Chapter 23 – Dobby’s story.



Luna and Harry’s conversation of a few days before kept swirling around in his mind. “You will see them one day Harry.” she had said to him, when they spoke lovingly of his parents. Her ideas of death being the next great adventure had come from her Father, but it also coincided with the same sentiments as Albus Dumbledore had expressed to Harry a couple of years ago.



He kept thinking about his mother, Lily. The way she waltzed across the room in his relived memory of his first Birthday party. The way his Father had called him by the pet name ‘Tiger!’



That, Harry had never known, and he kept that little detail to himself, even Luna had no idea of this hidden fact. A fact that was buried with his parents on that fateful night, and if it wasn’t for that relived memory Harry would never have known, so he kept it buried inside of him; inside his heart.



Harry looked at the clock on his bedside table, it was 2am and Ron could be heard muttering softly in his sleep, something that he was renowned to doing most evenings.



“Mi…one, look out….trolls, trolls, Mione, hit him with that tree.” stuttered Ron, his eyelids shaking slightly, moving to the motions of his dream.



Harry smiled to himself. Ron seemed to have a very over-active imagination when in the terrain of his own dreamscape.



Harry stared up at the dark ceiling; he could only just make it out, through the pitch darkness of the overshadowed moon. He laid there, thinking to himself how much he would have loved his parents to meet Luna, and how he would of revelled in having the family life with Karis growing up as his big over-protective sister; as she had put it, that night on Christmas Eve in her letter.



His mind then clouded over, he could see the veil. He watched Sirius fall through it, as if in slow motion; to his untimely murderous death. Harry shook his head, he didn’t want to re-live it again, or even see it, but he knew it was something that would stay with him for the rest of his life.



“What is that veil?” he questioned silently to himself, it was then he realised that he had never even asked anyone about it.

Before Harry knew what he was doing, he was out of bed pacing up and down by the side of it. Trying desperately hard to remember that night after all, and picture the veil as clearly as possible in his mind.

The soft echo of voices that protruded from its hidden depths, both something that himself and Luna had heard on that fateful night; while enticing them into its midst.

Still pacing, he decided that sleep would not be on the agenda anytime soon, so he quietly picked up his invisibility cloak that had been folded shrewdly in his large brown leather trunk, and wrapped it around his body.

He took the stairs quietly, when he stopped abruptly at the flickering of candle light with the sound of footsteps not his own, and a squeaky muttering voice.

“Dobby?” questioned Harry, to the small house elf which expressed a bright woolly hat and multicoloured socks.

Dobby looked around, and then smiled, as he saw the tall young man with messy dark hair and glasses, taking off his invisibility cloak.

“Harry Potter, sir.” shrieked Dobby in delight, while clapping his wrinkled, long fingered palms together.

Harry gave him a small welcoming smile, he didn’t feel like smiling right now but the excitement in Dobby’s eyes made Harry’s heavy burdened heart lighten a little.

“Dobby is being a good elf and doing his house elf duties, master Potter.” replied Dobby with a bow.

“Don’t bow to me Dobby, I don’t deserve it.” replied Harry, while taking a seat.

Dobby surveyed Harry with a look of sadness in his large blue eyes. “Harry Potter is sad. What can Dobby do to help?” he replied, approaching Harry slowly.

“I was just thinking about my Parents, I wish I had more answers.” said Harry simply.

“Dobby can feel your pain, we house elves have many special powers that Wizards do not possess.” replied Dobby, not taking his eyes off of Harry once.

Harry took his eyes away from the blank wall and turned to look at his small friend.

“Like what?” he questioned, with an intriguing frown.

Dobby went to sit next to Harry and then stopped abruptly and looked up at Harry apologetically.

Harry smiled and shook his head. “Dobby, please sit down next to me, you are my friend, not my servant!”

“Oh, Oh, Thank you Harry, thank you, kind sir.” replied Dobby, taking his seat while pulling out a hanky to blow his now runny nose and to dab his large wet eyes.

Harry waited for Dobby to calm down before he spoke.

“I just wish I could say goodbye to them that’s all.”

Dobby blew his nose even harder. “Are you alright Dobby?” asked Harry.

“Yes, Dobby is being silly, after all, Dobby cares much for Harry Potter and it saddens Dobby when Harry talks about his parents. Dobby wants to help.”

“Dobby, you have helped me enough the last five years.” replied Harry, trying to put a stop to the elves blubbering. “You helped me in year two with the diary. You also helped me with my second task in the forth year! Do you remember that…” smiled Harry in reminiscence.

Dobby’s eyes lit up once more. “Yes, Dobby remembers helping, Dobby likes to help his friend! But Dobby also remembers that Harry Potter freed him.”

“Well I don’t think you can help me with this one Dobby, it is just something I will have to accept on my own.” replied Harry, his eyes expressing a dull sadness.

“I try.” He continued. “Everyday! Luna helps, she’s an amazing person…..” Harry was talking into the soft flame licked air; it felt good to talk, even if it was to Dobby.

“Dobby has an idea, but you must get back under your cloak and follow me!” said the elf, as he jumped off of the over-padded sofa.

“Where are we going?” asked Harry, looking mildly surprised.

“Shhh, just follow me. We don’t want to get caught by that stupid squib Filchy!” replied Dobby very matter-of-factly.

Harry suppressed the need to laugh. “Filchy?”

Dobby put his hand over his mouth to cover his small toothed smile. “Yes, that’s what us house elves call him, we don’t like Filchy, mean little squib, he talks to us like vermin. Winky put a spell on him only yesterday, so he couldn’t talk for a few hours!”

“Nice one Winky!” replied Harry with an amused smile.

“Dobby will tell Winky you said that!” replied Dobby, still hiding his wide grin with his hand.

Slowly, Harry followed Dobby out of the fat lady portrait and down the hall. They came to the stairs and Harry was careful as not to get stuck in the sinking step as he did on another occasion while out of his dormitory late one night in his fourth year.

The castle, however glistening with reflecting candle light, gave off an eerie feeling. Harry had never noticed it before on his previous night crawling escapades, but he sensed that things will not always be so quiet and peaceful. He shook the thought from his mind. He had them a lot lately. Negative impulses of thinking the worst, when in truth he was quite happy at this present time, most of his thoughts aimed around one pretty faced mousy blond hair girl, who believed in extremities beyond recognition, and wore butterbeer corks as jewellery.

He smiled at the thought of her, the quirky ways of her personality is what intrigued him the most about Luna, and every waking moment she was in his thoughts, even if he was busy doing something else, she lingered in the back of his mind.

Harry felt something flutter in his stomach, but he ignored it. Not knowing the feeling, he pushed it to one side and carried on following the House Elf through the halls of the grand periodic building.

Harry recognised this corridor even in the dullest of light. Passing Karis’ classroom he wondered if she was in there, marking papers due to her inability to sleep, or maybe she was curled up in her comfortable quarters all snuggled up in her thick hippogrith feathered quilt, sleeping softly.

Harry’s mind then moved onto Dumbledore’s Army. He smiled. Making out each of their faces in his mind so clearly. He started to get very close to all of them in his own way. Marietta Edgecombe even embraced him a few days ago after they had another practice lesson in the Room of Requirement, practising their jinxes. He had praised her in high stead for finally managing to produce a fully fledged patronus, which took its shape as a cow; something which many found rather amusing, especially Ron. He continued to say how much alike they looked when away from her presence, which resulted in another nudge in the ribs from Hermione.

Harry was quite content in his world of thoughts. When he practically walked into the back of Dobby, unaware that the elf had stopped in his track.

“We have to go down here!” whispered Dobby very quietly, while holding up a small square door that was hidden in the floor.

“A trap door…Oh great” said Harry quite sarcastically. “I have been down one of those before.” He was referring to his first year at Hogwarts, something that he still regarded as one of the obscurest years of his life, finally being told he was a wizard, something which he did not believe in its full entirety at first.

Dobby smiled his small tooth grin. “Yes, but this one is safe, this one is where Professor Karis keeps things hidden!”

Harry’s eyes widened. “Karis?”

“Yes, the Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher.” replied Dobby.

“Yes Dobby, I know who she is!” replied Harry, quietly amused.

Harry looked down at the open door that Dobby was holding up with his long skinny wrinkled arm.

“Well come on then!” Dobby whispered in urgency.

Harry moved forward and took the trap door’s round iron wrought handle out of Dobby’s hands, while the house elf quickly vanished in mid air. “Hey.” Harry said in a loud whisper, looking around the dark corridor.

“Down here!” replied Dobby, from below the door.

Harry looked down to see that Dobby was inside the secret room. “Silly boy.” muttered Dobby to himself while shaking his head.

“Alright, alright.” replied Harry precariously. He then proceeded to take one step at a time, until he reached the bottom of the small trapdoor staircase.

It had to be Karis’ room! Harry thought silently to himself. Mainly because he could barely fit down there, it was harder for him, being nearly six feet tall. Then Harry had a sudden image of Crabbe and Goyle trying to get down here and smiled at the mental picture he had in his mind, Crabbe, being stuck at the top, his head bobbing up and down as Goyle slammed the trapdoor on top of his head.

“What is Harry smiling about?” asked Dobby, his eyes wider than usual, his pupils large in the darkness.

“Oh, nothing, I had a funny thought that’s all. Uh, where are we?”

“This is the magical artefacts room. It wasn’t here before Professor Karis started teaching the school, so Dumbledore conjured another room for her to put all her collectable items in.” replied Dobby.

“Its amazing.” said Harry, looking around the small room that had a desk in the corner with old scrolls, ink bottles and quills.

Directly in front of them was a large shelving unit in oak wood. On each shelf there was an object. One he recognised as a remeberall. Another was a time-turner which he knew the ministry would have a fit about if they knew. Quite excited at the thought of getting his hands on another time-turner, he walked close and saw however that it was broken. Harry sighed.

On the shelf above the time turner there was a large crystal ball.

Harry picked one of the books up from the bottom shelf and tried to open it but it shrieked at him. “Cheating nosy scumbang, hands off!” it screeched, and he dropped it in shock.

“Shhhh, does Harry potter want to get Dobby in trouble?”

“What is that?” asked Harry, breathless while still shaking silently in surprise.

“It’s a diary, a secret diary that holds a binding spell. You mustn’t touch anything else!”

How did you find out about this place Dobby?

“I heard Professor Karis call this her relic haven once, when she was talking to Professor Snape.”

Harry continued prying, trying to take in as much as possible. There were many things that he had never seen before and he wished deep down that Hermione was with him, he bet she knew a thing or two about some of the artefacts in this room.

It was then he heard Dobby shriek in delight at something, he turned around to find the house elf holding a large sheet of parchment with two candles in gold and silver.

“What is that?” asked Harry, approaching Dobby slowly.

“This Harry is what Dobby has been looking for, Dobby knew Professor Karis had one, she got it in Germany.” replied the house elf, holding it up under Harry’s nose. “This Harry is a very rare artefact indeed.”

“Well, what does it do?” asked Harry, sweat dipping down his nose from his forehead, due to the heat protruding from the pipes that were on the back wall.

Dobby eyes widened and a large smile fell across his face. “It’s a summoning spell Harry, but it doesn’t work like a summoning charm that you get taught here at Hogwarts, this is different!” Dobby frowned, then bit his lip, finally realising for the first time that what he was doing was completely against the rules and if anyone found out, it would be the end of his time at Hogwarts.

“Dobby, you are looking worried, this is no NEWT level spell is it!” Harry replied, seeing the concern on his little friend’s face.

“No, this is an old spell, from an ancient scroll that only powerful wizards and witches can conjure, along with the power of a House Elf. There are many spells Harry that can be done only by a House Elf and no other, which is why, going back to ancient times, Wizards see it fit to have an Elf as a companion. They could help them in advanced spell work, but as time went on it became so that Elves became servants and slaves to those, as the Wizard got greedy.”

Harry listened to Dobby’s story intently, he was intrigued, he never asked how the House Elves had become Servants, he just imagined it was something that materialised at the beginning of time.

“How did it become so Dobby?” asked Harry, taking a seat on the bottom step of the trapdoor entrance ladder.

It was all due to shoddy spell work one day from a very old wise elf.” replied Dobby, shaking his head. “He made a big mistake when trying to do a binding spell, one that would allow House Elves to bind their powers to stop Wizards abusing our capabilities. However the spell back fired, making every House Elf in the world bound to one family, and to serve until he was set free by an item of clothing. Or forever serve until one’s death.”

Harry took in a deep breath, he felt appalled at what he was hearing. He always appreciated what the House Elves did, and how hard they worked. He also agreed with Hermione’s beliefs deep down about S.P.E.W. But he never really thought about it, never asked questions as to why it was so.

“I’m sorry Dobby, I guess I never really thought about it. But your free, you choose to work here, right!” replied Harry, trying to lighten the mood.

“Yes, oh Yes, Dobby is happy now. He wasn’t with the Malfoy’s, they were bad Wizards, bad family! But Dobby was a defiant house elf, not many are like that. House Elves like Winky was appalled at being set free by their master. It is now our way of life, and for many it is accepted and embraced, but it wasn’t for Dobby, because Dobby remembers what it was like before Harry Potter defeated He who must not be named, and Dobby wanted to be Harry Potter’s friend.” Dobby then walked closer to Harry and handed him the ancient scroll and the Gold and Silver candles.

“Oh, what does this summoning spell do again, Dobby?” asked Harry with raised eyebrows, as he realised Dobby didn’t answer his question earlier.

“It summons the dead. Now it is time Mr Potter! Finally…It is time to say goodbye.”