Yay! I was finally inspired and typed out another chapter of my fanfic. Here it is for you all to read AND COMMENT ON! Please, they would be appretiated. Thanks!
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CHAPTER ONE
A piece of parchment fluttered to the floor.
‘What’s this?’ thought Harry. He looked up at the ceiling above his four poster bed. ‘And where the heck did it come from?’
He pushed back the sheets and picked up the parchment off the floor. He couldn’t sleep so he thought he might as well get up now. He turned it over and he saw his name on it. And the writing looked so familiar. He sat up on the bed and unfolded the note and was immediately reminded of whose handwriting it was.
“Sirius,” he whispered under his breath, “but how?” He read the letter slowly. It had been an entire summer and first two months at Hogwarts since, well, for him to mope about the Dursley’s. Harry had heard nothing from him, so this not must mean something good.
Harry,
Please do not try anything rash. Do not try to figure out the veil in the Chamber of Death. I am not dead, but I don’t think I’m alive either. I have tried many times and many ways to destroy the veil or to open it but I fear that if the veil is destroyed, I will be destroyed along with it. If this letter reaches you, tell Remus or Dumbledore, but tell someone who can help. DO NOT TRY TO DO ANYTHING BY YOURSELF! I have figured out, by means of painstaking stretches of time that could either be days or months, that if objects pass to the side of the veil that I am on, they will never be able pass through it again. It was so hard to write a legible letter using spells through a curtain. The people in the Department of Mysteries are probably wondering where all the parchment and quills have gone, but they’re probably used to stuff like that. Unfortunately, no one has been in the Chamber of Death to find the mess I’ve left of pleas for help outside the curtain. I spent what seemed like two months creating spell that would enchant this paper to go to you. It would be so great if I could hear from you. It’s so lonely here.
Sirius
Harry glanced at his watch sitting on the bed table next to him. ‘4:30?’ He thought for a moment. ‘Nah, Ron doesn’t need three more hours of sleep. Not for this.’ And with that he hopped of his bed and pulled on his sweater from Mrs. Weasly last Christmas and marched over to Ron’s bed.
“Not the snorkel!” shouted Ron as Harry rocked him back ad forth to wake him up. Ron blinked and asked Harry what time it was while he reached for his sweater.
“4:30, but I’ve,” Harry almost got in Sirius’s letter but Ron yelled a bit too loudly for the small room and the time Harry had just said.
“Well it’s probably later now since you sleep like a rock and are hard to wake up besides.” Harry stated plainly as he reached for the letter that had fallen to the ground in the scuffle.
“Hey,” said Ron defensively.
“Yeah, but that’s not important, I’ve just got something to show you. Follow me.” Harry started towards the common room before Ron could pull on his sweater. Ron was just about to yell at Harry about it being 4:30 and can’t this wait when he tripped over Trevor.
‘Why doesn’t he just sell this thing? Half the time it’s lost and the other half it’s in the way.’ Never the less, he pushed to the side gently with his toe and followed Harry down the stairs.
“So what’s so impor-hey, why do you have a letter? You didn’t get mail yesterday and there’s no post today. Have you discovered a new form of mail?” Ron pushed over a chair near to where Harry was sitting at one of the round tables.
“No,” Harry said, “but I think Sirius has.”
“What?” Ron shouted, not thinking at all about everyone else who was sleep in the dormitories, “but how?”
“He charmed the paper,” Harry started before Ron interrupted him again.
“How? I thought he was dead. Plus does he have his wand? Was it with him when he, um, fell through?” Ron sat down next to Harry and yanked on his sweater which was now at least two inches too short everywhere.
‘Ginny must have put a shrinking charm on it‘, he thought.
“He said he spent forever summoning a parchment,” Harry continued to talk through until Ron suddenly stopped.
“What?” He asked.
“Do you think he would mind us marketing it? His idea? It’s genius.” stated Ron.
“Ron! This is not about money! It’s about Sirius! I can talk to him! If he can write to me, I must be able to write to him. Here, read it yourself.” Harry shoved the letter into Ron’s hand and sat down with his paper and parchment to write the letter he had been trying to write for months.
‘Dear Sirius,’ he thought, ‘No, Sirius, how are you?” His thought were broken again by Ron’s loud voice.
“Harry, you’re overlooking a few things here, one, HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO HELP? And two, HOW ARE YOU GOING TO ENCHANT THE PARCHMENT? I don’t mean to crush you or anything, but what are you trying at here?”
“What am I trying at?” Yelled Harry angrily, “I am trying to write a letter to my god-father! That’s what. How do you expect me to write a bloody letter with you breathing down my back the whole time! Huh?” Harry barely managed to contain himself from throwing his quill at Ron’s face.
“Go ahead!” retorted Ron, “just don’t come to me when you can’t enchant the letter to get to him!” Ron slammed Sirius’s letter on the table stormed back to bed.
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CHAPTER TWO
Harry looked back at the letter he had started.
‘Why is he always right?’ thought Harry furiously. “Damn it, Ron,” he yelled at the table as if it would help, “damn it.”
Harry carefully folded Sirius’s letter and picked up his quill and parchment. He pushed in the chair he was sitting in pulled it out again and just stared at it a moment thinking.
‘I can’t go back to the dormitory,’ he thought, ‘I can’t give him the satisfaction of knowing he was right.’ He slumped into the chair. ‘But he is right.’
Harry let his gaze slide across the room and rest on the fireplace. He sat there staring, remembering when all of the sudden something flickered in the dying fire. Harry leaned over the table to get a closer look. There it was again, not in the embers, but above them. Harry stood up and moved around the table and sat down right in front of the fireplace. He watched but it didn’t happen again. Just as he was getting up to return to his comfortable chair, one of the embers popped and he saw what it was, just barely recognizable, and only for a split second.
“Dobby? What the heck are you doing in the Gryffindor fireplace?” Harry was thoroughly shocked to see the house elf’s familiar face.
“Geez,” he said under his breath, “fire’s too low for Floo. Where’s a log when you need one?” He scanned the room again and the only things he found suitable for burning were Sirius’s letter and one solid wood chair.
‘That’s a simple decision,’ he thought as he rolled his eyes. He got up and grabbed the chair smashing on the floor right where had been sitting. One of the legs broke off easily so he picked it up and stirred the embers with it before setting it on them and whispering the spell Hermione had used their first year to light Snape’s cloak on fire. The log flared up and Dobby’s head became clearly visible.
“Hey Dobby,” started Harry casually, “what are-”
“Thank you Harry Potter. Dobby has been trying to contact you since Ron went away but he can see that without Dobby, Gryffindor tower is being neglected at night. When Dobby was still working at Hogwarts he would always keep the fires going because he knew that Harry Potter needed to use them. Even at the funny hours in the morning, there was fire enough for him to use floo.” Dobby could have continued to ramble if Harry hadn’t cut in just then.
“Dobby, why do you need to talk to me? Where are you?” Harry pushed the broken chair out of the way and sat down again while suppressing a tired yawn.
“Yes. Harry Potter, I am at 12 Grimauld Place and I need,”
“WHAT?”
“Harry Potter must pay attention. Remus Lupin also received a letter from Sirius Black.” Harry was about to interrupt again when Dobby gave him a scolding look.
“Sorry, go on Dobby,” Harry said with a nod.
“Well, Mr. Lupin took his letter, which said that you also had a letter, and showed it to Dumbledore. Dumbledore believes that the letters, have been written by Sirius Black, can be used to bring Sirius Black Back from where ever he wrote them. Dumbledore didn’t want Harry Potter to miss his studies, but to steal Harry Potter’s letter without telling him would be most unkind and I could not do that to such a kind person like Harry Potter. Dumbledore wanted me to retrieve only Harry Potter’s letter and not him. But he also said not to tell you because you would want to follow Dobby, so for telling you and disobeying Dumbledore, Dobby will have to punish himself.”
“Dobby, no, I’ll tell him you woke me up and I followed you back. Don’t punish your self for being truthful.” Harry stood up and grabbed Sirius’s letter off the table and shoved it in his pocket.
“So, how am I supposed to get there?”
“Harry Potter must not come. He should give Dobby the letter.” After Dobby said this, his head disappeared from the fire but was soon replaced with Dobby himself flying out of the now green flames resulting from Floo travel.
“Harry Potter must give Dobby his letter.”
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CHAPTER THREE
“I’ll give you the letter just as soon as you tell me how to get to Grimmauld Place from here.” Harry planted his feet firmly in front of Dobby.
“Dobby regrets having to do this to such a great wizard as Harry Potter.” Dobby lifted his left arm and pointed his finger at Harry. He muttered something Harry couldn’t understand under his breath which he guessed was some kind of house elf magic. Blue ribbons shot out of the tip of his finger and snaked their way into Harry’s ears. As soon as they entered his body, he could feel the blood in his body run cold and his limbs begin to freeze and stop moving.
‘Great,’ he thought, ‘the house elf version of a full body bind hex.’
Dobby lowered his arm and plucked the letter out of his pocket.
“Harry Potter will thank Dobby later for what he is doing.” And with the snap of his fingers and the crack of a whip, Dobby leaped into the fire and was gone again.
‘Yeah,’ mused Harry, ‘look at the last time you said that. I was almost eaten by a huge snake! Okay. Maybe that part was my fault, but still. This just makes it worse.’ Harry was suddenly made aware of a very strong itch on his backside.
‘Ron!’ he thought desperately, ‘no, he would just turn me into a cup of jelly because he still mad, at least that’s what I would do in his place. Hermione! Someone!’
He stood there and right before he thought he was going to die of itchiness Dobby burst out of the fire.
Again.
He pointed his finger at Harry’s face again but this time instead of blue ribbons, red ribbons sprang out of his nose and twisted together and into Dobby’s outstretched finger.
“How kind of you to drop by Dobby. What do you want this time?” Harry growled the last part as if Dobby had asked him to donate his liver and half his blood supply. This sudden outburst caused Dobby to hop away from Harry a step and squeak.
“Dobby wants to know, what is Harry Potter doing?” Harry had, as soon as released from the spell, to scratch furiously at his backside with the poker for the fire.
“Itch,” Harry replied coolly.
“Oh, well, Dobby wants to know what Harry Potter has done with Sirius Black’s letter.” Dobby stood looking at Harry, partly fed up, partly in awe, “Harry Potter must be great indeed to retrieve his letter while frozen by house elf magic. No wizard has ever been able to reverse spells performed by free house elves, then again, there aren’t many free house elves that go around performing magic. Harry Potter must be great indeed.” Dobby knelt to one knee and bowed in such a way that four of Hermione’s house elf hats toppled off his head.
‘Can’t believe he still wears those things,’ thought Harry before he spoke. “Sorry to say Dobby, I have no idea where the letter is. First it suddenly appears and then Ron gets all in a huff about how it’s enchanted to find me and then you show up, freezing me with blue ribbons and take it from me. I don’t know how you think I might have gotten the letter back standing here frozen and itching to death. Which reminds me,” Harry raised his wand to cast an itching powder jinx on Dobby.
“Wizard magic has no effect on house elves except in the most dire situations. What did Harry Potter say about the letter being enchanted?” Dobby took a cautious step forward, closing the space he had made after he had unfrozen Harry.
“Oh, well, he said he enchanted the letter to find me cause, you know, THERE AREN”T ANY OWLS IN THE CHAMBER OF DEATH!” Harry rolled his eyes exasperatedly, “why?”
“Enchanting letters is an old art. It has not been used for many years because of one witch receiving so many love letters from her fiancé that she suffocated under all the letters. Since then, people haven’t been all that excited about enchanting letters. Sirius Black must have been very interested in The Study of Really Olde Means of Wizarding Communication. Few students can tolerate Professor Binns long enough to learn of such a spell.”
“He said he made it up himself,” retorted Harry.
“Spells like that cannot be made up by mere wizards like Sirius Black. They were invented by a much older being.”
“Like who?” questioned Harry, who up until then had thought Sirius was the most clever wizard for inventing enchanted letters. “Who invented the spell?” He heard Dobby gulp.
“House elves.”
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CHAPTER FOUR
The room was completely silent, except for the crackling of the fire and the sound of Dobby’s gulping noises. Harry flopped into an adjacent arm chair with his mouth hanging open. His eyes began to glaze over as he distanced himself from the room in his mind.
‘Great,’ he thought, ‘some house elf has my letter but not Dobby. What di he come back here for?’ Harry suddenly snapped back to reality, and Dobby’s noises.
“Dobby! Could you quite it? Your not Gollum stop making those noises!” Harry flung his left arm about wildly to accentuate his words but ended up hitting his elbow on the table. He dropped his forehead into his palm and sighed.
“How are we going to help Sirius now?” he whispered.
“Did Harry Potter check,” Dobby cleared his throat once again and stepped forward, “did he check his pockets again?” He looked up again at Harry with his big curious house elf eyes bulging from his head.
“How would it have gotten back into my pocket?” Harry said in a defiant tone. “You took it from me.” His eyes glared back at Dobby.
“Well, if the spell was done correctly, the letter should follow the recipient where ever they go. When separated, it will be able to track the recipient down. It can never be gotten rid of except by burning it.”
“Yeah, well, you were waltzing back and forth through the fire, maybe you dropped it.”
“No, that cannot be. It can only be destroyed by the person who sent it. It was banned from use when wizarding families began attacking each other with letters. They would try to suffocate the family in millions of envelopes and claim it was a friendly correspondence. Or they would plant evidence for court cases in them. Enchanted letters are very dangerous things and that is why I need yours. We must have Sirius Black destroy it.
“Yea, I would love to help get Sirius out and I’d love to help you get the letter to Dumbledore only you’ve forgotten I no longer have it.”
“Has Harry Potter heard a word of what Dobby has said?” Dobby gave an exasperated sigh, “Harry’s pocket?” he inquired.
Harry reached into his pocket expecting to find nothing and say, ‘See, I told you I didn’t have it,’ to Dobby but he felt a piece of parchment instead. His face instantly changed from despair to shock.
“My god Dobby, how did you know? How did you know I had a Weasly’s Wizard Weezes wrapper in my pocket? Stupid house elf.” Harry chucked the wrapper at Dobby’s head but it floated to the ground harmlessly. Dobby looked at him aghast.
“What about Harry’s other pocket?” he said fretfully. He began lacing his fingers together anxiously as Harry rolled his eyes and thrust his hand into his other pocket.
‘Crap,’ thought Harry, ‘that’s the second time this morning that I’ve been a complete idiot. Why do people always have to be right?’
Harry slowly drew his hand out of his pocket. Within his tightened fist Dobby could see the crumpled corner of Sirius’s letter. He tried as best as he could but house elves are just terrible at concealing their excitement.
“Oh!” cried Dobby, “the letter, the enchantment succeeded.” Dobby became suddenly sullen. “How very strange.”
“Okay,” said Harry, still holding the letter, “first you expect me to have it and then when I do have it, it’s strange. What kind of crazy brain do you have?”
“Dobby saw that the letter had found Harry Potter once so if the spell was complete it would find him again.”
“And why is that strange?” questioned Harry, thoroughly intrigued by Dobby’s confusion.
“Well,” said Dobby as he took of two of his hats so his ears could wiggle on their own which they tended to do when he was nervous, “no house-elf magic has ever been performed solely by a wizard without a house elf in his service.” Dobby looked down at the growing pile of hats at his feet while his ears began to twitch more enthusiastically.
“Dobby, what’s so strange about that? Kreacher is the Black’s house elf so wouldn’t that make sense?” Harry moved forward in his chair eagerly awaiting a response.
“Dobby! What’s wrong?” Harry put his hand on Dobby’s shoulder as Dobby’s twitching increased. Dobby raised his head and looked at Harry through his bulging eyes.
“Harry Potter is so kind! He is worrying about Dobby while he is also worrying about Sirius and all Dobby is worrying about, as he must punish himself for later, is himself!” Dobby’s eye began to fill with tears.
‘Oh no,’ thought Harry, ‘not the punishments.’
“Dobby! Snap out of it!” Harry picked up one of the stray hats Dobby had taken off and swung at the house elf’s head. As it met with Dobby’s temple, his eyes began to quickly clear.
“Now, what were you saying?” Harry dropped the hat and leaned back in his chair.
‘Why do house elves spend so much time futzing? Can’t they ever just say something directly?’ Harry rolled his eyes to himself as Dobby began to speak again.
“Yes, Dobby did say there must be a house elf in the service of the witch or wizard performing the spell. Not only for the family as a whole but aiding in the execution of the spell.”