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In the Harry Potter series, it's never clear what happens to the Dumbledore family lineage. There is no mention in The Cursed Child either.

I know that Professor Dumbledore most likely never married or had kids because there is no mention, but what about his brother, Aberforth Dumbledore? Does he marry or have any kids? Or did the Dumbledore family die off like other ancient wizarding families?

I would like a solid canon answer please

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    What makes you think that the two Dumbledore brothers you mention were the only Dumbledores living at the time? Why couldn't they have some more or less distant Dumbledore cousins who they would hardly ever mention and thus aren't mentioned in the books? In Star Trek: Generations Captain Picard believes he is the last Picard and his family will die with him, despite it having lasted for many centuries meaning that he could have many distanct Picard cousins. You & the Star Trek: Generations writers seem to believe in: tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SingleLineOfDescent Dec 20, 2022 at 5:48
  • i.stack.imgur.com/wF1UC.png - It looks like they're all dead, but it's very hard to tell with families. This may not be the entire tree, just a branch
    – Valorum
    Dec 20, 2022 at 7:31
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    @M.A.Golding that trope is about genetic descent. The question is about people with the same family name. It's much easier to be the last Picard or the last Dumbledore, than to be the last person descended from a Picard or a Dumbledore.
    – OrangeDog
    Dec 20, 2022 at 9:26
  • @Silvermidnight, you are asking for a 'solid canon answer', but what do you consider canon - something from the book or anything that JK Rowling has approved because my answer addresses the latter
    – shanu
    Jan 24 at 4:46
  • @shanu Anything JK Rowling has approved. I did not accept your answer because of the "at least one other". Could you clarify who you mean, please? Jan 25 at 0:02

2 Answers 2

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+50

You have asked for quotes from the book which have never actually addressed it, but in the film Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (written by J.K Rowling) it's confirmed that Credence Barebone is actually Aurelius Dumbledore.

In around 1901, Aberforth had a son, Aurelius Dumbledore with a girl that he fell in love with in Godric's Hollow. However, the girl was "sent away," presumably by her parents, either before or after Credence's birth, although Albus was aware of rumours that there was a child. Due to the strained relationship between the Dumbledore brothers, Aberforth neither confided in nor sought Albus' help. Aurelius was eventually sent away to America with an aunt, where he was adopted by Mary Lou Barebone and given a new name, Credence Barebone.

In 1932, Credence attacked Albus and accused him of abandoning him, revealing to Albus that he was supposedly a member of the Dumbledore family. During a duel between the two, Credence's phoenix spread ashes on his body and Albus realised that Credence really was a Dumbledore and that he was actually Aberforth's long-lost son. However, by this point, Credence was dying due to his nature as an Obscurial slowly poisoning him, something that Albus sadly recognised from his experiences with Ariana. After foiling Grindelwald's plans at the walk of the Qilin, Credence, in poor health, accepted his father's offer to come home with him.

Dumbledore Family Tree

So no, Albus and Aberforth were not the last Dumbledores. There was at least one other.

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    Do we have any confirmation that Credence survived longer than Albus and Aberforth? He had an extremely damaging health condition and it was highly surprising that he had lived even into his teens
    – Valorum
    Jan 7 at 6:48
  • @Valorum, J.K Rowling did say there would be 5 FB movies, so maybe in the future we'll know
    – shanu
    Jan 7 at 6:59
  • There's not going to be another FB movie. The last couple tanked and the new studio head is asking all kinds of awkward questions like "why are we pouring money into this crap when we own the franchise to Harry Potter?"
    – Valorum
    Jan 7 at 7:01
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In the books, it’s easiest to infer that the Dumbledore line ended with Albus and Aberforth.

I think it is also difficult to say that the Dumbledores were an ancient wizarding family. After all, Percival married a Muggle-born so he can’t have been very pureblood leaning. If the extended Dumbledore family was, it is most likely they became extinct in the male line other than Percival.

Book 7, which is heavy on Dumbledore lore, speaks as if Albus’s nuclear family was the only Dumbledore family. We pretty much know Albus didn’t have kids so that’s the end of that line. As for Aberforth, I don’t think he’s the type to go around getting girls pregnant. Especially since it’s implied in the books he was a goatfu- uh, he preferred to devote his life on research and experiment on goats. I think from his lifestyle, he was probably asexual but that’s just me assuming.

In the FB movies, Aberforth has a kid so I guess that’s not the end of the line. I don’t know if Credence dies tho cuz I deleted those movies from my head. Nothing in those movies counts as canon information, even if Jo wrote it. Seeing as she changed McGonagall’s age by thirty to fifty years.

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  • Could you perhaps edit the quotes into your answer? Jan 7 at 3:30

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