(CoS) CHAPTER SIXTEEN: Dobby and Creevey

Ellie stayed on the Quidditch field for almost two hours—until the sun had gone down and she was absolutely certain that the last of the stragglers were gone and she could leave in peace. Only then did she go to the hospital wing to see Harry.

"Tell me," he said groggily when she took a seat next to him. "Was I delusional from pain, or did I see Oliver Wood snog you in the middle of the field?"

She laughed. "Sadly, you weren't delusional."

He let out a long, low whistle at that. "Poor Dean. I expect it's over, then? Between you two?"

She nodded.

"Well, I'm sorry." He hesitated for a moment, then added a bit nervously, "Probably not my place to say, but I never thought he was quite right for you, anyway."

She blinked, caught quite off guard by his honesty. She considered asking him who he thought was right for her, then decided she'd had quite enough of talking about boys. "How are you feeling?" she asked instead.

"Oh, I've felt better. Apparently it would have been nice and easy to mend the initial problem, but this…" He gestured next to him to the bottle of Skele-Gro on the bedside table. "Little more painful."

She cringed. "I'm sorry, Harry. Lockhart's a moron. I can't believe they let him teach."

He laughed. "It's okay. I just can't wait for this night to be over."

"Do you have any idea who would have bewitched that Bludger? I mean, I know the Slytherins are foul players, but…"

Before Harry could answer her, a pop sounded from next to them, and a small, shabby creature with big, glassy eyes that Ellie vaguely recognized as a house elf appeared on Harry's bed.

"Dobby!" Harry nearly shouted, sitting up straighter in his bed. "What are you doing here?"

Ellie remembered Harry having told her about Dobby before. He was the house elf who had come to Harry's aunt and uncle's house that summer, warning Harry not to come to Hogwarts that year. He was the reason they had put bars on Harry's windows.

Dobby glanced cautiously at Ellie, then, seeming to decide she was trustworthy, back to Harry. "Harry Potter, sir. Dobby is so very sorry for what happened to you."

"It's fine, Dobby—it's not your fault—only, what are you doing here?"

"Oh, but it is Dobby's fault!" wailed Dobby. Ellie glanced around, fearing that someone might hear, but the hospital wing was empty. "It is, and there's no turning back, and Harry Potter is not safe here—you must go home, sir!"

Harry glanced at Ellie as if hoping she might give him some clue of what to say. She was a little busy processing the "it is Dobby's fault" part to help.

"Hogwarts is unsafe enough as it is," Dobby continued, "and that's without Bludgers attacking you, Harry Potter! Dobby thought that, if Harry Potter was injured, then—"

"Hang on," Harry interrupted. "Are you saying what I think you're saying?"

Dobby's huge, walnut eyes watered with tears, and he nodded, then proceeded to grab Harry's bottle of Skele-Gro and bash it repeatedly against his own head.

Harry snatched the Skele-Gro back, returned it to the table, then grabbed Dobby by the grimy, tattered shirt and asked in a lower voice, "At the beginning of term, at the platform—was it you who closed the barrier?"

Again, Dobby nodded. This time, he burst into a fit of sobs.

"Shut up!" Ellie and Harry both shouted, not wanting Madam Pomfrey to hear him and rush in.

"Dobby," said Harry. "Why are you so against me being here?"

"B… b… because!" stammered Dobby. "The Chamber of Secrets, sir! It's been opened, and Harry Potter isn't safe!"

Ellie and Harry both straightened at that. "Dobby," said Ellie. "What do you know about the Chamber of Secrets?"

But Dobby only shook his head. "Dobby has said too much already. The important thing is that Harry Potter leaves this place."

But before either of them could answer him, they heard voices coming toward the entrance to the wing. With a sudden pop, Dobby disappeared. Ellie glanced at Harry, panicked, before diving under his bed.

"Another one," Madam Pomfrey said as she entered the hospital wing with Dumbledore, McGonagall, and a floating stretcher. "This isn't looking good, Headmaster."

"Thankfully only a petrification again," said McGonagall.

"Thankfully," agreed Dumbledore.

Ellie scanned the stretcher carefully as they lifted its tenant out of it and onto a hospital bed. It was Colin Creevey, she realized—the first year boy who had something of an obsession with Harry and was always trying to take pictures of him. He even had his camera out now, frozen against his face.

"Perhaps he managed to take a picture of his attacker?" asked McGonagall, seeming to notice the camera at the same time as Ellie.

But it was no use; as soon as they pulled out the roll of film, it smoked and burst.

"These attacks, Headmaster," Madam Pomfrey said to Dumbledore as she bustled about the edge of the wing. "Do they mean it's true—what they've been saying about the Chamber?"

"Oh, yes," said Dumbledore with a reluctant tone. "The Chamber of Secrets has indeed been opened—again."


When Ellie finally made it back to the common room that night, she was pleased to see that the twins were still up, waiting for her.

"'Bout time," said Fred as they both rose to their feet.

"We saw you were at the hospital wing, so we figured you were with Harry," explained George.

"But you really took your sweet time about it, didn't you?" added Fred with a scowl.

"Well, there are several reasons for that," she said, glancing carefully around the common room to ensure that they were alone. Once she did, she joined them on the couch and launched into the full explanation of Dobby's visit and Colin Creevey's subsequent petrification.

"Again?" George repeated when she was finished. "Meaning… it's been opened before?"

"That seems to be the only explanation," she said grimly. "But surely we'd have known about it, right? Read about it in the books?"

"I hate to say it," said George, "but maybe we should do more reading."

"That's not the only piece of history we need to learn more about," Fred pointed out, glancing pointedly at Ellie. "Maybe we should take a trip to the library tomorrow."

"Which brings us to the most important question of the day," announced George. "Will your little git of a boyfriend find some excuse to follow you to the library like usual, Ellie, or have you finally come to your senses on that one?"

Ellie groaned, covering her face with her hands. "He's not a git, George."

Neither of them said anything. They were waiting for her to answer the question, she knew. She lowered her hand and peered at Fred, who was quite literally on the edge of his seat with anticipation.

"And he's not my boyfriend anymore," she finally grumbled.

But as the twins burst into cheers on either side of her, she couldn't quite manage to keep the scowl from turning back to a grin.


It's nice to see Ellie back to her roots, isn't it? The twins definitely love her the most, even if they have a funny way of showing it sometimes, and Harry is a close second to them. Drop a review if you're enjoying the story!