Chapter 10: Of Hexes, Grindylows, and Trust

"Oh, I'm sorry about what happened," Professor Merrythought said, cringing.

Harry and her had just gotten done with Defense for the fifth years. Aberforth, unfortunately, had taken it upon himself to duel Alice Hornby, a Slytherin that apparently didn't like the odd brother of Albus too much. Harry hadn't even been sure what the duel was about; he could just remember spotting them right in the middle of it. Harry rushed forward, hoping to break it up, but Aberforth sent some kind of hex toward Alice that made the skin on her face to burst into boils. Harry cringed, but sent a shield between them when Aberforth got ready to say another spell.

Merrythought rushed forward to Alice, who started crying, and immediately told Alice's best friend to take her up to the Hospital Wing. Then, slowly, she turned to Aberforth.

He stared at her, his eyebrows furrowed in anger as she pointed to the door. Stalking to it, she glanced at Harry, said, "Keep going," and went out to speak to him.

"Okay, get back to your partners," Harry said.

"Sir, I don't have a partner now- Dumbledore…"

"I'll partner with you," Harry said to Aberforth's partner, a short blonde Slytherin who Harry never heard speak before.

Merrythought returned ten minutes later without Aberforth stalking in with her. As she stepped in, she glanced around, composed, and then went around to survey the class. But, once class was let out, she sighed and fell into a desk chair heavily.

"That Dumbledore, oh my Merlin," she said, shaking her head. "Oh, I'm so sorry about what happened."

"It's not your fault," Harry said uncomfortably.

She took in a deep breath, then, slowly stood up, flattening out a fold in her robes. "He has detention tonight, helping us clean the grindylow cages."

Harry nodded. That wasn't anything he was looking forward to.

"Is Alice okay?" he asked to try to stop thinking about how difficult taking cleaning those cages would be.

"Dumbledore's refusing to say what hex he used. It looks like he invented it himself. Madam Woodhouse said she's never seen that particular one before."

"Oh," Harry said. "Wait, he can invent spells?"

"I'm not sure. Most of the teachers don't even know if he can read, but he still turns in assignments. He's a very odd boy. But, anyway, I need to go back to the Hospital Wing. See you tonight at eight for our little date with Dumbledore."

She sighed again and left Harry standing in the middle of the classroom.

Harry wasn't sure what to do for a moment until he noticed Aberforth's bag lying forgotten on the floor by a desk. For a long time, Harry hesitated. He couldn't just leave his bag there. After deliberating whether or not Aberforth would come back to get and deciding that he probably would just leave it there, he picked it up and stuck it on the desk to clasp it. But, he noticed a book poking out of the top: the journal that Albus had given him, with a blue border surrounding the front cover.

The thought of seeing it in the Hog's Head came back to him. What did he have in there that he would still need to look at a hundred years later?

Harry pulled it out and flipped to the first page, passed a letter from Albus. On the first page was just a drawing of a goat, but on the other page was a drawing of a girl. He stared at her and knew she wasn't Ariana. Harry could still remember what Ariana looked like from the portrait in the Hog's Head. No, this was a different girl. Harry thought she looked familiar, but before placing her, he went on.

There wasn't any writing in the journal. Just drawings of Hogwarts and of what would later be Hagrid's cabin. But what dominated most of the pages were a lot of drawings of magical plants and beasts in various stages of growth. Just by all those types of drawings, he wondered if Aberforth's favorite classes were Herbology and Care of Magical Creatures.

Harry had hoped there would be something more in the journal, but it just seemed like a regular sketchbook. He stuck it back into the bag, clasped it, and then slung it over his shoulder to go find him.

It didn't take him long to find him at all. He was just leaning against a wall two corridors down from the Defense classroom.

"Dumbledore?" Harry said.

He glanced up and immediately sighed when he saw who was there. He stood up a little straighter. It was in that moment that he realized how much taller Aberforth was than him. "What? Am I going to get another detention or something?"

"No," Harry said. "You left this."

He let the bag fall from his shoulder and held it out for him.

"Thank you," he said neutrally. He pulled it from his hands much more aggressively, though.

Harry nodded, said, "You're welcome," and began down the corridor again.

"Wait, Potter."

He turned. Aberforth jerked his head, motioning him to come closer. He did, but stood a few feet away.

Aberforth looked up and down the hallway quickly, then stepped closer, looking Harry straight in his eyes. His eyes seemed to glow bright blue from the sun shining in from outside, which was just in the beginning stages of setting. "My brother. You don't know him like I do. He's not who you think he is."

Harry blinked, but didn't shift his eyes. "And who would that be?"

"You think he's perfect, like all the other teachers do," he said gruffly. "You think just because he has perfect grades, has awards, is Head Boy and is in with the Ministry that he's the model child for the Wizarding World. Trust me when I tell you this, he's not."

Harry didn't even twitch. "Why do you think that I believe he's perfect?"

"Because everyone does," Aberforth said. "People wonder why I'm not like him. The truth is, I'd much rather have common sense than a powerful brain."

"Common sense?" Harry said before he could stop himself. "Sorry, but what was that in Defense? You don't hex someone just because."

Aberforth face flushed for a second, but that was quickly gone. "I had a reason." He paused for a second and glanced over his shoulder as if he heard something. "I'm not talking about me. I'm talking about Albus. He's not perfect."

"I know," Harry said.

"But-"

"Believe me, I know. I know more about him than you think I do, but I have to admit it's not much. Still, I know he makes mistakes. A lot of them."

Aberforth huffed after a long pause between them. Neither flinched during that time. They merely watched each other; Aberforth as if weighing what Harry was saying, and Harry just to make sure Aberforth realized he knew Dumbledore had flaws.

"Do you trust me?" Aberforth asked.

"Yes."

"Do you trust him?"

"Yes."

He huffed again and then he spun around. Harry continued on as well, but just as Harry rounded the corner, he heard: "Only a bezoar stone will cure those boils on Alice, trust me."

Harry smiled and ran off toward the Hospital Wing to tell Madam Woodhouse. Five minutes later, Alice Hornby didn't have one boil on her face and she was released with only red eyes from tears.

But, Harry wondered why Aberforth thought it necessary to warn him.

"How did you get Dumbledore to tell you?" Merrythought asked ten minutes before Aberforth was set to arrive at his detention later that night.

"Tell me wh- Oh, you mean Aberforth? He just told me," Harry said, shrugging.

"I should have thought of the bezoar," Merrythought said thoughtfully, leaning back in her chair. "I knew he had a weird infatuation with goats. Albus told me that he loved them."

"But, bezoars are for most poisons, not boils," Harry said, remembering Snape for a moment.

"If you look at Albus's theories about some things, then look at Aberforth... You never know."

Harry didn't know if he had to respond or not, so he lifted a cage onto the desk. The Grindylow peered at him through murky water, then scratched the glass.

"Do you know Aberforth where you're from?"

Harry hesitated in answering, just because he wasn't sure if he actually knew Aberforth or not. He only realized the Hog's Head proprietor was Albus's brother the night the war went on, and that had only been four months ago. "Sort of."

"But you've met him?"

"Oh, yeah."

"Does he still act the same way?"

Harry tried not to smile. "He's still pretty stubborn."

"What about Albus?"

Harry's smile, which he was struggling with, faded immediately. He was glad he was in the process of lifting a second Grindylow cage onto a desk. "He's, er… a little calmer, I guess." Harry could only think that how he said that was a little morbid, but she didn't seem to think anything was off on that statement.

"He's quite energetic now, isn't he?" Merrythought said.

"Yeah."

"Are you not comfortable talking about him?" she asked, surprising Harry.

"Er-"

There was a knock and Harry looked up to see Aberforth standing in the open doorway, a couple minutes early. Harry was glad about the distraction. He didn't really want to talk about Dumbledore.

"Ah, Dumbledore," Merrythought said, standing and coming around her desk to Harry. "You're early."

He only shrugged as he came forward, standing back a couple rows as Harry lifted an empty cage onto the desk where the two grindylows could stay while they cleaned their cages.

"Okay, well, since we're all here…" She took three pairs of gloves from her pocket. Harry took the pair she gave him, but Aberforth stared at them.

"I don't need them," he said.

"Oh, nonsense," she said, forcing them into his hands. He took them reluctantly and pulled them on. "Okay, first thing-"

It took almost half an hour to get the two out of their cages. They thrashed around in the water, soaking the three in grimy water. When Aberforth suggested they stun them, she said, "They're resistant. Didn't your professor two years ago tell you that?"

"No, he didn't."

Merrythought shook her head, sighing. "Well, anyway…"

Once they were safely in the extra cage, Merrythought looked around for a second, and then spun around, looking. "Oh, right. I knew I was forgetting something." She let out a breath. "I'll be back in fifteen minutes. I have to get the cleaning solution from Professor Glumage. Don't leave," she pointed to Aberforth who sent her an annoyed look and she stalked out of the room.

As Aberforth sat down at a desk, Harry pulled his gloves off. The fifteen year old watched him for a moment.

"You looked in my bag, didn't you?" Aberforth asked, breaking the silence between the two. The grindylows were scratching their nails against the glass, still thrashing around, and fighting with each other.

Harry jerked his head toward him. How was it possible he know that?

He huffed. "To be expected. You might trust me, but I don't trust you."

"Why don't you?" Harry asked. I guessed he could understand that even without an explanation. He really shouldn't have looked in his journal. If it were him, Harry would have been very offended if someone looked through his things.

"It's not just because you looked through my things. I don't trust anyone who would trust Albus."

Harry leaned up against Merrythought's desk. "Why don't you trust your own brother?"

"Do you have a genius brother who thinks he's the best thing to come to this school since the founders themselves?"

"No," Harry said.

"Then you wouldn't understand."

"Is it because of your sister?"

Aberforth's eyes darkened and narrowed. "How do you know I have a sister?"

Harry hesitated for a second, trying to think of something. "Albus mentioned her."

He watched him for a long moment. "What did he say about her?"

"He just said she trusted you more than him." That wasn't exactly true. That had been Aberforth that something along those lines before the Battle of Hogwarts began.

He scoffed and stood up, going toward the grindylow cages to watch the two fight. They were beginning to calm a little, but one jabbed the other in the eye. "Good thing he knows that. But, that's not why you trust me, is it?"

"No," Harry said.

"And you're not going to tell me, are you?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"That's between me, Dumbl- I mean, Albus- and Merrythought."

He turned around to narrow his eyes at Harry, showing him he still distrusted him. "Why should I believe you?"

"Why won't you tell anybody why you hexed Alice? That really hurt her," Harry retorted.

"Don't change the subject."

"I'm not. I'm asking the same exact kind of question you are."

Aberforth didn't respond, instead he stepped over toward the bookshelves. He realized the room was silent as Aberforth studied a glass orb on the shelf. The Grindylows had stopped fighting, each sitting at opposite ends on their tank, peering at each other with wide eyes.

"How old are you again?"

"Eighteen."

"Are you in a courtship?"

"Courtship?" It took Harry a few seconds to figure out what that meant, then realized that he meant girlfriend. Ginny's face immediately came up in Harry's mind, but then he remembered whom he was talking to and Ginny's face faded. He didn't understand why Aberforth wanted to know that. "Oh, yeah, why?"

"Did you ever mess up with her before you got the chance to court her?"

"Er, no, not really. But, my best friend really messed up with his girlfriend by being with another girl for a long time before they were together."

Aberforth's shoulders dropped and Harry realized that he had been tense throughout that last part of their conversation. Harry didn't really want to know. Thinking about Ron and Hermione again, though, really took a stab at his heart. He missed Ginny, Ron, and Hermione.

Merrythought returned with the solution and after a couple hours of manual labor, the cages were clean and they struggled again to put the Grindylows in their cages. But, all Harry could think about was his friends that he left behind. He missed them more than anything.

Albus sighed. Of course Aberforth would be late. He was still the only one in the dormitory, while all his dorm mates and Elphias were probably down in the Common Room, catching up on homework that they didn't do over the weekend.

Aberforth had always been unpredictable and Albus felt he should have known he would forget that he asked him to meet him in his dorm room. But, then again, Aberforth did like when their mother wrote about their sister. He loved Ariana and Albus knew Ariana would miss Aberforth. She always did. She never missed Albus as much.

Ariana was a very sweet girl, though, when her temper didn't get the best of her. Her favorite thing to do was help Aberforth feed the Hokey and Pokey. She'd pet them gently between the ears as the goat licked her hand clean of hay, always laughing happily. Seeing her so happy made Albus smile and he always wished she could be normal again during those moments. The thought of what those boys did to her always made him angry. She could have been at Hogwarts instead of hidden away. He wished he could do something about that, but he just couldn't.

What his father did, though, was enough.

Albus pulled out his watch from his pocket. He was fifteen minutes late, but his thoughts on that matter were ruined when the door burst open and Greyson and Thomas came in.

"Hello, Albus," Thomas said, but that was it.

Albus pulled a textbook from his nightstand to pretend to read while they talked about the Hogsmeade weekend coming up.

His thoughts strayed to his family again. His father had done what he could to protect his daughter. He was sure any father that cared would do the same to for his daughter, go to Azkaban for her and die there for her.

The door opened again, but this time it was Elphias.

"Your brother's in the Common Room," he said. "You said you wanted to talk to him?"

"Oh, yes, thank you," he said, nodding and throwing his book to the side. He grabbed the note Mrs. Bagshot gave him and as he went downstairs he still couldn't get his mind off his father. Albus doubted he would ever become a father, but he knew he'd do the same if he ever did have a child, or at least, he hoped he would. It was only the right thing to do.

The Common Room was empty except for Aberforth sitting on one of the red couches and staring off into the flickering fireplace.

"Ab?" Albus said.

"Hm?" he said, not moving at all.

Albus sat down beside him with the note clutched in his hand.

"Where were you?" Albus asked.

He finally moved, his blue eyes catching Albus's. "Detention with Merrythought and Potter. I had to clean out those Grindylow tanks. It took forever."

Albus, honestly, was surprised that he hadn't heard anything about that. "What did you do?"

"Why do you want to know?"

Albus glanced at the fire again. "Because you're my brother."

He rolled his eyes. "I hexed Alice Hornby. But! She was making fun of me!"

"Making fun how?"

His face turned red. "None of your business."

Albus couldn't help but smile at Aberforth's embarrassment. It wasn't normal for his little brother to get red in the face. In fact, that was extremely rare. He could only remember once in the recent years when he had, after Albus got his O.W.L. results back and their mother said, "See that, Ab? Why don't you work as hard as Albus?"

"No, really, what happened?"

He hesitated, shifting. "Fine. I asked if she wanted to go to Hogsmeade. That obviously went well."

Instead of laughing, Albus frowned. "I'm sorry."

"It doesn't matter."

Albus couldn't think of anything to say, so he lifted the letter up, but before he could say anything about it, Aberforth said, "How did you get Potter to trust you?"

"What?" Albus didn't know what he was talking about.

"He says he trusts you, but he won't say why."

"Why is it hard to believe that a member of the staff would trust me? Most of them do."

"Most," Aberforth said. "Black and Garside don't, but you're getting off topic."

Albus shook his head. He already knew that Professor Black and Professor Garside were a little iffy about him, but Albus didn't really know himself why Harry trusted him. All he knew was that his older counterpart knew him. He wanted to know how more intensely than Aberforth wanted to know about how Harry trusted him. That was a given. Aberforth was much more distrustful than Albus was, though he happened to think Harry was harmless.

Aberforth sighed, probably realizing that Albus actually had no idea. Albus would have done the same motion if he weren't distracted by the fact that their mom's letter was in his hand.

"Can we get onto the letter?" Albus asked him.

Aberforth huffed, but didn't say a word.

There wasn't much to be said in the letter, just that her and Ariana were doing okay and she only wrote to them so they, "wouldn't think I forgot about you two." Aberforth rolled his eyes at that, but said nothing unkind. He only perked up when she mentioned that Ariana had a pretty violent attack that, "shook me, but we're both fine. Don't worry about it."

"Why does she say not to worry?" Aberforth commented, his voice harsher than normal. He was furious. "If I was there, Mother wouldn't have trouble with her."

"You can't leave school, Ab," Albus said. "It's important."

"To be honest, I care much more about my sister than my future."

Then, abruptly, he stood up and stalked passed Albus.

"Ab-"

Aberforth took a swing at Albus's head, but Albus dodged him just in time.

"Hey!" he called out. Hee just ignored him. He didn't know where Aberforth's aggression came from, but as he pounded up the stairs, Albus wondered if he was just angry about what happened earlier in the day, maybe about the detention and the fact that he was rejected by a girl that didn't like him.

Albus shook his head, folded the note up carefully, and then followed his brother slowly up the stairs.

It was only right after breakfast the next morning that Professor Black stopped Harry in the hallway on his way down to the Great Hall for breakfast.

"Mr. Potter, may I speak to you privately for a moment?"

Harry hesitated, unsure. What would he want with him? "Yeah, sure."

And the two made their way up to the Headmaster's office.

A/N: So, yeah, two updates in a week to make up for not updating in months. My laptop broke so before I have to take it to the computer store to get it repaired, I decided to update just in case they have to take it away from me or something. This is also for one of my friends who had two exams this morning. That Brit Lit was fun, wasn't it?

Anyway, an Aberforth-centric chapter. He's way too much fun to write. He's pretty important to this story, so it's good to have him around.

Review if you'd like to.