Here's a very strange thought I had about Dumbledore and Voldemort

[catherine at cator-manor.demon.co.uk]

No: HPFGUIDX 15598

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., Joanne Collins <joannec at l...> wrote:
> I was thinking about this, and I hope the possibility hasn't been 
covered
> before, but could it be possible that Dumbledore is Voldemort's 
father or
> perhaps brother? I know they have different names, but there are a 
million
> ways to explain that if they're father and son, and if they're 
brothers,
> maybe they're half-brothers. Not to mention that Dumbledore could 
have
> changed his name after the war. I'm reasonably sure Hitler's family 
would
> have done the same (er...that's not historically accurate), for 
example.
> 
> One of the things that makes me think of this is that Dumbledore 
seems so
> important in the books, and although you'd expect the headmaster to 
be,
> there's just *something* about the way he reacts to Voldemort that 
seems
> like so much more than just being on the other side of the good and 
evil
> dichotomy.
> 
> Joanne, 36% obsessed with Harry Potter (must be not writing fanfic 
yet).

I don't think the father/son thing is possible.  Voldemort needed the 
bones of a member of his family in the resurrection spell, and used 
those of his father, Tom Riddle.   If he hadn't been his father, 
wouldn't the spell have failed?

The brother thing I think is also unlikely.  Dumbledore is 150, 
acccording to JKR recently, and if Voldemort was 15/16 50 years ago, 
that would make him in his 60s.  As Voldemort's parents were 
obviously quite young when they got together, (gleaned from 
descriptions of the dead bodies etc, and that she was young enough to 
have children) I don't think that this is physically possible.

(I did consider whether Dumbledore could be related to Voldemort's 
mother, but she is descended from Slytherin and Dumbledore is a 
Gryffindor, so this again seems very unlikely.)

Catherine