Dresden Files
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White Council

Justin DuMorne was a human wizard and former Warden of the White Council. He was mentor to the young wizards Harry Dresden and Elaine Mallory. He is mentioned in Dead Beat and Ghost Story.

Description[]

DuMorne adopted and mentored Harry Dresden and Elaine Mallory since their early pre-teens, living in a house about twenty miles outside of Des Moines.[1]

He was abusive, but though he seems to have adopted the teaching philosophy of "pain is an excellent motivator," he was more emotionally abusive and manipulative than he was so physically. He encouraged a distance between them and other children and was gradually training the two of them to use violent magic without realizing that it was wrong, so that they would be his personal enforcers.[2][3][4]

Biography[]

Justin DuMorne used to be a Warden of the White Council, apprenticed under Simon Pietrovich.[5] He had participated in the hunt for the necromancer Heinrich Kemmler, on whose occasion he found and took the skull-bound air spirit Kemmler owned at the time but kept its discovery and retrieval a secret from the White Council, who thought it had been destroyed. Sometime later, he left the Wardens.[6]

According to Ebenezar McCoy, DuMorne was a contact of Margaret LeFay.[7]

DuMorne adopted and apprenticed ten-year-old orphaned wizards, Harry Dresden and Elaine Mallory, shortly after they came into their powers. He began to teach them the basic principles of magic.[1][8] One day, DuMorne turned Elaine into a thrall. He attempted the same thing on Dresden, but Dresden escaped. DuMorne sent He Who Walks Behind after him. Dresden came back to save Elaine Mallory. Dresden performed a fire spell, burning the house down and killing DuMorne.[3][9]

He Who Walks Behind[]

Harry Dresden had always assumed that DuMorne had sent He Who Walks Behind after him to be killed. Now Dresden considers the possibility that He Who Walks Behind hadn't really tried to kill him, but instead manipulated him into killing his mentor, and that He Who Walks Behind was quite possibly DuMorne's mentor, as opposed to DuMorne simply being the one who summoned and sent the Outsider after him.[10]

In the series[]

"Welcome to the Jungle"[]

In "Welcome to the Jungle", Harry Dresden relives the fight in which he killed Justin DuMorne.[11]

Grave Peril[]

In Grave Peril, the Leanansidhe chides Harry Dresden for being weak, claiming that she and Justin DuMorne taught him better. Dresden later explains to Michael Carpenter that he got the power to defeat DuMorne from a bargain with her.(reference needed)

Summer Knight[]

In Summer Knight, Justin DuMorne is mentioned as having been an apprentice of Simon Pietrovich, and it is speculated that he may have had enough information to bypass his defenses. Later Harry Dresden reminisces about how DuMorne used Elaine Mallory to bind him in an attempt to enthrall him.(reference needed)

Blood Rites[]

In Blood Rites, Harry Dresden reminisces about how he stole Bob after killing DuMorne. Ebenezar McCoy mentions that DuMorne was an associate of Margaret LeFay.(reference needed)

Dead Beat[]

In Dead Beat, DuMorne is mentioned as having been a Warden involved in Heinrich Kemmler's last stand and pulling Bob the Skull out of wreckage much like Harry Dresden pulled Bob out of the ruins of DuMorne's lab.[6]

"Journal"[]

In "Journal", Donald Morgan wonders whether DuMorne had succeeded in making Harry Dresden a creature of Nemesis.[12]

Ghost Story[]

In Ghost StoryHarry Dresden recalls how DuMorne taught him his first fire spell: "Flickum bicus!", DuMorne gave him a Wilson baseball mitt.[1] Later, Dresden recalls the day he came home early from school worried about Elaine Mallory and sensed black magic in the air. Elaine Mallory was sitting still, quiet, while Justin DuMorne stood at the kitchen doorway. There was a straitjacket on the table next to Dresden's copy of The Hobbit. DuMorne ordered Dresden to sit, and when he didn't, DuMorne sent a blast of kinetomancy at him who used the force to propel him through the window for an escape.[9]

References[]

See also[]

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