As much as I love the books, I regret to say that all of Harry Potter belongs to J K Rowling. This includes all of the characters except for Ryua (who's mine) most of the places, and an awful lot of the spells. Oh, and if you see something that looks like one of your stories, I'm really, really sorry. I don't mean to plagiarize. I've just read a lot of really cool fanfics, and they melt into my brain, but I'll try not to use any of it. Tell me if I do, okay?
Dobby's Visit
It was a week after report cards had arrived at the Malfoy Manor, and life wasn't too bad for Ryua. She was still in the good books from getting exceptional marks, and Draco was still slinking around the house wincing at every step. What a baby, Ryua thought, Those curse marks should have all but faded by now, and they never hurt for that long after. Actually, she corrected herself, that wasn't entirely true. Ryua still had two light marks on her left shoulderblade where her Father's curses had cut deeper than usual. She was hoping they'd fade, however, as they always had before. Ryua was headed down to the kitchens for a quick snack. Her parents frowned upon 'excessive' eating on her part, but Ryua didn't care in the slightest. The house-elves were quite used to her now, and Dobby always had something tasty hidden somewhere. But when she walked in, the long-nosed creature was nowhere to be found. "Toppy, have you seen Dobby lately?" she asked of a female house-elf over by the magical dishwasher.
"N-No, miss." The house-elves in that household were very cautious around their humans, and having experienced their behavior herself, Ryua couldn't blame them. Still, something was a bit odd about her attitude, as Ryua was kinder to the elves than her family.
"Toppy, where is Dobby?" Ryua said, a little more demanding this time Toppy's funny little mouth worked. That wasn't a good sign, as house-elves were forbidden to keep secrets from their human masters, but Ryua hated to force her.
"Right behind you, miss!" Toppy suddenly squeaked. Sure enough, Dobby had just elf-apperated behind them, and was currently shutting his ears in the oven.
"Dobby, stop that!" Ryua snapped. He was constantly punishing himself for things, and usually didn't deserve it.
Dobby turned around slowly, and looked up at Ryua with huge, green, watering eyes. "Yes miss?"
"Walk with me." Ryua turned on her heel and marched out of the kitchens, Dobby pattering behind her. "Now, where were you just now?" she asked in a low voice.
"D-Dobby was just... doing house-elf things, miss, nothing miss needs to worry about..."
"Dobby," Ryua cut across the elf's trailing sentence, "I know you weren't doing anything normal, I can see it in your eyes. So, tell me. I promise I won't tell Father."
Dobby blinked his huge green eyes and whispered, "Dobby was visiting."
"Visiting? Who?" Dobby looked like he was about to start beating his head again, so Ryua said, "Wait, pretend I never said that. How about you tell me why you were visiting?"
"Well..." Dobby whispered up at her, "Dobby wanted to tell someone... something important. Dobby didn't mean to do something wrong..." Something important, eh? Ryua had an idea that Dobby was talking about the mysterious something Father was planning to send to school, but who would he want to warn about it... Crabbe, Goyle, Parkinson... they were all useless, and probably wouldn't be harmed by the whatever it was anyways. Dobby didn't know any other wizards, unless...
"Dobby, were you visiting Potter? No, wait," she amended as Dobby started to bang his head against the wall, "don't answer that. Just tell me, what else do you know about this plot of Father's?"
Dobby's gigantic green eyes welled up again, and he replied, "No, miss, Dobby cannot say. Dobby said he wouldn't tell little miss and master..." Dobby broke up into loud, large sobs.
Ryua stifled a groan (house-elves could be so hard to deal with sometimes) "Never mind, Dobby. Just go back to the kitchens before Father catches you so upset." As he elf-apperated back to the kitchens, Ryua sighed. Now she really wanted to learn what secret plan Father had up his sleeve. If it needed Dobby to be sworn to secrecy, and if it in turn made Dobby anxious enough to go visit the family rival about it, it really must be big. Ah, well, school started soon enough.
