T-BAY: Dumbledore is Worse than we Thought!

[Ceridwen]

No: HPFGUIDX 163976

Alla and Ceridwen are sitting at a rickety old table facing onto 
Theory Bay.  A large stack of papers are at Alla's elbow.  A history 
book is lying open and ignored by Ceridwen's cup.  The night is no 
longer young, and a breeze blows across the timeworn dock.  Alla sets 
her teacup down and grabs at the papers to keep them from blowing off 
the table again.

Lying on the table between them is a parchment with a picture of 
Albus Dumbledore.

"I do not wish to believe that Dumbledore is evil," Alla says as she 
flicks a pen at the parchment.  "But, sometimes, the things he 
does..." she sighs.  "Placing Harry with abusive Dursleys, allowing 
Snape to abuse him verbally in class, along with poor Neville..."

"Rowling says that Dumbledore is Harry's mentor, the Wise Guy With 
The Beard," Ceridwen says.  "I just don't think he's omniscient.  
Harry did when he was younger, but obviously to readers, he's made 
mistakes."

"But, to leave him at the Dursleys' house, the way they treated him!" 
says Alla, making a face.  "Irresponsible, at the least."

"Maybe he wanted Harry to hate prejudice.  They're as prejudiced 
against witches and wizards as Purebloods are against Muggles."

"But, that would mean Puppetmaster!Dumbledore, which I do not like at 
all!  Conniving, manipulative..."  Alla calls Dumbledore's parentage 
into question.

"I always did sort-of wonder.  Sometimes, he does come off as 
manipulative.  Very Slytherin, in fact."

"Yes."  Alla narrows her eyes at the parchment.  "*Very* Slytherin."

At these words, the parchment rises into the air between them and 
slowly begins to revolve.  The picture of Dumbledore is replaced by a 
picture of Voldemort on its reverse.  As the parchment spins faster, 
the two begin to blend.  It is difficult to tell where Dumbledore 
ends and Voldemort begins.

"I do think Harry will live," Ceridwen says as the parchment spins 
faster.  "But, a lot of people don't want Harry to kill.  
Since 'Either must die at the hand of the other', how can he do 
that?"  She stops and really looks at the revolving 
parchment.  "Wait.  What if..."

"No."  Alla shakes her head, but cannot take her eyes from the 
spinning pictures.  "Really, he couldn't be!"

"But, what if he is?  What if Harry doesn't kill Voldemort, but 
instead, Voldemort is sent back in time to live out his life as a 
decent member of Wizarding society?  And, what if he does?"

Alla looks gray.  It could have been the seventeen feet of legal 
parchment she had completed, or it could have been the fanatical 
gleam in Ceridwen's eyes.  "Then, if he had lived out his life as 
decent wizard, there would be no problem.  And, how does this have 
anything to do with Dumbledore?"

"It has everything to do with Dumbledore.  Because Voldemort *is* 
Dumbledore."

"Impossible!  McGonagall says that Dumbledore is too noble to use the 
sorts of spells Voldemort has used."

"By that time, he has been Dumbledore for so long, and lived an 
exemplary life, that of course she would think that.  She's only half 
his age, or thereabouts.  Or, he's given every appearance of being 
exemplary.  Because that's the night when he left Harry with the 
Dursleys."

"Yes!  And, McGonagall objected!"  Alla eyes the spinning parchment 
again.  Red eyes, blue eyes, red eyes blue...  "It would explain why 
he left baby Harry with the Dursleys, who do not want him.  He wanted 
to break down Harry's mind, alter his ability to fight against 
Voldemort's injustice!"  She shakes her head, casting off the 
beginnings of the enchantment.  "But, what about Griselda 
Marchbanks?  What about young Dumbledore amazing the proctors in his 
O.W.L.s?"

"That was the real Dumbledore.  Albus, who is still alive and well 
and..."

"Rowling said Dumbledore is dead!"

"The one we know is dead.  The real one, the one who amazed his 
proctors, is alive and taking care of the Hogshead."

"Then, he is contributing to Polyjuice for Riddle?"

"No, it's a glamour.  Polyjuice for a hundred years?"  Ceridwen gives 
Alla one of those looks that older people give younger people who are 
saying silly things.

"Then, what about the Horcruxes?  What about Snape?  Oh, if he is 
really evil, then of course he would allow Snape to be evil too."

"Snape first, because he's easy.  Imperius.  Plus, a little 
favoritism to anger him when he was younger, plus playing the Good 
Guy to his own earlier self's Bad Guy, confusing the heck out of 
Snape, then placing him under that curse.  Do you really think he 
couldn't have gotten someone else instead of Umbridge?  What about 
Gilderoy Lockhart?  Harry learned to really hate fame from watching 
him!"

"No.  No."  Alla shakes her head.  "This I cannot believe.  Umbridge 
was after Dumbledore as well."

"And look what she got for it."  Ceridwen takes a sip of tea.  "He's 
awfully friendly with Phineas Nigellus, Headmaster, Slytherin...  
Great-grandfather or some ancestor of Bellatrix and Regulus."  
Ceridwen leans forward confidentially.  "You know he didn't know 
about R.A.B."

"Which leads us to the Horcruxes.  Why, if he is Voldemort, did he 
not know where to find every Horcrux?  Why did he not know whether 
Nagini was a Horcrux or not?"

"Who says he's being truthful there?  He knows, he just isn't 
telling."

"The locket."

"Ah.  The locket.  But, he explained that, didn't he?  Voldemort 
wouldn't know if a soul piece of his went missing.  He didn't know, 
he honestly didn't know!"

"Then, why give Harry those lessons about understanding Tom Riddle?"

"Arrogance.  He hasn't read the Evil Overlord's handbook, even as 
Dumbledore.  Also, think about this.  He knew who to take memories 
from, he knew where to find the ring, he knows what Voldemort is 
feeling.  Since Bob Ogden is dead, he had to have collected that 
memory years, maybe even decades, before he shows it in the 
Pensieve.  He would have to have known he would need it."

Alla thinks. "Lupin.  What about Lupin?"

"A masterpiece, whether Lupin's ESE or not.  How much damage can a 
young werewolf cause at a school?  When he was young, Tom Riddle 
sicced a Basilisk on Muggleborns, why not a werewolf when he's 
Headmaster?  Voldemort courted the werewolf contingent after all.  By 
giving Lupin a chance at the school, he's building trust, and he's 
earned Lupin's gratitude for giving him that chance.  He is also 
trusted enough to be able to plant subtle ideas into Lupin's mind, 
ideas that make him not so sure of himself, that make him 
disillusioned with the Wizarding World as a whole.  'Dumbledore' 
understands, 'Dumbledore' will help, no matter what the rest of them 
all think.  'They' are bad, 'Dumbledore' is good.

"And then, he brings Lupin back when Harry is in school.  Black was 
not his agent, but everyone thinks he was.  Lupin will protect his 
friend, making Lupin look bad.  Then, Lupin gets the DADA curse, 
which Voldemort placed himself, and forgets his Wolfsbane, which of 
course Voldemort would have known from the Death Eater parents, and 
there's Lupin, ready, literally, to be thrown to the wolves in Half-
Blood Prince."

Alla is still not completely won over.  "What about Crouch!Moody?  
Why was Dumbledore so upset?"

"He botched it.  He knew he would.  And, haven't you ever wondered 
how the real Moody was fooled into being captured?  *Paranoid* Moody?"

Alla's eyes grow wide.  She stares through the rapidly revolving 
parchment.  "But, he would trust his old friend Albus!  Dumbledore 
set him up!"

"Yes.  Then he Obliviated all memory of his presence from Moody's 
mind.  He's the one to explain it all, isn't he?  We only know what 
Dumbledore tells us."

"Back to Snape.  All roads in the Potterverse lead to Snape.  Why did 
he allow Snape to kill him?"

"Allow?  Hmph.  Snape was finally breaking through the Imperius he'd 
been under all those years.  That look of hatred and revulsion?  
Snape giving Dumble!Mort what he owes him for using him as a pawn."

"Methinks," Alla says, taking a sip of her now-cold tea and making a 
face, "that this theory is absolutely crazy."  She looks up at the 
sliver of moon shining just above the hills across the bay.  "If we 
built this into something, would it float?"

"I don't know.  We'd have to name it.  What about DIVEL?"

"DIVEL?"  Alla blinks.  "What is DIVEL?"

"'Devil' sideways.  It means, Dumbledore Is Voldemort's Extended 
Life."

Alla gets up and retrieves a hammer, some nails, and a stack of 
boards from the shack conveniently located near the table for 
theorists.  "If we are going to build this... whatever it is, we'd 
better get started."

And the revolving picture of Dumble!Mort smirks and puts away its 
wand.

Alladwen.