Hermione was considering blatantly fleeing. Perhaps she and Harry could get around the corner before the arch-villain found them?

To give herself time to plan, she dragged Harry behind an aisle divider.

"Got anything in for me?" she heard the wizard saying from near the front counter.

"We do have," they heard the shopgirl say. "Magicked spectacles, in fact."

"If they're unset, or even if they are set, I'll take them," the wizard said.

"And your order from our bulk supplier's here. I think it's normal, Mr Dumbledore. A pound of scurs, a matchbox of fairy wings, and some envenomed Acromantula silk, perhaps a bolt."

"That's all as it should be. You should invite the two customers hiding in the back to come here so we can set their minds at ease," Hermione heard. It stopped her breath - it felt like it stopped her heart.

Hermione saw Harry was cowering, probably she was setting him off. "Let's go, Harry, it's no use pretending," she said, with a sigh. Her parents saw them and followed to lend their support.

"Hello, there. Since I'm the one intruding, I'll introduce myself. I'm Aberforth Dumbledore. My tavern is the Hog's Head Inn in Hogsmeade, and I'm the last breeder of magical goats left in Britain."

Hermione felt her pulse speed up, slow down, speed up again. It may not be the villain, but was it much better to encounter his brother? Either way, Harry's being rescued would be found out.

"I can see you're no fans of Albus, and that's sound as hell, if you will accept the opinion of someone you've just met," was the wizard's surprising pronouncement. He looked at Hermione with some amusement. "I was like you, girl. But you'll learn you can't approach every problem head-on, I reckon."

She realised she'd clutched her fists and was even standing slightly in front of Harry.

"Your boy there, according to Albus, is all safe and happy. Albus has claimed through his ... ahem ... close friend Doge and even, he says jestingly, in person that I cannot even read, but between the things he told the Daily Prophet and those entertaining books - well, I'm surprised your boy isn't a head taller and dressed in dragonhide he killed and skinned personally."

Harry Potter and the Yearning Yeti came to mind. It was probably a good sign if he was mocking them.

"Umm, we're Hermione Granger," she said, pointing to herself, "and Harry Potter. We've heard a little bit about another Dumbledore, but nothing about you."

"Well, as I said, I've heard quite a bit about Harry, there. So, Harry," he began, turning to fix his gaze, "You're doing well, yes? In a nice place with people that love you and keep you safe, being trained up to take your place in the magical world, and so on, and so on."

Harry looked to her for courage, but replied, "well, no, sir, none of that, really."

"I sense you're still shaking with fear, girlie. That's what I meant by putting your mind at ease."

"You should really pay attention, Hermione," the shopgirl surprised her by saying.

They'd been around the man long enough to notice that, while dressed in clean clothes and not dirty, he did have dirty nails and smelled faintly of the goats he said he was breeding.

"I understand not wanting to trust a Dumbledore, but you've little choice," he said, with a very serious expression. "It's occurred to you that when Albus does finally meet little Harry here, he'll read his mind and know you've seen me, and this shop, and take steps to put Harry back in his cage?"

Hermione nodded grimly.

"Well, let me have a look at his memory, then. I have the best knowledge of Albus' magic of anyone alive. And that includes his beaus, Gellert and Elphias." without further ado, he looked Harry in the eye. Harry looked like it hurt a bit.

"That famous scar of yours," Aberforth said, "it's bad, and you better get rid of it, but it's not all bad, if you know what I mean. If it twinges you, either someone connected to Voldemort or someone reading your mind is around. Either way, pay attention and get out of wherever you are as quickly and quietly as may be." He then went back to reading Harry's mind.

"Aha!" he exclaimed. "This is good news. Yes, my brother's actually Obliviated Harry a bit. And on a child not even two - that's dangerous. Very dangerous. But it works, it works for us."

"When you two leave, I will put a haze over the memory of this shop in Harry, including meeting me, how's that?" he asked.

"Won't that interfere with Harry's progress?" Hermione asked.

"Not tragically," came the reply. "He just has to try really hard to remember. But someone like Albus reading his memories won't even notice. It'll be hidden behind his magic, which mine is already similar to. So, now that that's out of the way, ask your questions, girl." He looked at Harry apologetically. "Not that I blame you for it, but we both know you're too cagey to ask anything, and she asks enough for both of you."

She'd planned to ask why he would help them, but that's not what came out of her mouth. To her chagrin, what Hermione asked was what his supplies were for.

"To begin with, Miss Granger, the magical spectacles, they're like Spectrespecs that also work as Sneakoscopes. Do you know what those are?"

"Luna wears Spectrespecs, I think ..." Hermione mused.

"Does she? I always gave Xeno more credit than most people do. Good for him, and her."

"And the Sneakoscope ... it's also called a 'foe glass', I think ..."

"It is. But the magicked spectacles are particular to particular tasks. You have to set them to look for specific things, or they're just weaker Spectrespecs or Sneakoscopes. But once they're set, they find what they're looking for, better than anything. Albus uses his to look through the best invisibility cloaks, for example."

Hermione shuddered at that thought, and it made Aberforth smile.

"As for my supplies, well. They're for enchanting - not charming, as that never lasts, enchanting - goats so they stay clean and their horns stay sharp and curly. And thereby hangs a tale, or several."

Hermione was a little worried they'd miss seeing Luna if this went on too long; then she consoled herself that meeting the arch-villain's apparently hostile brother was a priceless opportunity to gain information that could save Harry, and also advance her suit with him.

"In the first part of the 12th century, the Malfois - or Malfoys, as they started calling them - brought in fancy goats from France. They were actually stolen from a family that were relatives of the Flamels, a family they eventually killed off back in France. Hogsmeade dates back to the time of the founding of Hogwarts. As you can guess, it was all hogs back then. My inn's named for that era. But by the 12th century, it was all goats. The Malfoy goats were like Malfoy peacocks in a way. No one eats peacock eggs who's normal. And the goats didn't give much, or good milk. But they were showy. My mother, Kendra's family, had squibs on both sides, and they bred magical Hebridean goats for generations, even going back to the Malfois' time. At any rate, after our father, Percival, went to Azkaban like a fool, for what did Britain have to offer any of us but Albus, and even he would have been just as happy going to Durmstrang, we needed to make money. Kendra's family had already crossed Dera Din Panah and Girgentana with our magical Hebrideans, and we had a very showy goat as well. Still, that said, it wasn't quite as showy as the Malfoi goats were. Though, really, as each generation came along, goats were becoming less and less profitable anyway. I developed an enchantment that uses scurs - baby goat horns that have grown back once - and fairy wings - they shed them at the change of seasons - and some diamond or carborundum, powdered and applied to envenomed silk, you rub the goats with it, you cut their horn with a ritual knife, you recite an incantation that I derived from my mother's family's magic. That will cause a goat to be clean, and have sharp, curly horns as long as it lives. They'll just shed any dirt or grime like a duck sheds water."

He paused, and surprisingly, the shopgirl handed him a shot of what looked to Hermione like whiskey. He took a sip, and a little flame came out of his mouth.

"Anyway," he continued, "The Malfoys were already corrupting the Wizengamot something fierce. They said I was using an illegal and unnatural charm on the goats. It was all-natural, unless you want to declare magic itself unnatural, of course. And there were no laws against it, obviously, since it was brand new. But the Wizengamot banned us from selling goats for ten years. And right in the middle of it, supporting the Malfoys, was my brother, Albus. His sycophant Doge claims we got along, but I resented being in his shadow." At this, Aberforth spat out the door. "Doge makes my skin crawl. At least Grindlewald is an in-your-face villain. But I digress. I wasn't in his shadow, nor did we get along. He was off with special tutors our father had arranged, collecting accolades, and I was home, desperately trying to save our family business."

"Albus," he said, "was going all over saying the Wizengamot had prosecuted me for 'using unnatural charms on a goat' and that 'I may not even know about it, since I couldn't read.' I really wonder how the morons who bought Albus' crap thought I made it through seven years of Hogwarts without reading anything. The main things Albus had in spades were gall and hypocrisy. Here was a wizard's wizard making insinuations about goats to cause people to think I was the invert in the family. But I didn't retaliate, because some things are a man's own damn business."

"You know," he said quietly, "when Ariana and I were small, our mother read us from Beedle the Bard. Our favourite story was 'Grumble the Grubby Goat.' She related it to our goats. It's one of the few things, along with Ariana's portrait, that I have to remember them by. And Albus has pissed all over that. Pardon my language, sincerely. I don't talk to the kiddies much."

"Anyway," he continued, "Right at the time we lost our father as the breadwinner, Albus decided to amuse himself destroying our only source of income. I sent him a letter, saying I would haul him in to the Wizengamot myself, and make him pay. He'd be disgraced, and at least our family would have its revenge. And don't let what Elphias Doge told people fool you. From a very early age, I was Albus' match and more. He did learn obscure things that would have given me trouble, but he simply wasn't as quick as me. He didn't dare duel me, and back then, everyone who knew us both, knew it. So he arranged to do spellwork for people that he could do from our family estate. I had to do the same, and reduce the size of our goat herd. He'd created the situation, entirely out of spite, malice, and his perverse, sadistic sense of humour, but he blamed me and Ariana. I didn't know if we'd have food on the table or a roof over our heads, and Kendra and Ariana were panicking. Finally, it came to a head - Ariana was closer and closer to being an Obscurial, seems she'd taken aboard what those brutal Muggle bastards told her, and blamed her magic for what they did to her, and our family's troubles."

When Albus was, finally, heading home to only partly fix the dire straits he'd put us in, it came to a head, as I said, and our mother died. Was he contrite? Not one bit. He complained endlessly about being tied down to me and Ariana and the family estate. I actually duelled him a couple of times, and I made sure I had witnesses. I duelled Doge, too - they'd already become close, although Albus didn't really care about Doge, he was convenient. Anyway, Doge was lying about me and I duelled him, and he finally realised Albus wouldn't help, and he shut up."

He pulled out a very yellowed piece of paper and handed it to Hermione. As she read it, she realised it was an apology to Aberforth from Albus Dumbledore. Below it, you could see part of an article that described the Malfoys corrupting the Wizengamot. Their star must have been fading then, she mused. The apology, printed in the Daily Prophet, admitted Aberforth had been legally enchanting goats to improve their health and their horns, and that his and the Malfoy's insinuations were false and contemptible.

"But, of course, Albus, Doge and another sycophant, Bathilda Bagshot, have arranged so anything detrimental to Albus gets swept under the rug," Aberforth said. "For instance, when Grindlewald used the Cruciatus on me, Albus did nothing. When I was fighting back, he joined forces with Grindlewald. Ariana couldn't take it, she loved me too much. She got in the way to protect me, her magic flared, but Albus and Grindlewald hit her. Grindlewald, probably, killed her, but they both hit her. Well, I didn't have anything to spend money on, so I sold off most of the estate, after I put Albus and his beau into St Mungos - wish I'd had the stones to kill Grindlewald, and I'm not sure about Albus. Anyway, I spent that money making sure Albus wouldn't get out of this one. He fled with Grindlewald to Germany, but there was a cloud over both of them after that. Then he came back to Britain, claiming contrition. He had the gall to come back for a day for her funeral. I broke his nose, I reversed all his joints, he still feels pain where I did that, I'm glad, I carried him out and dumped him, unconscious, into a hog's trough. I didn't care if he drowned."

"And that's the sort of pri ... person Albus was, and he hasn't improved much with time."

Hermione had read a little about Dumbledore besides the books, as she said, and she was not going to mention the books to anyone. "Didn't he end up fighting Grindlewald, though?" she asked, timidly.

"He did. When Grindlewald's Muggle allies, the Nazis, had lost their war, and his plans to take over the world were obviously scuttled, Albus left Britain, duelled Grindlewald to get his wand, put his beau in Nurmengard, and came back a conquering hero - at least to Magical Britain. And he fooled enough leaders in the ICW to eventually become a Mugwump. France, of course, has never trusted him. He was all over Europe in the early days, helping Grindlewald, and they don't forget that. Magical Germany was guilted into supporting him, even though they knew something of the truth."

Albus Dumbledore's status as an arch-villain was confirmed, and by the person that knew him the best. Hermione was chagrinned, but also, inwardly, she was patting herself on the back.

"I see I've ruined your day, children," Aberforth said. "Let me make it up to you. Once you've drawn Albus' attention to you, girl, this won't help as much, but still. Selene, get us something so she doesn't have to live her days dreading the next mind reader that comes along, please."

The shopgirl grinned and went near the book table. She came back with a necklace. "Put this on, it will stop Legilimency. The drawback is, it's discoverable. Then the Legilimancer wants to know why you have it. They're pricey, and rare, and it's an unusual Muggle-born that has one. Remember that, and keep on not drawing attention, alright?"

After Hermione put it on, he looked her in the eyes, then winked. "Safe as houses. Now, give Xeno my regards, if you don't mind letting him in on what you're up to. My advice is not to mind - they'd be powerful allies, and I doubt a child not even in Hogwarts yet has a plethora of those."

Hermione nodded. It made sense.

"I suppose," she said, "at least we're doing things in the right order." He clearly caught her meaning, given Luna would cheer them up as much as he'd depressed them, and he laughed.

"Look me in the eyes, and let's get this over," he said, addressing Harry. The boy shut his eyes, then realised that wouldn't work, so he let Aberforth's gaze meet his. The wizard passed his wand over Harry, muttering incantations to himself.

"There you are, Harry," he said, as he finished.

"What have you done?" Harry asked. It was the second time he'd spoken up.

"When someone's reading your mind, they won't see anything about this shop, and that includes meeting me here. If they try to track this day, it will seem to be tied to Albus' obliviation of something, and he'll assume you almost found out what he's hiding from you today. He won't mess with it for fear of jogging your memory."

"Can you do that for ... well, all the things I'm doing for him?" Hermione asked.

"If you can slip out at night, take the bus to the Hog's Head, disguise yourselves, and slip in towards the jakes, I'll do it. But it will take hours - you won't get much sleep that night."

"It won't hurt Harry, will it?"

"If anything it'll be the foundation of Occlumency and Legilimency training," Aberforth responded. "The only downside is Albus seeing many, many days where Harry was apparently fighting his Obliviation. Might bring another one down on him."

"Ask Harry's dolls to help you disguise yourselves," Selene said. "And it's high time you all headed out to Ottery St Catchpole."

With that, Hermione suddenly realised her parents hadn't said a thing. Aberforth must have cast some sort of aversion charm, because they looked like they'd been wandering around the shop the entire time. Hermione did notice, however, that her mother had been taking notes on a little pad, so that wasn't all bad.

As they headed for the car, Hermione was mostly in high spirits. However, Harry raised the issue that was still bothering her, though she was trying to suppress it and enjoy meeting the Lovegoods:

"What did that Albus Dumbledore guy have to make me forget, if I wasn't even two years old?" he asked.


NOTES:

The "unnatural charms used on goats" that Albus Dumbledore personally made nasty insinuations about, to Hagrid among others, including slurring his little brother for being both perverted and illiterate, really, truly were to make a goat have clean, sharp horns. There was nothing involving bestiality or whatever the bastard was hinting at. Far from being illiterate, as the books have Dumbledore and Doge suggest, Aberforth attended Hogwarts for all seven years, around the turn of the century.

We only have the word of Elphias Doge either that Albus was better at duelling than Aberforth or that Aberforth and he got along, but Aberforth resented being in his shadow. And Doge said, in the same context, that Albus was completely guiltless in Ariana's death, which even Albus himself didn't agree with. Doge and Dumbledore were going to take an extended journey together, seeing the world when the Dumbledore family imploded. He's got to be the least objective possible source for anything that would hurt Dumbledore's image.

Also, I think my timing on when Dumbledore duelled Grindlewald is correct. It would have been just before VE Day.