Pillowcase
Gryffindor won, and Harry was in the hospital wing.
Ginny was lying on the hospital bed next to him, waiting for her broken leg to heal at midnight.
"You didn't miss much, except when Lockhart removed Harry's bone. It's amazing, I've never seen an arm like that before. I wish you could see it too." Luna by the bed was full of fascination.
"There, it's not too late if you wanna see it." Harry on the other side waved something like a rubber glove at her.
Looking at the glove which was swinging left and right, Ginny felt very lucky for jumping down from just the second floor and was alive to witness such a bizarre thing.
"How did you break your bone?" Ron asked her.
"I slipped… from the stairs. Don't tell Percy." Ginny planned to tell them what happened when there're fewer people around them.
There was no chance to do that tonight. After a while, Maddam Pomfrey blasted everyone away and sat in the ward, watching the patients fall asleep before leaving.
In Ginny's dream, something was chasing her. Her surroundings were so foggy that she couldn't see clearly, she could only run forward desperately. She ran and ran, tripped and fell, and hit her head on a lump of something damp and soft.
She opened her eyes and saw a house-elf wearing a rag wiping her forehead with a sponge. The big eyes of the house-elf were teary. He whispered gently:
"Dobby never wanted to kill Harry Potter, never… "
"Dobby… stop," Ginny murmured, "I'm not Harry."
The house-elf widened his eyes and took a closer look, and suddenly slammed himself into the wall.
"Bad Dobby! Bad Dobby! Dobby couldn't even recognize Harry Potter!" Ginny was frightened by his cry, worrying if Madam Profrey might hear them.
"Who called me?" A voice came from the bed by the wall.
"Heard that? He's over there." Ginny felt something was wrong just as she kindly show Dobby the way to Harry, and jumped up to pull Dobby back.
"Harry, Harry, I caught him, he did it! He made the Bludger attack you! It also made me fall from the stairs!"
"What? This is too much!"
"Yeah! It is too much! Ask him!"
Dobby didn't struggle, he cried and Ginny felt a bit guilty for that.
"We haven't done anything yet, why are you crying?" Ginny's voice grew weak as if she was the one who cursed the Buldger.
"Harry Potter came back to school," he whispered miserably. "Dobby warned and warned Harry Potter. Ah sir, why didn't you heed Dobby? Why didn't Harry Potter go back home when he missed the train?"
"You two know each other… " Ginny was confused.
"How did you know I missed the train?" Harry said.
Dobby's lips are trembling.
"You did it!" Ginny threw Dobby onto Harry's bed.
"Indeed yes, sir," said Dobby, nodding his head vigorously, ears flapping. "Dobby hid and watched for Harry Potter and sealed the gateway and Dobby had to iron his hands afterward" - he showed them ten long, bandaged fingers - "but Dobby didn't care, sir, for he thought Harry Potter was safe, and never did Dobby dream that Harry Potter would get to school another way!"
He was rocking backward and forward, shaking his ugly head.
"Dobby was so shocked when he heard Harry Potter was back at Hogwarts, he let his master's dinner burn! Such a flogging Dobby never had, sir… "
Harry slumped back onto his pillows.
"You nearly got Ron and me expelled," he said fiercely. "You'd better get lost before my bones come back, Dobby, or I might strangle you."
Dobby smiled weakly.
"Dobby is used to death threats, sir. Dobby gets them five times a day at home."
"You asked for it this time," Harry's tone was softer, "you wanted to get me expelled, and you made that Bludger try and kill me."
"Not kill you, sir, never kill you!" said Dobby, shocked. "Dobby wants to save Harry Potter's life!"
"Oh! I know," Ginny snapped her fingers. "You belong to a certain sect, and your religion may think that death is a kind of salvation!"
"Dobby… you… " Harry was a little nervous, "that's not true, right?"
"Miss Red-hair!" Dobby cried again, "If Miss Red-hair only knew how frightened Dobby is! Miss Red-hair wouldn't joke about Dobby."
Dobby clenched to Harry's quilt, "If Harry Potter knew what he means to us, to the lowly, the enslaved, we dregs of the magical world! Dobby remembers how it was when He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was at the height of his powers, sir! We house-elves were treated like vermin, sir! Of course, Dobby is still treated like that, sir. But mostly, sir, life has improved for my kind since you triumphed over He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Harry Potter survived, and the Dark Lord's power was broken, and it was a new dawn, sir, and Harry Potter shone like a beacon of hope for those of us who thought the dark days would never end, sir… now, at Hogwarts, terrible things are to happen, are perhaps happening already, and Dobby could not let Harry Potter stay here now the Chamber of Secrets is open once more-"
Dobby froze, horrorstruck, then grabbed Harry's water jug from his bedside table and cracked it over his own head, toppling out of sight. A second later, he crawled back onto the bed, cross-eyed, muttering, "Bad Dobby, very bad Dobby… "
"So there is a Chamber of Secrets?" Harry whispered. "And - did you say it's been opened before?"
"There's something even scarier than the Chamber of Secrets! Mary Sue is coming! And it's inviting you into a huge game!"
This was the second time Ginny heard this word.
"What is Mary Sue?" She's not sure why she didn't ask who is Mary Sue instead.
There were footsteps coming down the passageway outside.
"Dobby can't, Dobby can't, Dobby mustn't tell!" squealed the elf. "Miss Red-hair, would you be so kind to give Dobby back the pillowcase? Dobby doesn't have much to wear… "
"Sure… " Ginny searched her bed, found the pillowcase, and put it on the bedside table, "There."
"Thank you, Miss!" Dobby put the pillowcase on, "Go home, Harry Potter, go home!"
Dobby disappeared with a loud crack.
Ginny quickly went back to her bed and close the curtain.
From the gap, she saw Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall walking in, carrying what looked like a statue.
Listening to their conversation, Ginny found that the Chamber did open again and that there was another victim. That statue was Colin, he came to visit them. He was holding a bunch of grapes.
When the professors left, Ginny took the grapes and ate them with Harry. To live up to Colin's kindness.
