In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Albus Dumbledore’s dark past was revealed. After the death of his mother and the incarceration of his father, Dumbledore had to return home and take care of his sister Ariana, whose dangerous magical abilities were constantly kept hidden from others. And it’s at that moment that Gellert Grindelwald showed up in Dumbledore’s life. Grindelwald’s rise to power and what made him such a big threat isn’t explored in the Deathly Hallows but rather in the Fantastic Beasts films. And with the next installment subtitled The Secrets of Dumbledore, the series could finally showcase the battle between these two powerful wizards and finally give fans some insight into how exactly Ariana died.
A popular theory that has arisen in the wake of the Fantastic Beasts series is that Ariana Dumbledore was an Obscurial. First introduced in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, an Obscurial is a witch or wizard who suppresses their magical abilities so much that a parasitic force forms within them. The parasite can sometimes erupt violently out of the host, causing death and destruction in its wake. Credence Barebone is the main Obscurial in the film series, and the violent nature of his powers appears similar to the descriptions of Ariana’s magic in the books.
The theory that Ariana might be an Obscurial could also tie into Credence’s relation to the Dumbledore family because, at the end of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, the dark wizard reveals that Credence’s real name is Aurelius Dumbledore, making him the long-lost brother of Albus, Aberforth and Ariana. The idea that Credence is a long-lost Dumbledore is a strange revelation that leaves a lot of questions to be answered, especially considering that there was no evidence of a fourth Dumbledore child at any point during the Deathly Hallows novel and the timeline for the deaths of Dumbledore’s parents. Because of this, another fan theory came out that suggests that Credence is actually possessed by Ariana’s Obscurial, meaning that the violent magic fans see Credence perform in the films isn’t actually his.
That scenario would mean that, at some point after the death of Ariana, Grindelwald was able to extract the Obscurus from her body and place it inside Credence at a young age. This caused the parasite to grow stronger than any other Obscurus ever known at that point and explains why Grindelwald takes such an interest in Credence in the first place. But more than that, it mean that Grindelwald is lying to Credence in order to use the Obscurus to further his plans for wizard domination.
Neither one of these theories has been confirmed as canon, and there are still more films in the Fantastic Beasts series to go. But both Aberforth and Albus are set to appear in The Secrets of Dumbledore, so there is a chance that the film finally addresses the mystery surrounding Ariana and her death.
To see if Ariana’s past is addressed, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore releases in theaters in the United States on April 15.
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