Not retribution, just returning favor!

19: Under the moonlight

The mission in the beginning had been fairly uneventful. Harry and Dumbledore apparated in the basement of the Malfoy Manor which was very poorly protected using Poppy. They disillusioned themselves and walked up the basement to the place Draco had described years ago. Dumbledore made short work of the protection charms placed on the basement locker. They removed the Riddle diary and replaced it with another similar looking diary. Dumbledore recharmed the safe and pocketed the diary inside his robe.

They were about to leave when Dobby entered the room. They both froze as Dobby snapped his fingers and their disillusioned charm wore off. They stared at each other for a while in tense silence. Harry couldn't stop the tears that were creeping up in her eyes after seeing her old friend. Without giving it a thought, she bend down and hugged Dobby tightly. Dobby froze but then melted into her hug.

"Miss hugs Dobby? Miss is nice!", Dobby said excitedly.

Harry pulled back and said with a smile,"Hi Dobby. I am Harry and this is my friend Albus. I was wondering, if you would like to be free of the Malfoys? Albus, here, runs Hogwarts and will be happy to employ a free elf with pay and leave. Are you interested?"

Dobby ears flapped and his eyes grew huge in excitement. He nodded with a wide toothy grin. Dumbledore smiled at them.

"Okay, Dobby. Is Malfoy going to come in?", Harry asked as she started to look for a way to get Dobby free.

Dobby nodded and said in his happy voice,"Master, always comes here to read the news. Dobby was making sure everything was alright for master to come!"

Harry grinned and removed the stinky socks she was wearing and placed it in the newspaper. She winked and said,"Now make sure you take the sock from Malfoy. He will either throw it in disgust or along the newspaper. Then disapparate and meet us in front of The Three Broomstick in Hogsmeade, okay?" Dobby nodded happily and began to prepare the room for Malfoy.

Dumbledore called Poppy. Poppy appeared with a smile and looked up at them eagerly.

"Poppy, when this young elf disapparates, I need you to disapparate us to Hogsmeade's Three Broomsticks at the exact second. Can you do that so that no one figures out the difference?", Dumbledore asked her politely. Poppy nodded. Dumbledore disillusioned her and themselves again. They went to a corner and waited patiently for Malfoy to come.

Lucius Malfoy, with his slick blonde hair and aristocratic looks, entered the living room followed by a hungry and irate Greyback. Dumbeldore and Harry froze seeing him. Dumbledore waved his wand and pressed his nose to tell Harry that he has covered their smell to prevent Greyback from figuring out they were there.

"Do you have to attack a two year old, Greyback? You won't be doing your kind any favors with that, you know?", Lucius said in disgust.

"Yes. I have never tasted a child so young. I am really craving that meat. I didn't come here for you to tell me off. I came here to tell you to keep Lestrange on your leash. He has been bad mouthing werewolves everywhere. It is causing concerns in the werewolf clan about how you would treat them.", Greyback said gruffly

"Dark Lord has promised that werewolves would be treated with respect and fear. What more do you want? Lestrange blabbing means nothing. He will abide by what Dark Lord commands.", Lucius said dismissively.

"Dark Lord has not been seen in public since the Hogsmeade debacle. He hardly meets his followers, let alone any campaigns. And now I find out that Dark Lord has been sleeping for over a day now. Who is to say he would even wake up?", Greyback said scathingly.

"I say, he will.", an elegant prideful voice said from behind them. Bellatrix Lestrange was standing there rolling her wand between her fingers.

"Greyback, you disservice the Lord by questioning him. He has performed some very complex and impressive magical ritual, which your little, dumb uninformative mind cannot understand. Leave the part of being wizards to wizards and go to your hunt zone. Aren't you cutting it close or is the talk about converting 8 children in one go, all talk?", Bellatrix asked him with scorn as she sat down on the sofa.