"My brother has something to say to you. He's right here, so wait."
With that, Aberforth got up and left the room, closing the door behind him.
Hmm... If I didn't know the Hog's Head Pub was always like this, I'd have thought Aberforth was deliberately making things difficult for me.
The floor was covered in greasy stains.
The walls were thick with dust and remnants of cobwebs.
Even the kerosene lamp overhead was unusually dim because of its filthy glass shade.
Only a portrait stood out, spotless beneath the light of two candles.
He treasured this portrait that much?
Aberforth, a man who would rather die than clean, had kept it immaculate.
Cypher was taken aback, but a piece of news about the Dumbledores soon surfaced in his mind.
Dumbledore's younger sister had died young, leaving behind only a portrait for her two brothers to repent before.
Could it be...?
That was right. It was a portrait of Ariana Dumbledore, the younger sister of Albus Dumbledore and Aberforth Dumbledore.
Cypher became certain because a girl slowly emerged from the far end of the path in the portrait.
She seemed to know that the young wizard before her was the one her brother had asked her to deliver a message to.
She gave Cypher a faint smile, took out a note, and stuck it onto the sign at the end of the path.
After nodding to Cypher, she turned and walked back down the path without looking back...
That was it?
They had gone through all the trouble of having him sneak out of Hogwarts and come to his professor's brother's pub. What happened to discussing something in person?
Cypher waited a while longer, but no passage appeared in the portrait, nor did it turn into a door and open.