Dumbledore's Boggart Is Perhaps The Most Disturbing One in Harry Potter

In the Wizarding World, there are one too many creatures that either feed on people’s emotions and fears or directly involve them. For instance, Patronuses require positive memories, and Dementors feed on them, leaving you hollow…

But Boggarts are by far the most sophisticated Dark creatures in this category.

Boggarts can sense the deepest fears of people around them, and they change their appearance accordingly to scare them away. In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, we learned about the main characters’ Boggarts, but since there are over 700 of them in the franchise, we don’t know what most others’ Boggarts look like.

“What is their Boggart?” has always been one of the most popular questions that fans asked JKR.

Understandably, many Potterheads wanted to know about the deepest fear of the Wizarding World’s most powerful mage — Albus Dumbledore, the Headmaster of Hogwarts. When JKR revealed it, it didn’t come as a surprise.

For Albus Dumbledore, Boggart looked like the dead body of his little sister, Ariana. Decades ago, when Albus was still friends with Gellert Grindelwald, they had a disagreement with Aberforth Dumbledore, his brother, and they engaged in a three-way duel. Ariana, their sister, tried to stop them and got caught up in the crossfire.

Ariana’s death was the final accord that broke off the friendship between Albus and Gellert and induced mutual hate in the Dumbledore brothers for years. Both Albus and Aberforth were devastated by the loss of their little sister, and both were terrified at the thought that it might have been their spell that killed her, not Grindelwald’s.

Until his death, Albus Dumbledore’s Boggart looked like Ariana’s body, making the Headmaster relive the worst moments of his life over and over again — and coupled with him seeing his family, alive and reunited, in the Mirror of Erised, it means that for many decades, Albus Dumbledore was deeply traumatized by Ariana’s death.

The weight of this loss and the question of whether it was he who killed his sister has tormented the Headmaster for many decades, and the thought of finally reuniting with Ariana was likely the reason why Albus Dumbledore was so willing to die after learning about the curse of the Gaunt ring. All he wanted was to see her again.