Disclaimer – I solemnly swear that JKR owns everything Harry Potter. Whether or not I am up to no good with her characters is for you to decide.

-oOoOo-

Potter Haven

Chapter 8

"Are you sure about this, Dobby?" Harry asked.

Dobby's vigorous head nodding was accompanied by his trademark enthusiasm. "Of course, Master Harry Potter Sir. Dobby has talked to all of the house elves that he knows and now Dobby knows where to find all of the beasties and plantsies that Master Harry Potter Sir needs."

Harry stared dubiously at his new friend.

In the week that they'd been together, Dobby had abandoned the old, dirty pillowcase that he'd worn as a Malfoy elf and was now clad in the oddest attire that Harry had ever seen.

His pants, if Harry ignored the burnt orange colouring, were reminiscent of his own cargo pants. The big difference was that every pocket had been created using a different colour fabric – blue, pink, florescent yellow, green and black. His shirt, a sleeveless, multi-pocketed creation, was primarily deep green in colour.

Around his waist, Dobby wore a black belt that seemed to be made of a multitude of pockets all joined together. Harry suspected that each pocket had dozens of charms on it – featherlight, bottomless, extension and probably even one that allowed the elf to reach into another dimension, judging by the vast array of things that Harry'd seen him pull out of some of them.

Topping off Dobby's new look, was a brilliant white beret with the Potter coat of arms embroidered in gold right at the very front of it.

"Well, I guess if you know where we can find them in the wild …," Harry said, "it's not like we can simply go out and buy what we need for the greenhouses and the animal enclosure without any money."

Once again, Dobby nodded his head, making his ears flap wildly and causing his beret to slip precariously. A single snap of Dobby's fingers caused a pair of trunks to appear between the two of them.

"Dobby thought that Master Harry Potter Sir could carry what he finds back home in these," Dobby explained as he adjusted his beret on his head.

Kneeling down, Harry opened first one lid and then the other. Inside were dozens and dozens of boxes and jars and even a couple of buckets with lids.

"Can you shrink plants and animals down, Dobby?" Harry asked.

"Of course, Master Harry Potter Sir. As long as Master Harry Potter Sir first decides what we wants and puts the beasties to sleep," he said.

"Dobby," Harry said with a pained expression, "what have I told you about calling me that?"

"Master Harry Potter Sir has said that he prefers that Dobby call him 'just Harry'," he replied, hanging his head.

"Then could you please try to remember to call me that?" he pleaded.

"Dobby will try Master … Harry," the house elf said contritely.

Harry stared hopefully at the elf in front of him, but somehow, he knew that it'd be a very long time, if ever, before Dobby finally got the hang of calling him 'Harry' all the time.

"Okay, Dobby, you know what we need, so take us away."

With an enthusiastic nod and a brilliant smile, the small house elf snapped his fingers once causing the trunks to disappear before stepping forward, grasping Harry's hand and snapping his fingers again causing them to instantly pop away.

-oOoOo-

The boy and elf materialised on the edge of a forest. Turning around, Harry looked down into the valley below. A small town was nestled at the base of the three hills a few miles away. A series of grey lines marked the roads that led away towards the horizon and the haze of a city. At this time of the morning, there was no evidence of any people around, so Harry turned back to the forest before him.

Seeing that his Master was watching him, Dobby waved his hand and trooped into the forest.

Ducking under a low-lying branch, Harry followed along. All around him, he heard the sounds of the forest – small animals scurrying away in the underbrush, the buzz of insects and the flap of wings taking flight. Dobby led him in a round-a-bout fashion, following no discernible trail that Harry could recognise. Every now and again, Dobby would pause, cock his head, his ears quivering as he listened. Then, he'd set off again, often in a slightly different direction.

Finally, Dobby waved Harry closer and pointed through the trees to one particular elm.

It was a tall, broad limbed tree, heavy in leaves and obviously in the prime of its life. As Harry stepped closer trying to determine why Dobby had brought him to this specific spot, he caught a strange movement in the tree. A number of twigs looked to be moving about despite the fact that there was barely a breath of wind to be felt. As he frowned at the inconsistency, he noticed more and more twigs moving independently from the tree.

A gasp escaped him as he finally realised what he was seeing. The twigs were actually some kind of creature. It had arms and legs, fingers and toes and a sharp pointed little face. A tiny high pitched noise caught his ear and he realised that it came from the strange twig creatures. His eyes darted about, focussing on a new creature every half-second or so until he'd identified two or three dozen of them.

"What are they, Dobby?" he breathed.

"Bowtruckles, Master Harry Sir."

Pulling out the Care of Magical Creatures book that he'd brought with him in his book bag, Harry looked up 'bowtruckles'.

"This says that they live on wand quality trees. I guess that that means that we'll need to take the tree with us as well?" Harry mused.

"Dobby can replant the tree for Master in the creature bowl," Dobby stated.

With a nod, Harry took out his wand, glad that the Thief's Downfall had taken care of the possibility of him being caught for doing underage magic. He considered the best spell to use. Immobulus would really only work for individual shots. Stupefy, on the other hand, would probably be too strong for such a small creature. In the end, he decided to see if he could cast a wide-area stupefy that would defuse the effects of the spell.

Taking a few steps away, Harry aimed back the way that he'd come and tested out his wide-area stupefy. Once he was satisfied, he turned back and shot the spell into the elm. A dozen small plops onto the ground marked bowtruckles falling from the tree unconscious. With a nod of satisfaction, Harry cast again, this one higher.

A dozen spells later and he'd covered the tree from top to bottom and from bottom to top twice over. Then it was a simple case of scrabbling around in the dirt around the base of the tree finding all of the stunned bowtruckles and popping them into a couple of the boxes in the trunk that Dobby had produced.

Once all of the little twig-like creatures had been gathered, Harry and Dobby worked together to dig around the elm before Dobby levitated it out of the ground, shrunk it and popping it into one of the glass specimen jars.

With a nod for a job well-done, Harry took Dobby's hand ready for their next stop of the day.

-oOoOo-

"Here, Master Harry Potter Sir!" Dobby exclaimed, pointing straight down into the patch of mud at his feet.

In response, Harry bounded over and began attacking the mud with the shovel that Dobby had pulled from one of the many pockets of his belt. As he held up the second shovel full, he eyed it critically before smiling at the four pink flobberworm heads that poked out of the mud.

That shovelful, like all of the others, went into the bucket. Five more shovels of mud were excavated from that particular pile before Dobby proclaimed that he'd found all of the flobberworms in that hole.

Soon enough, he was off again, digging his seventh hole in the mud for the strange magical worm-like creatures that he'd study later.

-oOoOo-

"Where are we now, Dobby?" Harry asked as he peered around at the mountainside that he'd found himself on.

"Wales, Master Harry Sir," Dobby replied. "The next creature is just over the rise, Sir."

With a nod, Harry began trekking up the mountain. Loose rocks tumbled under his feet, bringing him to all fours for the final scramble to the top.

A loud, terrifying bellow dropped Harry to his stomach even as all of the hairs on his body immediately rose in fright.

"What in Merlin's name was that?" he murmured to the house elf cowering beside him.

Finding Dobby's answering head shake to be particularly unhelpful, Harry slowly eased his way forward. Slowly, he lifted his head to peek into the valley below. His eyes boggled at the sight and he froze, unable to either slink back or run screaming down the mountain like his mind was telling him to.

A pair of enormous green wings flared out as the green-skinned dragon bellowed once more. It was easily twice the length of a bus and four or five times as big. Its long sinewy neck weaved backwards and forwards over a hollow in the ground as its mate ambled forward. Together, the two Welsh Greens barked a series of coughs and grunts at each other before the second one bent its legs slightly, flapped its wings and rose up out of the valley.

Harry watched mesmerised as the dragon pirouetted in the air before accelerating off to Harry's right.

"What in the bloody hell did you bring me here for?" Harry hissed to Dobby.

"Master needs magical creatures," Dobby babbled.

Harry stared, trying to understand the logic that said that dragons were an acceptable creature to have locked away in Potter Haven.

Taking a calming breath or ten, Harry forced himself to speak as calmly as he could.

"I think we'll pass on the dragons, Dobby. How about we try somewhere else, huh?"

A soft pop later and the dragon below became the only magical creature for miles around.

-oOoOo-

Taking a good look around, Harry sighed in relief. The countryside was bare of any creature, magical or otherwise. Unless, that is, they were hiding in the small lake that he and Dobby had appeared beside.

"What are we looking for here, Dobby?" he asked. "Animal or plant?"

"Plant this time, Master Harry Sir," Dobby replied. "Gillyweed. It grows underwater."

Together, the two of them waded into the shallows of the lake. Even in the heat of the summer's day, the water felt cool. It didn't take long before Dobby had found what they were looking for.

Reaching down to the thick greenish-black plant in the water, Harry felt his hands encounter the rubber-like stems of gillyweed. As he stepped closer, it swayed slowly about. This was another of those plants that he had no idea what they did. He guessed that it was useful in potions.

"There's no water in the dome. We'll have to plant this one in the loch," Harry pointed out.

A large tub appeared right beside the lake at Dobby's finger click. A second click half filled it with lake water. Then it was simply a case of digging into the dirt below the plant and tugging it forth. Once they had half a dozen specimens, Dobby waved his hand to dry them both off.

"This looks like a good place to stop for lunch, Dobby. What do you say?"

The sudden appearance of a picnic basket was all the answer that he needed.

-oOoOo-

"Here, Master Harry Potter Sir, you'll need these to catch the nifflers," Dobby said as they materialised in the middle of a large field on the side of a gently sloping hill.

Taking the small bag that Dobby had handed him, Harry frowned in puzzlement as he opened the neck of the small leather bag that he'd been handed. Inside, he saw the sparkle of multiple small gems. Tipping the bag sidewards, he allowed a handful of the gems to trickle into one hand.

"What am I supposed to do with these?" Harry asked.

"Spread them on the ground, Master Harry Sir. The nifflers will come," Dobby explained.

Doing as he was told, Harry let his hand go in a great arc, scattering multi-coloured gems about. When nothing happened, he looked dubiously at the elf standing beside him. In response, Dobby began bouncing up and down and pointing back at the gems.

The slight shudder of a single patch of grass caught Harry's attention and he whipped his head around in time to see a slender black snout poking up from the dirt. A second later, the dirt exploded as a long slim body erupted out of the ground. The nifflers' pelt was jet black except for a tiny white flash of fur on the tip of its stringy tail.

Its head jerked from side to side before it gave an excited squee and darted across to the closest gem. Like a tiny vacuum cleaner, the niffer sucked up the gem before scurrying across to the next gem in line. Before Harry could pull his wand, another three black noses had popped up.

These three, once they'd emerged, proved to be smaller versions of the first.

Babies, Harry supposed.

A stupefy was on the tip of his tongue when the last, another adult niffler emerged from under the ground.

A half-dozen quick spells later and there were six sleeping creatures waiting to be boxed up ready for a new home in Potter Haven.

-oOoOo-

Harry stared at the strange orange radish fruit. There was no way that it could be anything but a magical plant – the fruit was growing upside down!

"And this thing's called a dirigible plum?" Harry questioned.

"Yes, Master Harry Sir," Dobby replied.

"Well, at least we don't need to take the whole tree this time," Harry mused, "a couple of those seedlings should work fine."

At the base of the strangely twisted trunk, a group of small plants grew in an almost perfect circle. Dropping to his knees, Harry looked up at his trusty house elf and smiled as he took the proffered small spade. Six small seedlings were carefully dug up and transferred into specimen containers before being placed in the appropriate trunk.

-oOoOo-

A panting, sweaty Harry ducked under the slithering vine, hopped over a second vine and back-pedalled quickly. A motion to his side shot his wand hand up instinctively.

"Diffindo!" he shouted.

The bright light of the spell shot out and neatly cut the approaching vine, dropping it to the sandy floor of the cave. Another two quickly cast spells cutting their way through three more vines was enough to make the venomous tentacular recoil enough for Harry to take a breather.

"Why do we need this one again?" he asked the air around him.

When no response came, not that he'd been expecting one anyway, he used his forearm to wipe away the sweat on his forehead before jumping back into the fray.

So far he'd managed to cut over three quarters of the venomous tentacular's vines. Dobby had said that the only way to subdue the plant enough to be able to dig it up was to remove its vines. So far, he'd been battling with it for over half an hour. The worst part was the fact that it was hidden deep inside the cave that Dobby'd been told about in the depths of the Forest of Dean. And that was the only wild one that any of Dobby's house elf friends had known about.

Ten minutes later, the last of the persistent vines fell to a well-aimed cutting curse.

"Okay, Dobby, it's clear now!" Harry called.

Immediately, the small elf trotted into view, a trunk floating along behind him.

"I'll dig up the plant if you'll gather up the vines, Dobby," Harry stated.

With a nod, Dobby got to work. As he did so, Harry slithered across the ground where the mouth of the tentacular couldn't reach and began hacking at the sand. Thankfully, its roots were fairly shallow and it toppled to the ground within a few minutes.

"Maybe only one or two more today," Harry said as he tried in vain to brush off some of the dirt and sweat that he was coated in. "Then we'll call it a day and come out another time.

-oOoOo-

A giggling potato head popped out of the hole in the ground before ducking back out of sight again. Harry spun around at the sound, before spinning back around at a second giggle.

The small potato-like creature popped itself completely up and began running across the grass, giggling constantly all the way.

Seeing the wrinkled, one foot tall gnome, Harry dove.

"Got ya!" he grunted as one hand captured a pair of knobbly legs.

Rolling to his feet, Harry retrieved his wand and stunned the gnome a little more forcefully than he'd intended. Seeing the trunk on the far side of the field, Harry began to make his way back across to it. As he walked, he watched in amusement as the small badly dressed house elf chased after the even smaller potato-like gnome.

Dobby slipped and skidded across the grass as the gnome dove head first into the nearest gnome hole. Dobby, though, had obviously learnt from the other couple of dozen times that this had happened. Harry watched as he lay there, waiting, his large green eyes focused on the hole that the gnome had disappeared into. Suddenly, a giggling head popped up to discover what had happened to the thing that was chasing it, only to have Dobby's hands lash out, grab it and pull it from its hole.

"I think that'll do, Dobby," Harry called as he looked into the box where the unconscious gnomes had been put. "We've got nearly a dozen of the little suckers already."

-oOoOo-

Once again, Harry found himself in an unknown forest somewhere in the British Isles. The sun was fast setting and this deep in the forest, there was only a dim light left to see by.

"There, Master Harry Sir," Dobby whispered.

Harry sighted along Dobby's arm, his eyes flicking backwards and forwards for their latest prey. And then he saw it. A silver-green lizard, maybe ten or eleven inches long, with large silver eyes clung to the side of the tree.

Bringing up his wand, Harry whispered the required spell, "immobulus!"

Instantly, the lizard froze in place. Thankfully, unlike the bowtruckles, the moke remained firmly attached to the tree.

"Another one, Sir!" Dobby said, grabbing hold of Harry's arm in his excitement.

Within moments, Harry had found and immobilized the second moke.

While Dobby kept watch, Harry darted forward, plucked the two magical lizards off of the tree and placed them in the box that he carried.

By the time that it was too dark to continue the search, Harry had only managed to collect a single other moke.

"Come on, Dobby, let's go home," Harry said, holding out his hand to the elf. "I think we've got enough here to keep us busy for the next few days."