Title: To Live Up to a Name
Author: dem bones
Genres: General/Romance/Angst
Summary: Response to the Non-existant challenge. What if Ariana Dumbledore didn't exist? How would this effect the storyline onwards?
Warnings: Spoilers for Ch 10 of HBP and all of DH. Contains SLASH and alot of OCS.
Disclaimer: I don't own HP.
Chapter 1.
"What is this duffer?" Percival asked looking over the documents of the will of Crispin Cronk.
"Apparently he was once the keeper of some illegal sphinxes. The Ministry nabbed him, but several years later he died in Azkaban."
"Oh, does this Crispin Cronk have any living relatives that you know of?"
"Yes, Aspen Cronk. He plays for Appleby Arrows."
"Crispin Cronk was arrested for keeping illegal sphinxes. I take it keeping sphinxes is illegal?"
"One must be licensed to care for any magical creature, Sir."
"Well, surely these sphinxes have a mind of their own. They are the creatures that talk in riddles, right. One would have to be smart to create riddles all on their own without any aid."
"But Minister Stump..."
"Is dead...and Minister Sprout-hole I heard has died during his sabbatical. I believe he fell into a moshpit." Percival said. "So I'd like to rewrite the lawbook concerning magical creatures if that is alright with you, Mr. Crouch."
"Alright."
That evening Percival returned to his home on Mould-on-the-Wold.
Aberforth stood there with two complete strangers.
"And these are?"
"The Pomfreys. I invited them over for tea."
"Your son is getting engaged." Kendra said.
"Is this the bride-to-be?" Percival asked before kissing the palm of a young girl with honey blonde hair.
The girl blushed.
"Now Poppy, don't be rude." Her mother said.
"Yes, ma'am." She said schooling her features in a blank expression.
"When is the wedding?"
"In a couple of months after Albus returns from his grand tour of the wizarding world." Kendra said.
PDJC
"You are aware that passing a new piece of legislation you need to pass it through the Wizengamot?"
"Not according to Pursuant section 3. It says if you can win the favour of 3/4s of the wizarding population then a piece of legislation can be passed."
"Yeah." His assistant responded doubtfully. "So who are we to give the sphinxes to, Mr Cronk?"
Percival turned to give Crouch a meaningful gaze. "No, the sphinxes are in a sense their own independent creature and don't belong to anyone."
"You don't have any right to say so."
"Oh, then why don't we keep this our little secret." Percival said with a threatening gaze towards Mr. Crouch. "As I've been informed that not much effort has been put into protecting muggles from these magical creatures I don't really see the point in any wizard owning them."
Crouch paled.
"It is advisible that there be more protection in case anyone has been attacked by a manticore or trampled upon by a nundu and you may take this to the Wizengamot if you wish, do I make myself clear Mr. Crouch?"
"Crystal."
"Good see to it."
At his return home, Kendra met him at the door.
"Anything wrong dear."
Percival sighed. "I have no idea how I'm going to convince 3/4 of the wizarding world to pass a piece of legislation involving a law concerning magical creatures.
"Well, the Wizengamot takes 2 months to go through every piece of legislation that comes through the Ministry. In fact Albus wrote me a letter just last week about the Auror Department sending a request to the Wizengamot with their concerns about the long shifts." Kendra said.
"When is Albus coming back anyway?"
"He'll be back before Christmas." She said, ending with a smile.
ADAD
On Christmas Day, Aberforth and Poppy had began the wedding. Albus though, had yet to arrive.
"Where is he? He should be here by now." Aberforth muttered to himself pacing irritably in one place at the front of the church.
Suddenly the doors opened emitting an old man with a young woman in a beautiful white dress with a veil covering her face.
The two paced slowly to the front of the church.
Poppy who was peaking through the veil conceiling her face saw Aberforth fraught with worry over his brother and felt for her soon to be husband.
As she was nearing towards the front of the church however she conceiled her worry with a smile.
The veil conceiling her face was removed and Aberforth marveled at his soon to be wife.
When the vows were said and done, he noticed that Poppy's eyes seemed to twinkle and it worried him.
Aberforth turned to where Albus was supposed to be with his ring expecting nothing short of a miracle, but it was as if his wish had come true.
Albus was there in the flesh holding out the ring. Aberforth took it and put it on Poppy's middle finger on her right hand.
"Will you Aberforth Dumbledore take Poppy Pomfrey to be your lawfully wedded wife?"
"I do."
"And will you Poppy Pomfrey take Aberforth Dumbledore to be your lawfully wedded husband?"
"I do."
"You may kiss the bride." The priest said.
Aberforth and Poppy shared a sweet tantalising kiss and all was well.
ADPD
As the Wizengamot hadn't even considered the documents that Minister Dumbledore had tried to pass they were surprised by the pile of documents in his hands as he came trudging in.
"And what's this?" asked Igor Marolf of the Wizengamot.
"This is the paperwork concerning a certain piece of legislation I gave to you nearly two months ago. In pursuant section 3, it said if 3/4 of the wizarding world agrees to pass a certain piece of legislation then it doesn't have to go through the Wizengamot." Percival explained.
"Ok, I'll file it." He said and took the papers from Percival.
After Percival left though, Igor found himself stunned as he rummaged through the papers. Most of the paperwork involved votes from some of the magical creatures in the wizarding world. Notably he had seen the names of several goblins, a couple of elves, a bunch of vampires, and a small fraction of werewolves.
When Percival had gone home exhausted he spotted Albus sitting down reading a book he had recieved on his travels.
"I'd like to thank you Albus for helping me out with that small errand. I would have never thought of the idea of having magical creatures fill out the votes."
"Your welcome, Sir."
ADNS
The following year during September 1st of 1900, Poppy had continued her training to become a medi-witch and Aberforth had began teaching transfiguration at Hogwarts while Albus would go with Percival to the Ministry to do some small errands for the witches and wizards at the Ministry.
During his first witness of the sorting as a teacher on the staff he saw a bunch of students get sorted.
"Cygnus Black"
A short boy with black hair and blue eyes walked up to the stool where Professor Meliflua had placed the sorting hat on his head.
"SLYTHERIN."
"Donald Blishwick."
"RAVENCLAW."
"Garrett Brown."
"HUFFLEPUFF."
"Enid Burke."
"SLYTHERIN."
"Algernon Longbottom"
"GRYFFINDOR."
"Elena Greengrass."
"SLYTHERIN."
"Sebastian Greengrass."
"SLYTHERIN."
"Earl Macmillan."
"HUFFLEPUFF."
"Roderick Plumpton"
"GRYFFINDOR."
"Henry Potter"
"GRYFFINDOR."
"Lysandra Yaxley."
"SLYTHERIN."
As the feast began, his plate was piled up with honey custards and he began scarfing them down. The headmaster narrowed his eyes, giving him a strange kind of look.
The students filed out the Great Hall in a kind and orderly manner not long afterwards and Aberforth took to following.
One of Aberforth's brighter students was Henry Potter, though he wasn't any good at transfiguration he was always eager to learn. While Roderick Plumpton would always slack off in his class always bragging about the recent match in quidditch.
During his fourth year of teaching, Aberforth Dumbledore witnessed in accident. Henry Potter had been trying to transfigure the rat that was given to him to transfigure into an inanimate object. However an accident had caused the airways in his throat to constrict and he could barely breath out of his nose because he had a cold.
Elena Greengrass stood worried at his side, her blue eyes silently begging for him to do something. Beyond his perception, Aberforth could see that Elena had fallen in love with Henry.
Aberforth cast the counter curse on Henry but upon the glance of helplessness from Elena...
"He's well, but he could use a trip to the hospital wing."
Elena helped Henry to his feet and they both left the classroom.
ADPD
Four years later, Henry had left Hogwarts after completeing his NEWTS and Aberforth had completed eight years of teaching Transfiguration as the head of Gryffindor.
Poppy had finished her medi-witch training and Aberforth had been offered the position as headmaster. Dilys Derwent had retired from her position as the school nurse to work at St. Mungos and Poppy had decided to fill her position at Hogwarts.
"Ernest Bulstrode."
"SLYTHERIN."
"Ronald Crouch."
"SLYTHERIN."
"Charles Fawcett."
"RAVENCLAW."
"Gregory Fortescue."
"RAVENCLAW."
"Girard Fournier."
"GRYFFINDOR."
"Augusta Longbottom."
"HUFFLEPUFF."
"Agatha MacDougal."
"RAVENCLAW."
"Dennis Midgen."
"GRYFFINDOR."
"Alan Plumpton."
"HUFFLEPUFF."
"Ernie Prewett."
"RAVENCLAW."
"Adolph Rosier."
"SLYTHERIN."
"Martha Rosier."
"SLYTHERIN."
"Newton Scamander."
"HUFFLEPUFF."
"Albert Stebbins."
"RAVENCLAW."
"Benjamin Wood."
"GRYFFINDOR."
After Wood had been assigned to Gryffindor, Aberforth made his way to the stand.
"Pleased to meet you all for a brand new year at Hogwarts. I'll be replacing Phineas Black as Headmaster for this year. Dilys Derwent will be returning to St. Mungos and Poppy Dumbledore will be a new addition to our staff taking the place of our medi-witch."
The students clapped their hands.
"I hope this will be a fun year."
ADHP
On the way to his new office, Poppy stood by the stone gargoyles blocking the entrance carrying some stuff from his previous office.
"You should let me carry that, Poppy." Aberforth said softly and took the load off her hands.
"Ursula." He murmured to the gargoyles.
"Whose Ursula?" Poppy asked.
"She's the wife of the previous headmaster. I haven't got around to changing the password yet." Aberforth explained.
"Oh."
The Gargoyle opened the doors, Aberforth and Poppy stepped inside.
In the headmaster's office was several portraits of the previous headmasters.
"You are the new headmaster I presume, Mr Aberforth Dumbledore?" The portrait of Dexter Fortescue asked curiously. "A word of advice, it would probably be best to plant strong wards around your office. Students were noted to prank the previous headmaster."
"Thanks I'll take your advice to heart."
Weeks later in the comforts of his office, there was a pecking on the window.
A old brown falcon was holding a rolled up piece of parchment in it's beak. Aberforth opened the window and the falcon dropped the parchment before flying away.
The Potter Coat of Arms sealed the parchment and Aberforth broke the seal and opened the letter.
Dear Professor Aberforth,
I heard you became the new headmaster, how's that going for you? I have a feeling you're going to be a great headmaster. How's Poppy doing? I heard she is the school nurse and Madam Derwent is working at St. Mungos. I've been doing alright so far, teaching at Durmstrang. My mother and father have another kid on the way, they want to name him Charlus. Silly? Yeah, I know. Your father wanted me to work for the Ministry and I probably will work there at some point. I'm trying to explore the possibilities you know? I don't want to settle down and have a family quite yet. Glad you are doing alright.
Sincerely
Henry Potter.