Dumbledore's brother (Was: A Horcrux Twist: Who Got What From Whom?)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 150899

Steve in Chicago wrote:
<snip>
> DD brother: Possible, he IS his brother, and doesn't really live in  
> the wizard world - so would probably be able to keep a secret better
><snip>

Carol responds:
I'm snipping the parts about a Secret Keeper for Snape. Even though
I'm addicted to Snape discussions, I don't think this idea is
plausible. (A bottled memory, *maybe*.)

But I'm curious. Why do you think that Aberforth (DD's brother) isn't
part of the WW? It's hard to perform "inappropriate charms on goats"
if you're living as a Muggle, and besides, it's been pretty firmly
established that he's the barkeeper at the Hog's Head (and has been
supplying DD with information since at least the time of DD's
interview with LV for the DADA position). Aberforth was a member of
the original Order (though Moody only met him once); he apparently
evicted young Snape from the Hog's Head after the eavesdropper
incident (though the versions of that incident are contradictory and
I'm not sure what really happened); and in HBP he had some sort of
dealings with Sneakthief!Mundungus (who was supposedly banned from the
Hog's Head twenty years before yet spied there for DD disguised as a
veiled witch in OoP). So Aberforth (who I'm sure can read despite DD's
joking remark) was almost certainly an important member of DD's spy
network, working apparently with Mundungus and perhaps with Snape as
well as DD, and will, I think, be an important source of information
to Harry about both DD and Snape in Book 7.

No need for a Secret Keeper or a Fidelius Charm, just a prickly and
unkempt persona hiding sharp ears and, given his brother's intellect,
perhaps a keen mind as well. Wizards talk in bars under the influence
of butterbeer or fire whiskey, oblivious to the presence of the
barkeeper. Aberforth has probably overheard a lot of secrets in his
long life from his varied clientele, and many of those secrets have
probably been passed in some way to his brother--possibly via a hog or
hog's head Patronus. ;-)

Carol, not sure whether to shudder or to laugh at that last image