A/n: Hello everyone! Just want to say thank you for keeping with this story and a special thanks to those who reviewed on ffnet and the ad/mm board, it is much appreciated. This chapter hasn't been beta read mainly because I wanted to post it quickly. Enjoy though!

Chapter 11: Old Goat

"Where are you, you old goat!" yelled Aberforth Dumbledore as he stepped out of the fireplace and looked around his elder brothers modest living room at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

The room was large and furnished with mismatched pieces, no one chair was alike and all the colours clashed violently with another. Every available surface was filled with books and silver items that looked older than the man who collected them, there was no order to room that Aberforth's brother loved but the Albus Dumbledore wasn't known for his clean, ordered rooms. Albus was known for his intellect and courage, his wand skills, defeating dark wizards and his love for chamber music. Heavy red and gold drapes hung at the large bay windows that looked out over the Quidditch pitch, a large grandfather clock stood in one of the four corners of the room and ticked away loudly. The clock had belonged to Albus and Aberforth's great grandfather, he had left to a Albus and Aberforth was very happy about that because he didn't like how loud it and would have probably chopped it up and used it for firewood.

"Albus, you old goat where are you!" bellowed Aberforth again, his annoyance clear in his voice.

The door to his right opened, steam filled the room and Aberforth concluded that Albus must have been showering. Out of the steam appeared Albus, a bright green bath towel around his waist and an orange one wrapped around his head in a turban style.

"You look like a girl!" stated Aberforth dryly as he looked at the towel wrapped around his brothers head.

"Abe," replied Albus with a smile "been here long?"

"A while!" answered Aberforth

"I was having a shower," replied Albus, pointing to his towels "I know the concept of bathing is a new one on you!"

Aberforth glared at his older brother and folded his arms across his chest; he did bathe but just not as often as others. His goats wouldn't like him if he kept turning up smelling of girly things, they would ignore him and his girls were too important to him so he made some sacrifice is brother didn't understand how viotile goats could be, they hated change and drastic changes would stress them out.

"You are a old goat!" stated Aberforth as he walked over and helped himself to a sherbet lemon from the bowl on Albus' desk.

"May I ask why I am being referred to as a old goat," asked Albus, his eyes had narrowed slightly when he brother had taken one of his sweets "what have I done to deserve such a term of endearment from you?"

"I do not mean it as a term of endearment Albus," answered Aberforth "I am disliking you at present. You left me with mother, there was no escape plan hatched by you to rescue me so I had to sit and listen to her go about her wedding night with father. A son should not hear stuff like that from his mother; the ministry should make that a law. You must submit it when you are next there!"

Albus chuckled heartily before transfiguring the towel he was wearing around his waist to a pair of lightweight robes. He wandered over to his desk and popped a sweet into his mouth as well; he let out a satisfied sigh and closed his eyes.

"Have you started your own sweet shop?" asked Aberforth as he looked down at the desk that was covered in sweets, most of them were sherbet lemons.

"No," answered Albus "this is about three days supply of sweets for me. Abe, I am sorry about leaving you with mother but she didn't want me there, there wasn't much I could do really!"

"You could have made up something about my goats!" said Aberforth matter of factly.

"Mother is wise to us now Abe," answered Albus "she would have seen right through me!"

"You could have tried and take that bloody towel of your head," replied Aberforth "I am trying to be serious here and you are looking like a fool!"

Albus smiled and unwound the towel from around his head, his auburn hair with white streaks fell down around his shoulders and he quickly cast a drying and brushing charm on it.

"It can't have been that bad Abe," said Albus when he was finally done grooming "she means well."

"Oh you can say that," replied Aberforth "you weren't there and so you didn't have her tales inflicted on you and besides, you moan about her just as much as I do!"

"I do not!" said Albus.

"Yes you do!" answered Aberforth with a grin "She knows that you do because she heard you complaining to Armando once."

Albus sat down in his chair and sighed, yes he did moan about his mother and her inferring ways. He needed an outlet after a meeting with her, she would throw questions in quick succession at him and he couldn't get a word in edge ways. He loved her dearly but he couldn't be doing with all the questions, he was the eldest and always seemed to be the one who she was more concerned about because he was single. Aberforth over the years had got off lightly so he deserved his mother's tales today and Albus didn't really care that his brother was annoyed with him.

"I don't think being left with mother is the only reason that you are a cranky old goat!" stated Albus as he pressed his fingers together.

"It is the main reason," replied Aberforth as he sat down opposite his brother "I got shouted at by the woman of my dreams!"

"Oh what did you do?" asked Albus with a sigh "You didn't ask her to stroke your goat did you? You know what Jeannie Woolf did to you after you asked her that!"

"Jeannie Woolf misunderstood my meaning," replied Aberforth defensively, he puffed out his chest and looked around the room before continuing "I have no idea what so ever annoyed my dream witch when I saw here. I was just being friendly and to be honest I don't want to talk about it."

Albus nodded and offered his brother another sweet, two mugs of hot chocolate appeared amongst the junk on Albus' desk and the brothers reached forward and took mug each. They both wrapped their hands around the mug before sipping the creamy hot chocolate, both let out a satisfied sigh as the liquid travelled down their throats.

"Merlin bless Great Uncle Amadeus for coming up with this recipe," said Aberforth with a grin "it would be a dull world without it!"

"I agree my dear brother, I agree!" answered Albus with a nod.

"Made any headway on your lady yet brother?" questioned Aberforth

"Well," began Albus, his eyes twinkling "I do believe I might be. It is not a big thing but we did speak civilly in the bookshop for a matter of seconds! Abe, I don't know when I will see her again."

"If it is meant to be then it will be Albus," said Aberforth, who surprised himself by saying something that Albus would probably say.

"M dear brother," said Albus with a chuckle "I do believe you are growing up at last!"

"Merlin, I hope no!" answered Aberforth "I am far to good looking to be an old goat like you"

The Dumbledore brothers both dissolved into laughter, hot chocolate spilling from their mugs on to their robes but neither noticed. Albus knew that Aberforth was right in some respects; if she was meant to be in his life then she will appear soon. Albus was not a believer in fate but he hoped that he was fated to meet her again.

To be continued