MageB
I hate to show that your wrong again but a star will become brighter when it becomes a gaint, at least brighter then it was at the end of if life. Link to a star's luminosity is posted below. The reason is somewhere on NASA's site I'm sure, it has to do with two different types of fusion, Initially it is H+H=He and during Giant phase He+He=something. I can't recall what it froms off the top of my head and I don't really feel like looking it up now as it is getting late.
http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/te...es/Image31.gif