January 1, 1998

Hogsmeade village filled me with a sort of indescribable dread. The way it loomed over the hills and the wrought iron gates at the road into the village. There was an eerie quality to it in the late evening darkness that covered the rolling hills, lit only by the dim light of streetlamps and the stars above.

I remembered my previous visit here with Tavish and Lucinda... How long ago was it? Two years? Yes, that was in peacetime, well, something more closely resembling the concept. I barely recognized that girl I was on that day all those years ago. I don't think the Audrey from two years ago could picture all the changes in her life and worldview in such a short span of time.

Percy reached over and squeezed my hand before fixing his charms and looking for the papers we were to present to the Death Eater guarding the gates of the village.

I remembered my previous visit to the Hogs Head pub, but I knew I would not be able to find it in the dark under these conditions and the memories Percy had shown me were not going to be much help in navigating my way there alone. If we were separated, I would be better off sleeping in a trash can until morning light than trying to find my way out of the infiltrated village.

"Papers." The man at the gate stated as we walked up.

Percy quietly pulled out the papers he had forged for permission to enter Hogsmeade. We were both about to find out first-hand the extent of Percy's talents and what having access to the proper stamps could accomplish.

The guard looked at the papers for a moment, scanning them carefully with his eyes under the light of his wand. He had a face like a bulldog, soft and floppy, but heavy jawed.

"Everything looks in order." He stamped the papers and handed them back to Percy who pocketed them quickly with a murmured thanks. "Hope things go well with your mother, Mrs. Weatherby."

"Very kind of you," I responded as the gates swung open to allow us entry.

Percy tucked my arm in his and I glanced up at him, praying that he was not attached to the idea of a full moustache in his future. We looked like a harmless, middle-aged couple, Percy had managed to instill a few wrinkles on his face and I was partially sure he did not have to work too hard at that, there was stress and trauma on his face if one looked closely enough that seemed to age him, if I looked closer, I could see where the crowsfeet wanted to form at the corners of his eyes. The charm work he had done just seemed to bring out all the stress he had been under.

In turn, I did my best to look like my mother had before she passed, blonde hair, haggard and tired seemed to be a disguise I carried quite well and matched up with the idea of a middle-aged couple going to care for an ailing relative in the evening hours.

"It's too quiet here," Percy muttered as we walked down the high street, the snow crunching under our feet as fresh flakes continued to fall. It would have been a romantic scene if not for the black clad figures on patrol who stomped around aggressively and fired low grade knockback jinxes at trash cans.

It was almost like the rougher streets of New York City.

Percy pulled me closer as two of the guards walked by, hooting and hollering over someone they had chased around earlier. About the look on his face when they cornered him in one of the old closes.

Just as every dog has his day, every Death Eater will get their day in court if I have anything to say about it.

There were figures shrinking into the shadows from the Death Eaters on patrol, window curtains closing and audible lock clicking. I was not sure all of it was fear, it could have been quiet reminders to stay inside for the residents - something so ingrained in their routines from the early days of the occupation that they couldn't help themselves anymore.

"Hey!"

I jumped and felt Percy tense and tighten next to me, the suddenness of the threat seeming to have less impact on his nerves.

We simultaneously turned to face some little man, clearly high on the power he never had before the Ministry fell. Narrow, horse-like face and little beady eyes. Excellent. A human ferret. Would wonders never cease!

The ferret staggered slightly, his words slurring. He was clearly drunk and we could win if it came to spells, but we were currently a beaten down middle-aged couple and that would break the illusion that had gotten us into Hogsmeade.

"I wan'ah see ya' papers."

"We showed them at the gate," Percy took a firm tone and moved his thumb over the sliver of exposed skin on my wrist.

"Well," the ferret slurred and I struggled to stop my eyes from rolling. "'Bout yer woman?"

"My wife," Percy emphasized in a low tone that made me wish that was actually the case, his mustache bristling, "has her papers, not that it's any of your business."

Wrong thing to say. The ferret puffed himself up, his face reddening with rage. "Itizz m' busin'ss! I'mma guard! I kip out the riffraff!"

"What's goin' on 'ere?"

Oh great! Another drunken Death Eater, I was starting to think they needed more to do.

This new one was more proportional, only rounder and squatter than his companion, huffing as he ran over, almost slipping in the snow in the process.

The ferret turned, his voice annoyed and in a sort of drunken whine. "Stevie, dey won't show me t'eir papers!"

Stevie huffed and wheezed; I thought the recruiting standards seemed lower for Voldemort than they really should be for a cult leader who overthrew a government. Maybe these two were desk workers from Magical Law Enforcement who saw a chance to get out from behind a desk? It did not matter; the result was the same.

"Ya 'eard'em." Stevie held out his hand. "Papers. Now."

Before we could reach into our pockets to comply quietly to move the night along, a horrible noise like screaming cats shot through the village and the two drunks turned away from us towards it, the sudden noise distracting them. They evidently decided the noise was more important than the two of us as Percy decisively hauled me into a nearby alleyway, his arm moving over my shoulder to pull me into his chest, overwhelming me with the smell of his earthy smell of his cologne and the damp wool of his cloak as I erased our tracks with a flick of my wand. I opened my eyes to peek out and see what was happening.

A man ran past the mouth of the alley, half slipping in the snow and tried to yank open a door to one of the residential homes on this street. There was a bright flash of light and an awful scream that made me grip Percy tighter as the Death Eaters, now joined by Stevie and the ferret whooped and hollered like they were at a sporting event as they fired off spells- crafting a horrible lightshow of victory and screams of a tortured, beaten man.

The sound was hard to forget.

"Come on," Percy muttered, moving us away from the chaos. "We need to go."

I nodded into his chest.

We needed to leave this behind. We had other things to accomplish tonight. Saving everyone was beyond our power.

Percy led me out of the alley and on to the connecting street at the other end. We walked past old buildings, each slightly different to the others in color, style or even decade and century. Little pieces added as the years went by to create buildings that could reflect a hodgepodge of eras of wizarding fashion. Small towers and turrets, large windows that I was now sure the owners regretted, and elaborate doors with runic inscriptions from when it was fashionable to mark one's home that way as a threat of power and prominence. I noted as we rushed past that those doors and homes seemed less mussed than their neighbors.

How quaint.

I lost all track of the turns and alleyways we had turned down. I would need Percy to get us back out of here or to the main road again. I tightened my grip on him.

"Not far, we're just taking the long way back."

I nodded slowly.

"They were waiting on the Potter boy."

"Yes," Percy's voice was low.

"Do you think he'll come back to Hogwarts?"

"If he's smart, he'll stay far away." Percy's voice was low, "I don't know what would bring him back here."

"Colin thinks he will."

The Creevey boys had left a note for me at the safehouse they had escaped from, stating that they were going to join the resistance that was apparently underway at Hogwarts. Enclosed in the note was Colin's galleon, stating that he had left it for my use as he would share with Dennis. Colin said he would trust me to answer the call when it came. I was not sure what he meant by that. The galleon was currently in my pocket and clearly enchanted with a very powerful spell and some senseless numbers on the edge that did not seem to be part of a goblin serial code. It needed closer investigation if we did not find Colin and Dennis, or an explanation if we did.

"Colin worships Potter beyond all sense." Percy paused as an older woman walked past us. The buildings were getting shabbier and more run down. I recognized the part of Hogsmeade we were entering. "He does not need to go here to wait for him! And drag his brother along for the ride."

"I agree, but good luck convincing Colin of that."

The stubborn set to Percy's jaw made an appearance and, with his disguise, he looked very much like an angry father. "I don't have to convince him. I just need to grab him."

Colin seemed like the kind of boy who would be slippery and hard to catch, I think we only caught him because we got Dennis first. That could work again.

"You get Dennis, that should shock Colin and I'll get the jump on him. Alright?"

"Done. Careful. I think he bites."

"So does Dennis apparently."

This earned quiet, low laughs from the two of us. The Creevey boys were feisty.

There was a point to our coming to Hogsmeade tonight, if there was a resistance at Hogwarts, Tavish had a theory that Aberforth would know something. Hogwarts was full of secret passages and, per Tavish and his admittance to… teenaged shenanigans, many of those secret passages would lead to Hogsmeade. Percy had managed to add in that there were reports of Potter forming Dumbledore's Army at the Hogshead pub, per the reports he was dealing with as the Fudge Administration neared its end.

A visit to Aberforth Dumbledore did not seem to be too far out of the question.

It was the most logical starting point we had in any case.

Meaning it was something.

We took a final turn and found ourselves outside the shabbiest, roughest looking pub in Wizarding Britain. The wood was chipped, the sign was swaying dangerously in the winter winds and it felt like a hazard just standing nearby.

I reached into my pocket to touch the brown paper wrapping on the package Tavish had given me as, what I thought of, an offering to Aberforth. Something that might make him a bit more pleasant and helpful. The package was shaped like a bottle and I was sure I knew what it was. Tavish had a small set up to make homemade wine and pickle some vegetables- really there could be anything in here.

The Hogshead pub itself was blissfully empty when Percy and I entered. I suppressed a grin at the conspicuous backside of a goat peeking out from behind the bar. I released Percy's arm and locked the door behind us with a spell while checking the premises with a human revealing spell. Empty. Except for the barkeep who was down beneath the bar thank goodness.

"What do you want?"

Aberforth Dumbledore sprung up from a trapdoor behind the bar, levitating a box containing some of his signature dirty glasses. He was the same as I remembered him from two years ago, scruffy and very old with white beard and vivid blue eyes behind dirty glasses. The vague aroma of goat wafting around the pub only added to the atmosphere. There was a hardness in his blazing blue eyes that reminded me of my own encounter with his brother at Hogwarts... Merlin, that was so long ago.

Aberforth set down the glassware with a clanging, clinking noise and looked at Percy and I with a challenging expression. "Who are'ya?"

"Tavish sent me." I pulled the parcel out of my pocket and reached over to hand it to the barkeep, who was looking me over and trying to place me. He did not move to take it and I set it on the counter with a heavy clunk before stepping back to Percy's side. "We need to talk to you."

"That don't prove much," he raised a bushy eyebrow. Aberforth waved his wand and I could hear the locks clink open and close again before a rush of magic that offered silence and privacy that sent a shiver down my toes. Aberforth was a powerful wizard in his own right, not to the extent of his brother perhaps, but more in line with what I expected from my grandfather, Atticus. There was an undercurrent of power to Aberforth that reminded me that he could be a dangerous opponent if he was ever motivated to be so.

Percy and I exchanged a look.

Aberforth shrugged, "We won't be bothered by the fools outside. I banned them ages ago."

And they had not bothered him since? Well, there were other, nicer pubs in the village for the patrollers who wanted to feel important.

I took the initiative and removed the charms Percy and I had placed on ourselves with a few flicks of my wand. The fact that my wand had remained silent through this whole encounter gave me confidence in Aberforth's word.

Now that I was wearing my own face, I could speak in my own voice.

Aberforth started putting away his filthy glasses.

Wait…

"We'll have a lager and talk about it." I slid up to the counter and popped onto a dusty barstool, putting my elbows on the bar expectationally and pulling a few sickles out of my pocket. "What's on the tap?"

Aberforth scoffed and poured me a dark, stoat beer from the tap, evidently deciding that he was not getting any better business tonight. I motioned Percy over for a beer and he shuffled over, paying for his own and handing me a handkerchief to wipe the rim of my glass when Aberforth's back was turned and taking a seat.

"We need to talk to you."

"'bout what?"

Delicacy in conversation was one of the core tenants of negotiation and politics. Establish trust – give a little to get some in turn. It's a dance, and we will have to move very carefully with Aberforth, my association with Tavish merely got us in the door. He'll hear us out, but I need to persuade him to help us.

"What's going on at Hogwarts?" Percy spoke quickly, a feisty argumentative look in his eyes as he leaned forward. Percy did not seem to notice or care about the quiet threat of Aberforth, Percy would never see it until the old man drew his wand.

Aberforth was unmoved by the display, almost amused in a way judging by the wry smile at the corner of his mouth. "Don't know a thing and if I did, I wouldn't tell ya."

"Please," Percy put his hands on the bar while Aberforth stood his ground on the other side. "My sister is there and all I've heard is terrible things about how they run the school now!"

Aberforth tilted his head slightly, "You're one of Arthur's boys. I know you're not any of the younger ones."

Percy gave a start at that, a slight jerk of his body that betrayed his surprise at the statement and a series of quickly sorting information to try and comprehend what Aberforth had just told him.

"You ain't Charlie either, he liked to come by to talk about dragons with Moggy."

Percy looked far closer to his inevitable stroke than I had ever seen him.

"You must be Bill. I thought you got mauled by a werewolf?"

Percy was rocking back and forth a bit. "My name is Percy."

"Oh, wait a minute, you're the fourth-"

"Third."

Aberforth rolled his eyes, "Righ', righ', the one who had a winge."

I was not familiar with that term.

"I thought you wanted nothing to do with your family?"

"How do you know all that?" Percy's face was pale and angry, his blue eyes icy and determined, but sad somewhere under it in a way I was sure I was the only one to notice.

"I'm a barman, I know everyone's business."

Hm, I somehow doubted that was entirely the truth.

"Yer pretty private for someone who was goin' around crowing about how you were the Minister's new lap dog." Aberforth scoffed, "How do I know you two ain't Ministry lackeys?"

"We're here to ask for help!" I cut in before Percy could lose his grip entirely. "We're looking for two boys who we think have gone back to the school."

Aberforth raised an eyebrow and I thought he looked alarmingly like Albus Dumbledore in that moment, but there was no kindly twinkle in Aberforth's eye, there was a steely resilience to him and an implicit danger that I had grown up with. Yeah, I think I could handle Aberforth Dumbledore.

"You're Tavish's…" Aberforth tapped an empty glass on the table thoughtfully, "niece or some such? Aubrey."

"Audrey. Yeah, that is a pretty accurate description."

More like a surrogate granddaughter- it's quite nice actually.

"We just want to know if you've seen two little blond boys wandering around, maybe talking about heading up to Hogwarts. We don't want them to get hurt."

"I've seen no children; they banned trips to Hogsmeade months ago. Didn't want those kids meeting and running off." He peered at Percy and I over the rims of his glasses. "Or getting tortured by the Ministry."

"Death Eaters." Percy corrected.

"Same thing these days. If ya can't see that, then you're free to go."

The two men stared at each other with firm, resolute expressions. Aberforth with his promise and threat hanging in the air. Percy with his resolve to stay with me and find out more about the situation at Hogwarts. The goat bleated loudly from somewhere in a nearby corner.

I broke through the standoff. "So, you've not seen any students in months?"

"No, Snape keeps that castle locked up tight- those kids only leave for the holidays. The economy here is hanging on by a thread, and that's being generous."

Percy made a noise as he checked the glass Aberforth had put in front of him, filled with dark beer and in a glass far filthier than mine. That was a clear message.

I put the handkerchief in Percy's lap as I took the opportunity to start chatting with the barkeep with stupid questions.

"Is it true they're torturing students?"

"Tavish says you're smart, what do you think?"

Percy wiped the rim of his glass quickly and shoved it into his pocket before taking a long sip to get through the rest of this two-way interrogation.

"I believe it." I paused for a moment, wondering how open I should be.

Percy cut in, a quiet anger in his voice. "They torture Ministry staff too; I imagine the torture of students is used to keep the parents in line at the Ministry."

"Clever." Aberforth said in his gruff way. "Don't know why ya came to see me if you could logic that out for yourselves."

"We just need to find the missing boys so no harm comes to them," I spoke next to keep Aberforth on his toes a bit. Percy and I were a team and I wanted that to be very apparent.

"There's harm everywhere these days."

It was evident that Aberforth had not seen anything or any sign of the Creevey boys, but in some ways, he was desperate for company and rational conversation that I was not sure he was getting much of these days. He made a quick sport of prodding and poking Percy in a way that was almost adversarial, answering his questions in round-about ways that could my my head spin. To put it simply, Aberforth was bored and we were the only bit of not life-threatening amusement he had in months.

He told us more about life under occupation in Hogsmeade, that he did sometimes get students in his pub after Harry Potter conscripted them into his self-defense club during his fifth year. Any bit of fearful reputation he had gained had been chipped away after that show. Some of the students would come pet his goat- grateful that it did not breath fire like Hagrid's creatures.

When we finished our beer, Aberforth told us we needed to leave before the curfew spells activated on main street and the entry gate closed.

"I'll keep an ear out for any news at Hogwarts," Aberforth said suddenly as Percy put his hand on the door handle while I fixed up our charms. "But you'll have to see me, I ain't social and birds coming to my pub with letters will raise suspicions."

"Of course," Percy answered as his moustache began to regrow on his face (ugh…).

"You won't."

There was that stubborn look in Percy's eyes again, Aberforth had posed a challenge to Percy and, like a dog with a bone, Percy would never let it go.

We stepped out into the cold, the door locking behind us, knowing that the Creevey boys were beyond our reach. They were not safe, but they were where they wanted to be (or as close as they could manage to be helpful). Waiting with their friends for the fight they believed was coming. Ready to throw themselves into whatever cause Harry Potter asked of them if he ever returned.

I wondered what it was like to live with that kind of conviction. Gryffindors were supposed to be courageous, bull headed and stubborn. I saw that in Percy regularly. Though I was not sure faithful devotion was in the Gryffindor creed.

"If I went to Hogwarts, where do you think I would have gone?"

"That's a new topic."

"I'm curious." I was trying to distract him, and maybe myself, from our failure with Aberforth. "If my life had been different, how do you think I would have been sorted?"

"Ravenclaw, but you're kind of devious so maybe Slytherin? I'm not sure if you would have been as cunning as you are now at eleven."

"Seems a shame to sort so early. At Ilvermorny, we sort on which part of the wizard we identify with the most."

"Hm?"

"I was a Horned Serpent, so my mind is my guiding force. Alex is a Thunderbird because he's let around by his soul and his beliefs." I paused, "My father and sister are from the Wampus house, it believes in the reckless courage of the body- to fearlessly throw themselves into danger. Pukwudgies are the heart, they don't look for trouble, but they willing to fight and defend what they love. Ilvermorny is less rigid than Hogwarts, I can do great good or damage with the knowledge I have, just as Alex can be a force for good by acting on his conscience. It doesn't just tie me into academics."

"Right, you use your brain to destabilize governments and manipulate the social dynamics behind them. It's frightening." Percy's brow furrowed as he reached down to tuck my arm in his. "Hogwarts seems to sort on what you value, which might explain why all of my family have gone to Gryffindor."

"Seems silly to know you would be ready to risk your life for a great cause at eleven."

That seemed a silly thing for a child to aspire too.

Though maybe, my family was not much better in that regard.

Percy shrugged, "It doesn't have to be great causes." He looked down at me with such warmth and affection that my stomach flipped as we turned through the close. "I'm willing to deal with your father for the rest of his life."

I elbowed Percy playfully, earning a chuckle in return.

"Dealing with Jack is an act of valor and a test of chivalric patience; I don't think anyone else but you could survive the experience."

Oo0Oo0

Author's Note: Aberforth's accent is in and out because we're in Audrey's head. He hits some of his words a bit heavy for her hearing.