'You shall not touch Harry Potter. You shall go now.'

Lucius Malfoy had no choice. With a last, incensed stare at the pair of them, he swung his cloak around him and hurried out of sight.

'Harry Potter freed Dobby!' said the elf shrilly, gazing up at Harry, moonlight from the nearest window reflected in his orb-like eyes. 'Harry Potter set Dobby free!'

'Least I could do, Dobby,' said Harry, grinning. 'Just promise never to try and save my life again.'

The elf's ugly brown face split suddenly into a wide, toothy smile.

'I've just got one question, Dobby,' said Harry, as Dobby pulled on Harry's sock with shaking hands. 'You told me all this had nothing to do with He Who Must Not Be Named, remember? Well –'

'It was a clue, sir,' said Dobby, his eyes widening, as though this was obvious. 'Dobby was giving you a clue. The Dark Lord, before he changed his name, could be freely named, you see?'

'Right,' said Harry weakly. 'Well, I'd better go. There's a feast, and my friend Hermione should be awake by now ...'

Dobby threw his arms around Harry's middle and hugged him.

'Harry Potter is greater by far than Dobby knew!' he sobbed. 'Farewell, Harry Potter!'

And with a final loud crack, Dobby disappeared.

'That,' Amelia breathed out. 'Was awesome! He fell down those stairs like a human slinky!'

*

Harry had been to several Hogwarts feasts, but never one quite like this. Everybody was in their pyjamas, and the celebrations lasted all night. Harry didn't know whether the best bit was Hermione running towards him, screaming, 'You solved it! You solved it!' or Justin hurrying over from the Hufflepuff table to wring his hand and apologise endlessly for suspecting him, or Hagrid turning up at half past three, cuffing Harry, Ron, and Amelia so hard on the shoulders that they were knocked into their plates of trifle, or his and Ron's four hundred points securing Gryffindor the House Cup for the second year running, or Professor McGonagall standing up to tell them all that the exams had been cancelled as a school treat ('Oh, no!' said Hermione), or Dumbledore announcing that, unfortunately, Professor Lockhart would be unable to return next year, owing to the fact that he needed to go away and get his memory back. Quite a few of the teachers joined in the cheering that greeted this news.