(CoS) CHAPTER THREE: House Elves and Celebrity Teachers
To Ellie's relief, Molly had stopped shouting by the time Ellie and Fred made it inside. She was distracted, of course, by the sudden appearance of Harry Potter in her home.
"But… but… I don't understand!" she was stammering. She sounded positively thrilled that Harry was there, if a bit confused. "How did you get here all by yourself?"
"He walked, Mum," said Ron quickly. "They were treating him terribly out there—even put bars on his windows! So he ran."
Ellie didn't even have to look at Molly to know that Ron's words would get to her; Molly was as soft-hearted as it got, and the thought of anyone putting bars on sweet Harry's windows would be too much for her to bear.
"You must be exhausted," said Molly, reaching out to tousle Harry's hair. "Come on, then—have a seat. I'll cook you some breakfast. Arthur—we'll need to reach out to his aunt and uncle and let them know he's arrived safely. Do you have that… er… fellytone?"
"Telephone!" said Arthur, sounding ecstatic at the prospect of using it. "I do! Harry, can you jot down that tele-number for me?"
Harry and Ellie exchanged amused glances as Harry reached for a loose quill and scrap of parchment to jot down the number.
Ginny came downstairs at that, looking amusingly well put-together, considering the majority of them were in their pyjamas. Ginny had tried to convince them to let her join them on the breakout mission, but there hadn't been room in the car.
"Ginny," said Ellie, nodding easily at her pseudo-sister. "I think you met Harry briefly at the Christmas concert, right? Harry, you remember Ginny?"
Harry smiled and nodded politely at Ginny, though Ellie had a feeling he barely remembered her; Ginny had been far too nervous around him to actually speak. "Hey."
Ginny let out a tiny, girlish squeal before darting back up the stairs.
Ellie glanced at the twins in amusement. She made a mental note to give Ginny a few pointers in talking to boys. She suspected that her first summer at the Burrow had rolled most of that preteen anxiety Ginny was feeling right out of her; it had been that or talk to no one but Ginny all summer.
After breakfast, Harry made a pointed, silent gesture for Ellie and Ron to follow him outside. Fred and George, who at this point seemed to consider themselves Ellie and Harry's full-time bodyguards as well as friends, joined them.
"Three days ago," Harry began when they closed the door behind them, "I walked into my room to find this… this… thing sitting on my bed. Tiny—rugged—pretty hideous. Called a house elf."
Hearing the phrase house elf seemed to trigger a memory in Ellie's mind that she hadn't even realized she had. She'd had a house elf, she realized as the vague, blurry image of a small creature of her own appeared in the back of her mind. At least, her father had.
"Ellie?" asked Harry, seeming to notice her discomfort. "What is it?"
"I…" She bit her lip. "Hearing you say that just made me remember that we had one of those—a house elf. Me and my dad."
The twins' faces shot over to send her warning looks. Don't go too far, she could almost hear them saying. Not many wizards have house elves.
"That's good, isn't it?" asked Harry with a warm smile. "Can't be too many families with those. Maybe it'll help you narrow down who he is."
"Maybe," she said, forcing back the guilt of not being honest with him. "Anyway—sorry. Go on."
"Well, he introduced himself as Dobby, and then… sort of… told me I couldn't come back to Hogwarts this year."
"What?" demanded Ellie. "Why?"
"He didn't exactly go into specifics—just kept saying I'd be in 'grave danger.' Apparently he's the one who's been taking my letters from you lot so I would feel, I don't know—unwanted."
Ellie wanted to slap this house elf she'd never met for that. Fred, George, and Ron seemed to share similar feelings.
"Anyway," said Harry, "he tried to make me promise not to go back—made threats of ruining my aunt and uncle's big work dinner—and ultimately did ruin their big work dinner. Which is how I ended up with the bars on my windows."
"Bloody hell," breathed Ron. "Have you seen the little tyke since?"
"No, but I expect it wasn't the last I'll see of him. For someone who claims to be trying to save my life, he doesn't exactly seem to be on my side."
They all sat in silence for several minutes as they processed everything Harry had told them. Finally, George heaved a sigh and said, "Just when I thought this year might be a little less exciting than the last."
With Harry at the Burrow, Ellie let her quest for answers about her father fall to the back burner. The surest way to collect details would be to search the library at Hogwarts, anyway; for now, there was little else she could do. So she spent the next few days catching up with Harry and the next few nights munching on midnight subs with Fred until, finally, it was time for them to go to Diagon Alley.
"Come along, now—hustle up," said Molly the morning of their trip as they all gathered around the fireplace. "Harry, have you ever traveled by Floo Powder before?"
Harry shook his head, looking incredulously at the fire.
"What you do is," said George with a grin, "you take the powder and eat it—"
"George!" scolded Molly.
"You take a scoopful," corrected Ron, "step into the fireplace with it, say where you're going, and cast the powder into the flames."
"Sounds painful," muttered Harry.
"What some call painful, we call fun," said Fred cheerfully.
"I'll show you," Ellie told Harry with a grin as she reached for a scoop of the powder and stepped into the flames. She had done this the summer before, and while it was only the one time, she still felt fairly confident with it. "Diagon Alley!" she shouted, and she was off.
Ellie both hated and loved the feeling of being rooted to the ground yet stretched across space. When she finally felt stillness again, she tripped her way forward and into the Leaky Cauldron. Fred appeared a few seconds later, looking apprehensive, but he calmed when he saw her.
"You shouldn't have gone first," he said sternly. "You've only done this the one time."
She rolled her eyes as he came to join her and George appeared behind him. "It's not that complicated," she said. "Stop worrying."
The rest of the Weasleys came in behind them, one by one, until all that was left was Harry. About a minute passed before they finally glanced at each other, starting to fear the worst.
"Something's wrong," Molly finally said.
"Indeed," said Arthur, clearing his throat. "I think we've lost Harry Potter."
They split up at that. Molly went with Ron and Percy to search Diagon Alley; Ellie and the twins ventured a few streets over to a place called Vertic Alley; and Arthur ventured off with Ginny to Horizon Alley.
"He could be anywhere," Ellie said impatiently as they searched. "Aren't there Floo Network spots all over the world?"
"Yeah, but if he said the 'alley' part right, he probably wound up somewhere around here," said George. He frowned. "Though it'd be a right shame if he wound up in Knockturn Alley."
It took them nearly an hour to scour Vertic Alley. When they had finally confirmed that Harry wasn't there, they headed back to Diagon Alley, where they stumbled upon Hermione Granger and her Muggle parents.
"Hermione!" Ellie exclaimed, temporarily forgetting about the panic of having lost Harry and running over to hug her friend. "So great to see you!"
Ellie had missed Hermione. She was the only close female friend outside of the Weasleys Ellie had ever had, and they, like her and Harry, had bonded at the end of the previous year. Unlike Ellie and Harry, they had been writing to each other constantly over the summer.
Hermione's face paled when she saw their worried expressions. "What's going on?" she asked. "Where's Harry and Ron?"
Ellie started to launch into the explanation of Harry's disappearance, but didn't get too far into it before a horde of people included Hagrid and a very ashen-faced, confused Harry approached them.
"Landed himself in Knockturn Alley," Hagrid explained to them as everyone rushed over to hug Harry. "Which I reckon is abou' the worst place he coulda wound up."
"We sure are lucky you were there, Hagrid," said Molly, who must have caught up with them somewhere on their way back. Arthur and Ginny were back, too.
"Not to break up the 'we're-glad-Harry's-not-dead' party," said George with a small grin, "but we probably ought to get started on our shopping."
"Looks like there's some sort of commotion over at Flourish and Blotts," said Hermione. "Anyone know what that's about?"
"It's Gilderoy Lockhart," explained Molly with a bit of a swoon. "He's come for a book signing. Let's go and have a look."
They followed Molly over toward Flourish and Blotts while Ellie asked Hermione and the others, "Who's Gilderoy Lockhart?"
"You haven't heard of him?" asked Hermione, sounding genuinely astonished. "Honestly, Ellie! He's only one of the most famous wizards of our time. Smart—handsome—amazing—"
"Bloody hell," muttered Ron.
"Anyway, he's the author of a ton of autobiographical books about his adventures fighting all sorts of dark creatures and monsters. Some of which are required reading for Defense Against the Dark Arts this term."
"All of which, from the looks of it," grumbled Ron as he scanned the reading list for Hogwarts. He glanced at his parents, frowning. "We have enough money for all this?"
"We'll manage," said Arthur firmly as they stepped inside the bookstore.
It was a zoo. The queue to the table where the blond-haired, blue-eyed wizard sat seemed to wind up and down the store at least ten times, and was filled with googley-eyed, female witches who seemed eager to get a glimpse of him. Flashbulbs were even going off in the corners, presumably being taken for the Daily Prophet.
"Harry Potter!" exclaimed Lockhart. He didn't spare the rest of them so much as a glance. "Well, I'll be. Come on over, boy—together you and I are worth the front page."
Without farther warning, Harry was pulled forward and shoved into an uncomfortable-looking hug. Lockhart launched into a boastful speech about his own accomplishments before shoving a stack of free books at Harry and then making a truly shocking announcement: that he was to be the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts.
"Gross," Ellie whispered to the twins. "He's so… blond."
"Are you crazy?" whispered Ginny. "He's so handsome!"
Ellie joined the twins in pretending to gag.
When Harry was finally released from Lockhart's death grip, Molly took his books for signing and shuffled to the back of the line as Arthur went to pick out the books for the rest of the kids.
"Shut up," Harry muttered to Ellie and the twins as he headed for the front door with them.
Before Ellie could point out that they hadn't actually said anything, everyone's least favorite Hogwarts student approached them: Draco Malfoy.
Hey, no Harry Potter story is complete without the Malfoys doing their worst, right? Don't forget to review, lovely readers!
