chose his pursuit of knowledge over his family. Because he had to take care of his siblings he did not have a chance to do something like this before.

In Paris, Dumbledore was studying in the arts of alchemy under Nicholas Flamel he started experimenting with dragon’s blood. Over time Dumbledore was credited with discovering twelve new uses for it.

Because of the great significance of the dragon’s blood in the wizarding world and its many uses, Dumbledore quickly rose to popularity as a wizard.

This feat paired up with all the connections Dumbledor made as a young wizard prompted Phineas Nigellus Black, the headmaster at the time invited Dumbledore to come to Hogwarts as a teacher.

From his first admittance, Dumbledore was teaching Defence Against the Dark Arts and was given classroom 3C, which was seen throughout the movie series as the Defence Against the Dark Arts learning space for all teachers from Gilderoy Lockhart to the time Severus Snape taught the subject.

During his time at Hogwarts, he kept in touch with his previous teacher Nicholas Flamel, who over time, with Dumbledore’s help made numerous breakthroughs in the field of alchemy.

What did Albus Dumbledore teach in Harry Potter? 

During the time the Harry Potter trilogy takes place Dumbledore held a few different positions at Hogwarts. At the beginning of the series, Dumbledore was still teaching Defence Against the Dark Arts.

He held this position until sometime in the 1930s, most likely 1934. Sometimes in this time frame, Dumbledore was appointed the Transfiguration teacher.

Transfiguration is an important subject taught in different magical schools around the world. It focuses on the mechanics of using magic to change the form and appearance of objects, people, and other creatures.

The class is known among the students as one of the harder forms of magic since it is hard to perform and calls for strong foundations in different forms of magic for successful performance.

During this time Tom Riddle started his first few years at Hogwarts. After taking a brief hiatus from his position to fight his former friend, Dumbledore returned to his teaching duties.

The way Tom Riddle refers to Dumbledor and the way the book is written in the books we can conclude Dumbledore had the position for a while once Tom Riddle arrived at Hogwarts and that he did not hold onto the position of the Defence Against the Dark Arts.

After the legendary duel, Dumbledore taught many witches and wizards who would later go on to become important players in the First wizarding war, be it on the side of the Dark Lord or the other way around. Among these students were members of the Order of the Phoenix and some important Deatheaters.

Sometime during the time Marauders were attending Hogwarts Albus Dumbledore was appointed the headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry by the Hogwarts Board of Governors and the Minister of Magic filling in the spot previously held by Armando Dippet.

The position of the Transfiguration teacher was taken over by Minerva McGonagall. Although taking the position of the headmaster of Hogwarts means the person has to abandon their teaching position, Dumbledore continuing helping his students, holding meetings in Classroom E-13 every Friday when he helped with assigned students.

During this time, Dumbledore was approached by Tom Riddle who requested to take the position of the teacher of the Defence Against the Dark Arts. 

Dumbledore, who was aware of his activities after leaving the school, denied his request, suspecting he may use the position to influence younger followers. This angered Tom Riddle and he hexed the position, which can clearly be seen throughout the franchise, seeing as every teacher held it for one year only, before something bad happened.

What did Dumbledore teach in Fantastic Beasts? 

During the time of the events taking place during the Fantastic Beasts franchise, Dumbledore was teaching Defence Against the Dark Arts. The subject is a core subject in both Hogwarts and Ilvermorny. It is crucial for any witch and wizard since it provides a base for Defence against Dark Arts, creatures, curses, hexes, and jinxes as well as dueling.

One particularly memorable moment from this time period is his lesson about boggarts with Newt Scamander’s class.

Dumbledor expressed on multiple occasions that he was extremely surprised when the boy’s boggart turned into a desk. In 1913 one of his students, Leta Lestrange was at a center of an issue involving a Jarvey.

The issue in question involved a case of illegal possession of the animal in question which caused endangerment to it and other people. The issue fell under the definition of a violation of Animal Welfare Laws 101/304.

Because the offense was so serious, the headmaster was forced to expel Newt from the school, but Dumbledore was able to convince him to allow Newt to hold onto his wand.

Why was Dumbledore teaching Defence Against the Dark Arts?

Once the Fantastic Beasts movie came out one of the most frequently asked questions was why Dumbledore, a well-known and established Transfiguration teacher, took on the position of the Defence Against the Dark Arts?

The only explanation which would make sense with the lore of the book series is that he was filling in for an absent teacher rather than taking the position for himself. Although the books don’t explicitly explain what was the reason for it, there was some information that hints that the teacher at the time was ill.

One other reason why many believe why Dumbledore accepted the position was the events taking place at the time. Because of their previous friendship, Dumbledore was extremely aware of Grindelwald’s plans.

Grindelwald started making his moves aimed at achieving his goals of ruling over the wizarding world, which prompted Dumbledor to take the position. Dumbledor wanted to the most he could to prepare young witches and wizards for the possible events.

During their friendship, Dumbledore and Grindelwald took a blood oath which prevented them from fighting each other directly. Because of this, Dumbledor understood that a conflict would most likely break out since he could not fight him if the oath was not broken.

During their time, Dumbledore realized how powerful and persuasive Grindelwald is, and while they were still friends Grindelwald started recruiting his followers, which is why Dumbledore was sure Grindelwald’s following only grew over time.

Because the two couldn’t fight directly and the fact that it would almost surely result in a bigger conflict and maybe even war, Dumbledore wanted to make sure every witch and wizard could protect themselves if the need arose.