Chapter 33, Dobby and Lockhart's Experience

Something was jumping on him.

That's what it felt like.

He was used to waking up to a pillow upside the head because of Severus, but this was different.

Something was jumping on him. On his stomach.

Harry opened one eye and restrained a scream. He recognized the creature as a house elf, as he had seen one before. This one had a long, pointy nose and huge, green, tennis ball eyes. Its ears were three sizes too big for it's head, and it was wearing a pillowcase.

"Who in the bloody hell are you?" he whispered harshly.

"Dobby, sir! Dobby is here to serve!"

"I don't need a house elf right now, Dobby, so it would be good if you went back to the kitchen and let me sleep."

Harry rolled over and covered his head with the blanket, only to have it ripped back off him.

"No, sir! Dobby is not from here, sir! Dobby has come to warn Harry Potter!"

"Warn Harry Potter about what?"

"That bad things will happen in Hogwarts this year! That Harry Potter must go home to remain safe!"

Harry frowned at the elf. "Hogwarts is my home, Dobby. I cannot leave here."

"But Harry Potter is not safe at Hogwarts! Harry Potter must leave!"

"Why? What danger will hit Hogwarts this year, Dobby? You can tell me."

Dobby opened his mouth to speak, then ran and banged his head against the cold, stone wall.

Harry yelped. "Dobby! Stop that, you'll wake up Professor Snape, and come sit down."

Dobby's eyes, if possible, widened more than they already were. He wailed. "Harry Potter has asked Dobby to sit down!"

Harry stammered, "Have I insulted you? I'm sorry!"

Dobby shook his head. "No, Harry Potter has treated Dobby like equal!" He wailed again and bit his own finger. "No wizard has ever done such a thing!" Dobby wailed louder.

"Dobby, Dobby please stop. If you wake up Professor Snape we'll both be in trouble."

Dobby sniffled. "Dobby doesn't worry about waking Professor Snape, because Professor Snape is not sleeping."

"What?"

"Professor Snape is in Potions lab. Professor Snape is not sleeping."

Harry furrowed his eyebrows. Curious. "Alright, then what about this warning."

"Harry Potter must go home!"

"Harry Potter is home!"

"Hogwarts is not safe this year, and Harry Potter must leave!"

Harry heard something stir in the other room. "Dobby must leave!"

Dobby stopped to listen. Then with one last warning to Harry he disappeared with a loud 'pop!'.

Then the door opened, and Snape's head popped in. "Hello?"

Harry, who was still sitting up, looked over at him. "Hi."

"Who are you talking to?"

Harry looked back to Saliza, who was sleeping peacefully through the whole ordeal. "Myself." For some reason he didn't want to tell Snape about Dobby.

Severus frowned. "You argue with yourself now?"

Harry gave a nervous smile. "What time is it?"

The older man pulled his head out to check the clock on the mantle. "Half past midnight."

"Oh. Sorry for waking you, or—" Harry noticed his professor was still completely dressed "—disturbing you, or whatever."

Snape nodded and disappeared out the door.

Harry fell back into the bed with a thump and went back to sleep.

Harry got two other visits from Dobby in the following week and a half.

The morning of the Sorting Feast he woke up to a pillow against his head. One—two—three times.

"Up!"

He rolled over and, with a loud crash, fell right off the bed.

Snape laughed at him and walked out the door, leaving Harry to gently rub his head where he hit it against the stone floor.

He saved time by charming himself clean and into new robes. Then he walked into the living room, where Severus was ordering breakfast for the two of them.

When his professor was finished, he asked, "Why'd you get me up so early? It's not a school day yet."

"Albus has work for you. And we have to move your things to the dormitory, and set up the Great Hall for the feast."

"Work for me?"

"He needs you to transport something to the Ministry of Magic."

"He can't do it himself?"

"No, it's too big to owl, and too big and fragile to apparate."

"So, what, you want me to teleport it?"

"No, we need you to fly it."

"Isn't that risky?"

"No, we tie it to your back, you fly to the Ministry of Magic, an official will take it, and you fly or teleport yourself back."

The house elf delivered their breakfast, and they sat to eat. "Alright. I'll deliver it, then."

After breakfast Harry morphed into a thestral, and Dumbledore tried to tie a large package to his back.

The man frowned. "That's not going to work. Harry, can you hold the string in your mouth and let it swing?"

The thestral's head moved up and down. Albus handed the package over, letting Harry take the rope between his teeth.

"If you can, Harry, make the package invisible so as not to attract attention. If you can't, I will."

Harry made it invisible without real difficulty.

"Now Harry, the Ministry of Magic is in Muggle London, so it doesn't really look like a magical building. It's underground, the entrance a few blocks from the Leaky Cauldron. Hagrid will be standing in front of the telephone booth, stop in front of him; he can see you."

Harry nodded again, unable of normal conversation.

"All right, we'll be expecting you in a few hours. You know the way to London?"

Harry nodded. He'd follow the train tracks.

"Okay, good luck."

Harry nodded and took off. He followed the train tracks back to London, locating the Leaky Cauldron and flying higher to get a better look around. He spotted Hagrid during one of his circles around the block and dropped down in front of him, lowering the package carefully.

Hagrid took the package and stroked Harry's neck. "There's a good boy, Harry. Good ter see ye again."

Harry nodded his head.

"Alrigh' 'Arry, fly back to Hogwarts now before Dumbledore misses ye."

Harry nodded and took off, leaving Hagrid to the package.

He made it back to Hogwarts in record time, flying in and landing next to the lake. He trotted up to the doors before morphing back to human.

McGonagall ushered him through the castle when he entered. "You've been gone for hours! Albus wants to give you a final test before term!"

They began to climb the stairs to Dumbledore's office, but when she blinked her eyes she was right in front of the gargoyle.

She turned to Harry. "Don't do that, it's scary when you don't know it's coming!"

"Apologies," he said, "but you sounded like we were in a hurry."

She huffed and gave the password to the gargoyle, which jumped out of the way so they could ascend the magical escalator.

Dumbledore was waiting at his desk. "Hello, Harry," he said.

"Hi."

Minerva moved and sat down.

"What am I here for?" Harry asked.

"I want to give you another test," said the Headmaster. "Severus told me of your little trick in his chambers a few weeks ago, and how you've been doing even more of it lately, being able to stable everything in the air, and do things without looking, without even a second thought. Even when he disturbs you, nothing drops. This is, to say the least, impressive. Your reflexes are impeccable; in the last test you blocked all of us, even when the Professors were trying. All of us."

Harry listened expressionlessly, regardless of the praise.

"Now I want to know one last thing."

Harry tilted his head in inquiry.

"Shake the castle."

Harry's mouth dropped open. "What?"

"Shake the castle. If you can."

Harry furrowed his eyebrows. "I don't understand. Shake the castle?"

"Concentrate, create an earthquake. Shake it."

Harry concentrated. After a minute, the castle vibrated slightly for a second. Harry opened his eyes and let out a breath, breathing deeply. "That's the best I can do right now," he said, "I'm still tired from the flight."

Albus nodded and said, "That's all right, Harry, you did more than I expected. You are dismissed."

Harry stood.

"All your things have been moved to your second year dormitory, and, if you'd like, you can help the Professors in the Great Hall. I shall see you soon."

The boy teleported to the Great Hall, surprising its residents.

"Hello," he said.

"Harry Potter!" yelled a familiar voice. "So good to see you again." The voice grew confused. "But why is he here before the rest of the studunts?"

"He has special circumstances, Gilderoy," said Snape. He turned to Harry. "Want to get a little practice in before the other students come?"

Harry nodded, a grin spreading across his face.

Lockhart looked confused. "Practice? What are you all talking about?"

Minerva appeared at the doors. "We're practicing again? How much can you take in one day, Harry?"

Harry shrugged. "I happen to find practicing fun. How many other students get to curse their professors?"

"Cursing? Who's cursing the professors? I didn't sign up for this!"

Snape patted Lockart's shoulder with a smirk. "Don't worry, Gilderoy, it's only a second year boy. I'm sure you can defend yourself. All those adventures of yours should be plenty of experience."

"In position!" Minerva yelled to the others.

The walls with the doors appeared and the Professors disappeared behind them. Except Lockhart. "What's wrong, Professor Lockhart? Aren't you going to help me practice?"

"What do I do?" Lockhart asked, sounding worried.

Harry shrugged. "Attack me."

"Attack you! You're a student!"

"So? Attack."

"You're not even armed!"

"You'd be surprised."

A tabby cat appeared out of one of the doors suddenly. It darted around the room and turned into McGonagall. She threw a 'stupefy' at Harry, who blocked it and stuck her to the wall with a sticking spell. The moment she was incapable, Professor Flitwick appeared behind Harry, shooting a 'petrificus totalus'. Harry blocked it with the 'murus vitrum'spell, which sent the curse back at Flitwick. The little man was frozen in place. Gilderoy Lockhart looked utterly shocked. A second year boy was disarming all the Professors without even a wand!

Professor Snape came out sending a 'delegavi'. Harry protected himself with a 'protego' and 'expelliarmus'ed Snape, then threw his own 'delegavi'. Severus fell against the wall, rendered incapable of movement.

Harry took care of the other professors without difficulty, and, once they were all disarmed, and Lockhart was sufficiently scared, he turned to his new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.

"You're last. Attack me."

Lockhart whimpered.

"You're the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, you should be the hardest. Attack me. I need the practice."

"Practice for what?"

Harry shrugged. "Just… practice."

Lockhart raised his wand. "Expelliarmus!"

Harry furrowed his eyebrows and held out his hands. "I'm not armed, you told me that yourself."

"Petrificus totalus!"

Harry tossed it aside with a wave of his hand.

"Deieci!"

Blocked.

"Delegavi!"

Blocked.

"Aegrum!"

Blocked.

"Spectare nihil!"

Blocked.

"Rictusempra!"

Blocked.

"Tantellegra!"

Blocked.

"Inflavi!"

Blocked.

"Madidum!"

Blocked.

"Impuli!"

Blocked.

"Surdum!"

Blocked.

"Infirmum!"

Blocked.

"How am I supposed to do anything to you if you always block it?"

Harry rolled his eyes and petrified his new Defense teacher. "How am I supposed to practice if you don't block my spells or at least throw something good at me?"

Lockhart just stared, rigid.

Just then Dumbledore appeared. He walked through one of the doors behind Harry and threw a 'stupefy' at him, who blocked it without even turning to face the caster.

Dumbledore smiled, twinkling merrily. "Good, Harry. Now fix this mess so it looks presentable when the students get here."

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Author's Note: Well. Looks like Harry's got a wee bit of power. Fun.

Tell me if you want me to post the spell translations. I just wanted to get these chapters up because it's been so long. Because of school. Unfortunately I must return daily to the prison (metaphorically speaking; I'm not jail-bound), which makes it harder for me to come home and make the adjustments I want to make to this story. Once again, apologies.