OoP: Chapter Sixteen (Minor Spoiler)

[jksunflower2002]

No: HPFGUIDX 62798

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, chicken at e... wrote:
.
> 
> 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.


Wow!!!  I think you've nailed it!  I would love to see Dumbledore's 
brother emerge as a regular character.  Perhaps get more of a 
glimpse into Dumbledore's past.

As Ms. Rowling would say, well spotted!

Toad