As I approached the house, I had the feeling that something disgusting was about to happen. Well, I can't be so lucky for so long.
And as soon as I entered the house, this "something" was not long in coming. Aunt Marge.
Oh, Aunt Marge! So many "pleasant" memories! About the times when you didn't stay with us. Actually, she's not my aunt. This huge woman with a mustache and a perpetual dog under her arm is Uncle Vernon's sister. Basically, it was Uncle Vernon. Female only. She hated me even more than all the Dursleys put together. To be honest, I didn't idolize her either. As soon as I stepped into her field of vision, I said
"Vernon, what a mess you're letting that boy do! Coming at a time like this!"
But what if I came in at three in the morning and was drunk? "You should be flogged for such a thing!" Aha! Try it, Aunt Marge, try it…
"What a view it is!" Normal, in my opinion… "I don't understand why you're still coddling him!" Is that what's wrong with me? "He's a juvenile thug!" Yes, but I hid the gun in my sneaker. "If he'd been dropped off at my place, I'd have taken him to a shelter right away!" I would have given myself up there in that case! "Mark my words, he'll rob you and then run away!" Not a bad idea... but she'd forgotten about the mass murder…
"Good evening to you, too, Aunt Marge." I said loudly and happily to the whole living room, smiling from ear to ear, and trying to calm down the desire to beat up this stupid woman. Or better yet, get out a magic wand and… So what? For lack of experience, you really can only put out her eyes.It's not a bad idea, really… The Dursleys stared at me. They probably thought I was crazy. well, no, dear relatives
"I'm very glad to see you," I continued, "but I won't interrupt your conversation." And I went to my room to the accompaniment of shocked stares.
As soon as I entered the room, I closed my eyes and took a few deep breaths.
This usually helps. It's all good. I won't be here tomorrow. I was going to go to this school (yes, I knew I was going to go now) and I wouldn't be here for ten months. Dream… I haven't seen the Dursleys in almost a year… I opened my eyes, turned on the light, and was about to collapse on the couch when I did.…
"Who are you?" I said dazedly. And I thought-or what?
There was a creature sitting on my legal couch. The tiny creature had a slight build, huge eyes the size of tennis balls, and huge ears. All he was wearing was a pillowcase of some sort. Very old and very dirty. When the creature saw me, it jumped down from my couch and gave me a bow. My first thought was that it was a humanoid. Modern people have long been ready to meet a representative of an extraterrestrial civilization to one degree or another. But the aliens didn't seem to be wearing pillowcases, so my second thought was that this creature looked exactly like Gollum. This is how I imagined it. If now he will demand "our precious" from me…
"Harry Potter! "A long time ago Dobby dreamed of meeting the glorious Harry Potter… Such a great honor…
"Who's Dobby?" I didn't understand.
"Dobby. Just Dobby the house elf."
So this is how he expresses himself in the third person… An elf? And where are those beautiful creatures with long hair and pointed ears that Tolkien talked about so much? Well ... the reality was more prosaic.
"Ah... mmmm... very nice to meet you, Dobby. You already know me…"
"Who doesn't know Harry Potter?" The brownie exclaimed rather loudly. And it dawned on me. If he screams like that and the Dursleys see him, my last day with my family will turn into my last day on earth. "Harry Potter defeated You-Know-Who!" "You mean Voldemort?" — I blurted out without thinking — "so I have nothing to do with it, my mother did it." Dobby looked almost faint.
"Harry Potter mustn't say his name out loud!"
He clapped his bony hands over his large ears. "I'm sorry, I won't do it again. He's dead, though. So I don't think he cares." Dobby looked at me with strange respect. He probably thought I was so brave.
"Have a seat, please" I said, gesturing to a stool, "although I must warn you that this is not the best time to receive house-elves…" To my horror, Dobby burst into rather loud sobs.
"Hey! Hey! Without tantrums..."
"Oh! More than... more than one wizard had asked Dobby to sit down… As an equal!"
And he began to sob again. Yeah, I get it. It was a lousy life for this elf.
"I'm sorry, but can you keep your moans down?" I told him, looking back at the door and listening for voices in the living room "if the Dursleys find you here…" Dobby blew his nose in his pillowcase and looked at me. His eyes are creepy, after all. "Good Harry Potter! Dobby has come to protect the glorious Harry Potter…" I found it hard to believe that this creature could protect me from anything. "Protect it from what?" I asked.
"Harry Potter must not go to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry! Only here is he safe!"
"Why shouldn't I?"
I was indignant, having already set up to learn magic "I really should. Dumbledore said so"
I ran the old guy's name on purpose and didn't miss it.
"Yes! Dumbledore is a great wizard " the elf's voice filled with respect," but he doesn't know everything. The glorious Harry Potter is in danger!"
I was getting nervous.
"What is a danger?"
What doesn't Dumbledore know?
"Terrible things are going to happen at Hogwarts!"
The elf said in a dramatic whisper. "There is a conspiracy…"
"Whose plot?"
But then Dobby snapped his mouth shut, spun his ugly head around wildly,and slammed it down on the table. I think sparks flew.
"Bad Dobby," the creature mumbled, " nasty Dobby…"
"Stop! Stop!" I managed to grab him before he completely smashed his head in. "You can't tell."
Dobby nodded and gave me a grateful look.
"But I'm going to Hogwarts anyway." It wasn't my desire to go to a magic school that worked, but pure stubbornness and an eternal sense of contradiction. Don't have to go? And I'll go out of spite! The elf wailed again.
"No, no, no! It's going to be very, very bad, sir!"
"I'll save everyone again!" I tried to joke.
But Dobby took it all at face value and stared at me in awe.
"Harry Potter is brave and selfless!"
I think I blushed.
"And so Dobby will do everything for the good of the glorious Harry Potter!"
And the little brat ran out the door. I honestly didn't understand what he wanted to do. Maybe he wanted to show up in front of the Dursleys in all his glory and scare the hell out of them (well, I don't think that's going to save me). Whether I wanted to explain to them all the danger of the situation in which I found myself, and ask them not to let me go anywhere (well, they are happy to do that). But, in short, how did it happen…
Aunt Marge was the first to see it…And so she screamed! I had no idea that this cow could squeal like a schoolgirl at the sight of a rat. She screamed and scrambled up on the couch. Can you imagine such a picture?Dudley didn't seem to see anything at all, but he immediately took his feet off the floor. Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon caught a glimpse of Dobby, too, but they didn't yell. Only Aunt Petunia's face was white, and Uncle Vernon was red and ready to burst. Dobby realized quickly, and with a snap of his fingers, he was gone.
"Did you see IT?" Aunt Marge squealed in a high falsetto voice. "A terrible, disgusting dwarf!!! He was here!!!
I don't want to brag, but then it literally dawned on me.
What dwarf?" I asked softly and with infinite patience, like a psychiatrist. Aunt Marge was almost shaking.
"Small! Ugly!! With big ears!!!"
I did my best not to burst out laughing in her face right now.
"You must be tired from your journey. Imagining things. I didn't see any dwarf. Have you seen it, Uncle?" I pressed theword" seen" and stared at Uncle Vernon. It was worth it. See. Uncle Vernon seemed to have grown in size, flushed all over, and was apparently choking on his own words. Oh! He'd sell his soul to the devil right now just to disagree with me. But then I'd have to pull the most terrifying skeleton out of the Dursleys ' family closet.
"I... um... um ... didn't see anything, Marge."
"The boy's right," Aunt Petunia said in a chilling voice. "you must be tired from the road."
To soothe her dear sister, my uncle poured her a glass of brandy. And he drank his own in one gulp.
I've already forgotten all about the plot. Angels sang in my soul that night. I was willing to take a deadly risk to get the Dursleys and Aunt Marge to do that!
The next morning, I woke up early and started packing my things in my backpack.As you can imagine, I packed my things with the expectation that I would never return here again. There were not many things and everything fit. Of course, I didn't take any nonsense with me, but I still realized how miserable my life had been in this house. But the memory of being bullied by this family was completely overshadowed by the knowledge that I would never come back here again. Even if Sirius throws me out of his house (which, of course, won't happen). I'll never come back here anyway. And then I finally felt it. Freedom. I never had one, but now I do. Needless to say, I often envied my friends. Pat always had freedom of action, Lou also had financial freedom, and I had neither. I sighed, took one last look around my room, and went out into the living room. The Dursleys were already awake, but Aunt Marge was still asleep. Nervous stress and a bottle of brandy must have made it clear. Uncle Vernon narrowed his already small eyes and stared at me.Apparently, he decided to pay back for yesterday.
Yeah, right now!
"Where do you think you're going, kid?" I allowed myself a smirk.
"My dear relatives, I would like you to know that I am going to visit my godfather, Sirius Black. I'll be staying with him for the rest of the summer. I don't ask your permission, of course, because he is legally my primary guardian." The Dursleys were stunned by the terrible truth. "Then," I continued, " I'm going to Hogwarts… Yes, yes, I can see by your face, Aunt Petunia, that you know what it is.
I'll spend the school year there, and my seventeenth birthday is just around the corner. And according to my law, I become an adult. So I hasten to make you happy. You won't see me again. I'm not coming back here. And I would like to say one last thing to you…" How much I wanted to say to them in the end! And say it! And show it! And explain with gestures! They hated me, despised me, trampled me in the mud, and did everything they could to make my life unbearable. I lived in a closet under the stairs until I was eleven!
I was almost starved to death! I worked for them like Cinderella. Probably, all the resentment, all the hatred for them was read in my eyes and they were silent. And I couldn't say a word. "Good-bye," I finally said softly, and left. I left a home that was never mine.