Dobby's Return
Chapter 7

Disclaimer: This work of fan-fiction is not intended for personal profit. All characters utilized herein which are not creations of myself belong to J. K. Rowling.


Dobby decided to quietly follow Harry from class to class. The first class was Herbology, and he noticed Professor Lockhart bothering Harry by the greenhouses while his classmates entered Greenhouse Three. Dobby decided to listen as the man spoke.

"Harry, Harry, Harry. I have just the plan for you. While we're here at Hogwarts, I could line up a series of interviews – very exclusive, you know – and get you lots of publicity! Well, with me, too, of course. Think about it! Gilderoy Lockhart and Harry Potter, together on the front page of Witch Weekly in full colour."

Dobby noticed that Harry looked quite annoyed. Dobby flicked his finger, causing some mud to fly onto Lockhart's immaculate robes. Harry pointed and said, "Sir! Your robes…"

Lockhart flew into such a panic that he let go of Harry's shoulder, letting Harry duck into Greenhouse Three straightaway. Dobby amused himself watching as Lockhart began casting repeated cleaning charms on every part of the robe as he re-entered the castle. Dobby wondered if perhaps Fred and George Weasley would like to help play some jokes on the man.

Dobby busied himself by thinking again on Scabbers the rat. While he didn't know much about rats, he had heard that Scabbers was a very old rat, being about eleven years old already. Wizard magic was a little unusual to Dobby, so he was not entirely sure if the slight magic he felt from Scabbers meant the rat was a magical breed. Magical animals and humans, as a rule, tended to live longer. Dobby remembered Lucius discussing with Macnair the possibility of bypassing the Ministry rules on animal transfers to get a very old and unusual breed of crup, which he could breed for its unusually long tails. The crup had to have been thirty or more years old, when Muggle dogs generally only lived to be twenty at most.

Since he didn't know how Scabbers fit into things, Dobby wondered again if Hermione Granger had gone to get the trial transcripts for the Death Eaters. He knew if Harry were to read them all he would at least know who had actually been sent to Azkaban for serving He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.

If the transcripts could not be found at Hogwarts Dobby had heard from a Ministry house-elf that the Department of Magical Law Enforcement would send them to anyone who asked. The exact details were a little unclear to him, being as he did not know exactly how a trial worked.

The closest Dobby had ever heard of a trial for a house-elf had been the old house-elf Hokey's, though she had simply confessed, and then had been executed straightaway. House-elves told the story of how she had been a very bad house-elf to poison her mistress like that, even if it had been by accident, as she had tearfully said.

The bell rang. As Herbology class broke up, students left the greenhouse. Harry, when he came outside, espied Dobby hiding under a large bush. Under the pretext of wanting to look at the unusual leaves, Harry brought Ron over and pointed at a leaf, saying in a low voice, "That mud on Lockhart's robe was your idea, wasn't it? Brilliant! You saved me an earful of his ideas about getting me on Witch Weekly."

Ron shuddered and said, "Ghastly, mate. Good work, Dobby!"

"Dobby is happy to keep Professor Lockhart from annoying Harry. But Harry should be getting to class now."

Harry said loudly, "Ron, we can look at the bush later, maybe ask Sprout about it. Let's get to Transfiguration – McGonagall will take points if we're late!"

Dobby silently popped to near the Transfiguration room, hiding in the shadows as he watched the students begin the class. He busied himself with silently cleaning the floor all up and down the corridor, banishing the mud tracks the students left behind. After that, he began straightening up empty classrooms, waiting until the bell rang for the beginning of lunch.

Lunch proved to be normal, as Dobby found out when hiding under the High Table's tablecloth again. After Harry ate a reasonable amount (Dobby would be sure Harry ate well, of course!), he, Ron and Hermione left. Dobby waited until he sensed they were outside Hogwarts, then popped onto the roof overlooking the courtyard. His sensitive ears picked up the conversation between Colin Creevey and Harry.

"All right, Harry? I'm – I'm Colin Creevey," the small blond boy said, taking a tentative step forward. "I'm in Gryffindor, too. D'you think – would it be all right if – can I have a picture?" he said, raising the camera.

Dobby noticed former Master Draco striding towards Harry and his protective instincts rose to the fore immediately. As soon as he heard Draco say, "Signed photos—" Dobby snapped his fingers, causing Draco to stumble and inhale some of the courtyard dust.

Draco spluttered, rising to his feet amidst the laughter. "You won't find it so funny when you find out what my father's done, Potter!"

Ron guffawed, "Come off it, Malfoy. Unless he's somehow gotten you all Outstandings you're not worth the trouble."

"Says you, Weasel, when your wand's got a unicorn hair sticking out of it and looks like it's been used by your great-grandfather. No, wait, make that your great-great-grandfather!"

Hermione slammed her book shut, stood up, and said, "Malfoy! Leave. Us. Alone."

Whatever Draco was about to say was cut off when Professor Lockhart came into the courtyard, saying, "Harry, Harry, Harry! What's this I see? A young man with a camera, eh?" He gestured at Colin, who perked up, eagerly holding up his camera. "We'll both sign it for you, how about that?"

Dobby noticed Draco smirking maliciously as he led Crabbe and Goyle away from the crowd surrounding Professor Lockhart. For good measure, just as Draco mounted the steps at the other end of the courtyard to go back into the school, Dobby snapped his fingers again, causing all three boys to trip and slam heavily onto the stone steps.

He then refocused on Professor Lockhart, who was just disengaging from a very displeased Harry. Dobby noticed that a lot of dust and some mud had collected on the roof and hadn't been cleaned yet. He waited for the perfect opportunity and got it as Professor Lockhart swished his robe around to cast a quick cleaning charm on it, letting the rest of the crowd drift away and for Harry and his friends to break off as well.

At that moment, Dobby pointed his finger at some of the mud and dust, sending it all sliding off the edge of the roof to fall straight onto Professor Lockhart. The resulting scream of horror was worth the effort Dobby had taken to stay hidden out of sight as he heard Professor Lockhart bellow cleaning spells, clattering back into the school with a speed unmatched even by Peeves.

Dobby peeked over the roof and caught Harry's amused glance. Harry nodded briefly, then turned back to Ron and Hermione. Hermione said, "My goodness! I didn't realise the winds were so sudden. I do hope Professor Lockhart isn't hurt."

"I doubt it, Hermione. Anyway, don't we have Defence next with him anyway?" said Ron.

Dobby watched, confused, as Hermione's face turned somewhat red and she rushed into the school, followed by a slower-paced Ron and Harry. He waited until he knew Harry's location had settled in one place, then popped to just outside the Defence classroom and began busily cleaning the hallway there, listening as the class went on through the door that had been left ajar.

Professor Lockhart's voice boomed out of the room as he spoke.

"Me," he said. "Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, Third Class, Honourary Member of the Dark Force Defence League and five times winner of Witch Weekly's Most-Charming-Smile Award – but I don't talk about that. I didn't get rid of the Bandon Banshee by smiling at her!"

Dobby darkly wondered if the professor had ever written a book about house-elves, and decided to make sure no house-elf would ever speak with him if that was to occur. He knew, from both of his lives, that the man had annoyed Harry. Why, the man had even Vanished Harry Potter's bones from his arm! Of course, that had been Dobby's fault too and he remembered ironing his hands many times when he had gone back to Malfoy Manor.

But Lockhart's voice certainly hurt Dobby's ears and it was only his devotion to Harry that kept him busily cleaning and listening in the hallway.

A bellowed, "Peskipiksi Pesternomi!" later, and chaos ensued in the classroom as students yelled and screamed amidst thuds and bangs. Dobby looked inside the classroom and saw pixies flying everywhere! But they were not dangerous, so Dobby contented himself knowing that Harry would deal with them, and that Professor Lockhart was not speaking in that annoying voice anymore.

Dobby wondered if perhaps he could be responsible for cleaning Professor Lockhart's room and clothes. He believed Harry would find that a subject for amusement. He popped away to talk to the laundry house-elves.


Author Note: Some of the material in here has been taken directly from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Hope you're all having fun! :D