Dobby's Friend

DISCLAIMER! This Harry Potter story was written for fun. All rights belong to the wonderful lady (JK Rowling) who gave the world Harry Potter to read and enjoy. Looking forward to the next movie!

When he is freed by Harry Potter, Dobby becomes the house elf of the boy-who-lived. With permission and assistance from the grateful Hogwarts house elves, the determined Dobby takes steps to ensure his wizard is safe and able to recover from years of neglect by every adult in his life. And the adults have to pay the price for abuse and neglect.

CHAPTER 05: 5 July Unspeakables Part 2

It was two days before Harry paid attention to the Daily Prophet again. The headline was about the attempt by Acting Minister Umbridge to arrest the whole of the Wizengamot at the beginning of the meeting. Grand Warlock Dumbledore snickered at the furious witch when the Aurors arrested the witch. Despite Dumbledore's recommendation of Eliphaz Doge as Minister for Magic, a little-known undersecretary, Martha Hodges, was elected as minister for the remainder of Fudge's term (five years).

Umbridge was questioned using the truth potion, and DMLE Director Amelia Bones scheduled the woman for trial the next day. However, tension remained high across all departments of the ministry, and it was better not to appear in the Atrium.

Edward Tonks and two other Unspeakables apparated out of the Department of Mysteries in their regular clothes to meet with the boy-who-lived in a private room at Gringotts. The two wizards and one witch talked quietly with the young wizard under the gaze of two goblins guards, and three older goblin magic users.

With permission, Edward Tonks cast multiple spells on the famous scar. The parchment created was shared with the goblins but not shown to the young wizard who frowned. After fifteen minutes, Harry asked, "What are you finding?"

Glenda Marchbanks waved away the question, "It's not something you cannot understand."

Mr Tonks frowned to hear the dismissal and watched the boy's reaction. When Tonks turned back to Harry with his wand, Potter said, "Then you can just stop! You're not telling me what's going on, this is over!"

"Are you serious?" asked the second wizard. "This is too important to not investigate."

"Not if you're not going to share information with me…the guy you're investigating."

Standing up, the witch growled, "Someone tell this half-blood boy that he has to do what the purebloods…what the adults him!"

Edward Tonks frowned but remained silent when Marchbanks lost her temper and popped her wand out of a wand holder on her wrist. She moved to point her wand at the boy and the goblins reacted. The blade of one of the spears slashed through the wooden wand and the witch shouted abuse at the goblins.

But then, everyone in the room stepped back when the witch burst into flames that consumed her in less than ten seconds. Ashes fell to the floor of the room, leaving Tonks and the other wizard speechless.

"What did you do?" the other wizard demanded of the goblins. "How did you do that?"

The goblin magic user growled, "Wizard, the witch drew her wand inside Gringotts. She paid the price for losing her temper – and losing her temper with a child!"

"Leave," declared Sharptooth. "You will leave Gringotts now!"

"But who will watch over the boy when your curse breakers examine the scar?" asked Edward Tonks.

"People who will share information with him and not keep him in the dark!" replied one goblin.

"Bah!" the second wizard said as he stormed out of the private room and stomped back to the lobby and left through the front door. In Diagon Alley, he apparated away, leaving most of the hair on his head behind. A goblin guard summoned the hair and hurried back inside the bank.

Edward Tonks frowned and explained, "I knew I should have insisted on half-bloods instead of allowing purebloods to come with me this morning."

Harry stared at the ashes and asked, "How did that happen?"

The goblins refused to say anything, and Edward Tonks explained, "There's a law inside Gringotts that says no wizard can draw his or her wand to cast spell…without permission. Brenda Marchbanks drew her wand and prepared to cast a spell at you, Mr Potter. The first guard cut her wand in half and then…"

Harry added, "She burned to ashes so fast I didn't really see what happened."

"Spontaneous combustion!" declared one of the goblin magic users. "Yes, that is what happened…or what we will tell everyone. The magic protecting the bank caused the witch who drew her wand to spontaneously burst into flames."

"Again, you must leave, Tonks. There will certainly be meetings in your mysterious offices where no one speaks this afternoon," Sharptooth insisted. "My client will be safe, and we will not share our conclusions with you."

"I understand," the wizard said as he walked away from the bank.

"You need to go to work with the goblins, Mr Tonks," Harry called after the man. "They follow the rules."

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5 July Souls and Bindings

In a chamber deep underneath Gringotts, the goblin curse breakers gathered around Harry Potter and cast a great many spells that activated runes drawn in the floor and on the walls, created shields around the boy and sealed off the only doorway out of the room. Other magic users cast spells to create sticky nets to capture the spirit if it escaped from the ritual they would conduct.

Sharptooth was present even though he was not an active curse breaker. He helped position his client in a comfortable chair in the centre of the ritual circle and then moved to sit in a second chair within a second, protective circle.

"While we wait for the others to start, can I ask you about the fire in my office?" asked Sharptooth.

Cautiously, Harry asked, "What about it?"

"Have you ever seen anything like that before? Someone burning away?"

Glancing around before answering, Harry explained about Professor Quirrell burning away at the end of the young wizard's first year at Hogwarts. He told the tale of the Sorcerer's Stone, the protections that weren't very protective, and how in the final confrontation with the possessed professor, Harry's touch had caused the wizard to burn away.

"Do you need to see that memory?" the young wizard asked.

"No, thank you just the same," Sharptooth replied. "That explains why Quirinus Quirrell never reappeared here at the bank. We anticipated a glorious battle to take him into custody for breaking into and attempting to steal from the bank."

The curse breakers were busy with quiet chants and Harry felt sleepy as Sharptooth continued, "I believe some other magic was protecting you today in that room. It wasn't the strong magic that rides on top of your magical core but…"

Harry fell asleep before the ritual began to pull the dark magic and soul from the curse scar on his forehead. When he awoke sometime later, the goblins were silent and gathered around a glass tank where a toad continued hopping against the glass walls and trying to climb out.

Sharptooth left the watchers and returned to Harry's side. He asked, "How are you feeling?"

"Good! My eyes are blurry," Harry said before he removed his glasses. He exclaimed, "Hey, I can see fine without my glasses!"

The goblin used his knife to cast a spell on the boy's glasses and said, "A new advantage to hide, Mr Potter. I suggest you let everyone think that you still need glasses. An enemy will declare themselves by trying to take your glasses to leave you blind."

"But…"

Nodding toward the glasses in Harry's hand, Sharptooth said, "I transfigured the lenses to be simple, impervious glass. They will not impede your sight."

"Thanks!" Harry replied. Then he asked, "Did you get the magic out?"

"We did and it appears to be a partial…a sliver of the soul of the dark wizard who called himself Lord Voldemort."

"A piece of his soul? How could that work?"

"Remember the diary in the Chamber of Secrets with the 'memory' of Tom Riddle? That's how it works," Sharptooth said. "Though I can't imagine how many more wizards in Britain have done this if there are two already around."

Harry frowned and explained, "Remember Tom Riddle is Lord Voldemort."

"What do you mean?"

"Remember in the Chamber of Secrets, Tom Riddle told me he was Lord Voldemort's past. He did a trick to display his full name and rearranged the letters to be 'I am Lord Voldemort,' to try and scare me."

"Why hasn't anyone told us this before?" Sharptooth said. "A wizard can't just change his name because he wants to! There is too much magic involved with the true name! "

"So, this helps you how?"

"Mr Potter, if this Tom Riddle is Lord Voldemort, we'll hit him hard with curses beginning tonight," Sharptooth said. "Now, let's check that memory again and show the curse breakers. If I can use a human expression, the possessed toad will 'be toast' before too long."

The curse breakers were most interested in the Thomas Marvolo Riddle rearrangement of the letters to be 'I am Lord Voldemort.' They insisted for a ritual to work against the dark lord, the wizards and witches (or goblin curse breakers) had to use that full name – 'I am Lord Voldemort.'

Harry listened to them talking for a while and then asked, "Say, is the headmaster's name Albus Percival-something-something Dumbledore? Or is his name just Albus Percival Dumbledore like a regular person?"

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6 July Consequences of Gringotts Visit

Saul Croaker (#23 Head Unspeakable), Edward Tonks (#87 Unspeakable) and Heathen Sledger (#68 Unspeakable), argued long into the night about the 'attack' by the goblins on Brenda Marchbanks (#45 Unspeakable). News was sent to her husband that she'd died in an unfortunate accident in the Department of Mysteries and while #68 demanded retribution against the goblins, #23 questioned the validity of such an action.

"#45 knew the laws inside Gringotts," #87 argued.

"Her mother-in-law is a force to be reckoned with in the Ministry," insisted #68. "If Griselda Marchbanks asks questions in the Wizengamot, even Dumbledore will pay attention."

Waving away the problem, #23 reminded them, "Dumbledore leaves for his annual visit to the ICW, and then for vacation somewhere too warm for persons with sensible minds. He never returns before the middle of August after Minerva McGonagall does all the work to prepare for a new school year."

#68 frowned but nodded and walked away. #23 whispered, "He is still pissed off. When I bring in #94, he'll be more unhappy."

"Another half-blood?"

"Worse, another muggleborn," Croaker explained. "The witch has the power to put every pureblood in our organization in the shade."

Tonks looked thoughtful before he said, "I think he'll also try to mess up Potter's quiet situation at the Leaky Cauldron."

"Aurors and the headmaster?"

"Yeah" #68 replied with some resignation.

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6 July Snape Gets Hot!

However, the DMLE was not paying attention to the wizard's report of the Boy-Who-Lived being loose in Diagon Alley. Something horrible had occurred at Hogwarts that afternoon – the potions professor had burst into flames and burned away to cinders in just seconds. Severus Snape walked into the Great Hall for lunch with the other professors who remained at the castle in early July and burned away before Dumbledore could cast any spells.

With this latest mysterious death at Hogwarts, none of headmaster's spies in the ministry told him about Harry Potter being unprotected in Diagon Alley for over a week.

The Department of Mysteries did not reveal the similar occurrence from inside Gringotts but did send several Unspeakables to examine the cinders and memories of McGonagall, Pomphrey, and Burbage. Dumbledore demurred from sharing his memory and the DMLE and Unspeakables didn't press the old wizard.

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7 July Hot Headlines

The Daily Prophet carried the story on the front page but the wizarding pictures of the professor burning up were located on the interior pages where only adults could open the pages. Harry had seen the witch burn up, so he had no desire to see Snape burn away.

In Ottery Saint Catch Pole, George and Fred Weasley purchased several copies of the paper and spent the afternoon figuring out a way to open the pages. They discovered that cutting the page along the spine with a knife without using any magic allowed them to open and see the hated potions professor ignite and burn away screaming. The wizard had suffered terribly for a few moments and the photograph taken from someone's memory, would haunt the memories of wizards and witches for many years.

Ron Weasley stole the newspaper from the twins, watched the photo a dozen times before he was caught by his mother.

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