I pulled my wand out of my pocket and pointed it towards Fenrir. My breathing began to get heavy as I watched him give the orders to the other trackers to capture Astoria and I but to kill the extra. My grip tightened on my wand. There was no way I was about to let anyone kill my best friend. 

"He doesn't even know my name!" Kam whined as she pointed her own wand at them. "Why does no one know who I am! My best friend is famous within your ranks, you stupid bastards!" 

Fenrir grinned. "I know who you are, darling." 

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, right. Whatever!" 

"You are the girl who is about to be my next meal," he said, licking his lips. "Now, why are we waiting?" 

"Petrificus Totalus!" I yelled as the other two trackers came towards us. 

Of course, they blocked it. Astoria threw a stunning spell towards them, which gave me the opportunity to bind them again. The two bodies fell to the ground, clearing the way for Fenrir to jump towards us. We all jumped out of the way, but Kamrynn was not as lucky. He had grabbed her by her arm. He turned her to face us and put his mouth to her throat. 

"Stop!" I yelled, trying to hold tears back. "Give her back!" 

"Don't worry," Kam smirked, but her voice waivered some. "I can take care of this ugly bitch." 

I let out a scream as she made her move. She kicked him in the balls just as his teeth grazed her throat. It didn't penalize him for long, but it did give her a moment to get out of his grasp. She hurried over to us while holding her neck. I pulled her behind me and ran up to Fenrir, pushing my wand against his throat. He laughed at me, grabbing my wrist. 

"You are brave," he smirked. "Let me guess, you're in Gryffindor." 

"Damn straight," I said just as his body froze. 

I looked back towards Astoria and Kam, who both had their wands drawn. I wiggled my wrist out of his death grip now that he was frozen and unable to hurt me. Astoria took care of Kam's bleeding but couldn't do anything about the wound. So, we hurried in the direction of the Hog's Head. That's when we saw it: Harry's stag patronous coming straight for us. We all moved and leaned up against the wall of the building to our right. 

"That's him! Harry Potter is close! I saw his patronous!" called someone from behind us. 

"That is not what you saw!" called a husky voice. 

Another patronous was sent down past us. It looked nothing like the Harry's, even though this man was claiming that is what the tackers, and us, had seen. There must've been a dementor around in order for anyone to be sending patronouses anywhere. 

"Potter, in quick!" 

I saw a door open and headed for it. The rather tall, bearded man look at us and was about to open his mouth to say something when Harry told him that were were with them, so he quickly let us in. 

"Upstairs and keep the cloak on!" the man yelled again. 

We ran up the stairs, following the the pairs of feet that were traveling in the same direction. The man leaned out the front door as we followed his directions. 

"So what?" he was bellowing into night.  "So what? You send Dementors down my street, I'll send a Patronus back at 'em! I'm not having 'em near me, I've told you that, I'm not having it!"

When we got into a room, Astoria and I made sure all the curtains were shut. Harry, Ron, and Hermione pulled off the invisibility cloak. We all were breathing heavily, but all six of us had made it to the Hog's Head. 

"Who is that man?" Astoria asked the other trio. 

"He's the barkeep here," Hermione answered. 

Harry sighed. "I think he's Dumbledore's brother." 

"Dumbledore had siblings?" I asked, a little shocked. 

He nodded. "He also had a sister, but she died." 

"I guess you all have learned a lot about different things while we were separated," Kam commented. 

That's when we heard a door slam, and someone then stomping up the stairs. It was just moments before the man that had let them all in was standing right in front of them. He looked so angry. 

"You bloody fools," he said gruffly, looking from one to the other of them. "What were you thinking,coming here?"

"Thank you," said Harry, "we can't thank you enough. You saved our lives."

The barman grunted. Harry approached him, looking up into the face, trying to see past the long,stringy, wire-grey hair and beard. He wore spectacles. Behind the dirty lenses, the eyes were a piercing,brilliant blue. 

"It's your eye I've been seeing in the mirror." 

Obviously, Kamrynn, Astoria, and I had no idea what was going on. So, we could only just sit there awkwardly until there was something we could talk about or do. There was silence in the room. Harry and the barman looked at each other. 

"You sent Dobby," said Harry.

The barman nodded and looked around for the elf.

 "Thought he'd be with you. Where've you left him?" the man asked. 

"He's dead," said Harry. "Bellatrix Lestrange killed him."

The barman's face was impassive. We all were a little impassive. 

After a few moments, he said, "I'm sorry to hear it. I liked that elf."

 He turned away, lighting lamps with prods of his wand, not looking at any of them. 

"You're Aberforth," said Harry, to the man's back.

 He neither confirmed nor denied it but bent to light the fire. 

"How did you get this?" Harry asked, walking across to Sirius's mirror, the twin of the one he hadbroken nearly two years before. 

"Bought it from Dung 'bout a year ago," said Aberforth. "Albus told me what it was. Been trying tokeep an eye out for you."

 Ron gasped. "The silver doe!' he said excitedly. 'Was that you too?"

 "What are you talking about?" said Aberforth.

 "Someone sent a doe Patronus to us!" Ron continued. 

'Brains like that, you could be a Death Eater, son," he laughed. 

Kam laughed. "That would be great, but his patronous is a goat. We just saw it right before we came in here." 

'Oh,' said Ron. 'Yeah ... well, I'm hungry!' he added defensively, as his stomach gave an enormousrumble.

 'I got food,' said Aberforth, and he sloped out of the room, reappearing moments later with a largeloaf of bread, some cheese and a pewter jug of mead, which he set upon a small table in front of the fire. 

We were all so hungry. The only sound that could be heard was chewing and lips smacking. 

"This is the best meal I have ever had!" Kam exclaimed after eating. 

"Right then," said Aberforth. "We need to think of the best way to get you out of here. Can't be done by night, you heardwhat happens if anyone moves outdoors during darkness: Caterwauling Charm's set off, they'll be on toyou like Bowtruckles on Doxy eggs. I don't reckon I'll be able to pass off a stag as a goat a second time.Wait for daybreak, when curfew lifts, then you can put your Cloak back on and set out on foot. Get rightout of Hogsmeade, up into the mountains, and you'll be able to Disapparate there. Might see Hagrid.He's been hiding in a cave up there with Grawp ever since they tried to arrest him."

 "We're not leaving," said Harry. "We need to get into Hogwarts.

 "Don't be stupid, boy," said Aberforth. 

"We've got to," said Harry. 

"What you've got to do," said Aberforth, leaning forwards, "is to get as far from here as you can."

"You don't understand. There isn't much time. We've got to get into the castle. Dumbledore – I mean,your brother – wanted us –" The firelight made the grimy lenses of Aberforth's glasses momentarily opaque, a bright, flat white.  "My brother, Albus, wanted a lot of things,' said Aberforth, "and people had a habit of getting hurtwhile he was carrying out his grand plans. You get away from this school, Potter, and out of the countryif you can. Forget my brother and his clever schemes. He's gone where none of this can hurt him, andyou don't owe him anything." 

"You don't understand," said Harry again. 

"Oh, don't I?" said Aberforth quietly. "You don't think I understood my own brother? Think you knewAlbus better than I did?"

I glanced over at Astoria, who looked just as uncomfortable than I was. We were in the middle of something; something that we didn't feel apart of anymore. However, I still felt that pull to Hogwarts and knew that is where we needed to be. 

"I didn't mean that," said Harry, whose brain felt sluggish with exhaustion and from the surfeit of foodand wine. "It's ... he left me a job."

"Did he, now?" said Aberforth.

"Nice job, I hope? Pleasant? Easy? Sort of thing you'd expect an unqualified wizard kid to be able to do without overstretching themselves?" Ron gave a rather grim laugh. 

Hermione was looking strained. 

"I – it's not easy, no,' said Harry. 'But I've got to –"

 "Got to? Why got to? He's dead, isn't he?' said Aberforth roughly. "Let it go, boy, before youfollow him! Save yourself!"

"He has a point!" Kam interjected.

I shot her a look. "Shut your mouth right now." I said through clenched teeth. 

Harry didn't seem to listen anyway. He just kept going on about why he had to follow Dumbledore's orders. I was not one to talk. I have been following the orders of a dead man as well. Our attention was then brought to a painting of a young girl because Hermione pointed up at it. 

"Is that your sister, Ariana?" She asked him, changing the subject of the conversation. 

"You've been reading Rita Skeeter, eh?" he asked. 

"Elphious Dodge mentioned her to us," Harry nodded. 

"That old berk," muttered Aberforth, taking another swig of mead. "Thought the sun shone out of mybrother's every orifice, he did. Well, so did plenty of people, you three included, by the looks of it."

The fight about carrying out Dumbledore's orders came back up, which I was a little tired of. Then, Aberforth said something that had caught my attention: "Funny thing, how many of the people my brother cared about verymuch, ended up in a worse state than if he'd left 'em well  alone."