My opinion on the Harry Potter ships. ('▽'ʃ♡ƪ)

Grindeldore (Dumbledore x Grindelwald)

Yes, totally yes!

I ship it, 100%

I LOVE it.

A doomed romance from the start, Dumbledore and Grindelwald were childhood friends, only to diverge when Grindelwald's experiments started to freak Dumbledore out a lot. Frenemies-turned-lovers-turned-enemies is a recipe for a delicious 'ship, and Dumbledore vs. Grindelwald had lasting implications for the entire wizarding world. Dramatic!

Dumbledore and Grindelwald first met when they were seventeen years old, when Bathilda Bagshot introduced them. They got along right away because they had so much in common. They had beliefs about how the wizarding society should be structured, and they were both eager to find the Deathly Hallows. The two became close and had a brief romantic relationship that lasted two months. 

During the two-month relationship, the boys plotted to find the Deathly Hallows and lead a wizarding revolution. They also established a blood contract, agreeing not to attack each other. Albus neglected his younger siblings, Aberforth and Ariana, during this time. When Aberforth confronted the couple about it, Grindelwald became enraged and attacked him. Albus rushed forward to defend his brother, and during the duel, Ariana was killed. Grindelwald fled, his friendship with Albus over.

Based on his ideals about wizarding civilisation, Grindelwald wreaked havoc on the wizarding world over the next few years. Dumbledore declined to face him for fear of Grindelwald blaming him for Ariana's murder, as well as the blood contract the two had struck when they were teenagers.

Despite everything, Dumbledore had affections for Grindelwald and saw him as his ultimate desire in the Mirror of Erised. He felt a great deal of remorse for what he had done. He was eventually able to move on from Grindelwald, for reasons that will be explained in a later section of the novel.

He challenged him to a duel, which he won. The duel would go down in history as possibly the greatest duel ever waged in the wizarding realm. Dumbledore seized the Elder Wand and imprisoned Grindelwald in Nurmengard, his own jail. 

Voldemort approached Grindelwald several years later and demanded knowledge about the Elder Wand. Grindelwald, who was imprisoned and unable to defend himself due to his lack of a wand, refused to offer any information. This seems to indicate that Grindelwald no longer agreed with the Dark Arts practitioners' viewpoints. Harry Potter theorised that Grindelwald sacrificed his life to prevent Voldemort from desecrating Dumbledore's tomb, possibly implying that Grindelwald still had feelings for his old buddy.

This pairing had a small popularity before J.K. Rowling announced in 2007 that Albus Dumbledore was gay, with a romantic attraction to Gellert Grindelwald. Although many fans embraced the idea of Dumbledore's sexuality, many also wished that Rowling had included his sexuality and relationship with Grindelwald in the books. After the announcement, more fanfiction and fanart were produced for the pairing. Many displayed Dumbledore's life as a teenage boy, with an exploration into the relationships between Albus, Gellert, Aberforth, and Ariana. Also, the pairing was often written with Grindelwald reciprocating Dumbledore's feelings, ultimately leading to the eventual duel between both of them.

Rating: A massive 10/10.