Five = V = Vindication

[tealin]

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Pg 359 [US edition]:

"Neither Dumbledore nor Grindelwald ever seems to have referred to this brief boyhood friendship in later life. However, there can be no doubt that Dumbledore delayed, for some five years of turmoil, fatalaties, and disappearances, his attack upon Gellert Grindelwald."

So, was it five years after their parting, or five years after Grindelwald started his public campaign of magical domination? How long would G. have sat in the shadows before he set out? Is this even an issue?

Anyway, that's where I got 'five years' from, which sets Ariana's death at 1940 (assuming G went right from this episode to his campaign), and if Albus was 17 at the time, he'd have been born in 1923, which would make him 73 at the time of his death, not 150, unless he did a lot of time travelling in his day (possible) and counted his years according to his personal timeline.

Comments

[roga.livejournal.com]

I actually took it to mean the latter - that is, Grindlewald openly started the wizarding equivalent of WWII at 1939 or 1940, and after five years of "turmoil, fatalaties, and disappearances", he finally dueled against him in 1945. He could have been ignoring Grindlewald's dark activities for decades before that. I don't think it makes sense for both Dumbledore and Grindlewald to be barely in their 20's and so powerful in 1945.

[peppery-lime.livejournal.com]

I *think* it means five years of a public campaign. knowing that wizards live longer, plus the stated age of dumbledore, my assumption is that Grindlewald did *not* go straight into his campaign, he spent years refining it. He knew that Dumbledore would go against him, so he wanted to have the best chance possible. Plus, I think that he was still looking for the deathly hallows. ~shrug~ just my two cents. :)

[jolly-kraken.livejournal.com]

I agree with roga and peppery_lime... I don't think Dumbles/Grindy could have been born around '23 even more so because that makes Dumbles only 3 years older than Voldemort (born 12/31/26), and he was already teacher at Hogwarts when Voldy was just 11, so I don't think they would've had a 14-year-old professor. XD Not that I think 150 is really all that reasonable, either, but he must have been at least a bit over 100 when he died. :/

[anathelen.livejournal.com]

What you said! Thanks for pointing out that Dumbledore being born in '23 would make him only a few years older than Voldemort.

Somewhere in the descriptions of what Dumbledore was wearing as a boy in either a photograph or flashback a lace collar was mentioned, and while wizard clothing seems to lag behind Muggle clothing, the description really made me feel like Dumbledore grew up in the 19th century.

[jolly-kraken.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the clothes Ariana was described in sounded like they were from Little House on the Prairie. XD

Also, now that I'm thinking about it, Voldemort had to have been in his mid-forties to mid-fifties when he started really going public, since he was busy with the whole "gaining immortality and more peons" thing before that. (This is based on his "rise to power" happening sometime in the 1970's. I don't recall anyone specifically saying what year it was (or guessing, for that matter).) Grindelwald could have acted similarly, except he was involved with the Deathly Hallows instead of Horcruxes and such. :3

[meganphntmgrl.livejournal.com]

What I want to know now is how come JKR said that McGonagall was too old to become headmistress when she's only in her seventies. Clearly she's got a long life ahead of her.

[rogzilla.livejournal.com]

I got the impression that it was the latter as well. I think they parted ways and Dumbledore began teaching at Hogwarts while Grindelwald pursued the Deathly Hallows and gathered supporters. I do not think he would have begun his campaign until he had the Elder Wand and I suspect he waited longer still to attempt to gather the Cloak and Stone. Eventually, growing weary of the search and feeling that he will be powerful enough with the Wand, he declares himself and begins open aggression with the Wizarding World. Just my thoughts...

[zfiledh.livejournal.com]

Some good points were made in the previous comments. Like Voldie-mort (hee), Grindelwald apparently took some time off to "refine" his Dark Arts. Arianna's death happened LONG before the duel.

[frabjous-mimes.livejournal.com]

I agree with the above. Also, it could mean five years of delay after people started asking him to duel Grindy, which could mean it was even longer after Grindy started his campaign of terror.

[atreic.livejournal.com]

Yes, I agree - it's 5 years because of the World War II parallel, so it's just the Bad Stuff of Grindelwald taking over that Dumbledore ignores for 5 years - the total gap between the row and the duel is much longer.

[infiniteviking]

??? Huh, that is weird!