FAQ

What about Aberforth? How can Ron be Dumbledore, when Dumbledore has a brother?

Here are a few possibilities...

1. Aberforth Dumbledore is simply Aberforth Dumbledore. When Ron goes back in time, he tries to look up Albus Dumbledore (the only person he knows who is alive at that time). Of course, there is no Albus Dumbledore, but he finds the Dumbledore family and the existing Aberforth who essentially becomes his adopted brother.

2. Aberforth Dumbledore is Fred/George/Percy/Bill/Charlie. One of Ron's brothers goes back with him.

3. Aberforth is the 'missing' Weasley brother. The one that some people claim was born between Charlie and Percy. The Missing Weasley Brother theory has been batted around quite a bit. There was a DE attack on the Weasley home during the first war (remember what Arthur Weasley says about coming home to a Dark Mark hanging over your house). One of the Weasley kids was killed. In this version, Ron, on his way back in time, tries to save this brother... tries to change time, but, in fact, creates the whole missing Weasley thing. He takes this brother who supposedly died with him. The brother becomes Aberforth.

4. Aberforth is simply a friend or colleague Ron/Dumbledore knew in the past or a Weasley ancestor

What about the NEWT?

In OotP, the trio witnesses Griselda Marchbanks telling Umbridge that she had personally given Dumbledore his Charms and Transfiguration exams and he had done things with a wand she had never seen before.

First of all, the NEWTs are not regular Hogwarts exams; they are qualifying exams, rather like the SAT. It is entirely possible that Ron didn't take them at Hogwarts at all. OR he did indeed go back to Hogwarts as a student. Maybe he just showed up? Maybe he enrolled? I don't think this disproves the theory. Ron witnessed what Marchbanks told Umbridge. He knew he had to take the exam. He found a way.

Second of all, the bit about Dumbledore doing things with a wand she had never seen before actually does support the theory. Even though, at this point in time, Ron is no where near as powerful as Dumbledore, he does have the benefit of over a hundred years in magical advancements. He may very well have used spells that had not been invented in the time he went back. Hence, doing things that Marchbanks had never seen before.

If Dumbledore is Ron, why does he let Sirius/Cedric/the Potters die, why does he put Harry in danger, why does he let Sirius go to Azkaban, why does he let Peter get away, etc., etc.?

It is unclear whether or not Ron/DD can really change anything. The one example of time travel we have seen so far (in PoA), nothing at all was changed. Everything happened exactly the same way both times.

Assuming Ron /DD can change events, he still has to be extremely careful. If the Potters live, Voldemort isn't defeated the first time and Harry isn't 'marked' to defeat him the second time. Who knows how long the first war would have lasted and how many would have died without Voldemort being put out of commission by the rebounding Avada Kedavra? He knows he has to get Harry to a certain point in order to defeat Voldemort, so he is forced to make sacrifices.

Now, we do believe that Ron may indeed have tried to change events, but they backfired. We know he offered to be the Secret Keeper for the Potters, but was turned down. It looks as though he went to great lengths to keep Harry out of the Triwizard Tournament, but things went down exactly the same way. The one exception, we think, is the death of Cedric. We believe that in the first round, Harry may have been the proper Hogwarts champion, that there may have been a completely different DADA professor and that Crouch Jr. may have possibly posed as someone else.

Even if Dumbledore isn't Ron, we know for a fact that Dumbledore allowed Quirrel to stick around an entire school year possessed by Voldemort. Snape certainly knew, Harry figured out that Dumbledore orchestrated the rescuing of the stone, so Dumbledore also knew. Dumbledore, even if he is not Ron, still did not need any convincing of Sirius' innocence. He likely knew that Sirius was innocent all along. Dumbledore lets these things happen and makes certain sacrifices because he has to.

But you don't have to take our word for it:

JK Rowling: I don't want to say too much but Dumbledore is a very wise man who knows that Harry is going to have to learn a few hard lessons to prepare him for what may be coming in his life. He allows Harry to get into what he wouldn't allow another pupil to do and he also unwillingly permits Harry to confront things he'd rather protect him from. As people who've read the Order of The Phoenix will know; Dumbledore has had to step back from Harry to teach him some of life's harder lessons.

This was from the Prince Albert Hall interview that JKR gave on June

26th, 2003

Links

Find these links on the main page of this theory.

Mad Props

to fellow Harry Potter fans for help with editing, proofing, feedback, development, chess research, and generally putting up with our madness of the last month and a half!

Hobbit_Guy, for planting the seeds of destruction in the mind of lizardlaugh that Ron=DD.

NetworkGuy, for his patience in explaining /answering questions on chess and saying the magic words that made ixchelmala's head explode with a migraine:"The Bishop moves 4 spaces, then 3 spaces... that's 7 spaces, that's a completely legal move in Chess"

bekkio (editing /devil's advocate), judge7 (chess research / chess-literary development), sbbo (editing-proofing / chess-literary development last minute stroke of genius on second chess board), prncspnut (editing-proofing/ feedback), serpentigena (feedback), airemay (feedback/ development), the folks at the recent hp_california meet ups (feedback), ixchelmala's roommate (feedback/ devil's advocate), chickadilly (feedback and that RON WILL NOT DIE!), lycoris, (who came up with a chess theory about the same time we did), no_remorse, (in the role of devil's advocate), and our respective friends lists aka: D.A.

Additional Props to:

HPFGU (especially the chess folks), TLC (for everything they do), The Lexicon (for the Bertie Bott card and more), Livejournal, Regal Theaters (for allowing us to see the PoA trailer twice in one night), Apple, Diet Coke (and the Diet Vanilla variety), Internet, Cpt.Morgan Jack Sparrow Rum, CoS DVD: Disk Two:Dumbledore's Office, and Parseltongue.

FINALLY...

Last yet certainly not least, the mad-genius woman who is cackling in her living room at the havoc she's caused: JKR... Thank you for wrintng this series... you still have us on the edge of our seats!