Yours, Fred | f. weasley x reader

Chapter 66: The Brother

A/N: We're in the endgame now friends *cries*

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Your plan to use the Hogsmeade passageway into the castle fell through as the six of you ducked into a small alleyway and out of sight, allowing your pursuers to run past you. Hermione ran to the end of the alleyway, but it was a dead end and you were trapped.

A door suddenly cracked open and an unfamiliar voice called quietly but urgently out to you, "in here, Potter!" You all exchanged a wary look, but you had no choice but to follow the voice as an older man beckoned you through his door and locked it behind you, but it was too dark to see him properly until you walked down the steps into a room with lanterns and candles lit.

"Bloody fools. What were you thinking, coming here? Have you any idea how dangerous it is?" The old man said gruffly to you all, and you were taken aback when you saw him, and judging by the looks on the others' faces, they were too. He was the old barman of the Hog's Head who you'd briefly seen from a distance before the first D.A. meeting, and seeing him properly now, you were shocked to see that he looked just like Dumbledore.

Harry stared at him appraisingly and pulled his shard of mirror out of a wrapped cloth in his pocket. "It's you I've been seeing in this mirror," he said as a statement rather than a question and the tall old man said nothing so Harry spoke again, "you sent Dobby."

The man nodded stiffly and walked away, lighting a few more lanterns, "thought he'd be with you. Where've you left him?"

Harry hesitated momentarily before replying, "he's dead. Bellatrix Lestrange killed him."

The old barman faltered slightly and stilled his wand next to the lantern he was lighting, but his wrinkled and bearded face showed no emotion as he responded, "I'm sorry to hear that. I liked that elf."

During their exchange you glanced around the room, realising you were in a back room of the dilapidated pub and your gaze fell on an oil painting on the wall of a beautiful young blonde girl.

"You're Aberforth," Harry said and the name caught your attention and drew you back into the conversation. Your thoughts raced as you recalled poring over one of Hermione's books with her, and she shared a bewildered look with you, showing that she was thinking the same thing. Aberforth neither confirmed nor denied Harry's words, so Harry pressed on and pointed to the mirror on the wall, the same as the one Harry had the shard of glass from, "how did you get this?"

Aberforth shrugged as he bent down to light a fire in the large stone fireplace, "bought it from Mundungus Fletcher about a year ago. Albus told me what it was. Been trying to keep an eye out for you." The mention of your late Headmaster's name confirmed what you already suspected, the old man who had just saved you from the Death Eaters was the younger brother of Albus Dumbledore.

Ron's stomach gave a loud rumble of hunger from where he stood and he cringed in embarrassment, "er- yeah, I may be a bit hungry."

Aberforth nodded and crossed the room, "I have food. Stay here." Then he walked up a small set of rickety steps to what you assumed was the main part of the Hog's Head.

As soon as he left the room the twins sat down heavily at the small table in the corner. "Bloody hell," they both said in unison and they dropped their bags onto the floor next to them, but you stayed standing and studied the portrait with Hermione.

Aberforth came back down minutes later with a large tray of food, a large loaf of bread, some cheese and butter, and a large jug of mead and another one of water. As soon as he set it down on the table you all descended on it like a pack of hungry wolves, and he brought down another tray when that one had been polished clean as a result of the insatiable Weasley appetite multiplied by three, and the fact that you hadn't eaten since leaving Shell Cottage just that morning.