10 Craziest Harry Potter Fan Theories

This particular fan theory centres around a story from The Tales of Beedle the Bard – basically the wizarding world’s book of fairy tales – and it’s apparent connections to characters and plots in the wider Harry Potter world.

In The Tale of Three Brothers, a trio of siblings meet Death personified and are each granted a wish. The eldest brother requests a powerful wand and is given the Elder Wand, the middle sibling asks for the power to resurrect the dead and is presented with the Resurrection Stone while the youngest sibling wants the ability to hide from Death, so is given the Invisibility Cloak.

Any diehard fan of Harry Potter can see there’s links here between the three brothers and power-hungry Voldemort, lovelorn Snape and the boy wizard himself respectively. In the story, the two older brothers die while the youngest lives ‘til a ripe old age, bequeaths his Invisibility Cloak to his and greets Death as ‘old friends’.

Who is Death, I hear you cry? Dumbledore of course! Not only is Dumbledore indirectly responsible for the demise of both Voldemort and Snape, he’s also the person that greets Harry after he ‘dies’ at the hands of Voldemort’s Killing Curse - just like Death in the story.

Far-fetched? Perhaps, but at least this theory comes with J.K. Rowling’s seal of approval. When asked what her favourite fan theory was, she tweeted “Dumbledore as death. It’s a beautiful theory and it fits.”