kbinnz - Harry's New Home

Harry kicked and bawled, pretending he was Dudley and Petunia had just refused him a second helping of pudding (as if that would ever happen!).

Finally, Snape jerked him to his feet and gave him a good shake. "Have you learned your lesson?"

"Y-yes, sir," Harry sniveled and blubbered, clutching his bum as if in great distress. If only he had known about cushioning charms back when he was living with his relatives!

"Then get to your room and don't you dare disturb me! I have a very delicate potion simmering in my lab, and if anything happens to it, I will have you back in Surrey before the night is out!"

Harry felt his da spin him around by his shoulders, and then he was sent towards his room with one last hard smack. He scrambled onto his bed and buried his face in his pillow, pretending to sob himself sick. He hoped he was doing a good job.

Snape meanwhile stormed into his lab, made a few minor adjustments to the potion that was brewing there, then stalked out again, still muttering under his breath.

For a few minutes, all was quite in the laboratory, the only noise coming from the potion bubbling quietly away. Then a louder pop intruded, and a ragged house elf appeared in the deserted room. "Bad, bad Dobby!" the elf sobbed, banging his head on the stone floor. "Wicked Dobby!" But then he levitated the cauldron with a quick flick of his finger and flipped it, sending the contents all over the floor.

"Aha." Snape said silkily, appearing from under Harry's Invisibilty Cloak in the corner of the room. "What have we here?"

Dobby squeaked in surprise and alarm and tried to vanish, but his efforts were futile. He watched in growing terror as Snape advanced upon him, his wand out and pointing at the small creature.

"As you have discovered, I have тАУ with the help of the castle elves тАУ enhanced the anti-apparition wards around my quarters to include elf magic as well as wizard. Once you appeared here, I activated them, and you will not be able to leave until I decide to release you."

"No, no, no!" Dobby wailed. "Dobby must not stay! Dobby must return home before Master noticies!" He started to bang his head on the floor again, but a sharp word from Snape stopped him.

"Harry! Come here at once!" he called, never taking his eyes or wand off the miserable house elf.

Harry ran in. "Da! What is it?"

"Come see what has been caught in the trap we laid with our little fiction," Snape said, indicating the house elf, who promptly burst into tears at the sight of the boy.

"Ohhhhhh, Master Harry Potter Sir! Dobby is sorry for getting Master Harry Potter Sir into such trouble! But Master Harry Potter Sir would not leave the castle!" Dobby yanked at his own ears in a frenzy of remorse.

"Da, it's that weird house elf I told you about," Harry exclaimed, hurrying to his father's side while being careful not to cross in front of Snape's wand. "Dibby or Dooby or something like that. He's the one who threatened me!"

"Dobby is bad elf," the little creature agreed mournfully, "but poor Master Harry Potter Sir must be sent away to be safe."

"How'd you know it was him?" Harry asked, regarding Snape with wide, worshipful eyes.

Snape fidgeted, uncomfortable with the admiration he saw there. "I knew you would hardly spend four hours helping make ingredients just to destroy them, but I could find no trace to explain who did it nor how you were framed. I recalled what you had said about being threatened by a house elf before the term began, and on the off-chance that it was responsible for all of these tricks, I got the castle elves to teach me how to prevent elves from entering or leaving our quarters.

"When I realized the potion cupboard was the latest attempt to get you expelled, I decided to play along. I hoped that if I seemed angry enough to make a threat to send you away sound realistic, then whoever was doing it would be unable to resist one more trick. That was what the potion in my lab was for тАУ to entice our mysterious adversary into attempting another prank, only this one in a time and place of my choosing. It worked, the trap was sprung, and here we are."

"Wow!" Harry breathed in awe.

"And as for you, elf," Snape began threateningly, raising his wand.

"Please, Master Potion Master Sir!" Dobby cried. "Please send Master Harry Potter Sir away from here! Very Bad Things is starting!"

Snape paused. "Does it have to do with the Dark Lord?" he demanded, but Dobby merely wailed and pounded his head against the floor.

"Stop! Stop!" Snape commanded, seeing Harry's stricken face as he watched the elf punish himself. If it had been up to him, he would have enjoyed watching the little creature dash his brains out after all the trouble he had caused Harry. "So you are trying to protect Harry?" Dobby sniffled and nodded. "How did you learn about this danger?"

Dobby yanked his ears. "No! No! Can't say! Can't tell what Master plans!"

Snape's mind worked busily. House elves were excitable little things, peculiar on their best day, but what drove them insane quicker than anything else was being unable to carry out their owner's instructions. If this little elf belonged to a Dark household and had learned of a plot against Hogwarts, but then wanted to protect Harry from it, it would be torn between its duty to protect its master's secrets and its desire to save Harry. That could well set up exactly the sort of conflict that would make an elf mad.

But which Dark household had such an odd and independent little elf?

"How did you know Harry was at Hogwarts?" Snape demanded. "Or that I am a Potion Master?"

Dobby looked stricken and began to bite his own hand. "Can't say! Can't say!" he protested, the words muffled.

Snape took a closer look at the frantic elf. He couldn't imagine that his professional qualifications were discussed in too many Death Eater households. At best he might be referred to as a Hogwarts professor, at worst as "Snape the ****** traitor", but he'd never socialized all that much with his fellow Death Eaters, and тАУ "Malfoy. You belong to Lucius Malfoy."

Suddenly it all made sense. Lucius and Narcissa would, thanks to Draco's letters, surely comment to each other upon Potter's presence at Hogwarts, and Malfoy was one of the few people Snape had at one time considered a friend. As such, Lucius was familiar with Snape's academic credentials and probably referred to them not infrequently, being the name dropper that he was. Snape had visited the manor on more than one occasion and while most elves looked the same to him, he supposed that this one might look a bit familiar.

Dobby burst into tears, confirming his guess. "Dobby is a bad, bad elf! But Dobby only wants to keep Master Harry Potter Sir safe!"

"That is my job," Snape informed the distraught elf. "You are to return to Malfoy Manor and say nothing of this. I am well aware of Lucius' little plot," he lied, "and I have no intention of allowing Harry to be harmed. I will protect the boy, and you are to leave him alone from this moment forward."

Dobby wept and protested, still uncertain, but Snape was adamant. "Go now, or I will inform your master of your actions," he threatened, waving his wand to lower the wards around his quarters.

Dobby whimpered in terror, but still delayed long enough to ask, "You is sure Master Harry Potter Sir will be safe? You promises to protect him?"

Snape rolled his eyes. "Yes! Now go! And don't come back!"

Dobby finally popped away, and Harry relaxed with a gusty sigh of relief. "Merlin! What a weird little elf! D'you really think there's something bad going on that Draco's dad is planning?"

Snape snorted. "Surely you saw how demeted the creature was. You have nothing to worry about." He eyed the boy in concern. Would he accept that? Was he still traumatized by the horrible things Snape had had to say earlier?