Chapter 21

()()()

There wasn't an official Ministry event to recognize the lives taken by the explosion at Kings Cross, they didn't want announce another time and location of a large gathering that might be an easy attack for the Death Eaters, instead the Daily Prophet put out a special edition letting everyone know who the victims were and a small blurb on each of them. Even the Muggle's that lost their lives had a mention in the Prophet, it was the first time they'd done that.

Sirius told them he had been surprised when he saw it. After he'd been blamed for blowing up the street full of Muggles the Prophet hadn't bothered to name any of the Muggle lives that had been lost, they merely focused on Peter Pettigrew and the assumed story behind the incident.

This was a good sign though, it showed that the people running the Prophet were seeing past the Wizarding World and thinking for once. It meant that the people who took the Prophet as gospel were going to be thinking about the Muggle World as well.

The edition had run on the evening of December 26th, a full week after the disaster. In a way, it was nice that the Prophet didn't publish it before Christmas. It gave everyone a chance to have come down from the tragedy a bit and enjoy the holiday, then give that gentle tap on the shoulder that reminded them they all needed to keep on guard.

Now that another Horcrux had been destroyed that made five total that had been taken care of. There were only so many known Death Eaters that were still at large, but the Ministry wasn't checking the forearms of its workers, nor could they definitively prove that someone with past allegiance to Riddle was still his loyal follower and it sounded, from their snooping, like the Order was trying to find a way of rendering the remaining Death Eaters useless to Riddle.

With the tasks put out among the full Order members still not being shared with those under age, nor the twins, it left them wanting to figure out answers to a few of their own questions.

"I just don't think it's the Chamber that he could be searching for," Ginny pointed out on New Year's Eve. She, Harry, Ron and the Twins were spending time in Harry and Ron's room, discussing the young Malfoy. "If he got a task from Tom to figure out how to get in there, then he would have been told where it was, wouldn't he?"

"Unless that is part of his challenge," Harry pointed out. "He has to prove himself worthy or something by finding it or die."

"More likely, 'or I'll kill your mummy'," Ginny pointed out.

"Wonder if he was given more instructions than 'an inconvenient location'," Ron wondered spitefully. He'd been searching a few spots in his free periods and had a list of teachers quarters and high traffic corridors and the like, but narrowing it down further for some sign of an entrance to a place they hadn't all already known about was taking longer than he'd have liked.

"Is there anything else that you can tell us from the notebooks?" Fred asked Ginny.

"I really wish they would just let you all read them already!" she growled with frustration.

Harry smirked at her frustration, he'd had that reaction to a lot of the decisions the Order made choosing to exclude him from valuable information. Instinctively he leaned closer to her and gave her a kiss on the cheek to try and alleviate her mood a bit. The faint pink that came to her cheeks and the small private smile she gave him told him he'd done his job.

"Urgh, you two are already in the 'cute couple' phase," George mimed vomiting.

"Shut it you," Ginny told him, unable to look upset about his description of them. "Alright," she thought, getting back to the task. "So, when Tom was finding it he got a snake from the Forbidden Forest and used that to search the castle for hidden rooms. That snake came back and told him where the entrance was."

It wasn't the first time Harry and Ron had heard all that. They'd asked her to relay all this information to them back in September.

"Then he said it was in an 'inconvenient location', but that was all he said about it," she shrugged hopelessly.

"What about when he started using the Basilisk?" Fred asked. "Did he say anything about the great snake getting in and out?"

Ginny shook her head, "he didn't write anything down about that. He was miffed that the snake killed someone when he was in school though, that was why he had to point a finger at Hagrid and stop letting the Basilisk out."

"Wait," Ron stood up from where he'd been leaning against the dresser. "Who was it that died last time? Did he give a name?"

"Uh," she thought back, "yeah, Myrtle Warren," Ginny told him.

The twins gave each other a shrug, not recognizing it, but Harry and Ron exchanged a look.

"Think that's her surname?" Ron asked Harry incredulously.

"Could be. No one's ever mentioned it to me," Harry replied, just as excited by this information.

"Who?" the other three Weasley's asked at the same time.

"Moaning Myrtle!" Ron grinned. "If she is Myrtle Warren, then maybe she'll have something more she could tell us!"

"I've heard Peeves mention her before!" George said in thought.

"She's the ghost that haunts the second floor girls toilet," Harry told them.

"A girls toilet would be an inconvenient location for sure," Ron nodded. "Harry, you could convince her to tell you what happened."

"Why Harry?" Ginny asked. "Why not you?"

Ron smirked at Harry, "Myrtle's keen on him."

Harry blushed, "she's-"

"Don't even try," Ron cut him off. "You told me the story. It wasn't Diggory's bath she dove into."

"Excuse me!" Ginny asked, sitting up straighter than she had been. "Some girl ghost has been joining you in the bath?" She sounded more amused than anything else.

"It was only one time!" Harry said, as though it was a defense. "I used the Prefects Bath to try and figure out the egg clue from the second task in my Fourth Year and Myrtle showed up and, erm, gave me some hints." His face was very warm now as he relived the memory. She'd been rather aggressive about her come-on's then.

"My God," Ginny shook her head at him. "Just how much competition do I have? Girls are throwing themselves at you all around, aren't they?"

Harry knew she was teasing him, but he really didn't need a reminder of Katie Bell kissing him. He'd been immensely relieved that it had turned out alright, but he'd worried over it a few nights after it had happened. Not the Katie part, he knew she didn't have any hard feelings about him not being interested. No, Harry had worried that Ginny might not have been as understanding about it all as she had appeared. He'd worried that he might not have relayed to her, in his clumsily subtle way, that Katie wasn't her, and that was why he hadn't been interested. He'd replayed the kiss over and over again in his head and wondered if there was any point where he might have kissed Katie back that Ginny would have seen, but it had happened and ended so fast that he couldn't remember.

It had all turned out to be needless agonizing of the kind he was known to do.

Pushing his past regrets and worries away he leaned over to her and whispered in her ear confidently, "doesn't matter what other girls are doing. I've been yours since my birthday."

Ginny sucked in a silent deep breath, Harry watched as a flush came to her face and her face whipped towards him so she could look directly at him with wide eyes.

"Whatever you just said to her, couldn't you have done it not in sight of us?" Fred asked, gesturing to the other two boys.

"Well you lot won't leave us alone together, so no," Ginny defended.

"You think we would leave you alone with your boyfriend to suck face for hours on end?" George scoffed. "I mean, we like Harry and all, but we all know what happens when a boy and girl are alone for too long."

Harry suddenly felt very aware of how his girlfriends three brothers were in the room and he was outnumbered. Ginny, however, didn't see it as a problem.

"How long is too long?" she asked curiously, clearly looking to open the discussion to arrange alone time for them. "We can't get up to too much in twenty minutes."

"I think we're being asked to leave," Fred said with a small laugh.

The twins didn't mind the request, but Ron looked a little more hesitant and awkward about it. Harry couldn't meet his eye. Yes, he wanted time alone with Ginny, but it had really only properly occurred to him when they officially got together that Ginny wasn't just Ginny, she was his best friends sister, and he hadn't been thinking about her as 'Ron's sister' for several months now. Not until Ron hit him with a pillow for spooning with her the other day. Harry had practiced the words to tell Ron, sure, but in Harry's mind before that Ginny and Ron were akin to Harry and Hermione, but it was completely different.

Ron's face was growing redder by the moment, but he followed the twins out.

Ginny wasted no time. As soon as the door clicked shut she pushed Harry to lay back on the bed and kissed him soundly, taking his breath away. Though his lack of oxygen wasn't stopping him from being an active participant.

"Since your birthday?" she asked, pulling back after a minute, a huge smile on her face. "That's when you started liking me?"

"I well. I," he was a bit flustered. He realized they only had a few minutes, but generally when they started kissing there was a build up to it, they didn't just launch into a full-on snogging session at the first opportunity. They were past the point of him needing to hide this from her though. "Remember when we were in the kitchen, and you told Tonks something about 'pretending to snog'?" Ginny nodded. "Well, I couldn't help thinking that I wouldn't have minded that. Wished I knew it had been an option really."

Her smile grew impossibly wide then and she didn't waste any more of their limited alone time with words.

()()()

He was starting to get used to this; the feeling of wishing he didn't have to go back to Hogwarts. He'd been liking the little bubble of hope that was Grimmauld Place. The Christmas holiday may have started off terribly, but it ended wonderfully.

There hadn't been any more attacks over the holidays and he and the Weasley boys and Ginny had come up with their own plan for how to help in the fight against Voldemort. And it all centered around Malfoy and figuring out his mission.

Harry was packing his things away in preparation for the next day when he would have to head back to his dormitory and he was taking his time with it. He flat out didn't want to go. He wanted to stay and learn where he was, with Ginny and Sirius and Remus. He could have easily gotten all of his learning done there. Then he would get to spend more time with the people who made him happiest.

He would have missed Ron and Hermione and Quidditch, but he probably would have woken up with a smile on his face every day.

"Hey," Ginny walked into the room with out so much as a knock. She had a plate of cheese and crackers in her hand and walked right over to sit down on the bed and get comfortable with her back against the pillows.

"By all means," he grinned, "make yourself comfortable."

"Don't worry, I do," she gave him a wink. "This is taking you a while," she gestured around at the mess with a wave of her cracker.

"Yeah, having a hard time finding the encouragement to get packed."

"Really?" she cocked a cheeky eyebrow at him. "Finding a few reason's you'd rather stay, are you?"

He gave her a longing looking over with his sad frown on his face, "I've never not wanted to go back before," he admitted. "Hogwarts was always my safe haven, you know? Even when I was sort of getting it from all sides. But here? With you and with Sirius? You two just seem to have this 'in hiding' thing sorted."

Ginny gave him a sad smile. "I know we manage to make it look like we're having an alright time of it. We get up to a bit of mischief, but we're still 'in hiding'," she pointed out. "I would love to be going back to Hogwarts with you. If I were able to go back it would mean that I wouldn't have to constantly be on guard, or wait for an 'all clear' to enter a room." Ginny gave a groan and reclined back against the headboard. "And Quidditch! God's I wish I could fly a broom again."

"Yeah," he admitted. "I know there are pro's and con's to both. I just. Wouldn't it be nice if I didn't have to leave?"

She gave him a coy smile before looking down slightly and playing with the hem of the blanket on the bed, "if I were able to attend Hogwarts, do you think you'd be wishing you could stay here?"

He didn't even have to think about the answer to that one. If she was able to go back to Hogwarts with him and Ron then they could be together, properly. Not just squeezing in a few minutes of privacy, they'd be able to have the long conversations they'd had like last summer, not through a mirror. It would be different than it had been last summer though, because he wouldn't have had to stop himself from reaching out and holding her hand, simply because it was there to hold, he could lean over and smell her hair with out trying to be subtle about it. She would just smile and hug him when he did it now, and it always felt incredible.

They could have played Quidditch together if she went back. He'd only had one game of pick up with her at the Burrow last summer, but she'd done amazingly well, a shoe in for Chaser position for sure with a little more practice.

"I'm going to be counting the days down until Easter hol's," he told her as an answer, confident that his look was telling her more than his words were able to relay just then.

"I seem to remember me being on this bed while you were packing up last summer," she said teasingly, and came to her knees, starting to crawl along the bed in his direction, just as she had done last time.

"You aren't joking about your little seduction game this time though," Harry grinned as she got to the edge of the bed.

Ginny came up on her knees and wrapped her arms around his neck, "I wasn't really joking about it last time. We were both just too chicken shit to admit that."

"Oi," Ron burst into the room and cringed at the sight of them with their arms wrapped around each other again, "enough of that." He had been in the shower and walked into the room with just a towel around his lower half. "Clear off, would you? You can make kissy faces at each other after I've dressed."

Harry chuckled, "why don't we go to the study?"

She nodded and he lifted her off the bed with his hands at her hips.

The study was just a floor down from the boys room, but as Harry and Ginny approached it they heard voices coming from inside. Ginny was quick about applying her disillusionment charm and pulled him into the little alcove beside the room.

"There don't seem to be any more books on the subject in here, so this must be the one," the drawling voice of Snape said.

"It is a rather unique tactic he used to keep everyone at his beck and call. I had done much research into it during the last war, but was at a loss for time to research the matter thoroughly," came the reply of Dumbledore.

"The notebooks clearly mention my family library, and I've read through all of the books in here," Sirius stated.

"I wasn't aware you knew how to read," Snape jabbed. "Perhaps we should double check."

"Severus," Dumbledore said warningly.

Harry's fist clenched. No matter the situation Snape never passed up the opportunity to be an ass. He wanted to barge into the study and call him out on it, but Ginny was holding rather firmly onto both of his forearms to keep him in his spot.

"I know you like to use your words to piss people off, let me remind you that us 'lesser than' individuals simply use our fists," Sirius replied.

Dumbledore's sigh could be heard from out in the hallway. Harry felt Ginny shaking slightly with laughter against him. He pried his arm away from her gently and raised a finger to where her mouth should have been to shush her. He accidentally got her under her chin and he felt her wince. The pained cringe he gave at that seemed to have been enough of an apology for her. He felt her own finger against his lips and she tapped them there twice before tapping him under the chin. He could only close his eyes at that and try to stop a smile from coming to his face at her antics.

"The ink in the tattoo was mixed with his own blood. That is what gives the charm extra power, it is why the Mark came back clearer as he rose to power and burns when he calls. It seems that his demise would allow the Mark to fade, but anyone marked by him will not be harmed in his downfall," Dumbledore read.

Harry frowned. Were they worried about Death Eaters getting killed when they finally got rid of Voldemort? Snape was the only one that he knew of that was actively playing both sides. The others he didn't think he would be too bothered about.

Actually, Snape he wouldn't be too bothered about. He might find himself frowning over the loss down the road, but they had just lost Moody and the world still turned. Moody was at least firmly planted in the 'Good' column.

"Getting someone who has the Mark away from Him with out Him being able to track them down is possible, as is removing the Mark, but it is drastic," Sirius said heavily.

"If what I read here is true, then there is no method for 'unbranding' someone who has been marked by Him," Snape stated.

"That book is ages old," Sirius pointed out. "It was made by wizards nearly three hundred years ago. We've come a long way since then. Actually, Muggles have come a long way since then. And we would need to incorporate a Muggle method into the process to make this possible."

"A Muggle method?" asked Dumbledore, sounding amazed and surprised.

"Yes, I learned about it a few weeks ago. It's called Dialysis. Essentially, it filters your blood," Sirius explained to them.

"Filters your blood of what exactly?" Snape asked, no longer sounding disdainful, more curious.

"They use it for health reasons," Sirius said, almost dismissively. "People who, I don't know, eat too much fatty food or something. But, the machine that they use to filter the blood, if we make it so that it filter's out any traces of His blood while we remove the tattoo then we will be able to successfully make it so that He can't find him."

Harry's eyebrows shot up at that. The way Sirius said that, it didn't sound like he was concerned about Snape's Mark, but someone else's.

"How sure are you of this?" Snape asked.

"I've run the idea passed Andromeda Tonks. She was a Healer and had a bit of knowledge about the Muggle world from her husband. She would be the one assisting with it," Sirius said.

There was a silence in the room while the three men seemed to be thinking the idea over.

"Will she be testing this on something? Or someone?" Snape asked.

"Are you volunteering?" Sirius asked.

"I can hardly do that in the position that I am in," Snape said disdainfully. "I am not going to be able to convince him to go into hiding unless we are sure that this plan will work."

"I worry that he will need quite a bit more convincing," Dumbledore said sadly.

"He doesn't want to be doing this. I know it," Snape stated firmly.

"Of course not. He is at an impasse and feeling he has no option. I believe it will have to be I that gives him the option," Dumbledore said.

There was the sound of scraping chairs and Ginny pushed Harry out of the alcove and towards her bedroom across the hall. The others hadn't come out of the study by the time the two of them shut the door to her room.

"Who do you figure they were talking about?" Harry asked.

Ginny removed her disillusionment spell and scoffed at him, "you really have to ask?" She gave him a look like he was crazy for not have guessed it.

He stared at her a moment and went over the number of potentially unwilling Death Eaters he knew of before it hit him. "Malfoy?"

"Of course. Dumbledore thinks he is a lost soul, and Dumbledore likes to be the one to save lost souls," she pursed her lips.

"Do you think they know what it is Malfoy has been getting up to around the castle?" Harry wondered.

"Undoubtedly."

"But you haven't heard what it is?" Harry pressed.

Ginny gave him a look. One that told him that had been a stupid question. "After all the conversations we've had about him since you got here, do you not think I would have brought it up? Clearly it's something a little more dangerous than finding the Chamber if they're talking about trying to remove his mark."

Harry nodded absentmindedly while he thought over what Malfoy could be up to for the one millionth time. "How does Sirius know about Muggle health machines?"

Ginny shook her head in humor at the answer to that. "On one of his jaunts into the Muggle world he struck up with a nurse who used them. He was fascinated and started looking into Muggle methods with Tonk's mum," Ginny told him.

Harry considered what they'd just overheard. If they truly were talking about Malfoy, and he didn't see anyone else that they could have been discussing, then maybe there was a chance that Malfoy really didn't want to be a Death Eater. If Sirius was looking into a way to remove the Mark from him then there must have been some factor that had him believing Draco Malfoy might not be a true follower of Voldemort.

"He's still a prick," Harry said quietly.

"Well, he did learn from the best on that," Ginny scowled.

Harry took her hand and kissed the back of it, trying to offer her some show of support. Lucius Malfoy still had to pay for what he'd done to her, Azkaban wasn't enough. The man was from a prestigious family, Harry didn't doubt that the man wouldn't be locked in there forever. Probably had a House Elf that worshipped him, like Kreacher did his Mistress.

"House Elf," Harry blurted out as a light bulb went off in his head.

"What?" Ginny gave him a confused look. "What does a House Elf have to do with any of this?"

"The Malfoy's they must have a House Elf, right?" He couldn't believe he hadn't thought about it before.

"Probably. They're an old Wizarding family and they're loaded, so yeah," she nodded slightly.

"Dobby, this crazy House Elf that was trying to 'protect me' in my second year. I bet he's the Malfoy's House Elf. He would have known about the Diary." It was all so clear to Harry now. Dobby hadn't tried to save him since his second year, not even when everyone thought that Sirius Black was a murderer that was after him, so it had to have been tied to the Diary and the Malfoy's role in it.

"O…kay," Ginny wasn't seeing the connection.

"Look. I know that their House Elf doesn't want to work for them! Maybe if Snape can somehow get Draco Malfoy to give his Elf clothes, then we could try and get him working for the Order! Then we'll know more about what is going on at Malfoy Manor," Harry was grinning now. "Voldemort wouldn't think anything of it. He thinks anything that isn't a wizard isn't worth his time. Dobby would be helpful, I know it!"

"Wait, wait, wait. You said that this Elf tried to 'protect you'," she used finger air quotes, "do you mean like when that fixed Bludger went after you?"

"Among other things," he shrugged.

"What other things?" she tilted her head at him, her eyes narrowing.

"Uh," he bit his lip. If he told her, then she might just think Dobby was crazy.

"If you admit what he did, I'll admit something I did," she told him coaxingly, taking a playful step closer to him and wrapping her arms around his neck, pulling her body right up against his.

She wasn't going to play fair. She was using her feminine wiles on him and he was useless against them.

"Urgh," he groaned just before he caved. He told her everything, from the letters to the Bludger's; puddings, flying cars and all. "In the end I told him that if he didn't stop trying to 'save my life' he was going to kill me."

"Oh my God," Ginny was laughing. "You were really getting all sorts of attention that year, weren't you?"

"Yeah," he chuckled, seeing all the humor in it now. "Alright, I told you mine, you tell me yours."

Ginny swallowed her laughter then and turned bashful. "Okay. But just remember I wasn't exactly right in the head when this happened. I had some undue influence beforehand, and I thought I was being balls out confident or something."

"What?" he asked, very curious now.

She sucked in a deep breath and held it for a moment before slowly letting it out and chanting, "his eyes are green as a fresh pickled toad."

That was absolutely not what he'd been expecting.

"His hair as dark as a black board," she continued just about in tears trying to contain her mirth.

Harry stared at her blankly for a moment as he relived the incident with the dwarf dressed up like Cupid, then he burst out laughing. He had to brace his hands on the dresser in order to keep himself upright. Ginny seemed more amused by the confession now than embarrassed and she was chuckling too.

"It was you!" he managed to get out through his panting breaths.

"It was me," she grinned and then buried her face in her hands, shaking her head.

"Oh, that's brilliant."

"It's funny now, but I was mortified at the time, so were you!" she gave a small cringe at the memory, the grin on her face not quite portraying her true feelings about that moment almost four years ago. "I swear, I tried to get that letter back after I'd given it to the dwarf. It was an instant regret."

"Awe, now I'm glad you sent it to me," he gave her a quick kiss. "I'll have to repay the favor this Valentine's Day."

"Yeah?" her smile was softer now.

"Yeah," he pulled her close and gave her a proper kiss. "So glad I can do that now."

She gave him a kiss back but pulled away too soon for his liking. "Come on then," she took his hand and pulled him towards the door. "We should mention your idea to the others."

"What, the Dobby thing?" he asked in surprise.

"Yes," she nodded. "They need to realize that we can have good idea's too. I make a point of bringing up everything I can think of in the Order meetings that I am allowed to sit in on. Sometimes it winds up being things that I think are obvious but hadn't occurred to the others. Such as this."

Harry didn't like the idea of going into the study and having to share his insights with Snape, but then he would just be as bad as he was. "Fine," he muttered and followed her out.

Ron was on the landing outside her door. "Seriously?" he asked wearily.

"We were just talking," Harry defended.

"Or maybe we weren't," Ginny said playfully and continued passed her brother and into the study. "Hello Gents, and Snape," she nodded.

"Miss Weasley," Snape said in an annoyed voice. "Are you not supposed to be more on guard? What if there were someone else in here?"

"Doubtful, we were listening at the door for a while there. You lot don't seem too bothered about silencing charms," she ignored the man's concern and went to sit down beside Sirius. "Harry had an interesting idea that we wanted to run past you all, since you seem so concerned with the Malfoy brat."

"You were listening at the door?" Snape sneered.

"Yes," Ginny stated plainly meeting his eyes dead on and daring him to say more.

"What was the idea?" Sirius asked, looking directly at Harry, clearly very used to Ginny's nonchalant behavior, and likely part of the influence behind it.

"Er, well," Harry turned to Snape. His information could only be confirmed by Snape, no one else would be able to answer it. "Does Malfoy have a House Elf named Dobby?"

The sneer on Snape's face dropped away and his expression was blank for a moment. Whether he was thinking back to try and remember what the Malfoy's House Elf's name could possibly be, or if he was just surprised by the question, it was hard to tell.

"It is," he answered quietly.

"Harry?" Dumbledore asked. "How do you know this?"

Harry exchanged a look with Ron. Ron knew the story of the House Elf that was trying to 'protect him' in his second year, but after the finale of that school year it was hardly at the top of anyone's mind, and the two of them had basically forgotten about the creature. It was clear from the look on Ron's face that he was remembering the story of the Elf now.

The two of them took up seats at the table with the rest of them and Harry told the story once again of Dobby the House Elf and his attempts to save him during his second year at Hogwarts.

"Their House Elf isn't loyal to them then," Sirius said, thinking over how they could work that to their advantage.

"You are wondering if we might be able to use this Dobby the way they managed to use Kreacher?" Dumbledore asked Harry.

"Oh, um. No. I was thinking that you could actually convince Malfoy, er, Draco Malfoy, to give him clothes. Then perhaps he could come and join us here. He'd have a bunch of knowledge about who was a Death Eater and any potential plans they had," he offered. "I know for a fact that he doesn't want Voldemort taking complete control. And he isn't too keen on the Malfoy's either." It hadn't occurred to him to try and use Dobby like the Death Eaters had used Kreacher. "I know that Dobby want's to be free. But I don't know how we would get him to join us if he is made free."

"This is certainly worth looking into," Dumbledore's eyes turned to Snape. "What time is young Mister Malfoy scheduled to head back to Hogwarts tomorrow?"

"Sixth year Slytherins are due back between 2:30 and 3:00," Snape told him absentmindedly, still mulling the potential of the idea over in his mind.

"How would we get the Elf to come here and work for us though?" Sirius wondered.

"Well, what happens when a House Elf is given clothes? Do they just Apparate away immediately?" Harry asked.

"The other House Elves would escort him away," Snape told him distractedly. "This Elf, he has been in the room for several, if not all, of the meetings. I don't know if Draco giving him clothes would be condemning him to death."

"How many Elves do the Malfoy's have? You think Riddle would notice if one Elf was traded for another?" Ginny asked Snape. "I would doubt that he paid any attention to the differences between the House Elves."

"They have four that I know of," Snape told them.

Ron let out a whistle, "damn. Malfoy really is lush, isn't he?" This wasn't said with any reverence or jealously, just surprise at the extravagance of it. Four House Elf's when one normal one would have been plenty to run a place the size of Grimmauld Place meant that Malfoy Manor was more like Malfoy Palace.

"They each have one assigned to them and one for the House," Snape explained, but it wasn't in his usual drawl, he was more focused on the potential task before him. "Dobby was Lucius' personal Elf, but with Lucius away in Azkaban Dobby has been more for the Dark Lord's bidding."

"So, there is a chance that He will notice if he has a new Elf," Sirius frowned.

"What if you get Malfoy to give Dobby clothes, and then say that you will 'take care of him', you know, like you were going to off him," Ron offered, "then just get them another Elf from the Goblins." He turned to Ginny and Sirius, "you guys wouldn't mind buying an Elf for the Malfoy's, right?"

"No, not if it works," Ginny said immediately.

"Let me," Harry said. "It'd be like I'm buying Dobby's freedom." Dobby had been trying to save his life after all. "Er, how much are House Elf's?" he asked after the fact. He was pretty sure there was enough in his vault for one, but if it was something like 1000 Galleons, that would definitely make a dent in his vault.

"Not to worry," Sirius brushed off his offer. "There is plenty in the Orders coffers to cover a House Elf."

"The Malfoy's can afford to replace their own House Elf," Snape's drawl was back and he was letting his exasperation at their offers show. "I will leave now for Malfoy Manor and see about getting Dobby relieved of his services."

Harry was surprised that they had all taken to his idea and were keen on implementing it so quickly. Though, he didn't know if Malfoy was able to call his House Elf to his side at Hogwarts so they only had between now and tomorrow to get it taken care of.

Snape left the room for the Floo downstairs and Harry turned back to look at Ginny and Sirius across the table from him with a smile, "I helped."

The two of them chuckled at him.

"It was a good idea, Harry." Dumbledore agreed. "And just in time too." He checked his tempus on his wand. "Now, if you will excuse me. Sirius, we will discuss your idea more later and I will confer with Andromeda once I've had time to look over your research," he stood up and nodded to them before taking his leave.

"You were listening at the door, eh?" Sirius grinned at Harry. "I knew it was something she'd do," he gutted his thumb at Ginny. "You being a bad influence on him?" he teased her.

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