'I am dreaming again,' the headmaster realised with some regret. 'My dreams are never pleasant lately.'
Paying attention to his surroundings, Dumbledore found himself seated on a comfortable window seat in this dream. His right arm lay comfortably across his lap, and his legs stretched out in front of him. But his left arm is attached to the window.
'Why can't I pull my arm from the pane of glass?' he wondered. He glanced around and found the enormous serpent remained enclosed in the glass container. Above the snake, Tom Riddle's diary was stuck to the windowpane. The golden egg remained attached to the windowpane and appeared to vibrate from time to time.
'I thought that book was in my desk,' he remembered before he fell out of the dream.
& CHANGE SCENE &
A Quiet Month in Surry (July 1996)After his second trip to Gringotts proved to be disappointing, Harry returned to No.4 Privet Drive just as Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia climbed into their car to leave. His first day back, he learned that Dudley was sentenced to reform school for crimes against the other students at his posh boarding school and the neighbours knew all the details from the newspaper and telly news reports.
Now to escape their freak nephew with his full freak powers, and to avoid the neighbours and their whispering, Vernon and Petunia went to the continent for a long vacation. As they drove away, Harry grinned. Even though they didn't tell him where they were going, he would remain in the house for the next few weeks. He was emancipated now and could use magic to easily enter the house. The elf quickly put things right in the house that was still protected by the wards from 1981.
"Mr Harry Potters, Dobby not like any goblin but Sows-belly-breath goblin even worse."
"Yeah, Dobby," Harry agreed. "I'm afraid he'd steal the gold from the vaults."
"Goblins charge fees for everything but just keep the charges smallest small so wizards not care. But there be charges every month."
The Boy-Who-Lived studied some of the account statements from the Black family accounts and found that his vaults paid a monthly stipend to Bellatrix LeStrange and the funds were deposited into her account in the bank. Other stipends were paid to Narcissa Malfoy and to her son, Draco Malfoy. Dobby explained that Missy Narcissa Malfoy and her son had monthly allowances from Mean Lucius Malfoy and probably didn't know the money was there.
Sighing, Harry said, "I wish I could see these statements for the Potter vaults too."
"Dobby goes and looks in vault," the elf said before he popped away. Harry grinned thinking about Dobby forcing his way into Sowsbreath's office and demanding the statements in the early evening. He wandered into the kitchen and found it fully stocked.
'Dobby is great,' he thought as he heated some soup, made a sandwich, and selected an apple for his dessert. Content in the quiet of the house, Harry waited for Dobby to return. With a loud pop, Dobby reappeared just as Harry sat down to eat.
"Mr Harry Potter be cooking? Dobby shamed!"
No," Harry insisted. "Dobby is a great elf who is helping me all the time. I was hungry and you were getting me important information. There's no shame in that."
While Dobby went into a frenzy of cleaning the kitchen while Harry ate, the young wizard glanced at the last month of account reports for the Potter estate.
'Dumbledore? He's taking money each month? For what?' wondered Harry. 'And Sowsbreath gets the occasional gratuity cheque?'
Listening to the Black family magic now in his core, Harry realized this was a bribe for the goblin and theft by the headmaster.
'This is how Dumbledore's getting all that gold and the things from my vault.'
After reading more of the account papers, Harry turned to Dobby and said, "Is there some other bank we can move the money?"
"Dobby not know any other banks. Bad master only have money at Gringotts goblins hole." The elf hesitated for a moment and then added, "Maybe other elves know."
"What other elves?"
"There be elves in Black family that might be knowing some banks."
"More elves?" asked Harry who watched Dobby nodding his head. "Are there any Potter elves?"
Dobby shook his head and sighs, "Mr Whiskers lets them all die because they could not come to Mr Harry Potter no time to get magic and he not let them come to Hoggiewarts."
Harry frowned and added another complaint to his list of Dumbledore's sins. He continued questioning Dobby, "But there's elves for the Black family? And they're healthy?"
Dobby nodded his head slowly and Harry asked, "How do we get them to come here and talk with us?"
The little elf instructed Mr Harry Potters how to call the Black family elves and waited while four elves popped into the kitchen at No.4 Privet Drive on an evening in early July. First to appear was the surly and filthy elf named Kreacher that lived at Grimmauld Place.
"Filthy half-blood son of a mudblood is now Kreacher's master! Mistress will screech for six days and then cry for ten more for Black family to so disgraced!" Kreacher screamed as he lay on the floor and pounded his feet and hands like a child having a tantrum.
Angry at the elf, Harry shouted, "Shut it. Sit on the floor and be silent. Do not move, do not use magic!"
While Harry silenced Kreacher who was seated on the linoleum floor, three more pops came, and the young wizard found himself facing three elves who looked more like Dobby than the elderly Kreacher. They bowed respectfully and waited silently though Harry noticed they kept glancing and glowering at Kreacher who continued to sob silently on the floor.
"I am Harry Potter, and I am Lord Black."
The tallest elf bowed and said, "Welcome Lord Black, I am Breacher Elf. I clean and garden for House Black."
The next elf bowed and said, "Greetings my lord, I am Treacher. I clean and brew potions for Lord Black."
The last elf who appeared to be the oldest of the three said, "We are all glad to meet and serve the new Lord Black. I am Preacher and I keep accounts and track investments for you."
"Brilliant!" Harry replied and he began to explain his problems to the three new elves.
Breaking Harry's commands, Kreacher shouted, "Hows can a half-blood mongrel be lord of purest purebloods? It be disgrace and we die of shame!"
Treacher snapped his fingers to bind and gag Kreacher while the elf remained stuck to the refrigerator. The elf bowed his head and said, "Kreacher be our uncle, but he be bad elf! Treacher ashamed!"
Pointing toward Harry, Breacher said, "Kreacher blind! Feel magic of Lord Black, stupid elf. Harry Potters be grandson of Black blood and godson of Black Blood. He picked to be next Lord Black and we help him be great!"
Preacher stepped closer to Kreacher and examined the elf stuck to the refrigerator. "You betrays Lord Black named Sirius. You hide news from him. You tell secrets to crazy witch and to vanity witch! Kreacher be bad elf!"
The three new elves glanced at Dobby who simply stared back before speaking to each other for a moment. Then Breacher bowed and asked, "Lord Black, we ask permission to deal with traitor. We no longer speak his name."
Harry heard Dobby take a deep breath but then nodded his head and said, "Kreacher helped get my godfather killed. What will you do with him?"
Nodding his head, Preacher said, "We take off Kreacher's head but not put it on shelf with loyal elves of Black family."
"No! No!" shouted Kreacher for only a second before he vanished with the other elves for the Black family. After only a moment, Breacher and Treacher returned. They bowed to Harry but began an animated conversation with Dobby about the health and history of the new Lord Black.
At one point, when he rose to get another cup of tea, Harry heard Treacher exclaim, "And he be having venom of basilisk and tears of phoenix in his blood!"
"Lord Black wants tea?" asked Breacher, who appeared distressed that the wizard poured the drink from the teapot himself.
"Mr Harry Potters raised by muggles. He be treated like worse house-elf by muggle relatives," Dobby confided to the other elves.
Before there could be more cries of outrage from the elves, Preacher popped back into the kitchen and said, "Lord Black, I put head of Kreacher in muggles crusher for bones at farms for pigs. I drop his body in forest where animals can chew and drag about. And Preacher puts the portrait of Whallyburgess Black who told elf to betray Lord Black into sewers under London."
"That portrait is gone?" asked Harry. "Brilliant!"
The examination of Harry Potter by his elves continued and all four of them cursed in several different languages after examining the scar on his forehead.
"Soul jar! Some &$%&$& made our Lord Black a soul jar!" the elf exclaimed. "Treacher make that &$%&$& sorry he was hatched from a rotten hippogriff egg!"
"Whose soul…" Harry began to ask but then fell silent realizing there was only one answer. Then his mind was confused by the ease that the elf saw the soul piece, so he asked, "How is it you recognize this?"
Treacher spoke up and said, "Soul magics be bad for wizards. All house-elves taught to see and dim…dimis…diminish soul magic."
"Dobby not taught this by bad master's family. Dobby wants to learn."
"What can we do about the soul piece in my scar? Will Voldiesnorts know when we kill it?"
"Treacher removes and dies the soul into muggle sewer where it rots and smells forever! Dark Doofus not know we kill it."
"Can you move it to be in a container?" asked Harry.
"Yes, Master Harry Potter Lord Black," replied Treacher. "But container must be something made by goblins. They be tricksters and without honour but goblinses craft strong and magical tight objects."
"Dobby get my trunk," Harry told his first elf. Dobby pulled Harry's trunk from inside his tea towel and restored it to normal size. Once the lid was opened, Harry pulled out many items until he found the golden egg. When it was restored to full size, Treacher examined the golden egg and nodded.
"Yes, made by goblins and can hold the soul piece," the elf stated. Preacher frowns and pops away for a minute and then returns with a strange locket that Treacher and Breacher pull away from and shiver.
"This be a filthy, soul jar there at Black shack in London. This be why Kreacher lost his mind," Preacher said as he stood with the locket in his hands. "But curse of this magic not go away anytime. Must be why Mr Whiskers and his minion-onions keep trying to enter through front door and floo."
Not wanting his Mr Harry Potter exposed to this evil magic, Dobby pop out and back after a few minutes and he brought several iron boxes with him. "Dobby knows that bad master uses cold iron boxes to keep bad magics in so not drive him crazy."
As soon as Preacher dropped the locket into one of the small boxes and Dobby closed the lid, the atmosphere in No.4 cleared.
"Can you get the piece out of me?" Asked Harry.
"Treacher must make potion but needs basilisk venom and phoenix tears to match Harry Potter's blood."
Nodding his head again, Dobby said, "Dobby get."
"How Dobby elf get tears and venom?" Treacher asked Harry. While they waited for Dobby to return, Harry shared the story of his second year at Hogwarts that concluded with a battle in the Chamber of Secrets with the basilisk and the cure of phoenix tears.
Just as he finished, Dobby appeared with two jars – one filled with venom and the second carrying a few tears. "Missy Fawkes glad to give tears for great Harry Potter. She begs Harry Potter free her this summer if he can. She cries all the time because she not free."
"Fawkes isn't free?"
Dobby shook his head and explained, "She be bound to Mr Whiskers but he not good wizard and it hurts her."
Treacher stared at the jar of basilisk venom and asked, "How big be basilisk?"
The elf popped away with the containers of tears, venom, and a small amount of Harry's blood. Treacher returned to the Black family seat in Kent where there was a full potions lab and all the other supplies he needed. While brewing the potion to remove the soul piece from Mr Harry Potter Lord Black, Treacher also brewed several potions to help the young wizard with his bones, muscles, and mind.