Disclaimer: I don't own anything at all in the Harry Potter universe.
Courage to Find the Strength
Chapter 21
Dobby wrung his hands over and over and refused to look Harry Potter in the eye. The little creature tended to look on the grotesque side even on the best of nights, and tonight certainly wasn't one of those. His nose dripped mucus from crying, and it looked like he'd started punishing himself again because of the half-healed scorch marks on his arms and legs.
"Please, Harry Potter, DON'T send Dobby back there!" the house-elf pleaded.
Hermione's expression was one of pain and compassion as she regarded the little creature she had befriended and championed. Ron was looking slightly impatient and annoyed. The tall disagreeable wizard next to him looked even more so. Harry, on the other hand, looked nothing if not stubbornly determined.
"Dobby, I honestly hope this is the last time," he emphasized. "You've been so good to me up until now. Please, I just need you to do me one more favor."
The house-elf suddenly threw himself down at Harry's feet, sobbing, and brokenly begging not to have to go back to Malfoy Manor.
"PLEASE, Harry Potter! PLEASE! Don't make Dobby go! He'll catch me, he will! Then, Dobby will be punished, and Dobby doesn't think he'll survive!"
"Harry..." Hermione choked, starting forward to comfort the stricken creature.
"Don't," Harry mouthed to Hermione who stepped back to her original place.
"Oh come on! It's obvious the little vermin isn't going to do it. He's rather pathetic, don't you think?" Snape regarded Dobby with undisguised contempt. He was holding a vial containing a sickly purple liquid. It was obvious from his posture that what little patience he possessed was wearing thin.
Harry's frown deepened. He decided to change tactics. "Dobby! Pull yourself together! You've done GREAT up till now! I'm..we're very proud of you."
Dobby raised his misshapen head. "Really? Harry Potter is proud of Dobby?" A small smile crept onto his face, and his eyes changed from terror-stricken to blatant adoration. Snape snorted in disgust.
"Yes, Dobby. Look at what you've found out for us! Malfoy leaving the school for that glade in the forest, and then apparating to Malfoy Manor. You've even found out where they're meeting in the dungeons, and brought back evidence of the curse they're keeping him under. How could we not be proud of you? Why, you're practically a hero!"
Dobby looked at the other faces uncertainly. All except for Snape, they were nodding their heads in encouragement. Dobby wiped his sleeve across his nose and grinned.
"A hero, huh? Dobby's never been a hero before. Okay, what does Harry Potter wish Dobby to do?"
Harry met Snape's cold gaze. The Potions professor held out the vial to Dobby and knelt down so that he was eye level with him. "Listen up, elf, I'm not going to repeat myself. Here's what you have to do."
***
A few seconds after Dobby had apparated to the forest glade to wait for Malfoy's appearance, Snape broke the uncomfortable silence.
"Remind me again why I'm doing this, Potter?" he sneered.
"Well, sir, you mean to help Malfoy break the spell of the Dark Mark," Harry bit out uncomfortably.
"Hmmm," Snape considered, glaring at the lot of them.
"Sir," Hermione began, "why exactly ARE you doing this? I mean, it doesn't seem like you." She trailed off to a whisper under his fierce stare.
"I have my reasons, Ms. Granger. Ones that are none of your business. You three should be lucky I don't have you expelled, or, at the very least, inform the Headmaster of your involvement in all this. Using school elves to run around the forest chasing absent students, mucking around in the Dark Lord's affairs. This should be left to powers other than yourselves."
"Right, sir." Ron briskly nodded, nudging Hermione to keep her mouth shut.
"Now, I wish to be informed the minute Mr. Malfoy returns if I don't reach him first. He needs to be taken to Dumbledore immediately. The potion's effects are...limited. I cannot say for certain how long they will last. In any event, I'm sure the Headmaster will need an explanation, and for your sakes, I'D better be the one to do it." With that, he wheeled out of the room in a swirl of wizard robes.
Ron, Hermione, and Harry glanced at each other. All three crossed their fingers.
***
Dobby hated this place. He hated it more than anything else on the earth. This was the place of nightmares. This was where screams were born only to die on deaf ears. The upper levels were beauty and comfort embodied, but as he followed young Master Malfoy down the deep, winding, damp, cold steps to the dungeons, he felt a growing mind-numbing panic take over him. Only Harry Potter and his friends had the power to make Dobby return here. They'd said such nice things to him, treated him with such dignity and kindness, he would have stolen the moon for them. Harry Potter especially. Even one of the great and awe-inspiring professors had needed him to complete this task. Still, it had been very hard for Dobby to accept.
His previous nights had been simply tracking the young wizard-to-be and discovering how Master Malfoy was disappearing from Hogwarts when there was a ban on apparating on the school grounds. That part had been relatively easy. The invisibility charm he used was obscure, but not unknown to a house-elf. He'd even braved entering the upper portions of the mansion in order to discern what was happening in the dungeons below. At first, he'd learned nothing, but then a fellow house-elf had happened upon him and fortunately recognized him. They'd struck up a conversation, and Dobby left with some valuable information about some of the resident lord's more clandestine houseguests. The next night, he met with an entire group of the manor's house-elves, and after entertaining them with stories of his new life at Hogwarts, he learned about the curse they used on young Draco. The house-elves had been curious to learn why the young wizard hadn't been so cruel to them as of late. There'd been rumors of a witch that had caught his eye, but they soon discovered it was due to a curse with effects extremely similar to the terrible Imperius Curse, but was not so easily detected. It seemed You-Know-Who had found the time to refine his most terrible magic.
But, tonight, Harry, his friends, and the Potions Professor needed him to deliver a vial to young Master Malfoy and make sure he consumed it. Then, he was to take him directly back to Hogwarts, by force if necessary. Harry Potter had been most specific. Now, here he was creeping down the dungeon steps, potion clenched tightly in his misshapen fists, ready to run at the first hint of trouble. As he reached the bottom, he saw the young wizard with the rest of the Death Eaters. They were preparing for a ritual of sorts, and Dobby perked up his ears to hear better.
"I think the spell is nearing completion. After a few more trials, we should reach the final stage," the elder Malfoy announced to a robed figured, sitting hunched up on a throne-like chair of sorts. Dobby couldn't hear his reply, but suddenly felt a cold chill run down his spine when the man-thing must have spoken. His former master smiled and left the room with two other Death Eaters. When they returned, they were dragging a house-elf in that Dobby had become acquainted with over the last few nights. The little female elf was struggling to escape in her abject fear, but it must have been powerful magic that kept her there because not many had to the power to subdue an elf.
"Bring her here," Lucius commanded to his two companions. He brought out his wand. "Petrificus Totalus."
Ordinarily, such magic shouldn't have held a house-elf, but Lucius had put some power behind it. The little elf's body went rigid, but her eyes screamed in fear. Another group of Death Eaters brought out a syringe (although Dobby didn't know what it was called at the time) full of a green glowing liquid. They injected it into the house-elf. A few moments later her eyes rolled up in her head. The two who were holding her took her frozen body away. Dobby tried to control his shaking and concentrated on not dropping the bottle. He hid away in the corner until the meeting was almost over. At that time, Lucius headed back to the entrance to where they'd taken the house-elf. Within a few moments, he returned smiling satisfactorily. In a loud ringing voice, he announced, "Lord Voldemort, Gentlemen, Ladies, I believe we have ourselves an unparalled success! Now, we move into the next phase - Execution!"
The members all applauded, and even He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named nodded several times. After that, they all filed out, passed the hidden Dobby, and marched up the stairs. Fortunately, Draco was among the last. Dobby reached out a shaking hand and pulled on the young wizards robes to stop him. Malfoy had just enough time to turn around in confusion when a powerful magical blast hit him right between the eyes, and he crumpled to the ground.
Dobby quickly opened the vial and stuck a grimy finger in between Draco's lips to pry his mouth open. "Bottom's up, sir."
***
Draco felt as though a curtain was being drawn back in his mind, not necessarily disappearing, but temporarily allowing him a moment of clarity. He sat up and shook his head to clear the grogginess and pain. As his vision improved, he made out a figure peering up at him with its hands covering its mouth.
"Dobby?" Draco asked, and his former house-elf jumped a foot into the air.
"Yes, Master Malfoy? Do you recognize Dobby?" his voice was trembling.
"Where am I? The dungeons at the Manor? But how did I?"
"No time for that now, young sir. Dobby must get you back to Hogwarts and Harry Potter." Dobby grabbed Malfoy's robes and began pulling him towards to the stairs. "Mustn't apparate here. They'll trace it, they will. Dobby doesn't want that. No, sir."
"Wait, Dobby. I seem to remember something about another house-elf this evening, but it's fading quickly. Do you know what happened here tonight?"
Dobby suddenly stopped his yanking of Malfoy's robes and stared at him. "Yes, sir, Dobby does. They used some kind of awful magic on her. Some sharp piece of instrument into her arm, here." He pointed at his upper arm. His voice dropped to a whisper. "They took her in there."
"I've got to find her, Dobby."
"NO, SIR! Dobby must get you back to Hogwarts!"
"Dobby, I've got to see for myself what I've gotten involved in. I'm sure Hermione will want to know what's been happening here." Malfoy pushed himself up off the floor and made his way unsteadily across the now empty dungeon towards the doorway Dobby indicated. Dobby followed along, again wringing his hands and constantly looking over his shoulder.
When Draco opened the door, nothing could have prepared him for the horrors inside.
***
There were many magical creatures imprisoned in all manner of cages. All were either dying or already dead. The most shocking among them was a dying unicorn lying next to an already deceased centaur. A dead phoenix was in a cage overhead next to an overcrowded cage of dying or dead owls. What looked to be the remains of a merperson floated in a grisly pool, and an enormous carcass of a dragon rotted in the back. There had to be literally hundreds of bodies in the room. The smell of decomposition was overwhelming, and Draco almost gagged. Dobby held onto Malfoy's robes, eyes frozen open in horror.
They made their way among the individuals to a gruesome pile of dead house- elves gathered in a far corner. The still petrified body of the little female house-elf was thrown carelessly on top. Dobby gasped when Malfoy gently lifted her off the pile and laid her out on the floor. She was covered in fresh oozing lesions, and she looked to have vomited and passed blood. When Draco used his wand to un-petrify her, she instantly went into convulsions. After a moment, she stilled and turned to gaze weakly at the wizard and Dobby. Instead of fear as Draco had anticipated, she smiled.
"So you came," she gurgled out. Draco was as surprised as Dobby to see that she was addressing him and not the Hogwarts house-elf.
"Yes, I did." He could find no other words for her, but smiled warmly in return.
"Just like your picture," she whispered despite the blood flowing freely out. She reached into the flour sack she used to cover her body and drew out a torn wizard's photograph. The image flickered, but Draco recognized it at once. It was the very picture Hermione had given him at Christmas and that he had so carelessly and violently threw off the balcony upstairs. Somehow the little she-elf must have found it and made it her prized possession.
"Can you tell me what happened to you? What's happened to all the creatures here?"
"Terrible magic," she slowly said with difficulty.
"What kind of magic? I can't remember," he desperately whispered to her, struggling to unlock the parts of his mind hidden by the curtain. Just as it had allowed him to regain possession of his faculties, it hid from him the parts over which he'd had no control.
The little elf couldn't talk anymore. Her death was nearing quickly. Instead, she used her remaining strength to trace a glyph in the pool of gore around her. Draco recognized the glyph at once. It was the same one he'd seen on the television at Hermione's parents' home. When the she-elf finished, she struggled to look at her beloved picture again as her body shuddered in its final death throes. "So happy," she murmured.
Draco grieved silently and closed her eyes for her when she was no longer in this world to do so. Tears streamed down his and Dobby's faces. He bent over and removed the picture and tucked it into his robes, her blood forever staining it. He took Dobby's hand in his own much to the elf's surprise and made their way out of that ghastly place. He'd seen no others he could assist. Instead, he gritted his teeth in determination to never let this happen to any creature again.
"Let's get back to Hogwarts, Dobby."
Courage to Find the Strength
Chapter 21
Dobby wrung his hands over and over and refused to look Harry Potter in the eye. The little creature tended to look on the grotesque side even on the best of nights, and tonight certainly wasn't one of those. His nose dripped mucus from crying, and it looked like he'd started punishing himself again because of the half-healed scorch marks on his arms and legs.
"Please, Harry Potter, DON'T send Dobby back there!" the house-elf pleaded.
Hermione's expression was one of pain and compassion as she regarded the little creature she had befriended and championed. Ron was looking slightly impatient and annoyed. The tall disagreeable wizard next to him looked even more so. Harry, on the other hand, looked nothing if not stubbornly determined.
"Dobby, I honestly hope this is the last time," he emphasized. "You've been so good to me up until now. Please, I just need you to do me one more favor."
The house-elf suddenly threw himself down at Harry's feet, sobbing, and brokenly begging not to have to go back to Malfoy Manor.
"PLEASE, Harry Potter! PLEASE! Don't make Dobby go! He'll catch me, he will! Then, Dobby will be punished, and Dobby doesn't think he'll survive!"
"Harry..." Hermione choked, starting forward to comfort the stricken creature.
"Don't," Harry mouthed to Hermione who stepped back to her original place.
"Oh come on! It's obvious the little vermin isn't going to do it. He's rather pathetic, don't you think?" Snape regarded Dobby with undisguised contempt. He was holding a vial containing a sickly purple liquid. It was obvious from his posture that what little patience he possessed was wearing thin.
Harry's frown deepened. He decided to change tactics. "Dobby! Pull yourself together! You've done GREAT up till now! I'm..we're very proud of you."
Dobby raised his misshapen head. "Really? Harry Potter is proud of Dobby?" A small smile crept onto his face, and his eyes changed from terror-stricken to blatant adoration. Snape snorted in disgust.
"Yes, Dobby. Look at what you've found out for us! Malfoy leaving the school for that glade in the forest, and then apparating to Malfoy Manor. You've even found out where they're meeting in the dungeons, and brought back evidence of the curse they're keeping him under. How could we not be proud of you? Why, you're practically a hero!"
Dobby looked at the other faces uncertainly. All except for Snape, they were nodding their heads in encouragement. Dobby wiped his sleeve across his nose and grinned.
"A hero, huh? Dobby's never been a hero before. Okay, what does Harry Potter wish Dobby to do?"
Harry met Snape's cold gaze. The Potions professor held out the vial to Dobby and knelt down so that he was eye level with him. "Listen up, elf, I'm not going to repeat myself. Here's what you have to do."
***
A few seconds after Dobby had apparated to the forest glade to wait for Malfoy's appearance, Snape broke the uncomfortable silence.
"Remind me again why I'm doing this, Potter?" he sneered.
"Well, sir, you mean to help Malfoy break the spell of the Dark Mark," Harry bit out uncomfortably.
"Hmmm," Snape considered, glaring at the lot of them.
"Sir," Hermione began, "why exactly ARE you doing this? I mean, it doesn't seem like you." She trailed off to a whisper under his fierce stare.
"I have my reasons, Ms. Granger. Ones that are none of your business. You three should be lucky I don't have you expelled, or, at the very least, inform the Headmaster of your involvement in all this. Using school elves to run around the forest chasing absent students, mucking around in the Dark Lord's affairs. This should be left to powers other than yourselves."
"Right, sir." Ron briskly nodded, nudging Hermione to keep her mouth shut.
"Now, I wish to be informed the minute Mr. Malfoy returns if I don't reach him first. He needs to be taken to Dumbledore immediately. The potion's effects are...limited. I cannot say for certain how long they will last. In any event, I'm sure the Headmaster will need an explanation, and for your sakes, I'D better be the one to do it." With that, he wheeled out of the room in a swirl of wizard robes.
Ron, Hermione, and Harry glanced at each other. All three crossed their fingers.
***
Dobby hated this place. He hated it more than anything else on the earth. This was the place of nightmares. This was where screams were born only to die on deaf ears. The upper levels were beauty and comfort embodied, but as he followed young Master Malfoy down the deep, winding, damp, cold steps to the dungeons, he felt a growing mind-numbing panic take over him. Only Harry Potter and his friends had the power to make Dobby return here. They'd said such nice things to him, treated him with such dignity and kindness, he would have stolen the moon for them. Harry Potter especially. Even one of the great and awe-inspiring professors had needed him to complete this task. Still, it had been very hard for Dobby to accept.
His previous nights had been simply tracking the young wizard-to-be and discovering how Master Malfoy was disappearing from Hogwarts when there was a ban on apparating on the school grounds. That part had been relatively easy. The invisibility charm he used was obscure, but not unknown to a house-elf. He'd even braved entering the upper portions of the mansion in order to discern what was happening in the dungeons below. At first, he'd learned nothing, but then a fellow house-elf had happened upon him and fortunately recognized him. They'd struck up a conversation, and Dobby left with some valuable information about some of the resident lord's more clandestine houseguests. The next night, he met with an entire group of the manor's house-elves, and after entertaining them with stories of his new life at Hogwarts, he learned about the curse they used on young Draco. The house-elves had been curious to learn why the young wizard hadn't been so cruel to them as of late. There'd been rumors of a witch that had caught his eye, but they soon discovered it was due to a curse with effects extremely similar to the terrible Imperius Curse, but was not so easily detected. It seemed You-Know-Who had found the time to refine his most terrible magic.
But, tonight, Harry, his friends, and the Potions Professor needed him to deliver a vial to young Master Malfoy and make sure he consumed it. Then, he was to take him directly back to Hogwarts, by force if necessary. Harry Potter had been most specific. Now, here he was creeping down the dungeon steps, potion clenched tightly in his misshapen fists, ready to run at the first hint of trouble. As he reached the bottom, he saw the young wizard with the rest of the Death Eaters. They were preparing for a ritual of sorts, and Dobby perked up his ears to hear better.
"I think the spell is nearing completion. After a few more trials, we should reach the final stage," the elder Malfoy announced to a robed figured, sitting hunched up on a throne-like chair of sorts. Dobby couldn't hear his reply, but suddenly felt a cold chill run down his spine when the man-thing must have spoken. His former master smiled and left the room with two other Death Eaters. When they returned, they were dragging a house-elf in that Dobby had become acquainted with over the last few nights. The little female elf was struggling to escape in her abject fear, but it must have been powerful magic that kept her there because not many had to the power to subdue an elf.
"Bring her here," Lucius commanded to his two companions. He brought out his wand. "Petrificus Totalus."
Ordinarily, such magic shouldn't have held a house-elf, but Lucius had put some power behind it. The little elf's body went rigid, but her eyes screamed in fear. Another group of Death Eaters brought out a syringe (although Dobby didn't know what it was called at the time) full of a green glowing liquid. They injected it into the house-elf. A few moments later her eyes rolled up in her head. The two who were holding her took her frozen body away. Dobby tried to control his shaking and concentrated on not dropping the bottle. He hid away in the corner until the meeting was almost over. At that time, Lucius headed back to the entrance to where they'd taken the house-elf. Within a few moments, he returned smiling satisfactorily. In a loud ringing voice, he announced, "Lord Voldemort, Gentlemen, Ladies, I believe we have ourselves an unparalled success! Now, we move into the next phase - Execution!"
The members all applauded, and even He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named nodded several times. After that, they all filed out, passed the hidden Dobby, and marched up the stairs. Fortunately, Draco was among the last. Dobby reached out a shaking hand and pulled on the young wizards robes to stop him. Malfoy had just enough time to turn around in confusion when a powerful magical blast hit him right between the eyes, and he crumpled to the ground.
Dobby quickly opened the vial and stuck a grimy finger in between Draco's lips to pry his mouth open. "Bottom's up, sir."
***
Draco felt as though a curtain was being drawn back in his mind, not necessarily disappearing, but temporarily allowing him a moment of clarity. He sat up and shook his head to clear the grogginess and pain. As his vision improved, he made out a figure peering up at him with its hands covering its mouth.
"Dobby?" Draco asked, and his former house-elf jumped a foot into the air.
"Yes, Master Malfoy? Do you recognize Dobby?" his voice was trembling.
"Where am I? The dungeons at the Manor? But how did I?"
"No time for that now, young sir. Dobby must get you back to Hogwarts and Harry Potter." Dobby grabbed Malfoy's robes and began pulling him towards to the stairs. "Mustn't apparate here. They'll trace it, they will. Dobby doesn't want that. No, sir."
"Wait, Dobby. I seem to remember something about another house-elf this evening, but it's fading quickly. Do you know what happened here tonight?"
Dobby suddenly stopped his yanking of Malfoy's robes and stared at him. "Yes, sir, Dobby does. They used some kind of awful magic on her. Some sharp piece of instrument into her arm, here." He pointed at his upper arm. His voice dropped to a whisper. "They took her in there."
"I've got to find her, Dobby."
"NO, SIR! Dobby must get you back to Hogwarts!"
"Dobby, I've got to see for myself what I've gotten involved in. I'm sure Hermione will want to know what's been happening here." Malfoy pushed himself up off the floor and made his way unsteadily across the now empty dungeon towards the doorway Dobby indicated. Dobby followed along, again wringing his hands and constantly looking over his shoulder.
When Draco opened the door, nothing could have prepared him for the horrors inside.
***
There were many magical creatures imprisoned in all manner of cages. All were either dying or already dead. The most shocking among them was a dying unicorn lying next to an already deceased centaur. A dead phoenix was in a cage overhead next to an overcrowded cage of dying or dead owls. What looked to be the remains of a merperson floated in a grisly pool, and an enormous carcass of a dragon rotted in the back. There had to be literally hundreds of bodies in the room. The smell of decomposition was overwhelming, and Draco almost gagged. Dobby held onto Malfoy's robes, eyes frozen open in horror.
They made their way among the individuals to a gruesome pile of dead house- elves gathered in a far corner. The still petrified body of the little female house-elf was thrown carelessly on top. Dobby gasped when Malfoy gently lifted her off the pile and laid her out on the floor. She was covered in fresh oozing lesions, and she looked to have vomited and passed blood. When Draco used his wand to un-petrify her, she instantly went into convulsions. After a moment, she stilled and turned to gaze weakly at the wizard and Dobby. Instead of fear as Draco had anticipated, she smiled.
"So you came," she gurgled out. Draco was as surprised as Dobby to see that she was addressing him and not the Hogwarts house-elf.
"Yes, I did." He could find no other words for her, but smiled warmly in return.
"Just like your picture," she whispered despite the blood flowing freely out. She reached into the flour sack she used to cover her body and drew out a torn wizard's photograph. The image flickered, but Draco recognized it at once. It was the very picture Hermione had given him at Christmas and that he had so carelessly and violently threw off the balcony upstairs. Somehow the little she-elf must have found it and made it her prized possession.
"Can you tell me what happened to you? What's happened to all the creatures here?"
"Terrible magic," she slowly said with difficulty.
"What kind of magic? I can't remember," he desperately whispered to her, struggling to unlock the parts of his mind hidden by the curtain. Just as it had allowed him to regain possession of his faculties, it hid from him the parts over which he'd had no control.
The little elf couldn't talk anymore. Her death was nearing quickly. Instead, she used her remaining strength to trace a glyph in the pool of gore around her. Draco recognized the glyph at once. It was the same one he'd seen on the television at Hermione's parents' home. When the she-elf finished, she struggled to look at her beloved picture again as her body shuddered in its final death throes. "So happy," she murmured.
Draco grieved silently and closed her eyes for her when she was no longer in this world to do so. Tears streamed down his and Dobby's faces. He bent over and removed the picture and tucked it into his robes, her blood forever staining it. He took Dobby's hand in his own much to the elf's surprise and made their way out of that ghastly place. He'd seen no others he could assist. Instead, he gritted his teeth in determination to never let this happen to any creature again.
"Let's get back to Hogwarts, Dobby."
