The words in bold are direct quotes from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. I do not own Harry Potter. J.K Rowling does.

Dobby the House Elf

It was the worst birthday Charlotte Potter ever had. And after twelve years of living with the Dursleys, that was really saying something.

The young witch was crouched in the freshly clipped grass (which she had just done) and was furiously pulling weeds from the front garden. Her oversize T-shirt and baggy jeans were covered in dirt and her face was streaked with sweat. "Happy birthday to me," she said to herself sarcastically.

She was not looking forward to the dinner party her uncle would have with, quote unquote, a future client. It was of course a person that was incredibly wealthy, because that's the only kind of person Vernon would suck up too.

Charlie knew she was confined to her room for the duration of the dinner. Her Aunt Petunia was bustling around the kitchen, putting the finishing touches on her masterpiece of a pudding, which she would proudly serve as desert.

"I hate summer," she moaned, sitting up and cracking her sore back. The past year had been wonderful and amazing. She never thought she would be able to escape the Dursleys until she turned eighteen, at the very least. But then the Hogwarts letter came and opened a door to a whole new life. She was excited to go back, and also a bit apprehensive.

Over a month of summer holidays had passed and she had not gotten a single letter from Ron, Hermione or Harry, her best friends from school. Charlie wrote to Hermione a couple of times, but then stopped when she wasn't getting responses.

What if their parents told them not to speak to me again after the Philosopher's Stone incident?

If that was the case, then Charlie understood. After all, they nearly died during their rescue mission. The raven-haired girl sighed heavily and went back to weeding, glove-covered hands tearing thick green strands from the soil.

"Do you like your birthday so far?" an obnoxious voice sneered from above. Charlie rolled her bright green eyes and scowled into the pudgy face of her cousin Dudley.

"It's the best birthday I ever had," she responded sarcastically. "Now go away before I hex you."

Dudley went very pale and Charlie smirked on the inside. Her relatives did not know she wasn't allowed to use magic outside of school, but that hadn't stopped them from locking up her trunk. Good thing she knew how to pick locks (a skill learnt out of boredom) or her summer homework would never have gotten done.

"You can't!" Dudley cried, backing for the kitchen door. "Dad won't let you!"

"He's not here right now, is he?" Charlie asked mischievously, knowing very well her uncle left to pick up his and Dudley's dinner jackets.

Dudley howled in fear and raced for the kitchen. Not even a second later and her aunt poked her head out the open sliding glass door, a scowl on her face. "Did you threaten your cousin?"

"I was just joking," she answered in exasperation. "I don't even know any hexes."

"You don't talk like that in this house!" hissed Petunia. "Another word like that out of you and I'll let your uncle take care of it. Now finish up the weeding and get inside."

"Yes, Aunt Petunia."

Charlie wasn't entirely concerned with her aunt's threat. While the Dursleys were many things, they didn't believe in physical violence. The only exception was the occasional cuff around the head, which she received rather often, though it didn't hurt most of the time. Since she did more than her fair share of chores around the house and was rather efficient at them, her aunt and uncle resorted to having her skip meals as a punishment.

After many years of this, she quickly grew accustomed to not eating much, which was the reason for her extremely skinny frame. But while she was used to it, she still didn't like it, and so decided not to cause any more trouble.

A few minutes later she finally finished the weeding. She shoved the green strands into a garbage bag and lugged it towards the curb. When she approached the steel can, she froze when the lid peeked up, and a pair of large green eyes stared out at her.

What kind of mutated raccoon is that?

"Charlotte!"

Knowing it wouldn't be wise to linger when she was summoned, Charlie approached the can and cautiously pulled back the lid. Whatever had been in there a second before was now gone. She put the garbage bag inside. "I'm losing my mind," she muttered. Slamming the lid down, she hurried to answer her aunt's call.

"There you are!" Petunia snapped. "Did you finish weeding?"

"Yeah. It's all neat looking now." Charlie took off her mud-encrusted shoes and banged them together outside the door. "Anything else?"

"No." Her aunt pointed to a cheese sandwich resting on a plate on the counter. "Hurry up and eat. Make sure you get all that mud off. I don't want my clean floors dirty."

Tucking her sneakers under one arm, she walked inside and grabbed the sandwich with her free hand. She shoved it in her mouth and went for the stairs. She was on the second step when the front door flew open and her large uncle lumbered in. "Girl!"

Halting, she glanced over her shoulder. "Yeah?" she asked around a mouthful of bread and cheese.

Vernon glared with a purple face, which signified how high his stress level was. "I want no funny business! That cat of yours stays quiet and so do you! Ruin this deal for me and you will be very unhappy."

Taking a massive bite, Charlie swallowed and held the remainder of her dinner in her hand. "Yes Uncle Vernon," she answered. Her uncle gave one more glare for good measure before heading for the kitchen. She hurried for her bedroom, opening the door and shutting it quickly before her cat could escape.

Snowflake had not been happy about being cooped up for so long. But Vernon didn't like cats, or any animal in general, really, and so the feline had to stay in Charlie's room. Charlie was grateful she had managed to sneak Snowy's cat supplies underneath her bed before Vernon managed to get a hold of her trunk.

"Sorry Snowflake," she apologized as she tossed her dirty shoes in the corner and got dressed in a clean set of clothes. "Summer will be over before you know it."

Then there was a great pop just as the doorbell rang downstairs. Charlie managed to hold back a scream as a small creature with bat-like ears and bulging green eyes appeared at the foot of her bed. Snowy hissed and made to leap at it but Charlie quickly caught her in mid-air. "Relax!" she snapped sternly. She set Snowy down and the cat settled on the floor, eyes locked on the odd creature.

"Er..." Charlie began nervously. "Hi."

The thing beamed at her. "It is a great honour to be meeting Charlotte Potter, Miss!"

Charlie rubbed the back of her neck, completely confused. "Gee, thanks. It's really nice to meet you too, whoever you are."

To her surprise and horror the thing burst into tears. Charlie hastily clamped a hand over its mouth and shushed it gently. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to make you cry!"

"Its n-not t-that!" the thing sobbed. "No one has e-ever said it was nice to m-meet Dobby before! Never has Dobby been treated so kindly by a wizard or witch like an e-equal!"

After a moment Dobby's sobs lessened and Charlie removed her hand. "Well then, you've obviously only been in the company of rude wizards and witches."

Dobby nodded. And then immediately after he started to bang his head on her dresser.

Charlie wondered what she had done to deserve this. The conversation paused downstairs and she grabbed Dobby and swung him onto her bed. They stood still for a moment until the talking downstairs resumed.

"What did you do that for?" Charlie asked in bewilderment.

"Dobby almost spoke ill of his family, Miss. Dobby must not speak ill of them, or he must punish himself!"

"Your family?" Charlie asked.

"Dobby serves a wealthy wizarding family Miss. He serves them and cleans for them."

Charlie decided that Dobby was the wizarding version of a housekeeper. But she was perplexed on the whole punishing thing. She figured she would look it up when she had a chance. But right now, she needed to stop Dobby before he got her in trouble.

"We'll just avoid the topic of your family, alright? Now, you've obviously come here for a reason. Would you like to tell me what that reason is?"

Dobby twisted his little hands together and looked at her earnestly. "Dobby will have to punish himself later...but Charlotte Potter is so brave! Dobby must warn you, protect you...Charlotte Potter must not return to Hogwarts!"

Charlie blinked. "Um...why not?"

"There is a plot, Miss! Dark plots that'll make terrible things happen at Hogwarts! Charlotte Potter must not put herself in danger!"

"Who's plotting?"

Dobby lunged for her lamp but she caught him before he could do any damage and set him down. She was starting to see a pattern. He punished himself every time he wronged his family, whether it be by insult or going against their wishes. "Alright, I assume you can't tell me because you've been told not to, correct?"

Dobby nodded. Charlie thought for a moment. "Well, has it anything to do with Vol-You-Know-Who?" Charlie corrected herself, knowing that people in the wizarding world did not like speaking or hearing Voldemort's name.

Dobby slowly shook his head. Charlie pursed her lips in thought. She truly did not know anything more dangerous than Voldemort, and decided that perhaps this little thing just misunderstood what he had been told. "Well, then I think I'll be fine. And besides, I'm sure Dumbledore won't let anything bad happen to the school."

"Dumbledore is a powerful wizard, but Dumbledore doesn't have powers...powers no good wizard should..." He leapt for the lamp again and this time succeeded. The conversation stopped once more as the pained yelps grew in volume. She could hear Vernon talking loudly over Dobby's squeals and knew he would probably be up soon to investigate. She hastily scooped him up and shoved him into her wardrobe.

The door flew open moments later and Vernon hissed, "What are you doing?"

Charlie looked at him innocently. "Nothing really. How's your dinner?"

"Behave girl, or else!" Vernon growled and shut the door once more before returning downstairs. Charlie breathed a sigh of relief and let Dobby out of the wardrobe.

"Now, that is why I have to go back. They don't like me, and I feel comfortable at Hogwarts. I like it there. I actually have friends there."

"Friends who don't even write to Charlotte Potter?" Dobby questioned.

Charlie crossed her arms and narrowed her green eyes. "And how exactly would you know that?"

Dobby nervously removed a bundle of letters from underneath the pillowcase he wore. "Charlotte Potter mustn't be angry! Dobby thought that if Charlotte Potter believed she didn't have any friends, she would stay here, where it's safe!"

Charlie wanted to tackle the little creature for the letters but refrained. Dobby seemed to believe she was in grave danger if she returned to school and was trying to protect her. His means weren't exactly right ones, but she understood he was only trying to be helpful. "Dobby, may I please have my letters?"

"If Miss will say she won't return to Hogwarts."

Charlie sighed. "Dobby, I'm afraid I can't do that."

"Then Miss has left Dobby with no choice."

The letters were tossed on her bed and Dobby scurried around her and opened the door. Charlie tried to stop him but he was already halfway down the stairs by the time she darted into the hallway. Charlie gasped in horror and booked it after him. "Dobby!"

She scrambled past the sitting room unnoticed and nearly shrieked when she entered the kitchen. Dobby perched atop the fridge and was using magic to levitate a pudding towards the group gathered in the sitting room.

"Dobby, please don't!" Charlie begged.

"Will Miss stay here and not return to Hogwarts?"

"I can't!"

"Then Dobby is sorry."

The pudding dropped and splattered all over the Masons. Charlie ran a hand through her raven hair as Dobby popped away and tried to sneak back to her room unseen.

No such luck.

Vernon caught her and his face looked ready to explode. Before he could make a hasty apology to the Masons, an owl swooped in and Mrs. Mason ran out of the house, screaming hysterically. Mr. Mason followed after her and Vernon grabbed the letter from the owl, fuming.

A look that frightened Charlie crossed his face. He silently handed her the letter after he had finished reading it. Charlie read it over and paled. It was a warning from the Improper Use of Magic office and it clearly stated that this was her only warning and reminded her that she could not use magic outside of school if she was underage.

"Um…not my fault?"

...

"You've got me in a real mess now, Dobby," Charlie sighed. It was one night later and bars were firmly placed over her window and her door was padlocked shut. Food was slipped in through a little slot and she was allowed out for bathroom breaks.

"Well, Dobby will be happy. I certainly won't be returning to Hogwarts now." Charlie flopped back on her bed. "I'll be serving life at the Dursley Institution for Abnormal Freaks."

Just as she was about to drift off, there was a tapping sound on her window. Charlie pushed herself up on her elbows so she could see what the source was and nearly had a heart attack.

Peering at her through the iron bars was none other than Ron Weasley.