F rom the Muggle side
"Wait," his mother said, stopping him in the middle of recounting his triumphs. "Albus, you don't think that you got your talent from your father, do you?"
Albus blinked at his mother. He didn't want to say that that was precisely what he had thought when his brilliance exploded into the public sphere seven years ago. Kendra Dumbledore stared at her son, meeting his eyes to force him to do the same. "Albus, your father wasn't even as talented as Aberforth. You and Ariana take after me. I didn't have the opportunities to develop it that you get from your surname, but you get your gift from me."
Albus didn't know what threw him more, the mention of his mother's power and talent or that of Ariana's. The teenager who had spent his life in contact with the most powerful names of the wizarding world, whose owl winged into Godric's Hollow to debate with Bathilda Bagshot more often than to greet his mother and sister, could barely comprehend the notion of Ariana's power being comparable to his.
Apparently his perceptiveness, which some accused of bordering on mind-reading, also came from his Muggleborn mother. "Why do you think she is so dangerous, Albus? Why do you think I don't find a discreet nurse so that I could work or at least be more active in the community? It takes all of my considerable power and skill to control it when her remarkable talent explodes. Do you think that any ordinary witch could turn her own magic in on herself in an attempt to strip it away?" She paused a moment to consider, then continued, "Why do you think it was your father who went after the Muggles? He knew he could not control her level of power, my level of power.
"That's why you'll have to be the one to care for her when I die, Albus. Aberforth is a lovely boy, and he could make her have fewer outbursts, but he couldn't handle when they inevitably come."
All of his life, Albus had been building up accomplishments to reclaim the name of Dumbledore, finding comfort in a piece of his father to which he could still cling. He hadn't even considered…he hadn't seen…
Shouldn't he of all people have known? Some power goes beyond the ability of awards to honor or accomplishment to capture. Isn't that what teachers always said of his?
And it was all from the Muggle side of his family.
It was some time before Albus could embrace that part of his himself, but, in later years when he made a studied effort, this revelation from his mother accomplished wonders.
In the meantime, the boy with a respected pureblood name and his Muggleborn mother's shock of magic went back to school to continue wowing the world.
