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The Mystery of Aberforth

by David Haber

During the interview after the launch of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, J.K. Rowling said, "There is one member of the Order of the Phoenix that you have not yet met properly, but you will meet them in seven." Is this person Dumbledore's mysterious brother, Aberforth? What do we know about Aberforth, and how is he involved in the story?

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Reader Comments: (Page 13)

Harry does remember "Nitwit, Blubber, Oddment, Tweak". He remembers it really recently during Dumbledore's even though he heard it about 5 years before the .

Posted by Dumbledore's Fan on March 7, 2007 10:09 AM

JK Rowling said this at a book festival in Edinburgh, UK, when asked by an aunce member:

Aunce Member: Why is the barman of the Hog�s Head vaguely familiar to Harry? Is he Dumbledore�s brother?

JK Rowling: Ooh�you are getting good. Why do you think that it is Aberforth? [Aunce member: Various clues. He smells of goats and he looks a bit like Dumbledore]. I was quite proud of that clue. That is all that I am going to say. [Laughter]. Well yes, obviously. I like the goat clue�I sniggered to myself about that one.

This would support that the barman is Aberforth, Dumbledore's brother.

Posted by Darren Lee Turner from Leamington on March 7, 2007 11:53 AM

Herve: What if Dumbledore started looking for Horcruxes right after Voldermort was defeated the first time. And he possibly had the help of four people, but he left all the horcurxes alone because he knew that Harry had to help in destroying them.

Posted by Kyle from Kearney, Ne on March 8, 2007 2:57 PM

Kyle from Kearney,

I think that Dumbledore has been looking for clues as to why Voldemort didn�t , and probably had a very good idea about the horcruxes but needed to confirm his theory, that's why he took Harry to Slughorn's and got him talking about the horcruxes.

Dumbledore also needed to know how many horcruxes Voldy could have made, which was in Slughorn�s memory.

If Dumbledore had known the whereabouts of the horcruxes before Harry came to school he would have tried to get rid of them in order to give Harry a better advantage against Voldy.

Posted by Emilio from Mexico City, Mexico on March 9, 2007 10:38 AM

Something I just noticed, while looking at the Black family tree "The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black" which J.K. had drawn up and donated for auction. At the bottom listed under credits is one "Aberforth the Marauder (intelligence)" I find this very interesting. As I've stated before I believe that Aberforth is working under cover gathering intelligence for the OOTP. This may be a subtle clue.

Posted by Jeff from Tennessee on March 10, 2007 5:11 PM

Jeff,
Good catch.
Maybe the clue leads to the Marauder's Map, and one of the secret tunnels from Hogwarts leads to the Hog's Head.
If Dung wanted to pass stuff to Albus, this could be a way.

Posted by Patty from Quincy MA on March 11, 2007 10:58 AM

Maybe Aberforth be in hogwarts for some reason and harry Dumbledore on the map and (if they did switch places) it say albus dumbledore

Posted by glorfindel from aberdeen uk on March 11, 2007 8:11 PM

In reading last night, I noticed that HBP mentions "the barman from Hog's Head" as one of the people attending the . I would say this eliminates the possibility that it is Aberforth in the , if you are in the camp of Aberforth being the barman, which I am.

Posted by Amy from P. Kentucky on March 12, 2007 08:02 AM

That's a great point! Unless they used polyjuice potion to switch places, it must have really been Dumbledore (Albus) who d, and not Aberforth. If it was Aberforth, in disguise as Dumbledore, I think the effects would have worn away when he d.

Posted by Dumbledore's Fan on March 12, 2007 08:53 AM

Question: Why did Aberforth stop actively operating with the Order after the photo was taken (Maddeye stated that was the last time he saw him)? Could it be that he has actually been active, but only with Dumbledore's knowledge?

Remember that when Dumbledore and Harry were talking about the Ministry security measures in HBP, Dumbledore said to Harry on page 62, "For future reference, Harry, it [his favorite jam] is raspberry..." I thought they would be doing this secret code at the end of the book, but it did not happen.

Possibility: When Aberforth finally contacts Harry and lets him know who he is, he might be the person who reintroduces Harry to Dumbledore (in one state or another), and when he does Harry not believe him. At this point, Dumbledore tell Harry what his favorite jam is.

Posted by Mike Hawley from Buffalo on March 12, 2007 3:40 PM

you are extremely sharp to pay attention to little little details in the book. Well done! i look forward to reading more articles of yours.

Posted by nic on March 13, 2007 07:32 AM

Didn't Dumbledore say to someone this:
"Oh no, I'm merely friends with the local barman."
Well if the barman doesn't like people, and he is giving a very good impression that he doesn't like people too much, then how else would Dumbledore be friends with him except by being his brother?

Posted by Ashley from Missouri on March 13, 2007 5:43 PM

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