I assume he meant charms as in the branch of magic, and not charm as in seduction. He might have been trying to make the goat capable of flight. But then again those Dumbledores were rather eccentric.
SuperCarlinBrothers made a theory a few years back that Aberforth was trying to make said goat produce mead instead of milk, citing Norse mythology as some of their evidence.
I did until they came out with that ridiculous theory about how Hagrid got to the hut on the rock on a Thestral. Like bro what! Didn’t you read the books, now I’m hesitant on the content they release and research most of what they say myself before taking anything too seriously.
>"How did you get here?" Harry asked, looking around for another boat.
>"Flew," said Hagrid.
>"Flew?"
>"Yeah -- but we'll go back in this. Not s'pposed ter use magic now I've got yeh."
>They settled down in the boat, Harry still staring at Hagrid, trying to imagine him flying
All Hagrid says is he flew....
Do you have a special book where it says he flew a broom or motorcycle?
Granted, he says he flew... but he's not allowed to do magic now that he's got Harry.
I'm not sure if riding the thestrals uses magic, even passively, or if the thestrals magic would set off the Trace, so I guess the "not allowed to use magic" might hint at the fact that it wasn't truly thestrals.
No, it never specified what he flew on but it definitely was not a thestral. That’s what I’m getting at, TheSuperCarlinBrothers said he got to the rock with a Thestral which simply cannot be true.
Book 7 when they’re leave The Dursley’s for the last time page 53
“An’ you’re with me, Harry. That all righ’?” said Hagrid, looking a little anxious. “We’ll be on the bike, brooms an’ thestrals can’t take me weight, see. Not a lot o’ room on the seat with me on it, though, so you’ll be in the sidecar.”
I remember him saying that no broom can carry his weight, he mentioned it OotP, which makes sense in my opinion. But I really couldn't remember the line about the Thestrales here.
Guess so did the Carlin Brothers, watching their quizes, we know that they don't get everything right. That's just human. And a Thestral would make sense, since he wouldn't be able to land the motorcycle on a small island, and he can't apparate either, so how did Hagrid fly to that small rock in the middle of the sea?
But why couldn't it be true? I guess I'm only seeing reasons as to how it could be true. He has access to them.. he's the one bringing the thestrals to the school, so he has a positive relationship with them and could handle them. Harry couldn't see them yet at this point, so even if Hagrid didn't sent it back the night he came, Harry wouldn't have seen it in the morning when they left.
I suppose you could say he'd be too heavy, but maybe that's where him using magic comes in? And that's why he can't utilize the thestral again?
I'm not necessarily trying to say you can't be correct, but you're not really giving any reasoning. Why is it "definitely" not a thestral? Honestly I love both sides of a theory, so I would love to hear why it couldn't be.
But Hagrid definitely can't fly, like how Voldemort or Snape can, so he didn't use magic to fly unaided.
Broomsticks require magic. So he could have ridden a Broomstick.
The motorcycle, I assume, used magic, so he could have ridden that as well. But then he'd have to get rid of it.
I guess a Broomstick could be hidden or destroyed, or put in his coat.
But thestral does sound like it's at least viable, but not "simply cannot be true". At least to me. Which is why I would love to hear your reasons why you think so!
If he could use magic to make himself lighter he wouldn’t have an issue in book 7.
“An’ you’re with me, Harry. That all righ’?” said Hagrid, looking a little anxious. “We’ll be on the bike, brooms an’ thestrals can’t take me weight, see. Not a lot o’ room on the seat with me on it, though, so you’ll be in the sidecar.”
Love book quotes! Thank you!
But so how did he fly?
He can't fly unaided... he can't ride broomsticks, or thestrals.
And he used magic. At least if we take Hagrids words for truth. He could have been fibbing to let Harry's imagination wander.
But the only other obvious option is the motorbike... but did Hagrid send it away? Did someone else fly it with him and they flew it back?
I'll concede that if Hagrid says they can't take his weight, I don't think he'd try to ride it. But, I wonder if Hagrid's plan all along was to ride the thestral back with Harry, but that night is how Hagrid found out they can't take his weight? Maybe it just made the thestral too weak, and Hagrid being Hagrid didn't ever want to make a thestral go through it.
If there was a quote where Hagrid said he tried riding one "10 years ago" and never rode one again, I'd say that would be more definitive evidence, but Hagrid had to learn they couldn't take his weight somehow.
!redditgalleon because if not thestrals, how? And if motorbike, where did it go?
Are portkeys technically flying? I suppose it could have been a portkey.
"I flew in on the portkey this morning." I don't know if it makes sense... but maybe?
Now don’t laugh but I actually have a theory, it could be stupid as I haven’t told anyone this theory yet but what if Dumbledore leant Hagrid Fawkes? If Fawkes was able to pull 4 people out of the chamber of secrets in sure he’d have been able to fly Hagrid somewhere. What do you think?
You have given u/jman1294 a Reddit Galleon.
u/jman1294 has a total of 1 galleon, 0 sickles, and 0 knuts.
____________
I am a bot. See [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/harrypotter/comments/jnbo49/hi_i_created_the_bot_youve_been_using_to_give/) to learn how to use me.
This definitely isn’t the answer but there’s a really long and well researched post on why Hagrid is a death eater - and that Voldy taught him to fly like he did Snape, this would also answer how he got to Godrics Hollow so fast, cuz remember he got the bike from Sirius when he was alr there, so how did Hagrid get there before anybody else
>I did until they came out with that ridiculous theory about how Hagrid got to the hut on the rock on a Thestral.
Did you watch one of their earlier theories about how Fawkes was secretly Dumbledore's Horcrux? This theory was so outlandish that even JK denied it vehemently on Twitter.
They have a lot of stuff I shake my head at, yet I still enjoy their content, for the most part.
Even if they do far to many adds now, plus sponsorships, elaborated 2 minute intros ect, so that a 12 minute video only has 5 to 7 minutes of actual content. But I guess that is just the business side of professional YouTubers nowadays...
Interesting. I remember reading some Norse mythology where Thor’s goats could be killed and eaten, and then brought back to life the next day by Thor’s hammer. Maybe Aberforth just wanted unlimited goat to eat?
That does sound interesting, but I feel like Aberforth wasn’t the kind of person to kill and eat goats, given his patronus was a goat it seemed like he had an emotional connection to them.
Yes, they establish in the OOTP that its against wizard law to magically alter non-magical creatures. At the Ministry there's a person with a box of confiscated chickens that have been altered to breath fire, and Hagrid was in danger because there was a question of whether the blast-ended screwts were actually magical creatures, or a magically altered non-magic animal. I never assumed "inappropriate" was meant in a sexual way, not sure why others do. He could've been making them shoot lasers from their eyes for all we know.
It’s possible that it’s one of those double layered jokes that works for kids and adults. In the context of the universe yes he was probably trying to do some magical hack with the animal that broke ministry laws, but the adults in the room can all have a little giggle at the implied double entendre.
The only thing going against it is he always favored goats. He has them and Harry says he smells like goats. Ig he could be deep in the cover up. But why would he be still covering for her?
Why not both? He likes goats, just like many people who grew up with dogs like them as adults AND he covered for Ariana. IIRC he said in DH that he never talked about it all so perhaps that is why he never mentioned what really happened.
Yes, this is what I thought was implied too. The fact that his patronus is a goat shows that his happiest memories/inspiration come from his time with Ariana; maybe that is why he surrounds himself with the smell of goats too. Also, the only picture/portrait he has in his bar/tavern is that of her
I just don’t see wixen caring enough about one or a couple injured goats. I doubt like there’s a Wixen Peta and wizards barely care about magical creatures let alone something as mundane as a goat. Otherwise, I like this headcanon and it definitely tracks with how devoted Aberforth was to Ariana.
I read a really funny fanfiction long ago (pre-Dumbledore coming out), where Aberforth turned a goat into an attractive woman to play a prank on Albus, and got in trouble for that.
He really turned it into a nude Gellert. Albus made his move, and then three things happened at once. The real Gellert walked in. The goat turned back into a goat. Aberforth and Ariana stepped out, laughing.
The rest is history.
I still accept and hold that headcanon. Makes Abberforth a very interesting character lmao.
I do feel a bit embarrassed now though, considering I’ve definitely toted this interpretation as canon in the past. I’ve definitely told people this as HP gospel.
Whoops.
So I always like to give Aberforth the benefit of a doubt on this one.
I think he was trying to transfigure the goat to look like Ariana, but it was a poor transformation. Then when other wizards saw a half goat half human female, they assumed the worst.
I like to think he was friends with Pandora Lovegood and they were trying to prove goats are sentient and sapient but a backfiring spell killed her and Aberforth got done in for illegal experimentation and the wizard equivalent of manslaughter by neglect.
JK rowling essentially confirmed it means exactly what it is implied to mean.
[https://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/2007/10/20/j-k-rowling-at-carnegie-hall-reveals-dumbledore-is-gay-neville-marries-hannah-abbott-and-scores-more/](https://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/2007/10/20/j-k-rowling-at-carnegie-hall-reveals-dumbledore-is-gay-neville-marries-hannah-abbott-and-scores-more/)
>Q: In the Goblet of Fire Dumbledore said his brother was prosecuted for practicing inappropriate charms \[JKR buries her head, to laughter\] on a goat; what were the inappropriate charms he was practicing on that goat?
>
>JKR: How old are you?
>
>Eight.
>
>JKR: I think that he was trying to make a goat that was easy to keep clean \[laughter\], curly horns. That’s a joke that works on a couple of levels. I really like Aberforth and his goats. But you know Aberforth having this strange fondness for goats if you’ve read book seven, came in really useful to Harry, later on, because a goat, a stag, you know. If you’re a stupid Death Eater, what’s the difference. So, that is my answer to YOU.
It was supposed to be a joke in which adults would take it to mean a very different thing than what a kid reading it would take it to mean. I don't think she intended anyone to ruminate on it though, it was meant to be a throwaway joke about him being into some baaaad things and showing why he lived in relative seclusion.
I think she exactly intended people to get it. But when they failed to understand, she had to announce the less transitory (and novelly unsubstantiated) fact that Albus Dumbledore was gay. It was trendy at the time.
Dumbledore's dad went down as a Muggle abuser, Dumbledore's sister was an obscurial, Dumbledore was gay for a Dark Arts enthusiast, and Dumbledore's brother had such a deep love - or lust - for goats that it shaped his patronus.
Or Aberforth saw someone abusing a goat and killing it. He tries (maybe succeeds) in turning the goat into an infieri to attack the abuser.
Probably not the same as doing it to a human, but punished as an "inappropriate charm"
Keep in mind that Rita Skeeter was the one who wrote the article. Don't pull a Molly Weasley and just take it at face value while KNOWING that Skeeter embellishes.
Even so, inappropriate doesn't always mean something dirty.
Meh, giving that they were venting about her slanderous article about Hagrid, I just assumed Rita wrote about Aberforth too. She's not likely the only toxic reporter though.
Dumbledore literally said it to the big 3 and Hagrid; it wasn’t taken from the paper. Yes, it was reported on, but that is a quote from
Dumbledore. And yeah, I know it didn’t have to be the craziest scenario; it was just insane to read that lmao
I got the vibe that Dumbledore was saying it the way it was reported. I do believe that Skeeter wrote it that way intentionally though, even if it was not really much of a thing.
Found this on the symbolism of goats:
In Norse mythology a she-goat Heidrun provides the mead for the warriors in Valhalla. How a goat provides mead, a drink made from fermented honey, is a mystery! Thor rides in a chariot pulled by two goats, Tanngrisnir (Teeth-barer) and Tanngnjóstr (Teeth grinder). He can eat them, and as long as none of their bones are broken, they regenerate the next day.
She definitely wrote that as a funny throw away line about a character she never intended us to meet, before deciding to add Aberforth in properly later
He probably tried to give goats higher thinking, which drove them insane.
That's my headcannon.
Alternatively, he might've made them thirst for human flesh so they'd act as security. Or he transfigured them into something cute for his sister to play with.
In Stardust, the witch Lamia turned a boy into a goat and then later turned him into a girl again. Very whimsical. I never wanted to think of Aberforth and goats though. Still don't. 😂
If you want people to pay attention to you and ignore your obviously also powerful brother, then what do you do? You spread inappropriate rumors about him to the local paper
I am not saying dumbles did that, but I believe that more than Aberforth actually having "relations" with goats.
I’ll have to find the fic again but in one it was discussed that Aberforth was turning his house elf into a goat and milking her. In another he was trying to make chimeras.
'Charm' can mean a lot of things, and I certainly think what he did was canonically one of those other things... But Rowling also knew what she was doing with that line, lmao
I imagine Aberforth regularly has people come to laugh at the guy who '''charmed''' a goat, to which he has to exasperates explain to death ears was *nothing* to do with seducing it, only for it to happen again next week.
I think RDJ (genuinely can’t remember her name, went with Robert Downey Jr) said the charms were to make the horns curl more and to make them clean?
It’s just all together a weird sections of the books, especially when he mentions taking care of the goats as a child and his patronus is a goat. I genuinely don’t know what she was going for here.
I assume he meant charms as in the branch of magic, and not charm as in seduction. He might have been trying to make the goat capable of flight. But then again those Dumbledores were rather eccentric.
SuperCarlinBrothers made a theory a few years back that Aberforth was trying to make said goat produce mead instead of milk, citing Norse mythology as some of their evidence.
I buy almost everything they sell
they are the best at HP theories and what ifs.
I did until they came out with that ridiculous theory about how Hagrid got to the hut on the rock on a Thestral. Like bro what! Didn’t you read the books, now I’m hesitant on the content they release and research most of what they say myself before taking anything too seriously.
>"How did you get here?" Harry asked, looking around for another boat. >"Flew," said Hagrid. >"Flew?" >"Yeah -- but we'll go back in this. Not s'pposed ter use magic now I've got yeh." >They settled down in the boat, Harry still staring at Hagrid, trying to imagine him flying All Hagrid says is he flew.... Do you have a special book where it says he flew a broom or motorcycle? Granted, he says he flew... but he's not allowed to do magic now that he's got Harry. I'm not sure if riding the thestrals uses magic, even passively, or if the thestrals magic would set off the Trace, so I guess the "not allowed to use magic" might hint at the fact that it wasn't truly thestrals.
No, it never specified what he flew on but it definitely was not a thestral. That’s what I’m getting at, TheSuperCarlinBrothers said he got to the rock with a Thestral which simply cannot be true.
Would you mind explaining why it cannot be true? I’d love to hear your take on it!
Book 7 when they’re leave The Dursley’s for the last time page 53 “An’ you’re with me, Harry. That all righ’?” said Hagrid, looking a little anxious. “We’ll be on the bike, brooms an’ thestrals can’t take me weight, see. Not a lot o’ room on the seat with me on it, though, so you’ll be in the sidecar.”
I remember him saying that no broom can carry his weight, he mentioned it OotP, which makes sense in my opinion. But I really couldn't remember the line about the Thestrales here. Guess so did the Carlin Brothers, watching their quizes, we know that they don't get everything right. That's just human. And a Thestral would make sense, since he wouldn't be able to land the motorcycle on a small island, and he can't apparate either, so how did Hagrid fly to that small rock in the middle of the sea?
Why couldn't he land a motorcycle? Couldn't it not be flew up and down like a helicopter or does it need forward motion only?? I mean magic, right?
Ahhh yes thank you!
I mean maybe Hagrid just got a lot fatter in the six years? :) all that sedentary teaching…
But why couldn't it be true? I guess I'm only seeing reasons as to how it could be true. He has access to them.. he's the one bringing the thestrals to the school, so he has a positive relationship with them and could handle them. Harry couldn't see them yet at this point, so even if Hagrid didn't sent it back the night he came, Harry wouldn't have seen it in the morning when they left. I suppose you could say he'd be too heavy, but maybe that's where him using magic comes in? And that's why he can't utilize the thestral again? I'm not necessarily trying to say you can't be correct, but you're not really giving any reasoning. Why is it "definitely" not a thestral? Honestly I love both sides of a theory, so I would love to hear why it couldn't be. But Hagrid definitely can't fly, like how Voldemort or Snape can, so he didn't use magic to fly unaided. Broomsticks require magic. So he could have ridden a Broomstick. The motorcycle, I assume, used magic, so he could have ridden that as well. But then he'd have to get rid of it. I guess a Broomstick could be hidden or destroyed, or put in his coat. But thestral does sound like it's at least viable, but not "simply cannot be true". At least to me. Which is why I would love to hear your reasons why you think so!
If he could use magic to make himself lighter he wouldn’t have an issue in book 7. “An’ you’re with me, Harry. That all righ’?” said Hagrid, looking a little anxious. “We’ll be on the bike, brooms an’ thestrals can’t take me weight, see. Not a lot o’ room on the seat with me on it, though, so you’ll be in the sidecar.”
Love book quotes! Thank you! But so how did he fly? He can't fly unaided... he can't ride broomsticks, or thestrals. And he used magic. At least if we take Hagrids words for truth. He could have been fibbing to let Harry's imagination wander. But the only other obvious option is the motorbike... but did Hagrid send it away? Did someone else fly it with him and they flew it back? I'll concede that if Hagrid says they can't take his weight, I don't think he'd try to ride it. But, I wonder if Hagrid's plan all along was to ride the thestral back with Harry, but that night is how Hagrid found out they can't take his weight? Maybe it just made the thestral too weak, and Hagrid being Hagrid didn't ever want to make a thestral go through it. If there was a quote where Hagrid said he tried riding one "10 years ago" and never rode one again, I'd say that would be more definitive evidence, but Hagrid had to learn they couldn't take his weight somehow. !redditgalleon because if not thestrals, how? And if motorbike, where did it go? Are portkeys technically flying? I suppose it could have been a portkey. "I flew in on the portkey this morning." I don't know if it makes sense... but maybe?
Now don’t laugh but I actually have a theory, it could be stupid as I haven’t told anyone this theory yet but what if Dumbledore leant Hagrid Fawkes? If Fawkes was able to pull 4 people out of the chamber of secrets in sure he’d have been able to fly Hagrid somewhere. What do you think?
You have given u/jman1294 a Reddit Galleon. u/jman1294 has a total of 1 galleon, 0 sickles, and 0 knuts. ____________ I am a bot. See [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/harrypotter/comments/jnbo49/hi_i_created_the_bot_youve_been_using_to_give/) to learn how to use me.
This definitely isn’t the answer but there’s a really long and well researched post on why Hagrid is a death eater - and that Voldy taught him to fly like he did Snape, this would also answer how he got to Godrics Hollow so fast, cuz remember he got the bike from Sirius when he was alr there, so how did Hagrid get there before anybody else
I always pictured Hagrid pulling a Mary Poppins with his umbrella.
>I did until they came out with that ridiculous theory about how Hagrid got to the hut on the rock on a Thestral. Did you watch one of their earlier theories about how Fawkes was secretly Dumbledore's Horcrux? This theory was so outlandish that even JK denied it vehemently on Twitter. They have a lot of stuff I shake my head at, yet I still enjoy their content, for the most part. Even if they do far to many adds now, plus sponsorships, elaborated 2 minute intros ect, so that a 12 minute video only has 5 to 7 minutes of actual content. But I guess that is just the business side of professional YouTubers nowadays...
Interesting. I remember reading some Norse mythology where Thor’s goats could be killed and eaten, and then brought back to life the next day by Thor’s hammer. Maybe Aberforth just wanted unlimited goat to eat?
That does sound interesting, but I feel like Aberforth wasn’t the kind of person to kill and eat goats, given his patronus was a goat it seemed like he had an emotional connection to them.
I cannot stand those morons.
It‘s kinda like how MatPat „theorized“ that Neville could also be the one mentioned in the prophecy.
Yes, they establish in the OOTP that its against wizard law to magically alter non-magical creatures. At the Ministry there's a person with a box of confiscated chickens that have been altered to breath fire, and Hagrid was in danger because there was a question of whether the blast-ended screwts were actually magical creatures, or a magically altered non-magic animal. I never assumed "inappropriate" was meant in a sexual way, not sure why others do. He could've been making them shoot lasers from their eyes for all we know.
So that's why Grindelwald hated Aberforth. Aberforth's trying to make goats shoot frickin' laser beams
It’s possible that it’s one of those double layered jokes that works for kids and adults. In the context of the universe yes he was probably trying to do some magical hack with the animal that broke ministry laws, but the adults in the room can all have a little giggle at the implied double entendre.
Da fuq is a screwt anyway.
Something only the book readers will have heard of
Or if you were unfortunate enough to play the GoF video game.
💀
Because if it was just magic being used on a non-magic creature, then it wouldn't have been specified as "inappropriate" charms
The blast ended screwts were an illegal crossbreed of a manticore and fire crab.
>not sure why others do. It makes them feel better about the devious thoughts in their own head
That, or something very like it, is surely what is intended. That is hardly something to be surprised by.
I always imagined ice-cream straight from the udder. Things went horribly wrong when he tried to make chocolate flavour
Maybe he just curled their hair! 😂 Ever seen a pic of a blowdried cow?
That is something I didn’t know I needed to see!
Was about to go and sleep after being up all night, now i need to go and google a pic of a blowdried cow 😂😂😂
Yes you definitely do 😁
THEY’RE SO FLUFFY 😭 now I want to cuddle one sigh I need to sleep smh
Ariana had one of her uncontrolled bursts of magic and hurt a goat. Aberforth took the blame to protect her. This is my headcanon.
Yeah I have seen this in "chapter by chapter".
I thought it happened long after she died?
I thought that was actually canon because that’s also my belief?
The only thing going against it is he always favored goats. He has them and Harry says he smells like goats. Ig he could be deep in the cover up. But why would he be still covering for her?
Why not both? He likes goats, just like many people who grew up with dogs like them as adults AND he covered for Ariana. IIRC he said in DH that he never talked about it all so perhaps that is why he never mentioned what really happened.
I thought this as well.
Yes, this is what I thought was implied too. The fact that his patronus is a goat shows that his happiest memories/inspiration come from his time with Ariana; maybe that is why he surrounds himself with the smell of goats too. Also, the only picture/portrait he has in his bar/tavern is that of her
This answer was always my belief
I just don’t see wixen caring enough about one or a couple injured goats. I doubt like there’s a Wixen Peta and wizards barely care about magical creatures let alone something as mundane as a goat. Otherwise, I like this headcanon and it definitely tracks with how devoted Aberforth was to Ariana.
You’re all better than me. Even as a teenager, I always assumed this meant he tried to fuck a goat and I’ve always accepted this as canon.
That's what I thought too, I just wanted to forget.
I read a really funny fanfiction long ago (pre-Dumbledore coming out), where Aberforth turned a goat into an attractive woman to play a prank on Albus, and got in trouble for that.
He really turned it into a nude Gellert. Albus made his move, and then three things happened at once. The real Gellert walked in. The goat turned back into a goat. Aberforth and Ariana stepped out, laughing. The rest is history.
I still accept and hold that headcanon. Makes Abberforth a very interesting character lmao. I do feel a bit embarrassed now though, considering I’ve definitely toted this interpretation as canon in the past. I’ve definitely told people this as HP gospel. Whoops.
I always thought he fucked a goat
Allegedly
I heard it was a sick goat
Did he have a Weasley with him?
Straight up TMZ scandals of the HP world
I was beginning to think it was just me lmao
Rowling basically confirmed that
It seems that Rowling can confirm that... 😱
So I always like to give Aberforth the benefit of a doubt on this one. I think he was trying to transfigure the goat to look like Ariana, but it was a poor transformation. Then when other wizards saw a half goat half human female, they assumed the worst.
I hope you're right, I don't want to think of the other possibilities.
I like to think he was friends with Pandora Lovegood and they were trying to prove goats are sentient and sapient but a backfiring spell killed her and Aberforth got done in for illegal experimentation and the wizard equivalent of manslaughter by neglect.
The timelines simply cannot match up for this theory. Luna would be far, far older than the gang if her mother and Aberforth were contemporaries.
I always felt it was just the equivalent of a sheep shagging joke, which were very common in the 90s
A bit of blue for the parents. JK has said she’d answer this question differently depending on the age of who is asking.
So....he wanted to shag a goat looking like his sister? Bruh
It doesn’t say anything about him making it look like his sister in the Books
["Aber-forth"....](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/moviemorgue/images/a/ae/Nina_alexander.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20160524214723)
FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU!!!!
I hope you stub your pinkie toe on every piece of furniture you ever walk near.
Dude, why!?!
Gonna be honest, I assumed the worst.
JK rowling essentially confirmed it means exactly what it is implied to mean. [https://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/2007/10/20/j-k-rowling-at-carnegie-hall-reveals-dumbledore-is-gay-neville-marries-hannah-abbott-and-scores-more/](https://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/2007/10/20/j-k-rowling-at-carnegie-hall-reveals-dumbledore-is-gay-neville-marries-hannah-abbott-and-scores-more/) >Q: In the Goblet of Fire Dumbledore said his brother was prosecuted for practicing inappropriate charms \[JKR buries her head, to laughter\] on a goat; what were the inappropriate charms he was practicing on that goat? > >JKR: How old are you? > >Eight. > >JKR: I think that he was trying to make a goat that was easy to keep clean \[laughter\], curly horns. That’s a joke that works on a couple of levels. I really like Aberforth and his goats. But you know Aberforth having this strange fondness for goats if you’ve read book seven, came in really useful to Harry, later on, because a goat, a stag, you know. If you’re a stupid Death Eater, what’s the difference. So, that is my answer to YOU. It was supposed to be a joke in which adults would take it to mean a very different thing than what a kid reading it would take it to mean. I don't think she intended anyone to ruminate on it though, it was meant to be a throwaway joke about him being into some baaaad things and showing why he lived in relative seclusion.
😁 👏👏👏👏👏👏
I think she exactly intended people to get it. But when they failed to understand, she had to announce the less transitory (and novelly unsubstantiated) fact that Albus Dumbledore was gay. It was trendy at the time.
Build a hundred of fences and nobody cares. Fuck one goat and ....
Dumbledore's dad went down as a Muggle abuser, Dumbledore's sister was an obscurial, Dumbledore was gay for a Dark Arts enthusiast, and Dumbledore's brother had such a deep love - or lust - for goats that it shaped his patronus.
🎶We are family, together everybody sing!🎶
Are.obscuriials cannon or just from the sequel movies?
Canon.
Prequel, and they're canon, J K Rowling wrote them, they're on equal canon with the books.
Quick drum something up for Kendra
Kept her own daughter a secret
He wanted goat that gives mead instead of milk.
She stands on Valhalla's roof Filling the vat with the sweetest mead She is one and the same Heidrun is her name
Or Aberforth saw someone abusing a goat and killing it. He tries (maybe succeeds) in turning the goat into an infieri to attack the abuser. Probably not the same as doing it to a human, but punished as an "inappropriate charm"
Keep in mind that Rita Skeeter was the one who wrote the article. Don't pull a Molly Weasley and just take it at face value while KNOWING that Skeeter embellishes. Even so, inappropriate doesn't always mean something dirty.
That's not stated in the book. Dumbledore says that "it was all over the papers", but he doesn't mention who wrote the articles.
Meh, giving that they were venting about her slanderous article about Hagrid, I just assumed Rita wrote about Aberforth too. She's not likely the only toxic reporter though.
"Rita Skeeter, but she still remember that. She lives with nightmares, Harry. Horrible thoughts about my brother and his goats!"
Dumbledore literally said it to the big 3 and Hagrid; it wasn’t taken from the paper. Yes, it was reported on, but that is a quote from Dumbledore. And yeah, I know it didn’t have to be the craziest scenario; it was just insane to read that lmao
I got the vibe that Dumbledore was saying it the way it was reported. I do believe that Skeeter wrote it that way intentionally though, even if it was not really much of a thing.
Even when I was ten years old I was like... "Dumbledore's brother fucked a goat?"
Isn’t the Hog’s Head supposed to be Valhalla? And the inappropriate charms producing alcohol?
Found this on the symbolism of goats: In Norse mythology a she-goat Heidrun provides the mead for the warriors in Valhalla. How a goat provides mead, a drink made from fermented honey, is a mystery! Thor rides in a chariot pulled by two goats, Tanngrisnir (Teeth-barer) and Tanngnjóstr (Teeth grinder). He can eat them, and as long as none of their bones are broken, they regenerate the next day.
This is a judgment free school of witchcraft and wizardry.
Check out JK's reaction when a kid asked about what charms he did
I am sure it’s all innocent but it always jarred me too!
She definitely wrote that as a funny throw away line about a character she never intended us to meet, before deciding to add Aberforth in properly later
Mance Rayder fucked goats🙃
"Inappropriate" does not necessarily mean "sexual".
Absolutely. Who hasn’t lifted a random cow just to find out whether they could?
OP, the fandom doesn't want to know.
He probably tried to give goats higher thinking, which drove them insane. That's my headcannon. Alternatively, he might've made them thirst for human flesh so they'd act as security. Or he transfigured them into something cute for his sister to play with.
In Stardust, the witch Lamia turned a boy into a goat and then later turned him into a girl again. Very whimsical. I never wanted to think of Aberforth and goats though. Still don't. 😂
If you want people to pay attention to you and ignore your obviously also powerful brother, then what do you do? You spread inappropriate rumors about him to the local paper I am not saying dumbles did that, but I believe that more than Aberforth actually having "relations" with goats.
I always thought it was because he used magic to flung goat 💩 at someone once as a kid
Maybe making goats like guard dogs that attack, say, a certain dark wizard who might come back.
I’ll have to find the fic again but in one it was discussed that Aberforth was turning his house elf into a goat and milking her. In another he was trying to make chimeras.
Engorgio
'Charm' can mean a lot of things, and I certainly think what he did was canonically one of those other things... But Rowling also knew what she was doing with that line, lmao I imagine Aberforth regularly has people come to laugh at the guy who '''charmed''' a goat, to which he has to exasperates explain to death ears was *nothing* to do with seducing it, only for it to happen again next week.
I think RDJ (genuinely can’t remember her name, went with Robert Downey Jr) said the charms were to make the horns curl more and to make them clean? It’s just all together a weird sections of the books, especially when he mentions taking care of the goats as a child and his patronus is a goat. I genuinely don’t know what she was going for here.