Dumbledore Didn't Teach Harry to Destroy Horcruxes for One Simple Reason

Summary:

• Many fans blame Dumbledore for failing to tell Harry some crucial pieces of information about the Horcruxes.
• Instead of handing his knowledge over to Harry, the Headmaster focused on teaching his protege to think on his own.
• Dumbledore’s lessons made Harry analyze everything, figure stuff out from incomplete data, and try different approaches.

The Horcrux hunt was the most challenging and dangerous activity Harry Potter and his friends had ever undertaken, apart from the Battle of Hogwarts which came immediately after. Living in rough conditions and cluelessly trying to locate legendary artifacts while being hunted by the Death Eaters was no small feat for their trio.

Many fans believe that Albus Dumbledore made Harry, Ron, and Hermione’s job far harder than it should have been. In reality, it was the other way around, and Dumbledore, while withholding some information, helped Harry tremendously.

Dumbledore Deliberately Withheld Information from Harry

Albus Dumbledore already knew about the Horcruxes by the time Harry’s sixth school year started; in fact, he found and destroyed one of them sometime before picking Harry up to visit Horace Slughorn. The Headmaster also knew that he’d die before the end of the year, and that was why he began his lessons with Harry.

Dumbledore had roughly nine months to tell Harry everything the boy needed to know to continue his teacher’s mission and successfully destroy all the Horcruxes. He had more than enough time to share everything, and yet he didn’t. Why, you may ask? The answer is simple: sharing information was never Dumbledore’s priority.

The Headmaster wanted his protege to succeed, so that’s what he focused on.

We’ll explain.

Dumbledore Chose the One Right Way to Teach Harry

Albus Dumbledore knew he was going to die soon, and he knew Harry Potter was to continue his mission. At first glance, he should have told Harry everything he knew, and many Potterheads actually blame the Headmaster for not doing so. But Dumbledore was wise, and he chose a different — and the only right! — approach.

Instead of feeding Harry the information, Dumbledore taught Harry how to think. He took the time to travel to other people’s memories with his protege and then asked Harry’s thoughts about them. He discussed everything with Harry and asked for his input; when The Boy Who Lived was wrong, Dumbledore gently corrected him.

A soldier boy loaded with a bunch of useful data was never going to succeed.

If the Headmaster gave Harry Gryffindor’s Sword or the Basilisk’s fangs, the latter could have easily lost them and remained clueless about the alternatives; if Dumbledore told Harry what all the supposed Horcruxes were, the boy would have run out of ideas as he’d run out of the Founders’ artifacts. You get the drill.

The Horcrux hunt would’ve become a suicide mission.

Albus Dumbledore spent the last months of his life teaching Harry to think for himself, notice the slightest details, and figure stuff out. He did an amazing job at that, too: even when all hope was seemingly lost during the hunt, the Headmaster’s protege kept finding a way forward because that’s what he was taught to do.

Most likely, Dumbledore wanted to use Slytherin’s Locket’s destruction as another lesson: he would have allowed Harry to go at it, fail, analyze the situation, and figure it out. Unfortunately, things didn’t go Dumbledore’s way: the Locket was stolen and the Headmaster himself was poisoned and later, killed during the assault.

That’s why Harry was left with so many questions; that’s also why Harry found all the answers despite his teacher not handing them over to him. Albus Dumbledore might have made the job easier for his protege, but instead, he taught him to think.

This alone made him a great teacher, and Voldemort’s destruction proved it.