94 Diagon Alley

," Aberforth said, "As he pursued his grand plan, people were often hurt. Potter, get out of this school, if possible, out of this country. Forget about my brother and his ingenious plans. He went to a place where none of this hurt him and you don't owe him anything. "

"You don't understand," Harry added.

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

"I didn't mean that," Harry said, his head sluggish from exhaustion and gluttony. "Yes...he left me with a task."

"Oh, is it?" said Aberforth. "A beautiful errand, isn't it? Delightful? Simple and easy? An underqualified little wizard can do it without any difficulty. thing?"

Ron sneered unnaturally. Hermione looked nervous.

“I—it wasn’t easy, it wasn’t easy,” said Harry, “but I had to—”

"'Must do'? Why 'Must do'?" said Aberforth brusquely, "Don't think about it, boy, lest you follow in his footsteps! Keep you life!"

"I can't."

"Why?"

"I-" Harry felt speechless, he couldn't explain, so he turned from defense to attack, "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, the tide is over, and those who pretend not to admit it are deceiving themselves. Potter , you'll never be safe here, he's desperate to catch you. So go abroad, hide, save your life. Better take these two with you," he said with Thumbs up for Ron and Hermione. "They're in danger as long as they're alive, and now everyone knows they're doing things with you."

Gwen rolled his eyes, wondering what this strange old wizard was complaining about? Every member of the Order of the Phoenix has stepped into this bar, and the room on the second floor is almost like a third headquarters. Her white eyes were 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 well—"

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

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

"I know my brother, Potter. He learned secrecy in my mother's lap. Secrets and lies, that's how we grew up, and Albus...he was born that way. "

The old man's eyes turned to the portrait of the **** the mantelpiece. Harry had looked around now and knew that this was the only painting in the room. No Albus here. A picture of Dumbledore and others.

Gwen had no intention of refuting this statement. Just look at the secrets Dumbledore kept, almost everyone thought he was dead. And until now, she couldn't tell everyone about his perfect performance with Snape.

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

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

"Yes," said Aberforth stiffly, "read Rita Skeeter, didn't you, little girl?"

Hermione was blushing even under the red firelight.

"Ephias Dorgi mentioned her to us," said Harry, trying to save Hermione.

"That old fool," whispered Aberforth, taking another gulp of mead, "he thinks my brother radiates sunlight from every pore, well, a lot of people think so , It seems that the three of you are no exception."

Harry did not speak. He did not want to express the doubts and hesitations about Dumbledore that had been haunting him for months. He had decided to follow the dangerous, tortuous path pointed out by Albus Dumbledore, and although Dumbledore hadn't told him everything he needed to know, he could only believe it. He didn't want to doubt anymore, he didn't want to hear anything that would take him off target. Harry met Aberforth's gaze, which was strikingly similar to his brother's: both bright blue eyes that seemed to see through the subject being examined. Harry felt that Aberforth knew what he was thinking and looked down on him because of it.

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

"Oh, is it?" Aberforth said, "It's ridiculous, how many people my brother cared so much about ended up tragically, it's better that he didn't care about them in the first place."

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked, holding her breath.

"None of your business," said Aberforth.

"But that's a serious word!" said Hermione. "You—are you talking about your sister?"

Gwen didn't think it was a good idea to ask the Dumbledore family secrets in such a tense atmosphere, and he rushed downstairs to get them a few more warm butterbeers.

Aberforth glared at Hermione sternly, lips twitching, as if chewing on what he had held back. Then, he suddenly opened the chatterbox. "My sister was attacked by three Muggle boys when she was six years old. They saw her doing magic through the hedge in the back garden. She was a child and couldn't handle it, not even a wizard of that age. I guess, The boys were terrified by what they were seeing. They squeezed in through the hedge and my sister couldn't tell them how the magic changed, so they lost control and tried to stop the little monster from turning magic again."

In the firelight, Hermione's eyes were wide open, and Ron looked a little uncomfortable. Aberforth stood up, as tall as Albus, suddenly terrifying out of anger, out of intense pain.

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

"My father went to the **** to settle accounts," Aberforth said, "teach them a lesson, and ended up in Azkaban. He never said why he Well then, if the Ministry of Magic learns of 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 she is insane and unable to When she takes control, the magic within her will explode."

"We had to keep her safe and hide her. We moved, falsely claiming she was ill, and my mother took care of her, trying to keep her calm and happy."

"She likes me the most," Aberforth said, as if a scruffy boy was looking out through Aberforth's wrinkled face and tangled beard Peeping, "Not Albus. Albus always stays upstairs in his bedroom when he's at home, reading his books, counting his awards, and communicating with 'the most famous wizard of the time,'" Aberforth "Albus doesn't want to worry about her at all. She likes me the most. I can coax her to eat when my mother can't get her to eat; I can calm her down when she's in a tantrum; she's quiet. She often helps me feed the sheep together."

"Then, she was fourteen... well, I wasn't there," said Aberforth, "if I was there, it would have calmed her down. She had another flare-up, my mother Not as young as she used to be, and as a result... it was an accident, Ariana couldn't control herself, and my mother was killed."

Harry felt a strong sense of sympathy and resistance, and he didn't want to hear any more. But Aberforth went on, and Harry thought to himself that the old man hadn't said it for some time, maybe he'd never told anyone.

"In this way, Albus' plans to travel the world with little Dorjee were dashed. The two of them came back for my mother's funeral, and then Dorjee set off alone, with Albus staying as the head of the family Down. Bah!"

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

At this time, Aberforth had a very dangerous look on his face.

"Grindelwald. Finally, my brother had a conversational opponent, someone as smart and talented as him. Taking care of Ariana came second, they Plans for a new wizarding order have been brewing all day long, looking for the Holy Artifact, doing all the things they are very interested in. What does it matter if a little girl is ignored for the sake of the grand scheme, for the good of the entire wizarding world? Albus Working for the greater good!"

"After a few weeks, I was fed up, I was fed up. I was going back to Hogwarts by then, so I told them, told them both, face to face, like I'm doing the same to you now," Aberforth looked down.