Hey everyone,
Welcome to another installment of Harry Potter Theory.
Today we’re going to be discussing one of the many mysteries associated with Albus Dumbledore’s
secretive past: the circumstances that surrounded the death of his sister, Ariana.
I say “many mysteries” because, as you may recall, it became quite clear near the
end of the Harry Potter series that Dumbledore had many a secret.
Let’s start with some of the more benign mysteries.
While Harry attended Hogwarts, Dumbledore was a mentor to the young wizard.
And yet, for most of the series, he is frequently unavailable to him.
This in itself seems not quite right, does it?
Why would the HEADMASTER of one of the greatest magical schools in the world constantly be
absent?
Where did he go?
And what had he gone to do?
It all seems a bit on the shady side if you ask me.
Then, of course, there were the countless facts that Dumbledore decided not to share
with our dear Harry, including the truth about how he would have to sacrifice himself in
order to defeat Lord Voldemort.
While I would certainly consider this to be the most ruthless secret Dumbledore kept from
the boy, there were countless others, including the fact that he decided to give him to the
Dursleys as a newly orphaned infant, and did NOTHING to expose him to the truth of who
he was until the age of 11…I mean, I do believe I could go on and on about the things
Dumbledore kept secret.
And apparently, so could J.K.
Rowling.
I’m, of course, referring to the upcoming third installment of Fantastic Beasts: The
Secrets of Dumbledore.
One does not need too much of an imagination to conclude that we’ll be learning more
about Albus Dumbledore’s secrets in this film.
Personally, I am more than keen to discover what else the great and powerful Dumbledore
managed to cover up.
Last, but certainly not least, is the 900-page “tell-all” penned by the infamous journalist,
Rita Skeeter, released immediately after his death.
With a title like The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore, you can imagine that it most certainly
did not depict Dumbledore in a favourable manner, spilling what she thought to be a
multitude of secrets about Albus and his family.
In fact, as you may recall, this was the publication which first told readers and viewers alike
about Albus Dumbledore’s close relationship with the future dark wizard, Gellert Grindelwald.
The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore is also the first time we learn about Albus’ younger,
ailing sister: Ariana Dumbledore.
Alright, so, who is Ariana Dumbledore?
Aside from being Albus’ sister, we know that the Dumbledore family never sent her
to Hogwarts.
Rita Skeeter, of course, thought that she was a squib – a member of a magical family
who does not possess any magical abilities of their own.
This, of course, was not true.
Ariana actually had a great deal of power – she just didn’t have control over it.
As you may recall from The Deathly Hallows, Ariana was tragically attacked when she was
only six years old by a group of three young Muggles who saw her doing magic.
This attack traumatized Ariana to the point in which she would no longer perform magic,
turning her abilities inward on herself.
This was incredibly dangerous and left her magic uncontrollable, as it would escape from
Ariana in emotional outbursts.
In my Harry Potter Theory video, Why Harry WASN'T an Obscurial like Credence, I recently
discussed how the description of Ariana’s “illness” matches that of an Obscurial.
So, even though she wasn’t referred to as one in the Harry Potter series, that’s most
likely because, technically, Obscurials hadn’t been introduced to the Wizarding World canon
yet.
BUT, in my opinion, she most definitely could be the inspiration behind Credence and Obscurials.
In any case, Ariana lived sequestered away in Godric’s Hollow, a community in which
most people didn’t even know that she existed.
Her mother would only allow her outside during the dark of night in an effort to keep her
and her unpredictable nature safe.
It was here that more tragedy struck the Dumbledore family.
One day, when Ariana and her mother were the only two home, Ariana went into a rage, accidentally
killing her mother with an explosion of magic.
At this point in her life, Ariana was only 14 years old – which would be considered
quite old for an Obscurial, as witches and wizards who harbour an Obscurus typically
don’t live into their teenage years.
That said, she was of course much too young – and much too unstable – to live on her
own.
Her father was unable to care for her, as he had been sent to Azkaban for assaulting
the young Muggles who had attacked Ariana when she was six.
He never admitted to the reason behind his crime, for fear that the admission would result
in Ariana being locked up, so he sadly died while incarcerated.
This left Albus as the next in line as her guardian.
With great resentment, Dumbledore returned to Godric’s Hollow to care for his younger,
unwell sister, just as his life had been about to get started.
It was not long after, while in his care that Ariana lost her life.
And so, while Rita Skeeter seemed most interested in exposing the fact that the Dumbledore family
kept Ariana hidden away, the real mystery – even to those who were there – was in
fact: WHO killed Ariana Dumbledore?
For those who may not know, present at the time of Ariana’s death was Albus, his younger
brother, Aberforth, and Gellert Grindelwald.
You may be thinking, well, then it must be quite obvious.
One of these three wizards killed Ariana, leaving two witnesses to testify and corroborate
each other’s stories.
And yet…it is not quite so simple as that.
Here, in Aberforth’s words, you see how the events of that terrible day are anything
but clear:
‘…I pulled out my wand, and he pulled out his, and I had the Cruciatus Curse used
on me by my brother’s best friend – and Albus was trying to stop him, and then all
three of us were duelling, and the flashing lights and the bangs set her off, she couldn’t
stand it –’
The colour was draining from Aberforth’s face as though he had suffered a mortal wound.
‘– and I think she wanted to help, but she didn’t really know what she was doing,
and I don’t know which of us did it, it could have been any of us – and she was
dead.’
So, Aberforth names himself, Albus, and Grindelwald as the three wizards who COULD have killed
her.
And yet, he isn’t at all certain.
In fact, none of them are.
Years later, while visiting Harry in death, even Albus admits that he never fully knew
who killed her.
In truth, he was always immensely fearful of what had actually happened that day:
‘It was the truth I feared.
You see, I never knew which of us, in that last, horrific fight, had actually cast the
curse that killed my sister…I dreaded beyond all things the knowledge that it had been
I who brought about her death…’
So, it seems that we will never know the truth of who – whether it was one of her own brothers
or Gellert – ended Ariana’s life.
And yet, it would be so easy to blame Grindelwald – future dark wizard who harboured ill-will
towards others whom he didn’t see as his equal.
We see this demonstrated again and again throughout the Fantastic Beasts series.
So, why should we assume that he would’ve viewed Ariana any differently?
Well, my answer to that is, if she was in fact an Obscurial, he may have valued the
powerful dark magic that existed inside of her – similarly to how he values Credence
in Fantastic Beasts.
So then, perhaps it would be easiest to say that it was truly an accident, with no one
to blame.
Ariana was tragically in the wrong place at the wrong time, unable to control her parasitical
magic in the face of such an intense fight.
The three wizards would’ve had to have done something to protect themselves from her outburst.
After all, she had previously killed her mother in a similar explosion of emotion.
So, an accident- a reflex from one, or possibly all three men, in an effort to shield themselves
from harm seems reasonable.
In which case, we again, can’t clearly name one of them as clearly responsible for her
death.
Seems likely that we’ll never truly know how it all unfolded.
We can simply narrow it down to three possibilities…
BUT, before I wrap up this video, let me leave you with one more thought: If Ariana was an
Obscurial, is it not possible that her final outburst of uncontrollable emotion and power
is what killed her?
Think about it: When an Obscurial releases its Obscurus, it’s most often released as
an invisible, destructive wind.
So, even though Fantastic Beasts’ Credence physically transforms into his Obscurus, this
type of transformation is only known to happen in extremely rare cases.
Meaning that Ariana could have released her Obscurus, without anyone seeing it, only to
meet her own end…after all, most Obscurials did not survive their youth.
So, perhaps, neither the Dumbledore brothers nor Gellert Grindelwald killed her at all.
Perhaps, ARIANA is the one responsible for her own death.
And with that, we are at the end of another video!
As always, I’d love to know what you think.
Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
And, as always, if you enjoyed the video, don’t forget to like and subscribe to the
channel!
Until next time…
Remember
Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on
the light