OoP: Chapter Sixteen (Minor Spoiler)

[chicken at efn.org]

No: HPFGUIDX 62743

First-time poster here, a lurker who got overwhelmed and unsubscribed, but
*had* to get back on this list as I started to reread OoP.

Anyway, I think I might have just caught one of JKR's little clues here, but
I'd like to know what people think.

I was just reading through the book for the second time, and I'm in Chapter
16 ("In the Hog's Head"). Two things caught my eye. First, the Hog's Head
bar is described as "one small, dingy, and very dirty room that smelled
strongly of something that might have been goats" (OoP US p335). Secondly,
we meet the bartender: "He was a grumpy-looking old man with a great deal of
long gray hair and beard. He was tall and thin and looked vaguely familiar
to Harry" (OoP US p336).

I think that the bartender at the Hog's Head is none other than Albus
Dumbledore's brother, Aberforth.

Why, you ask?

a) In one of the books (I can't recall which), Dumbledore mentions his
brother Aberforth in reference to something involving a goat -- and the
Hog's Head smells like goats!

b) The bartender's physical description is very similar to that of
Dumbledore's: a tall, thin old wizard with long hair and beard.

c) The bartender looked "vaguely familiar" to Harry, and in Chapter 9,
Mad-Eye Moody shows Harry a picture of the original Order of the Phoenix.
One of the people in this photograph is Aberforth, hence
Aberforth-the-Hog's-Head-Bartender looks vaguely familar to Harry, because
he saw him in an old photograph earlier that summer!

So, I am completely convinced that this grizzled old bartender is Aberforth
Dumbledore. It just seems so much like the kind of clues JKR would give us.

Anyone agree? Anyone think I'm nuts for obsessing over a bartender? And what
*is* Aberforth (if it's him) doing at the Hog's Head anyway? Might he still
be in the Order?

Thanks for your consideration of my wild ideas,
Laura B.