IMO Aberforth has Grimauld locket not Mundungus, anyone agree?

[saraquel_omphale]

No: HPFGUIDX 135132

I've seen speculation that Mung and Snape/Draco had the Grimauld 
Place locket.  Imo Aberforth has it.  In UK ed ch12 p230 when Harry 
et al come across Mung outside the Three Broomsticks, it says there 
were two people,"one was very tall and thin; squinting through his 
rain-washed glasses Harry recognised the barman who worked in the 
other Hogsmeade pub, the Hog's Head.  As Harry , Ron and Hermione 
drew closer, the barman drew his cloak more tightly around his neck 
and walked away, leaving the shorter man to fumble with something in 
his arms."

Although there is no cannon to directly support that Aberforth is 
the barman at the Hog's Head, there are pointers.  DD tells Harry at 
one point, the famous and perhaps for me one of the funniest lines 
in the whole series, that Aberforth was caught 
performing "Innappropriate charms on a goat." In OotP, Harry sees 
Aberforth in the picture which Mad Eye Moody shows him of the Order. 
ch9 p158 "That's Dumbledore's brother Aberforth, only time I ever 
met him, strange bloke ..."

Later, in OotP, when Harry goes into the Hog's Head for the first 
time, ch16 p299 "The Hog's Head bar comprised one small, dingy and 
very dirty room that smelled strongly of something that might have 
been goats." and on p300, "The barman sidled towards them out of a 
back room ..... He was tall and thin and looked vaguely familiar to 
Harry."

Somewhere in the back interviews given by JKR after OotP  came out, 
someone asks her whether the barman is Aberforth, and as far as I 
can remember she admits it is and says she was rather proud of the 
smelling of goats clue.  Sorry, can't remember which interview that 
was, but it will be on Mugglenet somewhere. I therefore think that 
Aberforth and the barman at the Hog's Head are one and the same.

So what was Mundungus doing with Aberforth outside the Three 
Broomsticks? A few thousand posts ago in the youthful specualtion 
immediately after HBP came out, I did post a somewhat outlandish 
theory that DD and Harry recovered the real Horcrux!Locket from the 
cave, but Aberforth planted the Fake!Locket beside Dumbledore's body 
for Harry to find. (I'm rather fond of this theory in a  - yes, well 
Saraquel, you've had your fun, now back to the real world - sort of 
way.)  Because is would mean that the Horcrux!locket is still in 
Draught-of-living-death-potioned!Dumbledore's pocket inside his 
tomb.  So that even if Harry defeats LV, a little piece of evil 
still lurks in sleeping-beauty!Dumbledore's pocket and whatever was 
left of LV would have to come and fight him for it. 

OK, so now back to the real world.  My questions now centre around 
ESE!Aberforth or ESG!Aberforth, because Harry needs to get the 
locket.  Is Aberforth a spy for Voldemort or is he on the side of 
the Order?  Isn't there another unidentified Voldemort spy suspected 
by someone in the Order?  I can't remember where I've read that, but 
it is a piece of information lurking in my head.  If anyone else can 
confirm or deny that one in cannon, I'd be grateful.  

If he is a DE, does he know the significance of the locket, and did 
he retrieve it on LVs orders? I doubt this as Snape says in HBP Ch2 
p35, "I am not the Secret Keeper. I cannot speak the name of the 
place."  So I presume from that, that LV does not know that the HQ 
of the Order is Regulus Black's home.  So, even if LV knows that 
Regulus (and I do think that RAB probably is Regulus) did steal his 
Horcrux!Locket, he still doesn't know that it lay in the HQ of the 
Order and therefore wouldn't know that it could be in the possession 
of someone in the Order.  So he wouldn't be suggesting to spy!
Aberforth that he try and find/procure it.
  
Neither do I think Aberforth got the locket on Dumbledore's orders.  
No clue has been given that DD knew about the locket.  It was merely 
one object in a case which was being decontaminated.

So does that leave us with the motive for Aberforth being purely 
criminal gain of what to him is only a gold locket. Any other 
suggestions here?  

Is Aberforth ESE! Or ESG!  Opinions anyone? What is he going to do 
with the locket?  Try and open it and get himself splatted in the 
process? Who might want to buy it off him?

Saraquel