Aberforth's crime

[Nobby]

mayb aberforth n mundungus had a disagreements over a scam they were pullin. that mayb y dung wad banned

[hagrid_fang]

But Mundugus was barred, so had to keep in disguise. Surely, if the barman was Aberforth and he was in the ordr (which I think is strongly hinted at) then he would allow Dung in to keep an eye on Harry.

Nice try though!

not necessarily! it would have depended on what happened! and the circumstances in which he was banned!!

[Athena Appleton]

But Mundugus was barred, so had to keep in disguise. Surely, if the barman was Aberforth and he was in the ordr (which I think is strongly hinted at) then he would allow Dung in to keep an eye on Harry.

Nice try though!

oh yeah... well, that was a non-important point, anyway... what do you think about the possibility that the inappropriate charm was making the goat milk something other than milk?

[Scellanis]

did they ever give a reason for Mundungus being barred.....maybe Mundungus wasn't barred and the being barred thing was a lie to cover up the need for a disguise.....scuse me if i'm miles out here, not read the book for ages.....

[darkcloak]

Taken from http://journals.tuxreports.com/emh/archives/000683.html

The barman at The Hogs Head is Dumbledores brother, Aberforth
"He was a grumpy-looking old man with a great deal of long grey hair and beard. He was tall and thin and looked vaguely familiar to Harry." p300 UK version.
Besides the usual family resemblences, Harry saw a picture of him when Moody showed him the photo of the original Order.
This is probably how Dumbledore knew so much about the DA, like when the meeting took place, and how he managed to cook up a new version of events so quickly to avoid Harry being expelled.

[darkcloak]

I have just read the chapter where the above quote comes from and found another clue from JKR.

When Harry goes into the Hogs Head, he says it has a certain smell, 'a bit like GOATS'

Wonder what Aberforth has been up to?

[Scellanis]

you know, the prophecy about harry took place in the Hogs head didn't it....if Dumbledore's brother owns that then that would probably explain why Dumbledore used it rather than the other one...cos I thought that odd when I first read that, why would Dumbledore use the grotty pub to interview rather than the nice one......but his brother being the barman would explain that....

[Eos]

He's Dumbeldore's brother - he's got to be pretty good. Plus he survived LVs reign of terror the first time.

My guess is he's like Sherlock Holmes' brother - more intelligent but less famous.

I don't think that he has to be pretty good just b/c he's DDs brother! Think of lovely ol' Petunia! Being THE muggle herself with a sister who's one of the most famous witches in the wizarding world! Or think of Neville. Yes, he worked very hard during book 5, but up to this everybody thought about him being a sqiubbish wizard more than a "proper" one.

But I really like the idea of Aberforth (the one in the books I mean) changing a goat into a walking ale-barrel

[choki]

Perhaps he tried to make the goat produced beer instead of milk....
*shudders at the thought of the 25 cups of butterbeers DA drank*

[child of darkness]

how about bewitching them before a muggle tries to milk it

[pandora315]

My theory is that it was more like exprimental breeding or something like that,something akin to Hagrids blast-ended skroats (s/p). But I have another theory (small possibility) on mundungus. JK said in the webchat that she had to kill Sirius and we'd know why later, Mundungus is always sticking up for Sirius (he says "I agree with sirius" in Ootp) and we also know that Mundungus FLetcher tried to hex Arthur in CoS. Now, I origionally though he tried to hex him because Arthur busted him for smuggling cauldrins or toads or something like that, but Arthur was doing RAIDS for dark arts things all night. Why would Mundungus be raided for that? Unless he's evil, Sirius was evil, and the barman knows.

(I don't really believe Sirius is evil, but hey, you have to keep and open mind.)

[Aberforth]

Mundungus is a dodgy geezer and has his fingers in many less-than-legal pies. A ministry wizard would pose a serious threat to him at the time and he would have done what he could to remain free. I am sure that there would be a black market for dark arts materials and that they would fetch good prices, so thats why Dung would have them.

[Athena Appleton]

Aberforth: exactly.

Mundungus is criminal, but basically a good guy... One thing I really love about these books is the different "good guys" we see... Some are obvious (Dumbledore, Arthur, Molly, even Lupin), others are a little less obvious (Mundungus, Sirius [to other wizards, the convicted murderer and famous Death Eater had to be not their top choice for an Order member at first]), and the bad good guys (Snape).

The deal with Aberforth and the goat, I just think it's for laughs, and to get an idea about his character... *shrug* I don't know for sure, but it could even have been a remote hint about the Aberforth-the-Barkeep thing...