Between Two Brothers

A/n: Thank you so much for all your great reviews. It's great to know that you are enjoying the story and finding the situation amusing unlike poor Minerva . There is quite a bit of dialogue in this chapter. I hope no one minds! I am making the chapters three pages or so because I don't want to bog them down with too much and it also means I can update every couple of days, which I am sure people like. Thanks to Ang for beta reading this chapter, you're a star!

Chapter Six: Two to Contend With.

Albus watched as she rose elegantly from the couch. He watched as she smoothed down the creases in her dress and then placed her hands on her hips. He was aware that she was staring at him. The stare seemed to go through him and sent a shiver down his spine.

"Why do you persist in following me when I have asked you not to?" she asked coolly.

"Following you?" he questioned.

"Please do not try and act all innocent," she cut in briskly. "You knock me flying in the street, I catch you following me along the street and now you just so happen to be in this bookshop and after the book I have!"

"It is purely by coincidence that we are here in this bookshop," he began. He wasn't going to lose his temper or raise his voice. "I am sorry about the incident outside Honeydukes but I have not been following you."

He watched as her nostrils flared with annoyance. Her right foot began to tap against the wooden floorboards and Albus could tell that she was trying to keep her temper under wraps.

"You think," she said "that changing your robes would fool me?"

Albus looked at her. Confusion had settled firmly into his brain and he had no idea what she was talking about. He hadn't changed his robes today at all, well apart from this morning when he couldn't decide whether to wear his purple or his bright lime green robes. He had only been to Honeydukes that day before heading back to Hogwarts before deciding to go after the woman in front of him. He had seen her on his second trip into the village till now.

"My dear," he said with a raised eyebrow "I can assure you that I have not changed my robes since I bumped into you this morning!"

"Would you kindly stop calling me that," she bit back. "You were wearing robes of burnt orange an hour ago."

Albus had only ever worn a pair of burnt orange robes once in his life. They had been a gift from his Aunt Ethel and had worn them on Christmas day to appease her. Burnt orange had never been a colour that had suited him. It was too dull and boring for him and he preferred bright orange. His mind wandered off as he thought about what had ever happened to those robes, he remembered that Aberforth had taken a liking to him. Albus was sure that he had actually given the robes to Aberforth, the day after Ethel had left Dumbledore Manor and from what he could remember. Aberforth had been wearing those robes today in town.

"I think you might have stumbled across my brother," said Albus with a small chuckle. "I know he was wearing robes of that colour today."

"You expect me to believe that?" she asked, her arms folded across her chest now and her foot still tapping.

""Why would I lie to you?" he asked. "I have a picture of us both!"

Albus rooted around in one of the inside pockets of his robes and pulled out a small book. He flicked through the faded pages until he found one of him and his younger brother. It has been taken at last year's family New Years' Eve celebration. He and Aberforth were standing shoulder to shoulder with a glass of firewhiskey in their hands. They were smiling and chatting away. He handed the picture to her and watched as her pretty porcelain face turned a shade of pink as realisation dawned upon her.

"So there are two of you?" she said softly. She looked down at her feet because she didn't want to look at him after making a fool of herself. "You look alike so I just assumed..."

"Easy mistake to make," he said trying to lighten the atmosphere around them. "Many people do."

"I am not accustomed to making mistakes!" she replied, still refusing to look at him.

"Nor am I," he added. "That is why I needed to seek you out and apologise for my behaviour this morning."

"So you were following me!" she said. Her head bolted upright and she looked him in the eye.

Albus cursed himself for his use of words. He should have used another term and because he had said what he had she was now even more suspicious of him.

"Not following," he answered. "I hoped to see you again but after an hour of looking I gave up and came here to pick up a book."

He was telling her the truth but he could see from the look in her eyes that she was not convinced. Her frosty demeanour had returned with vengeance and Albus sighed inwardly.

"The book I am reading?" she asked.

"Yes." answered Albus "You beat me to it!"

"So it seems," she answered. "I am sure there will be another available if you enquire!"

Albus was finding it hard to communicate with her. She kept her guard up all the time and when he thought he was making headway, he would say something and she would stiffen up. He had to admit that trying to get her to smile was like getting blood from a stone and if he had been a man who gave up easily, he would have been out of the shop ten minutes ago. He had a feeling that there was more to the woman than a frosty and standoffish attitude. He couldn't quite put his finger on it but he knew there was more to her and he wanted to bring that out. It wouldn't be as easy as he originally thought. He knew that the Dumbledore smile would probably not work on her.

He was curious as to why Aberforth had been following her. It didn't register that the woman before him was also the woman Aberforth claimed to be in love with. Albus supposed that Aberforth had been making a nuisance of himself in the village and she had presumed it was him because of the incident in that morning.

Albus had hoped that she might have suggested that they share the book, once she had read it, she could have sent it to him but he guessed that suggesting such a thing would be met with opposition.

"It is not a matter of life or death that I have the book today," he said. "I am sure I can order another one."

Albus looked at her and smiled softly. His keen eyesight caught sight of a small tear in her black dress. It was jagged and obviously fresh, not overly neat and would be a pain to mend if done by hand.

"You have a tear," he said pointing to her dress.

He watched her as she looked down at her dress. He heard her sigh with annoyance as she reached for her wand.

"Let me do it," he suggested as he pulled out his own wand and pointed at the tear.

"Least you can do," she replied. "Must have happened when I was knocked to the ground."

Albus felt himself smile. She was still annoyed about that incident. She was probably more embarrassed than anything. Falling over in a street full of people wasn't exactly a great thing to do. Albus, himself, would have been rather embarrassed at doing such a thing so he could understand why she was acting strangely with him.

Albus mumbled a few choice words under his breath and two golden sparks flew out the end of his wand and on to the fabric. It fabric quickly repaired itself but instead of returning to its original state. There was now an intricate pattern sewn on to the fabric. Albus smiled to himself. He wasn't a dressmaker or anything like that but he had to admit that he had done a fine job. The pattern was made up of dozen little swirls that all connected to each other. They were made of fine silver thread and added some elegance to the plain dress she was wearing. There was nothing wrong with the dress she was wearing but Albus had taken it on himself to alter it without her agreement.

"If I wasn't still annoyed with you," she said softly "I would have told you that I like what you did to the dress. I really must be going!"

With that she wrapped her outer robe around her and handed him the book.

"Enjoy!"

To be continued