Disclaimer: Forgot to put one up last chapter (whoops), but here it is now. I don't own HP (darn it!). If I did...oh the things I could do. ; )

Chapter 2-The Happy Reminder

Harry stood in the room disbelievingly. What just happened? Dumbledore just gave him the hit-and-run routine, and Harry still didn't have a clue what was going on. Well, at least I know that I'll be taking Occlumency lessons. That's a start.

Harry walked out of the room and grabbed his trunk. He started to make his way up the stairs to the room he and Ron had shared last time he had stayed at 12 Grimmuald Place, stopping grudgingly every third or fourth step to complain to himself about how heavy his trunk was. Then he remembered the waiver that allowed him to do magic and smacked himself in the face. "Stupid git," he said to himself. "Locomotor trunk," he said, remembering the spell Tonks had used the previous summer to levitate his trunk. He reached his room and threw the entirety of his weight onto the bed.

Harry's first night back in Grimmuald Place proved to be exhausting. It was on this night that the dream started. He would be picked up by Sirius, and when he returned from his room after gathering his things, he would be standing in that room in the department of mysteries. Every night for a week he had to endure the suffering.

After having the dream for the seventh night in a row, Harry climbed out of bed and started to descend the stairs to get some breakfast, but he was suddenly knocked backwards by a small, moving lump of clothing.

"Harry Potter, sir! I is so excited to see you, sir! I is just coming one week ago, on Professor Dumbledore's orders, but I is never expecting to see Harry Potter!" The lump of clothing was now speaking in a shrill, squeaky voice that forcefully reminded Harry of...

"Dobby? What are you doing here?"

The house-elf was now bedecked in a greater assortment of clothing than Harry had ever seen him in. Along with his usual tea cozy hat and mis-matching socks, Dobby was wearing what looked like several sweaters in multiple colors, some of which looked home-sewn, a pair of spandex shorts (which were long enough to be pants on the elf and tucked underneath the socks), and what looked suspiciously like a blue and purple tu-tu. The elf beamed up at Harry, tears coming to his tennis-ball eyes.

"Dumbledore says there is a new place for me to work, and Dobby tells him that I is doing anything for Master Dumbledore. He says that he needs an elf he can trust with secrets, and I is telling him that I is a very trustworthy elf." He paused, and his smile became painful to look at. "Dobby is so honored to be here with Harry Potter!!"

"Right. So you are working here, now, instead of at Hogwarts?" At this, the elf nodded vigorously. "Well, that's brilliant, Dobby." Harry smiled at the elf encouragingly.

"The headmaster is telling Dobby to wake Mr. Harry Potter. He is saying that I is needing to move Harry Potter to a new room."

"What room would that be, Dobby?" he asked, his curiosity peaked.

"Master Dumbledore is telling me to put you in the master bedroom, Mr. Harry Potter, sir. He is telling Dobby not to take no for an answer, sir." Harry saw no point in arguing, so he followed Dobby down the stairs after gathering his things from the old room.

Dobby led him down a discreet passageway under the staircase that Harry hadn't noticed the last time he was at the house. The hallway was unusually calming, with solid wood walls and warm torch-light. It was completely different from the rest of the house, and Harry wondered why it didn't have the same cold, dark style that prevailed throughout the house. After about a hundred meters or so, Dobby stopped at an apparently blank stretch of wall that was only discernable from all the rest by the doorknob that jutted out of it. Dobby was too short to reach the handle, so Harry reached for it. Before he could turn the knob and open it, though, the door slid sideways to the right, into the rest of the wall.

Harry stepped into the room and what he saw made him forget to breathe. Dobby set his trunk down next to the door and said, "Dobby will leave you, now, master." Harry was too awestruck to reply, so he merely nodded his head and blinked his goodbye.

The room was as big as the Gryffindor common room. The huge four-poster bed was in the middle of the left-hand wall, and directly across from it was a magnificent fire-place, where there was a comfy-looking chair and a two person sofa, both covered in dark brown suede leather, placed just in front. There were two dark wooden night stands, one on each side of the bed, and on one was an elegant lamp. There was a pair of closet doors on the left wall as well, and another door on the right side of the fireplace. The walls were painted an attractive crimson-red, and there were rugs placed on the glimmering hard-wood floors of the same color in front of the fireplace and under the bed.

Harry took another step inside, and the fireplace gently erupted into a warm, orange fire, inviting him to plop himself onto the oh-so-tempting sofa. He walked over to the couch and threw himself onto it. This I could get used to. He opened his eyes, and gasped. There, above the fireplace, was a portrait of a great black dog with piercingly yellow eyes and shaggy fur. It was beautiful; depressing and at the same time comforting. Harry closed his eyes and remembered the first time he saw his godfather in his Animagus form. It was the night he ran away from Privet Drive, and the dog Sirius had scared Harry. He chuckled. The painting would always be there as a happy reminder of his beloved godfather, watching over him in his sleep.

A/N: Sorry this one's so short. Would have written more, but it just seemed to be a great place to end a chapter.