After all this time since the Harry Potter movies were released, fans continue to uncover new secrets, like the unexpected origin of Dumbledore’s Pensieve bottles. A closer look of a key scene between Harry and Dumbledore in the beginning of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince reveals that these Pensieve bottles have their own tale to tell.
Harry got his first glimpse of Dumbledore’s Pensieve in the Goblet of Fire. However, it was in the Half-Blood Prince that it became more important. The Pensieve, filled with a silvery substance, allowed one to witness memories, typically encased in small vials.
Dumbledore owned a huge array of these memory-filled vials, which he utilized to enlighten Harry about Voldemort’s history and the Horcruxes. While the vials weren’t a focal point in the books, the films added their own touch to Dumbledore’s collection.
In the opening scenes of the Half-Blood Prince, we see Dumbledore unexpectedly meeting Harry at a cafe to persuade Professor Horace Slughorn to come back to Hogwarts. True to Dumbledore’s mysterious nature, he materializes in front of a billboard for Divine Magic perfume. A Reddit user, FawkesNK, pointed out an interesting amusing angle of the film.
FawkesNK shared two images from the film: one of Dumbledore looking at the Devine Magic billboard and another of his collection of Pensieve memories seen later in the film. The user explained that the perfume bottle in the ad bears a striking resemblance to those in Dumbledore’s cabinet, suggesting that Dumbledore might have taken a cue from the Devine Magic perfume bottles to add an extra touch of charm to his memory vials.
The scene in the Half-Blood Prince where Dumbledore meets Harry, set against the backdrop of a perfume ad, was already a humorous and fitting touch. It’s one of the rare moments where Dumbledore is seen in the non-magical world, and his interest in a Divine Magic perfume ad adds a whimsical layer to his character. The notion that Dumbledore might have drawn inspiration from a mundane product for his Pensieve vials adds an amusing twist to the tale.
It’s possible that the resemblance between the Divine Magic perfume bottle in the advertisement and the ones in Dumbledore’s collection was just a happy coincidence. It’s a minor detail that could easily be overlooked, making it a rather understated piece of trivia.
Moreover, while Dumbledore’s vials share a similar aesthetic, they don’t match the perfume bottle’s design exactly, each having their own unique features. It could very well be that the prop used for the perfume ad was just a prop, chosen from the array available on set, with no deeper connection intended.
It’s charming to imagine that Dumbledore made the most of his visit to the Muggle realm. Despite his earlier biases against non-magical folk, he later emerged as a fervent advocate for Muggle rights within the magical community.
His quirky nature only adds to the heartwarming notion that he might have purchased a whole set of Muggle perfume. Whether or not this detail in the Half-Blood Prince was deliberate, it certainly makes for a delightful fan theory.
About Harry Potter
Harry Potter is a film series based on the eponymous novel series by J. K. Rowling. The series is distributed by Warner Bros. and consists of eight fantasy films, beginning with Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone and culminating with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2.
The film series follows Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, and his journey to take down the evil wizard Lord Voldemort and save Hogwarts, the Wizarding School he attended, with his best friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley.
The series was mainly produced by David Heyman, and stars Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson as the three leading characters: Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger.
No Comments on Here’s What Inspired Dumbledore’s Pensieve Bottles in the Half-Blood Prince