The group continued down the narrow corridor, lined with various doors. Each door had a small opening to look in. Harry peered into the first room, and gasped in horror. After that first room he refused to look in the rest of them, afraid of what he might see.

The group turned the corner and drew up short at the sight of a small elf hunched over a table.

“Who are you.” Moody demanded, causing the elf to jerk up.

“What?!” Harry asked confused, “you’re dead, I buried you myself and put your repulsive head on the wall.”

Kreature began laughing, a dry brittle sound. “Has the horrible Master been in that room since?” Kreature asked him, still cackling.

“No.” Was Harry’s reluctant response, “I have no reason to.” He shuddered at the thought.

“Master might want to go see whose head is on the wall then.” Kreature said cackling harder, causing himself to cough. He suddenly stopped and pointed his hand directly at the group.

Harry stepped in front of the others knowing that however much Kreature might want to harm Harry, he couldn’t he was still Harry’s House Elf.

“I never gave you clothes Kreature.” Harry all but growled, “Remember that.”

“Kreature knows.” He scowled at Harry, “Kreature can’t hurt Master, but he can hurt others.” Kreature suddenly jerked his hand towards the cell on the right of him.

“Kreature No!” Harry screamed as 10 wands shot out, each hitting the sickly elf with a different hex.

Kreature was stiff as a board, couldn’t move even if he wanted to and bound from head to toe in chains.

“Well, that solves that for the moment.” Moody said, moving Kreature out of the way.

“Ugh,” Harry said, “We had to kill that dreadful thing once already.” He dreaded having to do it all over again, and dreaded more seeing whose head was actually on the wall.

Moody made his way over to the cell and looked in, breathing a sigh of relief, “He is still alive, barely. It looks like they brought in Kreature to take care of him, because Kreature didn’t know what had happened, he just continued taking care of him, waiting for someone to give him orders. ”

“Can you open this Dobby?”

Dobby approached the door and stared at it, concentrating hard. After several instense moments, he exhaled deeply and dropped his shoulders. “Dobby cannot do it.” He all but sobbed.

“It’s ok Dobby, you tried.” Harry said, startled at Dobby’s distress.

“Only that one can open it.” Dobby spat at the chained House Elf.

“Otherwise the occupant of the cell would die, right Dobby?” Moody asked softly.

Dobby hung his head in shame.

“Master Malfoy would catch people, bad people he said, and put in these cells. He would charge House Elves to watch them, like Kreature, and then he would lock up the House Elves, so they couldn’t take care of their cells, and no one else could open them or take care of them. He would laugh about this. Master Malfoy was bad!” Dobby suddenly began banging his head against the wall.

“Dobby, stop!” Harry said grabbing the House Elf by the shoulders, shaking him gently. “Did you ever have to take care of these cells?”

“Oh no, Master Harry!” Dobby said sincerely, “Master Malfoy said he couldn’t trust me to do it properly” He said almost proudly to the amusement of the group.

“Well that’s something at least.” Harry turned toward Kreature, and lifted the hexes so that he could move but was still chained. “Kreature, you will open that cell without harming.” Harry demanded.

There was a long pause, and Kreature started laughing, “Kreature doesn’t have to obey bad Master anymore, there is another.” His laughter was cut short by the Impedimenta hex that was once again put on him.

Harry thought for a moment, his own confused expressions matching those of the rest of the group. Suddenly he smiled and turned to Dobby. “Dobby will you go and get Winky and Sirius and bring them here.”

“Yes, sir!” Dobby skipped out of the catacombs, the sound of his dissapearnce echoed down the hall, before anyone could say anything, the heard the crack announcing his arrival and a separate small voice saying, “What is it Dobby? Why has Dobby brought us to the horrible place?” Dobby turned the corner and pushed a confused Sirius forward.

“What is this Harry?” He asked, fear on his face.

“Not what you are thinking of Sirius, don’t worry.” Harry said smiling warmly to ease his Godfather’s fear. “We need you to tell Kreature to open that cell without killing its occupant.” Harry said bluntly.

Sirius looked baffled, “I thought Kreature was dead.” He said, confused.

“So did we!” Harry exclaimed motioning Sirius to the House Elf.

“What happened to him?!” Sirius exclaimed, “No tell me latter, let’s get this done with and get out of here, it is creepy.” He hastily added interrupting Harry, who smiled gratefully.

Sirius stood in front of Kreature as Harry lifted the hex.

Before Sirius could even open his mouth, the House Elf screamed in fear. “No! Master is dead! Bad Master, who broke his wonderful mother’s heart is dead, why is he in front of Kreature!”

“Shut up Kreature.” Sirius said calmly, effectively silencing the House Elf, although his mouth was still moving.

“Go open the door to the cell with Draco, do not kill him, and bring him out here to us.” Sirius left no room for argument.

Kreature screamed in frustration, and Harry knew that he would have to obey Sirius.

They watched has the Elf, apparently fighting with everything he had, made his way over to the cell, all wands were pointed at him as he raised his hand and lightly stroked it down the door and the across.

As the door began to open, the House Elf, sobbing now, walked in a dragged the unconscious boy out, into the corridor.

The instant he was clear of the door the chains instantly whipped themselves back around his board stiff body.

“How did you know that only he could enter the cell or the door would close?” Moody asked Sirius.

“Because I know the Malfoy’s and that is the kind of thing that they would find funny.” Sirius said shuddering “Let’s get out of here.” He added looking around.

We should have Dobby open one of these cells and stick old Kreature in it.” Ginny said as the made their way out, “Effectively throw away the key.” She added.

Harry was about to agree with her when he chanced to see the look of horror overcome both Dobby and Winky’s faces.

“I don’t think that is the right thing to do” Harry said thoughtfully, “I don’t want to bind Dobby to this place any more than he already is.” He said slowly.

Relief flooded both House Elve's faces.

The group nodded, grumbling a bit as they began to climb up the tiny stair case once more. Moody exited first and turned around to help the others over the steep edge. He had just finished helping the last person and was about to turn and grab Kreature when there was a loud explosion from somewhere below them.

Fire erupted through the opening as the archway slammed itself shut. Sealing the fire inside, protecting the house.

“Dobby hurry! Open it up, we need to get Kreature” Moody yelled, panicked “he might try to escape!”

Dobby quickly put his hand on the door to reopen it, but instead he was thrown backwards about 30 ft. He hit a wall and crumpled to the floor.

Winky began screaming hysterically as she ran to Dobby’s side.

“Winky!” Harry bellowed over her sobs, “I need you to get a hold of yourself! Take Dobby and Sirius and Malfoy back to the Head Quarters straight away!”

He turned to Sirius, “Can you alert Dumbledore and the others as to what has happened, it is too dangerous for you without a wand.” He added apologetically.

Sirius smiled at him, “No problem, Harry.” He quickly embraced his Godson, easily picked up the boy as Winky now in control grabbed his leg, knelt down to Dobby, and they disappeared.