Harry was rather relieved when the crowd focused their entire energy on throwing Dobby up and down in the air. Besides, Harry genuinely felt that Dobby deserved that celebration. Though Harry still didn't get how Dobby was able to disobey a direct order from Derrick.
" Nice game Harry" Fred and George said as they approached him.
" Thanks. No need to say, but the same goes for you too guys." Harry grinned " And yeah, one more thing. I will be posting the spell for snitch control on your Floo Book. You guys won't have any problem with that move would you?"
Two jaws dropped and four eyes opened a bit larger than they were used to.
" 'Our' Floo Book. How did you know that we.."
".. were together the 'Gutenberg of Gossip', the 'Life Eater' etc. ?
I helped Zabini hack the site to make a betting page, remember? I couldn't help but find out a few details about the originators." Harry said.
"You can't tell anybody about this." Fred said in a hush.
" We have plans for this thing. What you see now, it's just a prototype." George whispered.
" I am not telling anyone. But seriously, if only Winklevoss brothers knew that some other twins did this. Ha ha ha." Harry laughed and as the laughter died he found out that he was the only one laughing.
" I don't know why I just said that." Harry replied " Particularly because according to our timeline Winklevoss twins wouldn't even get involved in the matter for ages." Harry completed the sentence in a single breath knowing that he will hear silence once again in reply.
" And no, I don't know why I said that either. Popular theory is that this is what happens to you if you spend too much time with Dumbledore." Harry said and finally there was some empathy in twins' eyes. 'Ah, another victim of our crazy headmaster' they must have thought with some pride.
" Talking about Dumbledore, look who is coming to congratulate you." George said and looked back. Harry knew the answer without turning back.
"We are leaving. Don't you dare get any weirder while we are gone." Fred said and the twins walked off.
Harry took a deep breath. Was he prepared for the conversation with Headmaster finally? Could anybody ever be prepared to take on that madness voluntarily? Harry let his deep breath free again. He had to do this. He turned around and found himself staring up in electric blue eyes behind half moon spectacles.
" Congratulations Harry. That was an interesting game in deed. You managed to achieve your twin objectives of removing the snitch and stopping the inter year wars." Dumbledore said.
" Not really professor." Harry said. He took a second before beginning to speak again, but then it was all long planned, he couldn't stop the execution now " Stopping the Inter Year Wars was never my objective. I rather thought that it was a great idea.
Please continue with it. Let superior teams absorb the inferior teams.
And by that of course I mean disband the armies of the senior generals who were in today's game. And let us, the winnders command them.
Won't that be a better form of Inter Year Wars. Wasn't that the whole purpose?"
Harry said and waited with his fists involuntarily clenched. He knew that Dumbledore would give a reply that he perhaps won't even be able to understand , let alone counter. But he had to counter it. He had to make sure that his version of Inter Year Wars happened, for it would give him the real training, that of commanding those who were considered grown ups. All he had to do was to somehow win this argument with Dumbledore.
'OK.' Dumbledore said "Congrats once again." And he turned back to go away.
" What?" Harry couldn't suppress that question " You just agreed? You just Agreed?"
" Sure." Dumbledore turned back and smiled " After all this is just the first stage of your game. I will get plenty of time to screw with you later on."
Harry blinked. Twice. Headmaster was crazy, but since when did he start being that funky? And more importantly..
" Fist stage of my game?" Harry asked tentatively.
" You think its not obvious? Did you think, Mr. Takamura, that when you threatened to announce your predictions to a stadium full of people, I would believe that as an attempt to get leverage?" Dumbledore looked down from his height at Harry with an unflinching kindness.
Harry was getting nervous. He couldn't afford that conversation to continue. He wasn't yet ready to take on Dumbledore at such an early stage.
"But it doesn't matter." Dumbledore said, "I am in a good mood.
After all, not everyday one sees two successful revolts against the precedents.
I will leave now Harry, but let me complete the final duty of an old wizard to impart some parting gems of wisdom.
'It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.'
Though I wasn't really supposed to say that until the end of your second year.
But today as we once again see the future change, who knows if there would be a second year at all. And that line seemed like an important thing to tell." After saying that Dumbledore smiled for few seconds while seeing an expression of dumbfounded-ness on Harry's face that seemed to be universal amongst audience of Dumbledore.
Harry meanwhile was trying to remember these sentences verbatim. Was Dumbledore really being crazy once again, or was he telling him something about the nature of prophecies and time travel? But then, he again reminded himself not to take the bait. There was a clear information asymmetry here and at this stage he was not yet ready to go for that conversation.
" You said" Harry found himself asking something altogether different " that there were two successful revolts against the precedents today. Which was the other one?"
Dumbledore laughed.
" Nice question to pick Harry, out of all the possibilities. Truly." He said. " Is there any other question that you haven't answered yourself today? Like how exactly a friend of yours overcame his very fundamentals of nature in order to save another friend?"
And with these words, Dumbledore finally walked away.
Harry turned towards Dobby. Indeed, how did he manage it?
Dobby had by now escaped the cheerful mob and was standing by himself.
" Dobby." Harry walked up to him.
Dobby didn't move even slightly. Harry walked a bit further and his shadow fell over Dobby. With a start, he comically jumped and looked up to Harry.
" Harry Potter Sir." He said with a delighted expression.
" Dobby, thanks a lot for saving Hermione.
But if I may ask, how did you ignore Derrick's direct orders?" Harry asked.
" Eh?" Dobby seemed confused and then his eyes brightened " Just a minute Potter sir, Dobby can't hear you right now."
Dobby raised his hands, and in a movement that was all too familiar to Harry, Dobby snapped his fingers.
Two small bursts of smoke appeared near Dobby's ears. And an extra magically grown skin disappeared from his earholes.
Harry found that he nearly stopped breathing for a second. His skin rustled with the sensation of goosebumps.
He finally understood what Dobby had done. So simple, yet so remarkable.
He didn't just close his ears to not hear the command, he in effect found a will to try and go against his very nature to obey.
Harry was just proven wrong. But he felt that he could shout with joy. And keep on shouting.
" Sorry, Potter sir. I had magically closed my ears to not hear whatever Derrick ordered Dobby to do.
What was Potter sir saying?" Dobby asked.
I was wrong about you Dobby. Harry wanted to say. I was wrong about House elves in general. How could I have been so blind? You did overcome what I supposed to be your fundamental nature, and all by yourself.
Hermione was right about you. And I am so thankful for that Dobby.
" Mr. Potter sir?" Dobby looked a bit anxious as Harry just stood there saying nothing and looking at him.
"Nothing." Harry finally said. " I just wanted to say how thankful I am to you Dobby, for… for what you did today.
And yeah" Harry added as an afterthought " What book had you been reading this past month?"
" Missy Hermione gave that wonderful book to me." Dobby said and his tone had shifted from respect to that of pride " Life and times of Frederick Douglass."
" Frederick Douglass. But, of course." Harry said. " Thanks once again Dobby. I do owe you" And he walked away before Dobby could have started with his protests.
...
Far up in the sky Derrick was clinging on for his dear life as a broom kept on taking him higher. His attempts to turn it back had proven useless.
" Stop" Harry's voice came through Ventriliquo and finally the broom stopped.
" There is something I want to say to you Derrick" Harry's voice said.
Derrick didn't respond. He was afraid. Very afraid. He didn't want to hear anything. He would do whatever Harry asked him to do right now, if only Harry would let him down.
And then Harry's voice continued after, what seemed to be, a moment's struggle. "And what I want to say is, sorry."
Static stopped in Derrick's mind. Harry was apologizing to him?
" Don't get me wrong. I am not apologizing for what I did right now. I wouldn't have let you attack Hermione.
But that said, I did provoke you in the earlier game when I called you fat. I did humiliate you.
Whatever your actions might have been in the past, nothing then warranted that treatment.
I didn't apologize earlier because I just thought of you as a bully.
But today I surprisingly discovered my own invisible assumption that people do not change. And today I also saw it proven completely wrong.
So I apologies for that one act.
And I hope you and I will change for the better too." Harry concluded and on his next command the broom containing an inscrutable Derrick turned back.