Aberforth: Are You Sure You're Not Looking for Me to Take the Blame?

"Albus! We really need to have a good talk!"

Even with thick carpets covering the corridors and office, the clacking of high heels against the floor was exceptionally loud, and the shrill female voice suppressing its anger was even louder.

"We have to talk this through! Why have you been avoiding me?"

The office door was shoved open roughly, and a woman stormed inside, sounding utterly furious.

"You actually! To avoid me! You even went out for Christmas! You dare cause trouble, yet you're this afraid of facing it? Albus!"

Nelson found the voice somewhat familiar. He stood and looked toward the door. Within a thousandth of a second of recognizing the visitor, he lowered his head from the bottom of his heart and gave a textbook-perfect Wizard's bow. "Professor Sakes, Merry Christmas."

"Oh, Nelson." Only then did Professor Sakes notice someone sitting in the chair opposite Dumbledore. Her momentum stalled, and she could only soften her expression as she greeted him. "Merry Christmas to you too."

Nelson stood where he was and looked at Aberforth. He felt that his presence here was a mistake.

"Oh, right, Nelson." Professor Sakes looked down and saw that Nelson was still standing there. She frowned, considered for a moment, then raised her arm and slid off a section of the silver chain that had been wrapped around her index finger. She told Nelson to hold out his hand and placed it in his palm. "You've done very well in Charms. I've finished reading your midterm essay. This is a reward for a good student, and also your Christmas present."

Professor Sakes tried hard to look at Nelson with a kindly gaze, but the murderous aura from when she entered was impossible to suppress. Nelson could practically read the words written across her face: "Why haven't you gotten lost yet?"

At last, she looked toward Aberforth, who sat upright behind the desk with a calm expression, looking exactly like Albus and clearly having no idea what was going on.

"Ah, hello!" Aberforth flashed a mouthful of white teeth. Like a mentally disabled child whose treatment at St. Mungo's had failed, he raised an arm and waved weakly. "What wind blew you here? Make yourself at home. Would you like something to drink?"

Professor Sakes was a tall, mature woman with sharply defined features. She usually wore her black hair tightly wound into a bun at the back of her head, thick black-rimmed glasses, and the same unchanging black Wizard's robes all year round. Although she had also put her hair into a bun today, several loose strands had fallen across her forehead and temples. She was not wearing her glasses, and while she still wore the same black robes, none of the carefully chosen accessories usually paired with them were present. She looked terribly disheveled—it seemed that, in order to corner Dumbledore, she no longer cared about such details at all.

"Albus, I've realized you're really good at pretending to be an idiot." Her tone had calmed. Standing beside Nelson with her arms folded, she spoke coldly. "Make myself at home? Where exactly am I supposed to sit? On the floor?"

"Professor Sakes, please sit here." Nelson hunched his shoulders, trying to make himself look smaller as he shuffled aside to make room for her. "I won't disturb you any longer. I have something to do, so I'll just—"

"Wait, Nelson. We're not done here!" Aberforth finally showed an expression a normal person ought to have. He widened his eyes and stopped Nelson. In that instant, the two exchanged a look carrying more meaning than ordinary people could imagine:

"What are you trying to do? Run away?"

"I don't want to wade into this mess. I'm still just a child!"

"I don't even know what Albus did! That woman is acting like a lunatic. Believe it or not, the moment you walk out, she'll attack me."

"But what does that have to do with me? Mr. Aberforth, you have no reason to make an innocent bystander suffer this inexplicable pain with you."

"Who knows whether you and Albus colluded to set me up? So this is what you were waiting for!"

"I truly don't know what happened. I only know that if I don't leave now, I may be subjected to corporal punishment by a professor at any moment. Goodbye, Mr. Aberforth. I wish you happiness."

"Wait, at least tell me what happened—"

Nelson blinked and unilaterally cut off the conversation. He gave Aberforth and Professor Sakes a hasty bow, then sidestepped lightly and swiftly toward the door.

"Nelson, tell the kitchen to brew a pot of tea and prepare some biscuits. Bring them up later," Aberforth called out again one second before Nelson closed the door. "The kitchen is opposite the Hufflepuff Common Room. Oh, and deliver them yourself."

"Brother, you're out!" The headless armor standing by the door called out to Nelson as he slammed it shut. Even the sound of him closing the door with such force was nowhere near a fraction as loud as Professor Sakes. "Would you mind putting my head back on?"

Nelson picked up the full-face helmet that had fallen across the corridor. He truly had no idea how Aberforth had kicked it all the way here from the fireplace... Carrying the helmet, he fitted it onto where the armor's head should have been. The mouth section of the faceplate kept moving as it chattered on. "Honestly, I can put my own head back on, but you understand, I can't scare students passing by... Besides, after Aberforth kicked me out, I landed face-down! I couldn't see, so I didn't know where I was. If a suit of armor crouched down and felt around for its own head, you know, it would look far too stupid. It would make me look like an armor with intellectual problems."

"Ah, yes." As Nelson put the helmet back in place, he took out his Wand and wondered whether he could conjure a clasp to connect the helmet more securely to the armor's body. If it could also fasten the faceplate shut and keep it from talking, that would be even better.

The armor continued chattering, its thoughts already wandering to the heroic deeds of blocking two powerful spells from Merlin back in the day.

"All right, brother, I'm off." Nelson eventually added a clasp to the back of the armor's neck, enough to keep its head firmly in place—if it had a neck. "Aberforth asked me to fetch something. I'll come find you later."

"That kid just loves ordering people around. I think he'll become a big fat man who can't fit into me sooner or later," the armor's faint voice drifted to Nelson as he went downstairs. Nelson shook his head, driving the voice from his mind as he thought sourly, I don't think anyone would want to wear armor.

After passing through long, deserted corridors, randomly shifting staircases, and lively activity rooms filled with song and dance, Nelson finally reached the corridor where the Hufflepuff Common Room was located. Strangely, he saw neither the entrance to the Hufflepuff Common Room nor the kitchen. All he could see were paintings covering the walls, just like everywhere else in Hogwarts, along with a pile of wooden barrels arranged haphazardly in a stone trough at the end of the corridor. This place looked more like a storage facility steeped in signs of daily life. The air was filled with the sour smell of fermenting grain, and he had no idea whether the barrels contained vinegar or spoiled wine.

Nelson was troubled. His knowledge of Hufflepuff could not merely be called scant; it could be said that he knew absolutely nothing. In truth, he only knew that the people here were friendly and that it was a house that accepted everyone without discrimination. Nelson looked around the corridor walls. There was no one in the portraits nearby, so he had no one to ask. To avoid getting lost again, he decided to wait for someone in a painting to return and ask for directions before looking for the kitchen.

So he walked over to the barrels. Seeing that the barrels in the second row seemed somewhat smoother, he plopped down on one.

However, before his backside had even warmed the barrel, the one behind him gave a jolt. Along with a series of knocks, a muffled shout came from inside it. "Hey! Is anyone there? Who's blocking the Common Room door?"

"Wait! I'll move right—" Hearing the sounds of a countdown and gathering force before someone broke through the door behind him, Nelson hurriedly stood and stepped aside. The instant he moved away, there was a BOOM. The lids of four rows of barrels, including the one he had been sitting on, flew up and smashed heavily into the enormous still-life painting on the opposite wall. One struck the frame, bounced back, and hit the head of a witch who had just stepped out of an opened barrel.

"Oh! I knew it!" She crouched down, clutching her forehead.

"Are you all right?" Nelson hurried over to support the Hufflepuff witch. "Sorry, I didn't know the Hufflepuff Common Room was here. I blocked the entrance, so you—"

"It's fine, it's fine. It's not your fault. I'm used to this." The witch removed her hand and shakily pulled a small bottle from her pocket. "Dittany. Help me apply it to my forehead, please."

Nelson took the small bottle, unscrewed the cap, and poured some white powder into it. Steadying the witch's head, he saw a huge bump and sucked in a breath. He scattered the powder over it as quickly as he could, then took a piece of gauze she handed him, pressed it to the wound, and helped her sit on a nearby barrel.

Once she had recovered, Nelson started apologizing again. She waved him off, stood, and rolled her neck.

"It's all right. I'm the kind of person who gets into accidents easily but never actually gets hurt." She was tall and wore a set of Wizard's robes cut to fit terribly, apparently on purpose. They were ragged, with many holes left in them. A thick, solid gold chain hung around her neck. Her face was a healthy wheat color, while the skin at her wrists, shoulders, and neck was very fair. Most distinctive of all, she wore dreadlocks.

"Oh! You're the senior who was in Professor Sakes's fireplace that night." Nelson regretted the words as soon as they left his mouth. She had just been injured because he blocked the door, and he had immediately brought up her embarrassing moment. It was truly inappropriate.

"That night?" She furrowed her brow as she recalled it. Suddenly, as if remembering something, she broke into a smile. Holding the gauze in place with her left hand, she extended her freed right hand toward Nelson. "Then we're quite fated. We should properly get acquainted. My name is Gioconda Sakes."

Typos, grammatical errors, and other issues in Chapters 35–44 have been corrected.