Chapter Seventeen: In Which Elves Are Provoked
Dobby blinked anxiously up at Harry.
"Harry mustn't be angry. . . . Dobby hoped . . . If Harry Potter had thought his friends had forgotten him . . . Harry Potter might not want to go back to school, sir. . . ."
Dobby was clearly very unstable — Harry had to be very careful so as to not provoke him.
"So you don't want me to go back to Hogwarts?" he asked casually.
Dobby nodded so fast it looked like his head would fly off.
"Then I won't go," he aid simply.
"Harry Potter is great, sir. Harry Potter recognises the danger. . . ."
Harry let him blabber on about how great he was, occasionally slipping in a modest answer or two.
"Dobby," Harry said, interrupting him. "Can I have my mail now?"
Dobby handed it over, "Dobby must be going, sir."
He vanished with a whip-like sound.
"Now that that's taken care of," Harry said, relaxing. "I should write a letter to Ron and Hermione and tell them not to worry."
Vernon Dursley never put bars on Harry's windows. Ron and his brothers never had to drive a flying car to rescue him. On the first of September, Harry was dropped off at Kings Cross station by his Uncle Vernon, where he passed through the barrier with no problems.
AN: If someone shows up in your bedroom demanding that you don't go back to school, just agree with them and make them go away as fast as possible. But no, Harry in canon wastes his time arguing with Dobby when he knows that there is no point. Dobby stole his bloody mail to prevent him from going back to Hogwarts!
Here's what I imagine went on in Harry's head — "Ok, this weird creature that harms himself every three seconds is telling me that there are going to be evil plots at Hogwarts. He also stole my mail to make me think my friends didn't care about me. I think I should try to reason with this obviously-reasonable person."
Seriously?
AN 2: I realise it has been a month since I last updated this story. Well, since then I have written a lot of chapters for the other parts of WLCS.