Professor O'Connor intently looked at the student sitting in front of her for a long time, lips tight. Finally she said, "Again."
The student gritted his teeth and sharply waved his wand.
The animal on the desk stupidly blinked, unperturbed.
She sighed. "You need to focus more, Mister Dumbledore."
"But I am-"
"You're not." Seeing the boy was about to protest she raised a hand. "And if you are, then you're not focusing on the right thing. So try again and focus."
When the witch left his side, Aberforth threw his wand on the table in disgust.
The year before he's had good marks in Transfiguration. Not great ones, but good enough his brother had raised his eyebrows when he had seen his marks and not without some awe congratulated him.
"I'm not quite sure how you did it but it looks like you managed just fine on your own," he had said. "Perhaps I shouldn't have been so harsh on you and should have trusted you more."
Well Albus' tune was sure going to change at this rate.
Once class finally ended, he took his bag and moodily left Transfiguration, wondering on his way to Gryffindor Tower on earth he was going to salvage this.
The easiest solution would naturally be for Potter to help him with his homework like the year before. Problem was, the chances the older wizard would agree in exchange for mere muggle fighting were, in Aberforth honest opinion, very slim. Sixth Year was most probably going to be a very tough year for him, so why would he still be humouring Aberforth?
He gave the password to the Fat Lady and entered the Common Room which was empty, save for Potter who seemed to be doing his homework. Realizing this was actually the perfect time to ask for his help without Albus or anybody knowing any better he sighed before bracing himself and going in his direction. "What are you working on, Potter?"
Potter looked at him with dead eyes. "Alchemy."
Aberforth grimaced. He may not know a thing about the subject, he most definitely knew this subject was extremely hard. "Take my advice, don't waste your time and wait for Albus to come back and explain it to you."
In fact, why wasn't his brother here? It was a well-known fact that when Albus was not helping the younger years with their lessons, he was doing his next to Harry while also giving a few pointers from time to time. In Aberforth's honest opinion, Potter didn't actually need help most of the time and that was just an excuse his brother had cooked up to spend more time with the other boy. So why wasn't his brother using this opportunity to play peacock and show off?
He tried to image where he could possibly be before shaking his head. Focus Aberforth, he mentally berated himself. Who cares what Albus is doing? Focus on your goals.
"You should spend your time on something else, something which doesn't make you look like a Dementor got your soul."
Potter wetly snorted. "Every class is like this."
"So don't study," was the natural answer. "Go outside, fly or go punch a few Slytherins. The latter is the best way to relieve stress when things don't go your way if you want my opinion."
Harry slowly smiled. "It is, isn't it?"
He sagely nodded. "Just make sure you don't get caught."
That made him chuckle. "Got it. By the way, thanks for the lessons last year."
He accepted the praise with a nod.
"Thanks to you I punched an Auror so hard I broke his nose."
And just like that, Aberforth felt like he had just flown into the wall.
"Wh-Wh-" he spluttered. "What?"
And Potter started weaving an unbelievable story. One about magicians not being magicians, vanishing cabinets not being vanishing cabinets, evil Aurors and muggle ones. By the end of it, Aberforth was staring at the wizard who, he was now sure, had utterly lost it .
"You're pulling my leg," he uttered. It had to be a gigantic joke, or maybe all that stress had gotten to his head and had turned him mad, or-
Potter had the gall to look offended. "I'm not lying! An Auror had been harassing my relatives for years and I couldn't do anything because of the statute of secrecy. So hadn't been able to actually fight him without my wand then Greengrass-"
"Did you just say 'Greengrass'?"
"Well yes, that was his name. Auror Brutus Greengrass." Seeing the younger boy's face he frowned. "Why, you know him?"
"Leave mummy alone!"
The man slapped the child so hard he fell to the ground with a scream.
"Aberforth!" his mother shouted before turning to the man holding her. "How dare you hit my child," she hissed. "I swear to you, Greengrass, once I tell everyone what you've done-"
But the man grinned. "I don't think you've quite realized the situation your family's in, Mrs Dumbledore. Your husband has been discovered tampering with the memories of muggle children and admitted to attacking them. Who do you think the public is going to believe, an Auror who has been personally appointed by the Minister of magic to shed some light on this tragic affair or the mudblood wife of a criminal who's once been suspected of rising inferis?"
"-dore? Dumbledore?"
Aberforth startled. Shaking his head, he tried to chase the images of the man who had one day come to arrest his father. "Wh-what did you say happened to Greengrass again?"
Potter startled. "What did I- Well he's in Azkaban now."
"Are you sure? Are you really, really sure?"
"W-Well, yes. I got to see him being arrested so-" Seeing Aberforth bringing his hands into a prayer pose, he hesitated. "What- What did Greengrass do to you?"
He wasn't supposed to say anything, he knew that. Albus and his mother had made it very clear he was to never say a word of what had happened.
He knew all that and yet, in that very moment, Aberforth needed to set this weight off his chest.
"He set my father's workshop on fire." Seeing the older boy's horrified face he mumbled, "A-Among other things."
Harry knew he shouldn't be gaping like he was. Yet that was all he could do at the discovery that Greengrass had also harmed the Dumbledores.
"Wh-What does that man have with setting everything on fire?" he whispered.
Aberforth wetly snorted. "No clue."
"And you didn't say anything to-"
"Potter-" The Fourth Year looked pained. "When dad… When dad left us, mum- mum wanted to protect us. Also it wasn't as if people were going to listen. Greengrass is an auror, he comes from an old and respected pureblood family and mum-" He looked away. "So, yeah."
Harry breathed as everything suddenly made too much sense.
Mrs. Dumbledore was a muggleborn, so when Greengrass came, people looked the other way.
He hissed, "They should have helped her,."
Aberforth darkly chuckled. "Mum is a very proud person, she would never accept anybody's help. But I agree, they should have at least tried."
The two wizards didn't say anything for a while.
"At-At least he's behind bars now," Harry hesitantly said. "So he cannot hurt you anymore."
"He's actually never come back after we left Mould-on-the-Wold," he replied, "but yeah. That's nice to know he's gone. So thanks there."
"Any time."
The Fourth Year smiled, yet there was something sad in his smile. As if there was something more to the story, something not even that Greengrass's arrest could fix.