Chapter 2:

"What's wrong Harry?" I asked while I moved around him. I suddenly realized the source of Harry's distress, there was something sitting on our bed! The little creature had huge green eyes, and bat like ears. Other than that he kind of resembled a human, except for his short height. The creature instantly hopped out of the bed, and started bowing to us. "Mr. and Mrs. potter so pleased to meet you!" He said in a high squeaky voice. "Umm. Hi." I said to stunned to say anything else.

"Who are you?" Harry asked slightly curious. "I'm Dobby sir. Just Dobby the house-elf." Dobby said. "Well, not to be rude or anything, but what are you doing in my bedroom? It's not really a good time or anything to have a house-elf in our bedroom." Harry said slightly rude because of how much our 'family' would freak out if they found out. The elf looked at us with the saddest eyes ever, and it was amplified because of the size of his eyes.

"Well we are pleased to meet you Dobby. But why are you here?" I said quickly. Dobby looked up and smiled a little bit. "Of course miss. I've come to warn you, it's difficult though, Dobby wonders where he should begin." "Why don't you sit down?" Harry said, suddenly the elf burst into tears. "Sit... Down... Sit down! Dobby's never been asked to sit down by a wizard." He sobbed. "He didn't mean to offend you Dobby." I said quickly looking at Harry. If we got overheard by Uncle Vernon we wouldn't get food for 3 weeks, but not eating wasn't anything new to me, but I had kind of gotten used to the lovely meals at Hogwarts. "Offend Dobby? You haven't offended Dobby sir. Dobby had never been asked to sit down like an equal by a wizard sir." He was still sniffling but it was thankfully quieter now. "Well you couldn't have met very many nice wizards then." Harry said as Dobby was sitting down on the stool.

Dobby shook his head and then suddenly grabbed the lamp and started hitting himself in the head with it. "Bad Dobby, Bad Dobby." He shouted at himself. Harry grabbed the lamp from the house-elf and hissed, "What are you doing?" "Sorry, sir I had to punish myself I almost spoke ill of my family." The elf said sadly. "Your family?" I said shocked. "Oh yes miss. Dobby is a house-elf in enslavement. Dobby is meant to serve the family until they set him free, or Dobby dies." He blew his nose in his shirt, or more of a filthy garment.

"Well what did you come to tell us Dobby?" I asked trying to be polite in this strange situation. "You and Harry mustn't go back to school!" Dobby said. "What? But the school is our home. We can't stay here!" I said shocked. "You must have seen how they treat us here." Harry said. "You guys are in mortal danger, you mustn't go back to school!" He said insistent. "What? Why what's going on?" I asked. "There is a plot, a plot to make most terrible things happen. Albus Dumbledore is a great wizard sir. No disrespect, but there are powers... Certain dark powers that Dumbledore doesn't have... Powers no decent wizard..." Dobby suddenly started banging his head on the wall, and giving startled loud yelps.

All of the talking downstairs stopped, and you could hear Uncle Vernon say "Oh I'm sorry Dudley must have left the television on upstairs." "Sorry." You heard Dudley mutter. Then we could hear Uncle Vernons heavy thumping up the stairs. "Quick in the closet." Harry muttered to Dobby, and when he didn't move he grabbed Dobby by his clothes and shoved him in. "WHAT IN THE BLOODY HELL ARE YOU TWO DOING UP HERE!?" Uncle Vernon exploded at us still breathing heavily from the walk up the stairs. "Nothing." I said. Then the closet door thumped open a little bit and Harry shut it quickly. "Sorry sir it's the closet." Harry said. "Well get it fixed won't you! And be quiet about it." Said Uncle Vernon.

Harry just nodded and then Uncle Vernon went wheezing back down the stairs. Dobby then pushed out of the closet and flung away a sock that had gotten stuck on his ear. "See we have to go back Dobby, this is no home for us, we have no friends here." I said almost pleadingly. "Friends who don't even write to you." Dobby said slyly. "Well I suppose..." Harry started but I cut him off, "How do you know our friends haven't been writing to us?" I said accusingly. "Well you mustn't get mad with Dobby." He said, and then pulled out a whole stack of cards and letters from inside his shirt, "Dobby thought if you thought you had no friends at Hogwarts you wouldn't want to go back." He said while he started slowly backing towards the door. "Dobby give those here now." Harry said seething with anger. "Harry stop it." I said trying to hold Harry back but Harry lunged and Dobby, with a yelp, leapt out the door.

We raced after Dobby down the stairs, he had disappeared for a few moments until I saw him crouching in a corner of the kitchen, with Aunt Petunia's cake flying off the island counter top. "Dobby no don't they'll kill us." I said pleading with him. "Then you must say you aren't going back to school." Dobby said stubbornly. "We can't it's our home." Harry hissed taking a few steps closer to him and stepping into the kitchen. "Then Dobby must." He said and with the crack of his fingers, the cake dropped and he disappeared.

Everybody rushed into the kitchen and they found Harry covered in cake, and me standing by the entrance to the kitchen staring at him in shock. "I'm so sorry, it's my nephew, he is very disturbed. Meeting strangers upsets him so I kept him upstairs." Uncle Vernon said blaming it on Harry. "Oh what a delight that girl is, trying to take care of her brother!" Mrs. Mason said kindly and smiled at me. Uncle Vernon glared at me and I knew to go along with it. "Oh yes of course, c'mon Harry lets go upstairs..."

Suddenly an owl came screeching in through the window and Mrs. Mason screamed in terror, and ran out of the house. Her husband blubbering and yelling at us, ran after his wife. I watched out the window as Uncle Vernon tried running after the car, it would have been a funny sight if I knew he wasn't going to kill us. I walked over to Harry and saw he was staring at a letter, Uncle Vernon burst through the door at that moment and was about to speak when suddenly the letter exploded and started saying,

"Dear Mr. Potter and Mrs. Potter,

We have received intelligence that a Hover Charm was used at your place of residence this evening at twelve minutes past nine. As you know, underage wizards are not permitted to perform spells outside school, and further spellwork on your part may lead to expulsion from said school. (Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery, 1875, Paragraph C). We would also ask you to remember that any magical activity that risks notice by members of the non magical community (Muggles) is a serious offense under section 13 of the International Confederation of Warlocks' Statute of Secrecy.

Enjoy your holidays!

Yours sincerely, Mafalda Hopkirk

IMPROPER USE OF MAGIC OFFICE Ministry of Magic

"Ha. Ha!" Uncle Vernon said triumphantly. "So you two aren't allowed to use magic outside of school. Huh? Dare say it just slipped your mind telling us that." Uncle Vernon said quite calmly with an evil smile on his face. That's it I thought this is the end. He dragged us upstairs and locked us in our room. He laughed saying "Ha, you can't magic your way out of the room or they'll expel you, and if you don't show up your still expelled. Ha I win!" He said gleefully.

Uncle Vernon was worse then what he promised, he paid somebody to put bars on our windows, and even fitted a cat flap in the door so we wouldn't have to go out and get food. The only time we were let out was once in the morning and once at night to use the bathroom. The food was worse than before to, it just tasted like water with some unidentifiable chunks floating in it. But by this time we were both starving so we ate it, and then fed the leftovers to Hedwig. One of the last nights before term, me and Harry were staying up late once again discussing what Dobby meant. "Maybe Voldemort is back again." I said. "No, I don't think so. Wouldn't other people know?" Harry said. I was about to answer when we heard an engine of a car coming towards us. We looked at each other and raced to the window.