Dumbledore's Grindelwald defeat

[dfrankis at dial.pipex.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 20908

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Stephanie Roark Keener" <sdrk1 at y...> 
wrote:
> (I thought of this one on the D.C. beltway the other day.  No, I 
> wasn't driving -- but I'm just fascinated with way one's mind 
wanders 
> in moments of mental solitude.)
> 
> According to the chocolate frog card, Dumbledore is famous for his 
> defeat of the Dark Lord Grindelwald in 1945.  Does anyone else see 
> the WWII connection here?  Is it plausible that such a huge war was 
> the result of upheval in the Magical World -- or even that Hitler 
was 
> controlled by or WAS Grindelwald?  
> 
> Stephanie

It's possible - but it just doesn't feel like the HP series to bring 
something like that in.  We have no muggle-world events to correspond 
to Voldemort's reign of terror, though that seems to have been worse.

I'm more intrigued that 1945 is around the time Riddle left school.  
Grindelwald could have been his first attempt to test the water as 
evil overlord, in which case he was defeated only tactically.

Or he could have been Tom's grandfather Marvolo, the then-current 
Heir of Slytherin.  Being a Dark wizard, he was happy to palm his own 
grandchild off to a muggle orphanage, but, on being defeated he was 
able to pass on the Sacred Forked Stick (or whatever) to Tom to carry 
on the struggle.

My personal favourite theory is that Defeat The Dark Wizard 
Grindelwald is a popular contest run annually by the Daily Prophet 
(who sponsor the Chocolate Frog cards).  Dumbledore won in 1945 and 
it has nothing more to do with anything in the story.

David,

looking forward to driving home along leafy lanes in Surrey (not 
Little Whinging)