Mudblood & Me | Completed

Chapter 57 - I need to finish a job

Harry's POV

We couldn't apparate into Hogwarts, nobody could, so we had to settle for as close as we could get. Draco said he managed to apparate into the Forbidden Forest but that also shouldn't have been possible, and I didn't quite trust that he was telling the truth. Hermione might believe he is completely trustworthy, but I couldn't get over 6 years of hate in an instant, even if Hermione could. If anything Hermione should have hated him more than me, but she was kind and seemed to very easily get over it. I decided on apparating to Hogsmeade instead, it seemed like the safer option and still easy to get to Hogwarts from there. Or so I thought, it turns out I was incorrect. As soon as our feet touched the ground, there was some faint sound and shouting. A door opened and light spilled into the street, as people rushed out. We all ran and hid down the side of a building down the street. I peered around the side, they were Death Eaters but how did they know. They must have rigged Hogsmeade for anyone apparating they knew we were coming. Hermione tugged my arm, I turned around to face her.

"Harry what are we going to do? If they catch us they will take us straight to Voldemort and we're as good as dead." She whispered quietly, her face was panicked. Which was completely reasonable really, considering she was right and I had no idea what we could do about it. I had no plan and no other option. We couldn't leave, we needed to go to Hogwarts but we couldn't risk getting caught either. 

"Just try and get as far away from them as possible, and as close to the castle. We might just have to run for it." I said, we started moving as quickly and quietly down the path as possible. 

But the Death Eaters and their shouts were getting ever closer, I had no idea what else to do and we were very quickly running out of time and options. Then there was a quiet shout, I turned straight away towards the sound. It was an old man with a long grey beard, weirdly familiar although I couldn't work out why. Grabbing Ron's arm I pulled him to the door with me, Hermione and Draco following, both looking around behind them to check nobody had seen us. I brushed past the man quickly, not having chance to look at his face before I went down the stairs right in front of me. 

It seemed like a strange layout of a house, but I doubted that this was the time to bring it up when we were hiding out in this house. At the bottom of the stairs was a warmly lit, spacious living room. A fire was crackling in the hearth, even though it was August, the man that lived here was old maybe he got easily cold. A painting of some girl in a blue dress hung above the fireplace, a faint smile was on her face. She looked young and pretty. Ginny might not have been very happy about me watching this girl, so I turned around, Hermione and Draco were having a look around too. Ron was stood, looking a bit awkward and out of place in the centre of the room. There was some talking upstairs and then the man quietly came down the stairs. I couldn't help but double take, when I clearly saw his face. It looked so much like Dumbledore. Everyone else noticed at the same time as me, Ron's mouth dropping open a little.

"Excuse me but who are you?" Hermione asked, taking a step forward, looking at his face carefully. The man seemed amused, a smile playing across his face. His eyes twinkled, almost exactly like Dumbledore's used to. 

"Maybe you aren't as bright as they say, Miss Granger." He said, chuckling. Hermione's face flushed, she thought for a second.

"You're Aberforth Dumbledore, aren't you? Dumbledore's brother, and that's your sister, Ariana. She died when she was young." Hermione said, a smug smile on her face. Aberforth smiled, his eyes widening slightly.

"I take back my earlier comment, very good Miss Granger, you figured that out quickly." Aberforth said, his eyes twinkling again. He and Dumbledore were unnervingly similar, yet in all my times talking to Dumbledore he had barely mentioned Aberforth before and he had definitely not mentioned his younger sister.

"Confused, Mr Potter?" Aberforth said, his face amused. 

"If you are Dumbledore's brother, why did he barely mention you? Why did you never spend time together if you live so close to the castle?" I asked, unable to hide my confusion. If they were brothers surely they must have spent some time together. "And why did he never mention your sister?" Aberforth's face seemed to harden at the mention of his dead sister, which was completely understandable as far as I was aware she died when she was young but I hadn't heard much about her, other than from gossip and rumours after Dumbledore died. Aberforth took a step towards me and sat down heavily in his seat with a sigh.

"Albus and I didn't really get along after our sister's death, he blamed himself as he should and so did I. I couldn't look at him without seeing our dead sister, so we barely saw each other and it was for the best really. But I did like to keep an eye on him, make sure he wasn't up to anything that might cause yet another problem for our family so I moved here where I could see him if I wanted to but far enough away that I didn't have to. He barely ever came to Hogsmeade so it worked out just fine for the both of us. Now enough about me and my family history, Mr Potter, why have you returned here when it's so obviously not safe?"

"I need to finish a job." I reply.