THE RETURN OF DOBBY THE HOUSE-ELF!

NOVEMBER 1992

2nd Year

• • • •

Annabelle let out a frustrated huff, tossing and turning in her uncomfortable bed, pulling the thin sheets up to her neck, unable to sleep, mostly due to the immense pain that she was feeling in her right shoulder.

It was then the eerie whisper made a return.

"Kill. Kill... Time to kill!"

Noticing that Harry had also woken up, hearing the noise too as he put on his glasses, the pair glancing around wearily.

"Do you hear that?" The redhead asked her brother.

"Yeah." Harry nodded, gulping.

Harry and Annabelle looked above them, eyes wide, where the voice was coming from, their eyes darting around the hospital wing, the pair jumping with a gasp, when a familiar house-elf appeared in front of them, perched on the table at the end of Harry's bed.

"Hello!" Dobby exclaimed.

"Dobby?" The twins exclaimed in surprise.

"Harry Potter should have listened to Dobby! Harry Potter should have gone back home when he missed the train." Dobby chastised the boy.

Harry stared at the creature, "It was you... You stopped the barrier from letting Ron and me through."

"Indeed. Yes, sir." Dobby said, wringing his hands, guiltily.

Harry narrowed his eyes at Dobby, "You nearly got Ron and me expelled!" He hissed.

"At least you would be away from here," Dobby told him, before jumping off of the table, walking over to the older twin, "Harry Potter must go home! Dobby thought his Bludger would be enough to make Harry Potter see that---"

Annabelle's eyes widened, so did Harry's.

"Your Bludger?" Harry questioned, gritting his teeth, "You made that Bludger chase after me?"

"You're the reason my shoulder is broken?" Annabelle asked, frowning.

Dobby nodded solemnly, "Dobby feels most aggrieved, sir. Dobby had to iron his hands." The house-elf said, showing the Potter twins his badly burned and bandaged hands.

"Oh Dobby." Annabelle whispered, feeling bad for the elf.

"But you have to believe me, Dobby had no intention of harming Harry or Annabelle Potter." Dobby said, turning tot he redheaded girl.

"I do, Dobby." Annabelle nodded with a small smile, trying to ignore the pain in her shoulder.

Harry on the other hand, was not as forgiving, "You'd better clear off before my bones come back, Dobby, or I might strangle you!" He growled.

Dobby made a frightened noise, leaping off of the bed, falling onto the floor, the twins both getting out of their own, Annabelle glaring at her brother as they did so.

"Dobby is used to death threats sir," The house-elf said, after standing up, "Dobby gets them five times a day at home."

"I don't suppose you could tell me why you're trying to kill me?" Harry asked Dobby.

"Not kill you, sir, never kill you!" Dobby shook his head, gripping onto the legs of Harry's bed, "Dobby remembers how it was before Harry Potter triumphed over He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. We house elves were treated like vermin, sir. Of course, Dobby is still treated like vermin..." He said, backing away, around the bed as the twins follow him, before his sentence trailed off and the house-elf soon started sobbing hysterically, blowing his nose into the dirty rags that he wore as clothes.

Harry and Annabelle looked between each other and the sobbing house-elf, both adorning similar frowns.

"Why do you wear that thing Dobby?" Annabelle asked him.

"This, Miss?" The elf questioned, gripping at the rags, "It is a mark of the house-elves' enslavement. Dobby can only be freed if his master presents him with clothes," He told the twins, before the loud noise of a door opening echoed through the hallway, making the creature gasp and leap back onto Harry's hospital bed, "Ah! Listen. Listen! Terrible things are about to happen at Hogwarts. Harry Potter and his sister must not stay here, now that history is to repeat itself." Dobby revealed, making Harry and Annabelle's eyes widen

"Repeat itself?" Harry whispered.

"You mean this has happened before?" Annabelle questioned.

Dobby let out a loud gasp, slapping his bandaged hands over his mouth, "Ah! I shouldn't have said that!" He exclaimed, panicking, looking around, before his eyes landed on the bottle that held Harry's medicine, "Oh! Ah! Dah! Bad Dobby! Bad!" He told himself, as he grabbed the cream coloured bottle, repeatedly smacking himself in the head with it.

"Bobby, you're hurting yourself!" Annabelle whisper-yelled at the house-elf, trying and failing to acquire the bottle from his hands with only the use of her non-dominant arm.

"Dobby, stop it! Stop it! Stop, Dobby!" Harry ordered, successfully grabbing the bottle away from the elf, grabbing his rags and bringing him closer to himself, "Tell me, Dobby. When did this happen before? Who's doing it now?"

"Dobby cannot say, sir. Dobby only wants Harry Potter to be safe." Dobby told him, stoking the boy's hand.

"No, Dobby. Tell me. Who is it?" Harry repeated, accompanied by a shake of his head, before the loud sound of a door opening once again echoed through the halls, Dobby's head snapping in the direction of the door of the hospital wing, before turning back to the twins, and once again, with the snap of his fingers, the elf was gone.

The twins stared at where the elf once stood, before they heard footsteps approaching the hospital wing, seeing shadows near them, making the Potters jump back into their respective beds, both facing away from the entrance to the wing.

"Put him here. What happened?" They heard Madam Pomfrey's worried voice say.

"There's been another attack." Professor Dumbledore answered.

"I think- do ya know- I think he's been Petrified, Madame Pomfrey," Professor McGonagall said, making both Harry and Annabelle have a sinking feeling in their stomachs, "Look! Perhaps he managed to take a picture of his attacker...," The woman said, before a small 'poof' emitted from where the three adults were all stood, "What can this mean, Albus?" McGonagall asked the headmaster.

"It means...that our students are in great danger." Dumbledore told the woman solemnly.

"What should I tell the staff?" McGonagall questioned the man.

"The truth," Professor Dumbledore said, "Tell them Hogwarts is no longer safe. It is as we feared, Minerva. The Chamber of Secrets has indeed been opened again." He told the woman, making the Potter twins' eyes widened, the immense feeling of fear overtaking the pair.