Why not just use get_pages()
?
e.g.
<?php
// Determine parent page ID
$parent_page_id = ( '0' != $post->post_parent ? $post->post_parent : $post->ID );
// Get child pages as array
$page_tree_array = get_pages( array(
'child_of' => $parent_page_id;
) );
?>
But if it really must be as a WP_Query()
object, use a similar method:
<?php
// Determine parent page ID
$parent_page_id = ( '0' != $post->post_parent ? $post->post_parent : $post->ID );
// Build WP_Query() argument array
$page_tree_query_args = array(
'post_parent' => $parent_page_id;
);
// Get child pages as a WP_Query() object
$page_tree_query = new WP_Query( $page_tree_query_args );
?>