Blood pact between Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald

Blood pact between Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald
Event information
Location	Barn
Date(s)	1899
Participant(s)	Albus Dumbledore (formerly) Gellert Grindelwald (formerly)
Description	Creation of Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald's blood pact

"Love, arrogance, naivety, pick your poison."

— Albus Dumbledore on why the pact was made

This blood pact was created in 1899 by Gellert Grindelwald and Albus Dumbledore when they were young wizards.

History

Creation of the blood pact

Sometime in mid-1899, Gellert Grindelwald and Albus Dumbledore went to a barn one day. They faced each other and layed their hands out, facing each other and with their wands they scored their palms, breathing heavily with pain they interlaced their hands together. They lifted their hands into the air and two drops of blood, mingle and merged together to create a blood pact, medal then formed around the drop of blood, and created a beautiful vial that contained their blood pact which secured their bond and promising to never fight each other.

Aftermath

Albus looking into the Mirror of Erised

Sometime in 1927, Albus Dumbledore went to the Room of Requirement during the night time, where the Mirror of Erised was placed at the time. Albus, sensitive and scared, saw this memory and carefully watched as they created it, trying not to impulse and cover the mirror.

Newt giving Dumbledore the blood pact pendant at Hogwarts

Soon after, Teddy secretly stole the vial from Gellert Grindelwald during his rally and Newt gave it to Albus Dumbledore planning to destroy it, which would allow him to finally participate in the war and defeat the Dark Wizard once and for all.

Dumbledore showing Theseus alongside Newt the blood pact

In 1932, Newt and Theseus Scamander met with Albus Dumbledore at Hog's Head Inn and he showed them the blood pact. Soon after, while Albus was alone, he looked at the blood pact, scared while it was blood red, with scars on his arm while it was wrapped around his hand.

Blood pact destroyed after duel between Dumbledore and Grindelwald

At the walk of the Qilin, Grindelwald tried to kill Credence Barebone causing Dumbledore and his brother Aberforth to protect him from the Killing Curse. The blood pact fell to the ground and shattered. Dumbledore wasn't sure why it broke, telling Newt that "he sought to kill, I sought to protect. Our spells met. Let's call it fate." With the blood pact finally broken, he and Grindelwald instantly began duelling to a stalemate.

With the terms of the pact broken, Dumbledore was finally able to defeat Grindelwald many years later in 1945.

Behind the scenes

• The timing of Gellert Grindelwald and Albus Dumbledore's pact is unknown and, if made in advance, whether it should have prevented the three-way duel between Gellert, Albus, and Aberforth that resulted in the death of Ariana Dumbledore.
  • It is currently unknown, but possible that Ariana's death was a consequence of Albus breaking the blood pact by trying to defend Aberforth from Gellert.
  • It was when Albus and Aberforth acted together to shield Credence Barebone, Aberforth's son, that the pact was broken.
• It is unknown why the blood pact only tried to strangle Dumbledore in 1932, and not the years before, starting from when it was given to him by Newt, as he had always been trying to destroy it and giving advice to others about the best way to fight Grindelwald. This essentially meant that he was moving against Grindelwald, but the blood pact did nothing.

Appearances

• Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald - The Original Screenplay (First appearance)
• Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
• Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore - The Complete Screenplay (Mentioned only)
• Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (Mentioned only)
• Harry Potter: Magic Awakened (Appears in the spell book)