Oh, Mystery Author - I don't think I can tell you how I lit up when I read the header on this, and as I sank into the story (like a hot bath - the brilliant kind with bubbles and jets), my smile kept getting wider and wider.
You've hit on every single thing I love about this pairing (Snape getting to be a lad in someone's eyes, and the secret side of Hogsmeade with its everyday folk and low magic, and the contrast between Aberforth and Albus) and realized it perfectly, with so many witty turns and sympathetic insight into the characters.
Some of my very favourite lines:
A boy of twenty, he remembered Albus saying, in the way that suggested he could say and do so much more if Aberforth persisted in his infatuation.
The lad had kindness in him. Kindness of an odd sort to be sure, but that was only to be expected.
When most of your regulars preferred their heads covered and the barman's gaze not to linger on their face, you learned to recognise the particular tap and shuffle of each gait across the floorboards.
Severus nodded. "Fate of the Wizarding World, he says. The usual."
That was more than any good man could be asked to resist, and Aberforth had never claimed to be a particularly good man.
"Nearly caught my death of cold waiting for you to come in."
And, of course, the language of ales (brilliant!) and the not-ending, at which point I admit a faint sound of glee may have escaped my throat as I clapped my hands together in joy.