94 hp Diagon Alley

,” said Aberforth, “people were often hurt as he carried out his grand plans.Potter, get out of this school and, if possible, out of this country.Forget about my brother and his ingenious plans.He's gone to a place where none of this can hurt him, and you don't owe him anything. "

"You don't understand," said Harry again.

"Oh, do you?" whispered Aberforth. "You think I don't know my own brother? You think you know Albus better than I do?"

"That's not what I meant," said Harry, his head dull from exhaustion and overeating, "it was... he left me with a task."

"Oh, is it?" said Aberforth. "A nice job, isn't it? Pleasant? Simple and easy? Something a little wizard without seniority can do without trying?"

Ron sneered unnaturally.Hermione looked nervous.

"I - it's not easy, it's not easy," said Harry, "but I have to -"

"'Must do'? Why 'must do'?" said Aberforth roughly. "Don't think about it, boy, before you follow in his footsteps! Save your life!"

"I can not."

"why?"

"I—" Harry felt speechless, he couldn't explain it, so he turned from defense to offense, "but you're fighting too, you're in the Order of the Phoenix—"

"I never said I was," said Aberforth. "The Order of the Phoenix is ​​over, You-Know-Who has won, it's over, and those who pretend not to admit it are deluding themselves. You'll never be here, Potter. Safe, he's dying to get you. So go abroad, hide, save yourself. Better take those two, too," he said, nodding Ron and Hermione, "They're dangerous as long as they're alive, and now everyone knows they're working with you."

Gwen rolled her eyes, wondering what this strange old wizard was complaining about?Every member of the Order of the Phoenix had stepped into this bar, and the room on the second floor almost became the third headquarters.The roll of her eyes was noticed by Hermione, and the girl's shoulders relaxed quickly.Gwen dared to say that she might have pointed her wand at Aberforth just now.

"I can't leave," said Harry, "I have a mission—"

"Leave it to someone else!"

"No, it has to be me, Dumbledore explained very clearly—"

"Oh, did he? So, did he tell you everything, was he honest with you?"

Harry wanted so badly to say "yes," but somehow the simple word wouldn't come to his lips.Aberforth seemed to know what he was thinking.

"I know my brother, Potter. He learned secrecy at my mother's knee. Secrets and lies, that's how we were raised, and Albus... he was born with it."

The old man's eyes turned to the portrait of the girl on the mantelpiece.By now Harry had taken a good look around and knew that this was the only painting in the room.There is no Albus here.A picture of Dumbledore and others.

Regarding this sentence, Gwen didn't want to refute at all.Look at the secrets that Dumbledore kept, almost everyone thought he was dead.And until now, she couldn't tell everyone about his perfect performance with Snape.

"Mr. Dumbledore," said Hermione a little timidly, "is this your sister? Ariana?"

Oh no, Gwen shook her head, winking at Hermione - please don't talk to him about his little sister.

"Yes," said Aberforth stiffly, "read Rita Skeeter, did you, girl?"

Even under the red firelight, Hermione's face could be seen blushing.

"Ephias Doge mentioned her to us," said Harry, trying to relieve Hermione.

"That old fool," murmured Aberforth, taking another swig of mead, "he thinks my brother has sunlight shining from every pore, well, a lot of people think that, and it looks like the three of you do too. No exception."

Harry didn't speak.He didn't want to talk about the doubts and hesitations he'd had about Dumbledore that had haunted him for months.He had decided to continue down the dangerous, tortuous path that Albus Dumbledore had pointed out, and though Dumbledore hadn't told him everything he needed to know, he had no doubts.He didn't want to doubt anymore, he didn't want to hear anything that would distract him from his goal.Harry met Aberforth's gaze, which was uncannily similar to his brother's gaze: both were bright blue eyes, both seemed to see through the object being examined.Harry felt that Aberforth knew what he was thinking and looked down on him for it.

"Professor Dumbledore cares about Harry, very much," whispered Hermione.

"Oh, is it?" said Aberforth. "It's funny how many people my brother cared about ended up being miserable when he didn't care about them."

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked, breathlessly.

"None of your business," said Aberforth.

"But that's a really strong statement!" said Hermione. "Are you—are you talking about your sister?"

Gwen thought it was not a good idea to ask about the secrets of the Dumbledore family in such a tense atmosphere, so she stepped downstairs and brought them a few more bottles of warm butterbeer.

Aberforth glared at Hermione hard, his lips twitching as if chewing on something he was holding back.Then, suddenly, he opened up the chatterbox. "When my sister was six years old, she was attacked by three Muggle boys. They saw her doing magic through the hedge in the back garden. She was a child, and she couldn't get away with it, not even a wizard at that age. I guess, The boys were frightened by what they saw. They squeezed in through the hedge, and my sister couldn't tell them how the magic worked, so they lost control and tried to stop the little monster from doing magic again."

In the firelight, Hermione's eyes were wide open, and Ron looked a little uncomfortable.Aberforth rose to his feet, as tall as Albus, suddenly frightening with anger, with excruciating pain.

"What they did ruined her and she never came back to normal. She didn't want to use magic, but couldn't get rid of it. The magic went inside her and drove her crazy, and when she couldn't control it, The magic just works on her. She's weird and dangerous at times, but most of the time she's cute, timid and harmless."

"My father went to those bastards," said Aberforth, "and gave them a lesson and ended up in Azkaban. He never said why he did it, and if the Ministry of Magic knew Ariana's condition, she will be imprisoned for life in St. Mungo's Hospital. They will see her as a serious threat to the "International Statute of Secrecy" because of her insanity, and her inner magic when it is out of control. It will explode."

"We had to keep her safe and hide her. We moved, lied about her being sick and my mother took care of her and tried to keep her calm and happy."

"She likes me best," said Aberforth, speaking as if a scruffy boy was peering through Aberforth's wrinkled face and tangled beard, "not Albus .Albus was upstairs in his bedroom when he was at home, reading his books, counting his awards, and corresponding with 'the most famous wizard of the time'," Aberforth sneered, "Albus She doesn't want to worry about her at all. She likes me the most. When my mother can't make her eat, I can coax her to eat; when she has a temper, I can calm her down; when she is quiet, I often help me feed the sheep .”

"Then she was 14 years old ... well, I wasn't there," Aberforth said. "If I had been there, it would have calmed her down. She was having temper tantrums again, and my mother wasn't as young as she used to be, and as a result ...it was an accident, Ariana couldn't help herself, my mother was killed."

Harry felt a surge of sympathy and resistance, and he didn't want to hear any more.But Aberforth went on, and Harry wondered if the old man hadn't said anything about it in ages, maybe he'd never told anyone.

"Thus, Albus' plans to travel the world with young Dorje were dashed. The two of them came back for my mother's funeral, and then Dorje set off on his own, leaving Albus to stay as the head of the family. Bah!"

Aberforth spat into the fire. "I told him I would take care of my sister, I don't care about school, I can stay home and study by myself. But he said I have to finish my studies and he will take over from my mother. It's a bit of a disappointment for Mr. Elite. Take care A half-crazed sister who stopped her from blowing up the house every other day and no one gave him a prize. But he did a good job the first few weeks...then the guy came."

At this time, Aberforth showed a very dangerous expression on his face.

"Grindelwald. Finally, my brother has someone to talk to, someone as smart and talented as he is. Taking care of Ariana is secondary, and they spend all day trying to build new wizards Projects of order, finding the Hallows, doing all the things they're deeply interested in. What does it matter if a little girl is neglected for the grand scheme of things, for the good of the wizarding world at large? Albus is working for a greater good !"

"After a few weeks, I had had enough, had enough. I was about to go back to Hogwarts by then, so I told them, told them both, face to face, as I am to you now," Aberforth looked down ha