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Warning: The Jelena Jensen Archivesfollow post contains major spoilers for Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. You have been warned.

If you found yourself leaving the theater after Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwaldfeeling exceeding emotionally confused, you're not alone.

This movie was so much movie. It was so many characters and disparate plot lines, almost none of which pay off – and then there's the Credence story.

He's who?? This means what??? These are valid questions, and we're here to help you work through them.

SEE ALSO: 'Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald' is all out of magic

So here we are, post-Crimes of Grindelwald, two movies into the Fantastic Beastsfranchise – two movies of wondering who exactly tf Credence Barebone is and why we're supposed to care about him (beyond valiant and not-fruitless efforts of Ezra Miller).

The answer is that he isn't Credence Barebone at all. In the final scene, Grindelwald tells Credence who he really is, and speaks the name he never knew: Aurelius Dumbledore. You know, that crucial fourth Dumbledore sibling that you never knew existed.

This makes little to no sense and raises roughly 700 questions for which I'm sure J.K. Rowling will have retconned answers ready to fire off on Twitter next week. But for now: Let's figure out just how the heck this would be possible.

Here are the facts, and by facts I mean cold hard Harry Potter book canon that I can pluck off a shelf and point out physically on a page: Kendra and Percival Dumbledore had three children: Albus, Aberforth, and Ariana. The latter was killed in a duel between her brothers and Gellert Grindelwald. Dumbledore's age is never explicitly stated in the books.

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Now, let's broaden our canon. Pottermore states that Dumbledore was born in 1881, putting Aberforth and Ariana born at around 1884 and 1885, respectively. It's safe to assume that Credence/Aurelius is in his 20s and therefore born around 1900, give or take a few years, before we catch up with him in the 1927 of Fantastic Beasts.

There are some fun, twisted possibilities when you consider Aurelius as Albus or Aberforth's possible offspring, but Grindelwald tells him, "Your brother seeks to destroy you" right before the big name reveal. All signs point to that brother being Dumbledore himself, though it would not be unfathomable at this point for the next Fantastic Beastsmovie to introduce yet anotherDumbledore who has been hunting Credence this whole time unbeknownst to everyone except Grindelwald. That's just where we're at now!

Baby Aurelius was on the same ship (not the Titanic, sadly) as Leta Lestrange and caretaker Irma Dugard, who later signed the adoption papers that made him Credence Barebone. On the same ship, young Leta swapped the babies, leading to the death of Corvus Lestrange.

If Aurelius is the youngest Dumbledore sibling, that still complicates matters significantly. Percival Dumbledore, you'll recall, went to Azkaban for attacking a group of Muggle boys in the village who had assaulted Ariana. This would've been around 1890, and Dumbledore explicitly states in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallowsthat Percival died in Azkaban.

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And now my friends, as the eldest Dumbledore sibling once said: "We shall be leaving the firm foundation of fact and journeying together...into thickets of wildest guesswork."

For Aurelius to be Percival's son, 1) he'd have to have escaped Azkaban, which no one is ever supposed to have done before Sirius Black, so 2) an escape would mean a massive cover up, and either 3) Dumbledore was in on the conspiracy, adding to the pile of lies in his life, or 4) Dumbledore never found out and actually has no clue Aurelius exists. I'm so tired!

There's no evidence to suggest that Percival Dumbledore was a malicious man or a blood purist (HP Wikia says Kendra was Muggle-born). Part of why he went to Azkaban in the first place was because he would not admit to a motive for attacking the Muggles, lest the Ministry took the unstable Ariana away from her family. This doesn't sound like a man who'd break out of prison, or at least not do so and then fail to contact his only living family.

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Honestly, the big Crimes of Grindelwaldreveal may actually mean nothing. Fantastic Beastsas a franchise has started playing fast and loose with math and canon, including undoing events of the first film in this one (Credence was dead! Jacob was Obliviated!). Aurelius Dumbledore's backstory will be whatever best suits the plot of Fantastic Beasts 3, and Fantastic Beasts 4, and Fantastic Beasts 5. We might not be ready for this journey.

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwaldis now in theaters.

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Topics Harry Potter