Dumbledore as chess-player

[Eric Oppen]

No: HPFGUIDX 164935

I was rereading PS/SS, and it occurred to me that the scene on the tower was 
presaged there---in the big chess game where Harry, Ron and Hermione are 
taking the places of chessmen.

Ron, if you'll recall, was the one in charge of the game.  He told Harry and 
Hermione where and how to move.

He also deliberately sacrificed himself to win the game.

It's been theorized before that Ron _is_ Dumbledore---we know that time 
travel can work in the Potterverse.  JKR has said that he isn't, but there 
are resemblances, and before D'dore's hair went white, we saw in the 
flashback in CoS that it was "auburn," which is a sort of up-market way of 
saying that it's a shade of red.

When Ron let himself be taken out in the chess game, Harry and Hermione were 
both horrified, but Ron told them that it was the only way.  And at first, 
he looked like he was dead.

Could this have been a "rehearsal" for the events of Book Six?  Dumbledore 
deliberately sacrificing himself so that the DEs would get out of the 
school, and so that Snape could be on the fast-track to influence with 
V'mort?