MYTHTERY: Is Dumbledore Actually Time-Traveling Ron in Disguise?

by · September 30, 2020

Mythtery

Dumbledore is actually a time-traveling Ron.

In 2004, a Harry Potter fan named Estel posted an intriguing theory on a now-defunct fan forum. Her post, made before the release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, theorizes that after the events of the series, Ron used a Time-Turner to go back in time to somewhere in the 19th century as Albus Dumbledore. According to this theory, Ron lived out a couple of hundred years as Dumbledore and returned during Harry’s lifetime to guide him through his defeat of Voldemort for a second time.

 

Evidence

Estel’s post claims the physical similarities between Dumbledore and Ron are too close to be coincidental. Both are tall and thin with long noses, large hands, and blue eyes. In his second year, when Harry sees a 50-years-younger Dumbledore in Tom Riddle’s memory, he notices his headmaster’s auburn-colored hair, just like Ron’s. Additionally, Dumbledore has a scar shaped like a map of the London Underground on his left leg – the same spot where Ron was injured in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

Next, Estel looks at the similarities in personality between these two characters. Both Dumbledore and Ron have a notorious sweet tooth. All Dumbledore’s passwords are candy-themed, and of course, Ron goes wild for Honeydukes sweet shop in Hogsmeade. Plus, when Harry meets both characters for the first time, they’re doing something candy-related: Dumbledore is offering McGonagall a lemon sherbet at the beginning of term feast; Ron is talking wizarding world sweets on the Hogwarts Express.

Estel also mentions Dumbledore’s talent for knowing absolutely everything – almost as if he’d lived through it before. In particular, how did he know exactly what Ron saw in the Mirror of Erised? When Dumbledore tells Harry he sees himself holding a pair of socks in the Mirror, is he dropping a clue about his true identity? Mentions of socks are scattered throughout Ron’s storyline. His mother dutifully knits and folds socks for Ron, he discards Christmas presents of socks to Dobby, and he ends up falling for Hermione, who is passionate about freeing the house-elves through clothing like socks. Is it really Ron looking back to these moments in his life when “Dumbledore” faces the Mirror of Erised?

Thinking back, Dumbledore and Ron have very little contact with one another in the series. Even Harry admits in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows that “direct contact between them had been negligible” (DH 125).

However, this theory is just too good to be true. One huge debunking factor is that Dumbledore is gay. Ron ends up married to Hermione, and we don’t see him expressing any romantic interest in men in the Harry Potter books. The original author of this theory wouldn’t have known any of that as the theory didn’t show up online until 2004, years before the series concluded.

 

Source

 

Plus, this tweet from J.K. Rowling was the final nail in the coffin for this whimsical theory.

 

 

– Myth Managed

 

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