‘I don’t need a cloak to become invisible.’
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

Wait, what? How did Dumbledore have the power of invisibility? Maybe he’d just mastered the art of dressing like a Muggle and blending in with a crowd. Either that or he was very good at hiding. It would explain how he seemed to know everything that was going on at Hogwarts, though perhaps it wasn’t only Harry slinking around the corridors in the dead of the night…

‘The time may come when you will be very glad you saved Pettigrew’s life.’
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Nothing was quite what it seemed where Dumbledore was concerned and his comforting words after Pettigrew’s escape were no exception. He accurately predicted the exact circumstances of Pettigrew’s death years later; in saving Peter’s life, Harry also saved his own. It wouldn’t surprise us to learn Dumbledore could foretell the future — maybe he should have taken over from Professor Trelawney?

‘My own brother, Aberforth, was prosecuted for practising inappropriate charms on a goat.’
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

The first mention of Aberforth Dumbledore definitely got our attention. Did the Dumbledores have a pet goat growing up? What exactly was his brother trying to achieve? The mind boggles! Regardless of our many, many questions about this incident, one thing is for sure — it shows how truly open-minded our favourite headmaster was.

‘Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!’
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

These four words seemed like nothing more than evidence of Dumbledore’s delightful eccentricity, but there could be more to it. A dare from Professor Flitwick over a glass of mead at The Three Broomsticks, perhaps? A clever tactic to put the newly-sorted first years at ease? Or maybe he was just indulging himself and wanted to see how everyone would react.

Nimble! Fluff! Dollop! Squelch! It is quite fun, actually.

‘Ah, music,’ he said, wiping his eyes. ‘A magic beyond all we do here!’
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

We don’t associate Dumbledore with music, but he certainly had an appreciation for his students’ voices. While the Hogwarts song isn’t our favourite tune (considering it has so many tunes), it made us wonder if he ever gave singing a go in his youth. He could have even penned the school song himself – after all, none of the other teachers seemed to enjoy it quite as much as he did. Or maybe he was just tone deaf. Nobody’s perfect.

‘You flatter me,’ said Dumbledore calmly. ‘Voldemort had powers I will never have.’
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

As far as we’re concerned, Dumbledore will always be the greatest, but he didn’t like to brag. The first time we saw him discussing Voldemort we didn’t realise at the time that he was likely referring to the practice of making Horcruxes; it’s incredible to think just how clued up he was about Voldermort’s plans even back then.

Besides, Dumbledore has plenty of powers the Dark Lord did not – he could pull off a flowered bonnet with panache, for a start.

‘I have one myself above my left knee which is a perfect map of the London Underground.’
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

Dumbledore with an Oyster card – there’s an idea. He could easily Apparate, travel by Floo Network or jump on a broomstick, but here’s a hint that Dumbledore liked to occasionally embrace Muggle life and take a jaunt on the Central Line. He also described his map as ‘useful’, which is interesting. Maybe it was a hidden gateway to Diagon Alley?

‘Only this morning, for instance, I took a wrong turning on the way to the bathroom and found myself in a beautifully proportioned room I have never seen before containing a really rather magnificent collection of chamberpots. When I went back to investigate more closely, I discovered that the room had vanished.’
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

One can only wonder what else Dumbledore used the Room of Requirement for. A secret gateway to a sweet shop, perhaps, to satisfy his confectionary craving – he did always seem to have a generous stash of sherbet lemons on hand. Or he could have just been giving Harry a hint that there was a very useful magical room hiding within the castle in the first place: it certainly came in handy on more than one occasion.

‘I take my hat off to you — or I would, if I were not afraid of showering you in spiders.’
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Why did Dumbledore have so many spiders in his hat? Could this be an insight into how he spent his free time? Alright, we know Dumbledore only said this because he and Harry were in a run-down outhouse at the time, probably filled with spiders, where the Weasleys kept their broomsticks. But we like to pretend otherwise.