Who is Aurelius Dumbledore?

November 12, 2018

Aurelius Dumbledore is the lost brother of Albus Dumbledore, revealed by Gellert Grindelwald to Credence Barebone at the end of “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald”.

This could go against all our canon knowledge – we know Albus Dumbledore only has a brother (Aberforth) and a sister (Ariana), so another sibling could complicate things. We have a few theories on how this would fit in the established canon:

1. This could be a lie told by Grindelwald to convince Credence to go after Albus Dumbledore – after all, we know Gellert Grindelwald is seductive and manipulative. He could be lying to Credence Barone, as he did before (in the form of Percival Graves). If you watch the film again, note that Abernathy and Rosier change the Lestrange Archives in the French Ministry and put them in the Lestrange family mausoleum. We don’t know if they modified them – they could have hidden something important about Credence identity. Also, when Grimmson is talking to Grindelwald below the bridge, he says he killed “the woman”, as if that was the order. Why? Because probably the half-elf woman knew the truth about Credence and she could be a dangerous loose end.

2. What is part of Credence is Ariana’s Obscurus. After Ariana’s death, her Obscurus went to live in Credence’s body. That would explain why Grindelwald says “Your brother” – he is talking to the Obscurus, not to Credence. Why is he changing its name and referring to it with another name instead of Ariana? We don’t know.

3. If we ignore the “your brother” statement – one of the best theories is that Credence could be Ariana’s son. Remember three young muggles did horrible things to Ariana (for which later Percival, Albus’ father, took revenge). Those horrible things could be rape, and that would make another theory about Credence’s identity. Another theory along these lines is that Ariana could have borne a baby after moving to Godric’s Hollow, while she was in the care of her mother.

4. There are theories that say that he could be the son of Albus’ aunt (who is mentioned in the books). That wouldn’t explain the mention of “your brother” again, but somehow could fit. Remember we still have three movies ahead.

It is almost impossible for Aurelius / Credence to be another sibling in the Dumbledore’s family – mainly because of his age. Percival Dumbledore was convicted to Azkaban (and died in there, as we know in Deathly Hallows), a year before Dumbledore’s first year at Hogwarts. Kendra’s funeral was just after Dumbledore left Hogwarts when he was only 17, so again numbers don’t make much sense. And again, only one brother and sister are mentioned in the books: “With a younger brother and sister to care for, and little gold left to them, there could no longer be any question of Albus accompanying me”, says Elphias Doge in his Dumbledore’s obituary.

There are a lot of questions and we will theorize about them in the following months. Leave your comments below, with your theories and if you like or dislike this plot twist at the end of “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald”.

Read more articles about “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald”:

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