Warning! Spoilers ahead for Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore
The inevitable confrontation between Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald creates a riveting finale for Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, but what happened to the pair’s blood pact? As seen in the previous Fantastic Beasts entry, The Crimes of Grindelwald, it was revealed that Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) and Gellert Grindelwald (Mads Mikkelsen) formed a magical blood pact in their youth when they were still in love and united to their cause to bring about a magical revolution. Believing they were working towards the greater good, Dumbledore and Grindelwald parted ways following the death of Albus’ sister Ariana who was caught in the crossfire of a duel between Dumbledore, Grindelwald, and Albus’ brother Aberforth.
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore explores the wizarding pair’s bond in more depth as Grindelwald threatens both the wizarding and Muggle worlds. Yet despite both wizards positioning their respective allies for a final, climactic confrontation, Fantastic Beasts 3 hammers home the fact that Dumbledore and Grindelwald can not move against one another due to their pact. Likewise, The Secrets of Dumbledore also reveals that Grindelwald has long been in possession of their blood pact held within an unbreakable vial.
However, thanks to a rather resourceful and pick-pocketing niffler belonging to Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne), the beginning of The Secrets of Dumbledore finally sees the blood pact fall into Dumbledore’s hands. Ultimately, the powerful magic is destroyed by the film’s end, allowing Dumbledore and Grindelwald to engage in an epic confrontation worthy of their lost love and intense rivalry. Here’s how the unbreakable blood pact was finally broken in Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, as well as the part Ezra Miller’s Credence Barebone played in destroying it.
Why Saving Credence Breaks Dumbledore & Grindelwald’s Blood Pact
In Fantastic Beasts 3‘s final confrontation, it was proven that the Qilin Grindelwald used to publically prove his worthiness to the world was, in fact, deceased and bewitched to be his puppet, as confirmed by Credence Barebone (born Aurelius Dumbledore). The son of Aberforth, Credence defied Grindelwald in Fantastic Beasts 3, choosing instead to let go of the past and reunite with his father and uncle. However, once a pure and living Qilin was produced to name Vicência Santos as the wizarding world’s Supreme Mugwump, Grindelwald attempted to take revenge on Credence by firing a killing curse at the young man. However, the combination of Albus and Aberforth’s shield spells saved Credence and broke the blood pact in the process.
Following a duel between Dumbledore and Grindelwald in which Grindelwald escaped, Albus Dumbledore confirms his surprise and theory to Newt about why the blood pact was broken: “he sought to kill, I sought to protect. Our spells met. Let’s call it fate.” Just like the love which formed the blood pact in the first place, it seems as though fate is an equally powerful source of magic. Protecting Credence from Grindelwald also serves to redeem the Dumbledores for their past mistakes with Ariana, producing another potential reason why the blood pact broke.
The powerful bond being destroyed means Dumbledore can now go after Grindelwald in future films – assuming Warner Bros. decides to go through with their planned Fantastic Beasts pentalogy story. Regardless, there is no doubt that the yet-to-be-confirmed fifth and final film would depict Dumbledore’s legendary battle with Grindelwald in 1945, ending Gellert’s reign of terror and imprisoning him in his own stronghold of Nurmengard. At any rate, Fantastic Beasts: Secrets of Dumbledore successfully showed what happens to Dumbledore and Grindelwald’s blood pact, finally eliminating the chief obstacle that stood between the two mighty wizards from battling one another directly in previous Fantastic Beasts entries.
