Shocking Harry Potter Theory Reveals Credence Is Related To Voldemort

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WARNING! Contains SPOILERS for Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore.

 

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore finally revealed Credence (Ezra Miller) as Aberforth Dumbledore's (Richard Coyle) long-lost son, but his mother can very well be a Gaunt, making Credence related to Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes). Fantastic Beasts connects to the Harry Potter series through several related characters, such as Leta (Zoë Kravitz) and Bellatrix Lestrange (Helena Bonham Carter), or Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) and Luna Lovegood (Evanna Lynch). But the Wizarding World has such complex lore that the 11 movies that have so far been released haven't covered the full extent of its most important families.

The Harry Potter series introduces the Gaunt family through Tom Marvolo Riddle's mother, Merope Gaunt. But the Harry Potter movies only brush off the topic that J.K. Rowling's books explore in detail. The Gaunt family was one of the "Sacred 28" - the only British wizard families that have stayed "truly pure-blood" for centuries (amongst the most famous ones, Lestrange, Weasley, Crouch, and Ollivander). The Gaunts valued their pure blood (often resorting to inbreeding) as much as they did their heritage: they descended from Cadmus Peverell (one of the three brothers in The Deathly Hallows legend) and Salazar Slytherin, making them Parselmouths. But Merope Gaunt betrayed the family's pure-blood obsession when she married Tom Riddle Sr., a Muggle.

 

While the Harry Potter movies didn't spend a lot of time exploring the intricate history of the Gaunt family, the Fantastic Beasts franchise just might. Fantastic Beasts 3 finally shed light on the mystery of Credence's identity, as Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) explains to Newt: in 1899, during the same summer that Albus fell in love with Grindelwald, Aberforth also fell in love with a woman from Godric's Hollow. They had a baby boy together, but the woman was sent away and Aberforth never got to be a father. Aberforth eventually reunites with Aurelius, but his mother's identity remains unexplored. Here are all the clues that Credence/Aurelius' mother is indeed a Gaunt, making Credence related to Voldemort.

The Names 'Gaunt' And 'Barebone' Mean The Same Thing

 

J.K. Rowling rarely chooses a random or meaningless name for her characters ("mal foy" means "bad faith" in French, and Remus is one of the two twins who was raised by a wolf in Roman mythology). Credence was given to an orphanage as a baby (just like Voldemort) and, under Mary Lou's care, he received the last name Barebone. The definition for the word "barebone" is a very thin person whose bones show through their skin, but the definition for "gaunt" is not that far off: "lean and haggard, especially because of suffering, hunger, or age." Needless to say, Credence fits this description: he is underweight because he is suffering, be it from his adoptive mother's abuse or from his futile attempts at learning about his family. Fantastic Beasts 3 has Credence find his father at last, but it's a moment too late: he is very weak, dying from his Obscurus curse. His constant weak, suffering state can be a hint that Credence is indeed half Gaunt.

Aberforth Having A Child With A Gaunt Could Never Have A Happy Ending

 

The Gaunts are one of the 28 pure-blood families in the UK, and they have been famously obsessed with keeping their family this way, according to Pottermore: "They had a tendency of marrying their cousins to keep their blood pure." It's thus likely Marvolo Gaunt (Voldemort's grandfather) had several cousins, one of which could have been a girl who lived in Godric's Hollow at the turn of the 20th century. But when the Gaunt family learned about her pregnancy with Aberforth (a half-blood), it's likely they made her leave the Hollow and abandon him, explaining Dumbledore's line about her being sent away. When Marvolo Gaunt found out Voldemort's mother had married Riddle, he lost his will to live; it's likely Marvolo's uncle or aunt reacted just as exaggeratedly towards Credence's mother. However, they might have let her keep the baby, as a combination of Gaunt and Dumbledore meant it would be a very powerful wizard. But it's just as likely that she had to run away, explaining the events in Fantastic Beasts 2.

Harry Potter Canon Confirms There Are Gaunts In America

 

 

The Gaunt family tree goes back to the 1600s when Gormlaith Gaunt burned her sister Rionach and her Muggle husband William Sayre alive in their cottage for betraying the pure-blood legacy. She then kept their child (and her niece) Isolt Sayre prisoner for 12 years, before Isolt fled to America, married a Muggle, and founded Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She named the school after her family cottage and created a safe space for half-blood and Muggle-born wizards. Skipping four centuries into the future, Credence's mother could have run off to America with her baby, seeking comfort from that side of her family. Of course, she would have lost her life on the sinking ship, but Credence made it to the New World and potentially had a lot more family to discover (if the Obscurus hadn't taken his life first).

 

Credence Has A Strong Bond With Nagini (Like Voldemort)

 

 

During Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, while he is searching for his identity, Credence forms a close friendship with Nagini (Claudia Kim). While this is before she assumes the permanent snake form (and role of Voldemort's most trusted pet and Horcrux), it can be argued that Credence being a Gaunt, and therefore a Parselmouth, drew Nagini closer to him. The Gaunts prided themselves on being descendants of Salazar Slytherin and did everything - including inbreeding - to make sure they retained this rare ability. Nagini is a Maledictus - this means she was born with this curse and has always been part-snake. When she becomes full-snake, it's her bitter, lost state of mind that leads Voldemort to manipulate her into doing his bidding. If Nagini was receptive to Parseltongue in the 1990s, it's likely she was in the 1930s, too - or at least to an unaware Parselmouth.

Credence Being A Gaunt Fits Fantastic Beasts' Prophecy

 

Gathering all previous clues, putting Credence back at the center of Tycho Dodonus' Prophecy 20 seems to make sense. "A son cruelly banished" refers to Credence being sent away from Aberforth and the Hollow by the Gaunt family, cruel and obsessed with keeping their family's blood pure. "Despair of the daughter," in this interpretation, is Credence's mother despairing over losing Aberforth and potentially having to run away from her family. It might also be her despair as the ship sinks and she realizes she will lose her life and child. "Return, great avenger" is Credence's attempt to get his revenge on Dumbledore, believing Grindelwald's (Mads Mikkelsen) story that he was betrayed by his family. Finally, he returns to the Dumbledores and gets his revenge on Grindelwald for all his lies and manipulation. The last verse, "With wings from the water," is a clear allusion to Credence surviving the sinking ship.

 

The Gaunt family's pure-blood obsession eventually led to their downfall, as generations of inbreeding made them ever more violent and mentally unstable (Harry Potter's Voldemort being a tragic example). By the 1920s, when Tom Riddle was born, the Gaunts had lost most of their prized heirlooms and were living in a run-down shack, finally earning the name J.K. Rowling chose for them. Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore revealed half of Credence's family, but the Wizarding World is bound to explain the other half as well. Given the numerous connections that Fantastic Beasts has to Harry Potter, it's not much of a reach to guess that Voldemort is connected to Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore via Credence.

 

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