Chapter 3

Most of this chapter was taken from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling, so just want to repeat that I don't own any of this.

I'm also lengthening the chapters best I can, as I'm not good writing long chapters. But since I have so many followers, I'll give it a shot for ya'll.

Thanks for reading and please review!

:)

After almost screaming, Harry pondered what to do with the creature sitting promptly on his bed. It was tiny, and almost reminded him of a hairless Chihuahua except for the tennis-ball-sized, bright green eyes. The Thing bowed, so that its thin, long nose almost touched the carpet. Harry noticed that what it was wearing seemed like a very old and ragged pillowcase with hand-cut holes for the Thing's arms and legs.

From the hallway, Harry could hear Dudley's voice, "May I take your coats, Mr. and Mrs. Mason?"

He stared skeptically at the Thing, and Harry's eyes widened even more (if that's possible) when the most high-pitched voice he had ever heard came out of the Chihuahua.

"Harry Potter!" the Thing exclaimed, and Harry winced, realizing that a voice of that volume would've easily traveled down the stairs. "So long has Dobby wanted to meet you, sir...Such an honor it is..."

"Th-Thank you." By edging along, Harry managed to reach his desk chair which he collapsed in. He wanted to ask 'What are you?' but realizing that was rude, he instead said, "Who are you?"

"Dobby, sir. Just Dobby. Dobby the house-elf," replied the Thing.

"Oh - really?" said Harry. "Er - I don't want to be rude or anything, but - this isn't a great time for me to have a house-elf in my bedroom."

Sounding from the living room, Harry easily heard Aunt Petunia's very fake laugh. Hanging his head, the elf's poise changed as if he had just been shamed.

"Not that I'm not pleased to meet you," Harry apologized quickly, "But, er, is there any particular reason you're here?"

"Oh, yes, sir," Dobby said earnestly. "Dobby has come to tell you, sir ... it is difficult, sir ... Dobby wonders where to begin..."

"Sit down," offered Harry, politely pointing to his bed.

Harry grimaced again, because to his utmost horror, the Thing, Dobby, had just burst into very noisy sobs.

"S-sit down!" wailed the house-elf. "Never...never, ever..."

Downstairs, the voices paused for a few brief seconds. Harry really hoped he had just imagined the falter in the conversation.

"I'm sorry," he said under his breath. "I didn't mean to offend you or anything-"

"Offend Dobby!" choked the Thingy. "Dobby has never been asked to sit down by a wizard - like an equal -"

Trying to say "Shh!" and sound comforting at the same time was difficult as he ushered the now hiccuping Dobby back onto the bed and he sat there having a meltdown, looking extremely like some ugly old doll. Finally he managed to regain control over his emotions, and admiringly gazed at Harry with glistening, watery eyes.

"You can't have met many decent wizards," said a desperate Harry, as he tried to cheer him up.

"Wizards? No, sir Mr. Potter. Dobby has met no wizards. Only demigods."

"Demigods?"

Without a warning, Dobby abruptly rushed to the window and started banging his head furiously on it, while screaming, "Bad Dobby! Bad Dobby!"

Harry hissed, "Don't - what are you doing?!" He sprung up and grabbed the elf by its midsection, dragging Dobby back to the bed. Hedwig had woken up with quite a screech, and starting beating her strong wings on the bars of her cage.

"Dobby had to punish himself, sir," said the now slightly cross-eyed house-elf. "Dobby almost spoke ill of his master, sir..."

"Your master?"

"The royal king I serve, sir ... Dobby is a house-elf - bound to serve one house and one master or family forever..."

"Does he, your master, know you're here?"

With a shudder, Dobby replied, "Oh, no, sir, no ... Dobby will have to punish himself most grievously for coming to see you, sir. Dobby will have to shut his ears in the oven door for this. If he ever knew, sir -"

"But he won't notice if you shut your ears in the oven door?"

"Dobby doubts it, sir. Dobby is always having to punish himself for something, sir. He lets Dobby get on with it, sir. Sometimes he reminds me to do extra punishments..."

"But why don't you leave? Escape?"

"A house-elf must be set free, sir. And the family will ever set Dobby free ... Dobby will serve his master until he dies, sir ..."

Harry gaped. "And I thought I had it bad staying here for another four weeks," he said. "This makes the Dursleys sound almost human. Can't anyone help you? Can't I?"

Once again, Dobby unexpectically broke into grateful tears and wails.

"Please," Harry whispered agitatedly. "Please be quiet. If the Dursleys hear anything, if they know you're here -

"Harry Potter asks if he can help Dobby ... Dobby has heard of your greatness, sir, but of your goodness, Dobby never knew ..."

Desperately trying not to blush, Harry corrected him, "Whatever you've heard about my greatness is a load of rubbish. I'm not even top of my year at Hogwarts; that's Hermione, she-"

"There's something going on up there," muttered the Captain.

"There is a person in his near presence," agreed the thunder god, as he gripped his hammer tightly.

Agent Romanoff raised her gun once again. Steve eyed it, but didn't say anything.

"Who should we send up?" Clint had his hand on an arrow in his quiver.

"No one. Not yet. We need to see who it is first," Stark lowered his face mask.

"Uh...guys?" Banner interrupted.

"Don't suit up," almost all of them replied in unison.

"I don't think we need all of us. Wouldn't want to scare the kid away," Clint spoke his mind.

"Bird Brains has a point, Capsicle," said Tony.

Natasha rolled her eyes. Typical Tony Stark.

"I know, I know. Shut up and lemme think," Steve snapped.

There was a few moments of respectful silence for the matter that Steve was thinking.

"I don't know what we should do until we see the person inside with Harry."

"That is helpful," muttered Thor.

"Therefore we're still stuck in this rather tiny and uncomfortable shrub?"

"Yep."

"Harry Potter is valiant and bold! He has braved so many dangers already! But Dobby has come to protect Harry Potter, to warn him, even if he does have to shut his ears in the oven door later ... Harry Potter must not go back to Hogwarts."

As those words sunk into Harry, the clink of silverware and Uncle Vernon's rumbling voice could be heard distantly from the kitchen.

"W-What?" coughed Harry. "But I've got to go back - term starts on September first. t's all that's keeping me going. You don't know what it's like here. I don't belong here. I belong in Hogwarts."

"No, no, no," squeaked the house-elf. "You do not belong at Hogwarts! You belong on Asg-"

After making a funny choking noise, Dobby began smashing his head repeatedly on the wall.

"All right!" cried Harry, snatching Dobby's arm to stop him. "You can't tell me. I understand. But why are you warning me?" Suddenly, a horrid thought hit him. "Hang on - this hasn't got anything to do with Voldemort, has it? You could just shake or nod."

Dobby's head tilted closer to the wall, but slowly but surely Dobby shook his head. "It is not this wizard you speak of, sir..."

Dobby seemed to be giving Harry a hint, but Harry had absolutely no idea what the Thing was speaking of.

"He hasn't got a brother has he? A squib or something?"

"Harry Potter, Dobby does not know what a 'squib' is. But you cannot return to Hogwarts!"

"Who is it, keeping me from Hogwarts?"

"Your fathe-"

Before Harry had a chance to react, the house-elf was beating himself on the head with Harry's desk lamp and emitting dying-bird sreams.

Downstairs, a sudden silence fell. With his heart beating at a crazy rate, two seconds later he could hear Uncle Vernon's steps in the hall and him calling, "Dudley must have left his television on again, the little tyke!"

"Quick! In the closet!" Harry hissed, forcing Dobby into the darkness then shutting the door quickly. A split-second before Uncle Vernon slammed the door open, Harry flung himself onto the bed.

"What - the - devil - are - you - doing?" Uncle Vernon spat on Harry, his face extremely close. "You just ruined the punch line of my Japanese golfer joke ... One more sound and you'll wish you'd never been born, boy!"

Then Harry's fat, short uncle strided out of the room with quite loud footsteps. Still breathing rather hard, Harry released Dobby from his hiding place in the closet.

There was just one problem, the house-elf was gone.