Friendly with the local barman

[sunnyskywalker]

One bit in the memory of Voldemort's job interview that has always bothered me is Dumbledore's statement that he knows which Death Eaters are waiting at the Hog's Head because he's friendly with the local barman. Voldemort has just returned to Britain, no doubt planning terrible things...and Dumbledore immediately outs his brother as a spy? WTF? And then Voldemort continues to let his followers gather in the spy's pub?

I'm sure you could make a good story out of a Cold War-esque game where Voldemort is sending his followers in with false information to mislead Dumbledore while Dumbledore tries to filter out the misinformation to get at the real information they inadvertently reveal, and they both know the other knows... But it seems odd for Dumbledore to choose that option instead of trying to maintain his spy's cover first.

There's another possibility: maybe Aberforth wasn't the barman yet. Maybe the proprietor at the time was a Voldemort sympathizer, or at least a potential one, and Dumbledore wanted to oust them so he could put his own agent in place. Either he tricked or coerced them into telling him about the Death Eaters, or they wasn't involved and it was Willy Widdershins or his predecessor hiding under a veil who really reported to Dumbledore.

Voldemort shouldn't be so easy to manipulate that he immediately believed the proprietor was Dumbledore's agent. But the suspicion might have grown over time, no doubt nurtured by other "clues" Dumbledore helpfully planted, until Voldemort decided it was time the proprietor found a new job. (Possibly that job was "inferius.")

And he should have been deeply suspicious when Aberforth Dumbledore took over the pub, no matter how public the brothers' estrangement was. Aberforth couldn't just indignantly protest his hatred of Albus and all his works and give the Death Eaters a load of intelligence to prove his loyalties--that would be too much, too soon. But letting a few things slip over time, and griping about his brother just often enough to sound natural (well, it was--he just secretly hated Voldemort even more), and Dumbledore deliberately not acting on information Voldemort deliberately leaked via Hog's Head patrons to make it look like he never got the intel, might eventually convince them that he was on their side, not his brother's. Or at least that he was genuinely neutral.

A third possibility is that Aberforth was already the barman, but not yet Dumbledore's spy--again, it would really have been Willy Widdershins reporting on the gathering. Instead, this was Dumbledore's overly-complicated scheme to force Aberforth into becoming his spy. ("If I get Voldemort to suspect him, the means Voldemort will use to try to get the truth will convince Aberforth that Voldemort is dangerous and must be opposed. He's smart enough to realize that the best way to do this is to convince Voldemort that he doesn't trust me or report to me, then turn around and report to me. I'm a genius!") But that's even more convoluted and risky than most of Dumbledore's usual plans. I think it works more smoothly if Aberforth wasn't the barman yet, and this was Step 1 in Operation: Trench Coat Goat.

No wonder Aberforth is so cynical about how many people his brother is willing to sacrifice.

Comments

[mywitch.livejournal.com]

So interesting! I never thought about this before. I love fandom because the many many potholes in JKRs books bring out such amazing creativity in writers!

[oryx_leucoryx]

Yeah, Rowling needed a seedy bar for secret dealings and shoved everything into the same one. So there's the 1950s Tom's homecoming party, the 1979 Sybil interview, 1992 Quirrellmort-Hagrid dragon egg deal, 1995 meeting to found the DA (no direct presence of Tom that we know of), Mundungus selling Sirius' property to Aberforth, and then in DH the DEs running all sorts of sketchy deals from same bar.

Trelawney's interview took place at the bar because that was where she was staying, but the fact that Severus was present to overhear the prophecy suggests DEs felt comfortable hanging out there, and indeed they remained so all the way until the Battle of Hogwarts erupted. And then there is the question of the dragon egg deal - it happened at The Hog's Head because that's where people who don't want to reveal their identities go, but how did Tom not understand that Dumbles would be informed of the deal soon enough?

[sunnyskywalker]

Aberforth must be really convincing. Like, the best confidential informant ever. Or an outright double agent, differing from Severus only in being unmarked.

Hagrid being a frequent customer alongside the DEs and non-DE Muggle-baiters like Willy Widdershins is awkward. He's one of Dumbledore's most loyal followers! Maybe Aberforth says that Hagrid drinks enough to pay for a month's supply of alcohol for everyone else, and is indiscreet when drunk so they should use the opportunity to wheedle information out of him? And Hagrid also provides cover for the pub--the other people there can't be DEs if Dumbledore's Man hangs out with them, right? So really, Aberforth is doing the DEs a favor by keeping Hagrid around...

And then, I guess he, er, couldn't say no when his brother wanted to conduct a job interview there. And had to put on a good show for his brother by throwing out young Snape so Albus wouldn't suspect Aberforth's "true" DE sympathies.

Gah. Rowling is making it really, really hard here. Maybe the "they both know, and both know that the other knows, and it's a complicated game of trying to plant false information while worming true information out of the other side without them realizing" scenario is it after all. Maybe Voldemort wanted to see how Dumbledore would react to his follower winning a dragon egg from a mysterious hooded stranger.

[nx74defiant.livejournal.com]

Given Abeforth's statements it does raise the question - How much of a choice did he have? Did his brother Albus put him in a position where he felt like he had to go along with his brother?
Did Albus use the fact they are brothers to make Abeforth feel like he owed this to his brother?

[sunnyskywalker]

Yes, I wonder. "Maybe this time if you help me earlier instead of wandering off with the goats, we can stop it before any innocent children die?" And Aberforth felt like maybe he had to be Albus's keeper?

And/or if Aberforth heard things from his DE patrons that might technically make him an accessory to crimes for not reporting them, well, I'm sure Albus could use that too. If it came out and Aberforth said Albus knew all along too but Albus said he turned Ab in as soon as he found out, who's everyone going to believe?

[sunnyskywalker]

Moody said he only ever met Aberforth at the Order photo session, didn't he? I wonder if that means he doesn't like the Hog's Head (too paranoid to drink out, or maybe just not a goat person), or if Aurors aren't welcome there?

That wouldn't help with the Albus problem, though.

[oryx_leucoryx]

Moody allegedly only drinks from his own flask - no idea when he started with this habit - but eats food prepared and served by others (at least if those others are the Hogwarts house-elves). Fake-Moody didn't blow his cover by going to Madam Rosmerta's with the other teachers. So it's not about not visiting bars in general, just that specific one.

[sunnyskywalker]

It would be interesting to know the "when." Since 1965? Since 1980? Was there an incident (like a coworker actually getting poisoned), or is it a more hypothetical precaution, like the time he smashed the cuckoo clock?

He could probably get away with sitting in a bar and drinking from his own flask if he wanted. I wouldn't try telling him to buy a round for his friends or leave, anyway. So he might also avoid crowded public places in general.

And it sounds like he also didn't patrol Hogsmeade any time since Aberforth took over as barman, whenever exactly that was, or you'd think he'd at least have run into him occasionally. (Presumably he doesn't live in Hogsmeade either or they definitely should have run into each other buying groceries or whatever.) We don't know how much patrolling Aurors ever do--it sounds like not much or maybe not at all unless Voldemort is currently actively mass-murdering people, but they also don't seem to have a uniform, so how would Harry know other than when he recognizes Tonks and she tells him what her assignment is? Or maybe never Moody never poked his head into any establishment where there wasn't enough of a ruckus to warrant law enforcement attention, and the Hog's Head crowd take care to shut down any potential brawls before that happens. But I could see them having a weird law enforcement model mostly oriented toward Obliviating Muggles with a few detectives and SWAT equivalents but no beat cops, since beat cops are a relatively modern idea and developed in much larger societies than wizarding Britain.

Not that speculating about wizarding law enforcement organizational structure and duties helps with the Albus problem either.