Chapter 21 – Dobby and Bobby

Harry had never seen the Great Hall in darkness, and he cautiously took a step backwards, until suddenly the lights flared on and the ceiling cleared and everyone shouted, “HAPPY BIRTHDAY”. Harry glanced questioningly at Severus, who only shrugged, and entered the Great Hall. Why didn’t he say anything? Whose birthday was it? When he was supposed to attend a birthday party, they could at least tell him for whom the party was. Silently Harry slipped into the free seat next between Severus and Lily. Suddenly he noticed that everyone was glaring at him and felt very uncomfortable. What were they expecting him to do or say?

He whispered to Severus, “Sev, I still don’t feel well, I go back to bed”, but Severus gripped his arm and threw a piercing glance at his friend.

“Harry, do you know whose birthday it is?”

Harry shook his head and said, “No, I’m sorry to whoever it is, but I can’t eat right now and…”

“Harry,” his Grandmother who was sitting just opposite Harry, interrupted him, “it’s your birthday, dear, and you are 17 today!”

Harry couldn’t help but glare at her with his mouth open. He had completely forgotten his own birthday. Not that it mattered, but…So he could spend his birthday together with his parents and friends. ‘Cool’ he thought, ‘I’m 17, but it’s my second birthday together with my parents.’

“Now Harry,” his Grandfather interrupted his thoughts, “you have at least to blow out the candles and eat a piece of your birthday cake!” He waved his hand over the large birthday cake that Harry hadn’t even noticed beforehand, and the 17 candles on the cake lit.”

-----

After breakfast, Harry was guided to a table full with presents. The best present was from his Grandfather, who showed him a book in a dark green cover, which was decorated with small twinkling stars. The title said,

‘The diary of Salazar Slytherin translated and edited by Harry Pane’.

“Flourish and Blotts agreed to print it for me with a first print run of 250 copies. Your name on the cover is charmed – whenever you are known under a different name, the name will adjust itself accordingly. I have got twenty complementary copies and would like to ask you for one for the library and one for my office; the other eighteen copies are for you to keep or give to your friends or whatever you want to do with them.”

Harry was stunned but managed to say, “Grandfather, that’s the best birthday present I’ve ever received! Thank you very much.”

From his Grandmother he received the complete school books for his 7th year, James gave him a subscription to ‘Quidditch Monthly’ for 17 months, and in the package from Sirius Harry found a big box Bertie Botts every flavoured beans. As usual Remus gave him Chocolate Frogs, and from Severus, Lily and Pomfrey he received books; ‘Master Potion Makers Through the Ages’ from Severus, ‘Everyday Charms for Everyday Uses’ from Lily and ‘Emergency Healing Potions for Witches and Wizards’ from Pomfrey. When he had finished to open his presents and had thanked everyone, Hagrid, who had in the meanwhile returned to the castle, went over to Harry and handed him a small wooden box with holes on both sides. ‘Oh, what can that be? These holes are quite suspicious,’ he thought and carefully lifted the lid of the box. Inside he found … “a bird?” he asked cautiously.

“Yes Harry”, Hagrid beamed, “It’s an owl chick, and his name is Cyclops.”

“Wow, Hagrid, thanks a lot. That’s exactly what I needed, but he is still a baby, isn’t he? How old is he? Can you teach me how to care for him? How long will it take until he’ll be able to carry letters for me?”

“Of course I help you Harry, come down to my hut after lunch, and you’ll get a lesson on baby owls.” Harry quickly changed into Icicle and tried to talk to the little owl.

#Hello little one, can you understand me?#

#Yes, large feathered one, who are you?#

#I’m Harry, your human, but I can change into this phoenix, then I’m called Icicle and I can talk to you.#

#That’s nice.#

#Hagrid will show me how to care for you, and then I’m sure we will get along very well.#

#Alright, but now I’m sleepy.#

#Very well, Cyclops, and I have to change back# he said, transformed back into his human form and noticed that everyone looked at him in awe.

-----

After lunch, Harry picked Cyclops up and took him down to Hagrid for his owl lesson. Hagrid told him a lot about caring for a baby owl but then proposed Harry should leave Cyclops at Hagrid’s place until he would be big enough to stay in the Owlery. According to Hagrid, it should only take about six weeks, but as Harry had to stay in the Hospital Wing where he couldn’t have his owl staying with him, it seemed to be the best solution and Harry agreed quite relieved. When Harry stepped out of Hagrid’s hut, he noticed a new enclosure right of the entrance door to the hut.

“What’s this for?” he asked suspiciously.

Hagrid grinned and said, “for my new dragon. She is beautiful, isn’t she?”

Harry’s face fell and he inquired, “You don’t intend to keep this dragon here at Hogwarts, do you?”

“Oh yes, of course, she’ll be fine here Harry,” Hagrid beamed.

“Um… Ah… Em… I mean, um… does Dumbledore know about this?”

“No Harry, I haven’t yet talked to him, but I know I should tell him. I’ll talk to him soon.”

When Harry came up to the school, his friends were already waiting at the Quidditch pitch. Severus had even brought his broom as well as robes for him to change. Harry ended the first two games in 5 and 10 minutes, but at the third game, he just couldn’t see the Snitch. Fortunately or unfortunately, James couldn’t either, so the game lasted for about two hours. After they had taken a shower and changed, it was already time for dinner. Dinner itself was a funny affair. Although Harry was more tired than hungry, he really could enjoy dinner, because James and Sirius seemed to have had nothing to do during their holidays than to think about pranks for Harry’s birthday dinner. They managed to change the teachers’ clothes, their hair colour, the colour of everything they had on their plates etc. In the end, everyone was laughing instead of eating.

-----

The next day, they were allowed to make a trip to Diagon Alley to buy their school supplies for the next school year. Harry was so happy – to be able to go with his friends, without any adults – it was just great! As much as he loved his grandparents, sometimes it was good just to be with his friends. They went to Madam Malkins first to get everything made until they returned to Hogwarts in time for lunch, which Professor McGonagall had insisted on. Afterwards they went to the Apothecary and Flourish & Blotts, but as Harry already had his 7th year’s books, he spent the time walking up and down Diagon Alley. Suddenly he saw a small figure sitting at the corner to a side street drinking beer – it looked like a very young house elf. It was such a strange sight that he curiously went nearer to take a better look at the scene. But… somehow he knew this face…

“Dobby?” he asked cautiously, and the little elf jump onto his feet.

“Sir? Who are you? Why do you know Dobby?”

Harry laughed at the elf and whispered to him, “Dobby, you are not allowed to tell anybody about what I tell you now, alright?” Dobby nodded eagerly, and Harry continued. “I am Harry, and I came from twenty years in the future. I know you from the future, because I freed you from the Malfoys, and you came to Hogwarts to work there. You are a good friend of mine in the future. What are you doing here, and why are you drinking beer?”

Dobby sighed. “You are Harry Pane! You killed the evils! Thank you very much. But, when the Malfoys died, Malfoy manor became a ward of the Ministry of Magic, and we were all freed. But as we have not yet found another family, Bobby, my little brother, and I are living here in the street.”

Harry gasped. “Dobby, would you like to come to Hogwarts with me? As my great grandfather, Professor Dumbledore, hired you in the future, he will probably do the same now. Where is your brother?”

Dobby looked around and pointed a finger at the other side of the street.

“He is still small; he is only two years old, so I cannot go anywhere without him; I have to take care of him.”

Harry smiled and said, “I’m sure this won’t be a problem. I have to meet my friends now, but you can come with me, and when we take the floo back, you can just apparate in front of the Hogwarts gate, and I will meet you and take you to the Headmaster’s Office. How is that?”

Dobby nodded eagerly and called his brother to follow them. Harry introduced Dobby and Bobby to his friends and informed them of his plan.

“I don’t know if Dumbledore will take on any new house elves, but as there are so many at Hogwarts, I don’t think it will hurt to have two more,” James said calmingly, as they all pitied the poor, small house elves.

Half an hour later, Harry accompanied Dobby and Bobby to Dumbledore’s office and introduced them properly. Albus smiled at his grandson and said,

“If I can take them in after 16 years, I can take them in now, right Harry? Especially as it is your ‘fault’, that they need it now.”

Turning to Dobby he said, “Dobby, Harry will be born yesterday in three years time. I don’t know yet, if he will grow up at Hogwarts, but at least he will return here to attend Hogwarts, when he is eleven. Anyway, I would like you to keep an eye on Harry and to take good care of him, whenever his parents or Minerva and I are unavailable. Do you think you could manage this?”

Dobby nodded eagerly and replied, “Yes, of course, Professor Dumbledore sir. Dobby will always watch over Master Harry.”

“Thank you Dobby. Twinkle!” With a pop Twinkle appeared. “Twinkle, these are Dobby and Bobby; could you please take care of them; they will belong to the Hogwarts elves from now on. Thank you.”

Harry promised Dobby to visit him in the kitchen and left the office to head down to dinner.

-----

A week later, it was the night of the full moon and Harry was determined to accompany his friends to the forest again. As the last time he pretended to be fast asleep, so that Pomfrey would go into her private chambers for the night. He still waited for about half an hour after she had left and flashed into the forest, where the others were running around and having fun. And he sat on a branch stunned. He couldn’t believe his eyes: Remus had already managed it – a cute light brown bear was running around! Harry trilled a very happy melody for his even happier friend.

Suddenly Lily flew over to the branch Icicle was sitting on. #Shall we go for a little flight?# she asked and Icicle happily agreed and started to fly in the direction of Hogsmeade, making sure Lily was following and waiting for her to catch up. They flew around for nearly two hours before they returned to their friends who were still running around in the forest. Suddenly Harry heard a howl and looked questioningly at Lily, who only shrugged and looked around.

Two minutes later James came running and said urgently, “Sirius has hurt one of his legs. What are we going to do?”

Harry changed back into his human form immediately and ran after James over to Sirius.

“Sirius, can you change back into your human form?” he asked excitedly.

Sirius groaned but changed back, and they could see a large cut on his left arm. Harry took Sirius’ left arm with both hands without thinking, closed his eyes and thought about just letting his magic flow in the direction of Sirius’ arm to heal it. After a few minutes, he could hear someone say, “It’s enough Harry, stop it now, and let his arm loose.”

He could only think ‘stop what?’, before he blinked and saw that he was still holding Sirius’ arm, which in the meanwhile had completely healed. He let the arm loose and let himself fall back into the grass.

“Harry, are you alright?”

He recognized Lily’s voice and nodded.

“Harry, how did you do that? This was Severus’ voice, and he shrugged. He didn’t know either, he had just made it happen, but now he was knackered.

“Flash…back…night,” he managed to mumble before he changed and flashed back immediately.

-----

When Pomfrey checked on him later in the morning, she noticed that his magic level was very low. ‘What can have happened during the night? It was the full moon, but as Remus isn’t a werewolf any more they don’t have to go out, do they? Moreover, he was asleep, when I checked on him before went to bed. I have to ask Severus, if anybody knows then it is him,’ she thought and turned to Harry, but he was already asleep again.

An hour later, Severus came to collect Harry for breakfast. “Severus, please tell me what happened during the night.”

‘Oops, I don’t know what Harry told her’ he thought and asked innocently, “What do you mean?”

She gave him an annoyed glare. “Don’t give me that please. Your friend is nearly in a coma, while his magic is almost completely depleted. What has happened? This is not funny!”

Severus sighed. “Remus still couldn’t believe that he is not a werewolf anymore, so we had to take him out into the forest. You know that is also the reason why Dumbledore is letting all our friends stay over the full moon.”

“Yes, I know that, but that should have nothing to do with Harry who is staying in the Hospital Wing overnight, because he is still not completely recovered.”

“Ah but he wanted to be included in this happy event you see. He flashed there and enjoyed it very much, and so far, he was okay, otherwise I would have sent him back immediately, but then Sirius in his dog form hurt his arm and Harry gripped his arm and healed it with his own magic. We couldn’t do anything about it, he suddenly gripped Sirius’ arm with both hands and seemed to send magic over to Sirius’ arm to heal it… and succeeded.”

Pomfrey nearly choked with surprise and raised an eyebrow. “This would mean that Harry is a natural healer. I cannot really believe it, because natural healers are very rare. We have to talk to the Headmaster about it. When you go down to breakfast now, please ask the Headmaster and Mr. Black to come to see me after breakfast.”

Unfortunately, they could not clear everything up before the Marauders had to go home, because they couldn’t talk to Harry who stayed fast asleep for three days.

-----

When he was deemed fit again, there were only three weeks of holidays left. Harry was very glad that he had used his time in the Hospital Wing and had already finished his catching up on all lessons and the most of his summer assignments. During the last three weeks, Harry and Severus were very busy. Severus had still to brew several Potions he had promised Pomfrey, who just didn’t seem to get along well with Slughorn. Harry had to finish his summer assignments and wanted to search for useful charms for the map and both of them wanted to explore the Chamber a little more, remove more Potion ingredients, read some more books and use the Potions lab.

Moreover, on top of all this Dumbledore had decided to give Harry and Severus apparition lessons, so that they could get their license just before the end of the holidays.

On the last day before the other students were supposed to come back, Dumbledore took Harry and Severus to take their apparition tests. They floo-ed over to the ministry and after the tests went to Diagon Alley for an ice cream. When they were sitting at Fortescue’s ice cream parlour, Dumbledore seemed pensive for a moment before he spoke up.

“Harry and Severus, I have something to discuss with you, and to put it briefly, both of you will not return to your dormitories tomorrow.”