Armando Dippet

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Harry Potter character
Armando Dippet
Gender	Male
Hair colour	Grey
Allegiance	Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore
Actor	Alfred Burke
First appearance	Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Armando Dippet is a wizard in the Harry Potter series of novels. In the story, he was the Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry who preceded Albus Dumbledore.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

First mentioned in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Dippet was the Headmaster of Hogwarts during the time that Tom Marvolo Riddle, who was a student, opened the Chamber of Secrets. This caused another student, Myrtle, to die during Dippet's Headship. Dippet, unaware that Riddle was behind the attack, trusted Riddle's word that it was another student, Rubeus Hagrid, who controlled the monster. According to Riddle, Dippet forbade him from revealing the crime and covered up Myrtle's death as a "freak accident"^[HP2].

Dippet refused to allow Tom to stay at the school during the summer holidays. This was seen by Harry Potter through a memory in Tom Riddle's diary.^[HP2] Dippet ceased being Hogwarts Headmaster in 1956^{[citation needed]}; it is unknown if he resigned or died. Dippet has a portrait in the Headmaster's office, allowing him to regularly discuss matters with other former Headmaster portraits and the current Head.^[HP5] He was succeeded by Albus Dumbledore, the Transfiguration teacher.

In Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, it is revealed that Tom Riddle requested the post of Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher soon after graduating from Hogwarts. Armando Dippet did not give him the post, telling him that he was too young, and saying that Riddle might apply for the post again in a few years. Albus Dumbledore apparently had some level of influence on this decision, knowing that Dippet usually favored Riddle.^[HP6]