Another Prisoner, Another Professor

"The War of Abernathy's Wart," Binns droned, "was fought between 1409 and 1412. The initial source of conflict occurred on the fourth of May, 1409, when Gerard Dupont, the nephew of the French Minister of Magic, visited a wizarding tavern during a trip to England and accidentally hit John Abernathy with a mug of ale. When Abernathy found that the mug had knocked the wart off his nose, he lunged at Dupont, the two fought, and both were eventually arrested."

A few people looked up. Lavender's gaze turned away from the clock; Dean wearily lifted his eyelids. A tavern brawl nearly six hundred years old was the most exciting thing to happen in History of Magic all year.

"Though Abernathy's wart was reattached to his nose - "

"They must have been mental," Ron muttered to Harry.

" - the French Ministry questioned the right of England to detain Dupont - "

The door opened and Professor McGonagall stuck her head in. "Professor Binns, might I borrow Potter for the remainder of class?"

Harry's stomach lurched. He exchanged looks with Hermione, and could tell she was thinking the same thing: Buckbeak's verdict must be in.

Binns nodded absentmindedly; Harry picked up his books. "Tell us the minute you can," Ron whispered. Harry nodded and followed McGonagall into the corridor.

"You have a visitor, Potter," she said, closing Binns's door behind them.

"I - wait, I've got what?"

"A visitor," McGonagall repeated. "He insists he must speak to you in private. You may use my office."

"Er, Professor - do you know who - "

"He declined to give a name," said McGonagall crisply, and started off down the corridor, Harry following her.

As he entered McGonagall's office, Harry could see no one else in the room. He waited for a moment, hoping to hear someone greet him, but the room was silent. "Hello?" he asked, warily shutting the door behind him. Surely McGonagall would never let someone use her office for a prank, especially not during a class -

There was a funny sort of hiccupping sound; Harry leaned over to look behind McGonagall's desk. Two enormous green eyes stared back at him.

"Dobby?!"

"Harry Potter, Harry Potter!" Dobby squealed, leaping to his feet and climbing on top of McGonagall's desk before Harry could stop him. Harry took a step back, but Dobby jumped up and clung to him with such force that for a moment Harry couldn't breathe. "Harry Potter, you are safe, sir, Dobby would not believe it until he saw it for himself - "

"Hang on," Harry said, his voice half-muffled by Dobby's arm. "What do you mean, you wouldn't believe I was safe? Here, sit down - I mean, if you won't start crying if I ask you to sit down - "

"No, Harry Potter, Dobby will not cry," Dobby said, releasing his arms from around Harry's neck and sliding down to the floor. No longer clothed in a pillowcase, he was wearing a sort of toga which, Harry realized after a moment, was made of several different-colored socks sewn together. "Dobby is too worried for Harry Potter to cry for himself!"

"Because of Remus Lupin?" Harry asked. "Or the Malfoys - you know about all the stuff that's been happening with the Malfoys, don't you?"

Dobby jumped up into a mauve-cushioned chair with a straight wooden back. "Of course Dobby knows, Harry Potter," he said, his eyes opening even wider. Harry sat down on a matching chair near the door. "The Ministry of Magic, they are thinking that Dobby's masters are murderers! And the Aurors, they - " His long nose crinkled and, before Harry knew what was happening, Dobby burst into tears.

"Dobby, what is it?" Harry asked, leaning forward. He wished he carried a handkerchief with him; Dobby was taking the bright blue sock off his left foot and using it to blow his nose. "Do you know if - I mean, did they - "

"Dobby is sorry, Harry Potter," Dobby said, wiping his eyes. "Dobby grows very sad when he thinks of - " He tucked the blue sock underneath his toga and looked right at Harry, tears still on his face. "The Aurors, they have dug up the graves of Dobby's parents, sir."

"Oh," Harry replied; he had no idea what he was supposed to say. "I'm - I'm really sorry to hear that, Dobby."

"Dobby's parents died many years ago, sir," said the elf, taking a deep breath. "But there is never a day going by when Dobby does not miss them - Dobby is an orphan like Harry Potter, sir."

"Oh," Harry said again. For the first time, he wondered how old Dobby was. "I didn't know that."

"Dobby's parents died when he was eleven years old, sir - many house-elves died that year because they were all getting sick." He blinked forlornly and stared into the distance.

"Listen," Harry said after a few moments have gone by. "I know somebody who's related to someone in Auror training - I'll have him ask her if she can get the Aurors to bury your parents again. I don't think there's any reason why they couldn't do it."

"This future Auror, sir, she is Nymphadora Tonks?"

"Yeah," Harry said a little surprised. He hadn't thought the Malfoys would talk about Nymphadora enough that Dobby would know what she wanted to do for a living. "How - "

"And the man who is related to her, he is Sirius Black?"

"Yeah, he's - "

"Harry Potter must not do it!" Dobby shouted, so vigorously that the chair moved. "Harry Potter must stay away from Sirius Black as much as he can!"

"Dobby, why - "

"Harry Potter must listen to Dobby, sir," Dobby said, lowering his voice. "Dobby knew Sirius Black a very long time, sir, since Sirius Black was still welcome to visit Dobby's masters. Dobby was seven years old when Sirius Black was born. Dobby's master began to court Dobby's mistress when Dobby was seventeen years old, and that was the year when Dobby first met Sirius Black. Dobby was still seeing Sirius Black three years after he was disowned by his family - Sirius Black and Dobby's mistress were arguing about money their Uncle Alphard left Sirius Black, and Dobby was delivering messages between them. He saw how Sirius Black was changing."

"Changing?" Harry asked. "You mean - did he believe the things his family did when he was younger?"

"No, Harry Potter, Dobby means something else," Dobby replied gravely. "Sirius Black is always having a temper, sir, but when he is eighteen he is acting strangely. Sometimes when Dobby took him a message, Sirius Black was calm, even if he read the message while Dobby was there and it was saying nasty things. Other times when Dobby took him a message, he was angry when Dobby arrived - angrier than Dobby had ever seen him before. Even when Sirius Black had fights with his parents - Dobby saw two, sir, before Sirius Black left home - he was never acting violently. But Dobby became afraid to give messages to him. Once he threw a teapot and it just missed Dobby's head, and another time - " Dobby leaned forward and whispered. "Another time, Harry Potter, Dobby had to disappear so Sirius Black would not strangle him!"

"He tried to strangle you?"

"Yes, sir, yes!"

"So one day he was normal, and then all of a sudden for no reason he started - "

"Dobby does not think it was for no reason, sir. It was starting when Sirius Black started living with Remus Lupin."

Harry tried to remember if Black had ever told him that he had lived with Lupin after they finished school; he didn't think he had. "So you think Lupin - changed him?"

"That is what is strange, Harry Potter," Dobby said. "When Sirius Black was in a good mood, Remus Lupin was there with him. When he was angry, sometimes Remus Lupin was there and sometimes he was not. When he was there, sir, he would tell Sirius Black to calm down, to not shout at Dobby. Dobby never saw Remus Lupin shout or act violently. If someone had asked Dobby to guess which one would go to prison, Dobby would have said Sirius Black!"

"But Lupin's not here," Harry said. "He's not living with Black - he's hiding from the Ministry someplace."

Dobby shook his head. "That does not matter, Harry Potter. Sometimes Sirius Black's house-elf Kreacher would visit Dobby's old masters - Kreacher is never liking Sirius Black, and Dobby's mistress likes Kreacher because Kreacher is loyal to her and his old mistress, her aunt. Dobby heard Kreacher say how Sirius Black is still violent. The last time Dobby heard this was not even a year ago, sir. So Harry Potter must stay away from Sirius Black as much as he can! Sirius Black could hurt Harry Potter, and Harry Potter must not be hurt - he is too good, too noble, too brave - "

"Okay, okay," said Harry, feeling his face turn red. "Look, I'm not saying Black was in the right - but maybe he didn't like you because you came from the Malfoys. He likes me - I don't know why he'd want to hurt me."

"Sometimes Dobby saw scratch marks on Remus Lupin, sir," Dobby said, staring at Harry. "They did not look like they came from a wolf - they were looking as though a human had made them."

"And you think Black did it?"

"Yes, Harry Potter."

Harry took a deep breath. "Dobby, look," he said. "Black shouldn't have thrown a teapot at you and he really shouldn't have tried to strangle you. That was a really bad thing to do. You're - you're a good person and you're not like the Malfoys, and it wasn't fair of him to think you were. But I don't think Black would ever actually hurt someone he liked. I mean, he let Hagrid - that's the gamekeeper here - he let Hagrid use his lawyer for this hearing about Hagrid's hippogriff."

"Dobby knows, sir," Dobby replied. "Brutus Swift wrote to Dobby and asked him to go to the hearing in case he was needed."

"Wait, you were at the hearing?" Harry exclaimed. "What's happening? They haven't decided a verdict yet, have they?"

"Dobby does not know, Harry Potter - Dobby went to the hearing, and Hagrid told him he could leave." Dobby sighed. "Sirius Black, he is not a good friend to Hagrid."

"What do you mean, he's not a good friend to Hagrid?" Harry could hear the indignation in his own voice. Had Black really tried to strangle Dobby? Dobby had kept Harry's letters from him, but Harry didn't think he'd lie about something this important.

"The Malfoys, sir, they have a good lawyer at the hearing with them, and Hagrid does not have a lawyer there because Sirius Black told him not to bring Brutus Swift with him."

"Black doesn't want to make things worse between him and the Malfoys - "

"If Dobby had a good lawyer," Dobby said, "and the Malfoys wanted to kill Harry Potter's owl, Dobby would let his lawyer argue for Harry Potter at the hearing even if the Malfoys would be angry at Dobby. Dobby would know that the life of Harry Potter's owl was more important."

Harry opened his mouth to speak, but he realized he had nothing to say. Dobby was right. The worst that could happen to Black was that the Malfoys would make trouble for him, but the worst that could happen to Buckbeak was death. Why hadn't -

"Dobby," Harry said, "with the Ministry's investigation - do you know if the Malfoys killed Regulus Black? You were living with the Malfoys then, weren't you?"

"Yes, Dobby lived there," said Dobby. "Dobby knows many secrets of his masters' - many secrets, Harry Potter - but they are clever wizards. They never let Dobby know everything."

"Do you know if Regulus ever had any arguments with them - if he ever wanted to quit being a Death Eater, or anything like that?"

"No, sir, Dobby did not see Regulus Black very often."

Harry could hear many footsteps outside the door; classes were letting out. "How are you doing these days, Dobby? Do you have anyone you work for?"

"Not yet, Harry Potter, not yet. Wizards do not want to pay house-elves, not even twenty knuts a week."

"You've got someplace to stay though, don't you?"

"Yes, sir, Dobby is staying with his aunt. Her family will not pay Dobby to work for them, but they let him sleep in their house and eat their food if he helps his aunt with her chores. She is old now and does not work fast."

"Who does she work for?"

"The Macmillan family, Harry Potter."

"Ernie Macmillan's family?"

"Yes, sir, Ernie Macmillan's grandparents."

"And they're okay? They're not mean to you or anything?"

"No, Harry Potter, the Macmillans are kind wizards."

"I'll write to you there," Harry said, rising from his seat. "I've got to go now - "

"Harry Potter must promise to stay away from Sirius Black!" Dobby insisted, leaning forward and grabbing Harry's hand.

"Dobby, I can't, he's my teacher!"

"Harry Potter must not see him except when he absolutely must!"

"All right," Harry said, "I'm supposed to have a lesson with him tonight but I'll tell him I can't go. But I can't promise anything else. Okay?"

Dobby pressed his lips together, his eyes darting back and forth. "Harry Potter must decide for himself," he said at last. "But Dobby has warned him, and Dobby has always wanted what is best for Harry Potter."