I saw the...creature too. I jumped up and made close to my brother. I opened my mouth to scream but Harry clamped a hand over my mouth. The little creature on the bed had large, bat-like ears andbulging green eyes the size of tennis balls. Me and Harry  knew instantlythat this was what had been watching us out of the garden hedgethat morning. s we stared at each other, Harry and I  heard Dudley's voice fromthe hall."May I take your coats, Mr. and Mrs. Mason?" 

The creature slipped off the bed and bowed so low that the endof its long, thin nose touched the carpet.I noticed that it waswearing what looked like an old pillowcase, with rips for arm- andleg-holes."Er — hello," said Harry nervously. "Harry and Emma Potter!" said the creature in a high-pitched voice "So long has Dobby wantedto meet you, sir and madame  . . . Such an honor it is. . . ."

"Er, thanks?" I say not knowing what else to say.  "Who are you?" asked Harry.

"Dobby, sir. Just Dobby. Dobby the house-elf," said the creature."Oh — really?" said Harry. "Er — I don't want to be rude oranything, but — this isn't a great time for us to have a house elf in our bedroom. 

The elf hung his head. "Not that we're not pleased to meet you" I added hurriedly. "but, er, is there any particular reason you're here?"

"Oh, yes madame."  said Dobby earnestly. "Dobby has come to tellyou, . . . it is difficult. . . Dobby wonders where to begin. . . .""Sit down," said Harry politely, pointing at the bed.

To our horror, the elf burst into tears — very noisy tears."S-sit down!" he wailed. "Never . . . never ever . . ."

The voices downstairs faltered. "I'm sorry," he whispered, "I didn't mean to offend you or anything —""Offend Dobby!" choked the elf. "Dobby has never been askedto sit down by a wizard — like an equal —"Harry, trying to say "Shh!" and look comforting at the sametime, ushered Dobby back onto the bed where he sat hiccoughing,looking like a large and very ugly doll. At last he managed to control himself, and sat with his great eyes fixed on Harry and me  in an expression of watery adoration.

"Um, you couldn't have met many decent wizards then" I asked, trying to cheer him up. Dobby shook his head. Then, without warning, he leapt up andstarted banging his head furiously on the window, shouting, "BadDobby! Bad Dobby!""Don't — what are you doing?"I hissed  springing up andpulling Dobby back onto the bed — Hedwig had woken up with aparticularly loud screech and was beating her wings wildly againstthe bars of her cage."Dobby had to punish himself,madame." said the elf, who had goneslightly cross-eyed. "Dobby almost spoke ill of his family, sir. . . ." 

"Your family?" 

"The wizard family Dobby serves, sir. . . . Dobby is a houseelf — bound to serve one house and one family forever. . . ."

Do they know you're here?" asked Harry curiously.

 Dobby shuddered."Oh, no, sir, no . . . Dobby will have to punish himself mostgrievously for coming to see you, sir. Dobby will have to shut hisears in the oven door for this. If they ever knew, sir —" 

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

"Dobby doubts it, sir. Dobby is always having to punish himselffor something, sir. They lets Dobby get on with it, sir. Sometimesthey reminds me to do extra punishments. . . ." 

"But why don't you leave? Escape?"I asked. 

"A house-elf must be set free, madame. And the family will never setDobby free . . . Dobby will serve the family until he dies, madame. 

Harry and I stared,

"And we thought staying here for 4 more weeks was hard." I say ""This makes the Dursleys sound almost human. Can't anyone help you? Can't we?"

To my despair, Dobby dissolved again into wails of gratitude."Please," Harry whispered frantically, "please be quiet. If theDursleys hear anything, if they know you're here —"

"Emma Potter asks if he can help Dobby . . . Dobby has heard ofyour greatness madame.  but of your goodness, Dobby never knew. . . ."

"Whatever you've heard about my greatness is a load of rubbish. I'm noteven top of my year at Hogwarts;" Said Harry "Emma is, and Hermione-" he stopped, and I bit my lip. "Harry Potter is humble and modest," said Dobby reverently, hisorb-like eyes aglow. "Harry Potter speaks not of his triumph overHe-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named —""Voldemort?" said Harry.Dobby clapped his hands over his bat ears and moaned, "Ah,speak not the name, sir! Speak not the name!""Sorry," I said "I know lots of people don't like it.My friend Ron —"  I stopped, thinking of ron was painful.

"Dobby heard tell," he said hoarsely, "that the Potter Twins met theDark Lord for a second time, just weeks ago . . . that they  escaped yet again." we nodded. "Ah, sir, and madame" he gasped, dabbing his face with a corner of the grubby pillowcase he was wearing. "The Potter Twins are valiant and bold! They have braved so many dangers already! But Dobby has come to protect them. To warn themeven if he does have to shut his earsin the oven door later. . . . Harry and Emma Potter must not go back to Hogwarts."There was a silence broken only by the chink of knives and forksfrom downstairs and the distant rumble of Uncle Vernon's voice.

"W-what?" I stammered "But we've got to go back. starts on September first. It's all that's keepingus from going. We-we don't belong here Dobby, we belong in yourworld — at Hogwarts.""No, no, no," squeaked Dobby, shaking his head so hard his earsflapped."The Potter twins must stay where they are safe.  If they go back to Hogwarts they will be in grave danger!"Why?" said Harry in surprise. 

"There is a plot, Harry Potter. A plot to make most terriblethings happen at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry thisyear," whispered Dobby, suddenly trembling all over. "Dobby hasknown it for months,sir and madame. Harry and Emma Potter must not put themselves in Danger!"

What terrible things?" said Harry at once. "Who's plottingthem?" I added.

Dobby made a funny choking noise and then banged his headfrantically against the wall."All right!" cried Harry, grabbing the elf's arm to stop him. "Youcan't tell us, we understand. But why are you warning us?" A horrible thought crossed my mind "Hang on — this hasn't gotanything to do with Vol — sorry — with You-Know-Who, has it?You could just shake or nod,"I added hastily. as Dobby's headtilted worryingly close to the wall again.Slowly, Dobby shook his head."Not — not He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, madame."

"He hasn't got a brother has he?" asked Harry. God, i hoped not . One enemy out to kill us was enough. Dobby shook his head, his eyes wider than ever."Well then, I can't think who else would have a chance of making horrible things happen at Hogwarts," said Harry. "I mean,there's Dumbledore, for one thing — you know who Dumbledoreis, don't you?"Dobby bowed his head."Albus Dumbledore is the greatest headmaster Hogwarts hasever had. Dobby knows it,sir and madame.  Dobby has heard Dumbledore'spowers rival those of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named at the heightof his strength. But," --Dobby's voice dropped to an urgentwhisper — "there are powers Dumbledore doesn't . . . powers nodecent wizard . . ."

Before Me or Harry could stop him  Dobby bounded off the bed,seized Harry's desk lamp, and started beating himself around thehead with earsplitting yelps.A sudden silence fell downstairs. Two seconds later, Harry and I hearts thudding madly, heard Uncle Vernon coming into the hall, calling,"Dudley must have left his television on again, the little tyke!""Quick! In the closet!" hissed Harry, stuffing Dobby in, shuttingthe door, and flinging himself onto the bed just as the door handleturned."What — the — devil — are — you — doing?" said Uncle Vernon through gritted teeth, his face horribly close to Harry's."You've just ruined the punch line of my Japanese golfer joke. . . .One more sound and you'll wish you'd never been born,kids!"

He stomped flat-footed from the room.Shaking I let Dobby out of the closet."See what it's like here?" I said " see why we've got to go back toHogwarts? It's the only place  we have-- well I think we have friends." "Friends who don't even write to the Potters?"  said Dobby slyly."I expect they've just been — wait a minute," I frowned "How do you know our friends having been writing to us?" Dobby shuffled his feet.  "The Potter Twins mustn't be angry with Dobby. Dobby did it forthe best —"

"Have you been stopping our letters?" Harry asked sharply. "Dobby has them here, sir," said the elf. Stepping nimbly out ofHarry's reach, he pulled a thick wad of envelopes from the inside ofthe pillowcase he was wearing. I could make out Hermione's neat handwriting, Ron's untidy scrawl, Draco's neat cursive and even Hagrid's scribble. Dobby blinked anxiously up at Harry and me. "The twins mustn't be angry. . . . Dobby hoped . . . if they thought they'd forgotten them they wouldn't have wanted to go to school sir and madame. 

Harry wasn't listening. He made a grab for the letters, butDobby jumped out of reach. "The twins will have them sir! If they give Dobby their word that they will not go back to school!"

"No," I said angrily "Give us our friends letters." 

"Then you leave Dobby no choice," said the elf sadly.BeforeHarry or I could move, Dobby had darted to the bedroomdoor, pulled it open, and sprinted down the stairs.Mouth dry, stomach lurching,me and Harry followed him, careful not to make a sound. I jumped the last few steps, landing catlike on the floor, Harry close behind From the diningroom we heard Uncle Vernon saying" . . . tell Petunia that veryfunny story about those American plumbers, Mr. Mason. She'sbeen dying to hear . . ."

We ran into the kitchen, and I felt my stomach disappear. Aunt Petunia's masterpiece of a pudding, the mountain of creamand sugared violets, was floating up near the ceiling. On top of acupboard in the corner crouched Dobby."No," croaked Harry. "Please . . . they'll kill us . . ."

"The Twins must say they're not going back "Dobby . . . please . . ." I begged

"Say it,madame."

"We can't--"

Dobby gave us m a tragic look."Then Dobby must do it,for the Potter Twinsown good."The pudding fell to the floor with a heart-stopping crash. Creamsplattered the windows and walls as the dish shattered. With acrack like a whip, Dobby vanished.There were screams from the dining room and Uncle Vernon." burst into the kitchen to find Harry and me At first, it looked as though Uncle Vernon would manage togloss the whole thing over. ("Just our neice and nephew — very disturbed —meeting strangers upsets them, so we kept them upstaris-) Heshooed the shocked Masons back into the dining room, promisedHarry and me he would flay us with an inch of our life when the Masons had left, and handed us each a mop. Aunt Petunia dug some icecream out of the freezer and Harry and I still shaking, started scrubbingthe kitchen clean.Uncle Vernon might still have been able to make his deal — if ithadn't been for the owl.Aunt Petunia was just passing around a box of after-dinnermints when a huge barn owl swooped through the dining roomwindow, dropped a letter on Mrs. Mason's head, and swooped outagain. Mrs. Mason screamed like a banshee and ran from the houseshouting about lunatics. Mr. Mason stayed just long enough to tellthe Dursleys that his wife was mortally afraid of birds of all shapesand sizes, and to ask whether this was their idea of a joke.

We stood in the kitchen. leaning on eachother for support asUncle Vernon advanced on us a demonic glint in his tiny eyes."Read it!" he hissed evilly, brandishing the letter the owl had delivered. "Go on — read it!"

"I took it, and with a trembling voice read-

Dear Mr. and Ms. Potter,

We have received intelligence that a Hover Charm wasused at your place of residence this evening at twelve minutes past nine.

 As you know, underage wizards are not permitted to perform spells outside school, and further spellwork on yourpart may lead to expulsion from said school (Decree for theReasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery, 1875, Paragraph C). 

We would also ask you to remember that any magicalactivity that risks notice by members of the non-magicalcommunity (Muggles) is a serious offense under section 13of the International Confederation of Warlocks' Statute ofSecrecy.

 Enjoy your holidays!

 Yours sincerely,

 Mafalda Hopkirk

 improper use of magic office

 Ministry of Magic

I looked up from the letter, Harry gulped. 

You didn't tell us you weren't allowed to use magic outsideschool," said Uncle Vernon, a mad gleam dancing in his eyes. "Forgot to mention it. . . . Slipped your mind, I daresay. . . ."He was bearing down on us like a great bulldog, all his teethbared. "Well, I've got news for you,kids. . .I'm locking youup. . . . You're never going back to that school . . . never . . . and ifyou try and magic yourself out — they'll expel you!"And laughing like a maniac, he dragged Harry and me back upstairs.