Dumbledore’s funniest moments and boss moves in Harry Potter

Dumbledore keeps his solemn manner even when a sweet tastes of earwax. Visiting Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) in the hospital wing, Dumbledore explains why an earlier encounter with a vomit-flavoured bean put him off Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans.

He risks another and discovers earwax. His “Alas! Earwax!” is funny because his manner stays solemn while he announces the flavour. Richard Harris needs no change in delivery to make the headmaster’s small defeat count.

Dumbledore’s reassuring manner becomes less reassuring when he chooses the wrong leg to pat. In the hospital wing, Harry and Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) tell Dumbledore about Sirius Black (Gary Oldman) and Peter Pettigrew (Timothy Spall). He steers them towards using Hermione’s Time-Turner to rescue the condemned Sirius and Buckbeak.

On his way out, he pats the bandaged leg of Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint). Ron winces while Dumbledore continues towards the door. Michael Gambon’s casual farewell has hurt the patient he is leaving behind.

Dumbledore can undermine an official occasion with a look. Dumbledore is present for the scheduled execution of Buckbeak, a hippogriff, and pulls a face at the man sent to kill him.

Harry and Hermione are trying to save Buckbeak. Dumbledore’s expression undercuts the solemn business of putting the hippogriff to death.

Dumbledore’s innocence is funny because he has supplied the instructions himself. Dumbledore tells Hermione, “Three turns should do it,” sending her and Harry back far enough to rescue Buckbeak and Sirius.

When they return to report success, he answers, “Did what?” He knows what they have done and makes them accept his pretence that he does not. His refusal to explain is also a way to keep their forbidden intervention unspoken.

Dumbledore’s schoolboy confession makes the headmaster harder to treat as a model pupil. In Harry’s dormitory after the death of Cedric Diggory (Robert Pattinson), Dumbledore notices the bed hangings and says he never liked them. He recalls setting them on fire in his fourth year.

“By accident, of course” is the qualification that makes the anecdote funny and leaves Harry with a schoolboy excuse from the man in charge of the school.

Dumbledore makes Horace Slughorn (Jim Broadbent) discuss his disguise as though they are discussing furniture. Slughorn has turned himself into an armchair while hiding from the Death Eaters trying to recruit him. Dumbledore finds him and praises the “very convincing armchair”.

Slughorn answers, “It’s all in the upholstery.” He has been caught, yet still accepts a compliment on his technique. Harry watches a conversation about danger become a conversation about padding.

Dumbledore’s interest in knitting makes the recruitment visit sound like a social call. Dumbledore asks Slughorn if he can take a knitting magazine because he likes “knitting patterns”.

The recruitment has required flattery and persuasion, but the magazine request needs neither. The borrowed Muggle house is a temporary hiding place, and Dumbledore still spots something he would like to read.

Dumbledore’s interest in the love triangle stops at a joke.

Lavender Brown (Jessie Cave) and Hermione quarrel over Ron in the hospital wing. Ron murmurs Hermione’s name in his sleep, and Lavender runs out. Dumbledore follows her exit with his remark on “love’s keen sting”.

Dumbledore refuses to let a changed appointment keep him out of Harry’s hearing. Cornelius Fudge (Robert Hardy) asks whether Dumbledore received the message changing the time and place. Dumbledore says he missed it but, “by a happy mistake”, arrived “three hours early”.

Fudge cannot use the change to hear Harry’s case without Dumbledore there. The joke is the refusal to explain his timing, delivered as though arriving that early needs no further discussion.

Dumbledore makes the arresting party wait while he corrects their assumption. Fudge and his officials come to arrest Dumbledore after the discovery of Dumbledore’s Army, Harry’s secret defence group. Dumbledore questions the idea that he intends to “come quietly”.

He grasps his phoenix, Fawkes, and disappears in fire before they can take him. Kingsley Shacklebolt (George Harris) supplies the verdict: “Dumbledore has got style.” The boss move is refusing the arrest before escaping it, with no scramble for the door.

Dumbledore earns his authority here by holding his ground against an opponent who can match him. Dumbledore faces Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) in the Ministry atrium while Harry is caught nearby. Neither wizard gets an effortless victory.

Voldemort’s fire snake and Dumbledore’s water sphere turn the fight into a contest of attacks and counters. They fight on level terms. Dumbledore is the boss man because he meets Voldemort’s force and continues protecting Harry.

Dumbledore’s firestorm carries more force because he has just needed Harry’s help. To reach a locket they believe is a Horcrux, Dumbledore must drink the potion covering it in a stone basin. He makes Harry promise to keep making him drink even when he begs to stop.

When Harry takes water from the lake for him, the Inferi, dead bodies animated by magic, rise and attack. Dumbledore gets to his feet and casts the firestorm that drives them back. The man Harry has had to force through the potion is still able to save him from the lake.