I do not remember offhand what I was doing for the entirety of 2004; playing a bit of indifferent tennis on the William Fremd frosh/soph high school team, to be sure; carefully nursing a hallway crush that necessitated careful class-navigation strategizing; rollerblading to Subway with my friend Emily a lot, because we both really enjoyed Subway. I think I worked at Portillo’s that summer, but I can’t be entirely certain. What I most assuredly was not doing, unfortunately, was learning about the “Dumbledore is a time-traveling Ron Weasley” on Harry Potter fan forums.
But I could have done. For nigh on ten years, this theory has been kept from me, until I stumbled across it quite inadvertently on the eve of this new year. Let’s hear this out, my heart cried within me. Let the man speak. Let him produce evidence; let us judge the merits of his argument, unfettered by bias or prejudice.
(Did you know about this? Did you keep this from me? Were you, in short, afraid?)
Ron, our loyal Knight, will become a time traveler. He will be sent back in time to some point in the 19th century to live out the rest of his days at Albus Dumbledore, our venerable King. The exact mechanics of his journey in time are unclear, though we do believe it is unavoidable, and that it will in fact be the very move that enables Harry’s eventual defeat of Voldemort (the checkmate) and that it will also have something to do with the White Queen (Bellatrix). Though you may think us a couple of nutters for making such an outrageous claim, we do indeed have evidence. Lots and lots of evidence.
I am properly strapped in. I have read the precautionary materials; I have no known heart conditions and am neither a pregnant nor a nursing mother. All of my arms and legs are safely inside the vehicle. I am ready to go on this ride with you.
1. Uncanny Resemblance
We often joke about how unobservant Harry is, and though he hasn’t made the connection we have, he does indeed dutifully describe for us both Ron and Dumbledore’s appearance. Harry describes both Ron and Dumbledore as tall, thin and possessing a long nose (though Dumbledore’s has been broken a couple of times). These three characteristics are repeated by Harry when he meets either of these two characters for the first time in almost every book.
Dumbledore is described as having long fingers, while Ron is described as having large hands and feet. Unless Ron is a mutant, having large hands would also mean having long fingers. Dumbledore is very, very old with white hair when we first meet him, but when Harry visits a fifty years younger Dumbledore in Riddle’s diary, he is described as having auburn hair. In other words, Dumbledore was once a redhead just like Ron. While we know Dumbledore has sparkling blue eyes, JKR has very curiously neglected to have Harry mention Ron’s eye color for five whole books now. We know nearly everyone else’s eye color, including Arthur Weasley’s (blue), but we don’t know that of Harry’s best friend.
Dumbledore’s one other key characteristic, the scar above his left knee, is mentioned in the first chapter of PS/SS. While Harry hasn’t noticed any tell tale scars shaped like the London Underground on Ron, we do indeed know from PoA that Ron has sustained a serious injury to his left leg. Though JKR curiously, and very pointedly, dances around which leg exactly it is that Ron has broken, we have determined that it is indeed his left leg. When Sirius conjures the manacles and attaches Peter to Ron and Lupin, he attaches Peter to Ron’s left side. If you are injured and using only one crutch, you would, of course, use the crutch on the side of your injured leg. Sirius shackled Peter to Ron’s injured side – his left.
Unless Ron is a mutant. Ron is most assuredly not a mutant; but he may very well be a long-fingered time-traveler. Are you trying to claim that Ron Weasley, cheerful wizard-lad, is a mutant of some kind? That is a ridiculous claim; you have nothing to back up this assertion. He has big hands; it follows necessarily that he has long fingers. He is not a mutant.
But that is not all… In the last chapter of PS/SS, Dumbledore tells Harry that he lost his taste for Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans after eating a vomit flavored bean in his youth. There is one problem with this… Bertie Bott was born in 1935. While Dumbledore is over 150 years old, and for him, ‘youth’ is a relative term, he could not have possibly eaten a Bertie Bott Every Flavor Bean until the 1950′s, most likely even later, making him well over a hundred years old. Even in Dumbledore terms this is hardly his ‘youth’. Before anyone makes the brilliant observation that the Bertie Bott card isn’t canon, be sure to read the statement from Wizards of the Coast concerning their collaboration with JK Rowling on the making of the cards posted to The Leaky Cauldron.
THIS MAKES SENSE TO ME. Can you explain this? Your rebuttal of this theory must include this. The Every Flavor beans are the smoking gun.
4. Foreshadowing
Ron makes it very clear on several occasions that he hates the color maroon. Could it be because he will eventually be ‘marooned’ in time?
Yes.
Socks are a running theme throughout the series. They are used as symbols of freedom, redemption and love. Ron, however, doesn’t ever really fully appreciate the socks his mother gives him. In PoA, he tosses them aside to gush over Harry’s Firebolt. In GoF, he gives his Christmas socks to Dobby. Socks are also seen attached to Molly specifically – she is seen fussing over socks, looking for socks, folding socks, packing socks. And if Molly wasn’t mother figure enough, Tonks tells Harry her own mother has this special knack for magically folding socks. In fact, the first time we see Harry, he is in his cupboard, looking for a pair of socks (though he has to knock the spiders off of them, not having a mother to fuss over them for him). Dobby is set free with a sock. Hermione knits socks for the house elves. Dumbledore, the man who clearly has all of the fame, power, respect, possessions and wisdom one could hope for in a lifetime, sees himself holding a pair of wooly socks in the Mirror of Erised. If you read this scene with Dumbledore being Ron in mind, it takes on a whole new and really huge significance Ron indeed becomes greater than all of his brothers, yet as an old man, he is still wistful for those socks his mother gave him and he never fully appreciated.
This man has thought more carefully and considerately about the use of socks in the Harry Potter books than you have ever thought about anything your miserable and lumpen-headed life. You disgust me. Dumbledore is a time-traveling Ron, and I hate your insipid, moony face.
In OotP, Draco composes a lovely song – Weasley is Our King. If that isn’t foreshadowing, I don’t know what is. One line in particular is given significance by Draco. He is heard singing it loudly during the game by Harry, and Draco later quotes it in italics – born in a bin. While Draco likes to make fun of Ron’s poverty, the phrase has a double meaning. ‘Bin’ is also a prefix meaning ‘double’ or ‘two’ – think ‘binary’. Was Ron ‘born’ twice? Leading a double life? Is Draco trying to tell us something important?
THAT’S FUCKING LATIN MOTHERFUCKERS
In OotP, Ron is nearly strangled by some purple wizard robes while cleaning up Grimmauld Place. Who do we know wears purple robes? Dumbledore, of course.
I don’t even know what this means but I love your commitment and I am so all about this journey we are taking together and yes I said yes I will Yes.
Tags: crazy old maurice, dumbledore, fan theories, harry potter, i want to believe, old internet forums, time traveling, what, yes
Nothing could please me more!!!!
she is clearly a young (alive) lily for harry to fill up with cheesily named children.
During our senior year of college, my roommate came home from class and told me that the cute boy sitting next to her had – for no apparent reason – tapped his fingertips together and audibly muttered "Crazy old Maurice, eh? Craaaazy Old Maurice, hmmm?" to himself. And then continued on with his assignment.
Time-travelling Gaston?!?! YOU BE THE JUDGE.
I was always into Harry Potter for the fandom, not canon.
Can I request an open thread where we all rec hp fix to each other? Pretty please?
Flashes of green light
Don't do it!! Don't read "The Magicians" if your brain can't handle hundred of pages of a whiny misogynist being so obnoxious and complainy that you decide to stop reading this book even though you have no other books with you on a plane ride. I couldn't even make myself hate-read it.
The main character describes every woman by her boobs and is upset because his parents love each other in a way that they cannot love him.
Mostly I'm just angry because people are always like "oooh. this book is like Harry Potter but for adults!" Those people are liars.
THANK YOU for pointing out the boob thing! It's super super obvious in "Codex" and I've had a BUNCH of people (dudes) argue that I'm making it up. NOPE.
I agree that Quentin is whiny & pretty misogynistic and emotionally stunted. That seems to be a character type that Grossman writes. I also think we're not supposed to LIKE Quentin, though. Maybe I'm wrong about this? So it's a story about this gifted kid who doesn't function well in the real world OR in the magic world. Like… changing worlds and learning magic doesn't solve his problems, you know? He's still whiny and needy and views women as strange creatures instead of humans. If it were slightly more aware it'd be great.
Anyway, if you can get past the horrible main character, there's lots of interesting commentary about the Narnia and Harry Potter books and some other magic kidfic. That may sound like I'm damning it with faint praise, but the world building and magic systems are really neat, and again I read "The Magicians" and "The Magician King" under the assumption that I wasn't supposed to like or approve of the protag WHICH MAYBE I WAS WRONG ABOUT THAT.
" If you are injured and using only one crutch, you would, of course, use the crutch on the side of your injured leg. Sirius shackled Peter to Ron’s injured side – his left."
WRONG. You would properly use the crutch on the OPPOSITE side of the injured leg.
That is incorrect about using a crutch on your injured side. If you are only using one you actually use it on the opposite side of the injury so that when you lift your "good" leg you can take some of the weight off your "bad" leg by using the crutch on the other side.
But I like the theory otherwise
Two months later, I'm very glad that plenty of people took this so seriously because I mean Mallory's tone was EXTREMELY serious and I wouldn't want anyone to upset her.
My thoughts exactly! Unless Aberforth and Ariana are "actors" hired to pretend to be 'Dumbledore's' siblings, this theory is null and void.
Nevermind the repercussions of Dumbledore (if he is indeed future-Ron) touching present-Ron (I don't have the books on me, but I am certain he does, at least, give him a pat on the shoulder or something). In such a case the paradox created would tear a rift in the fabric of the time and space continuum – that's one thing Doctor Who taught me. I guess you could argue that this is magic and not science, but I am still not convinced.
Oh my goodness and then Dumbledore leaves Ron the Deluminator….knowing he will need in the future as Dumbledore?!?
As someone who had to walk with a cane/crutch for 3 months, you DO NOT walk with it on your injured side. You walk with it on your uninjured side because you need to put the full weight of your body on the one good leg and the crutch as if it were a second leg. My source: the mind numbing rounds of physical therapy I had to do.
This also explains the amount Dumbledore cares for harry! Which often seems too much for the amount of time they have actually spent together.
This could be why Dumbledore seems so omi-present
If this is true,Professor McGonagall might just be a time-travelling Hermione. 😮
And he knew that Ron would leave Hermione and Harry, but also come back!
Tumblr takes up the topic: http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/37w2go…
Bisexuality is a thing 😉
I appreciate you bringing this to our collective attention, Mallory!
Two months later, I'm very glad that plenty of people took this so seriously because I mean Mallory's tone was EXTREMELY serious and I wouldn't want anyone to upset her.
http://www.forumtempatwisata.com/105-tempat-wisat…
My god. This is fantastic. It's been ages since I read the books, and I never noticed how useless she was.
it is not possible as in the the book ron's brothers are fred george bill & charlie and his sister is ginny
BUT Dumbeldores brother and sister were aberforth and ariana and aberforth was actually featured in the book
"NONE of the characters in the books has returned from the future" -J.K. Rowling
The obvious conclusion from this is that Ron AND Hermione travelled back in time and had a son in the past, then returned to their present. Hence the baby Dumbledore never returned from the future himself!
In one of the books Dumbledore asks Harry if him and hermione are together because at the time Ron secrecy liked hermione. Maybe Ron thought that Harry and hermione were dating behind his back so when he was Dumbledore he asked Harry because Harry would tell him anything
Bi- is the prefix for two, not Bin-. Solid theory until I read that…