Chapter 18: A Night in the Hospital Wing

November 7, 1992

Buffy and Dawn sat at Harry's side as Madame Pomfrey administered a potion to mend bones, "I'm keeping you in here all night, Mr. Potter. To make sure that the bones mend properly."

Harry nodded, "Can Bells and Dawn stay with me tonight, please?"

Madame Pomfrey sighed and looked to Dumbledore who nodded, "Yes, Harry, they can," Dumbledore said. "I doubt they would reluctantly leave you anyways. I will have dinner sent up for the three of you."

"Harry, why did you do that? We should have just called off the game," Buffy said after Dumbledore and Madame Pomfrey had left. She saw Dawn nodding in agreement.

Harry sighed, "Sorry Bells, Dawnie. I guess I wasn't thinking at the time."

Ron, Willow, and Hermione entered the room at that moment and made their way over to the trio. "Congrats, mate," said Ron, a grin breaking across his face. "That was some catch you made. Malfoy's face…he looked ready to kill…"

"I want to know how he fixed that Bludger," said Hermione darkly.

"We can add that to the list of questions we'll ask him when we've taken the Polyjuice Potion," said Harry, sinking back onto his pillows. "I hope it tastes better than this stuff…"

"If it's got bits of Slytherins in it? You've got to be joking," said Ron.

Buffy shook her head, "Have we decided who's going? Six Slytherins showing up all at once is going to be suspicious."

Hermione sighed, "Well Harry should go of course. Buffy, maybe you should as well. And maybe myself since I'm brewing the potion?"

Buffy nodded, "Sounds like a plan."

Hours and hours later, Harry woke quite suddenly in the pitch blackness and gave a small yelp of

Pain, his arm still not completely mended. Buffy and Dawn looked up from the beds on either side of him.

Then, with a thrill of horror, they realized that someone was sponging Harry's forehead in the dark.

"Get off!" Harry said loudly, and then, "Dobby!"

The house-elf's goggling tennis ball eyes were peering at Harry through the darkness. A single tear was running down his long, pointed nose.

"The Potter family came back to school," Dobby whispered miserably. "Dobby warned and warned Harry, Isabella and Dawn Potter. Ah why didn't you all heed Dobby? Why didn't Harry, Isabella and Dawn Potter go back home when they missed the train?"

Harry heaved himself up on his pillows and pushed Dobby's sponge away. "What're you doing here?" he said. "And how did you know we missed the train?"

Dobby's lip trembled and Harry was seized by a sudden suspicion.

"It was you!" Dawn said slowly. "You stopped the barrier from letting us through!"

Buffy growled, "You could have gotten us expelled if not for mom being there and her quick thinking."

"Indeed yes," said Dobby, nodding his head vigorously, ears flapping. "Dobby hid and watched for the Potter family and sealed the gateway and Dobby had to iron his hands afterward" — he showed them ten long, bandaged fingers — "but Dobby didn't care for he thought Harry, Isabella and Dawn Potter were safe, and never did Dobby dream that they would get to school another way!"

He was rocking backward and forward, shaking his ugly head. "Dobby was so shocked when he heard Harry, Isabella and Dawn Potter were back at Hogwarts, he let his master's dinner burn! Such a flogging Dobby never had…"

"You nearly got us expelled," Buffy said again.

"You'd better get lost before my bones finish mending, Dobby, or I might strangle you," Harry threatened

Dobby smiled weakly. "Dobby is used to death threats, sir. Dobby gets them five times a day at home." He blew his nose on a corner of the filthy pillowcase he wore.

"Why do you wear that thing, Dobby?" Dawn asked curiously feeling sorry for the house elf..

"This, miss?" said Dobby, plucking at the pillowcase. "'Tis a mark of the house-elf's enslavement, miss. Dobby can only be freed if his masters present him with clothes, miss. The family is careful not to pass Dobby even a sock for then he would be free to leave their house forever." Dobby mopped his bulging eyes and said suddenly, "Harry, Isabella and Dawn Potter must go home! Dobby thought his Bludger would be enough to make —"

"Your Bludger?" said Buffy, her anger rising. "What d'you mean, your Bludger? You made that Bludger try and kill Harry? You better get out of here if you know what's good for you."

"Not kill, miss, never kill!" said Dobby, shocked. "Dobby wants to save Harry, Isabella and Dawn Potter's' lives! Better sent home than remain here, miss! Dobby only wanted Harry Potter hurt enough so the three of you could be sent home!"

"Oh, is that all?" said Harry angrily. "I don't suppose you're going to tell us why you wanted us sent home and me in pieces?"

"Ah, if Harry and Isabella Potter only knew!" Dobby groaned, more tears dripping onto his ragged pillowcase. "If you both knew what you mean 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," he admitted, drying his face on the pillowcase. "But mostly, sir, life has improved for my kind since the Potter Twins triumphed over, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Harry and Isabella Potter survived, and the Dark Lord's power was broken, and it was a new dawn, sir, and Harry and Isabella Potter shone like a beacon of hope for those of us who thought the Dark days would never end, sit…And now, at Hogwarts, terrible things are to happen, are perhaps happening already, and Dobby cannot let Harry, Isabella and Dawn Potter stay here now that history is to repeat itself, now that 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?" Buffy whispered. "And did you say it's been opened before? Tell us, Dobby!" She seized the elf's bony wrist as Dobby's hand inched toward the water jug. "But none of us are Muggle-born — how can we be in danger from the Chamber?"

"Ah, miss, ask no more, ask no more of poor Dobby," stammered the elf, his eyes huge in the dark. "Dark deeds are planned in this place, but Harry, Isabella and Dawn Potter must not be here when they happen — go home, go home. Harry, Isabella and Dawn Potter must not meddle in this. 'Tis too dangerous even for a Slayer!"

"Who is it, Dobby?" Harry said while Buffy kept a firm hold on Dobby's wrist to stop him from hitting himself with the water jug again. "Who's opened it? Who opened it last time?"

"Dobby can't, sir, Dobby can't, Dobby mustn't tell!" squealed the elf. "Go home, go home!"

"We're not going anywhere!" said Harry fiercely. "One of our best friends is Muggle-born; she'll be first in line if the Chamber really has been opened —"

"Harry, Isabella and Dawn Potter risk their own lives for their friends and family!" moaned Dobby in a kind of miserable ecstasy. "So noble! So valiant! But they must save themselves and their family, they must, Harry, Isabella and Dawn Potter must not —"

Dobby suddenly froze, his bat ears quivering. Buffy's Slayer hearing picked it up, too. There were footsteps coming down the passageway outside.

"Dobby must go!" breathed the elf, terrified. There was a loud crack, and Buffy's fist was suddenly clenched on thin air. The three of them slumped back into bed, their eyes on the dark doorway to the hospital wing as the footsteps drew nearer.

Next moment, Dumbledore was backing into the dormitory, wearing a long woolly dressing gown and a nightcap. He was carrying one end of what looked like a statue. Professor McGonagall appeared a second later, carrying its feet. Together, they heaved it onto a bed.

"Get Madam Pomfrey," whispered Dumbledore, and Professor McGonagall hurried past the end of Harry, Buffy and Dawn's beds out of sight. They lay quite still, pretending to be asleep. They heard urgent voices, and then Professor McGonagall swept back into view, closely followed by Madam Pomfrey, who was pulling a cardigan on over her nightdress. They heard a sharp intake of breath.

"What happened?" Madam Pomfrey whispered to Dumbledore, bending over the statue on the bed.

"Another attack," said Dumbledore. "Minerva found him on the stairs."

"There was a bunch of grapes next to him," said Professor McGonagall. "We think he was trying to sneak up here to visit the Potters and Miss Summers."

Buffy frowned as she looked at Harry. She then slowly got out of bed and walked over to the professors. She saw Colin Creevey lying on the bed. His eyes were wide and his hands were stuck up in front of him, holding his camera.

"Petrified?" whispered Madam Pomfrey.

"Yes," said Professor McGonagall. "But I shudder to think …If Albus hadn't been on the way downstairs for hot chocolate — who knows what might have —"

"Ms. Potter?" said Dumbledore having spotted Buffy beside him.

"I'm a Slayer, remember, Professor," said Buffy. "I had to see for myself."

"I understand," he said. "That said I must ask that you not go looking for ever is doing this."

"I understand," said Buffy.

Then Dumbledore leaned forward and wrenched the camera out of Colin's rigid grip.

"You don't think he managed to get a picture of his attacker?" said Professor McGonagall eagerly.

Dumbledore didn't answer. He opened the back of the camera.

"Good gracious!" said Madam Pomfrey.

A jet of steam had hissed out of the camera. Buffy, two beds away, caught the acrid smell of burnt plastic. "Melted," said Madam Pomfrey wonderingly. "All melted…"

"What does this mean, Albus?" Professor McGonagall asked urgently.

"It means," said Dumbledore, "that the Chamber of Secrets is indeed open again."

Madam Pomfrey clapped a hand to her mouth. Professor McGonagall stared at Dumbledore.

"But, Albus…surely…who?"

"The question is not who," said Dumbledore, his eyes on Colin. "The question is, how…"

November 8, 1992

Buffy woke to find the hospital dormitory blazing with winter sunlight. She sat up quickly and looked over at Colin's bed, but it had been blocked from view by high curtains. Seeing that Buffy as well as Harry and Dawn were awake, Madam Pomfrey came bustling over with a breakfast tray with three plates of food and then began bending and stretching Harry's arm and fingers.

"All in order," she said as Harry clumsily fed himself porridge left-handed.

"When you've finished eating, all three of you may leave."

"I think I better go see Giles about this," Buffy said when Madam Pomfrey had walked away. "I would then ask to see if Dumbledore would let me patrol. But given what he said last night I don't think he would. So I may use my necklace and do it invisibly."

Harry nodded, "Be careful, Bells… please."

Buffy smiled, "You know I think I should get mom to change my name to Bells since you call me that so much anyways."

Harry and Dawn laughed.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Meanwhile in the Gryffindor common room Voldemort smiled. Everything was going to plan. Ginny Weasley would eventually be dead so that he may live. He would have his body back and would be out of this teenage girl. He glanced at a nearby mirror as Willow Weasley's reflection looked back at him.